Marvin A. Wicklund

Wicklund joined the Police Department a little over a year after the U.S. entry into World War II. Because he was married with three children and because being a police officer was considered a vital occupation during war time, Wicklund was unsuccessful in his first three attempts to enlist. Finally, on Aug. 1, 1944, he was accepted into the U.S. Marine Corps.

Following basic and advanced infantry training, he was assigned to Company H, Third Battalion of the 29th Marines of the Sixth Division which was sent in as part of the invasion of Okinawa.

He was with his machine gun squad in action against the Japanese forces on June 6, 1945. Wicklund had personally accounted for several enemy killed when he was hit in the head by a sniper’s bullet. He died instantly.

Wicklund, 30, who lived at 3923 Upton Ave. N. in Minneapolis with his wife and children, was buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, Victory Medal World War 11 and a Presidential Unit Citation with ribbon bar and star for “extra ordinary heroism in action.”