Gordon A. Lee

Training Days - Fort Bliss

Photo courtesy of Wilma Ticer Bull

Sgt Gordon Lee, E Battery, 200th CA(AA) was reassigned to H Battery, 515th CA(AA) and promoted to 2Lt when that unit was formed after hostilities began on 8 December 1941. 2Lt Lee lost his life when the Hell Ship Shinyo Maru was sunk on 7 September 1944.

See: The Ticer Photographs

Jack Lewis’ Bronze Star

Deming Luna Mimbres Museum

Deming, New Mexico

Frank N. Lovato

“SURVIVOR”

[Book] [Video Clip]

News of soldiers in Philippines is varied for family

APR. 3, 1945 — Good and bad news came yesterday to the family of Pvt. Celso Lucero, who had been reported missing in action in the Philippines.

From the soldier, who was a cook with Battery D of New Mexico’s 200th, his wife and parents, Mr. and Mrs. Elojio Lucero of Albuquerque, received a letter saying, “I am well and on my way home.” It gave no details. The letter was their first word from Lucero in more than four years.

But the soldier’s relatives also were notified by the war department that his brother-in-law, Pvt. Uvaldo Garcia, died last Sept. 7 in a Philippines prison camp. He was the son of Miguel Garcia, Albuquerque.

The elder Lucero said there had been no word since the fall of Bataan to indicate his son was captured by the Japanese, and he felt sure the soldier had been fighting as a guerrilla.

At Santa Fe, Cpl. Henry W. Day, Barnsdale, Okla., another member of the 200th, told friends that “quite a few” of the New Mexico regiment fled to the hills rather than surrender.

“One of them came into the lines the day before I left Luzon,” Day reported.

He said there were others out in the hills.

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Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez declared April 7, 2002 “Celso Lucero Day.” The proclamation was presented to Mr. Lucero during the Bataan Memorial dedication ceremonies at Bataan Memorial Park.

Bataan Memorial Park

Albuquerque, New Mexico

“It’s him,” said Lillian Lujan, crying as she brushed her fingers across the name of her husband, Jimmie K Lujan. She was comforted by family members, all huddled under an umbrella during the dedication ceremonies for the newly extended Bataan Memorial in Bataan Memorial Park on April 7, 2002.

Jimmy K was from Taos Pueblo. He and his older brother, “Big Jim”, were attached to the 200th Coast Artillery's H Battery. Although not the last 200th man to die overseas, “Big Jim” was the last 200th man to die as a prisoner-of-war.

A third brother, Henry, also deployed to the Philippines, was shipped home in November 1941. He sailed with the SS Pierce and SS Coolidge — the two ships that brought 1st and 2nd Battalion (200th CA) to the Philippines in August and September 1941. In November, the ships were ferrying civilian evacuees out of Manila bound for San Francisco. On arrival in Hawaii on December 25, 1941, the ships took on wounded from the attacks at Pearl Harbor. The convoy arrived in San Francisco in later part of January 1942.