Finance Department and Signal Corps in Malinta Tunnel, Lateral #12, Corregidor

The men in the photo are, from left to right:

Staff Sergeant Walter A. Wernher, Manila Finance Department, 6948955 (January 1, 1912-July 23, 1942). Walter Wernher was born in New York City, to Jessie and Ernest Wernher. Descended from German immigrants, they were Iowans who tried to improve their lot by moving to New York. His father Ernest ran the Adams Mattress Company and later was an assistant manager for the Chester Shipyard in Pennsylvania. Walter’s mother Jessie died when he was three and his sister Dora may have died very young. Walter moved with his father to Swarthmore, Pennsylvania when Ernest began working for the shipyard. There they attended Trinity Church. Wernher joined the army and was detailed to the Finance Department. After the surrender on May 7, 1942, Walter Wernher and the other prisoners from Corregidor were forced to live for weeks on the beach near the Ninety-Second Coast Artillery Garage in Little Baguio, Corregidor. Food and water were scarce and the sun relentless. After a few weeks, Wernher and the others were forced to wade ashore at Manila and then paraded through the streets to Bilibid Prison. Unlike the prisoners forced to undertake the Bataan Death March on foot, the Corregidor survivors were packed into boxcars and taken by train to Cabanatuan Prisoner of War Camp #1. There, due to lack of food, water and medical supplies, thousands of Americans and Filipinos died. Wernher died around July 23, 1942. There were so many deaths he was buried in an unmarked mass grave and his remains were never recovered. The graves were so shallow, and registration so hurried, one American prisoner digging graves remembered his shovel would hit previously buried bodies after only a few feet. The ground was saturated, making the paper identification tags stuffed into the corpse’s mouth rot. The Army gave up trying to recover remains from Cabanatuan in 1951. By then, the area was a flooded rice paddy. Trinity Church and Ernest Wernher grieved his loss. On October 28, 1945, the congregation met to memorialize Walter and console his father. On February 10, 1946, Trinity dedicated a new stained glass window, called the Healing Window, designed by Philadelphian Henry Lee Willet. Ernest Wernher dedicated the left and right lancets of the Healing Window to his wife, Jessie, and his son, Walter. The Healing Window is still visible today. Wernher’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery; Manila, Philippines.

Staff Sergeant Aaron A. Pressman, Manila Finance Department, 13006134 (March 28, 1917 – February 13, 1943). Pressman, his siblings Herbert and Olga, and their parents John and Miriam, lived in Philadelphia. Pressman went to Temple University and majored as a Pre-Medical student. After graduation in 1939, Pressman joined the Army on September 6, 1940. Assigned to the Philippine Department, Aaron went into Finance working with Col. Vance. Pressman helped cut up the Filipino pesos before the Japanese arrived at Malinta Tunnel. After Col. Vance was interrogated by the Japanese looking for the missing money, Pressman and others brought Vance food that Vance refused because he knew Pressman needed it. Along with Wernher and the others, Pressman was paraded through the streets of Manila and incarcerated at Bilibid before being sent to Cabanatuan. Pressman survived Cabanatuan. He was loaded onto a cargo ship, the Tottori Maru, and survived two torpedo attacks before disembarking in Pusan, Korea. He arrived at Hoten Prisoner of War Camp in Mukden, China on November 11, 1942. There, Mark Herbst, the camp doctor, diagnosed Pressman with amoebic dysentery, beri beri, pellagra and a corneal ulcer. He died on February 13, 1943. Pressman was one of 14 prisoners to die in the fourth month of captivity at Hoten. By then, the death rate began to decline, but it was too late for Pressman. Aaron’s brother Herbert joined the Army Air Force and was killed when his B-17G 42-39873 “Stormy Weather,”” 615th Bombardment Squadron, 401st Heavy Bombardment Group, was hit by flak while bombing the airfield at Chartes, France on August 1, 1944 and collided with another plane. Both crews lost their lives. Herbert’s remains were never recovered. Miriam and John Pressman grieved two sons killed in World War II; two gold stars hung in their window. Aaron Pressman was commemorated in the 1944 Temple University yearbook. The Army recovered Aaron Pressman’s remains from the Hoten Camp cemetery and he is buried in Roosevelt Memorial Park in Trevose, Pennsylvania.

Staff Sergeant Ira William Salyer, Manila Finance Department, 13018019 (November 3, 1920 – March 8, 1991). Ira Salyer loved the Army; he made it his career. Born in Coeburn, Virginia to Luther Gordon and Pearl Mae Salyer, Salyer joined the Army during the Great Depression. He was in Malinta Tunnel for the surrender and moved with the other enlisted men to the Ninety-Second Coastal Artillery Garage for a few weeks. After parading through the streets of Manila, Salyer survived Bilibid Prison and Cabanatuan. Salyer was shipped to Japan, on the Nagato Maru. After incarceration at Tanagawa Camp, he was sent to Japan to work as slave labor for Sumitomo Metallic Industrial Co. Ltd. On March 29, 1945, Salyer was moved to Ikuno, Japan, where he was forced to work in the abandoned mines there with little more than his bare hands. Salyer was rescued at Ikuno in September 1945. He married a local girl, Estelle Bays, when he returned to the United States, and they moved to Georgia, where he served at Fort McPherson. Reaching the rank of Command Master Sergeant, the highest enlisted rank, Salyer remained in the Army for thirty years after being released as a prisoner of war. He served tours of duty in France, Berlin, Germany, Korea, Fort Richardson, Alaska and Fort Gordon, Georgia. His last post was Fort Rucker, Alabama. He and his growing family lived for 26 years in Augusta; many of his children live there now. After he died in 1991, Salyer was buried in Hillcrest Cemetery, Augusta, Georgia.

