What:

Captain Robert C. Harmon and Private John R. Peirson Post Office Renaming Event.

Who:

Speakers:
Jim Peirson
Senator Tammy Baldwin
Governor Tony Evers
Mayor James Zajkowski
Wisconsin District Manager Jeff Drake, USPS

When:

Friday, August 25th at 11:00am.

Where:

New Richmond Post Office
430 South Knowles Avenue
New Richmond, WI  54017

Background:

S.2932 - A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 430 South Knowles Avenue in New Richmond, Wisconsin, as the "Captain Robert C. Harmon and Private John R. Peirson Post Office Building."

Captain Robert Harmon, member of the 558th Army Air Corp Squadron, was a B-26 bomber pilot stationed in Britain during WWII. A week before the D-Day invasion of the Normandy coast, and on his 51st mission, Harmon’s plane was shot down over occupied France by German artillery.  First listed as missing-in-action, Harmon was declared officially dead on May 29, 1945, by the U.S. War Department. In recognition of his valor, Captain Harmon earned 11 oak leaf clusters and was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.

Private John Peirson, motivated by a sense of duty to his country and the loss of his older half-brother, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1944 and participated in the liberation of the Philippines before his tragic death in 1945. Private Peirson, a member of the 77th Infantry Division was mortally wounded during the April 16, 1945, Easter Day assault on the island of Okinawa, Japan, and died of his wounds the following day. Private Peirson, the 24-year-old father of two young sons, was posthumously award the Purple Heart.

On April 26th, 1949, a joint memorial service was held in New Richmond, WI for the repatriated remains of the two fallen brothers. The brothers are buried side-by-side at the Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, MN.

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