As General Eisenhower battled
the Axis powers in North Africa,
the United States military embarked on a
whole new campaign halfway around the globe.
This story is about a young
marine who gave his life for his
country in the autumn of 1942.
Paul Heller was raised in Allentown,
Pennsylvania about a two hour drive
northeast of Gettysburg.
His parents were Paul Heller,
senior and Anna Heller.
In 1942, he was five feet 7 inches tall.
He weighs 148 pounds.
His hair was blonde,
his eyes were blue and his
complexion was described as ruddy.
His family attended the Russian
Orthodox Church in Bethlehem, PA.
According to some of his school classmates,
he had somewhat of a tough upbringing.
He was known for being in and out of trouble,
not a bully,
but definitely someone who didn't mind
getting into a fight every now and then.
His parents were separated by the
time he reached high school age.
Eventually dissatisfied with some
part of his life in Allentown,
Paul Heller decided to leave town
and run away sometime in late 1941.
By February of 1942,
he found himself in Savannah,
GA, presumably alone.
Maybe it was his sense of personal patriotism
following the Japanese attack
on Pearl Harbor.
Maybe it was tendency to look for a fight,
or maybe it was stories he had
heard from a school teacher that
was a veteran of World War One.
Whatever the case was,
Heller decided while in Savannah to
join the United States Marine Core.
However, there was a problem with his plan.
You see, he was too young.
In fact he was only 14 years
old when he made this decision.
Heller quickly went to work to see how
he could become a marine and service his country.
Eventually, he managed to falsify
his own birth certificate,
changing his birthday from May 9th,
1927 to May 9th, 1923,
making him allegedly 18 years of age.
Even at the age of 18,
he needed a parent or guardian to consent
to him joining the Marines in 1942.
Therefore,
he created a fictitious aunt
named Betty Betrick,
who could sign his consent form as
a guardian to join the Marine Core.
In a sworn affidavit by a
Marine recruiting officer,
a woman by the name of Betty
Betrick appeared before him,
swearing his age and signing her consent
to his enlistment in the Marines.
The provided address for her
residence was a street in Columbia,
South Carolina that did not exist.
We will never know what actually happened
in the Savannah recruiting office.
Did Heller actually bring a woman into
the office or did the recruiting officer
help Heller falsify the document?
These are questions that
remain unanswered to this day.
Nevertheless,
within a few short days he was on his
way to Paris Island to undergo training.
His days were soon filled with
marching, classes on navigation,
rifle training and company maneuvers.
By late April 1942,
this 14 year old boy had
become a marine. By the end of May,
he was on his way to New Zealand,
where he was assigned to K Company third
Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment
of the First Marine Division.
Shortly after he arrived in New Zealand,
Heller changed the beneficiary on his
life insurance policy to his father.
But he kept his next of kin and
point of contact as Betty Betrick.
Either this was a move he planned
all along or the realities of war
made an impression on his decision
making as he inched closer to combat.
The first Marine division entered combat
against the Japanese on August 7th,
1942 in the British Solomon Islands
at a place known as Guadalcanal.
Guadalcanal quickly became a proving ground
for United States Marines and soldiers.
Malaria and other tropical diseases
wore the men down and quickly began
to take their toll in the ranks.
As the environment began to tax them in,
so did the Japanese Army and Navy.
Fighting raged as the two armies collided
over control of an important airfield.
In the first week of October,
a new offensive was opened along the
Matanikau River as the Fifth Marine
Regiment was called upon to push the
Japanese back and expand the foothold
the Americans had gained on the island
throughout August and September.
Beginning on October 7th, 1942,
a small force of marines attacked,
cut off and began to push out
a larger force of Japanese.
Rain all day on October 8th
slowed both sides of the battle.
In spite of the weather
though the Japanese attempted
to counter attack.
One Marine described the fighting as such,
Quote "The fight was hours of hell.
There was yelling screams of the wounded,
and dying, rifle firing, machine
guns with tracers piercing the night.
A combination of fog,
smoke and the natural darkness.
Truly an arena of death."
End Quote.
At some point in the fight on October 8th,
Paul was killed in action at the age of 15.
His remains were recovered from the
battlefield and intered in the first
Marine Division Cemetery on Guadalcanal.
What would follow would be a series of
confusing messages as the Marine Core
first attempted to contact Betty Betrick
and his father concerning his death.
They were never able to
contact a Betty Betrick.
By November 18th,
his parents were informed
of his untimely death.
It appears as though Anna Heller was
unaware that her son had joined the Marines.
She wrote to both her local congressman
as well as the American Red Cross,
demanding information concerning
her son's demise.
Unfortunately,
the government had no details they could
share concerning the nature of his death.
His father was granted his life
insurance benefits and his
remaining pay, his personal effects,
which amounted to one mechanical pencil,
were given to the family,
and they were asked what they would
prefer to do with his remains.
In the end,
they decided to have him
reburied stateside at the Gettysburg
National Cemetery.
On May 7th, 1948,
his remains arrived in the United
States six years after his departure.
We will never truly know the
answer to this question,
but a story begs it nonetheless.
Was Paul Heller,
the youngest American servicemen killed
in action during the Second World War?
He is certainly the youngest of
the known dead in this cemetery.
His story is a testament to the
will and determination of young
Americans in a time of war that
we're willing to lay down everything
to see their country experience
yet another new birth of freedom.