Honoring a torturous trek

Owen High School JROTC remembers Bataan Death March

Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
April 1, 2022

Eighty years ago, as war raged around the globe, an intense three-month battle between the invading Imperial Japanese Army and soldiers from the Philippine Commonwealth and U.S. on the Bataan Peninsula was nearing its end. The brutality, however, was far from over. 

Isolated in the largely Japanese-controlled Pacific Ocean, the undersupplied American and Filipino troops defended the province against invading forces, but in their surrender to Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma, tens of thousands of them would be subjected to hunger, torture and death on the Bataan Death March. 

While accurate numbers remain unknown, 60,000 to 80,000 prisoners of war were forcibly transferred up to 70 miles north, to Capas, Tarlac, though the merciless conditions of the march would claim the lives of untold thousands on the way. 

Their collective sacrifice was honored, April 1, in the Swannanoa Valley, by approximately 40 cadets representing the Charles D. Owen High School Warhorse Battalion.

Three classes from the school’s Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. carried 20-pound military backpacks one mile around the track in Warhorse Stadium in remembrance of those who suffered the atrocities in the Philippines, as they participated in the 2022 Clemson 8 Challenge. 

The Challenge was created in 2021 to honor the eight Clemson alumni who were captors in the Bataan Death March. While all of them survived the torturous journey, only three returned home from World War II, with five dying in prison camps. Ben Skardon, who retired from the U.S. Army as a colonel before being posthumously awarded the honorary rank of brigadier general after his death, at the age of 104, last November, was among those who survived. 

The money raised in the Clemson 8 Challenge supports the university’s ROTC program that funds scholarships and allows cadets to participate in the annual Bataan Memorial Death March at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. 

The Warhorse Battalion is participating in the Challenge for the second year, according to retired U.S. Army Major, JROTC Senior Army Instructor and Athletic Director Brook King. 

“It sounds cliché, but freedom really isn’t free,” said King, who organized the event with retired Sergeant First Class and Owen JROTC Army Instructor Jeff Garland. “This walk not only pays tribute to an incredibly important historical event, but it also reminds our JROTC students that some have paid the ultimate price for the freedoms we enjoy today.”

Remembering all soldiers who have given their life in service to their country is important, according to Cadet Sergeant First Class Ethan Barnwell, who added the events in the Philippines were particularly disturbing to learn about. The sophomore dressed in full uniform for the Challenge.

“The service members who did the actual march were most likely in uniform when they were imprisoned,” he said. “So, I felt this was a way to represent them.”

Barnwell, in his second year in the JROTC program, is proud of the Warhorse Battalion for joining the Challenge. 

“I believe every ROTC should try to support this event,” he said. “It’s really easy to take for granted how tough it is to march 65 miles through the jungle under those kinds of conditions. Even though we’re only each doing a mile, it helps you understand just how hard things have been for many of the people who fought for freedom.”

Approximately 70 students are enrolled in the Owen JROTC this school year, and the program focuses on instilling skills that will help them “be leaders here, and in life,” King said. 

“Our mission is to make young people better citizens, so this is a leadership-centric course,” he said. “We try to teach the importance of being a leader, doing the right thing even when nobody's looking and lifting up others who are around you.”

King plans to make the Clemson 8 Challenge an annual event at Owen.

“The suffering these soldiers endured during this march was tremendous, and they are some of many who have given so much for our freedom,” he said. “It’s important that these students know this so they can understand how much was sacrificed for us to be out here doing this today.”