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Post by friscohare on Feb 25, 2012 20:18:16 GMT -5
RIP, Mr. Silva. (He was a member of the 515th CA Regiment) Longtime Pittsburg man shared memories of being prisoner of war in WWII to help others [/u][/url][/size] (Mercury News, 02/24/12) Much of Vincent Silva's life was shaped by his three-and-a-half years as a Japanese prisoner of war for during World War II. But it wasn't until his later years that the longtime Pittsburg resident opened up about his experiences. Silva, who died last week at the age of 93 of natural causes, started sharing the story of his experience in the Bataan Death March once his wife, Rose, passed away in 2005. "I think he had tried to move them into the back of his mind," daughter Penny Cannon said. Cannon surmises the New Mexico native was trying to keep her mother from being saddened by his horrific tales. "I remember him telling me, 'If I hadn't lived through this, I wouldn't have believed it myself,'" Cannon said. Silva shared many of his tales in a 2008 memoir titled "Senso Owari/ The War Is Ended." He also recited poems he wrote years ago "I hope I have somewhere near his memory at that age," said Ray Ansick, a member of several East Contra Costa veterans groups, who met Silva at a Memorial Day event three years ago. "It really was an honor to know him," said Ansick, who convinced Silva to tell his story at several local speaking events. After returning home in late 1945 to join Rose in the East Bay, Silva worked in construction, building new homes and churches in the growing suburbs of Contra Costa County. Silva later became head of the city of Concord's carpentry shop where he worked for more than 20 years before retiring in 1982. Among the facilities he helped build were the Concord Pavilion and City Park. The northeast New Mexico native left the coal mines to become a member of that state's National Guard. Silva was dispatched to the Philippines three months before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. As an anti-aircraft gunner, the Army sergeant's job was to help defend the island from invasion. Silva and others fought against Japanese forces and starvation for more than four months. Cut off from supplies, their commanding officer offered up surrender on April 9, 1942. Silva became one of 75,000 U.S. and Filipino troops who marched 100 miles through the jungles in the Bataan Death March. Along the way, hundreds dropped from exhaustion and starvation and were left to die. Others were executed. Those who survived were imprisoned in labor camps. Silva told this newspaper in 1995 about the 50-year anniversary of the end of the war: "I might say that I could forgive them, but I'll never forget. It was just too much. We just went through too much to forget." "He was a man that suffered more than we'll never know, but was he wasn't a bitter man," Ansick said. Cannon chokes up when talking about some of her father's shared memories: being loaded like sardines into cattle cars, seeing human heads on the fence posts of towns they entered as a warning, and how he carried rosary beads given to him by his wife through his imprisonment -- even when a weapons-toting Japanese soldier questioned him about it while searching belongings. "That brought him through the war," Cannon said. A vigil will be held 4 p.m. Sunday at Pittsburg Funeral Chapel, 2295 Railroad Ave., Pittsburg. Local veterans will stand outside the ceremony with flags Sunday and lead a motorcade to his burial in San Pablo Monday, Ansick said.
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Post by friscohare on Feb 29, 2012 10:53:13 GMT -5
Army signal corpsman Jerry Weingart, then 23, thought he was shipping home after WWII ended in Europe, but he was sent to the Philippines and then to occupy Japan. In the above photo, Weingart poses with children at a dormitory in Japan in 1945. Jerry Weingart recalls fighting World War II in Europe and in Pacific[/u][/url][/size] (Palm Beach Post, 02/25/12) Jerry Weingart was 140 miles outside Berlin when he and his fellow signal corpsmen got the news that changed history: The Germans had surrendered. After spending months slogging heavy radio equipment across the German countryside, stumbling upon the unspeakable horrors of concentration camps and living with the ever-present threat of death, Weingart remembers having only one thought: "We're going home. We're going home." Racing from Braunschweig to Frankfurt and then on to Marseilles in the three-quarter-ton trucks that carried him into war and now promised to carry him out, the then-23-year-old U.S. Army soldier anxiously waited in southern France to be shipped back to the States. Instead, inexplicably, he began being prodded with needles –– smallpox, typhoid and tetanus shots. "It doesn't feel like we're going home," he remembers thinking. It wasn't until he and hundreds of other homesick soldiers were well out of sight of land that his suspicions were confirmed. They were headed to the Pacific to take care of unfinished business there. The suburban Boynton Beach resident's odyssey - 40 days aboard a ship that took him more than halfway around the world - is one of the curious footnotes to the war, said G. Kurt Piehler, director of the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience at Florida State University. Having interviewed 250 veterans as founder of the Rutgers Oral History Archives of World War II, he said he met only one who had a similar experience. After the war in Europe ended, the vast majority of soldiers who were told they were going to the Pacific were sent home first. Then, because the war with Japan ended three months later, they were never called up. "There weren't many who made it to both theaters," Piehler said. And Weingart, who celebrates his 90th birthday Monday, said it was an unusual coda to a military career. As a member of the 3186th Signal Service Battalion attached to Gen. Omar Bradley's 9th Army, he was accustomed to constant motion. His four-man signal corps team tried to stay ahead of the front, leap-frogging over other signal corps units, each day relaying hundreds of all-important teletype, facsimile and voice messages back to central command in Paris. Aboard the ship, it was constant boredom. The ship was so crammed with soldiers that he slept on the deck. As soon as he finished breakfast, he joined others standing in line for lunch. Then three days out of the Panama Canal, word came that the Japanese had surrendered. Again, he and the other soldiers celebrated. "I thought we were going back to San Diego," he said. Instead, the troop ship chugged on, eventually landing in Manila, Philippines. "There were no tents, no food, no sanitation," he recalled. And, he would soon find out, no hospitals. Having endured some of the worst assaults of the war, much of Manila had been leveled. When Weingart became ill, he was sent to a former racetrack where a makeshift hospital was set up in the betting area to treat 300 to 400 soldiers who needed medical help. After lying unattended for days, he learned his unit was again shipping out. Commanders figured radiation from the war-ending atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had cleared, making it safe for troops to enter Japan as an occupying force. Weingart and other soldiers were put up in a women's college. He visited some of the hard-hit towns. He said he doesn't remember any animosity on the part of the Japanese. "They lost men. We lost men. War is war," he said. Truthfully, he said, "they were scared as hell." Read more...
