Tec 5 Arnold M. Steen was born in Wisconsin on October 18, 1918.  He was the son of Hans and Amelia Steen.  He had two sisters and one brother.  He was married. His wife's name was Mary and the couple lived at 103 North Washington Street in Janesville.

    On November 25, 1940, his National Guard tank company was federalized as A Company, 192nd Tank Battalion.  During his training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, Arnold attended cook's school and was assigned to A Company as its second cook.

    Arnold took part in maneuvers in Louisiana in the late summer of 1941.  It was after these maneuvers, on the side of a hill, that he learned that his battalion was being sent overseas.

    Arnold received a leave home to say his goodbyes to family and friends.  He returned to Camp Polk, Louisiana, where he and the other members of the battalion rode trains to San Francisco.  They were ferried to Angel Island in San Francisco Bay to receive physicals and shots.  

    The 192nd sailed to the Philippine Islands arriving there on November 22, 1941.  Since their barracks were unfinished, Arnold and the other soldiers lived in tents along the main road between Ft. Stotsenburg and Clark Airfield.

    The morning of December 8, 1941, Arnold and the other soldiers were called together by Capt. Walter Write the company commander.  He informed his men of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor ten hours earlier.  He then ordered his tank crews to secure part of the perimeter of the airfield.

    Around 12:45 in the afternoon, while Arnold was serving lunch to the tank crews, Japanese planes appeared over the field.  Being a cook, Arnold could do little more than watch as the Japanese destroyed the American Army Air Corps.

    For the next four months, Arnold and the other cooks for the battalion did their best to feed the soldiers.  As the Americans and Filipinos fell back toward Bataan, food became scarce and rations were cut to one third of what a soldier needed to fight.  In an attempt to give his company adequate food, Arnold served horse meat, snake and monkey to the men.

    On one occasion, Arnold and the other cooks got their hands on beans.  They sent out a radio message to the tanks that they had food for them.  The problem was that message was heard by anyone in the area.  By the time the tankers arrived, the officers who had heard the message had eaten most of the food.

    The morning of April 9, 1942, Arnold and the other men learned of the surrender of Bataan to the Japanese from Capt. Fred Bruni.  Arnold with most the other members of A Company made their way to Mariveles at the southern tip of Bataan.  It was from there that he began what became known as the death march.

    As a Prisoner of War, Arnold was held at Camp O'Donnell and Cabanatuan.  It is not known if he went out on  work details to escape the conditions in the camps.  What is known is that Tec 5 Arnold M. Steen died of malaria, at 2:00 A.M. on June 21, 1942 at Cabanatuan POW Camp, Philippine Islands. 

    Since his final resting place is unknown, Tec 5 Arnold M. Steen's name appears on the Tablets of the Missing at the American Military Cemetery outside Manila.  His family also had a memorial dedicated to him at Oak Hill Cemetery in Janesville.