LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WELCOME TO THE BATTLING BASTARDS OF BATAAN MEMORIAL. IT IS FOR THOSE MEN OF BATAAN WHO DIED HERE, IN ONE OF HISTORY'S GREATEST DEATH CAMPS.

IN 1999, WE WERE HERE AS MEMBERS OF A TOUR GROUP WHO CAME TO DEDICATE THE MEMORIAL TO GENERAL WAINWRIGHT ON CORREGIDOR.

WHILE HERE, WE WERE ASKED BY A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT IF WE WOULD LIKE TO PLACE A
MEMORIAL HERE TO OUR DEAD AS THEY HAVE FOR THEIR DEAD.

LOOKING AT THIS BARREN LAND, WHERE WE KNEW HELL FIRST HAND, THE ANSWER WAS YES, WE WOULD. WE SET ABOUT TO DRAW UP PLANS FOR IT AND TO OBTAIN FUNDING FOR IT. THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT COULD NOT SPEND ANY MONEY ON SUCH A PROJECT, AS NONE WAS AVAILABLE.

FORTUNATELY WE HAVE A GOOD FRIEND HERE-WHOM YOU KNOW BY NOW-TO DO THE LEG WORK HERE, AND THERE WAS A LOT OF THAT TO DO.  JIM LITTON WAS OUR MAN IN MANILA. WITHOUT HIM, THIS MEMORIAL WOULD NOT BE HERE TODAY. JIM SPENT LONG HOURS AND HIS OWN MONEY TO SEE THAT THIS MEMORIAL WAS BUILT. WE ARE INDEED INDEBTED TO JIM LITTON.

BESIDE THE MEMORIAL WALL, WE HAVE A REPLICA OF THE CEMENT CROSS. MOST OF YOU KNOW THE STORY OF THIS CROSS, BUT FOR THOSE WHO DON'T, ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN:
IN JUNE 1942, WE RECEIVED CEMENT FROM THE JAPANESE WITH INSTRUCTIONS TO BUILD A MEMORIAL. FRANKLY, FOOD WOULD HAVE BEEN MORE WELCOMED THAN CEMENT. NEVERTHELESS A CROSS WAS BUILT AND IT BECAME PART OF THE HISTORY O'DONNELL.

IT REMAINED HERE UNTIL THE NINETIES WHEN THE AMERICAN PRESENCE IN THE PHILIPPINES ENDED. IT WAS TAKEN FROM HERE BY BATAAN VETERANS AND NOW IT RESTS IN ANDERSONVILLE, GEORGIA.

THE STORY OF HOW THE CROSS WAS TAKEN HOME IS A STORY IN ITSELF.  YEARS AGO, THE ADBC TOOK A SURVEY VOTE OF THEIR MEMBERS: LEAVE THE CROSS HERE OR TAKE IT HOME.  THE VOTE WAS IN FAVOR OF LEAVING IT HERE.  IF WE HAD LEFT IT HERE, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN DESTROYED.

TO HAVE A MEMORIAL TO O'DONNELL THAT DID NOT INCLUDE THE CROSS WAS UNTHINKABLE. THE CROSS YOU SEE HERE TODAY IS AN EXACT REPLICA OF THE ORIGINAL.

IN OCTOBER 99, WE BEGAN OUR PROJECT AND AFTER WONDERFUL COOPERATION OF 68 PEOPLE -A NUMBER OF WHOM ARE AMONG YOU- WE RAISED THE NECESSARY MONEY AND HAD IT BUILT, DEDICATING IT IN APRIL 2000. TODAY, OUR MEMORIAL ATTRACTS THE MOST NUMBER OF VISITORS TO THIS NATIONAL SHRINE OF THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT.

I MIGHT ADD THAT WE SOUGHT HELP FROM OUR OWN GOVERNMENT WHO TOLD US WE SHOULD NOT BUILD IT UNLESS WE FOLLOWED THEIR REGULATIONS AND WITHOUT ANY FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FROM OUR GOVERNMENT.  SINCE THEY USED THE WORDS "SHOULD NOT", INSTEAD OF "MUST NOT",  WE IGNORED THEM AND WENT AHEAD AND BUILT IT ANYWAY.
 

NOW COMES THE PROBLEM OF MAINTAINING IT. JIM HAS TWO PEOPLE WORKING HERE REGULARLY TO KEEP IT CLEAN. WHEN JIM LEARNS OF ANY PROBLEMS WITH THE MEMORIAL, HE GOES TO WORK AND CORRECTS THEM. SO FAR, WE HAVE HAD ONLY MINOR REPAIR WORK NEEDED.

