A hero comes home
Eighty-one years after he made the ultimate sacrifice during World War II, U.S. Army Pfc. Charles R. Reiser was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery on April 23 with full military honors.
Born in Washburn, the soldier’s journey from a small-town boy to war is one of courage, loss and an effort to honor his legacy.
Reiser was 20 years old when he was killed in action on June 15, 1944, during Operation Forager on the island of Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands.
A member of Company D, 708th Amphibious Tank Battalion, Reiser is believed to have been providing critical armor support to the Marines’ initial beach landing when enemy artillery struck his tank. His remains were initially interred in a numbered grave in the 4th U.S. Marine Division Cemetery before being transferred to the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines.
