Name: George Lewis Doucette Rank: Private Service Number: 373347 Service: Headquarters and Service Company, 1st Marine Defense Battalion, United States Marine Corps Date of Birth: September 10, 1921 Place of Birth: Woburn, Middlesex County, Massachusetts Date of Enlistment: February 1942 Place of Enlistment: Massachusetts Address at Enlistment: Massachusetts Age at Enlistment: 20 Date of Death: November 9, 1942 Age: 21 Memorial: Honolulu Memorial, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Hawaii Reference: Courts of the Missing 2 George was the son of George M Doucette (1893-1967) and Helen Marie (King) Doucette (1897-1952), and grandson of Ramie ‘Raymond’ Doucette (1862-1956) and Mary Adeline (Dulong) Doucette (1863- 1945). George Lewis Doucette’s paternal grandparents were born in Tusket, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia. His paternal uncles Charles Thomas and Walter John were also born in Tusket. George’s siblings were Helena Marie (Doucette) Gall (1916-1990), Ethel Louise (Doucette) Lemone (1918- 1996), Pauline Frances (Doucette) Miele (1920-1997), Rita Louise Doucette (1923-2002), and Raymond Joseph Doucette (1925-2009). He and his family lived at 26 Chestnut St. in Woburn and George received his education in the Woburn School. He registered for the US Draft on February 15, 1942, in Woburn, Mass. and enlisted in the Marine Corps shortly thereafter. In the military, he trained in the 6th Recruit Battalion, Recruit Depot, Marine Barracks, Parris Island, South Carolina, and Company A, at the Training Center, Marine Barracks, in Quantico, Virginia. He appears on the Marine muster rolls for both in April 1942, and in July 1942 at Quantico. He attended the school for distillation and purification of water at Quantico, Virginia. After training and postings stateside, he was assigned to the Pacific theatre, on Palmyra Atoll (1000 miles due south of Honolulu, Hawaii). During World War II, Palmyra Atoll was converted into a Naval Air Station by the US, with its existing airstrip expanded to accommodate military aircraft and operations. The atoll’s central lagoon and connected islets were used for airstrips, seaplane operations, and refueling stations, providing a strategic midpoint between Hawaii and American Samoa. The base supported training exercises, reconnaissance missions, and logistical operations for US forces in the Pacific theater. Private George Lewis Doucette met an accidental death (accidental electrocution at 4:55pm) in the line of duty on Palmyra on November 9, 1942. Having been buried at sea, George L. Doucette is memorialized by the American Battle Monuments Commission Tablets of the Missing on the Honolulu Memorial, at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. He was also memorialized on page 24 in the publication 1946 Memorial Gold Star Heroes Honor Roll for Woburn, Massachusetts published for St. Charles Borromeo Church in Woburn, Mass., by the Archdiocese of Boston.

Sources American Battle Monuments Commission Veterans Legacy Memorial – Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration findagrave