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World War II veterans honored for Asian dutyART SUR8ERStaff WriterIt was 43 years ago that the Philippines fell to the Japanese and thousands of American and Filipino fighters began the march that a handful completedDavid Garrett and Joseph Crea made the march from Bataan to Japanese prisoner of war camps, and they stood side-by-side last week when Bronze Stars were pinned on their chests at Tyndall Air Force Base,“It’s long overdue ” Rrilt;? GenRichard Pierson tolrt the retiredAir Force sergeants. Long overdue.Garrett and Crea didn't know each other when the Japanese attacked the Philippines a few' hours after the surprise attack onthe American fleet at Pearl Harbor.Garrett was at Nichols Field outside of Manila, repairing the radios of P-35 and P-40 fighters in the 17th Pursuit Squadron.Crea was in the Army at the time, teaching Filipino soldiers how to defend themselves against chemical warfare.When the Japanese landed their invasion force, they sent in veterans, landing 80,000 experienced fighters into the norhtern end of the Bataan Peninsula. The slogged through swamps and rice paddies facing Filipino riflemen, booby traps, American regulars and machine guns.Crea recalled the fighting, practically 24 hours a day for four months of shelling, of enemy troops, of snipers.“You get used to it, you’re trained to. We had something to fight,” Crea said.But much of the equipment was old, and the supplies were not limitless. Food ran low despite the bakeries, the slaughtered mules and water buffalo, the thousands of pounds of fish caught before the Japanese discovered and destroyed thej Wfishing boats. The fighters had to endure exhaustion and disease.And the United States was throwing its support behind the war in Europe The Philippines were given little helpThe stubborn resistance had toaiva '.rv1 U did On C(rpn Jonathon M Wain-wright — a man Crea still calls by his nickname, “Skinny ordered his troops to lay down their weapons and surrendered the island fortress of Corregidor in Manila Bay.“We didn't give up, we were surrendered. We’d be there yet if we’d had a little rice and a few-more planes,” Crea said.Crea was with the U.S. troops who had withdrawn down to the top of the Bataan Peninsula to hold it.Garrett had been put on coastal watch duty out side of Mariveles after the surviving airplanes andtheir pilots had been sent away. He was one of the Americans the Japanese collected at an airstrip, the beginning of the end formany.“I think Wainwright saw what was going to happen — either sur-render the place or get everybody slaughtered,” Garrettsaid.Garrett said none of the defenders of the Philippines doubted why they were there, or what the outcome of Japan’sSee Veterans, 2A
Newspaper Details
Panama City News Herald
Panama City, Florida, US
Mon, Nov 04, 1985
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Grace D.
USA 24 May 2022
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