Donald Morley Hainer
HA1c Donald M. Hainer was a Navy medical corpsman attached to Third Battalion, 25th Marines.
He lost his life at Iwo Jima on 24 February 1945.
Branch
US Navy Reserve
Service Number 862 56 75
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered
Pursuit Category
This case is under Active Pursuit by DPAA
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
April 14, 1925
in Detroit, MI
Parents
Welby Hainer
Alvina Emma (Hoeft) Hainer
Education
Redford High School (1943)
Occupation & Employer
Paper carrier
Detroit News
Service Life
Entered Service
July 9, 1943
at Detroit, MI
Home Of Record
15064 Stout Ave
Detroit, MI
Next Of Kin
Parents, Welby & Alvina Hainer
Military Specialty
Corpsman
Individual Decorations
Purple Heart (Saipan)
– with Gold Star (Iwo Jima)
Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
Donald Hainer enlisted in the United States Navy in the summer of 1943 and, after completing hospital training and field medical school, was assigned to the Fleet Marine Force as a corpsman. He joined the Third Battalion, 25th Marines at Camp Maui in the spring of 1944 and saw combat on the island of Saipan that summer. Hainer was shot in the right foot on 3 July 1944 and evacuated to Fleet Hospital #108 at Guadalcanal, but recovered quickly and rejoined his unit back at Camp Maui in August.
Doc Hainer went ashore on Iwo Jima’s Blue Beaches on 19 February 1945 – but tracing his movements beyond that point is a complicated matter. According to Marine Corps and Navy muster rolls for BLT 3-25, Hainer was wounded in action shortly after landing (“Wound, fragment, buttocks” according to the Marines; “Gunshot, right hip” according to Navy) and was evacuated to an unknown transport. He continued to be carried on those rolls through July 1945. However, an addendum to the April USMC roll indicates that some proof of his death had been received – though this addendum was itself crossed out, indicating an error. (Ironically, the date – 14 April 1945 – would have been Hainer’s twentieth birthday.)
The next month’s roll contains the same information, although now indicating that Hainer died on 14 May 1945.
This information appears to have been sent to Welby and Alvina Hainer, and then reported in the Detroit News. The Hainers added the May date on their application for a memorial headstone. Eventually, it was amended again to 24 February 1945 – the Navy’s officially accepted date of death.
Finally, a letter from PhM3c Robert B. Harris (also of BLT 3-25) to Alvina Hainer states that Donald was shot in the abdomen while treating a casualty on 19 February 1945 and subsequently died aboard a ship. However, the name of the ship is not currently known.
Burial Information or Disposition
None; identifiable remains not recovered.
If HA1c Hainer did die of wounds aboard a ship near Iwo Jima, he may have been buried at sea as an unknown. Or, his remains may have been sent ashore for burial and interred without identification, or somehow lost along the way – for example, if the boat was sunk on the way to the beach.
Alternately, if the ship was en route to a larger hospital on Saipan, he may have been interred in one of the cemeteries there.
Next Of Kin Address
Address of parents, Welby & Alvina Hainer
Location Of Loss
Hainer’s battalion was operating in the vicinity of Iwo’s Blue Beaches
