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Post by Bob Hudson on Dec 29, 2012 6:27:21 GMT 8
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Post by Bob Hudson on Dec 27, 2012 13:13:20 GMT 8
No, all Filipinos were released in September/October 1942 except for a few that were considered to have ties to guerrilla groups, but it wasn't many. It was impossible for the Japanese to know who was P.S. and who wasn't. That's there are so many dog tags found here. All P.S. serial #'s started with 1030.
Even the U.S. pow's never gave their units. When I look through pow records recovered from the Japs, it's amazing to see how many U.S. soldiers were cooks, truck drivers, mechanics ans orderlies...not many combat grunts among them. Didn't want to admit you held the crosshairs on their brethren.
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Post by Bob Hudson on Dec 27, 2012 4:41:11 GMT 8
Okla,
This is what I've been able to discern thus far. All these serial numbers were Philippine scout numbers.
All these men were in the 14th Engineers, Philippine Scouts.
The 14th Engineers were involved in the last battle against the Japanese on the southeastern slopes of Mt. Mariveles near Cabcaben and took heavy losses. They were fighting fresh Japanese troops and tanks.
Julio Abasola died July 5th, 1942 in Camp O'Donnell. Felecisino Apumillo died June 26, 1942 in O'Donnell. Por ferio Jabagat died as a Guerrila in 1945 most likely around Manila.
Still researching the others but need to find NOK's or hometowns.
I could kill to own a metal detector here on Bataan. Perhaps I can find one somewhere in Manila.
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Post by Bob Hudson on Dec 26, 2012 16:42:21 GMT 8
Spoke with a gentleman today who owns a farm on the slopes of Mt. Mariveles. He has the dog tags of 13 Filipino Soldiers. They will be listed below. Anyone want to take a stab at what unit they were in and where they were from. The gentleman would like to see the families get their dog tag. Prudencio Nacionales SN# 10303000 Edilberto K Delos Reyes SN# 10302023 Melecio M Magboo SN# 10303610 Godofredo C Sasil SN# 10302226 R. Acuesta SN# 10302130 Francisco Respicio SN# 10301645 Simplicio (Langan?) SN# 10303707 Might be wrong name...hard to read Julio Abasola SN# 10302738 Felecisimo Apumillo SN# 10301960 The only dog tag that said USA on it. Also stamped on tag was P.S. Philippine Scout
Gonzalo Montevengin SN# 10303218 Victor Natividad SN# 10301574 Porferio Jabagat SN# 10304251 Emiliand P Escarlan SN# 10302539
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Post by Bob Hudson on Dec 18, 2012 8:25:58 GMT 8
Impressive work Fots. No one knows better than I how much work can go into describing something fairly simple. You passion shows in your work and you are to be congratulated.
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Post by Bob Hudson on Dec 14, 2012 20:06:15 GMT 8
Don't forget to look up when you're grousing around the Philippines. Plenty of the snakes here are avid climbers. A few weeks ago my future brother in law who lives a third of the way up Mount Limay was laying in his hammock relaxing. It was tied between two good size trees. After a few minutes something plopped on his chest and when he looked, it was a cobra. What kind, I don't know. He killed it with his shotgun. Within two to three weeks he killed two 10-12 foot long pythons who had eaten some of his fighting cocks.
They're pretty much everywhere.
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Post by Bob Hudson on Dec 11, 2012 16:51:09 GMT 8
I wish to share with this group a story that has been 71 years in the making and will conclude next Sunday the 16th of December. Prior to the outbreak of the war, my father had been stationed in Manila with the 31st Infantry since 1936, then transferred into the Quartermaster Corps. While there he fathered a daughter with his fiancee. He was going through the paces of marrying this woman through Army channels when the Japanese attacked. Not long afterward,he was moved to Bataan and never to see his fiancee again.
After being liberated after the war and being released from Madigan General Hospital in Washington State in March of 1946, he made his way, with the help of the Army, back to Manila. Manila was almost unrecognizable and he made his way to his fiancees family home. After meeting with her family, he discovered that she had been raped and murdered by the Japanese early in the war. Her family had not the means to care for his daughter so they took her to the Hospicio de San Jose Catholic orphanage on the Pasig river in Manila and left her there for the Catholic sisters to care for.
