A MARCH TO REMEMBER
A record crowd of more than 8,400 turned out for Bataan Memorial Death March at White Sands
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE — The Bataan Memorial Death March drew its largest crowd with more than 8,400 people participating in the marathon honoring World War II service members who fought in the Philippines.
“My Dad was over there. My uncle was over there,” said 83-year-old Gerald Schurtz, of Deming, who was waiting for his wife, two sons, daughterin laws and grandchildren at a watering station set up along the rugged desert course Sunday. He planned to walk half of the shorter 14.2 mile march to the finish line with them. The longer march was 26.2 miles.
The memorial march honors members of the military who in 1942 were forced by Japanese captors to make a grueling, 65-mile march across the Bataan Peninsula to prison camps. The 75,000 U.S. and Filipino troops endured harsh conditions, including lack of water and food, and torture and executions at the hands of Japanese soldiers. At least 10,000 men died along the way according to the New Mexico National Guard Museum.
“We have to keep remembering them. We have to keep
doing this,” said Steven Burroughs, a soldier from Fort Huachuca in Arizona.
Burroughs was doing the full marathon in the heavy category, which requires carrying a 35-pound backpack through rugged desert terrain. He stopped briefly near a watering station to tend to a blister.
“I try to do it every year,” said the 26-year-old soldier, who first participated in the marathon in 2012 but had to skip three years because he was deployed.
“This is just an honor to be out here with all the past, present and future soldiers,” said Deree Murray, who drove down from Albuquerque.
Murray and her best friend, Wendy Martin-Strength, of Rio Rancho, participated in the full marathon for the third year in a row. They have relatives in the military.
“My grandpa, my dad, her son,” Martin-Strength said.
Just crossing the finish line and seeing survivors waiting for us, we just start crying. It’s why we’re here,” said Murray.
Eight survivors attended this year’s event, including two from New Mexico: William Overmier and Valdemar de Herrera.
“A lot of people don’t know about this,” said Valdemar de Herrera, a 98-year-old survivor.
ROTC Cadets at NMSU in 1989 started the first memorial death march. In 1992, White Sands Missile Range and the New Mexico National Guard began sponsoring the event, and it moved to White Sands.
The event attracted participants from across the country, including Glenn Rivera from San Diego who “marched” with his younger brother in memory of their grandfather, Jose Aragon Sr., who died in 2010. Aragon was a Filipino solider and Bataan Death March survivor.
“If he didn’t have the will, none of us would be here enjoying each other’s company,” Rivera said.
Rio Rancho high school ROTC member Jimmy Molina said he was inspired by the Bataan Death March survivors’ courage.
“I can also survive,” he said. “I can also push through.”
His fellow marathon ROTC team member Cristian Flores said he wanted to be part of the marathon to show “commitment and to honor fallen soldiers.”
New Mexico’s National Guard paid a heavy price. About 1,800 men from the 200th and 515th Coast Artillery Regiment deployed to the Philippines and at least 829 died in battle, as prisoners, or immediately after liberation.
“That’s why it’s here. I’m so glad that this started,” said Schurtz, whose father survived the march but was a prisoner of war on a Japanese “hell ship” and did not come home from the war.
“My dad died over there one day before my ninth birthday on the Oryoku Maru,” he said.