Raymond Harold Hesslink
Private Raymond H. Hesslink served with Able Company, First Battalion, 2nd Marines.
He was killed in action at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on 3 November 1942.
Branch
Marine Corps Regular
Service Number 346427
Current Status
Remains Not Recovered
Pursuit Category
The DPAA has not publicized this information.
Capsule History
Pre-War Life
Birth
December 22, 1924
at Madison, WI
Parents
Harry Hesslink
Rosalie “Rose” Hesslink
Education
Beaver Dam High School (ex-1942)
Occupation
Student
Service Life
Entered Service
December 27, 1941
at Milwaukee, WI
Home Of Record
304 Haskell Street
Beaver Dam, WI
Next Of Kin
Mother, Mrs. Rose Hesslink
Specialty
—
Primary Unit
A/1/2nd Marines
Campaigns Served
Solomon Islands / Guadalcanal
Individual Decorations
Purple Heart
Additional Service Details
—
Loss And Burial
Circumstances Of Loss
Private Raymond H. Hesslink served with Company A, 2nd Marines during the Solomon Islands campaign.
At 0630 on 3 November 1942, Hesslink’s battalion began advancing west from the Point Cruz area, aiming for an area designated as the O3 Line. Shortly after noon, when about 300 yards short of the objective, they ran into a hornet’s nest of machine gun and mortar fire, and suffered 74 casualties before withdrawing to defensive positions.
Hesslink was one of the first to fall in the fracas. A fellow member of A/1/2 bore witness to his final moments.
I spotted a big tree on a slight bump on the slope so I raced for it, but the last man in the [Cassity] squad, [Hesslink] got there ahead of me.... Things wasted no time in happening. Hesslink stood up behind this big tree and poked his head around to the left of the tree. Almost immediately a Jap rifle sounded. He just seemed to shudder then stiffen like a ramrod and almost in slow motion he fell over backwards with his arms spread out straight from his shoulders. His helmet fell off as he dropped and his head swiveled in my direction, and I looked into a pair of eyes that seemed frozen in their sockets. Right between his eyes was a nasty little red hole. This was the first Marine I'd actually seen killed and I always remembered it.
This was the third platoon's baptism of fire and we caught hell; the man next to Hesslink was killed.... and when a corpsman with the platoon crept up to see if he could help him, the sniper got him too. I felt the breath of eternity around me, the three men on my left all killed in what seemed a few minutes but was probably more – I'm sure I said a fervent prayer.
Burial Information or Disposition
Company A lost seven Marines killed in action on 3 November; of these, four – Private Raymond Hesslink, Private Doyle K. Miller, Private Dalton W. Whittington, and PFC Raymond E. Sanders – were not recovered from the battlefield due to the conditions of the fighting. The company’s muster roll hopefully suggested they were “presumably buried in the field at place of death” but there is no additional surviving evidence for this claim.
In the late 1940s, a search and recovery team from the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company discovered the remains of three men in the area. Two were identified – Private Thomas J. Christie (B/1/2) and PhM3c Bruce B. Bender (attached to the 2nd Marines). The remains of the third individual, designated “Isolated Burial X-12C,” were buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific as an unknown.
Memorials
Next Of Kin Address
Address of mother, Mrs. Rose Hesslink.
Location Of Loss
A rough approximation of Hesslink’s area of loss on Guadalcanal.