Major Dwight Ethan Gard, Assistant Finance Officer, Manila Finance Department, O-301095 (September 25, 1909 – November 30, 1971). Dwight E. Gard grew up in Bend, Oregon, outside of Portland. He held a reserve officer’s commission while working as a cashier at the Lumbermen’s Bank of Bend. Gard was called up to active duty in July 1941, arriving on the same transport as Roy McElfish. Gard, with Col. “Jack” Vance and McElfish, showed up at the Manila Finance Office on December 8, 1941, during the first false air raid alarm at 2359 Hours. Gard opened the Middleside Finance Office on Corregidor on December 26, 1941; this was soon closed and the office moved to Malinta Tunnel. Gard viewed the Japanese air raid damage to Topside on December 29 with Vance and McElfish. Gard, McElfish, Vance and others celebrated New Year’s Eve in the barrio with Missus Wingate, a widow of an American soldier who lived on Corregidor. Shelling soon destroyed her home. Soon after, Gard, McElfish and Vance moved into the Quartermaster’s Lateral, #8, to sleep. Gard was with Vance when they located a well that soon supplied the Hospital and Malinta Tunnel with fresh water. Even during the bombing, Gard, Vance and others would smoke cigars after dinner at one of the tunnel entrances. By May 5, as the threat of Japanese landings on Corregidor loomed, Gard supervised the destruction of two million pesos in paper money. Vance later wrote, “Gard commented that destroying the money would make the Japanese mad.” After the surrender, Gard and McElfish left Lateral #8 and moved to the beach near the Ninety-Second Coast Artillery Corps Garage on May 8. McElfish and Gard shared a makeshift “tent.” On May 23, McElfish, Gard, and Vance were marched through Malinta Tunnel and boarded the Hokka Maru for Manila. That night Gard and Vance split a can of C-rations for dinner. The next morning the Americans were forced through the surf to parade in the streets of Manila to march to Bilibid Prison. There, Vance and the senior officers were separated from the rest of the lower ranking officers like Gard. Gard’s wife Ruth was informed that he was Missing In Action on June 2, 1942. Gard remained at Bilibid until he was transferred to Cabanatuan. On December 13, 1944, Gard was one of 1,621 Allied prisoners of war loaded aboard the Oryoku Maru in Manila with Paul L. Long. The prisoners were in the holds while 1,900 Japanese civilians, fleeing the impending Allied invasion of Luzon, occupied the cabins. Without food or water, with the temperature of the holds reaching over one hundred degrees, men perished and were stacked in a corner of the hold. Some men cut others to drink their blood out of their minds with thirst. Two days later, as the ship neared Subic Bay, aircraft of U.S.S. Hornet (CV-12) attacked the unmarked ship. Oryoku Maru began to sink; the Japanese civilians left by boat and the Allied survivors were shot as they tried to leave the flooding hold. Eventually even the guard left and the prisoners swam for the nearby shore. Incarcerated in the open on tennis courts for days, Gard and the survivors were put aboard the Enoura Maru. With the Brazil Maru, the Enoura Maru with Gard and the other prisoners aboard made it to Taiwan, where some British and Dutch prisoners were put ashore. Enoura Maru was bombed in Takao Harbor on January 9, 1945. It is unknown if Gard saw Paul Long expire on the Enoura Maru, but it’s likely he knew he was aboard. Gard was once again transferred, to the Brazil Maru, and arrived in Moji, Japan on January 29, 1945. Finally Gard was moved to Pusan, Korea and then Jinsen, Korea. While there, Gard was friendly with Major Frank J . Kriwanek and mentioned him frequently in his diary. B-29 Superfortresses dropped supplies on August 19, and he was liberated on September 7, 1945. Gard reunited with his wife Ruth and his brother Jesse, a Vice-President at the United States National Bank, on October 25, 1945. Dwight and Jesse Gard founded the Multnomah Bank in Portland in 1948. Dwight Gard remained active in the Portland banking industry until Multnomah merged with the First State Bank of Oregon in 1970. Dwight Gard died in 1971.

Staff Sergeant Roy E. Davis, Manila Finance Dept. 6251851 (1913-????) Roy Davis was the son of W. R. and Lillie May Davis of 703 Ord Street, San Antonio, Texas. His brothers were Woodrow and Oscar Leon. After joining the Army, he served at Holabird Quartermaster Depot in Baltimore, Maryland in April 1940 prior to shipping out to Manila. Davis met Chaplain Perry O. Wilcox on Corregidor, after the Finance Department moved there. Wilcox gave Davis a Bible, which Davis inscribed with his personal details. Davis, like so many others, was encamped in the Ninety-Second Coast Artillery Corps Garage for several weeks before being forced to wade ashore and paraded through Manila. After incarceration at Bilibid Prison Davis was sent to Cabanatuan, where a Japanese censor approved the Bible Wilcox gave him. He carried the Bible with him throughout the whole war. Davis was moved to Japan on the Nagato Maru. He arrived at the Tanagawa Prisoner of War Camp #4B in Osaka, Japan on November 27, 1942. The men at Tanagawa used primitive tools, mostly their hands, to build a drydock. Death rates and malnutrition were very high. Around April 14, 1944, he was transferred to Omi (Aomi) Camp to work at the Denki Kagaku Electro-Chemical Industry Company. Davis was rescued on September 6, 1945 and sent by train to Yokohama. As part of his recovery, he was sent to Madigan Hospital Center in Fort Lewis, Washington prior to returning to San Antonio. Davis reenlisted in the Army on June 13, 1946 and served with the Finance office of the Hawaiian Department. No further information is available regarding the rest of Roy E. Davis’s life.

