Zam

Cpl. Joseph Zam Jr. was born on April 23, 1922, in Toledo, Ohio, to Joseph J. Zam Sr. & Mary Hollo-Zam. As a child, he grew up on Lockwood Road in Portage Township outside of Gypsum, Ohio. He was one of the couple's eleven children.

Joseph attended Gypsum School. Although he did not graduate, he attended Port Clinton High School for two years. Before he was inducted into the army, he worked on area farms as a laborer and in boat construction.

Knowing that it was just a matter of time before he was drafted, Joseph enlisted in the Ohio National Guard in November, 1940. When the Ohio National Guard Tank Company was federalized on November 25, 1940, Joseph was sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky for training. After nearly a year of training, his company which was now a part of the 192nd Tank Battalion went on maneuvers in Louisiana. It was after these maneuvers that he learned he was being sent overseas.

Joseph sailed for the Philippine Islands from San Francisco and arrived in Manila after stops in Hawaii and Guam. After arriving in the Philippines, he was sent to Fort Stostenburg for further training. Two weeks later on December 8, 1941, Joseph lived through the Japanese attack on Clark Field.

After the attack, Joseph and the other members of C Company were sent to defend a dam from possible sabotage. A few days later the company was sent north to Lingayan Bay in support of B Company. He was reported to have been wounded on December 14, 1941, during this action. For the next four months Joseph took part in the attempt to slow the Japanese conquest of the Philippine Islands.

When Bataan was surrendered to the Japanese, Joseph became a Prisoner of War. He took part in the Death March and was first held at Camp O'Donnell as a POW. It was while he was there that he went out on the bridge building detail to rebuild bridges that had been destroyed during the withdraw into Bataan.

As a member of the work detail, Joseph with the other POWs was sent to Calauan. After this bridge was finished, the detail was moved to Batangas in later July 1943. From there he was sent north to Candelaria to rebuild a third bridge

Upon completion of the bridge building detail, Joseph was sent to Cabanatuan. It was there that Cpl. Joseph Zam Jr. died of beriberi and heart failure on September 14, 1943 at approximately 10:00 PM. The report kept at the camp has his cause of death as dysentery and yellow jaundice. He was 21 years old.