Harlan D. Rosevear

United States Navy

World War II

 

Seaman First Class

 

Harlan Rosevear grew up in Detroit and graduated from Mackenzie High School. In April, 1944, Harlan persuaded 3 of his best friends to join him in enlisting in the Navy. On graduation day, they headed to Great Lakes Naval Training Center.

 

Due to an accident when the liberty bus they were riding turned over (on their way home from seeing Gypsy Rose Lee), the boys were separated. His buddies went off to defend Cape May, NJ for the duration of the War; Harlan went to hospital with a broken clavicle and eventually to see combat duty in the South Pacific.

 

His ship was one of the first ships into port to liberate American POWs at the end of the war. For the last 26 years of his life, Harlan lived in and loved Plymouth. In 2002, he died from Multiple Myeloma, a blood cancer, attributed by some to radiation exposure from being so close to Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the bombs fell.

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