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cansThere ing ipapered tlshoreanmvcrBrainseveralJapanesewar. Sgt.first froiPhilippines as mor Battalion.By LES SELLNOWIt was a bitter 29 degrees belowzero that February 10 night in1941. Eighty-five Brainerd National Guardsmen marched smartly from the armory to the train depot.In the lead was the lady’s drum and bugle corp which had turned out despite the cold and the 11 p. m. departure time to lead the soldiers in their march to the train and what they thought was one year of active duty.For many in that group the one-year tour turned into more than three years of living hell and for many more it was the last tour of anything on this earth.Names that they perhaps had only read about or heard about in the past were seared into their memories—the Phillipines, Luzon, Corregidor—as places where existed instead of lived orbecame their graves. There still another name that to this day brings a dread and sadness to many Brainerd homes.Bataan.29TH ANNIVERSARYToday marks the 20th sary of the Bataan Death March which, along with the years of imprisonment by Japanese, took the lives of sands of American soldiers, ing 43 young men from the erd area.There were 69 members of the Brainerd unit out of the 85left here that cold winter who sailed for the Philippines only 26 came back.Eight of the survivors still in Brainerd and the surrounding area. They are McComas, Lee MacDonald,Peck, A! Brown, Melvin Ahlgrim, Ken Gordon, Walt Straka, Ralph Hollingsworth.A large crowd was on hand at the depot here when the unit left. “I can never remember such a crowd,” Walt Straka recalled. “It was almost as though they had a premonition that something would happenTO FORT LEWIS From Brainerd theBATAAN SURVIVORS—These eight Brainerd area residents are among the few who survived the battle of Bataan and the following three and one-half years of imprisonment by the Japanese. Today marks the 20th anniversary of the surrender at Bataan. Special services are set at the armory beginning at 7:30 p. m. this evening to observe the event. A total of 43 men from the National Guard unit that left Brainerd never returned from the Philippines. Today the harsh treatment of their captors is just a memory for the eight men shown here, but it is a memory they will never forget. From left to right are Jim McComas, Ralph Hollingsworth, Ken Gordon, Melvin Ahlgrim, Henry Peck, Lee MacDonald, Ai Brown, and Walt Straka. (Dispatch Photo.)companywent to Fort Lewis, Washington, for training -and later from there 69 sailed for the ■in September of *41, months later when the struck, they were inSgt. Herbert Strobel was thefrom Brainerd to die when his tank, with the turret open, wasby mortar fire.a savage withdrawal to the south] until there was no longer anyuaiiji uicic was nuplace to withdraw. Surrender came on April 9, 1942, on the BataanPennisula.part of the 109th Armor They arrived on the islandUnable to halt the Japanese as saults on Luzon, the army foughtImmediately after the surrender the Death March began. Thesoldiers were placed in groups of and started north on foot toward Camp O'Donnell in the em part of the island. The duration and distance of the March variedwith the starting point and the Japanese guards in charge.u||today,|Freement, at a h menthe Gore City, said t]TheluxiFor some it was an almost steady movement day and night, while others marched steadily the heat of the day and restedat night.We marched 8 or 10 days, sort of lost track of time,”Lee MacDonald who today is arural mail carrier. “The guyscouldn’t march were killed, didn’t feed us, we had toBATAAN DAYContinued on Page 11SaturdCL1CubiciousdiversOrientthemTheyacht,. . M 1Cuba’s day w to JaiSpanisof Bataan—
Newspaper Details
Brainerd Daily Dispatch
Brainerd, Minnesota, US
Mon, Apr 09, 1962
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
James O.
USA 30 Oct 2019
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