Bataan Survivor Does Memorial March
By
Bob Brewin
White Sands Missile Range, N.M. -- Benjamin Skardon, a Charleston, S.C., native and a 94-year-old survivor of the April, 1942, forced march of 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war, showed up here yesterday for the 22nd annual Bataan Memorial Death March. He walked nine of the route's 26.2 miles.
Skardon joined 15 other survivors of that epic struggle through the jungle, shaking the hands of the 6,050 participants at the finish line - an electric touch that spanned generations.
Participants included 90-year-old Harold Bergbower of Phoenix, who shook my hand, and 87-year-old Bataan survivor Glenn Frazier.
This year's Memorial March attracted individual and team participants from all 50 states and Canada, France, Denmark, Germany and the Philippines.
The winning team in the military heavy route -- 26.2 miles with a 35 pound pack -- was (naturally) an Army Ranger team from Ft. Benning, Ga., with a time of 5:08:17. John Felker, a West Point Cadet, won the military heavy individual title with a blistering time of 4:05:18.
I did the short, 15 mile "honorary" route at a time of 5:14:02, about the ground speed of a turtle, and unfortunately eclipsed by the Boy Scout and Brownie troops.
The Memorial March is sponsored by the Range, the New Mexico Army National Guard and the New Mexico State University Army ROTC, and they all deserve a hoohah for an event that for me marks not just a walk in the desert but an evocation of camaraderie.
The last water point on the march, just a couple of miles from the end, was staffed by base families who handed out water, sports drinks, oranges and a lot of encouragement -- poignant, as their mothers or fathers, husbands or wives from the 2nd Engineer Battalion are deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.