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Post by friscohare on Feb 29, 2012 10:59:26 GMT -5
In this photo taken Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012, Alvin Fails, 95, a Battan death march survivor, watches television at his home in his Clovis, N.M. Bataan death march survivors are dwindling as 70th anniversary approaches.Bataan survivors dwindling in numbers [/u][/url][/size] (Las Cruces Sun-News, 02/29/12) CLOVIS (AP) - The horrific memories have faded but not disappeared for Clovis' Alvin Fails, one of a dwindling number of area Bataan death march survivors. Telling his story from an easy chair, in which he now spends most of his days, the 95-year-old Fails recalled clearly the starvation rations on which he barely survived for almost four years in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp called O'Donnell. "They would cook rice and keep the white parts for themselves, and only feed us the juice," Fails said. Fails' son, Rick, said his father suffered from scurvy, berry-berry, malaria, dysentery and malnutrition during his experience as a POW in one of World War II's most infamous atrocities. It started with his unit's capture on April 9, 1942. "War is hell," said Fails, who has lived alone since wife Bernice's death in 1999. "I weighed 135 pounds when I went in (to the service) and 72 pounds when I got back." Fails is acutely aware of his place in history. "I'm lucky to be alive" said Fails, who lives with a black and white cat, several cockatiels and an aquarium full of fish, just across the street from his son, Rick, who helps care for him. "I'm one of the last ones." Buren Johnston and Melvin "Kike" Waltmon of Clovis and Alfred Haws of Logan are other known area survivors of the Bataan death march, according to Department of Veterans Services Ray Seva and Donna White of Logan. Part of New Mexico's 200th coast artillery stationed in the Philippines during World War II, the men endured a brutal, week-long, 60-mile trek in which 10,000 soldiers and civilians died of hunger, thirst and brutality. The survivors of the march spent 40 months as Japanese POWs. "Few areas were touched as deeply by World War II as Curry, Roosevelt and Quay counties," Eastern New Mexico University professor Don Elder said. "Virtually every family in the surrounding area had a relative affected." Elder said 89 men from Clovis were part of the National Guard 200th coast artillery, inducted into federal service at Fort Bliss in January of 1941 and deployed to the Philippines that fall. Haws, a farmer, was inducted into the 200th in Clovis with his brother Claude and two uncles, Glenn Dutton and Albert Moss, according to DeLoyce Smith. Haws was the only one who returned home. Haws lost his right arm when Americans bombed a steel mill where he was forced to work as a POW. He was liberated seven days later. Smith said upon his return, her father received reconstructive arm surgery and through rehabilitation learned to use his left hand to write, tie his shoes, and even change the diapers of his three children. "He took care of us. I've never known him any other way," Smith said. DeLoyce Smith has four purple hearts on her wall. One belongs to her father. The other three belong to his brother and two uncles who died in POW camps. Fails said he finally received a purple heart in 2004, almost 60 years after the fact. April 9 marks the 70th anniversary of the Bataan death march, but local survivors may not be attending ceremonies. "My father used to attend annually," Smith said, "but he's just gotten too frail to make the trip." Haws, 94, resides at an assisted living facility in Logan, where he gets around quite well in an electric wheel chair, Smith said. "He had to be one tough man to get through all that," Smith said.
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Post by friscohare on Mar 2, 2012 20:40:42 GMT -5
Memories fade, but POW not forgotten[/u][/url][/size] (My San Antonio.com, 03/02/12) The passage of 69 years has taken its toll on how Master Sgt. Charles Joyner is remembered by generations of his family. There are a few black-and-white pictures of the big, burly Army Air Corps mechanic who served his wife breakfast in bed. That's one anecdote, though far less is known of his death. After sifting though government telegrams, details of his final days after surviving the Bataan Death March come into slightly sharper focus, but if many cherished memories have faded, Joyner grew larger than life Friday. Surrounded by her family, his daughter, Elaine Wachtendorf, 92, of San Antonio accepted a Purple Heart from Sen. John Cornyn for her long-lost father. It was as much a gift to her as a token of respect for his last sacrifice. “I think it's wonderful,” she said after the ceremony, cradling a Purple Heart certificate signed by Army Secretary John McHugh. “A long time in coming, but it's wonderful.” “Mother's been mentioning it for several years, and so I thought it's so hard to make someone really, really happy when they're 92 years old and they don't have much to look forward to in life.” Wachtendorf still lives in the San Antonio home her mother, Katherine, died in long ago. She has old letters and snapshots in a scrapbook and, of course, her wartime memories. But Wachtendorf's sister has died, and Newell and five other grandchildren didn't know Joyner. The stories have been passed down, told and retold and held close to heart even if the details are a little fuzzy. “Really he was very much the caretaker, very loving and always there for us, and I know my mother said many times how different our lives would have been if he had lived,” said Joyner's granddaughter, Nancy Newell, 67, of Willis. “That was a constant comment of hers.” Joyner wasn't young when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. He was born June 9, 1891, and enlisted July 12, 1912. On the ground floor of World War II, he got caught up in a series of stunning Japanese victories in Asia and the Pacific. In April 1942, he was among those captured and forced on the infamous death march. Unprepared for large numbers of prisoners, the Japanese bayoneted and shot stragglers as 76,000 battle-weary Filipino and American POWs marched 80 miles from Southern Bataan. Around 54,000 prisoners were on hand when they arrived at a rail line in San Fernando that funneled them to POW camps throughout Asia. The family has official records that show Joyner died Nov. 12, 1942, in a prisoner-of-war camp in China. He was 51. “My dad passed away in '89. He was a B-17 pilot and was a POW about four months after being shot down, so anyway I know why this is a special occasion,” Cornyn, R-Texas, told the family. Joyner's last days are unknown. The family thinks he died of starvation, but there always will be some confusion about just how he spent his last months of life. The man and his character are better known. “I've seen pictures and he was big. He didn't look fat, he looked hefty, a big build and he had a very kind looking face,” Newell said. Joyner would roll his wife's hair in curlers. They had playful names for each other. He called her ‘Toots' and she called him ‘Abner.' “I heard my grandmother say this, she was talking about when they were in Washington, D.C., and they were in quarters that were close and the windows were open,” Newell said. “And other Army people could hear and he'd say, ‘Katie, I have your breakfast for you.' The neighbors used to tell her, ‘He has just ruined my day.'”
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Post by friscohare on Mar 4, 2012 17:08:47 GMT -5
Military History: It was a gloomy March in 1942[/u][/url][/size] (Fay Observer, 03/04/12) The month of March in 1942 opened badly for the U.S. Navy. On the first day, Japanese torpedoes sent the heavy cruiser USS Houston to the bottom of Sunda Strait in the Pacific. It was the sort of gloomy news that dogged the Allied war effort all that month and all around the globe. There would be some glimmers of good news later in the month at, of all places, the big U.S. Army training post at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. But first the gloomy. Three months after the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii brought the United States into World War II, bright spots were hard to find in the Pacific. In the Philippines, American and Filipino forces were trapped on Bataan peninsula. Gen. Douglas MacArthur pulled out in early March and left them to their grim fate. Their commanding general, Maj. Gen. Ed King, who as a young colonel in World War I had selected the site for Camp Bragg, was preparing for the inevitable surrender. Half of his soldiers were too sick for duty or starving. Ammunition was low. In the ranks of the Filipino Scouts, 24-year-old Jesus Rabano stayed in the line. When the Bataan forces finally surrendered two months later, Rabano would survive the Bataan Death March of prisoners of war. After liberation in 1945, he would come to live in Fayetteville. Today, 94-year-old Jesus Rabano is in bad health being treated at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. In early 1942, the news was gloomy in nearly all theaters of war. Read more...
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Post by friscohare on Mar 6, 2012 13:43:49 GMT -5
Bobby and Alice Alford of Newnan recently came across a box filled with love letters written by soldier Joe Parme from Pittsburgh to Bobby’s Aunt Madelyn Smith during World War II.World War II Love Story: Letters help Newnan couple find soldier's family[/u][/url][/size] (Newman Times-Herald, 03/05/12) If it wasn't love at first sight, it was close. And like so many wartime romances, it started with a chance encounter. Madelyn Smith was living in Atlanta and according to family members, was a lovely young lady who worked hard and loved to spend her weekends socializing in the clubs along Peachtree Street. Joe Parme was an Army Lieutenant stationed at Fort Benning in Columbus. On rare days off, many soldiers from Fort Benning -- including Parme -- traveled to Atlanta to sample the big city sights and sounds. Joe and Madelyn met at an Atlanta club, and it is clear that the pair hit it off immediately. The first letter from Joe to Madelyn is dated Feb. 8,1945. He mentions that he has already received a telegram from Madelyn, no doubt saying how much she enjoyed their first meeting. In the letter, Joe calls Madelyn "Sweetheart," apologizes for keeping her from studying for an exam and says he hoped "those Atlanta wolves weren't after her." Joe was serving with the 462nd Parachute Field Artillery Battalion. In another letter he tells Madelyn how excited he is that his unit has been ordered to join the 503rd Parachute Regimental Combat Team in the Pacific theater. He doesn't mention that the 503rd was currently fighting to liberate Corregidor, a rocky island near the entrance to Manila Bay in the Philippines. After losing 172 men in that battle, the 503rd was ordered to the island of Negros in the central Philippines to join the 40th Infantry, which had been engaged for five months in fierce fighting with Japanese forces. It was at Negros that Joe Parme joined the 503rd. History books tell of the bloody battles and lives lost in the fight to take Negros. Joe's letters do not. In typical GI fashion, he talks about the weather, the food and how much he misses his new Georgia sweetheart.... Read more...
