California Marine Killed in Action Honored 70 Years Later

Son, now 75, said it always bothered him that his dad didn't receive proper military honors

Seventy years after being killed in action during the 1944 invasion of Guam, a Central California Marine has received a funeral with full military honors.

The Fresno Bee says that two years after the war, Cpl. Thomas Jefferson Johnson got a quiet burial in his hometown of Chowchilla -- with no bugle playing "Taps," no color guard, no presentation of the flag.

The Marine's son Kevin Johnson, now 75 and a military veteran, says it bothered him his whole life that his father never received proper military honors.

Johnson was in attendance Monday as a team of guard members gathered at the Chowchilla Cemetery for the long overdue funeral.

The newspaper says Johnson fought back tears while standing over his father's grave as his colleagues with the American Veterans Post 56 in Tulare presented him with a folded flag.

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