Jan. 2001 - Philippine Defenders Main

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2 — THE QUAN The JOSEPH L. ALEXANDER JOSEPH WARD OMAR L. McGUIRE Commander Sr. Vice Commander Secretary 9407 Fernglen 451 Gilbert Lane 2850 Alder San Antonio, TX 78240 San Antonio, TX 78213 Eugene, OR 97405 BRYON KEARBEY MRS. JEAN PRUITT Jr. Vice Commander Merchandise Sales 9976 S.W. 183rd Corce 1231 Sweetwater-Vonore Road Dunnellon, FL 34432 Sweetwater, TN 37874 MEMBERS OF THE INVESTMENT BOARD Joseph T. Poster — Permanent Secretary One Year Term (Class C) Two Year Term (Class B) Three Year Term (Class A) PNC John Koot PNC Edward Jackfert PNC Joseph L. Alexander PNC Andrew Miller PNC Frank Bigelow PNC Roy Gentry PNC John Emerick PNC Walter Lamm PNC Henry J. Wilayto EXECUTIVE BOARD Arthur Akullian Walter Lamm Fontaine P. Brownel Pete Locarnini Henry Cornellisson Norman R. Matthews Charles Dragich Bernard P. Miller Henry Corn Ellisson Ben Vaitkus Neal Harrington Albert Felsen Charles B. Heffron All Incumbent State Commanders NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS 801 Huntington Avenue, #53 Warren, IN 46792 NOTE TO THE EDITOR A Source of Roasted Soy Beans “The Vermont Country Store” P.O. Box 3300 Manchester Ctr., VT 05255-0285 Call 1-802-362-8470 FAX 1-802-362-0285 In Japan they (soy beans) were called mummy. Just thought some Quan members might want to order some. Walter L. Bell P.O. Box 634 Sparta, NC 28675-0634 (336) 372-4863 Dedicated to those persons both living and dead who fought against overwhelming odds against the enemy at the outbreak of World War II. Official Publication of the AMERICAN DEFENDERS OF BATAAN & CORREGIDOR, INC. (INCLUDING ANY UNIT OF FORCE OF THE ASIATIC FLEET, PHILIPPINE ARCHIPELAGO, WAKE ISLAND, MARIANA ISLAND, AND DUTCH EAST INDIES) PUBLISHED 5 TIMES A YEAR HONORARY OFFICERS Kenneth Wheeler USN Ret. ....................................................Vice/Adm. (SC) Harold E. Feiner .................................................Honorary Vice Commanders Paul Reuter Lt./Col. Madeline M. Ullom, ANC Ret. JOHN CRAGO PNC National Treasurer Convention Site Committee Membership Chairman United Methodist Memorial Home #53 801 Huntington Ave. Warren, IN 46792 219-375-2286 JOSEPH A. VATER PNC Editor of Quan Co-Chairman Site Committee 18 Warbler Drive McKees Rocks, PA 15136 ANDREW MILLER Historian 1605 Cagua Drive N.E. Albuquerque, NM 87110 REV. ROBERT W. PHILLIPS Chaplain 200 Seneca Trail Maitland, FL 32751 *DR. RALPH E. HIBBS Surgeon 1135 Skyline Dr. Medford, OR 97504 STATISTICS How many men died on the Philippines — figures from Dr. Charles A. Stenger, Ph.D. Army & Air Corps — Captured — 25,550 Died — 10,650 Alive 1/1/2000 — 5228 Above figures include Filipino scouts Captured — 12,000 Died — 4,000 Marines Captured — 2274 Died — 518 Alive 1/1/2000 — 612 PAUL REUTER Adjutant & Legislative Officer 516 Sandy Pl. Oxon Hill, MD 20745 HAROLD E. FEINER Judge Advocate 14565 S.E. 90th Ave. Summerfield, FL 34491 TILLMAN J. RUTLEDGE VACS Representative 9509 Coolbrook San Antonio, TX 78250-3440 MARTIN S. CHRISTIE Necrology Committee Chrmn. 23424 Mobile St. West Hills, CA 91307-3323 EDWARD JACKFERT Past Commander 10 - 201 Hillcrest Dr. Wellsburg, W.V. 26070 PAST NATIONAL COMMANDERS Harold Spooner *John E. Le Clair *John R. Lyons *Rev. Albert D. Talbot *James K. Cavanaugh Ken Curley James McEvoy *Thomas A. Hackett Henry J. Wilayto *M/Gen. E.P. King Jr. *Bernard Grill *Charles Bloskis Simme Pickman Louis Scahwald Arthur Beale Albert Senna *Jerome A. McDavitt Andy Miller Maurice Mazer John M. Emerick *Joseph Matheny Joseph A. Vater Joseph T. Poster *George Wonneman *Lewis Goldstein *John Bennett Frank Bigelow *Albert C. Cimini *James D. Cantwell *Charles L. Pruitt *Samuel M. Bloom, M.D. Ralph Levenberg Melvin L. Routt *Kenneth J. Stull *Elmer F. Long, Jr. James R. Flaitz *Harry P. Menozzi *Philip Arslanian John Koot *John F. Ray John Rowland Roy Y. Gentry *Samuel B. Moody John Crago Edward Jackfert *Arthur A. Bressi Edward Jackfert NATIONAL CONVENTION MAY 15, 2001 TO MAY 20, 2001 THE PRICE IS RIGHT. NO REASON NOT TO COME. ———— PLEASE PRE-REGISTER. SEE BLANK.
