Cannon members march to honor Bataan POWs

Air Force Link ^ | Airman 1st Class Elliott Sprehe, USAF

[SandRat]

3/31/2008 - CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFPN) -- "Sand, hills and pain," an elderly marcher said, describing the 26.2 mile Bataan Memorial Death March, held March 30 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.

The annual march, in its 19th year, honored the men and women forced to march 60 miles by Japanese soldiers, and in thousands of instances died, in the Bataan Death March during World War II.

More than 4,400 Airmen, Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and civilians participated in the march and experienced, in small part, what many thousands of American and Filipino soldiers went through after surrendering to Japanese forces in April 1942.

"You can read about it, listen to things about it, and watch movies about it," said 2nd Lt. John Fuson, assigned to the 27th Special Operations Civil Engineer Squadron. "But to come out here and participate in it gives you a little bit of a taste of what they went through to really truly honor them."

Lieutenant Fuson and his five-man 27th SOCES team did the full memorial march in uniform with 35-pound rucksacks, which were the requirements of the military team "heavy" category.

The marathon snakes through terrain that changed from asphalt to deep sand and rugged hills with an alternate 15.2-mile march available to participants.

The missile range where the memorial march took place is located almost 300 miles away from Cannon Air Force Base near the White Sands National Monument.

The march route is a dry, sandy and hilly 26.2 miles with vertical elevation changes of 1,000 feet. Numerous Cannon AFB Airmen stepped up to the challenge for both personal reward and reflection.

Staff Sgt. Angelito Cooper of the 27th Special Operations Logistics Readiness Squadron and Staff Sgt. Rhallete Javier from the 27th SOCES, did the march to remind them of a part of their history. Both sergeants are Filipino-Americans and marched in the military individual "light" category, for which they had to be in full uniform for the duration of the march.

"I'm trying to take part in history," Sergeant Javier said. "I heard stories about (the Bataan Death March) from my parents and grandparents. I want to have stories for my kids, to tell them I did (the memorial march)."

Sergeant Javier was born in the Philippines and his mother was raised in Bataan, while Sergeant Cooper's grandfather was part of a Filipino-resistance group fighting against the Japanese occupation during World War II.

"I'm here to pay respect for the men and women who died on the Bataan Death March," Sergeant Cooper said. "And also to honor my fellow countrymen."

The march was only a portion of the events held, as Bataan survivors were on hand to meet people and recount their personal stories.

Carlos Montoya, a Bataan March survivor and native of Albuquerque, spoke about his ordeals, from being stationed in the Philippines in 1941 to becoming a prisoner of war in Japan until 1945.

"As we were marching, I came across a dead Japanese soldier. Underneath his body there was a manila envelope with pictures of his family and correspondence from classes he had been taking at a Chicago university," Mr. Montoya said.

Mr. Montoya held onto the envelope and pictures even as people within his unit wanted some of the pictures. He didn't give them up because he wanted to eventually send the full contents of the envelope back to the dead Japanese soldier's family.

When the Japanese soldiers invaded the island he was on, Mr. Montoya knew he had to get rid of the envelope.

"I buried the envelope and when we got to the next camp, they searched everyone for Japanese articles, pictures and such," he said. "Anybody that had anything on them was taken away and killed."

Mr. Montoya's story is just one of many reminders of the sacrifices U.S. Soldiers and others have made to protect America's freedoms.

[SandRat]

Bataan Death March survivor Carlos Montoya shakes hands with some of the more than 4,400 participants in the 19th Annual Bataan Memorial Death March March 30 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Military units from all 50 states as well as more than a dozen foreign countries gathered to honor the men who endured the death march in 1942 and prisoner of war hardships until 1945. (U.S. Air Force photo/Greg Allen)

[VR-21]

As a child of one of the men of Corregidor, I knew several men who were “The battling bastards of Bataan.” I anguish in the fact that their stories have never been told as they should have. God rest them all, and may we as a nation be worthy of them.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

My Brother in law was a survivor of the Bataan Death March.
He would never talk about it.

[OSTATE]

A gentleman in my home town I knew growing up went thru Bataan.

Cecil said when they were liberated in Japan they lined up the cadre and let all of the POWs take one swing at them and to quote him “you think us 90 pound bruisers didn’t swing from the ground”.

He had he front teeth knocked out when a Japanese Officer walked into the room and was so short his saber was bouncing off the floor. Cecil thought that was funny and laughed and a Japanese soldier hit him in the mouth with a rifle butt knocking out his front teeth.

[ops33]

I remember from when I was stationed at Cannon that the Bataan Death March is significant in New Mexico because one of the units captured at Corrigidor was from the New Mexico National Guard.

[SandRat]

BSA Troop 444 marches every year in this.

[I still care]

My uncle is a Bataan survivor. He wrote a book on it. He was a prisoner of the Japanese for the duration, saw the bomb on Nagasaki, was a forced laborer in the mines, survived a prison ship - I can’t even go through here what he endured. He used to give talks on it.

He is still alive, but I don’t think he was able to make the march this year.

[DocRock]

I used to travel around the country doing trade shows with my father's business. As a late teenager, I was on a trip when we were scheduled into Boston when a freakish, out of season, blizzard hit. I remember it was a Sunday and nobody was on the downtown streets. Our tire tracks were the only ones on some streets. Because we had out thousands of invitations to our show, we sat up our wares in a convention hall and nobody came. However, right across the hall was a “Survivors of the Bataan Death March Reunion” and I spent the entire day speaking with survivors. The place was packed as they weren't going to let a little snow stop them.

Amazing men...