June/July 2002 - Philippine Defenders Main

children, Becky and Jason Bendele, Amy
Rogers, Ellen and Ryan Haffner, Jessie
Kincaid, and great great grandchildren,
Tyler and Hailey Bendele. His parents
and eight brothers preceded him in death.
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WARREN H. MELLIES
Warren Harding Mellies, 80, of
Cheyenne died January 20 at the
Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
He was born Oct. 28, 1921, in Adams
City, Colo., and had lived in Cheyenne
since 1960 with prior residence in Casper.
Mr. Mellies retired as a purchasing
agent for the Federal Government after 42
years of service. He served in the U.S.
Marine corps during World War II, and
was a prisoner of war for 31 ⁄2 years.
He was a member of the Defenders of
Bataan and Corregidor, the Military
Order of the Purple Heart and Disabled
American Veterans.
Mr. Mellies is survived by his wife,
Christina, whom he married Sept. 17,
1954, in Casper; a son, Warren L. Mellies;
daughters, Linda Ann Conine, and Kimberly
Colling; sister, Betty Lou Matthews;
and six grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by a daughter,
Bertha Marie McCartney; parents,
August and Maude Mellies; sister, Bertha
A. Szymanski; and brothers, Everett B.
Mellies, Ira Mellies, Woodrow W. Mellies,
John W. Mellies and Howard L. Mellies.
Funeral liturgy was at 10 a.m. Wednesday
at Holy Trinity Catholic Church with
the Rev. James Doudican as celebrant.
Interment was in Cheyenne Memorial
Gardens.
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STANLEY MROZ
On December 31, 2001 God called another
American hero home — Stanley Mroz,
torpedoman first class, USN. Stanley
enlisted in he U.S. Navy in August of 1938,
and served aboard the original USS
Canopus (AS-9) before being assigned to
submarine duty. Stanley was taken prisoner
by the Japanese on May 6, 1942 when
Corregidor was forced to capitulate.
Unfortunately he spent the next three
years and eight months as a prisoner of
war. Initially, he was held at Bilibid Prison
in Manila, next he was sent to Pasay
School at Nichols Field. His commanding
officer at Nichols Field was the brutal and
sadistic Japanese officer called the “White
Angel.” From Nichols Field Stanley was
sent to northern Japan on the hell ship
Noto Maru (1944). Ultimately he ended up
at Sendai Camp #6 in Hanawa. He was liberated
in January of 1946 and released
from active duty in September of 1946.
Stanley was preceded in death by his
wife Margaret “Eileen” Mroz, and a son,
Daniel Mroz. He is survived by a son Dick
Mroz of Shirley, Indiana, and a daughter
Pat Mroz of Anderson, Indiana. If there
are any sons or daughters of those incarcerated
at Sendai #6 in Hanawa and
8 — THE QUAN
would like to correspond, Dick’s e-mail is
YDMIND@hrtc.net, and Pat’s is PLM-
ROZ20@aol.com.
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SHELLEY MYDANS
Shelley Mydans, 86, a journalist who
spent 21 months in a Japanese prisonerof-war
camp during World War II, died
March 7 at her home in New Rochelle,
N.Y. The cause of death was not reported.
She and her husband, photographer
Carl Mydans, were Life magazine’s first
photographer-reporter team to cover the
war, traveling to Europe, China and the
Western Pacific. They were taken prisoner
when Japanese forces arrived in the
Philippines.
Mrs. Mydans, the author of three novels,
was later a commentator for a Time
Inc. radio news program in New York. She
continued to write for Time and Life and
reported from Tokyo when her husband
was bureau chief there.
