362436 (Ron) wrote:

My last day on active duty at Ft. Knox in 1984, I was walking out of
the US Army Armor and Engineer Board, on the way to drive to the
Officer's Club for a last drink with a friend. An old guy and his
wife (he thought I was an EM because he didn't recognize subdued
insignia) asked me to take a picture of him in front of a static
monument armored vehicle. It turned out that he'd been in the
Philippines in December 1941 in a National Guard tank batallion.
Really nice old guy, and pretty cheerful for somebody who survived the
Bataan Death March....


There were many from here in New Mexico that were at Bataan. NM had a large
number of people there, because of the guard units that were sent there.

The 200th and 515th Anti-Aircraft Artillery. I haven't been to the museum
in Santa Fe yet, but if any of the regulars here are ever in Albuquerque,
there's a quiet memorial in Bataan Memorial Park on Lomas just west of
Carslile.

If you do visit, take the time to count the number of men who didn't make
it home - something like half.

A big uproar happened a couple years ago, when some leftist hippy peace group
wanted to put a memorial up in Santa Fe for the Japanese, and the Bataan
survivors were none too happy about that.

Completely understandable, given the survivors' treatment on the march.

George

/------------------------------------------------------------\
| George Ruch |
| "Is there life in Clovis after Clovis Man?" |
\------------------------------------------------------------/