Pfc. Manuel F. Ortez

Home: Los Angeles County

Inducted: 

     - U. S. Army

        - 2 April 1941 - Los Angeles, California

Training: 

    - Fort Lewis, Washington

Unit: 

    - 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: 

POW Camps:

    - 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 rate  

    - Cabanatuan

    - Bachrach Garage Detail

        - January 1943 - 11 October 1944

Hell Ship:

    - Arisan Maru

        - Boarded: 10 October 1945

        - Sailed: Manila - 11 October 1944 

            - ship hid in cove off Palawan Island

            - returned to Manila

        - Arrived: Manila - 20 October 1944

        - Sailed: 21 October 1944

        - Sunk: 24 October 1944

            - hit by two torpedoes from an American submarine 

            - only nine of 1803 POWs survived sinking 

Died: 

    - 24 October 1944 - sinking of Arisan Maru

Memorial: 

    - Tablets of the Missing - American Military Cemetery - Manila

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