A Battling Bastard’s Legacy

ARABIAN SEA

03.08.2020

Courtesy Story

USS Bataan (LHD 5)

Having to deal with rampant disease, starvation and abusive captors, Bataan death marchers truly were, as they came to be known, Battling Bastards. Who does a battling bastard have to turn to when there’s no mama, no papa and no Uncle Sam? The man or woman to his right or left.
In 1941, 10 hours after the raid on Pearl Harbor, the Philippine island of Corregidor was attacked by Japanese forces through air raids and beach landings. Corregidor fell on May 6, 1942. American and Filipino forces stationed on Corregidor were then captured and forced into the infamous 65-mile Bataan Death March to prison ships and prison camps. The march would claim the lives of 21,000 American and Filipino soldiers, who were decimated by unsanitary conditions, a lack of food, regular beatings and executions along the route.
The name “Battling Bastards,” memorializing those who fought on Corregidor and were forced to march, and the phrase “No mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam,” were included in a poem by war correspondent Frank Hewlett written in 1942.
Today, Chief Personnel Specialist John Tanedo is assigned to the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD 5), named for the Battle of Bataan and subsequent Bataan Death March.
His late grandfather, Constantino Tanedo, was captured by the Japanese in 1942 and forced on the death march. He survived.
John Tanedo was born in Manilla, Phillipines. He lived with his grandparents before moving to a different part of the country, where he wasn’t able to see his grandfather often.
“I was born in Manilla, but I grew up north of there,” said Tanedo. “I was living with my grandparents, so I was still young at the time. My family bought a house down south and we ended up moving away from my dad’s side of the family.”
Tanedo would immigrate and soon after join the Navy, leading him to eventually cross paths with his grandfather once again.
“I moved to Guam back in 1999, I was 21 then,” said Tanedo. “I joined the Navy soon after I moved. … My first orders were to Japan. I had to stay in Los Angeles for two weeks waiting for my flight to Japan. I stayed with my grandfather during that time.”
Over 20 years after his first duty station, Tanedo would have the opportunity for orders to the amphibious assault ship Bataan.
“I saw there were other ships named after places in the Philippines,” said Tanedo. “What better way to possibly end my career than in one of the ships named after a province in the Philippines?”
Tanedo first learned of the Bataan Death March when he was in high school.
“It was a dark time in our history, especially in the Philippines,” said Tanedo “I was a part of the younger generation, so the stories of the invasion of Japan were told to my parents and then passed onto me.”
While currently deployed onboard Bataan, Tanedo says thinking of what his grandfather went through helps keep things in perspective.
“Sometimes we think, ‘Oh, it’s hard now.’ But think about it: We’re still safe, right?” said Tanedo. “We eat three times a day. We were just playing basketball the other day. Sixty-five miles is no joke, and that’s without someone hitting you with a baton. Realizing that, you see how lucky we are.”
While enduring the death march, Tanado’s grandfather was saved by his countrymen who risked their lives to make a difference.
“I don’t think my grandfather would’ve survived the 65-mile march,” said Tanado. “But there in the path of the death march were locals that would grab Americans and Filipino soldiers and hide them. The Japanese would never count the death marchers, so my grandfather was one of the lucky ones that was able to hide.”
With the difficulties his grandfather went through, Tanedo reflects on how his grandfather would feel about his military career, which includes tours to Kabul, Afghanistan, and Fallujah, Iraq.
“I think he would be proud,” said Tanedo. “Doing the things we did, at the time you feel like, ‘Man, this is ridiculous,’ but now I look back to Afghanistan and Iraq and realize I did my share. I was a part of the bigger picture. Nobody wants things to go in that direction, but if they do, you know you have people to share that struggle with.”
Whether it’s war or the day-to-day grind of the workplace, Sailors always have their peers to fall back on.
“Don’t take it by yourself,” said Tanedo. “You have everyone around you as your support. We’re all here to support each other. My grandfather didn’t survive because he had the stamina to walk 65 miles, he survived because there was someone there to help.”

• Date Taken: 03.08.2020
• Date Posted: 03.10.2020 05:36
• Story ID: 364847
• Location: ARABIAN SEA