Remains identified in 2022; Marine SGT Arthur Ervin Jr was Killed in Action on July 5, 1944 on Saipan, he was 22 years old… Born in McCurtain, Oklahoma to Arthur & Willie Ervin on April 16, 1922, Arthur B Ervin Jr was the youngest of three sons. Their father Arthur was killed in a mining accident on October 22, 1922. Their mother Willie remarried, had two more children, and the family moved to Texas eventually settling in Detroit. Arthur enlisted in the Marine Corps on June 4, 1940. Sent to Hawaii in September 1940, Arthur and another Marine were in the brig for off-base theft when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor the morning of December 7, 1941. Let out of the brig and armed, they participated in the defense and the ensuing clean up efforts, then were put back in the brig. At a court-martial on December 30, 1941, Arthur was sentenced to 24 months imprisonment at Mare Island and dishonorable discharge, but was released after two months and assigned to the 22nd Marines. Later he volunteered for the Marine Raiders. In April 1943 Arthur was diagnosed with malaria & dengue fever and was sent to the states. While on medical leave he married Odena Gladys Good in July 1943. Assigned to A Company, 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Arthur was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions during the invasion of Namur Island, Kwajalein Atoll, on February 1, 1944. He was also wounded twice during the battle and sent to the hospital ship USS Solace. On June 15, 1944 the 24th Marines landed on Saipan, twenty days later SGT Arthur Ervin was killed by a burst of MG fire while they were assisting some civilians. Postwar his remains could not be located and he was Memorialized with the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial. His widow Odena remarried in December 1945. Both of Arthurs older brothers also served during WW2; Oldest brother Harry Lewis “H.L.” Ervin served in the Navy, he passed away at the age of 90 in 1999. Older brother Harley Earl Ervin also served in the Navy, he passed away at the age of 89 in 2000. In 2018, a set of unknown remains recovered from Saipan which were buried at the Manila American Cemetery were exhumed for DNA testing. In June 2022 it was announced that SGT Arthur Ervin Jr had been identified and on October 16, 2023 he was buried with full military honors at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii - Section U 519.

Iceland just lost its last superpower. For centuries, this frozen island held bragging rights nobody else on Earth could touch. No mosquitoes. Not one. That streak just ended. In October 2025, an insect enthusiast named Björn Hjaltason was out at dusk in Kjós, a glacial valley about 32 km north of Reykjavík. He'd set up a red wine ribbon, basically a sweet-soaked trap, when something strange landed on it. He knew instantly. This wasn't a fly. He bagged it. Then caught two more. Two females and one male. The Natural Science Institute of Iceland confirmed the unthinkable. They were Culiseta annulata, a cold-hardy mosquito species that survives brutal winters by hiding out in basements and outbuildings. Iceland was officially mosquito country. The kicker? Scientists say these bugs probably hitched a ride in on freight. And they look more than capable of surviving an Icelandic winter. That leaves Antarctica as the only place on Earth still mosquito-free. This species doesn't carry diseases like malaria or dengue. But researchers are sounding the alarm anyway. The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the planet, and entomologists warn that warmer conditions could roll out the welcome mat for nastier species next. A summer earlier this year sent Icelandic temperatures soaring more than 18°F above normal, a heat spike made 40 times more likely by climate change. The last untouched corner of the human world just got a new neighbor. And it bites. Source: NPR, CNN, Yale E360