Bataan (LHD 5) - Naval Cruise Book

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Thomas A. Craigg Jr. Earns the Title It Can Not be Inherited Nor Can it Ever be Purchased. You or No One Alive Can Buy it for Any Price. It is Impossible to Rent and It Can Not be Lent. You Alone and our Own Have Earned It with Your Sweat, Blood and Lives. You Own it Forever. The Title United States Marine On September 1 7, 1940 at the age of 22, Thomas A. Craigg Jr. enlisted in the Marine Corps. After he completed boot camp ii San Diego, he volunteered for Asiatic duty and was assigned to 4th Marine Regiment. The so called China Marines wen responsible for guarding American interests in China, Guam, Wake and Midway Islands. When the war broke, Craigg s regimeni fell under the Army control, and he was sent to the Bataan Peninsula. When supplies ran out for the thousands of American Philippine and volunteering forces, Craigg was swept away in the sea of prisoners and taken by the Japanese on the Bataan Deatl March to Camp O ' Donnell. Craigg survived the trauma and horrors of captivation on Bataan and went on to serve the Corps foi ; 22 years, retiring in 1963. Awarded the Bronze Star in 1992, the North Carolina resident is currently awaiting word of an aware | of the Silver Medal... 1 NOYEMBKR 11, 1992 - Private First Class Thomas A. Craigg Jr., United States Marine Corps is presented the Bronze Star Medal for services rendered against Japanese enemy forces for the Defense of Bataan and Corregidor from 7 December 1941 to 10 May 1942. 226

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leftthai 4 One of them dropped a note attached to a can of corned beef that read: If you need help, form a circle. We got out there i and formed a circle, Gray said. There were 200 of us. That 11 was a big day. The bombers flew back over us and told us to meet them on the beach. They brought medics and stuff. B- ;: 29s flew over us and dropped food clothes, medicine, you ' d 3e amazed how much. When the men saw the parachutes, they iiad one thought - We have some stars! There was one boy who had been working, patching the Japanese guards ' iniforms, said Gray. It took us a couple of days to make it, ; but we got to work on pulling those nylon parachutes apart, 1 ind we got a flag made up. We were all ready to put the stars m it... and broke the needle. No one had another needle, but Gray told the men not! :o worry. He told them that he would make a needle. I made i needle out of a piece of barbed wire. And that ' s what those 1 stars were sewn on that flag with. We flew that flag and there were some that were so choked up that they could hardly raise •heir hands to put over their hearts. There was many a tears ;hed there. .othefirepk I faced Ge did Hegotti on my rib cf enlaotthisoo ; dintoa4-fw retch out Ob ■ [ survived $ . ere next to ho m. hwji j state, a: ' he number i found all of It t •radio. H ' Ai then that j over for to K -ed that we .-p-O-foo rsThemeow the dljj . S. Gray poses with U. S. Flag and POM Flag. Gray lives in Greenwell Springs, La., with his wife Alyne.

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Bataan Death March