#57. The 1st Cabanatuan Escape

Episode 57 – First Cabanatuan Escape – Episode Transcript

Please note, this episode describes torture and war crimes and is not suitable for some audiences.
[Narrator] Four 22- and 24-year-old American POWs’ search for firewood led them deeper into the jungled area.
The sounds of 100 men chopping wood filled the air near the road where prairie and trees met, But those noises soon faded from the young men’s consciousness as their searching unwittingly led them farther away from the main group. And soon the river washed out the wood chopping.
[Lee] “Where’s the wood chopping?”
[Narrator] One of the men – Corporal Lee -- said suddenly, as he looked up from his collecting duties and realized he didn’t hear the sound of chopping wood.
[Lee] “Jordan. Jordan, come here. Can you hear anything besides this river?”
[Narrator] Pvt. Jordan looked around, then shook his head. He didn’t hear anything.
Lee called to the other two men, who were closer to the road:
[Lee] “Benson, Wellman, can you see the other men? Are they lining up to march back to camp?”
[Narrator] Pvt. Benson and Jordan stepped forward, straining their eyes to see around trees and foliage. Jordan turned back to Lee:
[Wellman] “I don’t see nothing, Lee. None of them’s there.”
[Lee] “Damn!”
[Narrator] Lee muttered. They all knew what this meant – the POW work detail had gone back to camp with their Japanese guards. The 4 young men were left behind by mistake. The Japanese would be furious. More than furious.
[Benson] “What should we do?”
[Narrator] Pvt Benson asked his comrades, as he and Wellman moved closer to Lee and Jordan, who offered:
[Jordan] “Let’s hightail it back to camp. We can sneak into the work detail line ‘fore anyone finds out we’re missin’.”
[Lee] “No way! You heard what they said when we first arrived at camp, any attempt to escape means death.”
[Narrator] Lee reminded them.
[Wellman] “But, we weren’t trying to escape. We just got ourselves separated from the group.”
[Benson] “I don’t think that’ll matter, Wellman.”
[Narrator] Benson replied, his head hung in dejection. Lee was looking down the river, noticing it running away from camp. An idea formed, and he spoke up:
[Lee] “Look, we’re already out of camp and away from the guards. Why don’t we follow this river away from camp. Stay in the jungle. Head toward Manila.”
[Narrator] Wellman was skeptical and afraid:
[Wellman] “If we’re caught, them’ll for certain say we escaped.”
[Jordan] “Besides,”
[Narrator] Jordan added,
[Jordan] “what do we know about jungle survival? We spent the entire war in a concrete box. What do you think, Benson?”
[Benson] “I think we’re dead men if we go back to camp. We’re already here, following the river gives us, at least, a chance of escaping.”
[Narrator] The four young men looked at each other, fear, anxiety, and a bit of excitement in their eyes. And soon, all four were following the sinuous river’s course away from camp.
It was a decision that would change their fate.

This is Left Behind.

Podcast Welcome
Welcome to “Left Behind,” a podcast about the people left behind when the US surrendered The Philippines in the early days of WW2. I’m your host and researcher, Anastasia Harman. My great-grandfather Alma Salm was one of the POWs, and his memoir inspired me to tell the stories of his fellow captives.
It’s May and I’m commemorating Memorial Day all month, with episodes focused on remembering fallen heroes. If you, like me, feel it’s important for people to know about what these men went through, please consider sharing this episode with a friend. Word of mouth is the number one way that people find new podcasts. So, by sharing, you’re helping to keep these men’s stories alive.

This episode tells the story of 4 young, inexperienced men – Russell Benson, Fred Lee, Wesley Jordan, and Hugh Wellman -- who attempted to escape shortly after arriving at Cabanatuan POW Camp #3. Theirs is a sad, yet interesting, story.
But what makes it even sadder is that I can find very little information about these men’s pre-war lives and families and have found a picture of only 1 of the men. All 4 of them came from working class and farming families, who seemed to struggle financially. All 4 men came of age during the Great Depression and joined the Coast Artillery in their late teens – some, I suspect, as a way to help their families financially and avoid being drafted into regiments not of their choosing.
I’ve noticed during my research that the poorest – and usually youngest – men I research have little in the way of documents, information, and pictures. It almost seems like they were overlooked in life. But we won’t let them be forgotten in death.
Let’s jump in.

