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Foundation of New Mexico, Inc.
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Charles Sagash
btw. 1945-1949
A Japanese guard
broke an axe handle over Charles
Sagash's back. He refused to go down
because he knew he would be a goner
if he left his feet.
Post-war,
Charles Sagash re-enlisted and
served 4 years in the Army Air
Corps.
Courtesy of
Susan Sagash & Edward Lycka |
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Charles Gurdon Sage |
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“When promoted to General [post-war], he
brought out two tin stars — made with
hand-tooled molds and scrap tin by his
officers and men while in the Japanese
prison camp.” |
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Colonel Sage is
Prisoner of Japs
JAN. 20, 1943 — Col. C.
G. Sage, Deming editor-soldier, is prisoner
of the Japanese.
First official word of
the fate of the commander of the New Mexico
200th Anti-Aircraft regiment, came yesterday
to his wife from the war department.
The notification said he
was held at Taiwan in the Philippines where
the colonel commanded the 200th during the
battle against the Japanese.
According to reports,
the regiment conducted a delaying action
against the enemy which enabled General
MacArthur’s men to make a retreat to Bataan
where they held off the Japanese for months.
For his action in that
battle, Colonel Sage was awarded the
Distinguished Service Cross. The medal was
presented to Mrs. Sage in ceremonies
recently at Santa Fe.
* * *
Colonel Sage was placed
in command of the newly organized Groupment
A (AA March 21, 1942. On April 7th,
Groupment A became the Philippine
Provisional Coast Artillery Brigade (AA),
comprised of all elements of the 200th and
515th, with Sage designated as Brigade
Commander. On the 8th of April, the Brigade
was ordered to destroy its anti-aircraft
equipment and organize as an infantry unit
and hold a line near Cabcaben. When, [then]
LtGen Edward P. King surrendered Bataan on
April 9th, the New Mexico Brigade was the
last organized unit left standing to face
the enemy, and the last to lay down their
arms.
In August 1942, Colonels
Sage and Peck were moved to Karenko POW camp
on Formosa (now Taiwan) where they remained
until October 1944 when they were
transported to Chen Chia Tung, Manchuria on
the Oryoku Maru (not the fateful voyage of
December ‘44). In May 1945, the Colonels
were transferred to Mukden where they would
be liberated in August 1945.
In September 2000, Fort
Bliss Army Base renamed one of its
chapels to Sage Hall in memory
of Maj. Gen. Sage who died in 1967.
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MAJ General
Sage's Bench
NM Veterans
Memorial Park
Dedicated by His
Daughters |
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Felix Salas
1923 - 2009 |
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Jesus Santos
The RKO Radio Pictures
“Back to Bataan” (1945) features, at the
beginning and at the end of the film, men
who were rescued from Cabanatuan Prison Camp
in January 1945. The 515th's Jesus Santos is
seen at the end of the movie. |
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Roy Schmid
AUG. 19, 1945 — The
first Roswell youth to lose his life was Roy
Schmid, 22, a former student of Roswell High
school and son of Mr. and Mrs. Jakob Schmid,
who live on the Berrendo. Young Schmid was
killed on the Philippine Island of Luzon
Dec. 10, 1941.
Roswell Daily Record
According to eyewitness
Cone Munsey, E Battery 200th Coast
Artillery, when the first bombs struck Clark
Field on December 8, 1941, Roy Schmid and
Douglas Sanders were hit and killed
instantly. Schmid and Sanders were the first
and only deaths from the 200th on that first
day. |
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Agapito ‘Gap’ Silva
“Probably one of the
most human stories was told to me by a
Bataan survivor who was from New Mexico,
Agapito “Gap” Silva. Gap’s father was
employed in the railroad yards in Gallup,
worked the night shift, and every night when
no one else was around, would go out in the
railroad yards, pray to God and cry about
Gap every night. The wind was very strong at
night in the desert and the doctors later
said that it was the wind drying up his tear
ducts that made him blind. When Gap came
home, he wondered why his father didn’t run
to greet him. When he got to the older man,
his father felt his face and Gap says, ‘Oh,
that was the hardest thing I ever had to
bear in all my experience.’”
— Linda Goetz Holmes
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Veterans
Day 2004, Arlington National
Cemetery, Agapito Silva, National
Commander ADBC (right of wreath). |
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The driving force in the
long effort to build the Bataan Memorial at
Bataan Memorial Park in Albuquerque, New
Mexico, Agapito Silva often said, “One day
my children will have children; I want them
to be able to come to the Park, point to my
name and say, ‘There is Agapito Silva, my
grandpa, he was at Bataan.’”
Agapito Silva passed
away at his home in Albuquerque on June 17,
2007.
Congresswoman Wilson’s Tribute on the Floor
of the US House of Representatives |
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Major
Cash T. Skarda
of Clovis, New Mexico,
upon his arrival at Hickam Field en route to
the Unites States after liberation.
[US Army Signal Corps] |
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Arthur & Bessie Smith
“He and I were on the
High Finder (a telescopic range finder). We
were the first to see the Japanese bombers
over Clark Field.”
— Manuel Armijo, Santa
Fe
Arthur Smith died at his
home in Santa Fe on July 22, 2001. |
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Joe Stanley Smith
Elementary
Carlsbad, New Mexico
WE CARE, WE SHARE, WE
HELP ONE ANOTHER
On November 18, 1951,
Joe Stanley Smith Elementary School was
dedicated and named for Bataan veteran, Joe
Stanley Smith of Carlsbad and Albuquerque.
“Life” magazine carried
an
article about
Smith’s first battle, and “Newsweek”
followed with an article about his life.
After repatriation,
Smith worked for ex-Prisoners of War.
A War Claims Field
Representative on business in Washington,
D.C., Joe Smith was killed in a plane crash
November 29, 1949 in Dallas, Texas as he was
on his way home — his wife had just haven
given birth to their third child.
See:
One Last Request |
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SGT. MARK A. SMITH
ESTANCIA, N.M. — JAN. 1,
1943 — Technical Sgt. Mark A. Smith of
Estancia, grandson of the late J. A.
Constant, editor of the Estancia
News-Herald, is a prisoner of the Japanese
in the Philippines.
Sgt. Smith’s parents
received official notification yesterday
from the war department, bringing the total
to 95 New Mexico soldiers known to be
Japanese prisoners of war. |
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Timothy H. Smith
“He was among those
captured at Cabcaben. He was marshaled into
the first groups of the Death March moving
directly towards San Fernando instead of
Mariveles. He said that this saved his life
because they didn’t have to retrace their
steps back towards Cabcaben.”
— LCDR Bruce Smith,
Nephew |
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Walter Starkey Jr. |
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“A hell of a lot of
people today don’t even know what Bataan
was. I remember it every day ... every day.”
— Harry Steen, El Paso,
TX
April 9, 2002 |
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MacARTHUR’S MEN
Yesterday, you were our
boys,
At work, at school, at
play;
Then, your country
called you, and you are
“Mac Arthur’s Men”
today.
Oh, valiant band of
loyal men,
With your backs to the
China Sea,
As you bravely face
invading hordes,
To keep a people free.
While here at home, then
million hearts,
Are bowed each day in
prayer
That God will give you
strength and power
To keep Old Glory there.
But when the war clouds
drift away,
And you come home again,
A page in History waits
for you
Who are “MacArthur’s
Men.”
— Ivadell Carr Stober
Mother of Carl A. Stober,
Jr.
February 5, 1942
Carl Stober's sister was
married to a brother of the 200th's Dean &
Junior Chalk. Stober and the Chalk brothers
died within days of each other at Camp
O'Donnell. |
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