Late Medal for Bataan

APR. 10, 1999 — Albuquerquean Charles Iskra receives a long-overdue medal Friday from N.M. National Guard Gen. Melvyn Montaño. Iskra, with the 200th Coast Artillery in World War II, was taken prisoner in the Philippines in 1942 and survived the Bataan Death March, which began 57 years ago today. The military thought Iskra had died. Not until he saw his name listed among the dead at the Bataan Memorial Museum in Santa Fe was the error discovered.

— Albuquerque Journal

Charles Iskra passed away on December 4, 2003.

Charlie James

“When we surrendered ... a Japanese soldier came to me, he was ready to rip my dog tags off my neck until he saw a small medal with the Blessed Virgin attached to the dog tag chain. He asked if I was a Christian. I told him that I was. For some reason he let me keep my tags and medal.”

Photo Courtesy of Charlie James

To read more, click here.

Toney James

Veterans Memorial Ceremony

Window Rock, Arizona

Courtesy of Morris Bitsie

Buren Johnston

Fukuoka POW Camp 23

Santa Fe, New Mexico

April 9, 2010

“If somebody asks questions, I talk about it. I have a hard time getting my breath when some of these things come up. I’m not a hero. I’m just a survivor. I think that's what most of us feel.”

— Morgan Jones

April 9, 2002

Lucy Wilson first met Dan Jopling when the Regiment was training at Fort Bliss in the summer of 1941. They were meet to again in the Philippines.

One of the first Red Cross nurses called to active duty in the Army, Lucy Wilson escaped Bataan one day before the surrender and was evacuated on the last submarine out of Corregidor on May 3, 1942. She returned to the Philippines as a Flight Nurse in 1944.

Lucy and Daniel Jopling were married on December 5, 1945.

Major Daniel Jopling, also a veteran of the Korean War, retired with the Reserve rank of Lieutenant Colonel at Fort Sam Houston, Texas in May 1961. He began his service with the New Mexico National Guard as an enlisted man at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. He died in 1985.