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Post by friscohare on Mar 6, 2012 13:44:06 GMT -5
A visit to Corregidor Island is a stark reminder of the atrocities humans are capable of committing in the name of warThe enemy within[/u][/url][/size] (The Nation (Thailand), 03/06/12) Although Corregidor Island in Manila Bay is less famous than Thailand's Death Railway in terms of Japanese savagery during World War II, this last US stronghold in the region was also testimony to what a Filipino historian calls "the Japanese contempt for life". The sense of history is strong on Corregidor and the courage as well as the suffering of the men who died here is almost palpable. Today, of course, Corregidor is open to all. However, if you're a Japanese visitor, your Filipino guide won't mix you with other nationalities. He will tell the story of Corregidor based on Japanese history, a tale of gallantry, victory and banzai. On a different bus, the story is one of patriotism, sacrifice and valour. Cultural sensitivities run deep on the Corregidor tour. On one occasion, an elderly Filipina stopped a visiting Japanese couple. "You took my husband away. I will not forgive you," said the woman. Her husband was killed during the Japanese capture of Corregidor. The couple decided to leave without taking a tour. But the Filipinos do try to make Japanese tourists feel comfortable, guiding them to the Japanese Garden of Peace. Corregidor is a must-see for any history buff. About 48 km west of Manila and strategically located at the entrance of Manila Bay, this island fortress was one of Asia's last defences against the overwhelming number of invading Japanese forces. It's home to military barracks, an army hospital, officers quarters, gun emplacements, a YMCA building, the Malinta Tunnel and other military structures. These buildings are in ruins, the result of heavy bombing by the Japanese. We visit the hospital, which is exactly a century old. The concrete looks new, but the structure is scarred with shrapnel and riddled with bullet holes. Our guide tells us he was once surprised to find out that one of his visitors had actually been born in the facility. The fully restored Malinta Tunnel, in which 2,000 Japanese soldiers blew themselves up with dynamite just prior to the recapture of Corregidor by the American forces, still has a somewhat spooky atmosphere even during a daytime tour. The bombproof structure used to house a 1,000-bed hospital, General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters and other facilities. Corregidor suffered relentless pounding by the enemy. The saturation bombing and shelling of May 5, 1942, just one day before its surrender, was one of the worst of the whole war. The very face of the island was radically changed, and even the jungle became a desolate place with not a single blade of grass left. Also known as "the Rock", it was a key bastion of the Allies during the war. When the Japanese invaded the Philippines in December 1941, the military force under MacArthur's command carried out a delaying action at Bataan. Corregidor became the headquarters of the Allied forces and also the seat of the Philippine Commonwealth government. It was from Corregidor that Philippine President Manuel Quezon and MacArthur left for Australia in February 1942, leaving Lt Gen Jonathan M Wainwright in command. At Battery Way I come across a plaque commemorating Major William "Wild Bill" Massello Jr. His story is a heart wrenching one. Corregidor surrendered at noon on May 6, 1942. That morning Massello lay seriously wounded on a stretcher, having refused to be evacuated. Around him, the battle for Corregidor was reaching its climax. Now only Battery Way could continue to fire: from his stretcher Massello pulled the lanyard of his serviceable mortar while his men remained under cover. After firing over 90 rounds of the 700-pound projectiles at Japanese forces on Bataan and Corregidor, the breachblock of the last remaining mortar froze solid. "The old mortar had finally quit on us," Massello recalled, "but it lasted long enough to be the last big gun on Corregidor to fire on the enemy." Finally Corregidor fell, and Massello was taken into Japanese captivity. In November, he was loaded, along with many of his fellow captives, onto what was to become known as a "hell ship". He spent the next three and a half years in Japanese POW camps in the Philippines and Japan. He was liberated by the American occupation troops in September 1945. That hell ship is portrayed in one of the paintings on display at the Filipino Heroes Memorial. All kinds of torture are shown here but none is more appalling than the painting of a Filipino baby thrown into the air and bayoneted by Japanese troops. The caption notes that in the Philippines, the Japanese bayoneted children in mid-air to show their power and lack of fear. How you deal with the atrocities on Corregidor will depend on your own view of the Japanese during World War II. Filipino historians like Teodoro A Agoncillo think the Japanese soldiers were beasts, but he also sees angels among them. I have to admit that I didn't glimpse even one angel during my trip to the island. The writer travelled in the Philippines courtesy of the Department of Tourism in Manila and the Philippine Airlines. IF YOU GO Philippine Airlines flies from Bangkok to Manila twice daily. For more information, visit www.PhilippineAirlines.com. A scheduled tour departs from Manila daily at 8am and arrives in Corregidor an hour later. The return ferry departs the island at 2.30pm. For bookings, call (+63 2) 831 8140.
