HARLIN, BERNARD L.

Memorial services will be held today in the St. Brendan Church, 6714 Racine Ave., for Bernard L. Harlin, 22-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Harlin, 6746 Ada St., who was killed in the battle of Okinawa a year ago [April 15, 1945]. He was attached to the [Sixth] Marine Division.

His brother, John, 20-years-old, a gunner’s mate in the Coast Guard, will return home tomorrow after three years service in the Pacific.

Bernard was killed while leading a squad of men through the tangled undergrowth of Okinawa. A fierce battle raged nearby. The squad rested because of the rough going and as the men started forward again, Bernard, a veteran of four previous campaigns, suddenly slumped to the ground with a bullet hole in his chest. He died shortly afterward, while a chaplain said the last rites.

Before he entered service in January, 1943, young Harlin attended the St. Rita High School. Golf was his favorite sport and in the summer of 1940 he won second place in a tournament for caddies at the South Shore Country Club.

His father, a patrolman at the Englewood police station for the past 25 years, was a sergeant in the 28th Army Division in the First World War.

Another brother, Joseph, 24-years-old, a former technical sergeant, served three and a half years in Europe, received his discharge last November.