Pvt. Lawrence Odom

Parents: James G. Odom & Mamie Clemens-Odom

Siblings: 1 brother, 1 sister

Hometown: Eddyville, Kentucky

Inducted: 

    - U. S. Army 

        - 22 January 1941 - Louisville, Kentucky

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 

Prisoner of War: 

    - 9 April 1942

        - Death March

            - Mariveles - POWs started 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

            - at different times he carried Clarence Allen and James Thompson on march

POW Camps: 

    - Philippine Islands: 

        - 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 

        - Cabanatuan

        -Bilibid Prison    

    - Manchuria: 

         - Mukden Camp

            - Work: machine shop; lumber mill

Liberated: September 1945 - Russian Army

Discharged: 13 May 1946

Promoted: Staff Sergeant

Died:

    - 5 March 1984 - Warren, Ohio

Buried:

     - Kuttawa Cemetery - Kuttawa, Kentucky 

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