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Post by friscohare on Mar 11, 2012 13:31:26 GMT -5
WW II veteran displays strong survivor skills[/u][/url][/size] (Garner News, 03/11/12) From the time he was barely old enough to walk it was obvious that John Mims was a survivor. Plagued by a variety of serious ailments as a child, he miraculously overcame them all. Beaten and bullied unmercifully as a young boy because of his appearance, the youngster always found a way to make it through. Orphaned by the time he was 15 years old, Mims joined the U.S. Army and became a successful boxer until his true age was discovered and he was discharged from the military. Alone and searching for his place in the world, he struggled to make ends meet in the latter years of the Great Depression. By 1941, he was unemployed and hungry. An existence marred by such misfortune would have broken a lesser man. But for Mims, the constant setbacks and disappointments were simply more challenges for him to conquer. And, ironically, all those hard knocks were exactly what Mims needed. The pain, deprivation and emotional anguish honed his survival instincts and strengthened his will to live. Starting in the spring of 1942, Mims would certainly need every ounce of his inner resolve in order to stay alive. Taken prisoner by the Japanese at Corregidor, he would experience the horrors of the Bataan Death March followed by more than three years of hell as a prisoner of war. For the first 19 years of his life, fate had seemingly tried everything to bring Mims to his knees. Now it was the Japanese’s turn to try. He would be beaten, hanged, burned, frozen and nearly starved to death. His captors broke his neck, legs, arms, back and jaw. By the time he was liberated in 1945, he had lost 130 pounds. Yet, through it all – the torture, fear and heartbreak – Mims never once gave up or caved in. His indomitable will to live even earned the respect of his heartless Japanese guards. Mims had proven once again that he was a survivor. Tough way to start Mims didn’t enjoy many easy days in his youth. The tough luck began at a very early age. Born on Nov. 25, 1922 in Turner, Ga., he was just three months old when his mother, Annie, died of blood poisoning. His father, Robert, was a railroad engineer who travelled a great deal to find work. Unable to take his young sons with him, he left the youngster with family in Florida. “I was raised by my uncles, grandmothers and aunts,” said Mims. A series of ailments plagued him throughout the first several years of his life. There were times when his family didn’t think Mims would survive another day. Yet, in what would become a common theme in his life, he always found a way to pull through. “I had just about every (sickness) a child could have,” said Mims. “I probably shouldn’t have made it but the good Lord kept me together.” A full-bloodied Native American, Mims stood out from everyone else in the Indian community. His light blue eyes and nearly white hair made him a target of both wonder and abuse. “I was the only white-headed Indian on the reservation,” said Mims. “My hair was white as cotton and my brother was real dark complexion. He had to beat (older children) back because they wouldn’t leave me alone. They were always trying to get my hair to see if it would grow on them. They were always picking on me and it wasn’t easy to survive.” Despite the near constant bullying, Mims believes living in the Native American community as a youngster helped develop important skills that served him well during fighting in the Philippines. “I always followed by uncles when they (hunted),” said Mims. “They wouldn’t make a sound tiptoeing through the (swamp). That might have helped in World War Two because it was good not to make any noise.” Mims often thought about those days hunting in the Florida swamps while being held a prisoner of war. “My uncles only (hunted) what was going to be used,” said Mims. “I thought about that when I was about to starve to death in the Philippines.” Older than he seems When Mims was six, his father settled in Florida and eventually owned two grocery stores and a 16-horse farm. But tragedy struck the family once again as Robert was killed in a car accident while Mims was just 15 years old. Now left on his own, the teenager found a job at a cotton mill but soon joined the Civilian Conservation Corps. He only lasted with the CCC a short time before he lied to an Army recruiter about his age and ended up at Ft. McPherson in Georgia. The young private was soon sent to Oregon where he spent 11 months in the military. The ruse actually worked quite well until one night when Mims met a girl and lost track of time. “I went to town for a party,” said Mims. “We were supposed to catch the truck back to camp but I met a little gal and I wanted to talk to her a little longer.” Mims missed the truck and was placed on KP duty once he arrived back at camp. It didn’t take long before the tough teen began having problems with a surly cook. “I was cleaning pots and pans and this cook put a big pot on the table for me to wash,” said Mims. “There was some dough inside it because he was making cookies and I started eating some. He pulled it away and said, ‘I put it there for you to wash, not to eat out of it.’ That didn’t sit right with me.” As the cook started to walk away, Mims leaned over and grabbed a big handful of dough and started eating. “He started coming right at me and I grabbed his arm and threw him into the pot and pan rack,” said Mims. “The mess sergeant came in and said, ‘If you are going to fight do it outside.’ I didn’t know it at the time but they had to persuade him to come outside. He took a swing at me and I punched him and knocked him out. His head hit the cement and I thought, ‘Oh, my God. I killed him.’” Mims thought for sure he was going to be thrown in the stockade and kicked out of the military. A cunning sergeant had a better idea. “The first sergeant, Sgt. Charles Garrett, came over and said they were going to make a prize fighter out of me and they did,” said Mims. Mims won several boxing matches and seemed to have a pretty good future in the ring. Then the U.S. Army discovered that a 16-year-old was beating up their other fighters. “They found out I was too young and they had me put out of the service,” said Mims with a big smile on his face. Mims soon landed a job at an Oregon ranch. He remembers fondly saving up his money to pay $35 for a special built Dodge. “I went to California and all over the place in that thing,” said Mims. “I didn’t even need a driver’s license at that time.” In mid-1941, two of his buddies at the ranch were drafted into the Army and Mims offered to drive them to a camp in Washington. It was a fateful decision. Of his two friends, one was found to have diabetes and returned to his home in Alabama. The other buddy took off once they reached Washington in an attempt to avoid serving in the military. Having struck out on the two draftees, an Army recruiter began trying to persuade Mims to enlist. His pitch certainly caught Mims’ attention. “I was sitting there and this sergeant says, ‘Mims, I know just the place for you.’ I said, ‘Where is that, sergeant?’ He says, ‘The Philippines. Those Spanish senoritas over there just love blond hair and blue eyes.’ I asked him if he could fix that up for me and he said yes. “I was hungry. There was no food and no work. I was trying to get in the service hoping I could make something out of myself. I saw so many other people my age getting into trouble and I didn’t want that to happen me.” Just a few weeks later, Mims was on a ship heading for the Philippines. He was about to find more trouble than he ever dreamed possible. Read more of Mims’s story in next week’s Garner News.
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Post by friscohare on Mar 12, 2012 9:59:15 GMT -5
WWII artifact will be on display at the Battleship Cove[/u][/url][/size] (The Herald News, 03/12/12) FALL RIVER — Seventy years ago today, U.S. troops were still reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor. On March 12, 1942, a small fleet of PT boats commanded by Lt. John Bulkeley overcame tremendous odds and was able to destroy or damage numerous enemy planes and ships, holding back the advances of Japanese forces as long as possible. Despite having only four operational PT boats, they were able to evacuate Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Philippine President Quezon from Manila Bay to the southern Philippines. MacArthur famously vowed to return to the Philippines, a promise he would keep. An interesting piece of memorabilia from one of these boats is on display at Battleship Cove. A pennant which flew aboard one of the PT boats was donated to Battleship Cove by a person that was stationed on the vessel during World War II. The pennant is 53 inches long and includes seven stars along with one red stripe and one white stripe. The pennants were used to signify the ship had been commissioned by the U.S. Navy. “This is a very historic artifact,” said Brad King, executive director of Battleship Cove. “This battle was a major event in World War II. It was an iconic event for MacArthur.” The pennant is on display in the PT Boat Museum and is available for viewing seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. King is proud of all the historical artifacts on display at Battleship Cove. He feels the museum is a must-visit for history buffs. “At Battleship Cove, we celebrate men and women who have earned their place in history,” said King. “We offer visitors the opportunity to gain historical perspective from a very personal point of view, through the eyes of people who lived it. Here, around every corner, you discover a piece of someone’s life.”
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Post by friscohare on Mar 13, 2012 22:57:42 GMT -5
George Wyley, USAF Ret., is honored for service by Col. George Finck after Wyley was unable to make a special luncheon at Barksdale Air Force Base in February.WWII vet honored by Barksdale [/u][/url][/size] George Wyley, Bataan Death March survivor, receives honors (Bossier Press, 03/13/12) George Wyley, USAF Ret., will never forget the day his life changed almost 70 years ago. Thousands of Americans, including Wyley, were surrendered into the merciless hands of the Imperial Japanese Army on April 9, 1942. The historic Bataan Death March was the result of General Edward King’s decision to surrender, which made American troops prisoners of war after a three-month battle in the Philippines. “We didn’t know what the future would be,” Wyley said. However, the actual events of that day are only known to those who survived. Barksdale Air Force Base honored a group of 230 World War II veterans last month during a special luncheon. Wyley was not able to attend the luncheon, but was shown the same honor and respect as his fellow veterans...just in the comfort of his home. Wyley was presented with a specially designed POW/MIA hat, t-shirt and WWII coin by Col. George Finck, USAF Ret. The new memorabilia will be added to his existing collection of honors, including a Purple Heart. The horrific memories have faded but not completely disappeared for Wyley, who is now one of only a few living march survivors. Wyley recalled living in starvation and disease during his years as a POW. He was released on Sept. 6, 1945 in Hong Kong and weighed only 104-pounds. Wyley said he was lucky to be alive. “You could count every rib in my body,” he said. “I was just skin and bones.” Wyley, 93, lives in Benton with his wife, Lorimer. The couple has one daughter, Kathy Carroll of Shreveport, two grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Carroll said she is truly proud of her father, whom she called a remarkable survivor. “We have seen firsthand how important it is for our country to recognize its veterans and how important it is to the people that are left and know what has happened to them,” Carroll said.
