Saccone

1st Sgt. Ero "Ben" R. Saccone was born March 3, 1912, in the Barbary Coast area of San Francisco. He was the first generation American and the son of Italian immigrants. In 1929, he joined the California National Guard's 40th Tank Company. In 1939, Ben married Beatrice Tuttle. He became the father of three children.

On February 10, 1941, Ben was called to federal service when his tank company became C Company, 194th Tank Battalion. At this time, he was a staff sergeant. He would later be promoted to first sergeant which meant that Ben was the highest enlisted man in the company. He with his company were sent to Fort Lewis, Washington for training. In September 1941, they were sent to San Francisco. After receiving physicals and inoculations the battalion sailed for the Philippine Islands.

Arriving in the Philippines the battalion was sent to Fort Stotsenburg. They spent the next few months training and preparing for maneuvers. The morning of December 8, 1941, Ben and his company learned of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. They were ordered to the perimeter of the airfield to guard against Japanese paratroopers.

All morning, tankers watched as American planes filled the sky. At 12:30 the planes landed and the pilots went to lunch. Fifteen minutes later, the Japanese bombed the airfield. Ben and the other tankers could do little more than take cover. After the attack he saw the destruction and death the attack had done.

Ben with his battalion were sent south of Manila. After the Japanese landed troops at Lucban, the tanks withdrew slowly toward the Bataan Peninsula. Ben's company continued to fight on Bataan with little food, little medicine, and only the hope of help coming from the United States.

On April 9, 1942, Ben became a Prisoner of War. He took part in the death march from Mariveles to San Fernando. During the march, he and the other POWs received little food and almost no water. At San Fernando, the POWs were packed into small wooden boxcars and rode to Capas. There, the living climbed out of the cars while the bodies of the dead fell to the ground. The POWs then walked the last ten miles to Camp O'Donnell.

Camp O'Donnell was an unfinished Filipino training camp. There was only one water spigot for 12,000 POWs. Men died in line waiting for a drink. Since the death rate at the camp was extremely high, Ben volunteered to go out on a bridge building detail to get out of the camp.

This detail was also under the command of Lt. Col. Ted Wickord the commanding officer of the 192nd Tank Battalion. The detail was composed of 300 Prisoners of War whose job it was to rebuild bridges that had been destroyed during the American retreat. 150 of the POWs were selected to work at a sawmill to produce the lumber that would be needed to rebuild the bridges. Ben was given the job of mess sergeant on the detail.

Ben first worked at Calaun. There the POWs were amazed by the concern shown for them by the Filipino people. The townspeople arranged for their doctor and nurses to care for the POWs and give them medication. They also arranged for the POWs to attend a meal in their honor.

The detail was next sent to Batangas to rebuild another bridge. Again, the Filipino people did all they could to see that the Americans got the food and care they needed. Somehow the Filipinos convinced the Japanese to allow them to attend a meal to celebrate the completion of the new bridge.

While working on the detail, a POW at the sawmill escaped. Since the Japanese had instituted the "blood brother" policy, ten POWs were selected to be executed. The Japanese picked the five POWs who slept on both sides of the escaped man. Lt. Col. Wickord was sent to the sawmill to watch the execution and then tell his men what he had seen.

The next bridge the POWs were sent to build was in Candelaria. Once again, the people of the town did what ever they could to help the Americans. An order of Roman Catholic sisters, who had been recently freed from custody, invited Lt. Col. Wickord and twelve POWs for a dinner. Wickord selected the twelve sickest POWs to attend the meal.

When the detail ended in September, Ben was sent to Cabanatuan. This camp was opened to relieve the conditions that had existed at Camp O'Donnell. During his time in the camp, he worked in the camp farm. He was also given the job of being military supervisor of the civilian barracks in the camp. Ben remained at Cabanatuan until March 5, 1944.

Ben was taken to Manila and boarded onto the Taikoku Maru. The ship sailed on March 24th for Takao, Formosa. After a stop at Formosa, the ship arrived at Moji, Japan on April 10th. From Moji, Benwas sent to Motoyama POW Camp. During his time, he worked in a copper mine owned by Hitachi. On August 14, 1944, Ben was one of 230 POWs sent to Aisho #8-D. In this new camp, Ben once again worked in a copper mine.

Ben remained at Aisho until he was liberated on September 4, 1945. He returned to the United States and remained hospitalized until September 1947. He married, Beatrice, and was the father of two daughters and a son.

Ben took a job with the U. S. Army's medical Department. He was sent to Europe, where he worked in U. S, hospitals in Germany and France. He spent six years at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D. C. and then Letterman Army Hospital. He retired from the Army on January 1, 1961, as a Chief Warrant Officer Fourth Class.

Ben returned to California and was involved in veteran affairs. He resided in San Jose. Edward R. Saccone passed away at his grandson's home in Fresno, California, on February 16, 2007. He was buried at Garden of Memory Memorial Park in Salinas, California.