Vernon A. (Vern) Tharaldson– Private to Staff Sergeant.

Served with distinction in the Hq1 81mm Mortar Platoon from July 1944 to November 1945. 

Vernon Tharaldson was a courageous, out-standing soldier, a proven leader, a highly respected comrade, and a cherished friend. 

Vernon Tharaldson was a distinguished member of the “Greatest of the Greatest Generation.” 

Vernon Tharaldson’s accomplishments illustrate the phenomenal successes achieved by innumerable children of the great “depression.”

Often deprived of a comfortable stress free home life and education, the “depression kids” served our country, and subsequently evolved into highly successful professionals, businessmen, and affluent citizens.

Vern’s determination to succeed points up a predominant characteristic of the magnificent men that comprise the “Greatest of the Greatest Generation.”  If you knew them, you loved and respected them! 

Vernon A. Tharaldson died June 21, 1992 in Proctor, MN. His devoted wife Pearl and his WW II comrades provided information presented in this summary.

Pearl confirms that Vern was born February 8, 1922 in Gonvick, MN. The youngest of 12 children. Vern’s father died at age 59 leaving his wife to raise their brood in a small two-story farmhouse.

Home insulation was unknown in those days, and Vern often recalled the bitter cold northern Minnesota winters when he slept upstairs in the farmhouse with frost collecting on the nail heads in the ceiling.  

Vern attended a county school and remembered how he had one pair of overalls that were washed each Saturday night so they would be clean for Church on Sunday. 

Before he could finish grade school, Vern was forced too drop out to help support his family. Food was scarce – a few cows to milk, sparse produce gleaned from a small garden, and meat and fish provided by the two oldest brothers that were old enough to hunt deer and catch fish.