This is a very personal story of a Bataan Defender who died in a POW camp in Osaka after 19 days aboard a Hell Ship. It is also the story of his father's ten-year battle with the US Government, which abandoned his son in the Philippines and then refused his claim for War Risk Life Insurance benefits.  The author, Warren Sheldon, give us an intimate portrait of the brief life of a young man, Milton Jerome Sheldon, an only child, born to a locomotive engineer and a schoolteacher.

The story begins with some family background, including early training in a military academy for a period of two years followed by four years at the local high school where the subject demonstrates keen leadership ability. This is followed by a BA in Letters and Science from the University of California at Berkeley, as well as a commission as an infantry reserve officer.

While doing graduate work in the fall of 1939 he is called to active duty for six months. Just as the six months are up, his duty is extended for a year. Before the year is up, he finds himself in the Philippine Islands assigned to General Douglas Mac Arthur’s staff about two months after the United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) is established and about three months before the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor.

He assists in the move from Manila to Corregidor and endures the subsequent bombing. Gen. MacArthur offers to take him to Australia, but he declines in favor of going to the Bataan Peninsula to fight with his old outfit, the 57th Infantry. His capture includes the infamous "Bataan Death March" and a trip to Japan on a Hell Ship. After he dies in a POW camp in Osaka of multiple diseases, a Buddhist priest cremates his body and preserves the ashes near an altar he has established for the remains of deceased allied soldiers. He delivers the remains to allied occupation forces after the war.

The subject’s father tries to get the U. S. Government to honor a war risk life insurance scheme put together by Congress in 1940. No record can be found, which leads to a ten-year battle between them in which the father ultimately prevails by using much political pressure,      including the White House.

The subject had been promoted to the rank of Captain by the time he was captured at the age of    twenty-five. The writer is convinced that had he survived the war, he may have retired with the rank of General: he had achieved a coveted Regular Army Commission; his father-in-law-to-be was a Colonel on a first-name basis with General Mac Arthur; he would have survived a great atrocity; many officers thought he did outstanding work and was an exemplary officer; his picture had been in LIFE Magazine. Carlos P. Romulo, future President of the United Nations Assembly, spoke well of him; Nelson Trusler Johnson, Ambassador to China before the war began and Minister to Australia while the war was waged spoke well of him; he had, among others, Silver and Bronze Star Medals to his credit.

Most of this work comes from letters saved by the subject’s parents, who have been deceased   for quite some years. This is augmented, slightly, with previously published accounts of the Death March, the Hell Ships and conditions in the POW camps.

Other Features of this Book:

Contains many previously unpublished quotations from a variety of sources including the White House, several important figures in the defense of Bataan, the U. S. Ambassador to China and the Minister Plenipotentiary to Australia.

Contains old and interesting photographs including one of bombed out Manila and an American tank destroyed in the field, along with what's left of MacArthur's HQ on Corregidor.

Author has carefully researched the text and has visited the sites mentioned including the Bataan Peninsula, Corregidor and Manila as well as the remains of several POW camps and other sites important to the story.

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