World War II Honoree

Henry Carl Coburn

Branch of Service

U.S. Navy

Hometown

Hutchinson, Kansas

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Pharmacist’s Mate First Class. On September 8, 1939, he entered the United States Navy at Kansas City, Missouri, receiving his medical schooling with Company D, Second Medical Battalion at Camp Elliott Marine Corps Base in San Diego, California. Served as a Combat Medic in Headquarters Company, First Battalion, Sixth 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 army forces on Betio Island, Tarawa atoll in the battle of Tarawa, Gilbert Islands Code Name: Operation Galvanic. Reported missing in action Sunday, November 21, 1943 on the second day of the invasion, and in remembrance of the brave, his name is recorded in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at the Honolulu National Memorial cemetery of the Pacific ‘Punchbowl’ Hawaii. This Naval Medical Corpsman, an American Patriot, awarded the Purple Heart Medal posthumously, who so gallantly gave his life for his country.