Pvt. Olen Jay Gilson

Parents: Oscar Gilson & Delila Brown-Gilson

Siblings: 2 brothers, 4 sisters

Hometown: East Liverpool, Ohio

Inducted: 

    - U. S. Army

        - 22 March 1941 - Cleveland, Ohio

Training: 

    - Fort Knox, Kentucky

        - Radio Operator

    - Camp Polk, Louisiana

Units: 

    - 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 Japanese artillery firing on Corregidor

               - American artillery on Corregidor returned fire

            - San Fernando -POWs put into small wooden boxcars used to haul sugarcane

               - each boxcar could hold eight horses or forty men

               -  Japanese packed 100 POWs into each boxcar

               - POWs who died remained standing

            - Capas - POWs left boxcars - dead POWs fell to the floor

            - POWs walked the last ten miles to Camp O'Donnell 

POW Camps: 

    Philippine Islands: 

        - Camp O'Donnell

             - unfinished Filipino Army training base 

             - Japanese put camp into use as POW camp

            - one water spigot for the entire camp

            - as many as fifty POWs died each day 

            - POWs went out on work details to get out of camp 

        - Cabanatuan - May 1942 - September 1943

        - Las Pinas - September 1943 - 9 September 1944

        - Bilibid Prison

    Formosa

         - Toroku Camp

    Japan: 

        - Tokyo #23

            - Work:  stevedore and ship construction

Hell Ships: 

    Hokusen Maru - 1100 POWs on ship

        - POWs boarded - 21 September 1944

            - Sailed: Manila - 3 October 1944

            - Arrived: Hong Kong - 11 October 1944

                - remained in port until 21 October 1944

                - attacked by American planes - 13 October 1944

            -  Sailed: Hong Kong - 21 October 1944

            - Arrived: Takao, Formosa - 24 October 1944

                - 11 November 1944 - POWs unloaded

     Enoshima Maru  

          - Sailed: Formosa - 25 January 1945

          - Arrived: Moji, Japan  - 30 January 1945

Liberated: September 1945

Discharged: 11 April 1946

Married: 2 February 1946

Wife: Cornell

Children: 2 sons

Lived: Oak Hills, California

Died: 29 October 1995 - Phelan, California

    Note: Gilson may have been assigned to one of the three tanks assigned to HQ Company

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