Arnold Harrison comes home
Hondo told us that Arnold Harrison was identified by DPAA last year, WFAA reports that he finally made it home from the battlefield in Tarawa where he served with Company B, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force on his birthday.
“He tried to join the Marines when he was 17,” [John Welnack Sr., 88, his cousin and closest living relative] said of his cousin. “Anybody that would sacrifice their own life for their country, or other people, in my thinking is a hero.”
Honoring a hero is why the North Texas Patriot Guard Riders, and a Dallas Police motorcycle detail escorted the Marine’s casket when his remains arrived at DFW Airport on Thursday and were taken to a funeral home in Sachse.
The same motorcade gave him a hero’s escort again on Friday when his body was taken to its final resting place at DFW National Cemetery. Other members of the Harrison/Welnack family are also buried there, so his extended family found it fitting that he be buried there.
“We’re talking about a 20-year-old man that actually gave up his life, on his birthday his 20th birthday, for this country, in defense of this country. And that’s a powerful thing,” said John Bartis of the North Texas Patriot Guard.
Category: We Remember
Rest in peace, Marine and welcome home.
Sorry it took so long to bring you home, Rest in Peace, Marine.
God bless him and keep him!
Welcome home, brother. Rest easy now, Marine.
One might think that out there, in the world, these men are forgotten by time. They are not, thank God. So many are still mourned.
Welcome home, son. Until all are home.
Welcome home Marine. Rest in peace in your home soil now.
Arnold Harrison , welcome home Marine. We are thankful for your service to your country.
Welcome home, Mr. Harrison.
Rest well.
This story reminds me of when I grew up in SoPac shortly after the war.
Dad was USN/MSC attached to the hospital on Saipan, Guam and we were also at Barber’s Point NAS when Hawaii was still a territory.
I crawled around in caves cleared by the Marines
the interiors black from flamethrowers……and a
trove of military equipment, bones and skulls left behind
There were still Japanese on the island when we were there.
Given the death toll on Saipan, I wonder how many MIAs there are from that island…….
https://youtu.be/l4q4NZH-eVM
Dear dear cousin,
It is taken over 75 years to bring you back home. Your mother was my Aunt Tilley. I remember her well though I was a young teenager. She and your father were told that you were killed in action and your body was not recoverable. I wish they would’ve been alive when you returned. It would’ve been the final closure that they were denied in losing their only child. I would be born eight years after your sacrifice to our nation. I wish I knew you. I think we would have been great friends.
Bill Boone
Rockwall, Tx.
Sep 2, 2018