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Post by friscohare on Jul 18, 2012 10:36:17 GMT -5
Filipino WW II vets face-off with US Congress[/u][/url][/size] (Asian Journal, 07/17/12) PENSACOLA, FL — “I have valiantly defended this country in Bataan during the war amidst lack of arms supplies and formidable enemies. In my remaining years, I will fight to the last drop of my blood in Pensacola, to demand full recognition of my service as an American veteran,” says Regalado Baldonado, a WW II guerilla and leader of the Justice for Filipino-American Veterans (JFAV) during a national phone conference of veterans and widows. Leaders and advocates decided unanimously to ask R-Rep. Jeff Miller, Pensacola, Florida, to bypass the sub-committee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs (DAMA), and hold immediately a public hearing of the HR 210, “The Filipino Veterans Fairness Act of 2011,” by the House Committee on Veterans Affairs that Miller heads as Chairman. “The situation is very urgent. Time is of the essence. The Filipino veterans and widows are dying. Of the 250,000 who fought in WW II, less than 41,000 are still alive and ten people die every day,” says Arturo Garcia, national coordinator of JFAV. Veterans will kick-off Operation USAFFE Week from July 25-August 1 with the introduction of Resolution in New York City Council July 25, visits to different local districts July 26, Campaign in Pensacola July 28, and culminating in the Congressional lobby with the members of the House Committee members headed by NY youth leader Chevy Evangelista August 1. Remember USAFFE, pass Equity Bill now On July 26, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt through a proclamation conscripted 120,000 Filipino soldiers to the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) headed by the Supreme Commander General Douglas McArthur. The defense of the Philippines, an American territory then, culminated in the final battle in Bataan by Filipino and American soldiers. After 20 years of lobbying in the US Congress for full equity and full recognition, veterans vowed to continue their last stand in Pensacola, a district whose population are 20% veterans and with many Filipinos. The US Congress through the Rescission Act of 1946 took away the recognition of the US military service of Filipino WW II veterans who fought alongside Americans. Of the 66 Allied nationalities who fought for the US, the Filipinos were singled out not to be recognized as full American veterans. Equity Bill stalled at Sub-Committee DAMA“It is very cruel for the office of sub-committee DAMA Chairman Jon Runyan to stall the hearing for HR 210, therefore the only way to resolve this impasse is for House Committee Chairman Miller to call a hearing in his own committee,” says Garcia. He adds, “Other bills with three or even zero cosponsors were provided hearings, why can’t they afford the same courtesy to HR 210 with 93 cosponsors? This is not the way the US should treat its veterans. Is it because we are Filipinos, that they should treat us this way? “There are many constituents including many American veterans in Burlington County (Runyan’s district) who support the cause of equity for Filipino who served the US,” says Emmanuel Goce, a son of USAFFE veteran. Runyan is running for re-election this year against Democratic candidate Shelley Adler in Third District, New Jersey. District community leaders ask Miller Ten community leaders in Pensacola signed a petition addressed to Representative Miller to expedite the committee hearing of HR 210 so that the bill van be marked up and put to deliberation in the plenary immediately. “Veterans nowadays either go to the emergency rooms or to funeral homes. We cannot afford to witness them die without seeing the light of recognition. This is an issue of all veterans and Americans,” says Divina Herrera, President of Filipino-American Association of Pensacola. The current Congress will end in November. There are currently 93 cosponsors and if the bill fails to get approved this year, it may be reintroduced next year but the number of cosponsors will start from zero. Congressional lobbyist Ago Pedalizo from San Francisco will visit Pensacola constituents to educate, build political case, and ask for more petitions. “It is election time and people are more politically engaged than any other time. Rep. Jeff Miller is running for re-election. Let’s talk about fair share and doing the right thing for the vets,” adds Pedalizo.
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Post by friscohare on Jul 31, 2012 20:52:11 GMT -5
James Bollich, World War II veteran and Bataan Death March survivor, stands in his home next to a framed American flag that his grandson, an Airman, had flown over a U.S. military installation in his honor. Bollich spent three and a half years a prisoner of war in Manchuria from 1942 until the end of WWII. Bataan Death March survivor shares story[/u][/url][/size] (USAF, 07/05/12) LAFAYETTE, La.(AFNS) -- Fewer and fewer Americans today can recall where they were when they heard the news that Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, had been attacked by the Japanese on Dec. 7, 1941. As the number of first-hand accounts from World War II continues to decrease and new conflicts of the current era arise, earlier struggles begin to fade away, making it ever more important to preserve our nation's living history. At his home in Lafayette, La., in the midst of countless books and homemade art, one WWII veteran and former prisoner of war shares his experience of the war, one that is slightly different than most. Like many of his peers, James Bollich, barely out of his teenage years, joined the U.S. military in the midst of another world conflict brewing overseas. "It was about the time Germany occupied Paris, everybody at school was talking about the Army, and nobody was really studying like they should've been," recalled Bollich. "That's when I decided that before long we would be in the war and just like a young kid, I wanted to be part of it and I wanted the air corps." Against his mother's wishes, Bollich joined the U.S. Army Air Corps on Aug. 23, 1940, in Bossier City, La., at what was then Barksdale Field, and was assigned to the 16th Bomb Squadron, 27th Bomb Group. Bollich spent time at a base in Savannah, Ga., and then reported to technical school in Dallas, where he studied airplane mechanics and took part in maneuvers and exercises at an air field in Lake Charles, La., all before heading overseas. "As soon as the maneuvers ended we were shipped overseas," he said. "We left San Francisco November 1 and arrived in the Philippines on November 20, and 18 days later we were already at war with Japan." Four months later, 20-year-old Corporal Bollich would become a prisoner of war. When word got back to Bollich and his outfit that the Japanese had made a major landing about 35 miles from where they were, they were instructed to quickly pack-up and told that they would be evacuated, by boat, from Manila to the Bataan Peninsula across Manila Bay. Thousands of American and Filipino troops now occupied the Bataan Peninsula, leaving the U.S. Army responsible for feeding everyone. In the meantime the Japanese controlled the surrounding seas and skies, making it difficult for American support to resupply these men. "We were running out of food," Bollich said frankly. "That's when we tried to get extra food by going up into the mountains. People ate monkeys, snakes, lizards, just about anything that they could find." When most food sources were exhausted, including mules, "essentially what we were living on was a slice of bread made out of rice flour, covered with gravy made out of water and rice flour. We were essentially starving to death and weren't in any shape to fight and the Japanese easily broke through our front lines," he said. When their front lines did eventually break, they were ordered to retreat to the tip of the Bataan Peninsula, where they eventually surrendered to the Japanese. "We were told to destroy all of our arms and ammunition. Finally here came the [Japanese]. They lined us up, counted us and started us out on what is now known as the [Bataan] Death March." For the next five and a half days, thousands of American and Filipino troops walked day and night enduring exhaustion and physical pain. "We had no idea what was ahead," said Bollich. "I'll never forget our old first sergeant, when the surrender came he said, 'we survived the war, the Japanese are going to take us and put us in a prison camp. We'll get fed, have water and rest and just sit and wait out the war.' That guy was dead within three weeks after we were captured. It didn't turn out that way at all." Bollich recalled marching out of the peninsula with Japanese guards on either side of the line of prisoners. "They took our wallets, anybody who had a ring they took those, took our dog tags. Then they began to beat us. They beat us with rifle butts, sabers, clubs, anything they could get their hands on. That went on all day long. They wouldn't let anybody have a drink of water or let us rest and they didn't feed us. "And then I think it was around the middle of the second day that people began to collapse. We hadn't had water in a day and a half and in the tropics it's almost beyond what you can take. And of course once anybody collapsed, the Japanese immediately killed them, it looked like they were really trying to kill us all." Upon arrival at the first prison camp, Camp O'Donnell, a former Philippine Army training camp, Bollich said the soldiers were met by the general who had called for their surrender. General King spoke in front of the crowd, assuring his men that he would take full responsibility for the surrender and for his troops not to feel bad. "Then the Japanese commander got up and laid down the rules of the camp," said Bollich. "He said that if any were broken, the person would be shot, which are words we expected to hear. But he was speaking through an interpreter and the interpreter said that you have come here to die. At first I didn't believe it and that he'd misquoted the Japanese commander, but it didn't take us long to realize that he was telling the truth." Bollich admitted that the exact number of Americans who died on the march remains unknown, but is estimated anywhere between 800 to 2,000 troops. However, Bollich is sure of the death toll of the first 40 days of being in Camp O'Donnell, because he witnessed it. His best estimate is approximately another 1,800 Americans in that time period, averaging about 45 per day. "All we were doing was burying the dead," remembered Bollich. "I remember looking around and deciding that the way people were dying that within a few weeks we would all be dead. Our food was nothing but a handful of cooked rice a day. The barracks we stayed in were made out of bamboo with thatched roofs, no doors or windows. At night the mosquitos would chew us alive and during the day time the flies would get all over us. The big killer was dysentery. They had open latrines that had flies by the billions, covering our camp. Once you caught dysentery you were gone." Bollich recalled that within the first four weeks of confinement at Camp O'Donnell, three men escaped to find food and were caught trying to