Guard unit on training mission was first to set foot in Philippines since Bataan
By Jose L. Medina/Sun-News reporter
Article Launched: 03/08/2008 12:00:00 AM MST
LAS CRUCES — Like many in his battalion, New Mexico Army National Guard Maj. Daniel Stark was tired and jet-lagged Thursday night after a 22-hour flight that took his 2nd Battalion, 200th Infantry unit across the international date line to their final destination — Fort Bliss in El Paso.
But on Friday morning, Stark still had the energy to discuss the historical significance of the just-completed mission, 25 days of shoulder-to-shoulder training with Filipino troops on the island of Luzon in the Philippines.
"That was a big deal," Stark said, sitting at his desk at the National Guard Armory in west Las Cruces. "Not only them but also for us."
Stark and 120 Guardsmen in the 2-200th were first New Mexico National Guard unit to serve in the Philippines since about 1,800 soldiers in the New Mexico National Guard's 200th Coastal Artillery Regiment — from which the 2-200th draws its lineage — fought on the island nation during World War II and were subsequently brutalized during the Bataan Death March, one of the worst war-time atrocities in history.
"To know that we are a part of the same unit was awe-inspiring," Stark said. On April 9, 1942, members of the New Mexico National Guard along
with thousands of other American and Filipino soldiers were surrendered to Japanese forces on the Bataan peninsula. In the days that followed, the soldiers were made to march through 60 miles of jungle to concentration camps. With little food, water or medical assistance, many of the soldiers died along the way or were killed by Japanese soldiers.
About half of New Mexico's 1,800 Guardsmen died during the march or in the three years of captivity that followed.
White Sands Missile Range, east of Las Cruces, honors Bataan's dead and its survivors every year with the Bataan Memorial Death March. It will be held later this month.
For the 2-200th soldiers, serving in the Philippines brought with it a special significance that can only be found by visiting the place where so many suffered.
"It was an honor to be the first battalion to do this since 1942," said Cmdr. Mark Arellano of Albuquerque.
The 2-200th's mission was to train Filipino soldiers, including teaching hand-to-hand fighting techniques, part of an effort to help that country's army fight extremists on its southern islands.
While there, American soldiers helped repair schools, the funds for which were provided by the Guardsmen's themselves.
In return, the American soldiers learned jungle survival and other skills from their Filipino counterparts and got the opportunity to pay homage to America's WWII effort.
"You see the movies and you read the books and you kind of get the gist of what happened," said Sgt. Anthony Lechuga said. "But then you really see the impact it had on the Philippines and on the Americans that were out there. You see their names on the walls and you realize that a lot of people did lose their lives and the bad things that happened there. It's really humbling."
The Guardsmen also heard from a Filipino Bataan survivor who credits an American soldier for his survival. They retraced some of the painful steps their predecessors took 66 years ago and visited the former prisoner of war camps.
"The real purpose," Stark said, "was to show that we can work together and foster good will with the military and people of the Philippines."
Guard unit on training mission was first to set foot in Philippines since Bataan - Las Cruces Sun-News
Guard unit on training mission was first to set foot in Philippines since Bataan
For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman
