He was in the Navy at the time of Pearl Harbor, stationed in the Phillipines. He survived the fighting there, as well as the Bataan Death March, and was interned in a Japanese POW camp for 3 years.
In late 1944, the took him (and others) and moved them to camps on the mainland on "hell ships". Stale air, terrible heat and humidity, little food or water and unmarked, so that they were subject to immediate attack by US aircraft and submarines.
They put him in a new camp in Japan - just outside the city of Nagasaki.
And then, this man thanked ME for MY service! I still get choked up over this.
I have nothing but contempt for the America-hating clowns that infest this administration. They can't leave quickly enough!
Wow! Thanks for sharing and for your service.
Humbly,
FMOKM
I entered the Cub Scout and Boy Scout program in 1954. When I went into Scouts we had a Scoutmaster, who I knew into my adulthood, and other leaders including my father who were overseas vets from WWII or Korea.
They were very serious about the knowledge they imparted, the importance of preparation and discipline.
As I grew older I heard one share his experience surviving a ship sinking in shark infested waters and then I learned about our Scoutmaster. He had been shot down, put in a bamboo cage, paraded through the streets of Japan and survived as a prisoner of war. He self-published an account in the late 70s but I can’t find it now.
They understood the importance of the organization as founded by Baden-Powell. I was privileged thirty five years later to see that old scout troop at the area summer camp, H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation. They still wore the Ross plaid neckerchiefs, but the history of that Ross name (the Scoutmaster) was lost. So I got to sit down around the camp fire with 25 boys and 6 adults and tell them the history and about the bravery of the men that founded that Scout Troop, Troop 282.