sneak back into the camp. For breaking the rules, the men were tortured for days until all the prisoners were called out to an area in the camp where the three men had dug their own graves and witnessed each man get executed. Bollich became one of 2,000 prisoners selected to be transported to Japan for confinement in another POW camp. He described the packed ship as having two holds, one in the front and one in the back, each holding 1,000 men. "We were only allowed two guys at a time to crawl up the steel ladder to go top side to use the latrine," he said. "A lot of the guys had dysentery and within a matter of a few hours, the place was already like a cesspool." He went on to describe the atmosphere below deck. "At night the hold was completely dark. There'd be crying and screaming and praying. And inevitably in the morning when the Japanese would open up the hold there'd be one or two POWs that had died. We'd just hand them up to the Japanese and the Japanese would just throw them over board." Conditions below deck got so bad that the ship docked in Taiwan so that the POWs could be taken off the ship and hosed down. "That was about seven months from the time we had surrendered and we were still in the same clothes that we surrendered in. That was the first water we had on our bodies in all that length of time," he said. After what seemed like many more days at sea, the boat reached its final destination: Pusan, Korea. Once everyone was pulled out of the ship, the POWs were put into trucks and transported to a military camp situated on the shore. The ones who were in weak physical condition stayed until they were strong enough to move again. "Of the 80 or 90 of us that stayed there [in the military camp] about 30 or 35 of us survived, the rest died and were taken out each day and cremated and their ashes were brought back and given to us," said Bollich. When the surviving POWs were strong enough to leave, they boarded trains and headed off to Mukden, Manchuria, which according to Bollich was "one of the coldest places in the world and that's where I stayed until the war ended." Once at the POW camp in Mukden when he became physically well enough to work, Bollich was sent to a factory originally set-up to manufacture automobile parts. In the midst of dozens of unopened crates containing American machines, the POWs were instructed to cement the factory floor, make sturdy foundations for the machines, set them up and start production. In his book, "Bataan Death March: A Soldier's Story," Bollich mentioned that although he and his fellow POWs were ordered to correctly perform certain tasks in the factory, they took the opportunity to be discreetly insubordinate. For example, he wrote that the men discovered smaller but important machine parts, such as handles, knobs, dials and screws, in empty crates. Once the small but necessary items were discovered, the POWs defiantly disposed of them in the holes they had dug, quickly filling them in with concrete and making it impossible for the machines to function. His life continued with little food and walking what he estimated as five miles either way to and from the factory day after day until the day the air raid sirens rang. Off in the distance, Bollich recalls seeing miles of contrails and big black planes flying toward the factory. When Japanese fighters took off to defend their positions, in his book Bollich describes the scene: "From the ground it looked like a swarm of mosquitoes going after a flock of geese and the comparison is good, because that is about how effective the Japanese fighters were." "They were B-29s," he continued. "[At the time] we didn't know what B-29s were, but we were happy to see them. After all that time, finally it looked like the war was maybe coming to an end. Those B-29s, I've never seen anything like it, it just looked like the sky was black with bombs." The B-29 bombs fell in December 1944, and eight months later Mukden POW camp was liberated. After three and a half years of confinement, Bollich was free and heading home. He and the remaining POWs were taken to a nearby railroad station and transported to Port Arthur, China, where they boarded a ship for their journey back to the U.S. They finally docked in San Francisco, the same port Bollich left nearly four years earlier. Bollich rested in a hospital for five to six weeks before returning home to Louisiana. He described his return home as less than the jovial occasion he had dreamed about, as he learned that two of his brothers had been killed in the war, and his mother was devastated. Today, Bollich is part of a group that gets smaller as time passes. "As far as World War II, all my friends are gone. In my outfit I only know of one other guy who's still alive," he said. When asked how he managed to survive the Bataan Death March and then life in a prison camp, he has a very clear answer, "I couldn't imagine people going to my mother and saying that [I'd] died. I think that's what kept most young people alive, the fact that they had families to go to." Had he decided to give up, he's sure he could have found a quick end to the misery. "Everybody prayed, and apparently it didn't work for everybody. But maybe it did. I think things got so bad that a lot of guys prayed to die and if you wanted to give up you could die in a hurry. There were two or three times in my confinement that if I had decided to die I could of died within a couple of days," admitted Bollich. After Bollich returned home, he decided to remain in the reserves for three years, taking the time to decide if after his experience as a POW he could still stay in the military. He ultimately decided to pursue higher education, a choice he said helped him deal with the dreams of confinement that ensued upon his return to the states. "The thing about it," he said, "in prison camp, when you went to bed at night you'd dream about being free and then you woke up and you were still in that POW camp. When you got back home, at night when I'd go to bed, I'd dream I was back in POW camp, so I didn't want to sleep. And that really helped my studies, because instead of just staying up and doing nothing, I studied. So going to school helped a lot." After his experience as a POW and survivor of the death march, when asked what advice he'd give to young servicemembers facing challenges in their personal and professional lives, he suggests considering what veterans went through. "Talk to some of the old soldiers," he said. "Some of those Marines who fought in the Pacific and the soldiers who fought in Europe, look at what they went through." Bollich reflects on the decision to drop the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which effectively led to Japan's surrender in WWII, and wonders what would have happened had U.S. forces conducted a land invasion of the country instead. He said toward the end of the war, the Japanese higher command put out a directive to all of the POW camps saying the minute it was learned the Americans had landed on Japanese soil, the commander was to kill all of the POWs under their control. Bollich continued, "There was no doubt in my mind that had we not dropped the atomic bomb and we invaded Japan, not a single POW would have gotten home." And being honest about what may have been his fate, Bollich understands that, "of course, that includes me." Bollich has authored 11 books, including "Bataan Death March: A Soldier's Story," about his time as a POW.
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Post by friscohare on Jul 31, 2012 20:56:09 GMT -5
Fil-Am community leaders (from left) Christina Baal, Lorial Crowder, Chevy Evangelista and Linda Oalican were at the City Hall’s City Council Chambers to witness council member Daniel Dromm (inset) introducing a resolution on Filipino war veterans.New York City Council introduces resolution on Filipino WWII Veterans [/u][/url][/size] (Newspaper, 07/26/12) New York City Councilman & Immigration Committee Chair Daniel Dromm representing the 25th District of Queens introduced a resolution Wednesday, July 25 to urge President Barack Obama and the US Congress to pass HR 210 or “The Filipino Veterans Fairness Act of 2011” that finally recognizes Filipino Veterans for their contributions during WWII and would grant full benefits to these Filipino veterans who fought alongside United States soldiers. While waiting at the sidelines of the City Council Chambers for the meeting to start, Dromm told the Filipino-American media present that his resolution is meant to give Filipino veterans the recognition they truly deserve. “It is something that should be recognized. Not a lot of Americans now know that Filipino veterans stood side by side with American soldiers then. They sacrificed their lives for this country and that should be recognized,” Dromm said. Dromm received overwhelming support from the immigrant community when he was elected to serve the 25th district in 2009. His district has the highest percentage of foreign-born residents in New York City. His district includes sections of Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, LeFrak City, Corona, Rego Park and Woodside. “I know what discrimination feels like so when I hear a situation where people have been discriminated, left out or not acknowledged, that is my main motivation,” he added. HR 210 was introduced by Rep. Jackie Speier (CA-12) to provide equal US military benefits including monthly pensions to Filipino WWII veterans and their families like any other American veterans. Veterans will kick-off Operation USAFFE (United States Armed Forces in the Far East) Week from New York City filing of the resolution on July 25th to August 1. Filipino veterans, widows, families and advocates will visit their different local city districts on July 26. Lobbying activities will coincide in Pensacola, FL on July 28. The week will conclude with a Congressional lobby with the members of the House Committee members on August 1. On July 26, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt through a proclamation conscripted 120,000 Filipino soldiers to the USAFFE headed by the Supreme Commander General Douglas McArthur. The defense of the Philippines, an American territory then, culminated in the final battle in Bataan by Filipino and American soldiers. Approximately 10,000 Filipinos and 300–650 American prisoners of war died during the Bataan Death March. After 20 years of lobbying in the US Congress for full equity and recognition, veterans have vowed to make their last stand in Pensacola, pressuring Veterans Committee Chair Jeff Miller, R-1st District. Until now, Miller has not put forth a committee hearing. The US Congress through the Rescission Act of 1946 took away the recognition of the US military service of Filipino WW II veterans who fought alongside Americans. Of the 66 Allied nationalities who fought for the US, the Filipinos were the only ones not recognized as full American veterans. Dromm is encouraging the Filipino community to organize and write to their legislators. “The community should attend hearings if we have them, and send letters to their representatives. Sometimes people say that these letters don’t work, believe me, they do. As an elected official, if I get four to five letters about a subject, I take note of it,” he said.
