Sgt. Vernon H. Bussell

    On November 25, 1940, Vernon's tank company was called to federal service and designated D Company, 192nd Tank Battalion.  He trained for nearly a year at Fort Knox, Kentucky.  In early 1941, Vernon was transferred  Headquarters Company when it was formed with men from the four letter companies. In the late summer of 1941, the 192nd took part in maneuvers in Louisiana.  It was after these maneuvers at Camp Polk that Vernon and the other members of the 192nd learned they were being sent overseas.

    Vernon's tank company traveled by train San Francisco and taken by ferry to Angel Island in San Francisco Bay.  On the island he and the other soldiers received physicals and inoculations.  A few days later the battalion sailed for the Philippine Islands.

    After two weeks of readying for maneuvers, the battalion received the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  It was around 12:45 in the afternoon that Vernon and the other soldiers were having lunch when they saw planes approaching Clark Airfield.  It was only when bombs began exploding that the soldiers knew the planes were Japanese.

    During the attack Vernon could do little but hide.  After the attack he saw the devastation done by the Japanese.  The wounded and dead were everywhere.

    For the next four months, Vernon worked to supply the tanks with ammunition and gasoline.  The morning of April 9, 1942, he and the other members of HQ Company learned of the surrender from Captain Fred Bruni his commanding officer.

    For the next two days, Vernon and the rest of his company remained in their bivouac area.  The morning of the third day, a Japanese officer and soldiers appeared at their bivouac and ordered the Prisoners of War out to the road that ran near the camp.  The Prisoners of War did as they were told and went to the road.  Once they were there, they were ordered to kneel along the sides of the road and to place their possessions in front of them.  As they knelt, the Japanese troops passing them took what they wanted from the POWs' possessions.

    Vernon and the other men were then told to board trucks.  They drove south to Mariveles were they were ordered off the trucks and sent into an open field at the airfield.  They sat in the field for hours without water.  They did not know it at the time, but they were experiencing the "sun treatment".

    Vernon and the rest of the men were moved and marched to a schoolyard.  They soon realized that the Japanese were using the them as human shields.  Not too long after they were put into the field four Japanese guns began firing at Ft. Drum and Corregidor.  Within minutes the two American fortresses began returning fire.  Since there was no place to hide, the POWs hit the dirt.  Several were killed during the artillery exchange.  The American artillery did knock out three of the four guns.  The POWs were ordered to move again, this time they had no idea that they had started what became known as the "death march".  

    On the march, Vernon and the other men received no water and little food.  Those who fell were killed by the Japanese.  At San Fernando, the POWs were put into small wooden boxcars.  They were packed in so tightly that the dead remained standing.

    At Capas, the POWs disembarked from the cars and walked the last few miles to Camp O'Donnell.  The camp was a death trap with as many as 50 POWs dying each day.  It is very likely that Vernon went out on a work detail to get out of the camp, but at this time it is not known which detail he was a member of.  It is known that Vernon was held at Cabanatuan which was opened to relieve the conditions at Camp O'Donnell.

    In the late fall of 1942 or early 1943, Vernon was selected for the Bachrach Garage Detail in Manila.  The POWs were held at a garage which had been owned by a Manila cab company.  On the detail, the POWs repaired trucks and other vehicles used by the Japanese.

    On October 11, 1944 the Bachrach Garage Detail was disbanded and the POWs were marched to Pier 7.  Once there, they were boarded onto the Arisan Maru.  They were put on this ship because the POWs scheduled to sail on it had not completely arrived.  With him were the other members of the 192nd who had worked with Vernon in Manila.  The ship set sail and took a southerly route away from Formosa.  It arrived at a cove off Palawan Island where it dropped anchor.  This resulted in the ship missing an air attack by American planes.  The Arisan Maru returned to the Manila nine days later.  There, it became part of a twelve ship convoy for Formosa.  

    On October 21st, the convoy left Manila and entered the South China Sea.  The Japanese refused to mark POW ships with red crosses to indicate they were carrying POWs.  This made the ships targets for submarines.  

    According to the survivors of the Arisan Maru, on October 24, 1944, around 5:00 pm, POWs were on deck preparing the meal for those in the ship's two holds.  The ship was near Shoonan, off the coast of China.  The POWs watched as the Japanese on deck ran to the bow of the ship.  A torpedo from an American submarine passed the ship.  The Japanese next ran to the stern of the ship and watched a second torpedo pass the ship.  There was a sudden jar which was caused by the ship being hit by two torpedoes amidships.  The ship stopped dead in the water.  It is believed that the submarine that fired the torpedoes was the U. S. S Snook.

    The Japanese guards fired their guns at the POWs on deck to drive them into the holds.  After they were in the holds, the Japanese cut the rope ladders and put the hatch covers on the holds.  They then abandoned ship.  Some of the POWs in the first hold were able to climb out and attached and lowered the rope ladders to those in the first hold.  They also dropped rope ladders down to the POWs in second hold.  

    Many of the POWs attempted to escape the ship by clinging to rafts, hatch covers, flotsam and jetsam.  Others stuffed themselves with what was their last meal.  Most of the POWs survived the attack but died because the Japanese refused to rescue  them.  The Japanese destroyers in the convoy deliberately pulled away from the POWs as they attempted to reach them.  Other Japanese crews pushed the POWs away from their ships with long poles.  Those who attempted to climb onto the ships were beaten with clubs.

    According to the five POWs who had reached an abandoned lifeboat, the Arisan Maru sank slowly into the water.  At some point the ship broke in two where it had been struck by the torpedoes.  The exact time of the ship's sinking was not known since it occurred at night.  The cries for help slowly ceased until there was silence.

    Sgt. Vernon H. Bussell lost his life when the Arisan Maru was torpedoed in the South China Sea.  Of the 1803 POWs on the ship, only nine survived the sinking.  Eight of the men survived the war.  Since he was lost at sea, Sgt. Vernon H. Bussell's name is inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing at the American Military Cemetery outside of Manila.

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