PFC Harry Jerele

PFC Harry Jerele, United States Army, passed away Monday, December 28, 1942, as a Prisoner of War, at the Cabanatuan Prisoner of War Camp, Philippines, at the age of 26. Loving Son of the late Leo and the late Mary Jerele. Dear Brother of the late Ann, the late Pauline, the late Elsie, the late Leona, the late Rosemary, and the late Leo, Jr. Dear Uncle and Great-Uncle to many nieces and nephews.

Family and Friends are to gather for the Visitation Thursday, October 3, 2024 from 4:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. at Russo’s Hillside Chapels, 4500 Roosevelt Road, Hillside, IL 60162 (located between Mannheim and Wolf). Funeral to follow Friday October 4, 2024 at 9:00 A.M. with a Chapel Service to be celebrated promptly at 10:00 A.M. Interment at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, 20953 W. Hoff Road, Elwood, Illinois 60421 at 2:00 P.M. For additional information please call 708-449-5300. Please sign Harry’s guestbook.

Harry Jerele was born in a small town just outside Des Moines, Iowa in 1916. The oldest of seven children, he and his family eventually settled in Berkeley, IL where Harry’s father, Leo, worked for the Chicago & North Western Railroad. Harry attended Melrose Park grammar school through the eighth grade, but preferred tinkering around in the garage to continuing his formal education. When Harry turned 18, he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and spent two years in the Pacific Northwest building roads and structures in America’s parklands like Millersylvania and Mount Ranier in Washington State. He then spent another six months in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where he developed a love for photography. He was also quite the Pinochle player! Earning a dollar a day, the CCC boys were allowed to keep a few bucks each month while the rest of the money was sent home to support their families during the Great Depression.  Civilian Conservation Corps and spent two years in the Pacific Northwest building roads and structures in America’s parklands like Millersylvania and Mount Ranier in Washington State. He then spent another six months in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where he developed a love for photography. He was also quite Trained as motorcycle messengers, Harry and Norman were reassigned to Headquarters Company and arrived in the Philippines the day after Thanksgiving, 1941. The ocean journey included a brief stop in Hawaii where Harry mailed his sister, Elsie, a set of Hawaiian souvenir postcards. It was the last time the family heard from him. At Fort Stotsenburg’s Clark Field, approximately 50 miles north of Manila, American and Allied units were busy settling in when they heard over the radio that Pearl Harbor was under attack by Japanese forces. It was early morning on Dec 8th in the Philippines. The men were still in disbelief when just hours later, Japanese bombs rained down like a hailstorm. A full-force Japanese air and ground invasion of the Philippines soon followed.  For months, the Provisional Tank Group fought valiantly. But low on provisions and with no hope of reinforcements, General Edward King gave the order to surrender on April 9, 1942. Now prisoners of war, Harry and his unit, along with over 75,000 American and Allied troops, faced the grueling 65 mile march on foot to the POW camps. This became known as the Bataan Death March. Harry, Norman, and other members of the original Maywood company were eventually moved to the Cabanatuan Prisoners Camp I where they bolstered each other’s spirits to stay alive. But for most, fate was not so kind and on December 2nd, 1942, Sgt Norman Spencer succumbed to disease and starvation. On December 28th, PFC Harry Jerele followed. He was 26. The ensuing years left the Jerele family with nothing but unanswered questions. When was their beloved Harry coming home? He was initially buried in a prison camp plot with three other enlisted soldiers, all of whom were eventually identified after the War. But Harry remained an “unknown.” His remains were moved to the Manila American Cemetery for veterans where a marble cross above his grave read, “Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God.” 80 years later, the US military, having stepped up its identification of fallen war heroes with the rebranding and increased funding of its accounting agency, helped us find Harry. His niece’s DNA was a perfect match! Pictured together at right, 3-year old Rosemarie with Uncle Harry in the forefront. She is the last surviving relative to have ever seen Harry alive. He shipped out when she was five. She can still picture him playing his guitar. 

PFC Harry Jerele served with Company B, 192nd Tank Battalion, Illinois Army National Guard, from Maywood Il., activated in November 1940.

In 1941, US Army Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall, directed that the army's new M3 Stuart light tanks to have the highest priority in reinforcing General MacArthur's command in the Pacific. The 192nd and 194th Tank Battalions were deployed to the Philippines before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. On 22 December 1941, the 192nd Tank Battalion became the first American tank unit to engage enemy armor in tank-to-tank combat during World War II. The unit withdrew to the Bataan Peninsula as part of the general retreat, and ceased to exist on 9 April 1942 when the last surviving American and Philippine forces on the Bataan Peninsula surrendered PFC Jerele survived the Bataan Death March, when about 75,000 captured Filipino and American troops were forced to march 65 miles to prison camps. These Soldiers were the longest serving U.S. POWs of World War II. PFC Jerele was held at the Cabanatuan POW camp until he perished on Dec. 28, 1942.

At its peak, Cabanatuan held approximately 8,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war that were captured during and after the Fall of Bataan. Conditions at the camp were poor, with food and water extremely limited, leading to widespread malnutrition and outbreaks of malaria and dysentery. By the time the camp was liberated in early 1945, approximately 2,800 Americans had died at Cabanatuan. PFC Jerele was buried in Common Grave 804 at the local Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery along with other deceased American POWs.

Following the war, American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) personnel exhumed those buried at the Cabanatuan cemetery and relocated the remains to a temporary U.S. military mausoleum near Manila. In 1947, the AGRS examined the remains in an attempt to identify them. Several sets of remains from Common Grave 804 were identified, but the rest were declared unidentifiable and were buried at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as Unknowns. In 2020, the remains associated with Common Grave 804 were disinterred and sent to the DPAA laboratory for analysis. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established an association between one set of these unknown remains and PFC Jerele. Private First Class Jerele is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines PFC Jerele will receive 10 medals, including ones of high honor on 04-OCT from 10-11am at Russo's Hillside Chapels Funeral Home.

The Public and Media are invited at this time. Jerele’s niece Rosemarie Dillon, 89, who lives in Batavia, is his oldest surviving relative. She was shocked” to learn his remains had been identified. Dillion remembers him as a “very quiet” man who loved to sing and play the guitar. “It’s just an honor for me to be the one to lead our group of his relatives to the burial time,” Dillon said.

For additional details contact:

Wayne Kirkpatrick, Rolling Thunder, IL-2, wkirkpa177@aol.com , (847) 915-8428

David Skinner, Rolling Thunder, IL-1, skinnerdavidm@yahoo.com, (630) 688-8804

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