Pvt. Charles G. Riedmiller

Parents: Frederick Riedmiller & Marie Taylor-Riedmiller

Siblings: 1 sister, 4 brothers

Nickname: Chuck

Hometown: Milford Center, Ohio

Inducted: 

    - U. S. Army

        - 30 January 1941 - Fort Hayes, Columbus, Ohio

Training: 

    - Fort Knox, Kentucky

        - finished basic training before he was assigned to the 192nd Tank Battalion 

        - truck driver 

    - Camp Polk, Louisiana

Overseas Duty: 

    - Philippine Islands

Engagements:

    - Battle of Luzon 

    - Battle of Bataan

        - carried ammunition and gasoline to tanks 

Prisoner of War: 

    - 9 April 1942

        - Death March

            - Mariveles - POWs start 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

        - Ft. Stotsenburg

        - Las Pinas - 12 December 1942

        - Nichols Airfield

            - POWs built runways by hand

            - lived in Pasay School

Japan:

      - Oeyama Camp 

               - Work; nickel mining and refining 

Hell Ship:

     - Nissyo Maru

        - Sailed: Manila - 17 July 1944 

        - Arrived: Takao, Formosa - 27 July 1944 

        - Sailed: Takao - 28 July 1944

        - Arrived: Moji, Japan - 3 August 1944

Liberated:

     - 2 September 1945

Promoted: Sergeant

Discharged: 13 May 1946

Married:

    - Mildred Fladt

        - 14 February 1947

        - Died: 18 May 2000

     - Brenda Stanforth

        - 2 May 2001 

Died:

     - 3 April 2005

Buried:

     - Saint John Lutheran Cemetery - Marysville, Ohio 

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