RESTORING FAITH By DOROTHY CAVE ALDRICH FRANCISCAN PRIEST POURED HEART INTO ‘APACHE CATHEDRAL’ It was Christmas Eve in Mescalero. Apaches from every pocket of the reservation had been gathering all week. The light of a hundred campfires played on the wagons and tipis nestled among the snow-swaddled slopes. From atop a knoll commanding Tularosa Creek Canyon, the stone walls of the unfinished mission church rose — a little higher each year — where now the people gathered for midnight mass. Inside the roofless shell an enormous bonfire gave light and heat, and smoke rose like prayers into the star-stippled black above as the priest intoned the ancient litany. And then guitars and hymns gave way to native drums, and the dancers leaped into the firelight, masked and painted and kirtled, with their great forked headdresses. Here two ancient traditions met and married. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, many New Mexicans watched as the walls of Saint Joseph’s rose. But few knew the story behind this “Apache cathedral.” Arriving by buckboard in 1916, the newly ordained Father Albert Braun, a Franciscan priest, had found a tiny adobe church, cracked, crumbling and sliding off its foundation. He began to envision a larger, more inspiring structure. It had to wait, however: In 1917 America went too war. The intensely patriotic priest volunteered for chaplain service and sailed for France. Disobeying orders to stay in the rear during the bloody Meuse-Argonne offensive, Lt. Braun went “over the top” with the front-line troops. When hit with shrapnel, he refused to leave the field where the wounded and dying needed him. He returned from the war with a Purple Heart and a Silver Star, still dreaming of a new church. Inspired by the Gothic structures of France, he requested permission to begin — and the necessary funds. Impossible, said his superiors: case closed. Braun, strong of purpose and hard of head, thought otherwise. Dismissing the veto as “insignificant” — his favorite riposte — he quietly began packing black powder into the cracks of the church. Soon he reported a mysterious explosion: the church was gone. He must replace it. Permission was granted. But no funds. “Insignificant!” He had $100 leftover Army pay, two work-hardened hands, and many friends. On passes obtained from his friend, railroad attorney W.A. Hawkins, he rode to Philadelphia to approach noted architect William Stanton. Fascinated, Stanton drew plans (at no charge) based on medieval designs and use of hand labor. Back in Mescalero, Braun donned overalls and went to work. He enlisted Mescaleros and a few Chiricahuas, among them sons of Geronimo and Cochise. His old friend Tony Leyva, widower and expert stonemason, came from California and worked for nothing but bed and board until his death in 1938. With only primitive tools they dug the foundation, quarried and hauled huge stones, built kilns, burned limestone and mixed mortar. In 1920 they laid the cornerstone. An unexpected transfer absented Braun from 1924 to 1927, but on returning he and Tony recommenced building, aided now by a German ex-artilleryman, Brother Salesius Kraft, who worked until 1928, when he was tragically crushed by a falling stone. He is buried just outside the church. Once labeled an adventurer by a disapproving superior, Braun turned this trait into valuable service. When Mexico’s anticlerical Obregón and Calles regimes began confiscating church property and exiling (or executing) priests, Braun volunteered to cross the border incognito, carry money and messages to those priests who refused to leave, and to purchase church property as a private investor to save it from government seizure. He played his role with gusto. He and Father Dave Kirgan, disguised as wealthy businessmen, made three dangerous trips into Mexico, worked with underground