World War II Honoree

Harold S. Hirschi

Branch of Service

U.S. Army Air Force

Hometown

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private. On November 5, 1940, he entered the United States Army Air Corps at March Field in Riverside, California. He was deployed to the Philippine Islands after the completion of his combat training and aviation Schooling. Served with Headquarters Squadron, 19th Bomb Group, stationed at Clark Army Airfield on the Island of Luzon. Assigned to a provisional infantry company, he participated in the Philippine Campaign, the conquest of the Philippine Islands by the Imperial Japanese Army and Naval Forces. He became a Prisoner of War of the Japanese during the ‘Fall of the Philippines’ May 9, 1942, and incarcerated at the Prisoner of War Camp Cabanatuan, Nueva Province on Luzon. On Thursday, November 19, 1942, he died of unknown causes and buried in a common grave at the Cabanatuan Prisoner of War Cemetery. In June of 2014, a private organization discovered a collective burial grave and the remains were transferred to the defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action accounting agency in Hawaii where he was identified. The remains of this Airman were reinterred with Military Honors at the Andersonville National Cemetery June 28, 2017 in Andersonville, Georgia. This Airman, an American Patriot, awarded the Purple Heart and Prisoner of War Medal posthumously, who so gallantly gave his life for his country.