Born: April 15, 1925
Died:
Campaigns Served: Namur (with 1st JASCO), Saipan, Tinian, Iwo Jima (with unknown unit)
Highest Rank Attained: Corporal
Decorations:
Corporal Reeve Erickson joined the First Battalion Headquarters company on June 30, 1944, midway through the battle of Saipan. Despite his youth, Erickson was already a combat veteran - he had seen action at Namur and spent two weeks on Saipan with the First Joint Assault Signal Company - and was rated as a field wiring chief.
Erickson fought through the battles of Saipan and Tinian with the 24th Marines. Sixty years later, while revisiting Tinian, he would remark to a CNN reporter that he had seen bullets flash before his eyes in broad daylight during the fierce fighting there.
Erickson was transferred out of the battalion in the fall of 1944, and served on Iwo Jima with another combat outfit. He survived the war unwounded, and returned to Oregon after his discharge. His last known address was in Portland.