Myron B. Carstensen Full Narrative

Myron (Mike) B. Carstensen was born on December 26, 1919 in Grand Coulee, Washington to Henry M. Carstensen and Elizabeth Blinn Carstensen. His father was an immigrant from Germany and a farmer who settled in different locations in the wheat-producing environs of Lincoln County, Washington. The younger Carstensen graduated from Almira High School in Lincoln County and attended Washington State College (WSC) from 1938 through 1940 before transferring to Gonzaga University.  He returned to WSC in 1942 and graduated on May 24, 1943 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. He was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity, and was elected Tribune of the organization in 1943. Following his graduation from WSC in 1943, Carstensen enlisted in the United States Marine Corps as a Private, First Class. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant on November 3, 1943 after completing basic training at Quantico, Viriginia. He shipped out to the Pacific Theater with the 2nd Armored Amphibious Battalion in late April, 1944. Carstensen was killed in action on June 15, 1944 after his tank was hit by enemy fire in the attack against the fortified beaches of Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands chain. He was buried at sea on June 16, 1944, and is memorialized at the Tablets of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl) in Honolulu, Hawaii.