World War II Honoree

Robert Clark Hedlund

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Estes Park, Colorado

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: First Lieutenant. He was inducted into the United States Marine Corps at Denver, Colorado, with recruit training at the Marine Corps Base in San Diego, California, and infantry training at Camp Pendleton Oceanside, California. As a graduate of the Officer’s Candidate School, located at the Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in October of 1943. He served in Echo Company as an Infantry Officer, Second Battalion, Twenty-Ninth Marines and an element of the Sixth Marine Division. His division participated in the amphibious assault, and occupation of Okinawa Island Location: Northwest Pacific Theater of Operations. On Tuesday, May 15, 1945 he was fatally wounded, during offensive operations against the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces. Personnel from a Graves Registration Company, buried him in the Sixth Marine Division Okinawa Battlefield Cemetery. In the post-war era, this Marines’ family requested that he be buried with Military Honors at the Honolulu Memorial Cemetery Location: Honolulu, Hawaii, with interment March 4, 1949. In his Memory and Honor, this American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his Heroism and ultimate sacrifice.