Harlan Roy Palmer
Graduating
Class of 1939
Served in
World War II
![Attached photograph of First Lieutenant Palmer](https://cdn.uwgoldstarhonorroll.org/2017-08/PalmerHarlanR.jpg)
First Lieutenant
Harlan Roy Palmer
Army Air Corps
321st Bombardment Squadron
90th Bomber Group (H) B-24 Jolly Rogers
Pacific Theater of Operations
Hometown
Reedsburg, WI
Date of Birth
Location of Death
Unknown
Date of Death
Location of Burial
GreenWood Cemetery, Reedsburg, WI
More About First Lieutenant Palmer
First Lieutenant Palmer attended the University of Wisconsin where he was an outfielder on the varsity baseball team from 1937 to 1939. He played regularly as a pinch-hitter in 1937 and had a string of four successive pinch hits.
1st Lt. Palmer entered military service on December 18, 1941, eleven days after Pearl Harbor. He trained as a bomber pilot.
On November 11, 1943, a bombing mission to Rabaul was aborted due to poor weather. As the airplanes prepared to land there was a collision between two of them. The propellers of another B-24 cut off the rudder of Lieutenant Palmer's B-24 which dove into the ground, detonating the full bomb load, and killing all on board.