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Page 224 text:
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USS B ATA AN Honors Battling Bgi During World War II, U. S. forces under General Douglas Mac Arthur retreated to Bataan Peninsula, on Luzon Island in the Philippines, after Manila fell to Japanese forces. In April 1942, some 12,000 American and 64,000 Philippine soldiers surrendered to Japanese forces in Mariveles, a town on the Bataan Peninsula. It was the largest surrender of U. S. forces in his- tory. Some Americans retreated further to Corregidor, an island off the southern end of the peninsula, hut they, too, surrendered in May 1942 after fierce resistance. The Japanese forced their U. S. and Philippine prisoners to march to north- ern Luzon under extremely desperate conditions; some 10,000 died and the march earned notoriety as the Bataan Death March. In February 1945, U. S. forces re-conquered Bataan. Today, the area of the Peninsula overlooking Manila Bay to the East is a Philippine national shrine. (Front: The Facts on File Encyclopedia of the 20th Century.) Sgt. J. S. Gray, US. Army Air Corps Bataan Death March Survivor If you have read the history of the Bataan Death March, you may already know of some of what the Battling Bastards of Bataan went through. You will know because historians have recorded it - but no one except for those who lived it can ever imagine the continuous chain of horror that they lived through. Still with us today are those who wal ked the seemingly endless march to disease-laden camps, only to be packed like human sardines in railroad cars then crammed inside dark cargo holds to be shipped to yet another prison camp. Most will tell you their story; others will tell you only what they think you should hear.. .or can handle. When they finish, I can promise you that you will never forget it. This year marks the 60th anniversary of their walk into living hell. This ship, their ship, and crew pays tribute to the them with the following true-life story of one of these survivors. Although just one man, his story is not unique. 1 lis story played out the same for thousands of those who walked the miles with him. It is not possible to list them all here, but il is lining that his story be told because it accurately reflects the story of Camp Donru ' ll c.- n.is ON FOOT I : — i - Hermosa OianiC ON FOOT .. BATAAN PENINSULA Marivetos San Fornando . us com . j they « :Philipp ineverb E Ml) OManil.i Cabcaben . kp so many others. This is the story of J. S. Gray, a survivor. Thi: year he will celebrate his 83 rd birthday with his wife, Alyne, at hi; home in Baton Rouge. Seven years ago, he told a newspape reporter Jeannie Smith about his ordeal. The following art ' excerpts of that story. Back in 1939 I would think that a 20-year-old who stoo 6 ' 2 and weighing in at 202 pounds would be considerec formidable, but that was not the case with J.S. He considerec himself a farm boy who was bored and wanted to get out fron behind the plow. He wanted to go somewhere other than up ant down the same rows of the same field. His decision to get of the farm and get out of Jonesville, La., brought him to the door of the nearest recruiting station. Gray and a friend hitched a rid to Barksdale Air Field and enlisted in what was then the Army Air Corps. By the end of the two-year mark, Gray was a corporal 1 thought this was a pretty good place to be, he admitted I got a $5-a-month raise. It was $21 a month when 1 starte out. I made an allotment to Mama for S5 each month, and tha went to her all through the war, Gray said, proudly. Gray ' s next assignment was as an Ordnanceman i Savannah, Ga., at Hunter Field. The accommodations were little less desirable. Gray and the men in his company lived i tents. In those days, we handled amis, ammunition, bomb and all of that for all of the airplanes, Gray explained. We di the synchronizing for all of the guns and planes. The company underwent extensive training, whic lasted until the Fall of 1941 shortly before the bombing c 220
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Page 223 text:
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t Her Majesty ' s Australian Ship HMAS BATAAN During World War II, the Australian heavy cruiser, HMAS CANBERRA was sunk along with American warships by the Japanese Task Force. With the loss of the Australian heavy cruiser, the United States government named their newest cruiser USS CANBERRA in honor of the heroic efforts of the Australians. The cruiser was christened by the wife of the Australian Minister to the United States. In return, the Australian government named their newest Tribal Class Destroyer BATAAN in honor of the gallant stand made by the Americans on Bataan Peninsula. The Austra- lian BATAAN was christened by Mrs. Jean MacArthur, wife of General Douglas MacArthur. Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific. Upon commissioning, HMAS BATAAN joined the American Seventh Fleet in the Philippines and Okinawa. HMAS BATAAN was present when the Japanese surrendered in Tokyo Bay, and stayed in the area where it picked up Americans and Filipinos who had been held in the POW camps by the Japanese since the early stages of the war. During the Korean Conflict, HMAS BATAAN was once again attached to the American Seventh Fleet. It was during this conflict that the American light aircraft carrier U.S.S. BATAAN (CVL 29) and the Australian heavy cruiser HMAS BATAAN built a unique kinship. The Australian ship provided protection for the American carrier, its sister ship, through many exchanges of enemy gunfire. The bond that developed between the crews aboard these two ships went well beyond their namesake ties and became evident to the other ships in the Task Force. : Comma ran Confj Designed by the crew, the seahorse represents BATAAN s natural association with the sea. The central path commemorates the Bataan Death March. The spears from a wedge underscoring amphibious assault and deployment of troops and cargo ashore, as well as combat readiness, while highlighting USS BATAANs battle stars. Bamboo alludes to the tropics and the Pacific theater where the first U.S.S. BATAAN (CVL 29) served. The wings represent the aviation heritage of the ship. The stars are for the seven battle stars earned during the Korean Conflict while the five points of the central star represent the World War II Battle stars. The mount suggests the mountainous terrain of Bataan. The sun is adapted from the seal of the Republic of the Philippines. The crossed swords represent the Navy-Marine Corps Team. 219
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Page 225 text:
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, kards of Bataan ' s 60th Anniversary Pearl Harbor. Although it had gone undetected, or ignored, oy the enlisted men, the mood among the officers was changing. Even when it was announced that some 300 men were being added and that the Ordnance Company Was being divided into three separate companies, no one Found it unusual. We didn ' t know what was taking place. It was all Greek to us, Gray said. We were still having a good time. We weren ' t worried about the war - it was only in Europe hen. In the midst of training, Gray ' s company received notice ;hat they were being moved to he Philippines. To Gray, who lad never been out of the United States and hardly across the Mississippi River, this was the quintessence of the life of the vorldly enlisted man. They left Savannah in style - aboard the SS Calvin Coolidge, :i cruise boat. I had a stateroom ill to myself, admitted the Recently promoted Sergeant. But there was another lign that something was remiss - Talfway from Hawaii to the Philippines, the sister ships that vere following with the ordnance :ompany ' s airplanes suddenly urned around. We were on deck me day and saw them all turn outh, Gray :xplained. We didn ' t know what was happening. We started traveling in a zigzag motion, and it vas all-lights-out at night. Something was up. Every me of us had a loaded .45 on our hip, but we didn ' t ;now what was going on. On Thanksgiving Day 1 94 1 , just 17 days before he bombing of Pearl Harbor, they landed on the ' hilippine Islands at Luzon. When we got there, we would go to Manila at light, to the honky-tonks and dance - but we still had a 45 on our hips. One night something happened that made Gray nd everyone else in his company understand. We were out on the town one Saturday night, and he MPs suddenly came in and said, ' Every soldier- head for our barracks! The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor! ' Man, we all headed for the barracks. When we ;ot there, some of the men didn ' t even know what was iappening. It took a couple of hours for everyone to be cow He com oudI - wake up, and then the officers had to get their orders. By daylight, we had loaded up all of the bombs and small-arm ammunition at Douglas Field. Although their actions were timely - it was still too little, too late. By the time they arrived at Clark Field it was under attack and everything that could fly was being destroyed. Gray ' s company headed back to Nichols Field in Manila, away from flying shrapnel as the Philippine Islands came under heavy attack by Japanese forces. Despite the fact that enlisted men viewed the attack on the Island as sudden. their superiors had anticipated it. Author E. Bartlett Kerr explained in his book, Surrender and Survival: The Experience of the American POWs in the Pacific 1941- 1945, that the American military had prepared long and hard for a Japanese attack. The American plan for defending the Philippines was called War Plan Orange-3 (orange was a color code for Japan; other potential enemies were assigned other colors). Officials stated in the plan that they anticipated a Japanese attack on Luzon, which was the principal island of the Philippine group. Luzon was important because it provided a base from which Japanese forces could seize the port city of Manila, which had a modern, strategically located harbor. The U. S. Plan recognized the superior military prowess of the Japanese forces. Part of the strategy called for abandoning Manila to the enemy and then withdrawing to lines on the Bataan Peninsula, an area dominated by jungles and mountains on the West Side of Manila Bay. The American troops on Bataan would provide land protection to nearby Corregidor and the three other heavily fortified islands whose guns protected the sea approaches to Manila Bay. The plan called for Bataan and Corregidor to be defended to the last extremity. Ideally, this would buy enough time to send an American fleet to steam out of Pearl Harbor, meet and defeat the Japanese fleet, and then proceed to the relief of the Philippine defense forces. It sounded good in theory, but it was a plan that few officers - if any - believed in. The salient fact ignored by the plan was that there simply were not sufficient troops and equipment to defend the Philippines for more than six months. Perhaps no one knew this better than the troops holed up in the Bataan jungle, waiting for the bombing to stop. After a week passed, they received grim orders. Gray and his company 221
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