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Post by friscohare on Jul 31, 2012 20:58:46 GMT -5
Veteran Celestino AlmedaSome Filipino Vets Still Awaiting Recognition [/u][/url][/size] (PBS Newshour, 07/31/12) World War II ended almost 70 years ago but some Filipino veterans are still waiting for recognition of their services. "We are just asking for fair treatment," Celestino Almeda said. Almeda is one of approximately 4,000 applicants for compensation who were not granted veteran status and are contesting that decision. The path for recognition began years ago for Almeda, who fought for nearly six years to become a naturalized citizen via his veteran status. Almeda celebrated his 95th birthday this past June. "Guess where I celebrated my birthday?" Almeda asked, chuckling. Along with other guests, Almeda attended a reception hosted by Secretary Hillary Clinton in honor of Filipino President Aquino. "I was one of the invited guests," Almeda said. During World War II, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt conscripted members of the Philippines Commonwealth Army to fight. "They were promised that they would be given all of the benefits [of] U.S. soldiers" said Rozita Lee of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance. "In 1946, during President Truman's term, Congress decided there wasn't enough money to continue doing this and they reneged." Lee is referring to the Rescission Act of 1946 that removed full benefits from Filipino veterans. The fight for more complete benefits for Filipino veterans escalated during the 1980s with the push for naturalization. Over the years, advocates also fought for injury compensation and treatment at Veterans Affairs hospitals. Their most substantial victory came in 2009, when President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that began the process of compensating Filipino veterans for their service. The status of Filipino veterans remains complicated because there are multiple classifications listed in Department of Veterans Affairs documents. In addition to the Philippine Scouts, who directly served in a division of the U.S. Army, some Filipinos served as members of the Commonwealth Army of the Philippines, or as guerrilla fighters. Philippine Scouts were able to be verified more easily because they were recorded through the U.S. military. However, veterans like Almeda who fought as soldiers in the Commonwealth Army faced more structural and bureaucratic barriers. In addition to filing in 1946, a second count of veterans was taken two years later, in 1948. By current standards for recognition, veterans must have their name on the 1948 list in addition to their discharge papers. "There were a lot of investigations going on and rosters had to be done," Lachica said of the 1948 list's creation. He added that some veterans did not file second requests to be included and might have been deleted. Certain documentation from the Commonwealth Army is not considered a valid replacement for not being on the 1948 list. "They say I don't have any records," Almeda said. "[The Department of Veteran Affairs] does not recognize the records from the Philippines army." In correspondence with Mr. Almeda, Col. Jason T. Evans and Lt. Col. Joy L. Curriera sent a May 2, 2012 position paper from the U.S. Army Adjutant General Directorate stating: "The Philippine Army records in question are classified by [National Personnel Records Center] as Philippine military "organizational records" used to establish identity of Missing Persons Act (MPAP) status regarding Philippine Army personnel and recognized Guerrillas. These records are not Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF)." "It's a bureaucratic Catch-22," Lachica said. The issue of recognizing Filipino veterans has garnered support from elected officials such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Sen. Inouye (D-Hawaii), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and former President George W. Bush. President Obama has also expressed his support. On July 26, 2012, Rep. Joe Heck (R-NV) took the floor of the House to advocate for veteran recognition. " ureaucratic roadblocks continue to prevent nearly four thousand of these aging World War II veterans from collecting the benefits they are due," Heck said.
Support from Congress may not be enough to remove these obstacles. "I think the issue is that there's been a very carefully thought-out criteria to verify service," said Scott Levins, director of National Personnel Records Center. "Any changes to that ought to come from the Army."
An executive order could help to expedite the process, as time is no luxury for those awaiting a decision. Heck stated during his speech to Congress that two of the veterans seeking benefits in his district had recently passed away.
"Many more will pass without ever obtaining the recognition they deserved, if this body does not act to remove the barriers preventing these veterans from receiving the benefits they have earned," Heck said.
"One of the veterans I spoke to yesterday was 95 years old and we were wondering together, am I going to survive this issue?" Lee said.
The United States Army could not be reached for comment.
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Post by friscohare on Aug 10, 2012 21:39:10 GMT -5
The 'unsinkable battleship' slowly falls apart[/u][/url][/size] (GMA News, 08/10/12) On a spot in the ocean where Manila Bay meets the South China Sea, a little-known structure stands alone amidst thrashing waves. Most Filipinos know nothing of its existence, but this island fortress played a significant role in Philippine history. El Fraile Island, also known as Fort Drum, is a "concrete battleship" that the Americans built in 1909. On a little islet of rocks, a concrete structure 350 feet long and 144 feet wide was built. The 40-foot high, 30-foot thick walls were fortified and ready for all sorts of naval attacks. This unique structure, resembling a battleship and complete with armored turrets, is the only one of its kind in the world. Heavily armed with some of the biggest cannons and guns at the time, Fort Drum was the most powerful of the American coastal defenses in the Philippines. During the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, Fort Drum was able to inflict heavy casualties at the forces invading Corregidor, despite undergoing heavy shelling from Japanese howitzers in nearby Ternate, Cavite. After the fall of Corregidor, Fort Drum surrendered to the Japanese, marking the end of American resistance in the Philippines. In 1945, during the US offensive in Manila, American troops pumped fuel into Fort Drum and ignited it, killing all the Japanese soldiers inside and laying the once-great structure to ruins. In Kara David’s I-Witness documentary ‘El Fraile: Ang Pagsuko ng Fort Drum,’ she visited the obsolete historical structure. Unlike its neighbor Corregidor and other significant war shrines, Fort Drum has neither been preserved nor repaired. Once feared by advancing naval enemy troops, Fort Drum is now merely a source of income for locals. Junk shop owners from the mainland sail to Fort Drum to collect pieces of expensive metals that fetch good money. Because of this, parts of the structure are now falling apart. Fort Drum, the unsinkable battleship that never bowed down in any war, is now slowly surrendering to neglect.
