DOB/DOD: August 12, 1926 (Hartford, CT) – March 9, 1945; 19 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Unmarried
LOCAL ADDRESS: Day Street Extension, West Granby
ENLISTMENT: June 12, 1944, in Hartford, Connecticut, at 17 years old
SERVICE NUMBER: 569254
UNIT: Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division
MILITARY OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTY: 0521, Basic Marine
FAMILY: Born to Ernest V. (1894-1982) and Vira Lawton Evleth (1903-1963). Ernest V. Evleth was a World War I Army veteran. One brother, Eugene W. Evleth (1928-2006), who also served in the Marine Corps. 1, 2
OTHER: His last name is misspelled in some resources as “Evieth.” His middle name appears as “Dickinson” in some resources. Family member Charlene Aragon shared a copy of Private Evleth’s birth certificate, which confirms “Brainard” as the correct middle name.
CIRCUMSTANCES: Boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, in mid-1944. Training at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, in October 1944, then the 3rd Marine Division, 34th Replacement Draft, and finally the 3rd Marine Division, 3rd Battalion, Headquarters Company. 3 Initial reports to the family were that he was wounded, only to be clarified later that he was killed. He died from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. 5 He was in the Marine Corps for 9 months.
From ancestry.com.
Photo contributed by Charlene Aragon. Charlene was raised in the Evleth household. She was taken in as a baby. Ernest’s mother was Charlene’s great-aunt. He died before Charlene was born.
From The Hartford Courant on January 30, 1949
A military funeral for Private Ernest D. Evleth, USMC, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Evleth of West Granby, whose body has been returned to this country, will be held Monday at 3:30 p.m. in the Veterans’ Section of Northwood Cemetery in Windsor. The funeral will be conducted by Reverend John Cox, pastor of West Granby Methodist Church. Private Evleth enlisted in the Marines on June 12, 1944, when he was 19. He had attended Simsbury High School and Hartford Trade School. He trained at Parris Island, New River, and Camp Lejeune and was sent to the Asiatic-Pacific Area in November 1944. He died of wounds received in action the following March. He was in action at Volcano Island and Iwo Jima. Medals to which he was entitled are the Purple Heart Medal, Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon Bar, with one star, Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal, and World War II Victory Medal. Besides his parents, he leaves a brother, Eugene E. Evleth, a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, California.
Honored on The West Side of the Veterans’ Monument, 6 Park Place, Granby, Connecticut. Photos by Jeff DeWitt.
Initially buried in the 3rd Marine Division Cemetery on Iwo Jima, Grave 529, Row 22. His remains were repatriated and buried on January 31, 1949, in Northwood Cemetery, 81 Matianuck Ave., Windsor, Connecticut; Section AA, Lot 61. Photo by Jeff DeWitt.
Private Evleth and PFC Pennington are buried next to each other. The headstones for all four who died in the Battle of Iwo Jima and are buried in Northwood Cemetery are near each other.
1 – 1930 census https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6224/
2 – 1940 census https://www.ancestry.com/cs/1940-census
3 – WWII Draft Cards: https://www.ancestry.com/cs/military/wwii-draft-card-collection 4 – USMC Muster Rolls: https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1089/
5 – USMC Casualty Card received via FOIA request