Death March Markers

[Karl Welteke]

UPDATE ON DEATH MARCH MARKER # 00 AT BAGAC

On our trip to Quinauan Point 2013-02-24 by boat via Bagac I finally seen the rest of the Death March Marker #00 at Bagac. What I missed before is the replica rifle symbolizing The Fallen. So I took some updated picture of the marker and added them to this album called: Death March Marker (DMM) Update Album, Bagac to Pilar:

s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/Death%20March%20Markers%20Death%20Camps%20and%20Memorials/DMM%20Updates/DMM%20Bagac%20No%201%20to%2026%20Updates?sort=3&page=1

As fots can verify, my Photobucket image sharing account changed things around which made things more difficult now. Worse, they scramble the pictures (for security they say). Although I learned to disable that, the images are still scrambled and not in the order I uploaded them and or the order I want them in. DARN THESE GEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!. So I apologize.

Two noteworthy things, in Bagac we came across a WWII 6X truck and a weapons carrier. Boy, Conrad got exited! Also the plaque, shown by chadhill in his 1986 image, under the replica rifle symbolizing The Fallen is missing. So another thing to check on in the future.

And one more thing, we had noticed the day before on our way to the Battle of the Pockets that the Death March Markers to there are repainted in white and look more respectable now.
Bob Hudson, is that your work? And how are you coming along with this project of yours?

Here are some sample pictures:


13-02-24.The Bagac # 00 Death March Marker. I finally see the replica rifle symbolizing The Fallen, it is located some distance from the actually # 00 Death March Marker.


13-02-24.The Bagac # 00 Death March Marker. I just noticed the plague that chadhill seen in 1986 (his picture is in this thread) isn’t there anymore. So another thing I want to check on in the future.


13-02-24.The Bagac # 00 Death March Marker. The replica rifle symbolizing The Fallen is at right and the actual # 00 Marker is dead ahead, maybe a 100+ feet. The road at left enters Bagac, coming this way.


13-02-24.The Bagac # 00 Death March Marker. It’s sponsor is the Monte Mar Beach Club Inc, only a couple km further south from here. The road at right is the West Road continuing south (to the right) and the road at left is the road branching off to Bagac proper.


13-02-24.The Bagac # 00 Death March Marker. The Bataan West Road is going passed it from north to south, left to right.


The truck certainly looks or is a WWII truck and the smaller one looks like a weapons carrier. When we drove by here in Bagac, Conrad got exited and we took a picture, against the sun though.

[Karl Welteke]

Death March Marker News, 11 images

Bob Hudson, is a son of a Battling Bastard of Bataan and only recently has decided to live in the Philippines. He chose Limay Town in Bataan as his new residence.

He has been active in the past and continues now to help keep the memory alive of that great struggle to defend the Philippines and that horrible price the Philippine and American Soldiers paid in the process.

He asked the Filipino American Memorial Endowment Inc. (FAME) to maintain all the Death March Markers (DMM) south of Balanga. Recently when I explored the Battle of the Pocket area, I did notice that the DMMs on the Pilar-Bagac Road indeed were all repainted.

Although we two live relative close to each other, I in Subic Bay, we never met in person. The president of the Philippine decided to lead the 45th Anniversary Commemoration of the Jabidah Massacre on Corregidor Island on the 18th March 2013..

We decided to team up and joint the Commemoration on Corregidor. Afterwards we stopped in Limay to look at the newly moved DMM Km 24. He organized the moving because the old location was a very unsatisfactory location.

The new DMM Km 24 is now jointly sponsored by the two sons to their respective Battling Bastard of Bataan fathers. The other son is no other than Mr. Baldassarre who has been the webmaster of the Battling Bastard of Bataan web page for many years. Bob told me that the fathers were friends before and during the war.

Bob Hudson told me that this new marker with the new plaques was built on Corregidor and that Corregidor Foundation Inc (CFI) personnel helped him build this new DMM Km 24. That was all news to me, maybe Bob can add to this entry (reply) and tell us more about this renewal program.

