Pvt. Howard R. Gasaway


Born: 1918 - Rich Hill Township, Muskingum County, Ohio
Next of Kin: Charles I. Gasaway

Home:

    - lived at 110 Second Street - Martins Ferry, Ohio, in 1940 

Occupation: Auto Parts Salesman

Inducted:

    - U. S. Army 

        - 23 January 1941 - Fort Hayes - Columbus, Ohio

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 start 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

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

Died:

    - 24 May 1942 - dysentery

Buried:

    - Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery 

Reburied:

    - October 1948 

         - Riverview Cemetery - Martin's Ferry, Ohio


 

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