Colonel John R. “Jack” Vance, Manila Finance Department O-012301 (December 21, 1897 – October 18, 1988). We know the names of these men because of Colonel Vance. His memoir identifies the men in the Corregidor Malinta Tunnel Lateral #12 photo. Vance graduated from the United States Military Academy on November 1, 1918. After completing Infantry School in 1920, he wrote his Masters dissertation in Modern European History at the University of Illinois. Under General John J. Pershing, he assisted with the Army’s official history of World War I. He served his first stint in the Philippines as an infantry commander from 1926-1928. He assisted with the creation of the American Battle Monuments Commission from 1929-1937. Vance commanded the 9th infantry Battalion at Fort Sam Houston from 1937-1939. After completing studies at the Finance School in 1939, he was transferred to the Manila Finance Department in 1940. His wife, Betty, accompanied him and stayed through May 1941. Serving under Colonel Royal G. Jenks, Vance witnessed the Japanese aircraft on their way to bomb Clark Field on December 8, 1941. After the Japanese landed on both Northern and Southern Luzon, General MacArthur abandoned Manila and declared it an open city on December 25, 1941. Vance and his staff moved from Manila to Corregidor. To supply outlying garrisons with money, Vance sent Filipino and American officers on dangerous missions to the front lines all over the Philippines, flying in by small aircraft to deliver up to two million in cash to the troops to pay for food and supplies. A large amount of gold and silver accompanied Philippine President Manuel L. Quezon when he fled Manila and came to Corregidor. Vance, Jenks, Dwight E. Gard and Roy McElfish were present when Quezon took the oath of office outside Malinta Tunnel. Vance saved the day’s program. Under the authority of High Commissioner for the Philippines Francis B. Sayre, Vance and Jenks supervised the removal of the gold via submarine U.S.S. Trout (SS-202) that left Corregidor on February 3 and arrived at Pearl Harbor on March 3. Vance and Jenks began to burn millions in American and Filipino currency. Jenks left on U.S.S. Spearfish (SS-190) on May 3, 1942, taking the Finance Department’s records with him. Vance was left in command. Vance and his staff began to cut up the remaining money, as the shelling was too heavy to burn it outside Malinta Tunnel. After Corregidor surrendered, the Japanese repeatedly interrogated Vance, who believed he had hidden or buried millions in cash and precious metals. During his interrogation, Vance was able to gorge himself on food stocks and the Japanese actually gave him larger rations then he received during the siege. Vance’s staff became concerned that Vance would be executed if he did not produce the money. Vance was able to convince the Japanese that he had destroyed the paper money and dumped the silver into the bay. The Japanese recovered two million Filipino silver pesos, but the bulk of the money was recovered after the war ended. With the rest of Corregidor’s garrison, Vance was held at the Ninety-Second Coast Artillery Corps Garage. Paul L. Long, Aaron A. Pressman and others brought him food but he refused to take it as they needed it more than he did. He observed Sergeant John David Provoo, United States Army, abuse American prisoners during his incarceration on Corregidor. Vance was considered a senior officer of General Wainwright’s staff so he was separated from his Finance Department staff during the transfer to Manila, except for Gard and McElfish. Like his men, he was forced to wade through the surf to Manila’s docks and then marched through the streets to Bilibid Prison. Vance was held at Bilibid through June 4, 1942, then transferred with the other high-ranking prisoners to Tarlac, Luzon, Philippines. Vance was separated from Gard and McElfish. There Vance saw Major General Ernest King, who had surrendered on Bataan the previous April. King and his staff were slowly starving; the Japanese-supplied rations included many small stones and dirt in the rice. Vance sailed on the Nagara Maru and the Suzuya Maru (known as Otaru Maru to the prisoners) to Taiwan. Vance was held at the Karenko Prisoner of War Camp until June 6, 1943. Vance was moved to Shirakawa, Taiwan, where he was held until October 8, 1944. After a grueling journey lasting over a month, through frigid waters avoiding American patrols, Vance was transferred to Chen Chia Tung, Manchuria on November 15, 1944. Despite the cold weather, Vance received a hot bath weekly, his first regular bath since Corregidor. Vance and others had to negotiate with the Japanese to receive their Red Cross packages. Despite the obvious presence of thousands of packages, he would receive only a few at a time and often the contents were expired or moldy. Regardless, he would consume them. As it was obvious that the war was ending, the Japanese transferred all of their high-ranking prisoners of war to Mukden, to be able to terminate them as a group or hold them for ransom. Vance arrived at Mukden on May 21, 1945. Here Vance first learned of the Oryoku Maru tragedy, but didn’t know that Dwight E. Gard was aboard and survived. On August 19, 1945, the Japanese evacuated the Mukden Camp, leaving the prisoners behind. Vance assumed the role of finance officer for the camp and used currency left behind to purchase supplies for the prisoners. As Vance began to worry about running out of money, American forces arrived on September 7, 1945 to liberate the camp. Vance was evacuated that same day to Chungking on the orders of General Albert C. Wedemeyer. Wedemeyer allowed Vance to precede him out of his plane when he was flown to the United States to meet his wife Betty. It was the first time they had seen each other in four years. President Harry Truman recognized Vance upon his return, and the Treasury Department asked him for an accounting of the Manila Finance Department, which owed $71,070,712.53 to the government. Vance received a settlement of account on September 4, 1952. On November 10, 1942, Vance testified in the Treason trial of John David Provoo, stating that he couldn’t remember Provoo’s presence at his own interrogations, but that Provoo had been present at