PFC William D. Harmon

William Daniel Harmon was born Oct. 28, 1919 at Vancouver, Washington across from Portland, Oregon. His mother, Jeanette Elwell Harmon, was a homemaker and his father, Dan M. Harmon, a farmer.

The father died on Dec. 28, 1921, probably of a stroke, at the age of 56.

The mother remarried in 1926, but the 1930 Census said she was the head of a household that included her son and a daughter. The mother worked cleaning a hotel in The Dalles, Oregon. She divorced and married twice more by about 1938.

William Harmon enlisted in the Marines on Nov. 22, 1939 in Portland. He was a private first class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

Sources: Census; Marine muster roll; U.S. Department of Veterans Administration; Washington marriage and death certificates. Marine photograph. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.