World War II Honoree

Helmut Fred Behlert

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Salt Lake City, Utah

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private First Class. Inducted into the United States Marine Corps February 14, 1942 at Salt Lake City, Utah, with recruit training assigned to the Third Recruit Battalion Training Regiment; Marine Corps Base in San Diego, California. Upon his graduation from Boot Camp, he was transferred to Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California for combat training. Served as a Rifleman with the Second Marine Division in the Northwestern Pacific Theater of Operations, assigned to Headquarters Company, First Battalion and Sixth Marine Regiment. His division participated in the amphibious assault on the island of Saipan, (Battle Dates: June 15-July 9, 1944) Marianas Islands. Reported missing in action, lost at sea Thursday, June 15, 1944 during combat operations against the Imperial Japanese forces. His name has been etched on one of the Twenty-Sixth granite plates, located in the court of Honor, American Memorial on Saipan. 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. In his Memory and Honor, a cenotaph memorial has been placed at the Memory Grove Memorial Cemetery at Salt Lake City, Utah. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.