Harold Marcy was born in 1926 in Russell Township, Geauga county, Ohio, the youngest child of Theodore Benjamin Marcy and Polly Elvina Bame. The family lived in Geauga county, where his father worked on a dairy farm. Harold had two older brothers.

On July 19, 1943 he entered the US Naval Reserves. He reported to Cleveland, Ohio, and then went to Great Lakes Naval Training Station for boot camp. He reported aboard LCF Group on October 1, 1943, and was attached as a Seaman Second Class to LCF 31.

LCF-31 took part in Operation Neptune, the amphibious assault on Normandy on D-Day. Out of a crew of 72, only 18 survived. An excerpt from the cutter’s log describes its D-Day activities: “0530, accompanied invasion barges into shore under severe shelling attacks and with mines going up all around us. 0730, LCF-31 hit by shell 800 yards off shore, sinking immediately. While engaged in picking up survivors, a shell struck PC-1261, which disintegrated, scattering men and debris over a wide area. While so engaged, shells and bullets were falling nearby, and just after last man picked up, small landing craft only few hundred yards off shore blew up. Proceeded to spot and picked up all living survivors.” (CGC-16 Log.)

S2c Harold Marcy was declared dead while missing, June 6, 1944.

His name appears on the Tablets of the Missing, Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, France.

References:

1930; Census Place: Russell, Geauga, Ohio; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 0018

1940; Census Place: Hambden, Geauga, Ohio; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 28-9

U.S., Headstone and Interment Records for U.S., Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, 1942-1949

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56647260/harold-marcy

News-Journal, Mansfield, OH: July 15, 1943, p.13

https://www.northernexpress.com/news/feature/lucky-larry-lampton-75-years-after-d-day/

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org/. This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen on Fold3.