World War II Honoree

Harry J. Castanier

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Saginaw, Michigan

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private First Class. He was inducted into the United States Marine Corps May 14, 1943 at Detroit, Michigan. His boot camp training took place with the Eleventh Recruit Battalion Training Regiment; Marine Corps Base in San Diego, California. Later he completed his Marine Combat Training at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California. Served as a Rifleman with the Fourth Marine Division in the Northwestern Pacific Theater of Operations, assigned to Fox Company, Second Battalion and Twenty-Fourth Regiment. His division participated in the amphibious assault on the island of Saipan. Killed in action Thursday, June 15, 1944 during combat operations against the Imperial Japanese forces on the first day of the invasion, and buried in the U.S armed forces battlefield cemetery on Saipan. His name has been etched on one of the Twenty-Sixth granite plates, located in the court of Honor, American Memorial on Saipan. After the cessation of hostilities with Japan, the family of this Marine requested that his remains be transferred to Honolulu. He was laid to rest March 17, 1949 in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, ‘Punchbowl’ Hawaii. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.