To Bataan and Back

Download or read book To Bataan and Back written by Jerry C. Cooper and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soon after the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, Maj. Thomas Dooley began the first of six handwritten journals--more than 500 written pages--that he continued to update throughout the war. As aide-de-camp to Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright, commander of the Allied forces after Gen. Douglas MacArthur was ordered to Australia, Dooley had regular contact with commanders and headquarters throughout the Philippines. His journals reveal a very personal story of the battles of Bataan and Corregidor and the capture, imprisonment, and struggle for survival of tens of thousands of American prisoners of war. Dooley's journals--dutifully maintained even while he was a prisoner--are at once witty, articulate, stark, and often reflective. To Bataan and Back adds a new voice to the chorus of World War II history. Dooley was a 1935 graduate of the Agricultural & Mechanical College of Texas (now Texas A&M University), an institution that prepared many of its graduates for service in the Philippines and elsewhere. Texas Aggies celebrate a Muster tradition--a sacred pause to remember and honor who have died--that stretches back to the earliest days of the college. But an extraordinary Muster was observed during World War II that would deepen its meaning and further hallow the ceremonies thereafter. In April of 1942, with Japanese forces poised to overrun the Allies on the Philippine island of Corregidor, Maj. Thomas Dooley compiled a "roll call" list of twenty-six Aggies on "The Rock" during an almost constant bombardment. Dooley told a journalist about the list, and the resulting article spread rapidly throughout the United States, forever connecting Dooley to this enduring Aggie tradition. Dooley died in 2006 and his journals now reside in the Texas A&M University archives. In To Bataan and Back, Jerry C. Cooper has painstakingly transcribed, edited, and annotated these remarkable documents, shedding new light on daily life in the storied history of the war in the Pacific. -- Inside jacket flaps.