Harold C. Agerholm joined the Marine Corps Reserve (MCR) in July 1942. He was assigned to Headquarters and Service Battery at first, but was transferred to New Zealand in November 1942 to train in specific war tactics. Agerholm was promoted to a Private First Class (PFC) in 1943.
Agerholm took part in the Battle of Tarawa located on Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll along with the 4th Battalion, 10th Marines, 2nd Marine Division. It was a US victory. He was then moved to the Hawaiian Islands to prepare for the invasion of Saipan, Japan, in the Marianas Islands, which began in June 1944. On July 7, 1944, Agerholm performed the acts that earned him a Medal of Honor. This honor was awarded to him posthumously (after death) because he was mortally wounded during the battle.
During the battle in Saipan against the Japanese, the Japanese successfully mounted a counterattack against US troops in which they overran a nearby artillery battalion. Many American troops were wounded in the process and the US was desperate to regain what had been lost. PFC Agerholm was an integral part of the response to the Japanese assault. Agerholm used an abandoned ambulance to collect the injured and remove them from the vicinity. For three grueling hours, PFC Agerholm single-handedly drove into gun and mortar fire, looking for injured comrades, and returned them to US controlled areas. Agerholm assisted 45 US soldiers who were injured, and worked with utter disregard for his own safety throughout the conflict. In trying to help two Marines he believed to be wounded, Agerholm was mortally injured by a Japanese sniper. It was Agerholm's brilliant idea in using the ambulance, his great personal valor, and self-sacrificing efforts in the face of almost certain death that reflect the highest credit upon himself and the U.S. Naval Service.
PFC Agerholm received several other medals including the Purple Heart (posthumously), the Presidential Unit Citation, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two bronze stars, and the WWII Victory Medal.
In honor of his courage and actions in combat, Agerholm had two schools named after him, one, a combined middle and elementary school, in Racine, Wisconsin, and the other in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, the latter being built by the US Navy when it controlled the islands. A park near the 10th Marines Regiment headquarters in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and a destroyer commissioned in 1946 are his two other namesakes. The ship was decommissioned in 1978.
Sources Consulted:
Army Website, Medal of Honor Recipients, WWII