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Post by friscohare on Mar 16, 2012 23:43:10 GMT -5
A participant in last year’s Pinehurst St. Patrick’s Day Parade Military Theme to Highlight Annual St. Patrick's Day Parade Saturday[/u][/url][/size] (The Pilot (Southern Pines, NC), 03/13/12) With a little luck, the 11th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade will be one of the most well-attended yet. The parade will be held in downtown Pinehurst beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday. This year’s theme is “Welcome Back from Iraq,” and is dedicated to returning troops. The event will honor Wounded Warriors of North Carolina as well as all retired and active duty personnel. The grand marshal is Brig. Gen. Edward Reeder. Master Sgt. Jon Mims, the oldest survivor of the Bataan Death March, will serve as the honorary grand marshal. Both will be escorted in the parade by an armored military SUV, organizers said. (Mr. Mims was a member of C Co, 31st Infantry) Read more...
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Post by friscohare on Mar 16, 2012 23:47:00 GMT -5
Soldiers assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division participate in the Bataan Memorial March, March 3. “I wanted to honor all those who fell during the march back in 1942,” said Cumming, Ga., native, Spc. Justin Larson, a medic assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, of the Ironhorse Brigade. “I felt very humbled upon completing the march. I feel as though I honored those men, but wish there was more I could do.” Ironhorse honors Bataan’s fallen Soldiers[/u][/url][/size] (The Weekly, 03/14/12) CAMP VIRGINIA, Kuwait (March 2012) – “We began walking the next morning. It was about 80 miles from where we ended up. It doesn’t seem very far, but we were in such awful condition that 80 miles was a heck of a long way to walk. It took six days to get to San Fernando. There, the march ended and we got on board a train. But in that six days, a lot happened,” a survivor describes the march in a personal account on Bataan Death March – A Survivor’s Story. Although this is only one survivor’s story, there were many more who suffered the horrors and excruciating battles of the Japanese Bataan Death March. On April 9, 1942, after the three-month-long Battle of Bataan, 72,000 American and Filipino soldiers were forced to surrender to the Japanese army. Upon surrendering, prisoners were stripped of their weapons and valuables and ordered to march. Many were beaten, bayoneted and executed. During the six-day march, somewhere between 18,000 and 20,000 prisoners died. “The march I participated in was nothing like what the soldiers had to go through back in 1942,” said Cumming, Ga. native, Spc. Justin Larson, a medic assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. “I grew a respect for the fallen soldiers of Bataan, the 26.2-mile march I did was difficult, but the conditions were much better.” The memorial march was started in 1989 by the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at the New Mexico State University. Participants come from across the globe to commemorate this event for many reasons: personal challenge, the spirit of competition or to foster esprit de corps in their unit. “I originally thought it was just a 26.2-mile ruck march,” admitted Park Rapids, Minn., native, Spc. Logan Carmichael, a medic assigned to the Lancer Battalion. “I was ready for the challenge, but after researching the history of it, it motivated me to complete it.” It was early morning and the air was brisk and the sky was dark, but the 1,400 participating service members still gathered around the start line, patiently waiting for the march to start. The 26.2-mile march consisted of five and a half laps around the camp. Participants were allowed to march, walk or run. With a steady pace, Eastland, Texas, native, Spc. James Garcia was able to complete the march in less than 10 hours. “I was ready for a challenge,” explained Garcia, a signal support specialist assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 115th Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. “So, I signed up for the march. It wasn’t until afterward that I learned what the importance was.” Although the soldiers had different reasons for completing the march, in the end, the motives were similar. “I wanted to honor all those who fell during the march back in 1942,” Larson concluded. “I felt very humbled upon completing the march. I feel as though I honored those men, but wish there was more I could do.”
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Post by friscohare on Mar 17, 2012 13:01:22 GMT -5
IN PERSON: Death march survivor describes life after a grim war crime[/u][/url][/size] (North County Times, 03/17/12) CARLSBAD ---- Seventy years ago today, Lester Tenney was under siege with 70,000 other troops, bottled up at the tip of a tropical peninsula called Bataan. It was the hot season in the Philippines ---- when temperatures hit triple digits, thick with humidity ---- and sometime during the grueling battle for Bataan, the mosquitoes had infected him with malaria, a fever-inducing ailment that amplified the punishing heat. Like the rest of the Americans and Filipinos in the trenches and bivouacs in March 1942, he did not know that he was about to be sent on one of the most treacherous forced marches of the 20th century ---- a deadly, 80-mile walk north, to a prison camp. This week, I sat down with Tenney at his home in Carlsbad as he told me about his service in World War II ---- from the anxiety as he watched the Japanese begin their assault on the Philippines hours after attacking Pearl Harbor, to his three years of hard labor in a Japanese coal mine. Having joined the Army to fight, Tenney spent all but four months of the war as a prisoner, and his experience as a POW is still a powerful and emotional story, 70 years after the death march. He is 92 years old, but he has the memory of a much younger man ---- perhaps because he has been giving talks about World War II on a weekly basis for years. "My life has always been very positive," he told me. "My time in the death march, I was a positive person. My time in prison camp was as a positive person. When I came out, I was a positive person. Being positive just stays with you." I asked him how he could say he was positive during the death march, commonly regarded as one of the most dehumanizing war crimes in modern history. "Positive to the point that I just knew I was going to survive," Tenney answered. And that was despite the many horrors suffered along the Philippine national highway, where all 70,000 prisoners were prodded along and abused. It is unknown precisely how many died on the march, but the number is in the thousands. On Wednesday, Tenney recalled being locked in large rice warehouses along the route during the night to prevent escape. "They would push us in there until they could get no more in, and seal it until the following morning," he said. "I remember (after) that first night, there must have been 80 that were standing there, dead. They just couldn't move. They died in there, and the ones that were alive came out and started the march again. "The third day of the march, a Japanese slit me down the back with a samurai sword," Tenney continued. "He was riding on horseback, going like that to all the men. Hit me here. They brought a medic and sewed me up ---- it hurt like hell and I ran a fever, but my attitude was the same: 'I'm going to make it.'" That willpower, that mental toughness, was the key. It was the reason Tenney went on to become a husband, a father and a professor of economics at Arizona State University, and why he could sit down for an interview this week to observe the 70th anniversary of the death march. "I made the decision to come home, and then it was just a matter of doing everything I had to do to reach that goal," he said. "That's why, when I was working in the coal mines, I broke a leg, I broke a foot, I broke my own hand to stay out of work ---- because I felt that I just couldn't make it another day. So I'd break an arm, break a hand, break a foot ---- break something. "We made our own ulcers just to stay out of work for another day or two, that was all. You just reached the point where you said, ‘If I go down tomorrow, I'm not coming up.'" Reports vary as to how many death march survivors remain in the U.S., but by all accounts, the number stands at just a few dozen. Considering the malaria, dysentery, malnourishment, abuse and post-traumatic stress those men endured, I think it's incredible that any of them are still alive. I asked Tenney, "Did you ever think you were going to ..." "Die?" he said, finishing my question. "Yeah, a number of times." "Did you think you'd live to see 92?" I asked. "I didn't think I'd live to see 40." Tenney acknowledges that others had it easier. Not everyone who was captured in Bataan had to endure a ride in the "hell ships" to work camps in Japan; not all of them remained prisoners for as long as he did. But he doesn't think of them when he assesses his time in the war. He thinks of the ones who didn't make it. "I had the luck of the draw," he said, astoundingly. "Yeah, I came home."
