U.S. Forces in Iraq Pay Tribute to Bataan Death March Victims

American Forces Press Service ^ | Spc. Stephanie Cassinos, USA

[SandRat]

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE BASRA, Iraq, May 11, 2009 – Eighty-six soldiers and civilians stationed here “joined” efforts with Minnesota National Guard soldiers in Minnesota to participate in the 12th Annual Bataan Memorial March yesterday.

A soldier marches through Iraq’s desert heat during the Bataan Memorial March held on Contingency Operating Base Basra, May 10, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Eric Jungels

  
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

The event honors veterans who were victims of the Bataan Death March, a war crime in which 78,000 servicemembers were forced to march more than 55 miles from the Bataan Peninsula to be held as prisoners of war at Camp O’Donnell following the surrender of Allied Forces in the Philippines in 1942.

Along the harsh journey, troops were beaten at random, denied food and water for days at a time and executed if they became weak and fell out of the march. As a result of the cruel treatment by the Japanese, who had not counted on transporting such a large number of POWs, nearly 20,000 servicemembers died.

Organizers of the memorial event, the Minnesota National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 194th Armor Regiment from Brainerd, Minn., hold a deep connection to the veterans of the Bataan Death March. In 1941, soldiers from the Brainerd Guard’s 194th Tank Battalion deployed to the Philippines and were attacked on the Bataan Peninsula by the Japanese. Those heroes fought for five months in sustained combat and experienced first-hand the atrocities of the Bataan Death March. Those who survived suffered in POW camps for three years after.

Soldiers from the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division and 10th Mountain Division stationed here showed their respect to fallen heroes and surviving veterans of the Death March by competing in 10- and 20-mile marches in both light and heavy divisions.

Maj. Thomas Sutton, with the 10th Mountain Division, was the first to complete the 20-mile light division march.

“This was a great opportunity,” Sutton said. “I just wanted to finish. But I went slow and kept a steady pace, and everything worked out.”

(Army Spc. Stephanie Cassinos serves with Multinational Division South.)

Related Sites:
Multinational Division South
Multinational Force Iraq

Related Articles:
Bataan Memorial Death March Honors World War II Soldiers

[SandRat]

FR WAR NEWS!
If you would like to be added to / removed from FRWN,
please FReepmail Sandrat.

WARNING: FRWN can be an EXTREMELY HIGH-VOLUME PING LIST!!

[WellyP]

I doubt Obama even knows what happened!

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

One of my Brother In Laws was a survivor of the Bataan death march.
He never talked about it.

[Monkey Face]

Obama doesn’t even know what happend 15 minutes ago. How the deuce would he know about WWII?

Nothing is real to him except money.

[crz]

I had an uncle who escaped from it. He always said the following was a favorite of the troops there.

We aint got no momma, we aint got no poppa and no Uncle Sam. All we got is nuthin, we’re the battling Bastards of Bataan

[VR-21]

[12Gauge687]

Few today know what real torture is. Abu Graihb? Hardly torture compared to what these American and Filipino troops went through. My father saw the handiwork of the Imperial Japanese Army in Nanking (now called Nanjing), China. The waterway there was so thick with bodies you could almost walk across it. The water was red from blood for weeks. Now, that was torture and murder.

[Carley]

Few in history, not even the nazi’s could top the brutality and cruelty of the barbaric japanese.

[Owl558]

“One of my Brother In Laws was a survivor of the Bataan death march.”

I have an uncle Ernesto who was also a survivor of Bataan. He was in the New Mexican Guard unit that surrendered there. He is gone now, God bless him. He survived by volunteering to cobble boots for the Japanese (lied about being a cobbler). He shared his extra rice ration with his friend, who ultimately didn’t make it because of wounds suffered on the march.

Bless them all!

[Doctor Don]

I knew a man, Bill Zumar, of Comanche, Oklahoma who survived the Bataan Death March. He was sent to Japan on one of the “Hell Ships”. He worked in a coal mine across the bay from Nagasaki where the second atomic bomb fell. He returned to the States and died circa 1997. He was always my HERO!

[billorites]

"Few in history, not even the nazi’s could top the brutality and cruelty of the barbaric japanese."

The strange thing is they make such bloody good cameras...

[Cheetahcat]

My next visit to the Philippines I will make sure to pay my respects to these brave Men!