“Every day [on Bataan] Photo Joe would fly over. We could hear him, but we couldn’t see him. He [Greg Gachupin] would squint hard and sure enough, he'd spot him, point and say, ‘There he is!’”

— William Overmier

B Btry. 200th CA(AA)

Evans Garcia

Photo by Dr. Don C. Salisbury

Facing a firing squad, Mr. Garcia chastised his Japanese executioners and gave them “the finger”. Impressed by his defiance, the guards beat him instead.

Pascual Garde was lost on the “Hell Ship” Arisan Maru. His brother Arthur (Arturo) died of dysentery at Camp O’Donnell. Their brother, Mariano was with the Army’s 6th Ranger Battalion that rescued 511 POWs in a daring raid on Cabanatuan prison camp. A fourth brother, Sebastian, joined the Marines. He was killed on the beaches of Tarawa.

Clipping courtesy of Henry J. Hein

Lee J. “Jack” Gardner

Deming, New Mexico 1946

William Edward Gateley

For his story, click here.

Reynaldo Gonzalez

[Lemitar 1] [Lemitar 2]

Reynaldo Gonzalez was one of the 200th men trucked to Camp O'Donnell by the Japanese.  During a “shakedown” upon arrival, he was found to have Japanese invasion pesos.  He was executed along with several other 200th men in a large group of 20-30 prisoners, all found to have items of Japanese origin.

Gonzalez's younger brother, Tony, died at the Battle of the Bulge in April 1945. A third brother, Milton, a veteran of the African campaign was sent home after his brothers were lost.

“It Tolled for New Mexico” notes that Lemitar had a population of 542 persons in 1940.

In 2002, Gonzalez's sister, Zella, recalled, “There weren't even 150 people living in Lemitar at the time.”

Whatever the case may be, the loss of two boys from the same family had to be devastating to that small community which lost five boys in WWII.

Sister Angela recalled, “Tony was the dare devil type . . . Rey was an angel . . . quiet and kind.”

Calvin Graef, one of the five soldiers who survived the destruction of the Arisan Maru, had already experienced the Bataan Death March and imprisonment in three Japanese POW camps. He rode typhoon waves in a lifeboat, faced the big guns of a Japanese destroyer ship on the hunt, and bonded with the common people of China in a united effort to ensure that he returned to his homeland again. While running from the Japanese across the Chinese Mainland, he escaped from their iron hand of tyranny by means of such conveyances as rickshaws, bicycles, disguises, and prayers.

[Book] [Calvin Graef]

More New Mexico Prisoners Freed

YOKOSUKA, Japan — AUG. 31, 1945 — Names of additional New Mexico prisoners of war liberated by special Third fleet missions include the following:

Pfc. Keyton F. Roberts, Lovington; Sgt. Lawrence A. Weisdorfer, Roy; Sgt. Willis P. Graves, Deming; Sgt. Joseph B. Gutierrez, Deming.