Sgt. Jacob A. Schmidt

Born: 1919 - Iowa
Parents: Adam & Anna Schmidt
Siblings: 4 sisters, 6 brothers
Hometown: Curtice Road - Allen County, Ohio
    - family moved to Ohio about 1934 
Occupation: Farmer- family farm
Inducted:
    - U.S. Army
        - 25 November 1940 - Port Clinton, Ohio

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 

        - Battle of the Pockets

            - 22 January 1942 - 8 February 1942 

Prisoner of War: 

    - 9 April 1942

        - Death March

            - Mariveles - POWs start 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:

    - 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
 

Died:

    - 25 May 42 - malaria

Buried:

    - American Military Cemetery - Manila, Philippine Islands

    - Plot:  D   Row:  12   Grave:  77 


 

 

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