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Post by VeeVee on Aug 17, 2012 15:02:56 GMT -5
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Post by friscohare on Aug 19, 2012 21:33:42 GMT -5
Diaz survived WWII's Bataan Death March[/u][/url][/size] (Monterey County Herald, 08/12/12) Friends and fellow military veterans call him "The Miracle Man," an homage to the astonishing fact that Roy Diaz still walks the Earth. He is one of only three local living survivors of the Bataan Death March, a nightmare in which more than 70,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war were forced by the Imperial Japanese Army to walk more than 70 miles, almost entirely without food or water. An estimated 18,000 to 20,000 soldiers died from heat, exhaustion, brutal beatings, bayonet attacks and other methods of execution. Diaz was among 110 Monterey County soldiers who were captured in Bataan, Philippines, one of 47 who lived to tell the story. The greatest miracle, perhaps, is that he has led a happy and remarkably healthy life. Diaz smiles broadly and laughs often as he approaches his 96th birthday--even, at times, as he recalls the horrors of Bataan. "No use going the other way," he says with a shrug when asked about his cheerful outlook. Farmer's sonDiaz was a 21-year-old farmer's son in Salinas when he signed up for the National Guard to earn an extra $56 a week at the height of The Great Depression in 1936. As Nazi Germany rose to power and Europe became immersed in war, Diaz was reassigned to Fort Lewis, Wash., then sent to Fort Knox, Ky., where he become a tank mechanic. On Sept. 1, 1941, he was shipped on the USS Coolidge to the Philippines, an assignment that was considered low risk until three months later, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. "The sergeant came into our barracks at about 4 o'clock in the morning and said, 'Hey, you guys, wake up! The Japs just bombed Pearl Harbor. Be prepared. They're on their way.' So we got up and started loading ammunition into machine-gun belts and .45s, then got into our half-tracks and went on patrol around the airfield." Still inexplicable to Diaz more than seven decades later is that all of the company's planes landed shortly after 11:30 a.m. that day so the pilots could get something to eat. All U.S. aircraft were on the ground, parked side-by-side, as Japanese bombers came over the horizon. "All of our pilots were having lunch when we got bombed," he recalls. "Eighty-three of them died in the mess hall. We didn't have a single plane in the sky." What ensued was 3½ months of combat on the Bataan Peninsula, a bold stand by outmanned U.S. and Filipino troops who were short of ammunition, parts and rations. When the Japanese brought an additional 100,000 troops from Singapore, the Allies were overwhelmed. Diaz remembers being in the mountains overlooking a ravine where three tanks had become surrounded by Japanese forces. "My sergeant told me to go down and tell those guys to get the hell out of there, so I ran down the hill with machine-gun fire going right over the top of my head, cutting limbs off the trees," he says. "I found about 20 Filipinos down there and said, 'Where are all of your officers?' They said, 'They all got killed. We're all privates down here.' And I said, 'Get in those tanks and get up to the top; you're gonna get trapped down here!'" Death March beganThree days later, U.S. and Filipino troops were ordered by their commanders to destroy all of their weapons and ammunition and surrender. Their battle was a lost cause. For Diaz, the Bataan Death March began with a hike over the mountain, an additional 10 to 15 miles to join the other prisoners of war. As he lined up to begin the march, he was approached by a Japanese soldier who pointed at his mess kit. "I couldn't understand what he was saying, and I figured he was going to take it away from me," Diaz recalls. "But he gave all of his rice to me and some of the other guys. I guess he felt sorry for us. It was the last thing we'd have to eat." The POWs walked for six days from Mariveles in suffocating heat. Diaz says he somehow managed to keep his canteen full, but many of the marchers drank from rancid water buffalo wallow on the side of the road. Prisoners who lagged behind or dropped from exhaustion were shot, beaten to death or impaled with bayonets. "One poor guy had malaria, had the fever, and went for some water, and suddenly I saw a bayonet going into his back and out the front," Diaz says. "We stopped at a place along the road where they were burning sugar cane. Two or three of us wandered over looking for a stick of cane. All of a sudden I saw dust flying and I realized they were shooting a machine gun at us, so we got back in line." Thousands were suffering from dysentery by the time they reached Balanga, just past the halfway point, and more were sick when they reached the end of the march at San Fernando. "They finally gave us some rice to eat there, and then, the next morning, they loaded us all into these wooden boxcars on a narrow-gauge train to take us to Capas," Diaz says. "The heat in that boxcar was unbearable. People defecated and urinated. I must have been standing in a spot where a little bit of air was coming in, because I made it, but when they finally opened the doors there were three guys right next to me who were dead." After disembarking, the POWs walked nine more miles to Camp O'Donnell. Diaz spent three days there, watching 300 to 500 people die every morning, he says, but fate was on his side. "The Japs wanted mechanics. They picked a half-dozen of us, put us on trucks and drove us all the way back where we had just come from," he says. "I never saw so many dead bodies in my life — bodies left and right as we drove along that road. And the stink ... oh, my God." Diaz contracted malaria in July 1942 and was returned to Camp O'Donnell, where he was separated from healthier soldiers. In September he was returned to the general population, and less than a week later he was among 1,000 POWs who were transported to Mindanao, where he contracted beriberi, a nervous-system ailment characterized by severe lethargy and fatigue, with complications affecting the cardiovascular, nervous, muscular and gastrointestinal systems. "It was nice down there and the Japanese were a lot better to us," he says. "They had me cleaning fish, chopping up tuna, so that's what we ate for a long time." Subsequent assignments over a two-year period, from 1942-44, had Diaz planting rice and sweet potatoes and building runways. POWs were divided into groups of 10. If one tried to escape, the other nine were executed. From there, Diaz and others were herded onto a ship, bound for who knew where. A 92-day voyage to Japan was another nightmare of disease and death. Bodies were thrown overboard when they began to smell. The prisoners were tormented by bed bugs and lice. The vessel picked up a load of rock salt in Taiwan, then joined a convoy in the middle of the night. "We started hearing, boom! boom! boom! When we woke up the next morning, the other ships were gone. We were all by ourselves," he says. "All I can figure is the ship we were on wasn't worth a torpedo. We sailed the rest of the way to Japan on our own." Slave laborDiaz, 150 pounds when he enlisted, weighed less than 80 by the time he got to Japan. He and others were taken to Yokkaichi, where they were assigned to a smelting plant, then to a sawmill. "At one point, they made me carry these wide pieces of lumber, the size of sheet rock, up a step ladder to the next floor of the factory," he says. "They put one on my back and I said, 'That's enough,' and they said, 'No, no, no,' and stacked two more on me. I was 80 pounds, but managed to carry all three pieces up the ladder. If I had dropped them, they would have killed me." Fellow POWs sawed a hole in the side of the mill as a possible escape hatch during bombing raids. Guards spotted the sawdust, blamed Diaz, and beat him unconscious with a piece of wood. He still has a large scar on the right side of his head. Diaz was in Yokkaichi when the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but never heard the news. Japan surrendered on Sept. 2, 1945, but it was two weeks before word reached the POWs via the International Red Cross. "The only thing we knew during those two weeks was that there was no more work," he says. "And the Japs shared some pretty good wine with us." The POWs were put on a train, provided with food and transported to a waiting U.S. hospital ship. The nightmare was over. Honors, medalsThe 47 Bataan survivors from his unit, Company C, 194th Tank Battalion, were honored with a parade in Salinas. Diaz received 14 medals for his military service, including a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. In 1955, he was walking down a Salinas street during the Colmo del Rodeo Parade when he encountered Lorraine Sayers, a neighbor who had grown up just down the hillside from his own house. He was 38, she was 20. "I guess I kind of robbed the cradle," he says today of the woman he married a year later. "My mother wasn't very happy about it," Lorraine adds. Fifty-six years later, they remain blissfully together in the home where Diaz grew up. "I think I keep him going," she says, when asked about her husband's optimism and upbeat attitude. "He doesn't dwell very much on what happened a long time ago. He's got an excellent mind and refuses to let it weigh on him. "We love where we live. It's nice and quiet up here and we pretty much keep to ourselves," Lorraine says. "I think we try to keep our lives happy." Together they have attended numerous Bataan reunions, including one in the Philippines. Roy also met regularly over the years with other Monterey County Bataan survivors — a group they dubbed The 40-47 Club because all were originally members of the 40th Tank Company of the California National Guard and 47 of them made it back from Bataan.Diaz is the only one left. A memorial honoring locals who were part of the Bataan Death March was dedicated in Salinas in April 2006. Bataan Park is at West Market and North Main streets.
