Pvt. Glenn E. Widener


Born: October 1916 - Barnitz Township, Custer County, Oklahoma

Parents: Charles Widener & Matilda M. James-Widener

    - father died in 1923 

    - mother remarried and divorced 

Siblings: 6 sisters, 3 brothers

Hometown: Clinton, Oklahoma

Education: Fairview County School

Occupation: worked family farm

Inducted:

    - U. S. Army 

        - 24 March 1941 - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Training: 

    - Fort Knox, Kentucky

    - Camp Polk, Louisiana

Units: 

    - 753rd Tank Battalion

    - 192nd Tank Battalion

Overseas Duty: 

    - Philippine Islands

Engagements: 

    - Battle of Luzon

    - Battle of Bataan

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

Died:

    - 18 June 1942 - dysentery

Buried:

    - American Military Cemetery - Manila, Philippine Islands 

        - Plot:  N   Row:  5   Grave: 71

Memorial:

    - Prairie Bell Cemetery - Dewey County, Oklahoma

    - last name misspelled 


 

 

 

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