s

Pvt. James Maxie Bryant


Born: 25 September 1920 - Inman, South Carolina

Parents: Walter Bryant & Alma Bridges-Bryant

    - parents divorced when he was a child 

Siblings: 1 brother

Home: Georgia

Nickname: "Jack"

Inducted: 

    - U. S. Army

        - 4 February 1941 - Augusta, Georgia

Training: 

    - Fort Benning, Georgia

    - Camp Polk, Louisiana

Units: 

    - 753rd Tank Battalion

        - battalion was sent to Camp Polk, Louisiana

        - did not take part in maneuvers 

        - volunteered to replace a National Guardsman released from federal service 

        - battalion also gave their tanks and halftracks to the 192nd 

    - 192nd Tank Battalion

Overseas Duty: 

    - Philippine Islands

Engagements:

    - Battle of Luzon 

        - 8 December 1941 - 6 January 1942 

    - Battle of Bataan

        - 7 January 1942 - 9 April 1942 

Prisoner of War: 

    - 9 April 1942

        - Death March

            - Mariveles - POWs start march at southern tip of Bataan
            - POWs ran past Japanese artillery firing at Corregidor
                - Americans on Corregidor returned fire
            - San Fernando - POWs put into small wooden boxcars
                - each boxcar could hold eight horses or forty men
                - 100 POWs packed into each car
                - POWs who died remained standing
            - Capas - dead fell to floor as living left boxcars
            - POWs walked last ten miles to Camp O'Donnell

POW Camps: 

    - Philippine Islands: 

        - Camp O'Donnell

            - unfinished Filipino training base
            - Japanese put camp into use as POW Camp
            - only one water spigot for entire camp
            - as many as 50 POWs died each day
            - Japanese opened new POW camp to lower death rate
 

        - Cabanatuan #1

        - Bilibid Prison

    - Japan:

        - Fukuoka #3-B

            - Work: Yawata Steel Mills

Hell Ship:

    - Unknown

Liberated: 13 September 1945

Promoted: Staff Sergeant

Discharged: 4 February 1946

Married: Doris A. Turner

Children: 1 daughter, 2 sons

   - one son died at age of four 

Died:

    - 11 March 1955 - Columbus, Georgia 

        - died from cirrhosis of the liver from acute alcoholism

Buried:

    - Riverdale Cemetery - Columbus, Georgia

        - Plot:  30   Section:  14 


 

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