Howard Joseph Cahill

Private First Class Howard Joseph Cahill was born on July 25, 1918. He grew up in East Camden, attending St. Joseph’s Catholic School and Camden Catholic High School in Camden NJ. He was working for a telephone company in California when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and Private Cahill had enlisted immediately in December of 1941.

He wrote his mother at Christmas time in 1943, sending her a hand-drawn card, as he could not buy one where he was. A poem on the card concluded with the following lines:

And now a Marine far overseas takes time to stop and say:
Merry Christmas, Mother, is a typical Marine way.

Private Cahill was granted a furlough in 1944 and was home from February through July of that year. He had served as a Marine paratrooper until the Marine Corps dissolved its parachute program in 1944, after which he transferred to the 5th Marine Division. He was killed in action on Iwo Jima on March 4, 1945. He had participated in Marine campaigns at Guadalcanal, Bougainville, and New Caledonia.

Private Cahill was survived by his mother, Mrs. Catherine Cahill, of 506 Beideman Avenue in Camden NJ, brothers Frank and Donald, and sisters Rae and Catherine. After the war, Howard Cahill was brought home to New Jersey. He was buried at Beverly National Cemetery, Beverly NJ, on January 5, 1949.

Howard Joseph Cahill is remembered by his niece, Ms. Kay Behl.