Best of friends [Image 3 of 15]

WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, NM, UNITED STATES

03.19.2016

Photo by Sgt. Maricris McLane 

24th Theater Public Affairs Support Element

Jonathan Vallejos and Rudy Armijo, natives of Belen, N.M., are best friends participating in the Bataan Memorial Death March. Vallejos did the death march five times and on his sixth year he volunteered to help out at the water points. Armijo is doing the march for the third time. “This is my third year in a row, he is my best friend. He just talked me into it one year and it just stuck. Yeah, I just kept doing it. Plus, I’m a military historian, so I know about the actual event in April of 1942,” said Armijo. “We figured those men had to go through Bataan to protect us, so this is a way for us to honor them and push our bodies, though not nearly in the way they had to go through.” Vallejos, an active guard with New Mexico National Guard, feels a sense of pride in being a part of the death march for six years in a row. Although, he is not participating this year, he still remembers those fallen comrades and relatives who suffered in the past. “It gives me a sense of pride. Also, one of my uncles died in Bataan and that's another reason I do it- for his memory,” said Vallejos. (U.S. Army photo by: Sgt. Maricris C. McLane)

• Date Taken: 03.19.2016
• Date Posted: 03.23.2016 11:12
• Photo ID: 2480709
• VIRIN: 160319-A-ZR018-007
• Resolution: 4204x2803
• Size: 6.51 MB
• Location: WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, NM, US
• Hometown: BELEN, NM, US