the interrogation of Colonel Theodore T. Teague, Corregidor’s senior communications officer. Provoo was convicted but a lower court vacated the conviction. Vance served as Finance Officer at Fort Sam Houston and for the Second Army in the late 1940s, before becoming Chief of Staff in Trieste during the Korean War. Vance served as special assistant to the Chief of Finance before retiring in 1954. Vance published his memoir, Doomed Garrison, in 1974. This served as a source for many claims for prisoners of war in the Philippines. Vance died in 1988 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Unidentified. Possibly Corporal Irving Strobing, 228th Signals Operations Company, 6975707 (March 24, 1920 – July 8, 1997). Colonel John R. Vance does not identify this person in the photo in his memoirs. However, Irving Strobing later wrote that he was present for the picture taking. “There is a picture you see all the time of the Finance Office guys, and I was just in the back there with the Signal section, but you couldn’t see us.” Out of all of the men assigned to Lateral #12, Strobing became the most famous. Strobing was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 24, 1920 to Samuel and Minnie Strobing. He has a sister Sylvia and a brother Joseph. After a year at Brooklyn College, Strobing was inducted into the United States Army on July 5, 1939. He received training in radio and signals at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, earning the nickname “Toots” and graduating in June 1941. He was sent to the Philippines, where he engaged in signal traffic. The 228th Signals Operations Company was formed on September 17, 1941 in the Philippines. Soon after he was posted to Corregidor, his smashed his hand accidentally in a car door, which he later credited as saving his life. Most of the Signalmen were sent to Bataan, where they were killed or captured and forced to endure the Death March. Stragglers from Bataan included radio electrician William Gibson, an RCA civilian employee, who offered to take charge of the equipment and managed to make the aerial array work. Strobing worked in Lateral #12 with civilians to set up an aerial that could reach Darwin or Pearl Harbor. As part of the 228th Signals Company, Strobing reported to Major Paul Wing, who took the photo. One of the reasons for the Finance Office and Signals to be in the same Malinta Tunnel Lateral #12 was that Finance had to send the names, serial numbers and other information needed for the entire USAFFE roster to receive the GI Death Benefit, a $10,000 insurance policy. For days, Strobing and the other Signals operators transmitted around the clock to get the rosters to Hawaii. He would often converse via Morse code radio with Sergeant Arnold J. Lappert (1920-2007), the radio operator at Honolulu. Often the aerial broke down from the Japanese bombardment, and Strobing and the other signalmen had to crawl out of Malinta and fix the aerial under fire. Civilian Filipino radio operators from Manila radio station KZRH and the Philippine Telephone Company were crucial to maintaining communication with the outside world. Strobing and the other operators often worked around the clock. Strobing slept outside Malinta Tunnel until the shelling grew too intense. Later, he slept in the airshaft in the back of Lateral #12 but falling rocks and debris from the shelling made that difficult. Strobing was on duty when the Japanese landed on Corregidor. When he received word that the Japanese were an hour away, Strobing broke protocol to send what would be his final message. Reportedly Lappert wept as he transcribed it from Morse code to English. A general took the message out of Lappert’s hand and ran. The message, released to the public in June 1942, was a sensation. Strobing’s mother Minnie received tens of thousands of letters from people all over the country. When word was passed that Japanese tanks were at the entrance to Malinta Tunnel, Strobing abandoned the radio. Thinking they would be fired upon, he sought cover at the back of the tunnel. After the Japanese tanks were withdrawn and the surrender affected, Strobing tended to wounded Japanese soldiers until he too was added to the thousands of men at the Ninety-Second Coast Artillery Corps Garage. With many others, Strobing sat for weeks without much food or water in the hot sun. Later that month, he was taken to Manila and paraded through the streets to Bilibid Prison. Soon, with the rest of the men of Lateral #12, he was sent to Cabanatuan. On November 27, 1942, on the Nagato Maru. Strobing was detailed to build the dry dock at Tanagawa, using only hand tools. He then labored in a rock quarry and a steel mill. He was transferred to Omi (Aomi) Camp to work at the Denki Kagaku Electro-Chemical Industry Company. During his incarceration, Strobing hid the ring his mother gave him by cutting it up and weaving it into his dog tag chain. Strobing received many beatings protecting his ring. Meanwhile, his family was not forgotten. Minnie made the news and promoted the war effort every time she gave blood. Joe joined the Army’s Coast Artillery Corps. Their father Samuel died in January 1945 while Irving was a prisoner of the Japanese. Strobing, along with Roy E. Davis, was rescued on September 6, 1945, and sent by train to Yokohama. Strobing was quickly brought back to the United States. On October 10, 1945, Brooklyn honored Strobing as a hero; Brooklyn Borough President John Cashmore named him Brooklyn Borough President for the day, humbling the then 26-year-old who was still under the effects of his incarceration. Strobing was promoted to Sergeant while incarcerated. On January 12, 1946, the Jewish War Veterans of the United States reunited Lappert and Strobing to promote a parade scheduled for March 4. For the press, the two Sergeants tapped out Morse code as they did on May 5, 1942. Never married, Strobing remained in the Army until 1949. He then worked for the Federal Aviation Administration until 1980. He retired to North Carolina and remained active in amateur radio until his death in 1997. Strobing is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Colonel Royal Granville Jenks, Manila Finance Department (September 10, 1888 – February 26, 1957). Colonel Royal G. Jenks was the commander of the Manila Finance Department and a senior officer on MacArthur’s staff. Jenks was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He graduated from George Washington University in 1904 and then earned a law degree there. He worked at the Treasury Department before joining the Army in 1917. He was one of the original Finance Officers when the Department was created in 1920. His wife was the former Ruth Herring. In the 1930s Jenks was Personnel Director for the Chief of Finance. Jenks was posted to the Philippines and ran the Finance Office near Pier 1 outside the old walled city of Manila. When the war came, and bombing of Manila began, Jenks ordered the Finance Office moved to a less conspicuous area to avoid bombing. He was promoted to full Colonel on December 26, 1941. Jenks and Vance supervised the move from Manila to Corregidor in that week. He left the Finance Office in Manila in charge of an American civilian, Mr. Earl Tipton, with $41,000 in American cash and $17,000,000 in a United States Treasury account, and a supply of blank checks. Tipton continued to operate the Finance Office even after the Japanese arrived in Manila. Jenks moved into quarters in Middleside on Corregidor initially, until the bombing forced everyone into Malinta Tunnel. Jenks, Vance, Gard and others personally witnessed Manuel L. Quezon accept the oath of office of the Philippine Presidency on December 30, 1941 outside Malinta Tunnel. Millions more silver pesos were thrown into Manila Bay. When President Quezon left with General MacArthur in March 1942, the keys to the Philippine treasury were turned over to Jenks. Jenks supervised the burning of up to $35,000,000 in Philippine money on Corregidor. He had to personally supervise the burning because some singed bills began circulating on the island, thrown out by the fires and picked up by some of the garrison. Jenks and Vance also supervised the loading of U.S.S. Trout (SS-202) with hundreds of tons of gold bullion to remove it from the Japanese. Jenks and Vance also supervised the radio transmission of 30,000 applications for GI life insurance. In March or April 1942, Vance began to notice that Jenks, one of the oldest officers on Corregidor, “began going downhill.” When Vance was notified that a submarine would be arriving on May 3, and he was to prepare the Finance Office records for transport to Hawaii, Vance suggested a senior office accompany the records. “By God Jack, you’re not going!” said General Jonathan Wainwright. “You are going to stay here with us.” Wainwright agreed that Jenks should accompany the records. Jenks was evacuated by U.S.S. Spearfish (SS-190), which reached Hawaii in early June. Initially, unaware of the Spearfish’s successful mission, Jenks was reported missing in action with the rest of the Corregidor garrison. Upon returning, he was widely credited in the press with stories of destroying the money in the face of the oncoming Japanese, reporting that the Finance Office staff lit cigars with $100 bills. Jenks was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his efforts in the Philippines. Jenks worked in the Washington Finance Office until his retirement in 1945. He and his wife lived in Maryland until his death in 1957. Jenks and his wife are buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Lieutenant Colonel Roy Edgar “Mac” McElfish, Manila Finance Department, O-220021 (November 11, 1901 – February 4, 1946). Roy E. McElfish was a Master Sergeant in the regular Army but drew an officer’s commission in the Reserves. Called up as an officer on March 3, 1941, he reported to the Manila Finance Office that July, the same time as Dwight Gard. McElfish’s connections as a Master Sergeant proved very useful to the Finance Office, as when they couldn’t get “what they wanted” through official channels, McElfish would call his Sergeant friends and arrange things. McElfish drove one of the two vehicles bringing millions of silver pesos to the Manila docks for transport to Corregidor on December 26, 1941; Vance drove the other. On December 29, 1941, when Corregidor received its first Japanese air raid, McElfish saw an abandoned ambulance and asked sheltering Marines for volunteers. Riding the running board through the bombardment, McElfish directed the Marines to the Malinta Tunnel Hospital. For rushing wounded men to the hospital under fire, “Mac” received the Silver Star. McElfish was slightly wounded by shellfire on May 2, 1942. On May 5, he was ordered to cut up the remaining blank checks in Lateral #16 by Colonel Vance. McElfish was held in Lateral #8 after the surrender, until he was marched out to the Ninety-Second Coast Artillery Corps Garage. There, around May 10, he was reunited with Vance and made space for him. McElfish and the others were held on Corregidor until May 31, when they were shipped to Manila and forced to wade ashore. McElfish then marched through the streets of Manila to Bilibid Prison. Later, he moved to Cabanatuan. In November 1942, McElfish was shipped to Japan, aboard the Nagato Maru. He landed in Yokohama and was taken by train to Umeda Camp in Osaka. There the men worked as stevedores for the Nippon Tsuun Company. In January 1943 McElfish was transferred to Zentsuji Camp on Shikoku. By then McElfish was keeping a secret diary. On June 25, 1945, McElfish was transferred to the new camp at Rokuroshi, named “Camp Malette” for the only man who died there. Compared to the previous camps’ high death rates, this was unusual. McElfish was rescued on August 27, 1945. McElfish provided his Army rescuers with detailed casualty rosters from the camps he’d been in to help find missing prisoners of war. On September 8, 1945, McElfish and Dwight Gard met the newly released John Vance in Manila on their way home. McElfish was seriously traumatized by his experiences in camp, and had severe physical disabilities as a result of his incarceration. Transferred to Valley Forge General Hospital in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, McElfish took his own life with a shotgun. He was buried in Fort Snelling National Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Private First Class Joe Wheless True, Technical Sergeant, 2nd Observation