Tec 5 William C. Kent

Parents: Mr. & Mrs. E. J. Kent

Hometown: Lapine, Alabama

Inducted:

    - U. S. Army

        - 29 July 1940 - Montgomery, Alabama

Training:

    - Fort Knox, Kentucky

    - Camp Polk, Louisiana

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 started 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

Died:

    - 25 July 1942 - cerebral malaria

        - Approximate time of death - 9:00 AM

Buried:

    - Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery

        - after the war, his remains could not be positively identified

        - buried as an "Unknown" at the new American cemetery 

Memorial:

    - Tablets of the Missing - American Military Cemetery - Manila, Philippine Islands

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