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Post by friscohare on Mar 17, 2012 21:36:12 GMT -5
New Mexico State University students Barbara Bogucki, left, and Kevin Swearengin work with others to finish the annual cleaning of the Battan Memorial Monument at Veterans Park on Saturday. It's important to preserve the physical manifestation of history just as much as the written record, said Bogucki.[/img][/size] Bataan statue meticulously cleaned for rededication [/u][/url][/size] (Las Cruces Sun-News, 03/17/12) LAS CRUCES — A bronze memorial to the nearly 2,000 New Mexico National Guard troops who survived the Bataan Death March is being cleaned and polished in preparation for the anniversary of that World War II event. "There is a very important 70th anniversary of the Bataan Death March coming up and there is a rededication scheduled for a week from today," said Kelley Hestir, the monument's sculptor and a Doña Ana Community College art instructor. "We want to make sure the statue is looking good and that the site is all cleaned up and looking good for that ceremony." The bronze monument — three towering soldiers helping each other continue in a forced march —was dedicated in April 2002 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the march. The 8-foot monument's maintenance requires a painstaking process of using wooden toothpicks to gently scrape any early signs of erosion from the surface. For this task, Hestir and Silvia Marinas, director of the museum conservation program at New Mexico State University, bring their students to help. "Being a part of this is meaningful," said Ashlee Ayers, a 21-year-old art restoration student at New Mexico State University. She was peering intently into the ridges of the monument at Veterans Memorial Park as she scraped off unwanted residue Saturday morning. "I'm glad I'm able to give back memories and thoughts of what happened, and to make sure we don't digress back into that sort of tragedy again," she said. John Yardas was walking by the park and stopped to watch the group of students tending to the monument. Yardas, himself a World War II veteran, said he was happy to see the work being done on a monument that is calling attention to what veterans have gone through. "I like what they are doing, and I hope it continues," said Yardas, who served in the Pacific in the Marine Corps and who also earned a Purple Heart in Okinawa. "It's forgotten so easily. I think this is generally the attitude of most people," he said. On April 10, 1942, about 12,000 American and 63,000 Filipino troops were captured by Japanese forces and forced to marched more than 80 miles in six days on their way to a prison camp in the Philippines. Between 7,000 and 10,000 of them died — victims of fatigue, thirst, starvation or random killings at the hands of their Japanese captors, according to the Army.mil web site. About 1,800 New Mexico National Guard members survived the Bataan Death March. Reyes Mata III can be reached at (575) 541-5405 If you go - A re-dedication ceremony of the "Heroes of Bataan" monument, unveiled 10 years ago, will be at 9 a.m. March 24 at Veterans Memorial Park, 2651 Roadrunner Parkway. - The 26th annual Bataan Memorial Death March will be March 25 at 7 a.m. at White Sands Missile Range. - As many as 5,400 people, from throughout the United States and several countries, are expected to participate in this year's march.
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Post by friscohare on Mar 20, 2012 14:06:06 GMT -5
Leland D. Mayfield Fallen Heroes 3-19[/u][/url][/size] (Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, 03/19/12) (Editor’s note: Following is part of an ongoing series honoring Washington County veterans who died while serving in the military.) Leland D. Mayfield was born Jan. 8, 1921, in Oklahoma. He graduated from Bartlesville High School then joined the Army Air Corps on June 26, 1940. Mayfield requested the Philippine Islands. He was assigned to the 34th Pursuit Squadron and sent to Del Carmen Air Field on Luzon Island in the Philippines in November, 1941. When the Japanese attacked the Philippines, all the aircraft were destroyed and the Allied Forces retreated down the Bataan Peninsula. Members of the Air Corps fought as infantry. Mayfield was captured April 2, 1942, and died in a Japanese prison camp Nov. 20, 1943. He is buried in a cemetery in Elcado, Kan. Source: Bartlesville Area History Museum and History of the 34th Pursuit Squadron
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Post by friscohare on Mar 20, 2012 14:11:51 GMT -5
PRISONER OF WAR ART SHOWCASED — Charlotte Lohr of Wellsburg studies drawings sketched by Eugene Jacobs of New York, who was among Allied troops captured by the Japanese while serving in the Philippine Islands. His work was part of an exhibit Monday at the Brooke County Public Library showcasing the art of servicemen who became prisoners of war while defending the islands. The sketches were donated by Joseph Vater of McKees Rocks, Pa., whose own work includes the painting to Lohr’s left of the Memorial Cross established on Mount Samat in Bataan to honor American and Filipino soldiers who fought during World War II.POWs’ art relates experiences[/u][/url][/size] (Herald Star Online, 03/20/12) WELLSBURG - For many years it was a little known chapter of World War II: the Bataan Death March, in which 70,000 U.S. and Filipino troops were captured by the Japanese and forced to march through 65 miles of subtropical heat, without food or water. The troops had fought for five months to defend the Philippine Islands, and many were suffering already from fatigue, malaria or dysentery and succumbed to illness or exhaustion, while others were shot, stabbed with bayonets and beheaded with swords. Those who survived were transported to prisoner of war camps where they were forced to work for the Japanese war effort. The Brooke County Public Library has helped to shed light on their experiences through a permanent exhibit established by local POW Ed Jackfert of Wellsburg and on Monday held a special exhibit showing how three POWs used art to relate their experiences. The special show featured drawings and paintings by Joseph Vater of McKees Rocks, Pa.; the late Eugene Jacobs, formerly of Schenectady, N.Y.; and the late Ben Steele, formerly of Billings, Mont. Vater has been a regular visitor and contributor to a permanent exhibit at the library detailing the horriffic treatment received by the troops during the march, aboard the "hellships" and crowded train cars that transported them to various work camps and at the camps themselves. A German box camera used by Vater to photograph Japan following his liberation is among many items donated by former POWs and their families since the exhibit was established in 2003 by Ed Jackfert of Wellsburg, a fellow POW; and his wife, Henrietta. In addition to his own art work, Vater donated, for Monday's special exhibit, copies of sketches by Jacobs and a sketchbook published by Steele. Jane Kraina, coordinator for the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Museum, revealed the two men came from very different backgrounds. Jacobs was an officer and doctor who did his best to treat fellow soldiers dealing with malnutrition, malaria and other illness with the very few medical supplies available at the POW camp. His sketches included a work camp cemetery, where emaciated, naked bodies were carried on window shutters and dumped together in pits. Steele was a former cowboy accustomed to sleeping on the ground before he entered the service but like the other POWs, never envisioning the severe conditions he'd encounter on march or in the work camp. His charcoal sketches show how he and others were affected by starvation, dysentery and beriberi. The only bright spot may have been that Steele developed a keen interest in art and honed his skills with the help of engineers imprisoned at the camp. He would go on to complete his art studies and become an art professor, Kraina said. She noted that, like many, Vater suffered from a lack of food. Standing at 6 foot 2, Vater saw his weight drop from 225 pounds to 84 pounds, Kraina said. The art by Vater reflected happier days, though, when he and others had been freed by Allied troops. They include a watercolor painting of the Memorial Cross established on Mount Samat in Bataan to honor American and Filipino soldiers who defended the island. Vater went on to work in his family's painting business and to build his own home. Now 95, he was unable to attend the exhibit due to illness. The three are among many POWs whose experiences are related through a link at the library's website at philippine-defenders.lib.wv.us. Kraina has carried on work by Mary Kay Wallace, the library's director; and her staff to digitize and catalogue the many artifacts, writings and other contributions received from members of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, a group of veterans who served in the Philippine Islands. She has been assisted by Catherine Feryok, a librarian from the Moundsville-Marshall County Public Library; and Rachel Thibodeau and Sarah Snider, students from the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Kraina also is working with a volunteer board headed by Richard Lizza, West Liberty University professor emeritus, to raise money for a proposed addition to the library to house and display the many items. The group will hold a walk on April 9 to mark the 70th anniversary of the Bataan Death March. Registration will be at 5 p.m., with the walk to begin at 5:30 p.m. and extend from the Yankee Trail near the Wellsburg Rite Aid to Seventh Street and the library. Participants may park at the Wellsburg Fire Hall near the start point. The cost to participate is $10, with participants receiving book bags. A re-enactment group - the World War II Living History Organization's K Company, 110th Regiment 28th Division - will appear with a jeep and tent like those used in the Philippines. The group also is preparing for a screening of the documentary, "Forgotten Soldiers," about the Filipinos who served, at 1:30 p.m. April 28, with a creator of the film set to appear.