Squadron, 6274798 (May 27, 1920 – December 9, 1992). Private First Class Joe W. True arrived in the Philippines on May 20, 1940. He noted the build-up of aircraft from the United States and helped assemble Seversky P-35 fighters for the Philippine Air Force. Pulled from an order for Sweden, they still had Swedish markings. He also noted the lack of supplies that kept many aircraft grounded. On December 8, 1941, he was roused out of his sleep in a hotel while on leave and ordered to fill sandbags. The next day he watched Nichols Field being bombed. True evacuated from Manila to Bataan, and then from Bataan to Corregidor. On Corregidor, he was assigned to MacArthur’s staff. He remembers playing outside Malinta Tunnel with MacArthur’s three-year-old son. When Corregidor surrendered, True lined up with the other Americans. The Japanese officer accepting the surrender slapped everyone over five feet three inches tall. Being over six feet tall, he was slapped frequently in prisoner of war camps. True, like the others from Corregidor, was moved to the Ninety-Second Coast Artillery Garage, and then shipped to Manila, then Bilibid Prison and Cabanatuan. True survived those camps and was put on the Clyde Maru bound for Moji, Japan on July 23, 1943. The hold stank of urine as the ship was previously used to transport horses. The prisoners called it the “Mati Mati” Maru. Remarkably, compared to other “Hell Ships” no one died during the voyage. He arrived in Moji on August 9, 1943. True and the others were shipped to Fukuoka Camp #17, one of the most brutal Japanese prisoner of war camps. There, True and the other prisoners were forced to mine coal for Mitsui Industries. George Weller interviewed True after his liberation and pronounced him and his partner in crime, Bertram Friedman, as the “most capable saboteurs.” The Japanese posted warnings about True and Friedman. True stated to Weller, “We were beaten with hammers, saws, and wrenches. Friedman’s left hand was broken. I once was able to ruin an expensive 350-foot conveyor belt by allowing rocks to fall on the machine. The Japs finally gave up trying to catch us or beat us into submission and just removed us from the mine. Once Friedman and I did the bamboo-kneeling punishment for destroying property.” True was rescued in September 1945. At his physical in October 1945, he weighed 85 pounds. True became interested in computers after the war and used Apple IIe computers in the 1980s. In October 1984, as a guest of the Marcos regime, True returned to Malinta Tunnel and laid down on his old concrete bunk in Lateral #12. “It felt strange,” he later said. Joe W. True died in 1992. Staff

Sergeant Paul Leroy Long, Manila Finance Department, 6859201 (August 25, 1916 – January 9, 1945). Paul L. Long, the son of Myrtle Long Cannon, was born in Lincoln, Kansas. After high school, Long enlisted on August 12, 1935. He was assigned to Fort Riley, Kansas until 1939, when he transferred to the Philippines. Long accompanied the Finance Department when it moved from Manila to Corregidor on December 26, 1941. After capture, Long was sent to the Ninety Coast Artillery Corps Garage, where he also was left on the beach for weeks under the broiling sun. Long was one of the men who brought Colonel John Vance food after his interrogation by the Japanese, who were looking for the Army’s missing gold, silver, and cash. Vance refused the food as he had eaten surreptitiously during his questioning. In late May, Long was moved by ship to Manila, and paraded through the streets of that city to Bilibid Prison. Long remained at Bilibid for the next two and half years. The morning of December 13, 1944, Paul L. Long and 1,620 other prisoners of war were loaded on board the Oryoku Maru. An additional 1,900 Japanese civilians were also placed aboard. The prisoners were loaded into holds #1 (about 600 men), #2 (about 200 men), and #5 (about 800 men). Long was in the rear hold #5. Dwight E. Gard was in the forward hold #1. It’s almost certain they knew each was aboard as the company to be shipped out waited at Bilibid for more than two months. Immediately the shut-up hold began to swelter, and the men had only a bucket that had to be passed over everyone’s head. It spilled on the prisoners. Many suffered from dysentery and other diseases. The heat and lack of water caused several of the starving men to succumb during the night. The next morning, F6F Hellcats, from U.S.S. Hornet (CV-12) found Oryoku Maru off Subic Bay. The Japanese convoy, with Oryoku Maru, fought off aircraft all day. The Japanese stopped feeding their captives during the engagement. Some men went insane, cutting others for their blood. Fifty men died during the night. The next morning the Japanese began to transfer the prisoners off. As they exited Number 5, the American planes attacked, and a bomb entered Hold #5 and exploded at the top of the hold. The survivors attempted to exit the hold but were checked by Japanese rifle fire. The ship was sinking but as the smoked cleared, some 250 men were dead. Many more were seriously injured. Those that were able were finally allowed to clear the ship and swim for shore. Those that didn’t land at the spot designated by the Japanese were shot at by machine gun fire. Paul L. Long survived all this to be placed aboard the Enoura Maru, as was Dwight Gard and over 1,000 other prisoners. The hold on Enoura Maru still had manure from horses, the last cargo, still in it. Starving, some of the men ate grain left in the manure or that had dropped from the horses’ feeding bags. On December 31, the Enoura Maru reached Takao, Taiwan. Over New Year’s thirty-four more prisoners died. On the morning of January 9, 1945, Hornet’s aircraft reappeared over Takao and bombed the Enoura Maru. 252 prisoners of war were killed and as many injured. The survivors were transferred yet again to the Brazil Maru. Most reports list his death as occurring on January 9, 1945, but Major Robert Conn’s roster lists his death as occurring on January 28, 1945 aboard the Brazil Maru. Paul L. Long’s body was never recovered. His stepsister was notified by the War Department of his death on July 23, 1945. Paul L. Long’s name is inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in Manila, Philippines.

