NEWS

Remains of World War II Marine returning to Fort Dodge

Morgan Gstalter
mgstalter@dmreg.com

Palmer S. Haraldson's family long ago gave up hope of being able to say goodbye.

Marine Pvt. Palmer Haraldson will be buried on June 22 in Fort Dodge. His remains were discovered on the island of Betio, where he died during a World War II battle in 1943.

Haraldson, a private in the Marines, was killed atage 31 while in combat on the island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands on Nov.22, 1943. He was buried in a mass cemetery with the other 1,000 marines and sailors who were killed fighting the Japanese, according to the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). He body was declared non-recoverable in February 1949.

For almost 73 years, his family mourned his loss from afar. But his remains have since been located and will return to Iowa for a burial in Fort Dodge with full military honors on June 22.

The Lincoln, Nebraska, native was born in 1912 and moved to Fort Dodge with his family when he was a young boy. He lived there for most of his childhood and finished two years of high school. He married in 1937 and moved to Los Angeles with his wife, Patricia, before enlisting in the Marines in 1943, said his niece, Carolyn Redding.

He was assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, 2nd Marine Division and trained in New Zealand before landing on Betio. The DDPA said the Battle of Tarawa was met with fierce resistance from the Japanese but it was a huge victory for the U.S military because it helped the Navy Pacific fleet launch assaults on the Marshall and Caroline islands against Japan throughout World War II.

About half of the soldiers buried there were located by the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company and returned to the U.S. but many, like Haraldson, were deemed non-recoverable.

"They tried to put marker on locations and have everything written down and recorded, but things happen," Redding said.

Redding, 70, said her mother Virginia,who was Haraldson's youngest sister, was heartbroken for years.

"My mom, she just talked about him all the time and was just so sad," Redding said.

The family would frequently visit the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at the Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu, Hawaii.

"There is a memorial there that is a bunch of walls with lists and lists of names," Redding said. "Every time we went there, sometimes every year or sometimes every other year, we would search among these thousands of names. When we found his, my mom would put her hand on his name and would just break down crying every time."

Marine Pvt. Palmer Haraldson and his wife, Patricia, were married in 1937. He will be buried in Fort Dodge on June 22. He died in combat during World War II.

Haraldson's wife eventually remarried and his parents, two brothers and three sisters moved forward, always wondering what happened to Palmer. And this year, they finally got some news.

In June 2015, a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization called History Flight Inc., discovered a burial site. It notified the DPAA it had recovered the remains on Betio Island of 35 U.S. Marines who had fought during the three-day battle.

Redding said the bodies were flown to the Joint Base Pearl Harbor – Hickam for identification. In December, DPAA said their scientists identified the bodies using dental records, anthropological analysis, circumstantial and material evidence. Haraldson's official cause of death was ruled as a projectile wound in the head.

His family agreed to have him buried with his parents, Ed and Nelsena, in his childhood hometown of Fort Dodge. Redding, along with several generations of his nieces, nephews and cousins will be attending the memorial service and burial. His remains will be flown into Des Moines on Tuesday and escorted to Fort Dodge by a patriot guard.

"We're just all amazed that this could happen," Redding said. "My mom, and all of his siblings, never thought he was going to be found. And for this to happen almost 73 years later, it's just incredible — a miracle."

Marine Pvt. Palmer Haraldson was 31 when he died during the Battle of Tarawa in 1943. He will be buried in Fort Dodge on June 22.