WITH THE FUTURE IN MIND, WE HAVE ESTABLISHED A FUND TO CARE FOR IT THROUGH DONATIONS AND MONEY LEFT OVER FROM OUR ORIGINAL FUND DRIVE. WE HOPE TO INSURE THE MEMORIAL CONTINUES TO LOOK AS BEAUTIFUL IN THE FUTURE AS IT DOES TODAY. DUE TO THE TROPICAL CLIMATE, THE PHILIPPINES ARE HARSH ON MEMORIALS. THEY MUST BE KEPT UP OR THEY FALL INTO A STATE OF DISREPAIR IN A HURRY.

MOST BATAAN VETERANS SPENT SOME TIME HERE. MANY DIED HERE. WE HAVE 1608 NAMES ON THIS WALL AND WE MAY HAVE MISSED A FEW. THIS WAS A HORRIBLE PLACE. THERE WAS VERY LITTLE FOOD, AND VERY LITTLE WATER. MEN REACHED HERE AFTER SURVIVING THE INFAMOUS DEATH MARCH. SICK, DISEASED, AND STARVING MEN, STAGGERED INTO THIS PLACE FEELING THE WORSE WAS OVER. IT WAS JUST THE BEGINNING... IN THE FIRST 45 DAYS, WE LOST OVER 1600 MEN OUT OF THE APPROXIMATE 9300 AMERICANS CAPTURED ON BATAAN. FOR OUR FILIPINO COMRADES THE FIGURES ARE EVEN MORE SHOCKING. WHILE WE BURIED AS MANY AS 50 MEN A DAY, THE FILIPINOS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD FROM US LOST AS A MANY AS FIVE HUNDRED A DAY.

THE MOST TERRIBLE PART OF THIS PLACE WAS THE AMERICAN HOSPITAL. THE DEATHS THAT OCCURRED IN OUR "HOSPITAL", AND I PUT THAT WORD IN QUOTES, WAS MULTIPLIED TEN TIMES OVER IN THE FILIPINO CAMP.

MEN FOUGHT TO STAY OUT OF THE HOSPITAL. IT WAS A DEATH SENTENCE FOR THOSE WHO HAD TO ENTER IT. MEN LAY ON A BAMBOO FLOOR WITH NO BEDDING.  MOST WERE NAKED AND LAYING IN THEIR OWN BODY WASTE. HUGE BLACK FLIES WERE IN THEIR EYES, THEIR EARS, AND THEIR MOUTHS.  NO ONE, EXCEPT A FRIEND VISITING, TRIED TO CLEAN THEM UP. BECAUSE THEY HAD LOST SO MUCH WEIGHT, THEY WERE SKIN AND BONES AND SOON DEVELOPED ULCERS ON THEIR SIDES AND BACKS. THEY DIED AND DEATH REMOVED THEM FROM THEIR SUFFERING.

TAKEN TO AN OPENING IN THE FLOOR THEY WHERE UNCEREMONIOUSLY DROPPED THROUGH THAT OPENING, AND SOON THERE WAS A PILE OF BODIES BELOW THE FLOOR, AWAITING THE BURIAL SQUADS. THE MEN WERE BURIED IN LARGE HASTILY DUG HOLES.  THEY WERE EVENTUALLY DISINTERRED, IN 1945, AND MOVED TO THE AMERICAN CEMETERY, IN MANILA.  THEY, WHO COULD BE IDENTIFIED, ARE THERE TODAY.

CONDITIONS WERE SO HORRIFIC HERE THAT MANY WERE BURIED WITHOUT ANY IDENTIFICATION, AND THEY ARE LISTED, IN THE MANILA AMERICAN CEMETERY AS "MISSING IN ACTION."

TRULY, O'DONNELL WAS A LIVING HELL. THERE IS VERY LITTLE WRITTEN ABOUT THIS PLACE, AS IT EXISTED FOR ONLY A SHORT TIME.  EVEN THE JAPANESE RECOGNIZED THE NEED TO TRANSFER THE MEN OUT OF HERE.  THEY SENT THE MAIN BODY OF MEN, HELD HERE, TO CABANATUAN.

IN THE FIRST THREE MONTHS, IN CABANATUAN, OVER 1500 MEN DIED AND 95% OF THEM WERE MEN OF BATAAN.

IF EVER A PLACE NEEDS TO BE REMEMBERED, IT IS CAMP O'DONNELL AND WE ARE TRYING OUR BEST TO INSURE THE STORY OF THIS PLACE IS NOT FORGOTTEN BY HISTORY. WE OWE AT LEAST THAT MUCH TO THOSE WHO DIED HERE.
WE ARE THEIR VOICE.