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Post by friscohare on Aug 19, 2012 21:36:28 GMT -5
'Forgotten Soldiers' movie about Pinoy scouts screened in California[/u][/url][/size] (GMA News, 08/15/12) The film "Forgotten Soldiers" about the Philippine Scouts who fought with American soldiers during the Second World War was recently screened at the Arts Theatre in Long Beach, California in the United States. According to a news release of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Wednesday, Philippine Consul General (PCG) to Los Angeles Mary Jo Bernardo Aragon, together with other officials of the PCG, attended the screening of “Forgotten Soldiers” on August 4. Two former members of the Philippine Scouts — Eulalio Arzaga and Elias Coloma — attended the screening. The film screening was hosted by the Philippine Heritage Institute International. The event was opened to the public to raise awareness about the role of the Philippine Scouts during the Second World War from 1939 to 1945 when the country was under American rule. Produced and directed by Donald Plata and written by Chris Schaefer, "Forgotten Soldiers" tells the story of the Philippine Scouts, a group of elite US Army soldiers who fought America’s first major ground battle during the Second World War. The movie was narrated by Filipino-American Hollywood actor Lou Diamond Phillips. According to the movie's website, the "Forgotten Soldiers" were "General MacArthur's best soldiers at the start of the conflict." "They were credited with being widely responsible for the prolonged siege of Bataan, an action that drained so much time and resources from Imperial Japan that it prevented the Japanese invasion of Australia," the site said. Half of the Philippine Scouts were killed in action and in captivity and only a few survive today, the site said. Tribute to Philippine Scouts GMA News Online contributor Mikhail Lecaros, in a review of the movie "Forgotten Soldiers," said the documentary film was a "product of six years’ hard work and extensive research." Lecaros said the film was "a tribute to the fighting spirit of a little-known military unit that formed the backbone of General Douglas MacArthur’s forces in Bataan and Corregidor." He noted that other Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Thailand "succumbed to the Japanese war machine in mere days," but the elite Philippine Scouts managed to lead "poorly-trained Philippine Army troops and inexperienced members of the US National Guard" to hold off the Japanese for over four months. "Without reinforcements, supplies or support from their commanders half-a-world away, this unit’s actions would earn its members the first three US Congressional Medals of Honor awarded in World War II. This unit was the Philippine Scouts," Lecaros said.
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Post by friscohare on Aug 19, 2012 21:38:17 GMT -5
Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright (right) is greeted by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur in Yokohama several days after Wainwright was rescued from a POW camp. Way back when: Today in history... 1945 - POW general rescued[/u][/url][/size] Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, known as the hero of Corregidor who became the highest-ranking prisoner of war during World War II, and other prisoners of the Japanese were rescued from prison camps in Manchuria by a team of Americans who parachuted into the area. "Pandemonium broke out" among the Allied prisoners at each of several POW camps as the teams of about six men each, most of whom had never before parachuted, dropped from the sky, Lt. Gen. Albert Wedemeyer said. After Gen. Douglas MacArthur was ordered in March 1942 to Australia, Wainwright became commander of American troops in the Philippines. He surrendered Corregidor in May 1942. Wainwright was given a hero's welcome upon returning to America, promoted to full general, and awarded the Medal of Honor. (Newspaper, 04/02/12)
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Post by friscohare on Aug 25, 2012 11:48:35 GMT -5
Irene McNally and Marlboro Veterans’ Agent Gary Brown hold a bronze plaque recognizing Joseph Matisiewski’s service during World War II, where he was killed in defense of Corregidor after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The plaque is being replaced with one bearing his name spelled properly, rather than the misspelling that followed his Navy records.Plaques can still honor those who served long ago[/u][/url][/size] (The Item, 08/24/12) CLINTON — Irene NcNally still remembers, although she was not yet 6 years old. “I have a memory of the car coming up along Green Street and hoping it didn’t stop at my house. So many boys from the neighborhood were away,” she said. The military cars would drive down Green Street and everyone would wonder what house it would stop at, bringing bad news for families whose sons, brothers and fathers were away fighting in World War II. One time, it stopped at her house. Her brother, Joseph Matisiewski, just 25, had been lost while serving as a Radioman Third Class aboard the USS Canopus, killed in action at Corregidor, in the Philippine Islands. He was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart, but his body was not recovered, and no grave existed for a monument. With no gravesite, there was no place for a marker. The U.S. government, however, makes grave markers available, giving families who lost someone in war, whose body was never recovered or is buried overseas, a memorial plaque to remember them. A memorial plaque will now be located on Joseph Matisiewski’s parents plot in St. John’s Cemetery. Gary Brown, veterans’ agent for Marlboro, helped McNally cut through the red tape, made more difficult by a misspelling of the family name that followed her brother through his Navy service. Brown is a customer at McNally’s family business, the Old Timer restaurant. “It’s generally not this complicated,” Brown said of the effort needed to secure the plaque because of the name misspelling. A marker was received, but it had the wrong spelling of the family name. That had been a long-standing problem. Brown had to provide additional documentation showing McNally’s relationship because his military papers all had the wrong spelling, attributed to an initial spelling error on induction papers when he enlisted in 1940. For example, a“t” not noticeably crossed became an “l” while the “e” became a “c,” all, perhaps, because of a faulty pen. But the spelling stuck throughout his service records. Although grave markers were always offered, McNally said her mother never learned English and her father’s English was limited, so they may not have realized a marker was available. “I was too young to realize what was going on” at the time, McNally said. And many people may not realize it is still possible to get a marker for someone killed so long ago. The marker also helps, Brown said, because state law dictates that when veterans’ graves are decorated on Memorial Day, all veterans will get a flag. With a marker, a flag will be placed by the memorial to recognize his service. Brown said it is important to do this for families while there are people who remember those lost in past wars. Many soldiers and sailors killed in wartime have a KIA (killed in action) or MIA (missing in action) designation in records, but no place where survivors can mark their passing. It becomes crucial that people get these markers while those who remember the person still can, he said. “It is important, so other people in similar circumstances can memorialize family members when they don’t have a grave,” Brown said. Matisiewski had participated in the initial defense of the country when Japan attacked. Pearl Harbor was hit Dec. 7, 1941. The following day, Japanese forces hit Manila Bay, where Matisiewski was serving aboard the USS Canopus. Despite being hit numerous times, the sailors kept the ship going. He was, however, lost, presumed dead, on May 6, 1942, while fighting on Corregidor. Brown said Matisiewski may have been taken captive, but records simply do not exist. He could also have perished on the infamous Bataan Death March in which thousands of American and Filipino prisoners were marched over 80 miles with many killed along the march. “It was one of those ships that wouldn’t die,” Brown said of the USS Canopus. “It was hit over and over again.” A submarine supply ship that sailed along with submarines, carrying weapons and supplies, its crew fought on at Manila Bay. After that engagement, the damaged ship limped to Corregidor, where the crew beached it to save the vessel. Matisiewski then became part of the defense of Corregidor, where General Douglas McArthur’s headquarters were located. With low supplies and little reinforcement, the sailors joined with Marines to hold back the Japanese onslaught, even turning the ship’s launches into “Mickey Mouse Battleships,” miniature gunboats, when the ship was too damaged. They moved her guns on shore to continue the fight. Finally, the ship was scuttled. A total 212 of the crew were listed as killed or missing in action after the surrender of Bataan. Matisiewski’s Silver Star was awarded for his efforts in the defense of Corregidor. McNally had grown up thinking her brother, substantially older than her, from her father’s first marriage, had died at Pearl Harbor. Her father had remarried after his first wife passed away, making Joseph a half-brother. After he enlisted, she remembered, he sent gifts from where he was stationed, such as a necklace and kimono. The only existing gift remaining is a tea set. Her brother had actually chosen her name, McNally said, otherwise she would have been named Sophie, a name her sister got. When the Polish American Veterans celebrated their 50th anniversary, the records listed Corregidor and she asked, thinking her brother had died at Pearl Harbor. The research revealed he had in fact been at Corregidor. There was no real answer, she said, about whether he was captured or killed there. “I had no clue something like this could be done,” McNally said of the plaque. “And the (misspelled) name was something else.” McNally said another person she knew, whose relative was shot down and his body never recorded, got a marker placed at Arlington National Cemetery. Brown said a marker in a national cemetery is one option or it can be placed on a family plot. Rules prior to 9-11 prohibited the military from providing the military marker if there was already a marker in place, but the government did provide one if there was no private marker. After 9-11, military markers can be provided even if a private stone is in place. The Polish American Veterans Post on Green Street is named for Joseph Matisiewski, listed as the first Clintonian killed in World War II. A memorial plaque is located at Green and Chestnut streets, near where the family grew up. For information on getting similar recognition, contact your local veterans’ agent.