Master Sergeant Russell Harvey Walker, Manila Finance Department, 6858651 (February 11, 1917 – May 2, 1950). Russell Walker was born in New Hartford, Butler County, Iowa. His father died in the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. After attending the Missouri Military Academy, he joined the Army in 1936. After he transferred to the Philippines in 1939, Walker was assigned to Company E, 31st Infantry before transferring to the Finance Department. He met Florence Huffmaster, and they were married at Sternberg General Hospital in Manila on December 7, 1941. After the surrender, Walker was one of the men who brought Colonel John Vance food after his lengthy interrogation. Vance refused the food as he had eaten surreptitiously during his questioning. Like so many others, Walker was held at the Ninety-Second Coast Artillery Corps Garage before being shipped to Manila and forced to wade ashore and marched to Bilibid Prison. Then he was incarcerated at Cabanatuan. Walker was shipped to Japan on the Nagato Maru. As slave labor, Walker worked all over Japan – Osaka, Zentsuji, and the docks at Kobe On September 7, 1945, Walker was liberated at Tsuruga. Florence was released from her internment in Manila and they were reunited in the United States in October 1945. Russell Walker was able to return to the Army for a few years, where he worked in the Finance Department at Fitzsimmons General Hospital, Denver, Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington and Fort George Meade in Maryland. However, his health was gravely affected by his incarceration, and Walker succumbed to a disease he contracted while are prisoner of war at Walter Reed on May 2, 1950. Walker was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. His wife and three children survived Walker.

Private First Class William E. “Billy” Ballou 60th Coast Artillery Corps, 2nd Battalion, 19048714 (December 14, 1919 – February 2, 2002). Billy E. Ballou was born in Toledo, Ohio to Eugene and Kathryn Ballou. Prior to enlisting in the Army on September 25, 1940, he moved to California. Ballou enlisted in the Army specifically joining the Coast Artillery Corps for the Philippines. The Coast Artillery Corps operated the fifty-six fixed guns in twenty-three batteries on the four forts in Manila Harbor – Fort Mills (Corregidor itself); Fort Drum on El Fraile island, Fort Hughes on Caballo Island and Fort Frank on Carabao island. Ballou’s name appears on the roster for the 60th Coast Artillery Corps on March 31, 1942. At some point, like Joe W. True, Ballou was seconded to the Finance Office, most likely as a runner. Or perhaps when the photo was taken, he had some business with the Finance Office. Ballou, like all the other Corregidor prisoners, passed through the Ninety-Second Coast Artillery Corps Garage, the streets of Manila, and then Bilibid and Cabanatuan. At some point, he was shipped to Taiwan on the Hokusen Maru and later to Japan. He was sent to Sendai Camp #3 to work in a lead and zinc mine for the Mitsubishi Mining Company. Ballou was rescued on September 12, 1945. Billy E. Ballou married his wife Audrey and lived in La Habra, California until he died on February 2, 2002.

Private First Class Arthur Greenwell Kuykendall, Manila Finance Department, 13001589 (June 7, 1920 -August 28, 1994). Arthur G. Kuykendall was born in 1920 in Reese’s Mill, Mineral County, West Virginia to Robert Elijah Kuykendall and Lydia Catherine Fleck. He had three brothers, Robert, Russell and John; and a sister, Pauline. Kuykendall attended Keyser High School in Maryland and graduated from Potomac State School. He was an avid high school athlete. He joined the Army and was posted to the Manila Finance Office. This sparked a life long interest in banking. Kuykendall was captured on Corregidor and like the other men, spent weeks at the Ninety-Second Coast Artillery Garage before being incarcerated in Bilibid Prison and Cabanatuan. His mother Lydia was notified by the War Department that he was alive in January 1943 and she began to send him letters, and encouraged the residents of Reese’s Mill to write him. It’s doubtful that many of these letters made it into Kuykendall’s hands. Kuykendall was shipped to Japan aboard the Nagato Maru in November 1942, and was incarcerated at Omi (Aomi) Camp with Irving Strobing and Roy E. Davis. At Aomi Kuykendall labored making cement and carbon ingots. He was rescued on September 7, 1945 and sent by train to Yokohama. Promoted to Staff sergeant, Kuykendall re-enlisted on January 16, 1946 for the Hawaiian Department’s Finance Office but in May 1947 Kuykendall, by then promoted to Technical Sergeant, was assigned to General Wainwright’s Fourth Army Finance Office at Fort Sam Houston. After leaving the Army, Kuykendall became Assistant Treasurer of the First Liberty Trust Company of Cumberland, Maryland, and often presided over official bank business.

