Harold C. Agerholm

Private First Class Harold Christ Agerholm, USMCR (January 29, 1925 – July 7, 1944) served as a Marine during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor posthumously for his actions while engaged with Japanese forces during the Battle of Saipan in the Marianas Islands.

Biography Agerholm was born January 29, 1925, in Racine, Wisconsin and attended schools in the Racine Unified School District. After working for five months as a multigraph operator for the Rench Manufacturing Company (now Racine Industries, Inc), he joined the Marine Corps Reserve on July 16, 1942.

Agerholm received his recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California. Upon completion of his training, Agerholm was assigned to Headquarters and Service Battery, 4th Battalion, 10th Marines, 2nd Marine Division. He embarked for overseas duty on November 3, 1942, to New Zealand, where he trained with his battalion in Wellington for 11 months.

Awards and honors

Decorations

Medal of HonorPurple HeartCombat Action RibbonNavy Presidential Unit CitationAmerican Campaign MedalAsiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal w/ 2 service starsWorld War II Victory Medal

Medal of Honor citation His Medal of Honor citation reads as follows:

Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the 4th Battalion, 10th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Saipan, Marianas Islands, July 7, 1944. When the enemy launched a fierce, determined counterattack against our positions and overran a neighboring artillery battalion, PFC Agerholm immediately volunteered to assist in the efforts to check the hostile attack and evacuate our wounded. Locating and appropriating an abandoned ambulance jeep, he repeatedly made extremely perilous trips under heavy rifle and mortar fire and single-handedly loaded and evacuated approximately forty-five casualties, working tirelessly and with utter disregard for his own safety during a grueling period of more than three hours. Despite intense, persistent enemy fire, he ran out to aid two men whom he believed to be wounded Marines but was himself mortally wounded by a Japanese sniper while carrying out his hazardous mission. PFC Agerholm's brilliant initiative, great personal valor and self-sacrificing efforts in the face of almost certain death reflect the highest credit upon himself and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

Posthumous honors On June 19, 1946, in Boston, Massachusetts, the destroyer was commissioned and named in honor of PFC Agerholm. The Agerholm was decommissioned in 1978.

A combined middle school and elementary school in Racine is named for Agerholm and Medal of Honor recipient Major John L. Jerstad (Jerstad-Agerholm Elementary/Middle School). During the period when it administered the Northern Mariana Islands, the US Navy built a school on Navy Hill, Saipan, for its dependents and named it the HC Agerholm School.

The Harold C. Agerholm Memorial Gun Park near the headquarters of the 10th Marine Regiment in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina is named in his honor.