Tec 5 Earl G. Smith

Brother: Armand Smith

Hometown: Salinas, California

Enlisted: California National Guard

Inducted: 

    - U. S. Army

        - 3 February 1941 - Santa Monica, California

Training: 

    - Fort Lewis, Washington

        - tank driver 

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:

    - 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 #1

    - Bridge Building Detail

        - worked at sawmill

Executed: 10 July 1942

     - He was one of ten POWs selected by the Japanese to be executed. These POWs were the

       five men who slept to the right, and five men who slept to the left, of a POW who escaped

       one night.

Buried:

    - American Military Cemetery - Manila

        - Plot:  D   Row:  2   Grave:  184 

Return to Company C