Leo Hazleton Stalker, Jr, a native of San Francisco, enlisted in the Marine 26 August 1940 at San Francisco, and reported to Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego shortly thereafter for basic training. Upon completion of training, PVT Stalker was assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, Marine Corps Base, San Diego. On 3 April 1940, PVT Stalker and a dozen of his comrades were ordered to be transferred to the "Asiatic Station" for general assignment. The group departed 9 April 1941 from Mare Island Navy Yard bound for the western Pacific. Upon arrival in the Philippines, PVT Stalker was assigned to Company A, First Separate Marine Battalion, Marine Barracks, Cavite Navy Yard. Prompted by increased Japanese aggression in China, President Roosevelt ordered Navy Secretary Knox to withdraw the 4th Marine Regiment from Shanghai. The transfer to the Philippines was largely completed by mid-November 1941. Marine Separate Battalion was joined to 4th Marines as WW2 commenced. The US Army, Marines and Philippino forces bravely fought the invading Japanese, and were forced to withdraw from Bataan to Corregidor Island. According to Marine casualty records, , PVT Stalker was first reported missing 9 April 1942 on Corregidor. He was later reported as a prisoner of the Japanese in the Philipines. PVT Stalker was reported to have been transferred to a POW Camp in Fukuoka, Japan as of 4 August. As his whereabouts were unknown at the end of WW2, PVT Stalker was returned to missing status. As a result, the Secretary of the Navy made a "finding of death" dated 21 January 1946. It was later determined from Japanese military and Red Cross records that PVT Stalker had died 25 April 1945 from an unknown disease. The Japanese typically cremated remains. The remains of PVT Walker and many of his comrades were reinterred in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery 27 September 1949.