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Post by friscohare on Aug 26, 2012 9:39:05 GMT -5
DENR, veterans mark ‘National Heroes’ Day’ with tree planting along ‘Death’ road [/u][/url][/size] (Business Mirror, 08/26/12) THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in partnership with various veterans groups and local government units (LGUs) in the province of Tarlac on Sunday launched “Trees: Keeping the Flame of Heroism Alive” to commemorate the heroism of Filipino and American soldiers who died during the infamous “Bataan Death March” during World War II. The greening project aims to grow trees along the infamous trail to call attention to the heroism of 60,000 Filipino and 15,000 American soldiers captured by the Japanese Imperial Army in Bataan. The project was launched a day ahead of the National Heroes Day celebration on August 27 at the Capas National Shrine in Capas, Tarlac, with the DENR leading the event. Joining are the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 28-Philippines, the Sons and Daughters of Tarlac World War II Veterans, the American Legion Philippine Department, the United States Veterans Affairs, the Filipino-American Memorial Endowment Inc., the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office of the Department of National Defense,LGUs and private institutions. The Filipino and American soldiers were forcibly made to walk the 111-kilometer trail between the town of Mariveles, Bataan to San Fernando in Pampanga from April 9 to 15, 1942. As many as 10,000 Filipino soldiers and 700 American soldiers died before the captured soldiers reached their final destination in Camp O’Donnell in Capas, Tarlac. Without transport facilities, starving and disease-ridden, the captured soldiers hiked from Mariveles and Bagac through Balanga, Bataan, then to San Fernando, Pampanga, where they were stuffed into train boxcars and brought to Capas, Tarlac. Environment Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje said that the project aims to bring back the “sense of history among our people inasmuch as recent surveys show that only the middle-aged and senior citizens of our population are aware of the heroic deeds of the World War II veterans.” American Legion Auxiliary Unit 28 President Lourdes Flores expressed her appreciation to the government for giving full support to the project which was originally conceptualized by their group whose members were descendants of WWII veterans. Paje said the project will be pursued under the government’s National Greening Program (NGP). He said the ocassion’s historical importance “provides an impetus for our people to regard our collective duty to regain the country’s verdant past as part of our identity as a people.” The project will have its ceremonial tree planting inside the Capas National Shrine where open spaces will be planted to various fruit-bearing trees. The tree planting will also form part of the multi-agency collaborative efforts for the national commemoration of the “Pambansang Araw ng mga Bayaning Pilipino” led by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines. “Beyond the support this project gives to the NGP, the project educates and heightens the Filipino’s collective memory, especially the younger generation, of the patriotic sacrifices of soldiers to whom we owe the freedom we now cherish,” Paje said. “This project wouldn’t be realized without the full support of the DENR who provided the seedlings to be planted along the trail,” Flores said.
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Post by friscohare on Aug 29, 2012 22:11:15 GMT -5
Local heroes remembered on this year’s National Heroes’ Day[/u][/url][/size] (Philippine Information Agency, 08/29/12) SAN PABLO CITY, Laguna, Aug 29 (PIA) -- The vice mayor of this city has urged the Division of San Pablo to include the historical contribution of local personalities in the school curriculum. In her welcome address during the commemoration of this year’s National Heroes Day on Monday, Vice Mayor Angelita E. Yang made the suggestion so school children will be made aware of the heroism of native born residents who have contributed in the maintenance of peace in the community. It was held in front of the memorial marker for the soldiers of Bataan and Corregidor at the Doña Leonila Park. “Our children are only familiar with our national heroes. But they do not know that many of our city mates have fought and sacrificed their lives for our country," Yang said. She observed that many of the pupils in local schools are unaware of the memorial markers in memory of the San Pableños who have fought in battles in Bataan and Corregidor as members of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE), like former city mayor Lauro D. Dizon, former judge Edon Brion, and Dr. Vidal Raymundo and leaders of guerilla movements during the Japanese Occupation like colonels Godofredo San Pedro, Pedro Perez and Juan “Kayakas” Eseo. Even the young professional in the city are unaware who Atty. Tomas D. Dizon was, and that the local court building was named in his honor. They are not aware that Dizon was a former governor of Laguna and a member of the Philippine Assembly that authored the Commonwealth Act 520 providing for the Charter of the City of San Pablo. He was also appointed city mayor twice, first in 1943-1946 and then on 1954-1955. He was born on September 18, 1887 in Barrio San Nicolas. Yang said the community heroes are some of the unsung heroes who made a real difference to the community.
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Post by friscohare on Aug 29, 2012 22:13:03 GMT -5
Luncheon to honor Bataan death Marh survivors[/u][/url][/size] (Shreveport Times, 08/29/12) A by-invitation luncheon on Barksdale Air Force Base Tuesday will honor five survivors of the infamous 1942 march of captured Allied troops in the Philippines into Japanese captivity. Base representatives say that due to the dwindling number of World War II veterans this may be the last such honor held at the facility. The event, sponsored by the Barksdale Retiree Affairs Office, will be held at Patrick Hall, the base officers club that also is called the Barksdale Club. Air Force Global Strike Command commander Lt. Gen. James Kowalski will be the keynote speaker. The Bataan Death March took place in April 1942 after tens of thousands of U.S., Filipino and other Allied military personnel surrendered to invading Japanese. They were were formed to march in sweltering heat and inhumane conditions into captivity. Thousands died or were murdered by their captors during the march, and later more were forced into slave labor. Among the captured were many members of the 27th Bomb Group that had been deployed from Barksdale Field here.
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Post by VeeVee on Sept 5, 2012 20:48:14 GMT -5
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Post by friscohare on Sept 16, 2012 21:56:06 GMT -5
San Fernando holds WWII exhibit at historic train station[/u][/url][/size] (PIA, 08/31/12) CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Aug 31 (PIA) -- The city government of San Fernando held an exhibit featuring photos of Filipino fighters during World War II at a defunct historic train station that has been transformed into a tourist attraction. “This train station is not an ordinary station as our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, rode here as he went to towns in Pampanga to seek support for his La Liga Filipina. This witnessed the struggle of the Filipino and American soldiers during the war. Until now, the generation of the then Filipino war fighters, their descendants keep coming back here, examining this historical landmark wherein their ancestors became part of this station,” said San Fernando Mayor Oscar Rodriguez in his speech during the exhibit’s opening. Rodriguez said the city government does not only plan the edifice to be a simple tourist attraction but a symbol of heroism as names of the war soldiers as well as other mementos will be placed there. Meanwhile, the outside space will be utilized as a venue for activities of the city government and will be open for rental to various occasions such as birthdays and weddings. Located in Barangay Sto. Niño, the San Fernando Train Station was inaugurated by Governor-General Eulogio Despujol and Manila Archbishop Bernardino Nozaleda on February 23, 1892. Historical accounts said Dr. Jose Rizal debarked from the station on June 27, 1892 and again the next day en route to Bacolor town. It was the ending point of the infamous 1942 Death March from which Filipino and American soldiers were carted to their final destination, Camp O’Donnell in Capas, Tarlac.
