Pvt. Emmett E. Hensley

Parents: Robert Hensley & Clara Barrows-Hensley

Siblings: 5 brothers, 7 sisters

    - twin brother: Elmer

Hometown: Downs Township, Sumner County, Kansas

    - at some point he moved back to Danes, Oklahoma

    - family would later live in Cedar Vale, Kansas

Occupation: salesman

Inducted: U. S. Army 

    - 24 March 1941 - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Training: 

    - Fort Sill, Oklahoma

        - family never saw him after he went to basic training

    - Camp Polk, Louisiana

Units: 

    - 753rd Tank Battalion

    - 192nd Tank Battalion

       - volunteered to join battalion to replace a National Guardsman

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 rat

        - Cabanatuan #1

        - Bachrach Garage Detail

            - POWs repaired cars and trucks for Japanese

    - Japan:

        - Fukuoka #23

            - Work: coal mining

Hell Ship:

    - Nissyo Maru

        - Sailed: Manila - 17 July 1944

        - Arrived: Takao, Formosa - 27 July 1944

        - Sailed: Takao - 28 July 1944

        - Arrived: Moji, Japan - 3 August 1944

Liberated: September 1945

Discharged: 18 March 1946

Married:

Children: Two

Occupation: Postal Worker

Died:

    - 24 June 1996 - Wichita, Kansas

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