May 26, 2002 4:45pm

[CZDiesel]

This is an important anniversary for me for several reasons. On this day, Memorial Day Weekend, I found myself in a gunfight, ultimately being hit five times and ended up spending over nine months in a hospital bed! It was a life changing event that one never really recovers from! @hwr239 was there for the aftermath and can contest it was a bloody nightmare! Literally!!!
But that’s not exactly what is most important on this Memorial Day and Weekend! You see at almost the exact same time 60 years earlier my Grand Father was fighting for our country in the Philippines. His name was PVT. Alexander Robles and he was in Bataan. At this time he was either in the Death March of Bataan or had made it to Camp O’Donnell. He was killed at this time! Knowing my father and my attitude I know he disobeyed, criticized, and was generally insubordinate! I know he tried to make the Japanese soldiers life as hard as they made his and they killed him for it!
PVT. Alexander Robles was not the only Disobedient Bastard as 2,000 American Soldiers died in the march and at camp! Many were beaten, shot, bayoneted and in many cases beheaded!
Those that survived the march were starved and diseased…
I know my Grandfather gave them HELL until they brutally killed him and so many others this time 83 years ago! So every Memorial Day when I want to feel bad about myself and what I have gone through and endured I think of my Grandfather! What he endured and what he was thinking knowing they were going to kill him in an unbelievably brutal fashion! I check myself and give pause to what so many Americans have faced giving us this life we have!!!
God Bless PVT. Alexander Robles! Fallen but not Forgotten!!! God Bless all of those hero’s who served and gave the ultimate sacrifice so we didn’t have too…

 

[HuntingGold]

This is one of those things that I'm not sure what to say. I am thankful for you and your family's service.

I heard Bataan stories from a shirt tail relative. Miserable. I will say no more.

My gun battle date is October 10. I'm thankful that oftentimes I'm deer hunting and too busy to remember, but not always.

Thank you for posting. Thank you for your service.

Randy

 

[Wyatt Smith]

At the diner in town there is a carved wooden chain about 8 feet long on display. The man who carved it was a survivor of Bataan.

 

[Newboomer]

At the diner in town there is a carved wooden chain about 8 feet long on display. The man who carved it was a survivor of Bataan.

All gave some. Some gave all. God bless them and we who served.

 

[CBH Australia]

War is bad enough but what makes humans inhumane when dealing with POW’s?

I would like to think soldiers from civilised countries did not treat the enemy this way.

 

[CZDiesel]

War is bad enough but what makes humans inhumane when dealing with POW’s?

I would like to think soldiers from civilised countries did not treat the enemy this way.

Conditions and torture was so bad at Camp O’Donnell that an average of 250 men a day were killed! 250!!!
I can’t even imagine the brutality and stench of death that permeated the camp…

 

[hwr239]

Private Robles was a warrior! Respect and admiration to the men who fought and gave their lives for our freedom. Thank God we have a new administration that understands what those men sacrificed for.

 

[Doug3006]

War is bad enough but what makes humans inhumane when dealing with POW’s?

I would like to think soldiers from civilised countries did not treat the enemy this way.

Ideology is the proximate cause of so much inhumanity. Once you convince a people that they are the master race, then no depravity is off limits.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

This is an important anniversary for me for several reasons. On this day, Memorial Day Weekend, I found myself in a gunfight, ultimately being hit five times and ended up spending over nine months in a hospital bed! It was a life changing event that one never really recovers from! @hwr239 was there for the aftermath and can contest it was a bloody nightmare! Literally!!!
But that’s not exactly what is most important on this Memorial Day and Weekend! You see at almost the exact same time 60 years earlier my Grand Father was fighting for our country in the Philippines. His name was PVT. Alexander Robles and he was in Bataan. At this time he was either in the Death March of Bataan or had made it to Camp O’Donnell. He was killed at this time! Knowing my father and my attitude I know he disobeyed, criticized, and was generally insubordinate! I know he tried to make the Japanese soldiers life as hard as they made his and they killed him for it!
PVT. Alexander Robles was not the only Disobedient Bastard as 2,000 American Soldiers died in the march and at camp! Many were beaten, shot, bayoneted and in many cases beheaded!
Those that survived the march were starved and diseased…
I know my Grandfather gave them HELL until they brutally killed him and so many others this time 83 years ago! So every Memorial Day when I want to feel bad about myself and what I have gone through and endured I think of my Grandfather! What he endured and what he was thinking knowing they were going to kill him in an unbelievably brutal fashion! I check myself and give pause to what so many Americans have faced giving us this life we have!!!
God Bless PVT. Alexander Robles! Fallen but not Forgotten!!! God Bless all of those hero’s who served and gave the ultimate sacrifice so we didn’t have too…View attachment 687882View attachment 687883View attachment 687884View attachment 687885View attachment 687886

I traveled to the Philippines for work some better part of 30 years ago and spent 3 weeks there. The tour of the island I'll not forget. Seeing the shot out buildings, the divots in the armament, well it was also just fascinating to me. As the tour proceeded we ended up down at the beach where stands a statue of General MacArthur and the tunnel that American solders took shelter in as the Japanese took the Philippines.

As the story went making that moment that much more poignant to me, the Japanese purposely marched the solders down to the beach as the march started so that the soldiers on Corregidor could see what was happening. You can see that Bataan pensinsula to the north from this beach.

The story of your grandfather just stirred up this memory for me, thanks for sharing.