Bataan Death March Class

[usmc6241]

Good afternoon all, I'm a serving USMC officer in Okinawa, and a Marine Corps reenactor and historian. My unit participates annually in exercises in the Philippines. This spring, while we are in the Philippines, I was hoping to do a Professional Military Education (PME) class on the battles for Bataan and Corregidor, and then over the course of three or so days, hike my Marines across the length of the death march route. It would likely be a very motivational and educational experience for all involved. If possible, we will extend the invite to our Philippine counterparts to join us (all depends on what i can get the CO to sign off on). I was wondering if any of you can tell me about how feasible this would be as, while I've been to PI before, I haven't been to Luzon. If I can make this happen, would any of you reenactors who portray Phillipine Scouts, US Army or Marine Corps, or IJA wish to participate if possible?

[silvertip]

How about it guys? the LT also wanted to reenact the Death March as we have been discussing, they can portray the elements from the 31st Inf, What do you think Albert?

[labrador]

Yup, read it but didn't have time to reply. The more the merrier, I say.what i had in mind was not so much a reenactment but a commemorative walk down the route during the week of Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor), April 9. We would like to do this with the cooperation of the Hero foundation, an organization that raises funds for the families and children of fallen AFP soldiers. We are still in the early stages of planning but would be happy to take in others who would like to join. I must stress this early on that we are still in the early stages of planning so am not sure about the logistics of such an activity. Will keep posting as we flesh out the project.

At this point, i would even be happy to simply join the LT as a reenactor component of his project. I will see what the guys over here think.

[legionnaire]

Hi usmc6241,

Thank you for getting in touch with us in this forum. This would be great opportunity to make this happen.

One of the places I would highly recommend is a visit and tour of your unit to Manila American Cemetery ( The biggest US military cemetery were17,201 US servicemen are buried, outside the US). Located in the former Philippine Scouts home Fort Mckinley, Manila.

www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/ml.php

They have a very impressive wall display of names of those who died and were buried in the Pacific. And a wall mural of the pacific battles on Luzon and Philippines. The person who runs a manages the Cemetery is a retired MSG marine Hubert Caloud.

[e-mail]

www.facebook.com/hubert.caloud?fref=ts

And a must visit is the Mt. Samat memorial in Bataan. The 4th US Marine Regt. from China were transferred to the Philippines and fought in Bataan and Corregidor.

steveandmarciaontherock.blogspot.sg/2011/04/4th-marines-return-to-corregidor.html


I will pass this proposal to our PSHS members in Manila. I hope this helps.

Philip

[usmc6241]

Thanks all, for you input so far. The trip would be sometime in April, near the anniversary of the March but I don't have an exact date yet. I haven't fleshed out all of the logistics yet, but the general concept is to make a trip to Corregidor on day 1, talk to the Marines and any other participants about the battle in general, and the Marine Corps' role (since we, after all, are Marines). Day 2 would start early with the Marines forming up at the start of the Death March route in Marivales. As I'm not sure about things like bivouac sites along the way and security, the most logistically sound thing I can think of would be for the Marines to march during the day, starting in the early morning, and then be trucked back to base in the evening. If anyone has an alternative solution, or has info about locations to camp along the way, I'm all ears. I'm guessing it would take no more than three days to hike from Marivales to San Fernando.

I'm pretty on point with regard to the history of the 4th Marines, the Death March, and their internment (Bilibid prison, Cabanatuan, etc.), but i'm a bit weak on US Army history and Philippine Army history, so if anyone wants to join us who can speak to that, that would be awesome, It might even be good to have an IJA presence as well to add a bit to the realism, and show the Marines that this wasn't just another force march, they were now prisoners under guard. Over all, the more the merrier. At Parris Island, during the last hike of recruit training, the Parris Island Living History Detachment comes out in historical Marines' uniforms to march with the Marines and motivate them, I'm kind of envisioning something similar with participants wearing the uniforms of the defenders of Bataan and Corregidor.

-Dan

[labrador]

Really excited about this. I'll discuss the matter with the rest of the McKinley chapter so we can try to find some resource people for the Philippine Army segment of the lecture. We have some guys both here and abroad that can cover the scouts/US Army.

[VeeVee]

Welcome to the forum! I hope this idea could come to fruition. At the very least marching a significant portion of the DM up the Bataan peninsula would go a long way to memorialize, like what they do at White Sands, NM.

It's probably a good idea to enlist the support of the local VFW's as well.

By the way, here's a thread that may interest you:

pinoyhistory.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=1705&page=1

[usmc6241]

I saw the story about the Fourth Marines unfurling their flag on the rock awhile back, in fact that sort of spurred the idea for this. Can anyone tell me about the actual death march route. I've heard that it's marked every Kilometer, but beyond that i know little about what the route is like. Are we talking jungle pathway or major road? Can military trucks/humvees follow us on the march? On long distance marches we typically have a safety vehicle or two that follows the hikers in case someone falls out, it's likely that, in order to do this, the command would insist on us having that. Would it be easy to find bivouac areas along the way or would you recommend that we return to base every evening and start where we left off in the mornings?

[labrador]

As far as i have seen, it is mostly major road. unless those markers merely approximate the route. You wouldn't have a problem with vehicles (besides traffic jams of course). We could probably find some bivvy areas along the way but it would take some time to coordinate with local authorities. Let me look into this. I hope i can find some people willing to help. One of the staff of the mayor of Capas is keen on history and might be willing to help out.

[hughdotoh]

Hi Albert,

Dan and I are mighty interested. Hope to get Nestor in on it as well, and Rajah by a long shot if he happens to be home (and the missus lets him). If Dan can get Mike Fukuda and Big Mac out at Clark Field to join in and maybe Tora Hara as well, we'll have some creepy realism around.

[frank]

I have a friend did the Bataan route. And he is way over 50.

"The Bataan Death March 2006 113 KM in 3.5 Days yfrog.com/o0vtvuj yfrog.com/oell2xdvj yfrog.com/gyl80zxnj Honored those who served..."
Ed Artis-Makati City

[VeeVee]

Hi usmc,

Not every single kilometer is marked along the route. The march took place along roadways though, and are paved roads to this day.

However, I imagine quite a bit of traffic slowdown being generated by a group of hikers and marchers with trucks and Humvees in tow. So there’s probably got to be local government involvement and support. I’m talking about roads like this with very little shoulder. This is around Mabatang/Abucay.




Even so, I’m less concerned with the Bataan roadways compared to east/west road along Pampanga on the way to San Fernando. It’s a busy road with very little shoulder in some places. Footmobiles won’t have an issue, but slow shadowing vehicles might be an issue unless some sort of a leap-frogging is done. I’m sure some arrangement can be thought up though.

This is the Roman highway