"No one else could have done as well as we did, you can believe it," wrote Marsh's buddy.

Mahlon A. Marshall was born in San Francisco, California, on December 30, 1924, to Dr. O. C. Marshall, a well-known Watsonville physician, and his wife. Raised in the Pajaro Valley, Mahlon attended local elementary schools and Chaminade High School before transferring to Watsonville High School. In high school, he was a member of the track team, on the Student Board, active in the French club and worked on the Manzanita yearbook. He also served as president of the local chapter of the Cal- ifornia Scholarship Federation. Marshall was an accomplished musician and member of the Musicians Union. Following graduation in June 1942, he enrolled in a pre-med program at San Jose State College, but left before his eighteenth birthday.

Mahlon Marshall enlisted in the US Army in February 1943. After completing basic training, he volunteered for the paratrooper section and in July 1943, earned his silver wings and boots.

"Marsh," as he was known, was assigned to the 511th Parachute Regiment of the 11th Airborne Division and trained at Camp Mackall, North Carolina, and Camp Polk, Louisiana.

His regiment was sent to New Guinea in May 1944 and trained in jungle warfare prior to their departure to Leyte in the Philippine Islands on November 7, 1944. The combat conditions under which Marsh served in the Leyte campaign were described in a letter written to his father by a comrade, which later appeared in the Watsonville Register-Pajaronian edition of April 8, 1945.

“Five days after landing on Leyte, we were up against our first Japs. Our job was to hold a pass in the mountains so that when the division started pushing on Ormoc, the Japs wouldn't come through into the mountains where it would take years to drive them out. Because the mountains were so steep and rugged, a company at a time proceeded along the Zaribou trail into the mouth of hell. One company was ambushed…The ambush was wiped out after four days of hard fighting…A small plateau was found in the mountains which we cleared and leveled…

After three days, we moved on. The pass had been taken and held…When we left the strip we didn't have any idea of the kind of hell that was in store for us for the three weeks to come. Our next objective was the Jap main supply trail over the mountains found by one of our combat patrols...We had pushed our way across the island and were now sitting on the Jap supply trail. We could see Ormoc below us and all the Jap controlled country…We almost took the hill to our front when we were recalled and told to hold what we had till troops could relieve us…two battalions were still far behind, but fighting all the way…three days without food because the clouds were stuck on the mountain and planes couldn't get in to supply us…One of our companies during the night had withstood four banzai charges and were isolated on the hill to our rear. Japs in front of us and Japs behind us and no food in sight… And the fourth day rolled by without food…the fifth day; the chaplain had a prayer service. They prayed for the clouds to open and planes to drop food to us. Twenty minutes later, the clouds broke up and planes started to drop food. A lot of Christians were made that day. Wire communications had gone out…This went on for eight more days.
[After describing leading a patrol of volunteers heading toward a division in the rear, of bumping into Japs, of sleeping within a few hundred feed of "God only knows, how many Japs," the paratrooper tells of the reunion with the division which was surprised to see them as they had slipped right through the Jap lines and no man's land]… We found our other company had gone six days without food and watched hundreds of Japs go by within twenty feet of their hiding placeWe have about 4000 Japs to our credit in twenty-nine days of the toughest type of fighting in the world. No one else could have done as well as we did, you can believe it."

Private First Class Mahlon A. Marshall died on December 8, 1944, and was buried in the Manila American Cemetery in Manila. Among his awards is the Purple Heart.

(CBR; ABMC; Leo Kocher, Internet History of the 511th Airborne Regiment, http://users.owt.com/leodonna/511thHistory.htm, [16 September 2008]; WRP February 2, 1945 1:2, February 8, 1945 6:5)