Harold S. Ackerman, Jr.

Harold Ackerman was the son of oil-field laborer Harold S. Ackerman and his wife, Dixie. He was born and raised in Wichita Falls, Texas but later moved to Dallas with his mother after his parents divorced.

Ackerman was inducted into the Marine Corps from San Antonio, Texas. After completing his training at MCRD San Diego, Ackerman was accepted to the Parachute Training School at Camp Gillespie, but washed out in July, 1943. He was sent to Company E of Camp Elliott’s training battalion on August 21, 1943 and served with Company A, 24th Marines for only a few days before joining Company A, 23rd Marines on September 1, 1943.

Private Ackerman landed on the island of Roi in February 1943, as his former comrades in the 24th Marines attacked nearby Namur. He fought as a rifleman on Saipan and Tinian, qualified as a BAR gunner, and was rewarded with a promotion to Private First Class before shipping out to Iwo Jima.

Ackerman was wounded and evacuated from Iwo, and subsequently sent to Naval Hospital #128. He recovered, returned to his company, and was training with them for the assault on Japan itself when the war ended. He was honorably discharged on November 16, 1945.

After the war, Harold Ackerman enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin, but never completed a single semester – he was killed in an automobile wreck on Highway 81 in Georgetown, Texas, on April 5, 1946. Ackerman survived four campaigns in the Pacific only to lose his life on a road near his hometown at the age of 21.

He is buried in Restland Cemetery, Dallas.