Pfc. Noah Cecil Heard

    Note: - Last Name: "Hurd" on 1925 Kansas State Census

               - Last Name spelled "Herd" on military records

Parents: William & D. Heard

    - His father's first wife died; Noah was the only child from his father's second marriage.

    - His father died before Noah was born or during Noah's first months of infancy.

Siblings: 2 half-sisters, 1 half-brother

Home: Salinas, California

Enlisted: California National Guard

    - WWII enlistment record shows Noah's year of birth as 1922.  He may have lied about

       his age to join the National Guard.

Inducted:

    - U.S. Army

        - 10 February 1941 - Salinas Army Airfield

Training: 

    - Fort Lewis, Washington

Units: 

    - 194th 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 Japanesee 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
            - POWs volunteered to go out on work details to get out of camp  

        - Scrap Metal Detail - Pampanga Province

            - POWs tied together vehicles and drove them to San Fernando

            - from San Fernando, the vehicles were taken to Manila to be sent to Japan

            - spent time in Pampanga Provincial Hospital suffering from malaria

            - discharged:  He was taken by Japanese on 10 October 1942

        - Cabanatuan #1

            - camp opened to lower death rate among POWs

                - Camp O'Donnell closed - only extremely ill left at camp

            - when POWs received Red Cross packages death rate dropped 

    - Japan

        - Fukuoka #17

Hell Ship:

    - Clyde Maru

        - Sailed: Manila - 23 July 1943

        - Arrived: Moji, Japan - 7 August 1943

Executed:

    - 3 May 1944

        - caught stealing food

        - Beheaded by sword

Buried:

    - Golden Gate National Cemetery - San Bruno, California

        - Section: J   Site: 295

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