connections, accomplished their missions — and relished every minute. Braun also gave refuge in Mescalero to a dozen exiled Mexican Franciscans. He converted a barn into living quarters. To meet expenses for their food, he became chaplain for all CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) camps in New Mexico and West Texas — a greatly increased workload he dismissed as “insignificant!” Dream-driven, he kept the walls rising. Built almost entirely of native materials, mostly donated, the church soars 50 feet to the eaves, twice that to the tower’s top, a monument in New Mexico’s history. In 1939, though still lacking window glass or light fixtures, the church was dedicated. War loomed again, and Braun volunteered for duty in the Philippines. Assigned to the 92nd Coast Artillery, he also once war began, served a regiment of New Mexico National Guardsmen at the request of their Protestant chaplain on behalf of the heavily Catholic contingent. During the heroic, doomed defense, he traveled regularly between his own post on Corregidor and “his boys” on Bataan. (Continued on Page 4) THE CHAPLAIN’S CORNER “Giving until it feels good” I hope that the title of this article catches your attention and provokes your curiosity; its message is completely contrary to the expression, “Give until it hurts”, which is often quoted in secular funds drives. The thinking behind the title is truly different than the conventional wisdom of the best minds of secular society. But it is the way the people of God are expected to think. The worldly approach to giving is to figure out “What is my share?”, and then give of our time, talents or treasures in support of causes we consider worthwhile. Income taxes are an example of that thinking; we have no doubt about “our share”; the Forms 1040 make it clear. We have no choice but to pay or suffer the consequences. Jesus was asked by His followers, whether or not they should pay taxes to the Roman government, which would use that money to support a military occu - pation of Israel. His answer was, “Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s; give unto God that which is God’s”. He saw no problem in paying taxes to the Romans. After all, those tax payments were “only money”; that money was coined by Caesar and he had fair claim to his share. We are taught to give “ourselves, our souls and bodies” to Him. This is, indeed, a higher level of giving. We offer Him all that we are and have because we know that it all came from Him and is merely on loan to us for this lifetime. Dedicating our lives to God is a liberating experience because it frees us from our worship of material things. Serving Him is a joyful thing to do because we know that we are returning to Him that which He created in us. His service is perfect freedom. When we give freely to God we experience a joy of giving Him what is rightfully His. It begins to “feel good” because we know that we are returning to Him that which is His anyway. In giving him our time, treasures and talents we experience the joy of imitating Himself, who gave so freely of Himself, who paid the price for our sins; who redeemed us by the gift of Himself. Let us imitate God by giving freely of ourselves, our souls, our hearts, our bodies. Then we, too, will know the meaning of “Give until it feels good”. In His service, Fr. Bob Phillips+ National Chaplain American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor JANUARY, 2001 — 3
Page 1: The VOLUME 55 PITTSBURGH, PA — JA
Page 5 and 6: JAPANESE FIRM OK’S FUND FOR SLAVE
Page 7 and 8: AN ANGEL AMONG US MADELINE ULLOM UI
Page 9 and 10: SILVER STAR On 31 March 1942, the 3
Page 11 and 12: JAMES P. BENNETT WARREN — Service
Page 13 and 14: CHARLES P. FOWLER Charles P. Fowler
Page 15 and 16: VA GETS TOP MARK ON PERFORMANCE REP
Page 17 and 18: TOUR OFFERINGS 2001 REUNION AMERICA
Page 19 and 20: THE CORREGIDOR SCHOOL This fitting

Jan. 2001 - Philippine Defenders Main

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