Jack McLaughlin and his older brother Arthur led very different civilian and military lives.

Jack Henry McLaughlin was born on February 16, 1923, in Santa Cruz, California. He was raised in a Soquel home that included his parents, brother Arthur and one sister. Jack attended Soquel Union Grammar School and about 1938 enrolled in Santa Cruz High School. He remained in high school only a year before dropping out. After leaving school, he worked briefly as an actor/entertainer prior to World War II.

On March 3, 1941, McLaughlin enlisted as a private in the US Army's infantry branch under the name of Jack W. MacLaughlin and requested duty in the Philippine Islands. Jack was initially sent to Luzon to join Company K of the 31st Infantry Regiment. Following his basic training at Fort Clark, he was re-assigned to the 808th Military Police Company in Manila.

During the Japanese invasion of December 1941, his unit helped to control traffic as the US army moved to defend Manila and Bataan. When American and Filipino forces surrendered to the Japanese on April 9, 1942, Private MacLaughlin was sent to Cabanatuan prison camp. During his confinement, he contracted malaria and died on September 14, 1942. His body was reported as buried on Luzon, but was never recovered.

Private Jack Henry MacLaughlin is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery near his brother Arthur who had been killed two months earlier.

(NARA2; ABMC; SCHSC, Pg.13)