Three-quarters of a century after he was killed in World War II, a metro Detroit soldier has finally come home.
Marine Corps Reserve Pfc. Kenneth W. Likens was given full military honors at a service and burial Friday at Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly.
Likens, of Mount Clemens, was only 20 when he was killed in a battle in 1943 on the Pacific atoll of Tarawa. For decades, his family held out hope his body would be found.
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In September, it was announced that Likens was accounted for in May of this year — more than 75 years after he was killed on Nov. 22, 1943.
Likens was among about 1,000 Marines and sailors who were killed in the battle; with more than 2,000 wounded, The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency previously said.
It said that Likens was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force, which landed against Japanese resistance on the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands.
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Source: Michigan soldier killed in WWII returns home to metro Detroit
