S/Sgt Olen C. Elwell was the son of Mary Zoschke-Elwell & Harley Elwell.  He was born on June 11. 1914.  With his brothers, Raymond, Ralph, Leonard, and his sister, Helen, he was raised on a farm near LaCarne, Ohio.  He attended LaCarne Elementary School and Port Clinton High School.  He graduated from high school in 1934.

    Sometime after he graduated from high school, he joined the Ohio National Guard's tank company at Port Clinton.  He was a member of the National Guard when the company was called to Federal duty in the fall of 1940.

    Olen trained at Fort Knox, Kentucky for nearly a year as a member of the 192nd Tank Battalion.  In the late summer of 1941, he and the other members of the 192nd took part in maneuvers in Louisiana.  After the maneuvers, he learned the battalion was not being released from Federal service, instead they were being sent overseas.

    From Camp Polk, Louisiana, the 192nd boarded trains for San Francisco.  They then were ferried to Angel Island.  After receiving physicals, the battalion boarded ships bound for the Philippine Islands.

    Arriving at Manila, Olen and the other members of his company were rushed to Ft. Stotsenburg.  They were housed in tents since their barracks were not finished.

    On the morning of December 8, 1941, the tankers were informed on the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Around 11:45 in the morning, Olen and the other soldiers watched as planes approached Clark Airfield.  When bombs began exploding, the soldiers knew the planes were Japanese.

    Olen fought the Japanese for four months.  On April 9, 1942, he became a Prisoner of War when Bataan was surrendered to the Japanese.   He took part in the death march and was held as a Prisoner of War at Camp O'Donnell.  He was next sent to Cabanatuan.  It is not known if he went out on any work details.  On July 14, 1944, Olen's family received the last letter they were to receive from him. 

    Sometime during his imprisonment, Olen was sent to Bilibid Prison.  There, he received a physical and sent to the Port Area of Manila.  

    In early October 1944, the Japanese, knowing that it was just a matter of time before the American forces would invade the Philippines, began sending large numbers of POWs to Japan or other occupied countries.  On October 11, 1944, Olen was taken to Pier 7 in the Port Area of Manila.  The POWs were boarded onto the Arisan Maru and packed into the ship's hold.  The next day 80 POWs were moved to the ship's other hold which was partially filled with coal.

    On October 10, 1944, John was boarded onto the Arisan Maru.  On October 11th, the ship sailed but took a southerly route away from Formosa.  The ship anchored in a cove off Palawan Island where it remained for ten days.  During this time, one POW died.  

    The stay in the cove resulted in the ship missing an air raid by American planes on ships in the Manila Bay. It is known that the ship was attacked once by American planes while in the cove.  The Arisan Maru returned to the Manila on October 20th.  There, it joined a convoy.  

    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, at 5:00 pm, POWs were on deck preparing the meal for those POWs in the ship's two holds.  The ship was near Shoonan off the coast of China.  Suddenly, there was a sudden jar which was caused by the ship being hit by two torpedoes.  The ship stopped dead in the water.  Two torpedoes had hit the ship in its third hold where there were no POWs.  It is believed that the submarine that fired the torpedoes was the U. S. S Snook.

    One of the Japanese guards took a machinegun and began firing at the POWs who were on deck.  To escape the fire, the POWs dove back into the holds.  After they were in the holds, the Japanese put the hatch covers on the holds.

    As the Japanese abandoned ship, they cut the rope ladders into the ship's two occupied holds.  Some of the POWs in the second hold were able to climb out and reattached the ladders into the holds.  They also dropped ropes down to the POWs in both holds.

    All of the POWs were able to get onto the deck of the ship.  At first, few POWs attempted to escape the ship.  A group of 35 men swam to a nearby Japanese ship, but when the Japanese realized they were POWs, they were pushed away with poles and clubs.  Japanese destroyers in the convoy deliberately pulled away from the POWs as they attempted to reach them.

    As the ship got lower in the water, more POWs took to the water.  Those POWs too weak to swim raided the ship's food lockers.  They wanted to die with full stomachs.  Many POWs attempted to escape the ship by clinging to rafts, hatch covers, flotsam and jetsam.  Nine POWs found a abandoned lifeboat floating in the ocean.  These men stated that most of the POWs were still on deck even after it became apparent that the ship was sinking.   

    The exact time of the ship's sinking is not known since it took place after dark.  According to the surviving POWs, as evening became night, the cries for help became fewer and fewer until there was silence.

    S/Sgt. Olen C. Elwell died in the sinking of the Arisan Maru on October 24, 1944.  Since he died at sea, his name appears on the Tablets of the Missing at the American Military Cemetery outside Manila.