Today, the DPAA announced that PFC Harold William Hayden of Cincinnati, Ohio, has been accounted for as of 30 March 2020. Read their press release here.
Harold was born in Norwood, Ohio on 28 September 1924. He grew up in Hamilton County with his parents, Donald and Clara Hayden, and his younger sister June; the family eventually moved to Cincinnati. Little information is readily available about his childhood and teen years, although it is known he was an avid golfer. The Hayden home on Prosser Avenue in Cincinnati was a short walk to the Maketwah Country Club; Harold worked there as a caddy, and in 1941 he bested all his colleagues to win the club’s amateur championship.
On 21 September 1942, one week before his eighteenth birthday, Harold Hayden joined the Marine Corps. He was sent to Parris Island for boot training and was posted to the 11th Replacement Battalion in the winter of 1942. Private Hayden crossed the country with the 11th, and departed from Camp Pendleton in early 1943. He was assigned to Company A, First Battalion, 6th Marines on 6 April 1943, and would spend the next four months training with them in New Zealand. That summer, he was promoted to the rank of Private First Class.
Harold’s first combat experience came that November, in the hell of Operation GALVANIC – the invasion of Betio in the Tarawa atoll. His company led a flanking assault against Japanese defenses which for two days had stopped two regiments of Marines on a narrow beachhead. That evening, the tired men of 1/6 halted and attempted to coalesce into a defensive position against the inevitable infiltrators. Unfortunately, a gap was left between Able and Baker Companies and several small groups of Japanese fighters managed to get into the Marine lines, battling at close quarters with rifles, grenades, and bayonets. It is likely that PFC Hayden lost his life here, to a gunshot wound in the head. His body lay on the field until the following morning, until collected by a burial party and carried to a long trench grave. Hayden and thirty other Marines would lie there, undisturbed and undiscovered, until early 2019.
A History Flight expedition uncovered “Row D” and brought the remains back to the United States for laboratory analysis. Harold Hayden was identified on 30 March 2020 and has now been officially accounted for.
Welcome home, PFC Hayden. Semper Fi.
We are actively seeking information for PFC Hayden’s profile page.
Are you a family member or former comrade of this Marine? Do you have stories or photos to share? Please contact MissingMarines and help us tell his story.
My name is Warren Hayden and I am the half-brother of PFC Harold William Hayden. We share the same father. When I received a call from Mrs. Hattie Johnson, of HQM Casualty (MFPC), on April 23rd I was thankful and emotionally elated. I became interested in helping Harold come home when I saw a news story on the NBC News back in 2013-2014 time period. The news story talked about History Flight bringing home Marines from Tawara, but there was still a need of DNA samples when identifying the Marines’ remains.
After futile attempts to reach History Flight and not being knowledgeable about how to proceed I reached out to a friend and retired Marine, Randy Russell in the summer of 2015. Randy works for the V.A and was able to connect me to the forensic lab at Hickman Field in Hawaii, who advised me on how to submit DNA through the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. After several months I received a DNA kit to submit. Close to five years later Harold’s remains were found and positively identified. A special thanks to Mrs. Hattie Johnson, who’s steadfast confidence Harold would be found, was reassuring during this process.
I know little about my brother, being born 13 years after his death. My father spoke very little about his first family, but Harold’s picture was displayed in my parents’ bedroom. Harold’s full brother and sisters are deceased. Including myself, Harold has two half- brothers and 3 half-sisters living in the St. Louis, Missouri metro area.
It is our wishes that Harold return home to be recognized with the highest dignity and honor. We will request he be buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. We feel this is the proper recognition, due to Harold being a WWII veteran, missing over 76 years. This has been chosen over Jefferson Barracks, the local National Cemetery in the St. Louis area.
I wish to reach out to any family members on my father’s side of the family, nieces or nephews who may live in the Cincinnati or Hamilton Ohio area. I know of no other way to send them a message. Like myself, most of his surviving family members are probably his siblings’ children, who never met him.
Harold’s remains will be escorted from Hawaii home and to his burial site, by Staff Sergeant Jesse Lynn Hayden, of the United States Marine Corp. Staff Sergeant Hayden is Harold’s nephew. Harold left home to join the Marines as a teenager, died for his country at 19 years old, and will be brought home by his nephew, my son, an active duty Marine.
Harold’s legacy is still alive. Staff Sergeant Jesse Hayden’s service to the Marine Corp, his Country and family will involve bringing home his long-lost uncle from a distant foreign land. His name is passed down through Jesse’s son, Luca Harold Hayden.
This is a true Marine Semper Fi Story. A teenage Marine dies at Tarawa over 76 years ago, is eventually identified through the advice of a retired Marine working for the V.A., and who will eventually be brought home by an active Marine, who is nephew.