Bataan Death March

Today’s #VeteranOfTheDay is Army Veteran Willis Lee Benton, a prisoner of war who survived the Bataan Death March.

This week’s America250 salute is Army Air Forces Veteran William Edwin “Ed” Dyess, who survived the Bataan Death March and led an escape.

Today’s #VeteranOfTheDay is Army Veteran Walter Bernard Straka, a 101 year old and the last survivor of the Bataan Death March from Minnesota.

On the anniversary of the Bataan Death March, today’s #VeteranOfTheDay is Air Force Veteran Wild Bill Begley, one of the survivors.

April 9th is National Former POW Recognition Day, which remembers the 1942 surrender and beginning of the 85-mile Bataan Death March where thousands of American and Filipino troops died.

Irvin Scott, a Marine Corps private first class in World War II, was imprisoned by the Japanese for more than three years. He survived the infamous Bataan Death March, one of the greatest war-time atrocities, and was liberated in 1945.

Today’s #VeteranOfTheDay is Army Veteran Antonio Reyna, who served during World War II and survived the Bataan Death March.

The Japanese forced William Allen and the American soldiers to walk more than 60 miles in ten days from the Bataan Peninsula to the O’Donnell prison camp.

Amado Ante enlisted with the Philippine Scouts in February 1941 at the age of 22. Just five months later, he joins the 12th Quartermaster Regiment, Company B, supporting the U.S. Army's Philippine Division.

Shelby Johnson served during World War II and was a survivor of the Bataan Death March.

Jose Cabalfin Calugas was the only Filipino to earn the Medal of Honor during World War II. He also survived World War II's infamous Bataan Death March and a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp.

This was Skardon's 10th time walking in the march, which he considers a personal pilgrimage. He says it's his sacred responsibility to attend every year and walk with the thousands of others who come to honor his brothers-in-arms who didn't survive the real Bataan Death March or the years of confinement in prisoner of war camps that followed.