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SAINT PAUL, Minn. - This was John Quinlen's first march.
John moved from Brainerd with his mother and sister to Pasadena, Calif., in the early '50s, at about age 13. He stayed there. John went to college and then to law school, marrying and settling in California. In 2007 he retired as a justice within the California Superior Court system.
But, he said, until this year he hadn't had a real visit back to the area, the area where his father Clinton raised his own family and served as a lieutenant with A Company, a company of tankers in the Minnesota National Guard.
Lt. Quinlen left his family in February 1941 for what was described as a “year of federal training” at Fort Lewis, Wash.
What happened was much different. Col. E. B. Miller, who later wrote the first-hand account “Bataan Uncensored” when he returned to the states, recalled being summoned as battalion commander to meet immediately with the Commanding General of the Armored Force in Ft. Knox, Ky. That was August 1941. There, Miller learned that the battalion would sail for the Philippines in September, but that the location was to be kept a secret.
"You may have to come off the boat fighting," Miller was told by the General's staff.
When the shock wore off, Miller replied that the United States was not yet in the war, and also that these were citizen soldiers. Their families and the community would have very pointed questions if the battalion left Ft. Lewis. What should he tell the press?
His message to the press would be this: "that the 194th Tank Battalion will sail on or about September 5th for tropical service. Period!" wrote Miller.
With the meeting adjourned, Miller sat quiet for a moment. Despite apprehension, it would be a “very pleasant duty” to deliver this historic message back to battalion. This would be the first armored unit to move outside of the continental United States. This is what they had been training for.
Miller telephoned back to Ft. Lewis to relay the order. The executive officer was not available, so Captain Clint Quinlen - John Quinlen's father - took the call. Miller told Quinlen to tell headquarters to cease maneuvers and prepare the battalion for overseas service immediately.
"Clint was so surprised I could almost hear him swallow," Miller wrote.
The battalion, including the 64 men who made up A Company, arrived in the Philippines in September and established their positions. It was Dec. 8 on their side of the international date line that the Japanese bombed Manila and Pearl Harbor.
The rest of the story is well told. Months of sustain battle followed. American and Philippino forces on the Bataan peninsula were surrounded, cut off from the rest of the fight. Morale suffered. Their rations ran out. Eventually, on April 9, 1942, Maj. Gen. Edward King, allied commander of the Bataan peninsula, against higher orders, surrendered to the Japanese. Ten thousand American troops - including Miller, Quinlen, and the rest of A Company - were led on a brutal eight-day march without food or water, forced into freight cars, packed into ships, and put into forced labor in Japan until the end of the war.
The March
“My mother had Col. Miller's book, so I read that of course,” said John Quinlen at a water stop on State Highway 371, a couple of miles south of Brainerd.
Quinlen has always been interested in the great campaigns and battles of World War II, and he noted that Miller's book is used as a primary source in many other books about the allied campaign in the Philippines.
“People who know about my background will occasionally lend me a book that I wouldn't have otherwise known about,” he said.
For each of the soldiers who were on the march, there are dozens of stories.
Ken Porwoll, an A Company member and survivor of the march, has talked about seeing a steaming pot of stew in a Japanese camp during the march. When a note sounded in the camp, the Japanese soldiers stopped what they were doing, turned toward the direction of the note, and began an elaborate ritual of bowing and praying. They were facing away from the marchers, towards the Emperor, and so Porwoll fearlessly grabbed the pot and took it back to the men.
Springs of natural water were common on the route, but troops caught taking drinks were beaten or killed. When a dirty pool of ditchwater was found, however, the captors encouraged the prisoners to stop for a drink.
The marchers were fed only once or twice - as little as a teaspoon of unboiled rice. Sleep during the march was done in cramped farmyard pens, if at all.
Miller and Quinlen managed to stay together during the march. In his book, Miller writes about walking through a small village with Quinlen and some others. The captors took a break, and Miller asked some residents for water. Then, he writes, “a miracle took place” - the residents reappeared with buckets of clean water to drink.
And for all that, the hellships were worse. Miller survived the transport on the ship to Japan; Quinlen didn't.
Capt. Joseph Sanganoo, the current A Company commander and officiating officer of the memorial march, can't say that anyone can truly understand what those men endured in World War II unless they lived through it and felt it for themselves. But the annual march in Brainerd helps to keep the memory alive.
“It humbles me,” said Sanganoo about what those soldiers experienced on the march. “It really makes me think about whether, honestly, if I'm living my life in a way that honors those guys.”
The trip from California has been good for Quinlen and his wife.
In addition to visiting relatives and participating in the march, they visited the Fort Ripley museum and took a closer look at the 194th Tank Battalion artifacts in the Brainerd armory. In those artifacts, more of his father's story can be found, as well as the stories of many others.
But for now, Quinlen was content to just enjoy the walk and reflect.
“It's been a great time,” he said. “It's all good.”
| Date Taken: | 04.09.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 04.10.2011 19:31 |
| Story ID: | 68548 |
| Location: | ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, US |
| Web Views: | 236 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Bataan Death March 2011, by SPC Thomas Keeler, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
