Sgt. Joseph Henry O'Connell

    Joseph trained for almost a year at Fort Knox, Kentucky.  While he was there, he received his high school diploma in 1941.  In February, 1941, Joseph was assigned to Headquarters Company was formed from the four letter companies of the 192nd.  He was given command of a halftrack.

    In the late summer of 1941, Joseph took part in the Louisiana maneuvers.  After these maneuvers, Joseph and the other members of the battalion learned that their one year of military service had been extended from one to six years.  He received a pass home to say goodbye to his family and friends.

    Joseph traveled west by train to San Francisco.  There they he and the other soldiers received physicals and shots.  The 192nd sailed for the Philippine Islands from Angel Island in San Francisco Bay.  After stops in Hawaii and Guam, the 192nd arrived at Manila on Thanksgiving Day, 1941.

    Seventeen days days after arriving in the Philippine Islands, Joseph lived through the Japanese attack on Clark Airfield.  When the planes appeared over the airfield and the bombs began hitting the ground, Joseph ordered his halftrack to move about a mile from the runway.  It was from that position that his crew began shooting at the planes.

    For the next four months, Joseph worked to supply the tank crews with information to fight against the Japanese.  On one occasion, Joseph was attempting to locate the A Company tanks.  He was not having too much luck since the tanks were constantly on the move.  As he sat in his halftrack he heard tanks approaching, to his surprise, it was his company's tanks.  They had received orders to withdraw from the area and head to the south.  If they had not ran into him, he would have been left behind and fallen into Japanese hands.  Since he had no radio, he had not heard the order to withdraw.

    On another occasion, he was at the battalion's headquarters.  The tanks were in contact with HQ by radio.  As he listened, he heard the conversation between the tanks as they fought a running battle with the Japanese.  While they were fighting the Japanese, the tankers were attempting to find a place where they could cross the Agoo River.

    In a third incident, Joseph's halftrack was sent to San Jose in the Nueva Ecija Province, as they drove they passed a truck loaded with ammunition stuck in a ditch.   They stopped to help the driver.  Not too long after they got there, the Japanese began firing on them with mortars.  The shelling got so bad that the Americans abandoned their attempt to save the truck and ammunition.

    When Philippines were surrendered, Joseph became a Prisoner of War.  From Mariveles at the southern tip of Bataan, Joseph started what he and the other POWs called, "The March".  At San Fernando, the POWs were packed into small wooden boxcars that could hold eight horses or forty men.  One hundred men were packed into each car.  At Capa, the living left the cars and the dead fell to the ground.

    Joeseph was held at Camp O'Donnell, Cabanatuan and Bilibid Prison in the Philippines.  He would later be taken to Japan on the Clyde Maru.  The ship sailed on July 23, 1943 and arrived at Moji, Japan on August 7th.  After a two day train trip, Joseph reached the Fukuoka #17.  Although the date is unknown, Joseph was transferred to Fukuoka #1.

    Joseph O'Connell returned to Janesville after the war and was discharged from the army on June 3, 1946.  He went back to school and attended Milton College in Milton, Wisconsin.  He then attended Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.  He married and became the father of four children.  Joseph spent much of his adult life as a employment counselor to the disabled.  Joseph H. O'Connell died in March 15, 1981, in Galveston, Texas.

    Joseph O'Connell is buried at Houston National Cemetery in Houston, Texas in Section A, Site  764. 

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