Pvt. Ira C. Morgan


Born: 22 March 1913 - Daingerfield, Texas

Parents: William R. Morgan & Lucy B. Galloupe-Morgan

Hometown: Fort Worth, Texas

    - family moved to Ft. Worth in 1928 

Siblings: 3 brothers, 2 sisters

Nickname: Buddy

Inducted:

    - U. S. Army

        - 20 March 1941 - Dallas, Texas

Training: 

    - Fort Knox, Kentucky

    - Camp Polk, Louisiana

Overseas Duty: 

    - Philippine Islands

Engagements: 

    - Battle of Luzon

    - Battle of Bataan

Prisoner of War: 

    - 9 April 1942

       - Mariveles - POWs started march at southern tip of Bataan
            - POWs ran past Japanesee 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 spiget for entire camp
            - as many as 50 POWs died each day
            - Japanese opened new POW camp to lower death rate
 
 

        - Cabanatuan

    - Japan: 

       - Osaka Camp

           - transfered: May 1945

        - Sendai #10-B (Torhoku)

            - POWs were used as slave labor in a mine

Hell Ship: 

    Noto Maru

        - Sailed: Manila - 27 August 1944

            - two torpedoes passed under ship

            - POWs chanted to be sunk

        - Arrived: Moji, Japan - 9 September 1944

Liberated: 

   - September 1945

Discharged: 25 May 1946

Died: 22 October 1997 - Alvarado, Texas

Buried:

    - Mount Olivet Cemetery - Fort Worth, Texas


 

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