World War II Honoree

Harold Kendall Costill

Branch of Service

U.S. Navy

Hometown

Clayton, New Jersey

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Fireman Third Class. He was inducted into the United States Navy September 24, 1940 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with recruit training at the U.S. Naval Training Station San Diego, California. After completing boot camp, he was transferred to the USS West Virginia Battleship, BB-48 for duty as a Fireman, and based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaiian Islands. On Sunday Morning, December 7, 1941 the Emperor of Japan’s Naval Aviators launched a devastating, surprise attack on the U.S. Naval Base and other military installation on Oahu. The Battleship along with her shipmates was moored on Ford Island, when the warship was attacked by five Torpedo Bombers. The torpedo warheads hit the battlewagon on her portside causing severe flooding, and she slowly capsized. The Battle of Pearl Harbor took his life on the day of the attack, and interred as an unknown in the Oahu Nuuanu Cemetery, Territory of Hawaii. In remembrance of the brave, his name is permanently inscribed in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at the Honolulu National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific ‘Punchbowl’ Hawaii. After the cessation of hostilities with Japan, personnel from an American Graves Registration Company disinterred the unknown remains from the Oahu Cemetery, and laid them to rest in the Punchbowl Cemetery. In June of 2017, personnel from the Defense Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency in Hawaii disinterred an unknown from Punchbowl, and transferred the remains to their Honolulu’s laboratory for analysis, where he was identified. The family of this Sailor received his remains for burial. He was laid to rest with Military Honors, September 14, 2019 at the Cedar Green Cemetery in Clayton, New Jersey. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.