Kosovo: Wisconsin National Guard members march in memory of POWs

Wisconsin National Guard Courtesy report

CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo (4/10/12) -- Twenty Wisconsin Army National Guard members - joined by service members from the U.S, Poland and Ukraine - recently honored the victims of the Bataan Death March by walking in a memorial endurance event in Kosovo.

Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Christopher Hudson, a Wisconsin National Guard member assigned to Task Force Falcon, played a key role organizing the 13.1-mile march at Camp Bondsteel on March 26, complete with gravel, paved roads and large hills.

He also took part in the heavy category which required participants to carry at least 35 pounds on their backs.

"Participating in the Bataan Memorial March was a fitting way to pay tribute to all the heroic service members who made the ultimate sacrifice defending the Philippine Islands during World War II," Hudson said. "All those who entered and took part did so out of sheer preservation and determination - not unlike the Soldiers who marched in the actual Bataan Death March."

Ninety-nine members of Company A, 192nd Tank Battalion, Wisconsin National Guard, fiercely defended the Bataan peninsula in the Philippines for more than three months alongside fellow American and Filipino forces, until disease, lack of supplies and hunger compelled their surrender to the Imperial Japanese Army seven decades ago April 9.

The Soldiers who served in one of two National Guard tank battalions - comprised of companies from Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Minnesota, Missouri - deployed to the Philippines shortly after the United States entered World War II.

Approximately 76,000 prisoners endured the harrowing "Bataan Death March," an 80-mile forced trek to Balanga, the capital of Bataan. Prisoners of war who did not die of exhaustion, wounds or illness were stabbed, beaten or killed along the way - between 5,000 and 10,000 Filipinos and as many as 650 Americans before reaching Camp O'Donnell, where the death toll continued to mount.

Only one third of the National Guard unit survived until their liberation three years later.

Wisconsin honors the service and hardship of these and other prisoners of war every April 9, designated since 2001 as Prisoner of War Remembrance Day.