Before the War
[Narrator] Hugh Edward Wellman was born in 1921, in Huntington, West Virginia, right on the Ohio river where West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky meet. He was the second of 4 children born to Noah and Barbara Wellman. During Hugh’s late childhood and early teen years, his father worked as a streetcar conductor on the electric railway and as a taxi driver.
Hugh himself completed 1 year of high school. And I haven’t discovered why – was this because the family needed him to work instead, or perhaps he dropped out for another reason.
In April 1940, 19-year-old Hugh was incarcerated at the West Virginia State Prison. At the same time, his older brother was incarcerated at the Cabell County Jail in WV. Why? Sadly, I have no idea. I’ve scoured newspapers for that area (that I have access to), and I can find nothing, absolutely nothing about why either man was in jail.
6 days after his 20th birthday, in January 1941, Hugh – a 5’5”, 135-pound, construction worker, enlisted in the Coast Artillery Corps. By the fall of that year, Private Hugh Wellman was stationed in the Philippines, assigned to the 59th Coast Artillery’s 2nd Battalion’s Headquarters company, which was stationed on Ft. Drum.

Sitting at the entrance to Manila Bay, about 5 miles south of Corregidor, Ft. Drum was one of the 4 Manila Bay Habor Defense islands – which included Corregidor Island. The fort was known as the “Concrete Battleship.”
War historian Louis Morton wrote:
[Morton] “Fort Drum [was] the most unusual of the harbor defenses. Cutting away the entire top of El Fraile Island down to the water line and using the island as a foundation, the [Army] engineers had built a reinforced concrete battleship, 350 feet long and 144 feet wide, with exterior walls of concrete and steel 25 to 36 feet thick. The top deck of this concrete battleship was 40 feet above the low-water mark and had 20-foot-thick walls. Equipped with four 14-inch guns in armored turrets facing seaward, a secondary battery of four casemated 6-inch guns, and antiaircraft defense, the fort with its 200-man garrison was considered, even in 1941, impregnable to attack.”

While stationed on Ft. Drum, Pvt Wellman would have met Private Russell Benson, who was also in the Headquarters company.
W Russell Benson was born in April 1921 in Washington. His paternal grandfather immigrated to Minnesota from Norway, where he settled and started a family. Russell’s parents Helmar and Alice Benson met in Alberta, Canada, where young Helmer was homesteading. The Benson family moved to Washinton shortly before Russell was born.
Russell grew up on the family’s farm and attended only 3 years of high school. By the time he was 18, he’d move to Los Angeles, California, where he worked as a coin machine operator. In late September 1940, the 5’11” 19-year-old enlisted in the Coast Artillery and within weeks was on his way to The Philippine Islands.

During the War
[Narrator] During the early days of the war in The Philippines, Ft. Drum wasn’t usually the focus of air or artillery bombardment. But during the first week of February 1942, it and Ft. Frank (another harbor defense island) were targeted incessantly by Japanese artillery coming from the Cavite Province, on the eastern side of Manila Bay. (Those two island forts were the closest to that shoreline.) On the heaviest day, 100 shells fell on Drum; 500 on Ft. Frank. (BTW -- for more information about Ft. Frank during the war, see episode 53.)
Enduring the bombardment with Wellman and Benson in the Headquarters company was Texas native, Corporal Fred Lee.
Born in 1921, Frederick Lawton Lee was part of a multi-generational farming family in west Texas, where both his father and grandparents owned farms. However, in 1930, Fred’s family lived in Hemet, an inland California community in the San Jacinto Valley, between Los Angeles and San Diego. His father worked on a fruit farm, a product which the area was known for. And I wonder if the family had relocated due to the Dust Bowl conditions of the 1930s that affected some of western Texas.
The family had moved back to Texas by 1940 and in September of that year, the 6’, 190-pound, 19-year-old Fred enlisted in the Coast Artillery at Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas.
By the time he was avoiding the intense Japanese shelling in February 1942, Corporal Lee was almost 22 years old.

When the Japanese forces invaded Corregidor on May 6, 1942, Ft. Drum dropped more than 100 rounds on Japanese landing barges heading across the bay from Bataan to Corregidor. When they were ordered to shift their fire to the channel between the two landmasses, the Ft. Drum commander replied that he couldn’t fire because all he could see over the area was dense clouds of smoke. In response, he was told:
[Commander] "Just fire in the smoke, anywhere between you and Cabcaben, and you can't miss them.”
[Narrator] Among the Ft. Drum men firing at the Japanese that morning was 24-year-old Private Wesley Jordan, who was part of Battery E, 2nd Battalion, 59th Coast Artillery. So, he was in a different company/battery than Wellman, Benson, and Lee, but all 4 were in the same Battalion.
Private Jordan was born in Dallas, Texas, in March 1918. He grew up in the Dallas area, where his father worked low-paying jobs such as a produce clerk and a railroad buggy man. At least, however, he had a job in the early days of the Great Depression.
Wesley graduated from Arlington High school and by April 1940, the 22-year-old worked as a filling station attendant. 5 months later he joined the Coast Artillery. And soon found himself in the Philippines.

