World War II Honoree

Martin Wesley Young

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Portland, Oregon

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private First Class. He was inducted into the United States Marine Corps February 4, 1942 at Portland, Oregon, with recruit training at the Marine Corps Base in San Diego, California. After his graduation from boot camp, he was transferred to Camp Pendleton Oceanside, California for combat training. He served as a Rifleman, assigned to Fox Company, Second Battalion, Twenty-Second Marines and an element of the First Provisional Brigade. His Brigade participated in the amphibious assault on the Island of Guam Location: Central Pacific Theater of Operations. On Wednesday, July 26, 1944 he was killed in action, during offensive operations against the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces, with burial in the Orote Peninsula Brigades’ Battlefield Cemetery. In the post-war era, this Marines’ family requested that he be buried with Military Honors at a private cemetery in Portland, Oregon. In his Memory and Honor, this American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his Heroism and ultimate sacrifice.