Gone But Not Fogotten

 

They walked and they walked. Step after step. Mile after mile. About 68 miles in 9 days. Many died along the way. Many more died in POW camps. It is estimated that of the 12,000 Americans who were on the Bataan Death March, only about 1,700 survived to the end of the war. This week is the 84th anniversary of the Bataan Death March. This horrible event took place on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines from April 9-17, 1942. It was the largest surrender in the history of the US Army. If you read what the sadistic Japanese soldiers did to our soldiers, it will make you sick and angry at the same time. I won’t share all the gory details. You can find them online. I have read many books about the Bataan Death March, and I have read many survivor accounts. I have the dates of the march marked on my calendar every April. I do that so I will never forget the sacrifices of those heroic men.

Each year, I try to do something in honor of the men who were on that march. One year I hope to walk the same distance in the same amount of days as they did. I am not sure I will ever be able to pull that off. This year I decided to walk 4 miles a day on the same days the death march occurred. I will cover a little less than half of the distance that they walked in the same amount of days. As I write this, I am nearing the end of that journey. It is the least I can do to honor the men and their families who gave so much. Until I decided to post this, no one outside of my family knew what I was doing. Each day I walk. Each day I remember and reflect. Each day I am grateful.

This year I am walking in honor of Chaplain Ted Howden and Chaplain Robert Taylor.

Chaplain Ted Howden was given the opportunity to evacuate from the Bataan Peninsula as the battled heated up. He chose to stay with his men. He was known as Chappy. He survived the horrible march to his POW camp. He did not survive the POW camp. Chaplain Howden died of dysentery and starvation as a POW in December of 1942. His men said that he kept giving his food rations to other men.

Chaplain Robert Taylor survived both the Bataan Death March and his experience as a POW. He once spent 9 weeks in a heat box for helping to smuggle meds into the POW camp. When the war ended, he was a POW slave in Japan. The thought of his wife kept him going during his time as a POW. When Chaplain Taylor returned home, he found that his wife had remarried a month before he returned. She had been told by the Army that he was dead. Chaplain Taylor remained in the military and later became the Chief of Chaplains.

Two men who gave so much. One gave his life. One gave the best years of his life and his family. Both deserve to be remembered and respected. So, as I finish my walk over the next couple of days, I am remembering these men. I am walking to honor them. Thank you Chaplain Howden and Chaplain Taylor for your service and for your sacrifices. You are gone, but you are not forgotten.

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