[Narrator] By the time the Japanese invaded Corregidor in early May 1942, the men at Ft. Drum were running low on ammunition, generator oil, and food. And as the ground fighting intensified on Corregidor that last day, heavy Japanese artillery and dive bombers continued bombardment of the Concreate Battleship.
A Ft. Drum veteran named Jack Cole who served in the 59th Coast Artillery with Jordan, Lee, Benson, and Wellman, later recalled:
[Cole] "Towards the end there, the whole structure would shake."
[Narrator] By the end of the siege, 15 feet of concrete had been blasted off the Ft. Drum decks, which you may recall were originally 25-36 feet thick.
The end came late on May 6, when US Gen. Jonathan Wainwright ordered all of the harbor defense forts to surrender. The 59th men flooded the concrete battleship, destroyed their artillery guns, then lowered and burned the American flag.
Of that surrender and aftermath, Veteran Cole said:
[Cole] "I heard there were 428 of us taken. As far as I know just 28 of us returned."
[Narrator] If true, that’s just 6.5 percent of the 59th Coast Artillery men surviving the war. A disgusting statistic.

According to Cole, the members of the 59th were taken in fishing boats to Cavite, just south of Manila. By late May, they were encamped at Bilibid Prison in Manila, where the POWs from Corregidor soon joined them.
Early on the morning on May 25, Wellman, Benson, Lee, Jordan, and 1,500 other POWs were awoken and marched to the Manila train station where they boarded boxes cars, 100-men per car, for Cabanatuan City. This was the first group of Harbor Defense POWs (collectively called “Corregidor POWs”) to arrive at Cabanatuan POW Camp #3.
Also in that group was my great-grandfather, Alma Salm, and his marching companion, Harry Whitman, whose difficult march to Cabanatuan I described in episode #55. Our four 59th Coast Artillery men would have been 4 of the 1,500 men marching with Whitman and Salm the nearly 14 miles from Cabanatuan City to Camp #3.
Once at the camp, all the men in this initial group were assigned to barracks in the camp’s north sector, which, at that time, did not have a fence. 59th Coast Artillery veteran Jack Cole continued:
[Cole] "People ask me why I didn't try to escape. It was impossible. On one side was a Japanese military installation. On the other, unchartered territory. Even the Japanese wouldn't go in there, so where were you going to go even if you did escape?”
[Narrator] But not everyone – namely Cor. Fred Lee and Pvts. Russell Benson , Wesley Jordan and Hugh Wellman – felt the same about escape. Because on May 29 or 30, 1942, just a couple days after arriving at Cabanatuan Camp #3, they attempted to escape.
The Camp #3 Daily Log states:
[Camp Log] “These men were captured on the road a short distance from the Camp.”
[Narrator] But, as is often the case, there are other versions of the story.
The most detailed rendition I’ve found thus far regarding this escape is from Alma Salm’s memoir. And I believe that the reasons his version is so detailed is because he was in the same arrival and barracks group as these four young men.
In the memoir, Salm tells that on May 29 or 30, about 100 men from Camp 3 were taken by armed Japanese guards a little way up the road east of camp to cut firewood. When the group returned a few hours later, they discovered that four young soldiers were missing.
Salm wrote:
[Salm] “They were young and irresponsible—just youngsters—who had only joined the military service a short time before capture. They had wandered too far in the forested area where the detail was quite widely spread out. When they formed together and realized the column had left them, they became frightened. To “attempt to escape” meant death. Our men were fearful the Jap commander would consider their non-arrival with the column at the Camp Three as tantamount of their own volition.
“Their thoughts were varied. With the feel of freedom so strong in the human breast, a frantic urge tempted them to take advantage of this opportunity to actually escape. That decision was the signature to their death warrant. They proceeded to the river and followed its sinuous course for several kilometers in the direction of Manila. It wasn’t long before they were in the custody of Jap patrols.”
[Narrator] The four men were returned to the camp around 8:30 that night. One account I read said that they returned in a crouched position. I’m not sure exactly what that means.
Within a half hour of their arrival, they were court-marshalled and sentenced by the Japanese camp commander, Lt. Col. Shigeji Mori. Lt. Col. Mori was a Japanese army veteran who had retired from duty in 1928, but was recalled in July 1941. He had been assigned commander of Camp #3 on either May 29 or 30, 1942 – which is the same days that the men were reported to have escaped the camp on.
