General Wainwright on Corregidor
If I have my family history right, Uncle Johnny, John Woodard, My Aunt Tressie’s second husband, was on Corregidor Island when it felled. He managed to survive the Bataan Death March only to spend the next 42 months as a Japanese POW (prisoner of war). The Japanese used him and many others, as slave labor during this time. For my money, Uncle Johnny should be inducted into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame along with the brother-in-law he never met, Paul Henry Carr.
Herr Schulze, aka Cousin Perry, sent the following around as an email. I decided to add it as a post to this site. Best I can figure it is from a Face page, entitled History Nerds HQ.
He surrendered 80,000 men and spent three years believing America saw him as a failure. He was wrong. They gave him the Medal of Honor.
May 6, 1942. General Jonathan Wainwright stood on Corregidor Island, staring at what remained of his command.
For months, American and Filipino forces had held the Philippines against impossible odds. After General Douglas MacArthur evacuated to Australia in March, Wainwright inherited a nightmare: trapped soldiers, dwindling supplies, no reinforcements coming, and a Japanese force that vastly outnumbered his own.
On Bataan Peninsula, 70,000 Allied troops had already surrendered in April. Now, on the tiny fortress island of (more…)