Here are 11 images showing what was and what is now:


379. My 2007 map of the DMM Km 24 area.


380. The location of DMM Km 24 before, it was next to a gate to the power plant and was usually blocked by traffic.


381. DMM Km 24 was in honor of M/Sgt. James Baldassarre, a Battling Bastard of Bataan.


382. The old location of DMM Km 24 was unsatisfactory.


383. The new location is about 300 yards north of the old one and just before this km stone 142 and on the right side or east side of this old National Road.


384. Map of the new location of DMM Km 24.


385. The new spiffy DMM Km 24 with Bob Hudson.


386. DMM Km 24, looking north.


387. Close-up of DMM Km 24.


388. Bob Hudson and his fiancé and Bob points at a new plaque that has been added to the DMMs.


389. The new plaque is much like an emergency number or contact information to report if something is happening to the DMM.

Bob Hudson maintains a blog and in it is a very personal, and touching story of his soldier father in the Philippines before, during and after the War:
bataanson.blogspot.com/

This is the famous Battling Bastards of Bataan web page maintained by Mr. Baldassarre the son of the Battling Bastard M/Sgt Baldassarre;
www.battlingbastardsbataan.com/


Here is my album about Death March Markers Km 23 to Km32, the pictures were shot 2007-11-06. Photobucket has become difficult to view plus they changed the order I wanted to present the pictures. I DON’T RECOMMEND PHOTOBUCKET TO ANYONE ANYMORE!!!!! The pictures got to be viewed one by one and can’t be zoomed.
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/Death%20March%20Markers%20Death%20Camps%20and%20Memorials/DMM%20No%2023%20to%2032%20Limay?page=1

[Bob Hudson]

Thank you Karl. When I toured the Philippines in 2011, I noticed the poor condition of the markers. At the time I have never heard of FAME who had the responsibility for maintaining the markers. While visiting, I met and fell in love with a Filipina and when I retired two months later, I moved to Limay, lock, stock and barrel.
Once I adjusted to the culture, I contact FAME in Manila and was abrupt and short with them. I said some things I regret now but I was upset at the very poor condition of the markers and threatened a campaign to change them as caretakers for them. They asked me to come to Manila and meet with them, which I did in May of 2012. We had a tet a tet meeting and they pointed out to me that they operate on donations and donations were way down and they were struggling. I then made and offer to them. "Give me the responsibility for the markers in Bataan". I will save you the labor and travel cost to come to Bataan and do the maintenance. All you have to do is supply the paint.

In July we signed a memorandum of understanding giving me the authority and responsibility to maintain the markers. Since then, my Fiancee, Rosalie and I have personally cleaned and painted 68 Death March Markers, including all 27 between Bagac and Pilar as well as markers from KM 11 in Cabcaben to KM 51 in Samal. It has been no easy project. We started November 1st and just recently finished.

All this time, I have also done my best to find businesses or local clubs willing to adopt and care for some of these markers. To take pride in their history and to honor their fathers and grandfathers whom these markers represent. Two months ago we were able to bring in GN power in Mariveles. They are about to go into service after years of construction and will supply 10% of the power to Bataan. They have adopted markers KM00 in Mariveles to KM 10 in Cabcaben and none too soon or I would have painted an additional 11 markers.

Tomorrow, I go to Orani to meet with the General Assembly of a group who call themselves SDAI (Sons & Daughters Assoc. Inc. They are descendants of Filipino war veterans and they have posts in a number of cities in Bataan. To date I have recruited the post in Orani to maintain markers in their city and the post in Hermosa has agreed to maintain the 8 markers in their city. Tomorrow, I will speak with the Dinalupihan post and get their decision on the markers there. Hopefully I will have the chance to have other posts adopt other markers in other areas of Bataan. There is a group in Bamban who have a fabulous museum there. They call themselves the Bamban Historical Society and they have agreed to take on an unspecified number of markers from Camp O'Donnell back into the San Fernando area.

