Myron Lane Abbott was born on March 2, 1918 in Hinckley, Utah. His parents Leon and Nettie were also both born in Utah. His father worked as a sheep herder and later as a government laborer. Myron had one older sister, seven younger brothers, and two younger sisters. After graduating from Hinckley High School he attended BYU.

He volunteered for the US Marine Corps in March 1940. He reached the rank of sergeant in the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. The Second Marines first saw action on Florida Island on August 7, 1942 supporting the main Marine assault on Guadalcanal. It was then moved over to Guadalcanal itself to reinforce the 1st Marine Division. During the night transfer, an ammunition dump on shore exploded illuminated Abbott’s boat and drawing Japanese fire. Many men in his boat were killed or injured. Abbott was wounded and taken to a hospital in New Caledonia.

While in New Caledonia, Abbott was injured again when another marine dropped a box of ammunition on his foot and he was sent back to the hospital. He recovered and was sent back to Guadalcanal, only to be wounded again in January. This time he was taken to a hospital in New Zealand. While there he was promoted to sergeant.

The 2nd Marine Regiment next fought the Japanese in the Battle of Tarawa beginning on November 20, 1943. On the second day, the 1st Battalion was sent to take the south coast of the island and clear the prized airfield. They started off with 300 men. The Japanese counterattacked and inflicted heavy casualties. The Marine defense was hampered by low supplies of ammunition. On November 22, 1943, other units took over the attack from Sgt. Abbott’s unit. At some point he was killed, but his body was not permanently identified, so he remains MIA.

His cenotaph grave is at Hinckley City Cemetery in Hinckley, Utah.

Thank you Sgt. Abbott for your sacrifice.

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WW2 fallen here on Fold3. Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story. This particular story is part of the initial Utah pilot to write the stories of all ~2,000 Utah WW2 fallen.