Pvt. Woodrow P. Lofton

Home: Garvin County, Oklahoma

Parents: James & Mary Lofton

Siblings: 1 sister, 1 brother

Inducted: 

    - U. S. Army 

        - 21 March 1941 - Oklahoma City

Training: 

    - Fort Knox, Kentucky

    - Camp Polk, Louisiana

Units: 

    - 753rd Tank Battalion

    - 192nd Tank Battalion

Duties: 

    - truck driver

Overseas Duty: 

    - Philippine Islands

Engagements:

    - Battle of Luzon 

    - Battle of Bataan

Prisoner of War: 

    - 9 April 1942

        - Death March

            - Mariveles - POWs started march at southern tip of Bataan

                - POWs ran pst 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 held eight horses or 40 men 

                - Japanese packed 100 POWs into each boxcar

            - Capas POWs left boxcars - dead fell to floors of boxcars

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

POW Camps: 

    - Philippine Islands: 

        - Camp O'Donnell

            - unfinished Filipino Army training base

            - Japanese put base into use as POW camp

            - one water spigot for the entire camp

            - as many as 50 POWS died each day 

            - Japanese opened new camp at Cabanatuan to lower death rate 

        - Cabanatuan

Died:

- 3 July 1942 - dysentery

- Approximate time of death - 12:30 A.M.

Buried:

 - Mount Olivet Cemetery - Pauls Valley, Oklahoma

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