Palmetto AFROTC Walk Honors Bataan Death March Soldiers

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

In April 1942, after the fall of the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines to Japanese forces during World War II, more than 75,000 American and Filipino troops surrendered and were forced to march more than 60 miles in intense heat with little food or water. Among the Americans who on the original march were six Clemson cadets, notably Ben Skardon, who died in 2021 at age 104.

On an unseasonably cool Saturday morning, Palmetto High School Junior AFROTC joined a group of more than 100 walkers/joggers/runners to memorialize march with a 14-mile trek across in Anderson. Cadets who joined in the march will earn an Air Force Ribbon.

Lt. Col. Mike Creamer, who supervises the AFROTC program, and who has walked more than half of the actual route of the Bataan Death March himself, said it’s among the lessons he teachers his cadets.

The Bataan Death March boosted support for the war in the Pacific.