Born: 1920
Reason for entering military service: Amos left Afton to enlist in the Army because he could make more money in the military than at his grocery store job.
Assigned: Hospital, Fort McKinley, Philippines
Rank: Sergeant and Medical Corpsman
"When we got into Camp O'Donnell, that rice was moldy, full of bugs and maggots, and all that kind of stuff."
Background:
Army Corpsman Malcolm Amos of Afton was captured in the Philippines on April 9, 1942 and forced to be part of the Bataan Death March. He became one of the more than 75 thousand allied forces, including an estimated 12 thousand Americans, who were forced to walk the 60 miles from the tip of Luzon Island to the American military base Camp O'Donnel. For six days the men marched north with no food or water on what became known as the Bataan Death March. Anyone who was injured, fell behind, or attempted to escape was killed. An estimated 10,000 men died; 5 thousand of them were Americans.
Transcript
Army Corpsman Malcolm Amos of Afton was among those captured on April 9th. He became one of the more than 75 thousand Allied Forces, including and estimated 12,000 Americans, who were forced to walk the 60 miles from the tip of Luzon Island to the American military base Camp O’Donnell. For six days the men marched north with no food or water on what became known as the Bataan Death March. Anyone who was injured, fell behind or attempted to escape was killed. An estimated 10,000 men died; 5 thousand of them were Americans.
(Malcolm Amos) When we got into Camp O’Donnell, that rice was moldy, full of bugs and maggots, and all that kind of stuff. They cooked all that stuff up, and it was kinda like a porridge. And the guys looked at that—some of them looked at that—and said, “I’m not eating that kind of crap,” and they just took and dumped her. And those people are still over in the Philippines because they just starved to death because that’s the only thing there was to eat.
Links
Iowa's WWII Stories: Home Front Interviews
www.iptv.org/video/browse.cfm/tag/home%20front
Iowans who were at home had major roles to play in winning the war. Their sacrifice helped determine what kind of conditions, both political and social, would exist once the war was over.
Iowa's WWII Stories: Battlefront Interviews
www.iptv.org/video/browse.cfm/tag/battlefront
More than 276,000 Iowans went into military service during World War II. 8,398 never returned. Iowa Public Television brings you the stories of a few Iowans that did return from the battlefront.