Staff Sergeant Meridith L. Hough, Manila Finance Department, 6937847 (January 1, 1910 -October 24, 1944). Meridith Hough’s last name is pronounced “Huff.” He was the son of Seymour S. and Alice C. Hough. The family lived in Nebraska before moving to St. Paul, Minnesota. Hough, like the others, moved through the Ninety-Second Coast Artillery Garage, Manila, Bilibid and Cabanatuan. In December 1942 or January 1943 Hough was sent to Lipa in Batangas Province to labor on an airfield for the Japanese. On October 20, 1944, Hough was one of 1,781 prisoners of war who were loaded onto the Arisan Maru, a relatively new freighter. The cargo holds had three levels of wooden platforms so that a large number of prisoners could be taken aboard. Hough and the others were crowded into the forward two holds. The prisoners’ holds are accessed by rope ladders. The Arisan Maru joined a convoy bound for Takao consisting of destroyers Harukaze, Take and Kuretake and fleet supply ship Kurasaki, with subchaser CH-20, escorting convoy MATA-30 consisting of Kokuryu Maru, Kimikawa Maru, Kikusui Maru, Fuyukawa Maru, Tenshin Maru, Shikisan Maru, Eiko Maru, Arisan Maru, Ryofu Maru, Daiten Maru and Shinsei Maru No. 1. Four days later, an American “wolf pack” – submarines working in concert to destroy Japanese shipping – attack the convoy. U.S.S. Snook (SS-279), U.S.S. Icefish (SS-367) U.S.S. Seadragon (SS-194) U.S.S. Drum (SS-228) and U.S.S. Shark II (SS-314) sank Tenshin Maru, Shikisan Maru, Daiten Maru, and Shinsei Maru during the morning, from 6 AM to Noon. Only three of the twelve transports ultimately survived the wolf pack’s onslaught. At 5:30 PM, while twenty Americans were on deck preparing the evening meal, USS Shark II attacked Arisan Maru. The first two torpedoes miss; the prisoners can see Japanese sailors running for the stern. The third torpedo impacts amidships, causing the ship’s back to break. The bow section, with the holds containing the Americans, stayed afloat. The Japanese evacuated after locking the second hold and cutting the rope ladders to the first hold. Regardless, those American prisoners preparing dinner tossed down ropes to the first hold and opened the second. While the Japanese destroyer Take rescued 347 Japanese survivors, and other ships pulled more Japanese out of the water, the Japanese beat the American prisoners still in the water with poles and drove them away. The ship sank, taking most of the American prisoners with it. Five survivors, finding a lifeboat abandoned by the Japanese, sail, water and hard tack. They navigated to China and met a friendly sampan. They were debriefed in China and then flown to Washington, D.C. where they gave testimony to war crimes investigators on December 5, 1944. Another four survivors were picked up by the Japanese and taken to Takao, where one of them died. It is not known when Hough was killed. The sinking of the Arisan Maru was the largest single loss of life in American naval history. Hough’s body was never recovered. His name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery; Manila, Philippines. His family erected a memorial to him in Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Major Paul Reuben Wing, 228th Signals Operations Company, O-005878 (August 14, 1892 – May 29, 1957). Paul R. Wing was born in Tacoma, Washington to Dr. Peleg Benson Wing and Ida M. Porter. Some records indicate he was born in 1891. Wing married Martha Gillis Thraves on December 25, 1912. They had three children, Pat, Toby and Paul Junior. Wing joined the Army during World War I, served in Panama, and held a reserve officer’s commission when discharged in 1920. He moved to Los Angeles. As a Hollywood producer with Paramount Studios, Wing was often contracted to manage budgets. His work was often uncredited. In 1935, Wing received an Oscar for his work on The Lives of a Bengal Lancer. Wing’s daughters, Pat Wing Perry and Toby Wing Merrill, started as chorus girls. Toby Wing starred in many films in the 1930s. Paul Wing was an amateur pilot and survived a serious plane crash in 1935. As the Army expanded as the threat of war loomed, Wing was called up and sent to run the 228th Signals Operations Company. Irving Strobing was one of the men detailed to Wing’s unit. Wing’s Signal Corps men had the responsibility of keeping Corregidor in contact with the rest of the world. Constant shelling destroyed the main aerial and needed constant repair. With the help of Filipinos from Manila’s radio station and telephone company, and RCA employee William Gibson, 228th Signals kept transmitting right up to the surrender. Wing photographed the Finance Office and his own Signals Corps men on April 28, 1942. A print of the photo was evacuated on U.S.S. Spearfish, but the negative was lost, either during the transit or the surrender. Strobing tapped out the Morse code that was the last the United States heard from Corregidor on May 6, 1942. His daughters were photographed and their concern for their father was national news. After the surrender, Wing was held at the Ninety-Second Coast Artillery Garage. Around May 31, 1942, Wing moved to Manila and marched to Bilibid Prison. In late 1942 he was transferred to Cabanatuan prisoner of war camp. Cabanatuan had most of the Corregidor prisoners and some of the survivors of the Bataan Death March. At its peak, Cabanatuan held 7,300 prisoners. At Cabanatuan, Wing would entertain the prisoners with stories about his life in Hollywood. After prisoner transfers to Japan started in November 1942, the number of men in the camp dropped. In 1944 several mass transports of prisoners began and by January 1945, Wing was one of only 512 prisoners of war left at Cabanatuan. General Douglas MacArthur returned to Luzon on January 9, 1945. Fearing the Japanese would execute the Cabanatuan prisoners; the famous “Great Raid” was launched. American Rangers dashed 30 miles behind Japanese lines to affect the rescue of the entire camp. After a quick firefight that ended with the death of the guards, the Rangers entered the camp. The Rangers, wearing modern uniforms, were initially not recognized by the prisoners. The Rangers drove everyone, including Paul R. Wing, out of the camp and marched them back to American lines. Carts were available for some of the wounded and sick. Wing told the press back at Allied Headquarters, “Those Rangers gave me more drama than I expect to see in the rest of my eventful life. Are all American soldiers like those Rangers? Those boys saved 510 (actually 512) lives because I’m certain the Japs were going to use us as hostages.” One prisoner died of a heart attack. MacArthur claimed the prisoners’ health was “fair” but many were malnourished. Wing observed the Battle of Manila that month before returning to the United States. Wing and his wife retired to Virginia. He served on the Selective Service Board of Mathews County, California, from 1951 to 1957. Unwell, he was admitted to the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia, and died of a heart attack there.