In 1943, the US Army Finally decided what to do with the few hundred Nisei soldiers who had yet to be discharged as enemy aliens. They were formed into the 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate) and sent to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. Despite what the rest of the army assumed would happen, the men of the 100th excelled at training and proved all of their naysayers wrong.
At the end of their training, the 100th received the motto it requested, Remember Pearl Harbor, and was sent overseas. After a few detours, they ended up in Italy where they fought in several key battles, including Monte Cassino.
the 100th biggest supporter, and their first commander, was Lieutenant Colonel Farrant Lewis Turner. When the battalion entered combat, he was 48 years old. After a month in Italy, he had to be evacuated due to health. A short time later, he was mustered out of the military. Afterwards, he returned to Hawaii and continued to help 100th veterans for the rest of his life.
LTC Turner died in 1959 at age 63 - the same year Hawaii became a state. He was interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Section U, Grave 1174. His wife Helen Van Inwegen joined him in 1988. She was 91.
Their son Bert followed his father's footsteps, graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1949 and served in the Army for 22 years. By the time he retired, he was a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
Colonel Albert Farrant Turner was interred at the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Section 121-B, Site 10. He was 91 years old.
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