After 74 years, the family of WWII Marine Pvt. Alberic “Brick” Blanchette will finally have closure when his remains are flown to his hometown of Caribou for a Sept. 18 burial ceremony.
The federal Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in October 2016 began exhuming some of the bodies of many of the more than 1,000 Marines killed during the bloody Battle of Tarawa, a 76-hour conflict that occurred Nov. 20-23, 1943, in the Gilbert Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean between Papua New Guinea and Hawaii.
Recent advances in forensic technology allowed the DPAA to identify the remains of MIA military personnel and ultimately led to the identification of Blanchette’s remains in July with the help of a DNA sample submitted by his family.
The federal Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in July identified the exhumed remains of WWII Marine Pvt. Alberic “Brick” Blanchette of Caribou, who was killed at the Battle of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands in November 1943. Family members are arranging a burial ceremony in his hometown on Sept. 18.
(Aroostook Republican file photo)
On Monday, July 17, Blanchette’s nephew Jim McDonald received a call saying that his uncle’s remains had been examined and identified at a facility in Hawaii.
Jim McDonald, Blanchette’s nephew, said he was “ecstatic” when he heard the news.
“He’s going to be sent home for burial,” he said.
McDonald said the family plans to hold a full casket ceremony at the Holy Rosary Cemetery in Caribou, where Blanchette will be buried with his parents.
McDonald’s brother, Clement, is responsible for the final arrangements and is planning to fly from Florida for the mid-September burial ceremony. Additionally, Blanchette’s sole living sibling — younger sister, Louann Rogers — is flying up with her daughter from Louisiana for the ceremony.
“Most of his other family lives in the area,” Jim McDonald said.
The nephew said, “It was unbelievable to find out after all these years. We’ve been working on this for 12 years, and have sent letters to [U.S. Sen.] Susan Collins and [then U.S. Rep.] Mike Michaud in hopes of getting more information.”
With the help of his mother, Iris (Blanchette’s sister), Jim McDonald and his family have amassed a large folder, bulging with newspaper clippings, scans, and military documents related to Alberic Blanchette’s life, which ended on Nov. 20, 1943, when he was only 19.
Though Jim McDonald didn’t know Blanchette when he was alive, he said he was told his uncle was a “very kind and thoughtful person,” adding that he was “one of the first Eagle Scouts in Aroostook County.”
Iris passed away in early 2015, and according to an article from the Aroostook Republican and News, cherished a bracelet she believed was from Blanchette, which Jim McDonald said is made from one of the jet planes that flew over Hiroshima.
The article indicates that a man possibly intended to deliver the bracelet, but passed away before Iris could receive it. However, her daughter Helen later found an armlet in a Presque Isle antique shop that Iris believed to be the long lost gift. The silver bracelet is engraved with an image of a palm tree next to the name “Iris,” “1943,” “South Pacific,” which Iris believed was too coincidental not to be the present Alberic intended to deliver.
“I just know it’s from Brick,” Iris said in late 2013, referring to Alberic by a commonly used nickname. “Iris is not that common of a name around here, and with the year and the location, what are the chances?”
Alberic’s mother, Albertine, received a number of awards intended for her son after his passing, including the Purple Heart, Presidential Unit Citation, Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.
According to an email from Clement McDonald, a rosette will be placed next to Blanchette’s name on the “Walls of the Missing at an American Battle Monuments Commission site,” to indicate that he has been found.
Members of the public are welcome to attend the Sept. 18 burial ceremony, which is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at the Parish of the Precious Blood Holy Rosary Catholic Church’s Old Holy Rosary Cemetery in Caribou.
