Death March tryouts yield 5-man team for Camp Atterbury

Courtesy Photo | Capt. Paul Karbley adjusts the weight inside his ruck sack to ensure it weighs 35 pounds. Karbley and nine other Soldiers marched 12 miles during tryouts Nov. 23 at Camp Atterbury for the Bataan Memorial Death March. The real Bataan Memorial Death March is a 26.2-mile march through the high desert terrain of White Sands Missile Range, N.M., in March 2010.  

CAMP ATTERBURY, INDIANA, UNITED STATES

11.23.2009

Courtesy Story

Camp Atterbury Indiana

CAMP ATTERBURY JOINT MANEUVER TRAINING CENTER, Ind. — The name 'Bataan Memorial Death March' is enough to keep most sensible people at home. But early Monday morning 10 Soldiers gathered at the rappel tower here, 35-pound ruck sacks in tow, in preparation for tryouts for the annual march. Soldiers wore their full Army Combat Uniform with rucks ready to march 12 miles, a little less than half of what the actual march would entail.

"I can think of other things I'd rather do this early," said Staff Sgt. Cody Wooten, a Soldier with the Range Training Team here. "But it's nothing new, I've done it before."

In 2006 and 2007, Wooten marched in the 26.2-mile Bataan Memorial Death March and came in second place with his team. There, he met the real McCoys.

"You get to meet the veterans that actually were in Bataan while you're there," Wooten said. "Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of them left. It's just amazing what they went through."

The actual Bataan Memorial Death March took place in the Philippines in 1942 during World War II and was later accounted as a Japanese war crime. The march involved the forcible transfer of 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war captured by the Japanese in the Philippines from the Bataan peninsula to prison camps. The prisoners of war were forced to endure a 61-mile march during which 25 to 28 percent of the POWs were killed or died of disease, starvation, dehydration, heat prostration and/or untreated wounds.

Capt. Andrew Miller, the organizer of the tryouts, said the Soldiers needed to complete the tryouts march in less than three hours in order to qualify for the Camp Atterbury team. The team, which will be sponsored by Command Sgt. Maj. Rodney Spade, will travel to White Sands Missile Range, N.M., in March.

"We're trying to get five Soldiers that can qualify to make the team," said Miller, who was acting in the role of a coach. "I'll make sure they know the rules of the real Bataan Death March and have the experience to actually go out there and enjoy it and see some of the survivors before they're all gone."
First to cross the finish line, with a time of 2:20:32, was Maj. Gary Blagburn, the provost marshall at Camp Atterbury.

"I'm tired and my back hurts," said Blagburn. "But other than that I'm all right."

A shoo-in for New Mexico, Blagburn is already thinking ahead.

"It' going to be hot and a lot longer," Blagburn said. "You figure it's over twice as long as [this march] was."

"And it's going to take a lot more training," he said. "I'll probably continue to run for longer distances and do some ruck marches. I'm just glad this is over."

The five-man team for Camp Atterbury includes Blagburn and Wooten, Cpt. Paul Karbley, Sgt. Joshua Chenault, Spc. Richard Codd and an alternate, Staff Sgt. James Wood.

• Date Taken: 11.23.2009
• Date Posted: 11.23.2009 14:52
• Story ID: 41925
• Location: CAMP ATTERBURY, INDIANA, US