This is a win / win alliance between myself and FAME. Hopefully we will have responsible people take pride in their forefathers and themselves for maintaining these historic markers.

This association has given me the opportunity to do things here on Bataan such as what my Fiancee and myself did yesterday. We went down the Mt Samat-Bagac road and sitting between Markers 14 and 15 lies an important memorial to the 25-350 Filipinos who were massacred during the Death March out of Bagac. The Japanese seeking revenge for the huge losses they took on the west coast of Bataan, pulled these men out of the March, led them about a kilometer south of the road, bound their hands behind them and began beheading and bayoneting them. They were then thrown down the ravine into the river. Three survived this rampage to inform history of this terrible tragedy. Their memorial marker was in horrible condition. It is called the Pantingan Massacre which occurred along the Pantingan River

We cleaned, painted and re-lettered the Marker. I would post a photo of it but any photo I try to post, no matter how small, exceeds the size requirements on this site now.

[victor]

Bob, thanks for your efforts. The markers look great now.

I can host the picture for you if you email it to me. I'll send you a PM.

[okla]

Hey Bob....This is a good thing that you are doing. You are to be commended. You do honor to your Father and all the guys, both Filipino and American that he served with. Your fiance, Rosalie, certainly deserves some kudos also. Thanks for your efforts.

[JohnEakin]

It would be all to easy for the world to forget the hardships and sacrifices these men made. Thanks to you and Rosalie for what you're doing to keep the memory alive.

[Bob Hudson]

Thanks for the kudo's but this has not been a sacrifice, it's been a labor of love. I know no other way to thank these veterans for the cataclysmic events they endured before, during and after the war. They are no less than personal hero's.

Here is the Photobucket link to the Pantingan Massacre Memorial. link

[Deleted]

Hello Bob,

I went biking last 10th March 2103 to Bataan's old road from Layac junction via Roman expressway at first and gone through a feeder road towards Orani. I kept an eye on the DMMs I passed through and spotted most of them all the way to Talisay bridge at Balanga. They're all sure were painted white except the marker at Abucay-Morong line. I don't wish to alarm you all but this particular marker seems getting buried to its knees. A part of the writings at the bottom can't be read because the ground is covering it already. Moreover, its side is being eaten up by the house owner's main door concrete walkway. Photo attached, please find.
i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w497/asin14/Abucay-Moronglinemarker1_zps3b61a0c1.jpg i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w497/asin14/Abucay-Moronglinemarker2_zpsba8a85a0.jpg

[Bob Hudson]

Jon,
I only maintain the Death March Markers. The Abucay-Morong Marker may have been erected by a local veterans group and I have no idea who it is.
Just this past Saturday I met with a group who call them selves SDAI (Sons & Daughters Association Inc.) They have posts all over Bataan. Spoke to them and the Congresswoman who represents their in Orani. I have painted all Death March Markers up to #51 in Samal.

I was able to get three SDAI post to adopt markers 58-72 in Orani, Hermosa and Dinalupihan. This means a trip back north to clean and paint 52-57.

I don't have a clue who to contact about the Abucay-Morong marker. If you go by there again, can you see if there is a name or group name on this markers. They are all deserving of restoration and maintenance.
Thanks for the tip.

[Karl Welteke]

These two pictures are from jon who has uploaded them in the Photobucket image sharing company under the this name: asin14.Wow jon, can you pinpoint the exact location of this important marker on a map such as Google Earth or something similar? I missed it when I walked the Death March Route in 2007.
Apparently it is located somewhere in Abucay, Bataan.
Thank you very much for sharing this situation with us, jon!





That is really a shame what is happening to this marker. Right now I don’t have time because I am traveling out of the country. But I would like to bring the condition of this marker to the attention of the local and provincial authorities when I come back in July. Also local community organization need to be made aware of this situation and I need to appeal to their pride to promote Philippine History to the public.