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Post by friscohare on Sept 16, 2012 21:58:14 GMT -5
A National Treasure resides among us (Herbert "Bud" Kirchhoff)[/u][/url][/size] (CDA Press, 08/31/12) Readers, you have a man living among you who, I believe, deserves the title of a National Treasure. He is now 93 years young, still drives (safely), exercises by using his basement stairs for what I used to endure as "bleacher laps," has survived the "Bataan Death March" early in World War II and over 3 years as a prisoner of war by the Japanese in multiple labor camps (slave labor camps) and most of the time in Japan. He was at his last camp located a little over 30 miles from Nagasaki when the second atomic bomb was dropped that ended World War II. He has been a frequent guest speaker for all veteran groups and service organizations as a first-hand reminder of what really happened in the Pacific during those times from 1941 to 1945 and he loves to speak to younger men and women so they "do not forget." I just had the pleasure of sharing a birthday lunch for him at "Jimmy's Down the Street" in June (93rd birthday) and to share a vehicle with him near the front of the Fourth of July Parade this year. Following the parade I was asked to invite him to our beloved Marine Corps Ball on Nov. 10 (annually celebrates the establishment of the United States Marine Corps established by the Continental Congress on Nov. 10, 1775). This man has been a faithful Husband (wife passed away several years ago), Proud Father and Grandfather, Successful Salesman with a Midwest abrasives firm, Chicago area Republican Politician and when locating to our area almost three decades ago became a school board member and successfully steered the drive for the new Kootenai High School in Harrison that is functional, attractive, comfortable and at a very large cost savings to the taxpayers. He is an outspoken conservative, is a Christian who walks the walk as well as talks the talk. He has endured a couple of serious falls locally due to ice and unseen steps in the past couple years that would be totally disabling, if not fatal, to younger people and yet, he recovered and continues his active lifestyle. He is an avid knife collector with an enviable display in his home in Fernan. He is an uninhibited giver to worthy causes (including, dear to my heart the "Toys for Tots" program) and people in need. His advice is worth listening to and is based on his many years of experience and recollection. I dare say, he has been a lifeline to me as I am proud to call him a friend. In spite of the experience of the surrender of the Philippines to Imperial Japan in 1942 and the subsequent forced marches and continued incarcerations by a reputed brutal army and being witness to the many abuses (to both he and his fellow prisoners as well as to the Japanese civilian population) he amazingly carries no malice toward his captors nor their nation. This is truly a man I feel deserves the recognition and respect of our Community and our Country while he is still with us. I salute Mr. Herbert "Bud" Kirchhoff and I wish you to achieve the goal of seeing your 100th birthday with us Bud. (Noteworthy that he has traveled around our nation as a National Director for the Surviving Prisoner of War Organizations and, currently for the Washington State organization. He is a great spokesman for our part of the country right here in Coeur d'Alene).
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Post by friscohare on Sept 16, 2012 22:00:44 GMT -5
Bataan Death March survivor James Haynes is honored during a luncheon at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2012. Four other survivors were present. Barksdale honors Bataan survivors[/u][/url][/size] (Shreveport Times, 09/04/12) The last time Erwin Johnson and James Bollich tried to get around Barksdale Air Force Base they marched in formation, ordered around like the raw recruits they were and were jabbed by long needles every time they turned around. Tuesday, more than 70 years and many cruel experiences later, their treatment was different. They marched through an honor cordon of swords, had medals draped around their necks by a three-star general after a sumptuous lunch and were feted and praised. It was small payback for almost four years served in the hell of Japanese slave-labor camps after their capture in the fall of the Bataan Peninsula in 1942, and participation in the infamous Bataan Death March in which thousands of captured U.S. military personnel and their Filipino cohorts were murdered by their captors. “Some guys say you’ve got to let bygones be bygones,” said New Orleans native Johnson, now 90, who like Bollich was at then-Barksdale Field as part of the 27th Bombardment Group. “I guess I shouldn’t say this, but I just don’t forgive then,.. that’s the way I feel. They made me lose my freedom... it’s hell not to have your freedom, to have someone hovering over you all day telling you what to do.” Bollich, 91 and here from Lafayette, like Johnson watched emaciated friends get shot or bayoneted during the five-day, 72-mile march into captivity. “A lot of people died just trying to get water,” he said in front of a rapt group of young airmen in Barksdale’s Stripes Club after the honors luncheon. “They robbed us of everything we had. They took our dog tags. They took our wallets. They took our rings. All I hope is that the young generation (of Japanese) is not the way the old generation was ... has the same outlook or feelings the old generation had.” They were among five Bataan survivors, said to be the only such folks living close to Barksdale, honored by base leadership in what may be the last of such events staged by retired Col. Steve dePyssler as head of the base’s Retiree Activities Office. Two other former non-commissioned officers — James Haynes of Alexandria and Henry Stanley of Garland, Texas — also were once stationed at Barksdale. The fifth “battling bastard of Bataan,” as they call themselves now, was an officer, Capt. William Adair, of Dallas, Texas. To Johnson, Barksdale was pretty much as he remembered it from the 1940s, while Bollich was amazed by changes. “It hasn’t changed very much, to tell you the truth,” said Johnson, who admitted the two weeks he spent here before being shipped out didn’t give him much time to see much except the business end of various inoculation needles and grass on which he marched back and forth. “I was looking at the old parade ground, where we did our ‘hut hut hut hut,’” he said, counting cadence. “It’s hardly changed at all.” Col. Andrew Gebara, 2nd Bomb Wing commander, ventured that the thoughts and emotions of the five honorees probably weren’t much different from the thoughts in the minds of the more than 340 Barksdale personnel now deployed in hot spots across the globe. “Some things don’t change,” he said. “I would imagine that 71 years ago when you left for overseas, there was a mix of excitement on getting the job going, probably nervousness about what lay ahead, then probably just too busy to worry about it because you have a lot of stuff going on.” And when their airplanes didn’t arrive but the enemy did, “you did what airmen do... you adapted, you picked up weapons and you manned the line. You defended the Bataan Peninsula until overwhelming force just made resistance futile. Then you continued to resist on the Death March.” He said the men and women now deployed may share some of the experience, but not all. “I don’t think any of them come close to understanding the harrowing danger and horrors that you five, all American heroes, went though,” he said. “Let’s not kid ourselves: We stand in the company of giants today.” Adair, Bollich, Haynes, Johnson and Stanley were awarded the Philippines Defense Medal, the Philippines Liberation Medal, the Philippines Independence Medal and the Philippine Republic Presidential Unit Citation Badge by Lt. Gen. James Kowalski, head of Air Force Global Strike Command, who was unstinting in his praise as he offered short biographies of the men and their war service. “We throw the word ‘heroes’ around a lot,” he said, noting the five have been called that a lot but tend to downplay their own acts, saying the prisoners who never made it back are the true heroes. Kowalski said he tended to agree with the late President Ronald Reagan, for whom a hero was the person who remained brave five minutes after others fled. “In your case your five minutes turned into a couple of years,” he said. But their example provides a legacy for service members today, Kowalski said. “To all of us that wear the uniform your bravery, sacrifice and endurance are inspiring, and remind us of what we are capable of overcoming and what we are capable of accomplishing,” he said. “You have seen the worst that man can do and also the best that man can be. Your courage, bravery and mental toughness continue to inspire. That is a noble legacy.” The Ark-La-Tex and Barksdale have numerous connections to the Japanese attacks that brought this nation into World War II. At least two local nurses were among the “Angels of Bataan” who cared for interned civilians and military personnel abused by the Japanese. Lt. Col. Hattie Brantley, perhaps the best known, died in 2006 and is buried in her native East Texas. Edith Wimberly Patient died in 1964 and is buried in Forest Park Cemetery here. Local sailor Doyle Waggoner, a football hero at Fair Park High School in the early 1930s, was captured by the Japanese and put on a hell ship to a slave labor camp in Japan where he was murdered by his captors in the summer of 1945 for stealing food to stay alive. And the 47th Fighter Squadron at Barksdale counts as its parent unit the 47th Pursuit Squadron that was at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and managed to put a handful of pilots in the air to take on Japanese attackers. One of the pilots, Lt. John Dains, was killed by ground defenders and was one of the first U.S. “friendly fire” deaths of the war. For Johnson, like the others, the Bataan experience was life-changing. He took advantage of the GI Bill, became and engineer, married and raised five sons. His wife, Margaret, died in 2010, but over the years they had socialized with Ann Lampkins, sister of Charles Wilbur, a fellow prisoner who died in captivity. He and Ann met again after his wife died, and they married just over a year ago. “So I’m a newlywed,” he joked. What he lived through “is something I’ll never forget,” Bollich said, saying he thinks about those years every time he sits down to a good meal, and when he tries to go to sleep at night. Some of the memories are good, though. Sleeping on a mattress and hearing a distant train at night is one thing, he said. “What really brings Manchuria back to me is, now I live close to where I hear trains,” he said. “When I was in Manchuria I could hear the train go by every night (and) I would think ‘Wouldn’t it be great if I could get on that train, that would take me home.’ Every night when I hear the train go by where I live now, I get to remember that. It makes me feel good. It makes me feel free.”
