WORLD WAR II MEMORIAL - T5 Oliver H. Mullholand

 

Tec/5 Oliver Henry Mullholand

Oliver Henry Mullholand was thirty-five when he enlisted in the Army in November 1942. He had already graduated from DHS, the Defiance College and law school in Cincinnati, and he was a partner in his father's law firm - H.B. and O.H. Mullholand, Attorneys at Law in Defiance. 

His parents, Henry Beebe and Ora Carmen (Davis) Mullholand raised three children in Defiance; Oliver was the middle child, with Alfred, older, and Muriel, younger. They lived at 214 East High Street.

He trained at camps all over the United States, beginning in Camp Wheeler, GA and ending in Hawaii for jungle training. His main job was doing clerical duty with his unit, the 307th infantry, part of the 77th Infantry Division. However, he was a part of combat, as well.  The unit was sent off to the Mariana Islands, specifically Guam.

Guam had been a U.S. territory before Japan took it away right after Pearl Harbor in 1941. Now, in the summer of 1944, the U.S. wanted it back. A joint effort using the Army Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and Army had a plan to be instituted on July 21, 1944. Phase 1 began with airstrikes, followed by the Marines 

Mullholand was with the 77th Infantry Division, 307th Infantry Regiment, who began their entry on July 31.  On August 5, 1944, while attacking the Japanese defensive line, Tec 5 Mullholand was shot and wounded. His death is thought to have occurred on a U.S. hospital ship while being evacuated from the combat zone.  The final battle in Guam was on August 7, and the Japanese surrendered on August 10.

Statistics vary, but it was estimated the Japanese losses numbered nearly 24,000 from July - September 1944 on Guam.  Less than 1500 Japanese surrendered, but there were about 7000 at large on the island hiding. The U.S. lost 1,759 men, with more wounded. The United States gained a good harbor, some airfields, and the island of Guam itself, which General Nimitz took over for his headquarters for the rest of the war. 

Raising the U.S. flag after victory in Guam

Oliver Mullholand's remains made it home to Defiance in May 1949. He was reinterred in Riverside Cemetery with the St. Paul Methodist minister officiating.  Pallbearers who served were: Karl H. Weaner Jr., John E. Kissner, Dan Batt, Erwin L. Clemens, Jay R. Pollock and Edward Hummer.

The Masons and American Legion attended as groups.

Crescent-News, May 11, 1949

Sidenote: Oliver's younger sister, Muriel, left for Yeoman Training School at Oklahoma A&M, Stillwater, Oklahoma, in February 1943. She had been sworn into the WAVES (Women's Auxiliary Volunteer Emergency Service (naval) October 20 at Detroit, and Muriel received her call to report for training on February 12.

Dianne Kline, Researcher