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Post by friscohare on Mar 20, 2012 14:14:42 GMT -5
Disease, hunger become enemy at Bataan[/u][/url][/size] (GarnerNews.net, 03/20/12) (This is part two of a series on World War II veteran John Mims.) In mid-1941, a U.S. Army recruiter told John Mims that serving in the Philippines was great duty. The weather was nice, he said, and the women were beautiful. For a little while, at least, it seemed the smooth-talking recruiter was telling the truth. Just weeks after beginning his second stint in the military, Mims was aboard a troop transport ship heading for Luzon. He was now a private in Company B, 1st Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment. Still sore at how he was unceremoniously kicked out of the Army a few years earlier, Mims was determined to make a good impression this time around. “Everything I was assigned to do, I tried to do it better than anyone else,” said Mims. Of course, he still made sure to enjoy the lovely scenery on Luzon and nothing was as beautiful to Mims as the face of a young girl named Juanita. The two star-crossed lovers met at a skating rink late in 1941 and instantly felt a strong bond. It was a connection that would endure for more than six decades. The two married in 1945 and remained together until Juanita passed away in 2003. “If she was here she would still be my angel,” said Mims. “None of God’s angels are any better than my wife. She had a heart of gold.” Rumors of an impending war with Japan were rampant in December of 1941. But the dark clouds gathering on the horizon were nothing but a passing storm to John and Juanita. Young and in love, the troubles of the world seemed a million miles away from the idyllic beaches of Luzon. In fact, the two were relaxing along the sandy shoreline when they heard the news that would bring them crashing back to reality. “I was at Sunset Beach,” said Mims. “(Juanita’s) boss was giving a party and I was invited. While we were there we heard that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor.” The war beginsHustling back to his camp just outside Manila, Mims was assigned to a .50-caliber machine gun as American and Filipino forces braced for the impending Japanese invasion. They didn’t need to wait long. The Japanese began landing troops in the Philippines on Dec. 8 and invaded Luzon on Dec. 12. Although outnumbered, the Japanese troops were better trained and equipped than the Allied forces. Most of Luzon was quickly overrun and Manila was declared an open city on Dec. 26. American and Filipino troops retreated to the Bataan Peninsula where they set up a much stronger line of defense. “We burned all of our barracks,” said Mims as he recalled the hectic time surrounding the retreat. “The only thing I didn’t burn was my uniform and stuff like that. I took a lot of my stuff to (Juanita’s) house and that really helped them during the war. She was able to take one of my khaki shirts or something like that and sell it up in the mountains. It was enough that she could get supplies for herself and her family.” Mims was initially sent to the small island of Corregidor located right off the coast of Luzon. He spent just a few days there – including Christmas Day – before being shipped back to Bataan. “Japan dropped everything they had on us during Christmas and the day after,” said Mims. “Then they sent us back to Bataan by barge and we set up (a defensive line).” It was on the Bataan Peninsula that the defenders put up their most valiant fight. Time and again, they repelled numerous Japanese attacks and inflicted heavy losses on the invaders. But time and circumstances were stacked against them. Beginning of the endWhile the Japanese could rely upon reinforcements and adequate supplies, the Americans and Filipinos were running dangerously low on everything. Still, the fight went on. “We just wouldn’t give up,” said Mims. “We ran out of food, water and ammunition. We ran out of everything.” Soon, the American soldiers began infiltrating enemy lines to steal whatever they could find. “We had to use Ranger tactics,” said Mims. “We’d slip behind their lines and take rifles. They also had these (mess kits) they would carry that had all their food. We took those, too. But we couldn’t fire a shot. We had to do all of it by bayonet.” Shooting another man on the battlefield is grisly part of war, something most veterans never forget. But to kill an enemy soldier with your hands is something totally different, almost impossible to comprehend. The memory of silently plunging a bayonet into his foes remains vivid to Mims. “It wasn’t easy,” said Mims. “But if you are hungry and that is the only way to get food, would you not do it? Or, would you go out someplace and just die? That’s the way I felt about it. It wasn’t that I wanted to be cruel. We couldn’t just wound them because then they would talk and tell who did it.” As the days turned into weeks and the weeks gave way to months, the Japanese slowly pushed the defenders all the way down the peninsula. Despite putting up a gallant fight, the Americans and Filipinos had no chance of winning a battle of attrition. Disease, hunger and a lack of medical supplies were becoming just as deadly of an enemy as the Japanese. In the three months of fighting on Bataan, Mims was wounded five times. “I don’t know how I made it,” said Mims. “I didn’t see a doctor one time. The good Lord was looking out for me.” As the Japanese relentlessly bombed and shelled the defenders, some men began to crack under the constant strain. Mims suffered one of his wounds while saving the life of a second lieutenant suffering from shell shock. The officer began wandering around in the open during an artillery barrage and Mims was forced to tackle him and drag him to safety. “He was out of it,” said Mims, who was hit by shrapnel during the attack. “He didn’t even know he was in the war.” While some men clung to the hope that a massive naval armada would arrive soon with supplies and reinforcements, most realized the end was near. “We knew better than that,” said Mims. “We figured out that we were left by ourselves.” On April 9, 1942, the battle for Bataan finally came to a close. More than 75,000 American and Filipino troops surrendered to the Japanese invaders. Combat, malnutrition and disease had taken a tremendous toll on the defenders during the three-month battle. The worst, however, was yet to come. As the defeated defenders began walking toward prison camps more than 70 miles away, they were beginning a trek of death and cruelty that would epitomize the heartless nature of combat in the Pacific Theater. The Bataan Death March had begun. (Part three of this story will appear in next week’s edition.)