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MICHAEL PULICE
Michael Pulice took the hand of the Lord
and returned home with him on December
8, 2001. He was born February 10, 1919 in
Morencie, Arizona and moved to Carlsbad,
New Mexico in 1931 with his mother,
father, two sisters and younger brother. He
was a volunteer member of the 200th Coast
Artillery, a NM National Guard Regiment
and was inducted into active military service
in 1941. He was wounded in action at
Clark Air Field, Bataan, Philippines on
April 2, 1942 and taken prisoner. On
September 7, 1944 the Japanese POW ship,
Shinyo Maru, carrying over 800 prisoners
was torpedoed by an American submarine
resulting in only 83 survivors. He was rescued
by Philippine guerrillas after swimming
in shark infested waters for over 24
hours with a severe leg injury. He returned
to the United States as a patient at Walter
Reed Army Medical Center, Washington,
D.C. in December 1944 after 2 1 ⁄2 years as a
POW. Mike returned to Manila in 1946 and
provided personal testimony at the war
crimes trials. He was given the honor as the
designated US Army representative who
accepted the 1st three cent Bataan memorial
postage stamp presented by President
Harry S. Truman. Mike was a highly decorated
WWII veteran receiving numerous
awards including the Purple Heart and discharged
from the Army in September 1948.
He attended Loyola University in Los
Angeles, CA and received his degree in
1953. He retired from a successful 30 year
career as a New Mexico state employee in
Santa Fe, NM. He was an Honorary life
time member of the BPOE, the American
Legion, the DAV, Order of the Purple Heart
and the VFW. He had been a resident of
Las Cruces for over 20 years.
He is survived by his wife Mary
Heathman Pulice and her 4 adult children
and grandchildren; daughter, Helen Marie
Griego and her husband Joseph Griego;
son Michael W. Pulice and his wife
Patricia; three grandchildren, Daren Choi
and her husband Chin, Sarah and Michael
F. Pulice and one great-granddaughter,
Catherine Celeste Choi; 2 sisters, Olympia
West and Mary Louise Lyle and her husband,
Ken and youngest brother Alric
Pulice from Texas.
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NOEL RAVNEBERG
“I can’t believe what went on today. I’m
still in wonderment at the outgoing
expressed by everyone,” said Noel M.
Ravneberg, after Gen. John Abrams of
Fort Monroe presented him with a Purple
Heart in recognition of the years he’d
spent as a prisoner of war during World
War II. The ceremony was held at the
Training & Doctrine Command on April 9,
2002, 60 years to the day of his capture by
the Japanese. The crowd gave him four
prolonged ovations.
Mr. Ravneberg of Ford’s Colony, a survivor
of the Bataan Death March, died May
18 at Williamsburg Community Hospital.
He was born in Devils Lake, N.D., on
Nov. 19, 1916. In March 1941 he entered
the Army, and in September he was
shipped to the Philippine Islands with the
194th Tank Battalion, a National Guard
Unit. He was a halftrack operator with a
crew of four.
When the Japanese landed on the
Bataan Peninsula, the men from the
194th and other units held out until April
9, 1942. Maj. Gen. E.P. King, commander
of Bataan, surrendered after the defenders
had been on half rations for two
months. In addition, they were running
low on ammunition.
Upon the fall of Bataan to the Japanese,
Cpl. Ravneberg was taken prisoner and
endured the infamous Death March, considered
the greatest surrender in U.S. military
history. Some 70,000 American and
Philippine soldiers were forced to march
60 to 70 miles across the island, with no
food and no water. An estimated 21,000
men died. He was a prisoner of the
Japanese for 3 1 ⁄2 years.
When World War II ended, the only way
the prisoners knew it was over was that
the guards suddenly vanished. After
release from the prison, Mr. Ravneberg
weighed 85 pounds and was barely able to
walk. He spent a long time in Army hospitals
recovering from malaria, the beatings
he’d received and amoebic dysentery.
He moved to Queens, N.Y., where he
made watches for the Bulova Watch Co. In
the evenings, he attended Columbia University
and earned a bachelor’s degree in
geology. In 1954, he earned his master’s
degree.
His first job was with the state of New
York. He soon signed on with a company
that did foundation engineering around
the world. Mr. Ravneberg traveled to
South America, Panama, Morocco, Egypt,
Borneo, Portugal, Iceland and half of the