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Post by friscohare on Sept 16, 2012 22:03:19 GMT -5
Retired U.S. Army Capt. Richard “Dick” Cooksley embraces a longtime friend Anna Dion during Tuesday’s awards ceremony at the Fitch Auditorium on Fort Huachuca. Cooksley received a Bronze Star Medal from U.S. Rep. Ron Barber, assisted by Maj. Gen. Gregg Potter, commander of the U.S. Army Center of Excellence and Fort Huachuca, for his combat service during World War II including the Bataan Death March. It's never too late to present a medal[/u][/url][/size] World War II vet, Bataan March survivor, finally gets Bronze Medal (Sierra Vista Herald, 09/05/12) FORT HUACHUCA — It was nearly six decades after being released from a Japanese Prisoner-of-War camp before Dick Cooksley was presented a Bronze Star Medal, earned as a captive for more than three years during World War II. On Tuesday, Cooksley, who was taken prisoner in the Philippines and survived the infamous Bataan Death March, was officially presented the medal during a short but significant ceremony before an audience of friends and current soldiers in Fitch Auditorium. Of Cooksley, Maj. Gen. Gregg Potter said, after talking with him he came to the conclusion “… it’s never too late to present a medal.”
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Post by friscohare on Sept 16, 2012 22:08:29 GMT -5
Jose Galarza Jr. a director of the Maywood Bataan Day Organization sweeps off a WWI tank at Maywood’s Veterans Memorial Park. The Bataan Day service will be held there. 70 years later, Bataan Death March memorial in full force[/u][/url][/size] Maywood annual service honors American, Filipino WWII soldiers who died in captivity (Chicago Tribune, 09/08/12) Most of the veterans have died or are too sick or fragile to travel to a memorial service Sunday in Maywood meant to honor their sacrifices in the infamous Bataan Death March. And yet, at a time when many veterans groups struggle, organizers still expect their biggest turnout ever for what has been an annual event in the near west suburb for the past 70 years. In 1941, Maywood sent 89 men to be part of Company B in the 192nd Tank Battalion. Fewer than half of those soldiers came back when World War II ended. "We've done all we can to keep it going and make it grow and we've made it happen," said retired Maj. Edwin Walker IV, one of the memorial's planners. The celebration — one of two held in the area annually in honor of American and Filipino soldiers who died — has grown dramatically in recent years thanks to the Internet, partnership with the area's Filipino-American community and a local high school that encouraged students to study the area's past. "We are very much involved so that the bravery, heroism, gallantry and sacrifice of these American and Filipino soldiers during the war will always be remembered," said Orontes Castro, deputy consul general for the Philippine Consulate in Chicago. In November 1941, the young soldiers from Maywood arrived in the Philippines for what they thought would be training. Instead they quickly found themselves in one of the first battles of World War II in the Pacific. Soldiers fought for months under grueling conditions — scarce food, equipment and medicine and rampant illness such as malaria, scurvy and dysentery. On April 9, 1942, U.S. and Philippine troops surrendered to Japanese forces and were forced to march 70 miles to a prison camp. An estimated 700 Americans and 10,000 Filipinos died during the march. Over the next 31/2 years of captivity, an additional 7,000 Americans died in the POW camp. Maywood's first memorial service honoring the soldiers in Bataan was organized in 1942 by a group of mothers in anguish over their missing sons. Memorials have been held the second weekend in September ever since. For several decades, veterans who served in the 192ndBattalion returned to be a part of the memorials. In the 1990s, a research project developed by two Proviso East teachers helped compile the biographies of 344 local men as well as those from other states who were part of the battalion. The website, proviso.k12.il.us/Bataan%20Web/index.htm led out-of-touch relatives to the annual gathering. But as often happens, appreciation faded as veterans died and memories dimmed, said retired Col. Richard McMahon, Jr., president of the Maywood Bataan Day Organization. To refocus attention on the story, McMahon and other organizers reached out to some Chicago residents sure to feel a strong connection to the event — Filipino-Americans. By working with the Philippine Consulate in Chicago, Maywood organizers sent hundreds of letters to Filipino organizations in Chicago, alerting them to the annual memorial. They also contacted three local Filipino-American newspapers. The outreach worked. Maywood officials expect to see up to 20 veterans this year from Filipino-American Veteran Legion Post 509, many of whom were in Bataan during World War II. "There was so much intermingling of the blood of these heroes that we would never do it any other way," McMahon said. The partnership also increased the American presence at the Filipino "Day of Valor" observed each year on or around April 9, the anniversary of the fall of Bataan. "One is the continuation of the other," Castro said. "They are linked together by bravery." The Maywood Bataan Day Memorial Service will begin at 3 p.m. at Maywood Veterans Memorial Park at First Avenue and Oak Street. Organizers say they are heartened to know that the memorial service has continued for 70 years. "I hope it means people are starting to wake up and see that the freedom they enjoy is because these folks were willing to fight," Walker said.
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Post by friscohare on Sept 16, 2012 22:14:52 GMT -5
The younger brother of Lt. Col Elmer Heindl, Bob Heindl, center, and his niece, Kathleen Nichols, cut the ribbon on the Lt. Col. Elmer W. Heindl Armed Forces Reserve Center at a dedication ceremony Saturday morning on Harmony Church at Fort Benning. With the family members are Brig. Gen. Allan Elliot, deputy commander, 108th Training Command, fourth from left; Col Robert Choppa, Manuever Center of Excellence chief of staff, third from left; and Maj. Gen. Gill Beck, commander, 81st Regional Support Command, next to Heindl.WWII chaplain honored at Reserve Center dedication[/u][/url][/size] (Ledger-Inquirer, 09/08/12) The new Armed Forces Reserve Center at Fort Benning was named Saturday in honor of Lt. Col. Elmer W. Heindl, a Catholic chaplain who served during World War II. After the ceremony, Brig. Gen. Dwayne R. Edwards, commander of the 98th Training Division, marked the official arrival of the Reserve unit by unfurling its flag at Harmony Church, six weeks after ending 53 years of service in Rochester, N.Y. Known as the Iroquois, the unit's primary mission is to provide drill sergeants to Army Training Centers across the nation, including Fort Benning. More than 125 family, friends and soldiers from the training unit, including 22 members of Heindl's family, gathered for the ceremony at 10477 Old Cusseta Highway. Kathleen Nichols, Heindl's niece, said the honor on the building is just awesome for her uncle. "He always said he didn't deserve the honors and he was just doing his job," she said. "Everything he did, he did it as an honor and privilege." Although he was only armed with his faith and never carried a gun, Heindl was one of the most decorated chaplains to serve during the conflict. He was in Guadalcanal, the Solomons and the Philippines. For his actions under fire, he was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star. Heindl was born in Rochester in 1910 and ordained as a priest in 1936. He served as assistant pastor of St. Andrew's in Rochester before volunteering to join the Army in 1942. On several occasions, Heindl offered prayers to dying soldiers and helped rescue others under fire without regard for his own safety. During an assault on Bilibid Prison in Manila, Heindl climbed to a tower to reach a fallen soldier who was bleeding profusely and only had minutes to live. With enemy machine guns trained on the tower, the chaplain calmly knelt and offered prayer for the dying man. In another battle, Heindl rolled down a hill to apply a tourniquet to the leg of Col. Lawrence White, who had been shot. "He was always in the front line," Nichols said. "The chaplain never carried guns, so whatever he did he put himself out there. New recruits always used to say don't ever stand near the chaplain if the fighting breaks out because he won't get shot." White later went to work for the CIA but he never forgot Heindl's service. The chaplain would receive a thank you call from White on that date every year. Heindl died July 2006 at age 96 after sustaining third-degree burns in a shower accident. Nichols said her uncle loved serving others so much that he would have returned if it had been possible when the Iraq war broke out. "When the Iraq war broke out, if he was younger, he would have been over there," Nichols said. "He said I would go back if he could. By that time he was in his 90s." At the new building, Edwards said the headquarters unit will staff about 70 people, including 25 full-time. While the unit had deep roots in Rochester over the last five decades, the commander said soldiers have made the transition. "It's something that took some adjustment but everybody made that adjustment magnificently and I'm very proud of them," Edwards said. "When we closed up the building about six weeks ago, it was on a high note. Everything is exactly where it should be." Edwards, who lives in Lexington, Ky., said the unit will be able to work more closely with the Maneuver Center of Excellence in all the efforts to integrate the Infantry and Armor schools. "We think we are going to have a great contribution to make in terms of what we bring to the post," he said.
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