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Post by friscohare on Mar 21, 2012 14:42:41 GMT -5
Filipinos' sense of camaraderie proven during infamous 'Death March'[/u][/url][/size] (ZamboNews, 03/21/12) MANILA — As the nation commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Fall of Bataan on April 9, Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) administrator Lt. Gen. (ret.) Ernesto G. Carolina said that survivors of this crucial World War II battle was able to demonstrate their sense of camaraderie or "walang iwanan" spirit by helping less fortunate soldiers who have fallen behind during the "Death March" or the almost 130 trek to Bataan to Camp O' Donnell in Capas, Tarlac. Carolina made the statement during "Images of Valor and Victory" symposium held at Tejeros Hall, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Commissioned Officers Club, in Camp Emilio Aguinaldo, Wednesday morning. "If not for this sense of selflessness and sacrifice, Bataan and Corregidor would have fallen much earlier as they have faced overwhelming odds in their fight to preserve freedom and democracy from the invaders," Carolina emphasized. "And yet, despite having wounds and racked by malaria, beri-beri and other diseases acquired during that long tropical campaign, you never hesitated to pick or carry any of your fellow soldiers who have fallen along the way, thus sparing another Filipino from the cruel bayonets of the enemy," he pointed out. He lauded the World War II veterans present in the affair and said that their sacrifices and love of country allow future generations of Filipino to build a better place and system of governance. Carolina said this can be attested by the fact that Filipino soldiers, mostly youth reservists, have held the line in Bataan and Corregidor for almost four months, giving Allied troops in the Asia-Pacific region time to reorganize their defense and counter-offensive in Australia. He also appealed to the youths to emulate the example of Filipino World War II veterans as the former is the driving force behind change. "Know your country and have the sense of pride to be a Filipino, only by doing so you can be active agents of change," the PVAO chief stressed. In line with this, Philippine Historical Association president Dr. Celestina P. Boncan, one of the speakers in the event, observed that Filipinos have answered the call to arms three times and in all those occasions, the call was for them to defend the country against a foreign oppressor. "Filipinos have answered the call to arms in three occasions, the first one in 1896 to 1898 in an attempt to free the country from Spanish domination, the second in 1899 to 1901 during Filipino-American war, and the third during 1941 to 1945 in a heroic attempt against the Japanese invader," she said. And during all those instances, Filipinos volunteering for this noble enterprise, are often under-equipped, ill-fed and faced overwhelming enemy superiority in firepower and men, thus making their struggles more harder. "And yet despite this lack, Filipinos, most especially the youth, have no difficulty in volunteering and answering calls to defend the motherland," Boncan emphasized. She also reiterated Carolina's call to the youth to emulate the World War II veterans' sense of service and love for country, so that the Philippines could become a better place.
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Post by friscohare on Mar 22, 2012 7:49:48 GMT -5
Remembering the Japanese Occupation, Bataan Day on April 9[/u][/url][/size] (ZamboTimes, 03/21/12) MANILA — The Philippines, occupied by Japan’s Imperial troops in the early 1940s, will mark on April 9, soon after the Holy Week, what is described as Araw ng Kagitingan or Day of Valor. This recalls as well the victory of the Japanese against Filipino soldiers and their American Allies for three days in the scorching summer heat in 1942, four months after Japanese carrier planes attacked the US Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor. At the same time, the date marks the beginning of what is known in this Southeast Asian archipelago as the Bataan Death March, the forcible transfer by the victorious Japanese troops of 76,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war after the three-month battle in Mount Samat in Bataan. The 112-km march, which began at Mount Samat overlooking Manila Bay, has been characterized in historical accounts with massive physical abuse and murder. Accounts say the Death March, which ended eventually at the concentration camp in Capas, Tarlac, resulted in high fatalities inflicted on prisoners and civilians alike by the Japanese Army. The Pearl Harbor attack prompted the United States to declare war against Japan. The war in the Pacific theater had begun. Germany and Italy, both allies of Japan, declared war against the United States and Britain, igniting the global war. The war in Europe itself was triggered by the invasion of Poland by the Germans on Sept. 1, 1939. But the war was fundamentally a conflict between two ideologies: democracy and totalitarianism. When Japan was included in the alliance of Germany and Italy, they were called the Axis Powers. By 1941, Japan, with an expanding population, was on its way to conquer other territories, two of which were Manchuria and Indochina. This brought the Philippines yet again on the war map after Emperor Hirohito’s Imperial Forces and Kamikaze fighters occupied the country for three years and put their foot down on civil liberties. The three years of Japanese occupation also saw the immediate birth of the resistance movement. Even before the entry of the Japanese in Manila, guerrilla units had been formed for what was believed, wrongly, a short stay in the country of the enemy from the Land of the Rising Sun. The guerrillas did three major functions: one, to ambush or otherwise kill enemy soldiers and civilians; two, to relay important intelligence reports to Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Australia, like size of army, troop movements, number of Japanese ships, disposition of troops, activities of the Japanese Military Administration headed by a Director General who was an Army officer, and other necessary intelligence information; and, three, to liquidate spies and Japanese sympathizers. Among the fiercest battles were fought on the scorched slopes of Mount Samat, from which today tourists, foreign and local, can have a glimpse of Corregidor Island, which was part of the war front in the second World War. Again, next month, Filipinos -– and representatives from the United States and Japan, mainly -– will mark the gallantry of Filipino and American allies who fought for freedom against the Japanese. The allies surrendered on April 9, 1942 to the Imperial Forces, in the words of its commanding officer Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainright Jr., “to end the useless effusion of blood” on the peninsula. It was on the slopes of Mt. Samat that battle-scarred and exhausted American and Filipino soldiers surrendered to the Japanese, ending the organized resistance of the US Armed Forces in the Far East in the early months of the Pacific war. Only 54,000 men, including some from Pinili in Ilocos Norte, survived the subsequent “Death March” of 112 kms on hot, dusty roads across the Bataan peninsula to San Fernando in Pampanga before the train ride to a piteously congested prison camp in the now lahar-devastated Central Luzon Plains town of Capas, Tarlac. The town is about 10 kms northwest of the site of the Kamikaze -– sometimes referred to as the Divine Wind -– Airfield in Mabalacat, off the northeast perimeter fence of Clark Economic Zone. But many, decades after the notorious Death March, waited in vain for justice. In March 2004, one of those who participated in the Death March, retired Col. Bartolome Gacad, wore on his death bed a T-shirt that read “Justice for the Filipino WW II veterans.” It was a powerful reminder of a controversy that had resonated for six decades, after what military historians had described as one of the worst atrocities of World War II. Each passing year, the veteran lines were getting thinner. But their search for justice was a continuing, if painful, drama. This year, the painful drama will be re-enacted yet again. A shrine on Mount Samat called Dambana ng Kagitingan itself commemorates the memory of the “gallant men who chose to die rather than surrender.” As in years past, veterans, war widows, dependents and other pilgrims would converge on Mount Samat to mark the day when US Maj. Gen. Edward King trudged down the hill to give up to Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma after holding out for 120 bloody days. It was in the same peninsula where the US Armed Forces in the Far East retreated and regrouped for their stand against the Japanese invaders.
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Post by friscohare on Mar 22, 2012 7:52:45 GMT -5
Scott Air Force Base to memorialize the Bataan Death March with 12.6 mile march[/u][/url][/size] (BND.com, 03/20/12) Teams of personnel at Scott Air Force Base will memorialize the Bataan Death March Sunday with a 12.6 mile march around the flightline. The annual memorial Bataan Death March is held at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico to honor National Guard members who were part of the march in April 1942. American and Filipino soldiers serving in the Philippines surrendered to Japanese forces on April 9, 1942, and were forced to march for days in scorching heat through jungles along an 80-mile route. More than 10,000 died during the march. The memorial march at Scott Air Force Base will begin at 7 a.m. Sunday. The march at Scott will be similar to the event in New Mexico. Teams of five must work together to finish the event all within 20 seconds of each other while carrying backpacks loaded with 10, 20 or 35 pounds and wearing military uniforms, including combat boots. "Military members across the globe have wanted to participate," said Air Force Tech. Sgt. Stacy Trucott with the 375th Security Forces Squadron. "Due to deployments, funding and other obligations most are unable to make it to New Mexico. So we are going to hold our own event here. Holding the event at Scott will allow more people to honor their sacrifices."
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