In New Mexico desert, marchers honor Bataan survivors

White Sands Missile Range, N.M. -- More than 5,300 military marchers from all 50 states and eight countries turned out here Sunday for the 29th annual Bataan Memorial Death March. The event honors the 70,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war who were captured by the Japanese Army in World War II and forced to walk through 70 miles of jungle to camps in the Philippines.

Surviving Bataan veterans greeted the record crowd of marchers, shaking their hands at the start, midpoint and end of the 15.2 or 26.2 mile courses of the trek through the desert in and around this 3,200-square-mile Army base -- the largest in the country.

Carolos Montoya, who at 93 was the oldest of the Bataan veterans to appear at this year's march, said that with the passage of time, the pool of survivors is dwindling. Only 14 New Mexico veterans out of the 3,300 who survived the death march are still alive. Many of them, like Montoya, served in the 200th or 515th Army Coast Artillery Regiments, whose personnel came from 300 New Mexico villages, towns and cities.

Ben Steele, a 92-year old Bataan veteran from Billings, Mont., was a mechanic in the Army Air Corps 19th Bomb Group when the Japanese invaded and destroyed their aircraft. He joined a band of 1,000 airmen from that group and the 24th Pursuit Group, who fought as an ad hoc infantry unit until captured.

Steele spent his spare time at a POW camp in the Philippines drawing sketches of camp life and documenting prisoners' harsh treatment by Japanese guards. Now an accomplished, self-taught artist, Steele continues to paint his life-altering experience from memory. He is a professor of art emeritus at Montana State University in Billing, which exhibits his paintings.

Asked how he survived the death march and his captivity, Steele replied, "sheer orneriness."

John Mimms, 85, the only living Bataan survivor of his unit in the Army's 31st Infantry Regiment, said he drove from tiny Aberdeen, N.C., for the event, because he considers participation in the memorial march a "sacred mission."

Margaret Rodriguez, encountered at the halfway point in the march, said she participated to honor a fallen soldier of the current war in Iraq, her grandson Sgt. Christopher Sanders of Roswell, N.M. He died in January 2008 of wounds he received from an improvised explosive device while serving with the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Armored Division. Rodriguez said eight members of her family were marching to honor Sanders.

Army Capt. Rebecca Hoffman, who recently returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq and placed first in last year's women's heavy division (which requires covering 26.2 miles with a 35-pound pack), said she entered the no-pack division this year because she wanted to "run the course like a marathon."

Lt. Gen. David Huntoon, director of the Army Staff, says the event encapsulates the Army ethos -- honoring comrades, demonstrating a willingness to sacrifice and emphasizing physical fitness. Huntoon, 57, is the highest-ranking active-duty officer ever to participate in the march. He said he completed the course in slightly more than six hours.