1st Lt. Charles Arthur Fleming

Parents: Clyde & Susie Fleming

Siblings: 1 brother

Hometown: Saint Joseph, Missouri

Married: Helen A. Hansen - 18 April 1940

Enlisted: Missouri National Guard

Inducted:

    - U. S. Army

        - 10 February 1941 - Saint Joseph, Missouri

Training: 

    - Fort Lewis, Washington

        - inducted as an enlisted man

        - rank: Staff Sergeant

Units: 

    - 194th Tank Battalion

        - transferred from B Company to A Company

        - September 1941 - B Company sent to Alaska

Overseas Duty: 

    - Philippine Islands

Engagements: 

    - Battle of Luzon

    - Battle of Bataan

Prisoner of War: 

    - 9 April 1942

        - Death March

           - started march at Mariveles on southern tip of Bataan
           - POWs ran past Japanese artillery firing at Corregidor
           - San Fernando - POWs put into small wooden boxcars
               - 100 POWs packed into each boxcar
                   - those who died remain standing
           - Capas - living left cars - dead fell out of 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 spigot for entire camp
            - as many as 50 POWs died each day
            - Japanese opened new POW camp to lower death rate  

        - Cabanatuan #1

        - Davao, Mindano

        - Bilibid Prison

Hell Ship:

    - Oryoku Maru
        - Boarded: 13 December 1944
            - approximately 700 POWs put in aft hold
            - approximately 600 POWs put in forward hold
            - approximately 300 POWs put in amidships hold
        - Sailed: Manila - 14 December 1944 - 3:00 A.M.
            - 8:00 A.M. ship strafed by American planes from U.S.S. Hornet
            - ricochets wound POWs in hold
            - 8 to 10 POWs suffocate in forward hold from heat
            - 30 POWs suffocate in aft hold from heat
            - some POWs go crazy from thirst - drink urine
            - that evening American planes return and continue attack
        - Sunk: 15 December 1944
            - Japanese abandon ship
            - POWs left in holds
            - 9:30 A.M. - POWs told to abandon ship
            - Japanese fire upon POWs with machine guns as the POWs swim to shore

Died: -15 December 1944 - Lingayen Gulf - Philippine Islands

Memorial:

    - Tablets of the Missing - American Military Cemetery - Manila, Philippine Islands 

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