Harold “Tidley” Hannon comes home
A week or so ago, Hondo told us that the remains of Harold Patrick Hannon, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force, USMC, had been identified from a grave near where he had fallen in the early hours of the battle for Betio Island. The Scranton, Pennsylvania Times-Tribune reports that Harold “Tidley” Hannon, who earned his nickname from his tiddly-winks prowess, is rejoining his family.
Jefferson Twp. resident Bill Hannon, who was 2 years old when Tidley Hannon died and has no memory of his uncle, said his family had all but given up hope of ever bringing him back to Scranton for a proper memorial and burial.
“Really, words can’t even describe how we feel — myself and my brothers and my sisters,” the 76-year-old Navy veteran said. “I don’t even know how to say it.”
Albert and Catherine Hannon received a telegram from the Marine Corps informing them of their son’s death two days before Christmas in 1943, but it did not say how or where he was killed, The Scranton Times reported at the time.
The telegram stated only that it had been necessary “to temporarily bury the body in the locality where death occurred.”
Bill Hannon said neither his grandparents nor any of his uncle’s siblings, all now deceased, ever learned much more detail than that.
Category: Politics
Rest in peace, Sir.
Welcome Home Marine, Semper Fidelis.
Military service is always a risky business. A lot has to do with the luck of the draw regardless of training and proficiency . “Tidley” drew a rough assignment and paid the ultimate price. Your country and countrymen owe you a debt of gratitude Marine. Welcome home and rest in peace Harold Patrick Hannon.
The boys that got off those Higgins Boats and the Amtracks became men the instant they hit the beach. Betio was early in the war and the system was a long way from being perfected or even made workable to lessen the death toll as they stormed the beaches.
Tarawa Atoll was the first in the series of landings made to rid the Pacific of the Japanese Empire.
Those were men of true valor that took on a dirty job and did it anyway.
Welcome home Marine. Mission Accomplished, stand easy…
Semper Fi Marine and welcome home. Rest in Peace and thank your for your devotion to our great country.
Welcome Home Brave Son.
Welcome home, brother.
God bless those tireless souls at the DPAA.