Sgt. Herbert C. Steele

Parents: Thomas E. & Maranda Watts Steele

Siblings: 2 sisters, 1 half-brother, 1 half-sister

Enlisted:

    - Kentucky National Guard

Inducted:

    - U. S. Army - 25 November 1940 - Harrodsburg, Kentucky

Training: 

    - Fort Knox, Kentucky

    - Camp Polk, Louisiana

Overseas Duty: 

    - Philippine Islands

Engagements: 

    - Battle of Luzon

    - Battle of Bataan

Prisoner of War: 

    - 9 April 1942

        - Death March

            - 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 #1

Died:

    - 14 June 1942 - dysentery

        - Approximate time of death - 5:00 A.M.

Buried: American Military Cemetery - Manila 

    Note: Sgt. Herbert Steele's grave erroneously shows him as a member of the

              194th Tank Battalion

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