The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Albert Brown, R.I.P.

Text Size

Albert Brown, R.I.P.

By Aaron Goldstein on 8.19.11 @ 12:07PM

Albert Brown, the oldest American survivor of the Bataan Death March during WWII, passed away last Sunday of natural causes. He was 105.

After U.S. Major General Edward King surrendered to the Japanese in the Battle of Bataan in the Phillipines in April 1942, nearly 78,000 Filipino and American soldiers (approximately 66,000 Filipino and 12,000 American) were marched to Camp O'Donnell, a Japanese POW camp. The soldiers were in a weakened state due to lack of food and water not to mention sweltering temperatures. Yet some way, some how, Brown survived not only the harrowing 65 mile trek but another three years of captivity. Brown sustained all sorts of illness and injuries during his time as a POW including a broken neck sustained after being thrown down a flight of stairs. After the end of the war, doctors told him he wouldn't live past 50. Well, he sure showed them, not to mention the Japanese.

It is estimated that between 7,000 to 10,000 American and Filipino soldiers died during the six-day march back in April 1942. Those who didn't die of starvation and heat exhaustion were shot or bayoneted. Two-thirds of the American soldiers who survived the march did not survive Camp O'Donnell. The fact that Brown not only survived but thrived once he returned home is a testament to his fortitude, resolve and spirit. We can learn a great deal from Albert Brown and other American servicemen who survived the Bataan Death March if we choose.

View all comments (9) | Leave a comment

Occam's Tool| 8.19.11 @ 1:03PM

A testimony to the greatness of the Americans who served. Incidentally, in the town I once lived in Las Cruces, NM, there is a memorial to the Death March Victims. It is fitting, haunting, and beautifully done, complete with footprints behind the figures---made by the survivors and immortalized by the sculptor.

Occam's Tool| 8.19.11 @ 1:05PM

Sorry, "In the town I once lived in, Las Cruces, NM,"

O Tamandua| 8.19.11 @ 1:39PM

I'm fighting back tears...God bless you, Mr. Brown (and all who went through the march and internment alongside you, those who came home and those who didn't).

Butch| 8.19.11 @ 2:27PM

My Little League coach walked it at age 18. Spent most of the war as a POW under horrible conditions. He never said one word about it to the boys (that was normal for those men, by the way), but other adults in town told me. I got curious and read up about it. I guess it was too gruesome to make a movie about.

Kate| 8.19.11 @ 4:17PM

Mr. Brown is clearly an American hero - as are the remaining American survivors of the Death March, including the remarkable Ben Steele, who, though he hesitates to buy green bananas these days, is still very much alive. http://www.tearsinthedarkness.com/ben-steele

In fact, the American Survivors of Bataan and Corregidor still meet annually, though their numbers are dwindling.

Mr. Brown, indeed, was the oldest survivor.

Jeff| 8.19.11 @ 4:21PM

My grandfaher survived the fall of Corregidor, missed the death march, spent 3 + years in a POW camp and managed to live to the age of 96. The lung damage from his years as a coal miner (in Japan) finally caught up with him.
Tough doesn't begin to describe the survivors of that hell on earth. He was the Chief Boatswain mate on the USS Pigeon and an old school (diving helmets) navy diver. Carl Carlson, Capt. USN ...