Charge Veteran Did Not Get Proper Care

CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) — APR. 26, 1948 — The national president and a director of the Bataan Veterans organization have asserted that John C. Barberia, 28-year old veteran of Bataan, had not received proper medical treatment by the veterans administration.

Barberia, of Carlsbad, died last Wednesday in a veterans hospital in Fort Logan, Colo.

The statement came from Lt. Col. Virgil O. McCollum, Carlsbad, national president of the Bataan Veterans, and Joe S. Smith, Albuquerque, BVO director.

Specifically, the BVO officers said the veterans administration hospital at Albuquerque failed to diagnose properly and treat Barberia’s ailment.

See: “Remember the Heroes”

Julio Barela

Philippines Pre-war

Robert Maxwell Blattman

“The young men who died here gave testimony with their life blood to their convictions as soldiers and patriots. We, the living, carrying in our bodies, the scars of the conflict, will remember those days and our comrades.

“Grant all nations the wisdom to avoid war in the future. But, if some are impervious to wisdom, always raise up the good as your mighty force to crush evil underfoot.”

— Major Dow Bond

H Battery, Taos, New Mexico

December 15, 1984, Olangapo City, Philippine Islands, in memory of 1,200 American prisoners of war who died on December 15, 1944 when the Japanese “Hell Ship,” the Oryoku Maru, was sunk in Subic Bay.

Phillip Box, the son of Minter Box, receives medals awarded posthumously to his father during the Bataan Memorial Ceremony in Santa Fe on 9 April 2000. Minter Box was killed in a tractor accident in 1966.

Left to right: Lt. Commander William J. Gailbraith, USN, Lt. Col. Donald Spicer, USMC, and Cpt. Jack K. Boyer, 200th Coast Artillery, raise American flag at Rokuroshi POW Camp after liberation.

Signal Corps Photograph. 111-SC-224001. National Archives.

Also See: Foy E. Pribble & New Mexico's Victory Ships

Father Albert Braun

Arrives in Oahu after liberation en route to New Mexico

A special exception was made with the inclusion of Father Braun's name on the Bataan Memorial. Father Braun was actually attached to the 45th Infantry, 91st Coast Artillery, but considered an honorary member of the 200th Coast Artillery. At the urging of the Regiment's Chaplain Ted Howden, Father Braun came over from Corregidor each week and said Mass for the 200th's Catholic troops on Bataan. In Reverend Ted Howden's last days at the prisoner of war camp at Davao, Father Braun nursed him and gave him comfort.

[US Army Signal Corps]

SSgt Charles M. Burrus

Regimental HQ Battery

515th Coast Artillery

Died Camp O'Donnell

June 4, 1942

Photo courtesy of Molly Daniel. Ms. Daniel has been collecting histories of Arenzville, Illinois veterans for the last several years. She tells us that Charles Burrus’ brother, Jack, a WWII veteran himself, met Tom Welsh and Gunnar Sacson, both members of the 200th Coast Artillery, in the 1980s. Tom Welsh was with SSgt Burrus at the time of his death at Camp O'Donnell, and was able to give “Jack great comfort and removed the agony of not knowing any more than the ‘official’ story” behind Charles’ death.

Rhodun Martin Bussell

POW #123 Mukaishima

One of three men who raised the FIRST American flag to fly over the Japanese on August 18, 1945 at Mukaishima prisoner-of-war camp, Honshu Island, Japan.

Also see notes for:

Clifford Omtvedt

In the year of ’41

Still fresh in my mind

On the 8th day of December

War was declared

Around 12 noon

When the event took place

The Japanese attack came

Clark Field was bombarded

The airplanes left

And everything went silent

Dead and injured were left

In large numbers

There were so many injured

That the total was very large

They were picked up from the field

And taken straight to the hospital

Those poor pilots

My heart hurts for them

They were all killed

Right next to their planes

The American Pilots

They were great flyers

They were caught by surprise

They could not take off

We completed the four months

On the 8th of April

We could no longer fight

We had to surrender

And when we finally surrendered

I don't want to remember

They put us in ranks

and made us march

We marched from Mariveles

Right to San Fernando

They shoved us on a train

Right to Camp O'Donnell

We arrived at Camp O'Donnell

Late around 2

They puts us inside the fence

And guards around it

Ay! The ungracious Japanese

They had no compassion

They have us here suffering

In this concentration camp

They worked us with pick and shovel

All blessed day long

They did not want to feed us

Except for a little plate of rice

With this I say good-bye

With the pain in my heart

And just to be thinking

How sad this prison was

If you want to know who I am

I will give you my name

Lorenzo Ybarra Banegas

I will see you very soon

*  *  *

See WWII veterans recall the Bataan Death March of 1942. Interspersed with clips from a recording of the “Corrido de Bataan” from the Smithsonian Institution’s Corridos Sin Fronteras - A New World Ballad Tradition. Includes the 200th’s Lorenzo Banegas, Ruben Flores, Cash Skarda and Virgil Sherwood. (Requires Quick Time Player)