World War II Honoree

Harold Patrick Hannon

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Scranton, Pennsylvania

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private First Class. On June 3, 1942, he entered the United States Marine Corps from Pennsylvania, receiving his Boot Camp Training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina. Later he completed his Marine Combat Training at Camp Geiger, North Carolina. Served with Company-E as a Rifleman, Second Battalion, Eighth Marine Regiment, and a subordinate unit of the Second Marine ‘the Silent Second’ Division in the Central Pacific Theater of Operations. His division participated in the amphibious assault against the Imperial Japanese forces in the Battle of Tarawa, on the Island of Betio, located on the Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, Code Name: Operation Galvanic. Killed in action Saturday, November 20, 1943 on the first day of the invasion, and buried in a temporary battlefield cemetery. In July 2016 the history flight, a private organization, discovered a collective burial grave on Betio Island. 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 Marine were interred with Military Honors at the Cathedral Cemetery January 13, 2018 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. This Marine, an American Patriot awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, who so gallantly gave his life for his country.