Harry Brown Packard was born on August 28, 1906, in Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts. He was the son of Harry Morton Packard and Bertha Marion Brown. He was married to Ila Gray. He graduated from Woodstock High School, entered West Point in 1926 after winning a competitive exam, graduating in 1930 as Cadet Captain of his company and Captain of both the soccer and wrestling teams. Commissioned into the Field Artillery, he served at Fort Lewis, Fort Sill, and West Point before joining the 24th Field Artillery at Fort Stotsenburg in the Philippines in 1939. There he served with distinction through the defense of Bataan, later becoming an assistant corps G-3 before the surrender.

Captured after the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, he endured years as a prisoner of war at PW Camp #1 in Cabanatuan. In December 1944, he was placed aboard the Oryoku Maru bound for Japan, surviving its attack before being transferred to the Brazil Maru. Records report that he died on January 27, 1945, from starvation and exposure, and was buried at sea.

Maj Packard's name is memorialized in the Courts of the Missing in the Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Honolulu County, Hawaii, USA. He also has a cenotaph in the
Evergreen Cemetery, Kennebunk, York County, Maine, USA.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, alumni.westpointaog.org, valor.militarytimes.com