World War II Remembered

Harlon Block

Branch of Service: U.S. Marines
Rank: N/A
Hometown: Yorktown, TX
Honored By: Mike W. Reeser

          U.S. Marines

Harlon Block

Biography

Harlon Block was born in 1924 in Yorktown, TX. He was an outgoing daredevil with his many friends at Weslaco High School. A natural athlete, Harlon led the Weslaco Panther Football Team to the Conference Championship. He was honored as "All South Texas End". Harlon, and 12 of his teammates enlisted together in the Marine Corps in 1943.

Harlon was Sgt. Mike Stranks' second-in-command. He took over leadership of the unit when Sgt. Strank was killed in action. Harlon was killed by a mortar blast a few hours later on March 1st at the age of 21 years old.

When his mother Belle saw the "Flag Raising" photo in the Weslaco Newspaper on Feb. 25th she exclaimed, "That's Harlon!" pointing to the figure on the far right. But the U.S. Government mis-identified the figure as Harry Hansen of Boston. Belle never wavered in her belief that it was Harlon, insisting "I know my boy." No one, not her family, neighbors, or the Government had any reason to believe her. But 18 months later in a sensational front page story, a Congressional investigation revealed that it was Harlon Block in the photo, proving that indeed, Belle did know her own son.


 

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