Harry Edward Neeshan

Harry Neeshan participated in the Bougainville campaign as a member of the elite “Paramarines.” He deployed to the island in early November 1943; by the end of the year, only a few Marine units remained on Bougainville and fewer still were engaged in active combat. In Silk Chutes and Hard Fighting: U.S. Marine Corps Parachute Units in WWII, historian Jon T. Hoffman notes that “the 1st [Parachute] Battalion conducted aggressive patrols” against Japanese positions near the Torokina River during this time. Hoffman’s work states that the “only serious contact” occurred on 28 December 1943, as Company A attacked and destroyed a series of 8 pillboxes in quick succession. However, this was not the battalion’s last engagement along the Torokina.

On New Year’s Day 1944, Company C, First Marine Parachute Regiment became embroiled in a heavy firefight along the Torokina River near “coordinates 134.22 – 210.11, IMAC Hasty Terrain Map Sheet #180, Second Edition.” Their foes, once again, were Japanese troops in heavily fortified positions – and while the defenders were ultimately overwhelmed, they extracted a heavy toll from the Paramarines. Among the Americans who lost their lives in this action was PFC Neeshan; he was shot in the back and killed at 1530 hours.