thedrifter
07-25-06, 03:38 PM
July 31, 2006
The lore of the Corps
Saipan hero was killed while rescuing wounded
By Keith A. Milks
Special to the Times
Outside 10th Marines’ headquarters at Camp Lejeune, N.C., is the Harold C. Agerholm Memorial Park. Consisting of several vintage artillery pieces and shrouded by trees, the park is passed by hundreds of Marines each day, few of whom know the history of the park’s namesake.
Harold Christ Agerholm, a native of Racine, Wis., was barely 17 years old when he enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in July 1942. After graduating from Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, Agerholm was assigned to 4th Battalion, 10th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, and shipped overseas in November 1942. He was promoted to private first class the following January.
While assigned to 4/10, Agerholm served as a battery supply clerk and trained in New Zealand and Hawaii. He also waded ashore through the fire-swept surf toward Japanese-held Betio Island in November 1943.
On June 18, 1944, Agerholm again found himself going into battle with the 2nd Marine Division. This time it was on Saipan; his battalion landed on the hotly contested island three days after the invasion began.
For the next three weeks, the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions, alongside the Army’s 27th Infantry Division, plodded forward over the volcanic, jungle-strewn terrain, eventually trapping the stubborn Japanese soldiers in a series of defensive pockets. By July 7, the Japanese commander on Saipan, Lt. Gen. Yo****sugu Saito, realized the end was near and ordered his soldiers to launch a final, suicidal counterattack.
Most of these attacks were chewed apart by the American forces, but the Japanese succeeded in overrunning one of the artillery battalions near Agerholm’s position. Thrown into the breach, Agerholm and his fellow Marines quickly blunted the enemy attack, but the carnage left scores of wounded Americans stranded in the open with the battle still raging around them. Agerholm sprang into action.
Commandeering an ambulance jeep, Agerholm made repeated forays alone onto the battlefield in the face of unrelenting Japanese rifle, machine-gun and mortar fire, and he single-handedly retrieved the wounded, loaded them into the vehicle and drove them to safety.
Agerholm carried out this self-appointed task for more than three exhausting hours until his luck finally ran out. Spotting two wounded men out in the open, Agerholm left the safety of his covered position and sprinted toward the casualties. He was shot and killed by a Japanese sniper before he could get to them.
No fewer than 45 Marines, sailors and soldiers were hauled off the battlefield to safety by Agerholm, who gave his life for his fellow men 12 days after his 19th birthday.
Agerholm was initially laid to rest in 2nd Marine Division’s cemetery on Saipan, but in 1947, his remains were brought back to his hometown, Racine.
The commandant of 9th Naval District presented Agerholm’s mother with her son’s posthumous Medal of Honor on June 25, 1945, in a private ceremony. A year later, the Navy destroyer Agerholm was commissioned in Boston, and it served in Korea and Vietnam before being sunk as a naval gunfire target in 1982.
Ellie
The lore of the Corps
Saipan hero was killed while rescuing wounded
By Keith A. Milks
Special to the Times
Outside 10th Marines’ headquarters at Camp Lejeune, N.C., is the Harold C. Agerholm Memorial Park. Consisting of several vintage artillery pieces and shrouded by trees, the park is passed by hundreds of Marines each day, few of whom know the history of the park’s namesake.
Harold Christ Agerholm, a native of Racine, Wis., was barely 17 years old when he enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in July 1942. After graduating from Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, Agerholm was assigned to 4th Battalion, 10th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, and shipped overseas in November 1942. He was promoted to private first class the following January.
While assigned to 4/10, Agerholm served as a battery supply clerk and trained in New Zealand and Hawaii. He also waded ashore through the fire-swept surf toward Japanese-held Betio Island in November 1943.
On June 18, 1944, Agerholm again found himself going into battle with the 2nd Marine Division. This time it was on Saipan; his battalion landed on the hotly contested island three days after the invasion began.
For the next three weeks, the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions, alongside the Army’s 27th Infantry Division, plodded forward over the volcanic, jungle-strewn terrain, eventually trapping the stubborn Japanese soldiers in a series of defensive pockets. By July 7, the Japanese commander on Saipan, Lt. Gen. Yo****sugu Saito, realized the end was near and ordered his soldiers to launch a final, suicidal counterattack.
Most of these attacks were chewed apart by the American forces, but the Japanese succeeded in overrunning one of the artillery battalions near Agerholm’s position. Thrown into the breach, Agerholm and his fellow Marines quickly blunted the enemy attack, but the carnage left scores of wounded Americans stranded in the open with the battle still raging around them. Agerholm sprang into action.
Commandeering an ambulance jeep, Agerholm made repeated forays alone onto the battlefield in the face of unrelenting Japanese rifle, machine-gun and mortar fire, and he single-handedly retrieved the wounded, loaded them into the vehicle and drove them to safety.
Agerholm carried out this self-appointed task for more than three exhausting hours until his luck finally ran out. Spotting two wounded men out in the open, Agerholm left the safety of his covered position and sprinted toward the casualties. He was shot and killed by a Japanese sniper before he could get to them.
No fewer than 45 Marines, sailors and soldiers were hauled off the battlefield to safety by Agerholm, who gave his life for his fellow men 12 days after his 19th birthday.
Agerholm was initially laid to rest in 2nd Marine Division’s cemetery on Saipan, but in 1947, his remains were brought back to his hometown, Racine.
The commandant of 9th Naval District presented Agerholm’s mother with her son’s posthumous Medal of Honor on June 25, 1945, in a private ceremony. A year later, the Navy destroyer Agerholm was commissioned in Boston, and it served in Korea and Vietnam before being sunk as a naval gunfire target in 1982.
Ellie