Iowa State Memorial Union

Herald Bennion - Ensign

Rank: Ensign
Date Of Birth: : Sep 12, 1914
Date Of Death: Aug 14, 1944
War / Conflict: World War II
Hometown: Farmington, Utah
Gold Star Hall - Wall Location: West Wall (by Entrance Door)
Service Ribbons Awarded:
  • Purple Heart

Biography

Ensign Herald Clark Bennion was born to his parents Edwin Bennion and Mary Clark on September 12, 1914. He grew up in Farmington, Utah with his brother, Hugh C. Bennion. 

Herald was an agricultural entomologist graduate student at Iowa State College in 1939. He married Marjorie Prior in the "Little Brown Church" of Nashua, Iowa, on 28, 1941. Soon after he left ISC to work for the California Packing company in Ogden, Utah. His daughter, Patricia Ann Bennion, was born on December 9, 1942.

He entered the Navy on February 15, 1943. at Tuscon, Arizona and was sent overseas on May 1, 1943. Herald died at sea aboard the U.S.S. John Penn when the ship was torpedoed and sunk August 14, 1944 off Lunga, Point, Guadalcanal.

He had received the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal, a Purple Heart, and the Presidential Citation. Both were awarded posthumously.

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