My father went to the orphanage and with their help found out that she had been adopted by a Filipino Dr. by the name of Augusto Cortes and his American wife Blanche Brinker. The Dr. worked at the San Juan de dioa Hospital in Manila. He discovered where they lived and contacted them and explained who he was and made an appointment to meet with them at their home on Taft Ave. That evening he met with the doctor and his wife. He had the right to take his daughter but he could also tell how much the doctor and his wife loved his daughter. She lived in a nice home in a good neighborhood. They cried and pleaded with my father and he decided he didn't have the heart to take his daughter from the only family she had ever known. She was nearing seven years old. He informed the adoptive family of his decision to leave her but he wanted to meet her. They introduced my father to "Angela" as Uncle Dick from the U.S. My father added a caveat to leaving her there and it was that the family would send him photos of Angela and letters about her as she matured. When he left, he took a photo of his daughter with him and for as far back as I can remember it always stood on the nightstand next to his side of the bed. The Doctor and wife faithfully sent my father photos of Angela until 1960 or 1961 when they suddenly stopped and he never heard from anyone again.
In 1988, my father developed esophageal cancer and checked into the VA hospital to die. The day before he died, he asked me to find his daughter, my sister. I promised I would but knew I had no idea where to begin. With the invention of the internet and my first computer in the late nineties, I began to search but got absolutely nowhere. In 2004, I contacted a friend in Manila by the name of James Litton. James is an attorney, a businessman and was 12 years old when the Japanese attacked in 1941. He agreed to help me and hired an investigator. The investigator discovered some information but nothing that helped me find my sister. In 2007 I began my blog which I named BataanSon. In my blog I told the story of my sister and posted the photo I had that my father had on his night stand for 42 year of his daughter.
Nothing happened for five years and I had all but abandoned any hope of finding my sister. Five years of my blog on the internet and suddenly on November 8th, 2012, I received an email from a man who had read my blog. He was a Filipino who lived near Manila. He said he read my blog and saw the picture of my sister whom he recognized as his mother because he has an oil painting of that same photo hanging on the wall of his living room which was painted by his grandfather Dr. Augusto Cortez. He was baffled because although he knew his mother wa adopted, she had told him she was an only child. He also said he didn't recognize the name Angela for his mother name was Leonida. Apparently after adoption, they renamed her. After a few emails back and forth and exchange of more information which convinced him I was his uncle, he opened up to me. My sister was married twice. She had four children with her first husband, three daughter and a son. She and her second husband had two sons and it was one of these two sons who contacted me. He has a brother in Manila. Charlie, my new nephew, told me my sister died of cancer in 1999 and is buried in the Loyola Cemetery south of Manila.
The information brought me to tears. For a moment I thought I was so close to meeting my sister and telling her about her father and what he went through and what he gave up for her. But, it was not to be and this is what it has come to. Next Sunday, the 16th. my friend James Litton will pick me up and take me to a restaurant south of Manila where I will meet two of my fathers grandsons, my nephews. We will meet at a restaurant for lunch and then proceed to the cemetery where my sister lies and this long journey will end with a wreath of flowers on my sisters grave. I think my father would have been happy with the outcome. I have yet to communicate with my other nephew and three nieces, but that will come in time. The war has officially ended for me. Never give up if you're looking for something. It's out there somewhere. It took 24 years for me. --
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Post by Bob Hudson on Dec 4, 2012 15:19:24 GMT 8
Good to know. I received them from someone who found some photos at NARA and passed them on to me sometime back. Thanks.
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Post by Bob Hudson on Dec 3, 2012 6:42:13 GMT 8
Thanks Karl, I was thinking that the thick walled ammunition storage constructions would be a safe and cozy spot to wait out an artillery or bombardment barrage. It struck me, however, that the concussion inside those walls would have been horrific. I cannot erase from my memory a story my father told me about a fellow soldier who survived a near miss from an artillery shell but the concussion wave popped the soldiers eyes in his skull like a balloon, leaving the soldier with two bloody holes where his eyes once were.
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Post by Bob Hudson on Dec 2, 2012 17:48:25 GMT 8
Thanks for the information. In the second photo, it looks like a second photographer is contemplating the damage. I have only been there once and it was last year, even though I live a mere 10-12 kilometers away on Bataan. When I was there last year, I couldn't walk more than a few steps with out bending over and picking up some shrapnel. I surprised Corregidor didn't sink from the weight of it.
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