Salm continued that after Wellman, Benson, Lee, and Jordan were court martialed,
[Salm] “Each of these men was bound to the four posts which supported the thatched roof of the open-sided guard shack. A piece of two-by-four wood about three feet long was tied under their arms, which were placed behind them as well as a similar piece behind their legs just back of their knees at the joints.
“These lengths of wood were fastened in such a manner that neither of the men could stand erect or sit down. This necessitated their remaining in a crouched position. To do this for very long was painful but it was more agonizing to sand upright or attempt to assume a squatting posture because this put such pressure on the blood vessels that it shut off proper circulation or the blood to his limbs, and this after a short time caused excruciating pain. Most of the time they were in great agony.
“They remained so all that rainy night, all the next day, all the following rainy night, and until about four o’clock in the afternoon of the third day. They were scantily attired -- half nude, without footwear or head gear—exposed to the rain and the blistering sun.
“The men courageously attempted to hold up their heads with fortitude during the long vigil but eventually even the stoutest hearted among them with their flesh punished so severely and when half out of their minds began to moan during the forenoon of the next day. They cried out to their tormentors who sat only a few feet away,
“’God! shoot me—do anything to stop this pain. I can’t take it any longer, Oh, God!’
“But they were wasted words. Some of the guards just looked at them with immobilized countenances, jabbering and grinning. We watched this from our barracks only sixty feet away. It was one of the most horrible sights I had ever seen. They had harmed no one—had not injured a guard; had plotted no revolt and were unarmed. We had tasted some of the sadism of our Jap captors previously, but this compelled us to revise our estimates of the Jap to a new low.
“The lads suffered on and on. They were given no food or water. I stood watching them until I could bear it no longer. We cried in our hearts but were powerless to do anything.”
[Narrator] I should note here that I found a slightly different version of this torture. A Navy seaman later reported:
[Seaman] “...they were forced to straddle a large pole, their hands drawn down and tied underneath...they were kept there as the sun burned their exposed skin, mosquitoes and flies swarming everywhere.”
[Narrator] Again, I’m not sure what to make of the discrepancies. One thought is perhaps the 4 men were brought back to camp straddling the large pole with hands tied underneath. You’ll recall that one account said they were brought back to camp in a couching position. So perhaps the seaman’s description is that crouching position? But I don’t know for certain.
Around 4 pm on May 31, Lt. Col. Mori and a group of Japanese soldiers released Wellman, Lee, Benson, and Jordan. Salm and other POWs thought the young men had endured their punishment and would be sent back to their barracks. But they were wrong.
At that time the POWs didn’t realize that the Japanese typically tortured people before executing them.
The 4 young men – all just 22-24 years old – were escorted to the northeastern part of the camp. The seaman further reported:
[Seaman] “Much of the entire camp watched as the men were cut loose and forced to dig a trench. It was obvious as the men stood in the trench that a firing squad was about to execute them. One of the intended victims spit on the officer who was Lt. Col. Shigeji Mori, the camp commander.
[Narrator] Salm continues:
[Salm] “Standing on the edge of freshly dug shallow graves, faced a firing squad a few paces in front of them. The Jap Commander … gave them a small drink of liquor and a cigarette. I watched in silent horror as a Jap officer barked a sharp command which was answered by a fusillade of shots and the four bodies toppled over into the waiting pits.”
[Narrator] And the seaman concludes:
[Seaman] “The man who spat struggled back up but was shot again, crumpling into the ditch. Lieutenant Colonel Mori stepped forward and put a bullet into the head of each man.”

[Narrator] Wesley Jordan was 24 years old. Fred Lee, Russell Benson, and Hugh Wellman were 22. They’d each been in the Coast Artillery less than 18 months.
Theirs were not the first deaths at Cabanatuan Camp #3, but it was the first of many executions.

After the War & Legacy
[Narrator] By early 1943, the Red Cross was able to get information about servicemen and women who had died and/or were Missing in Action during the surrender and as POWs. In mid-February of that year, Hugh Wellman’s parents received a telegram informing them that their son:
[Telegram] “Died recently in a Japanese prison camp of wounds received during the battle of Corregidor.”
[Narrator] It was the first news they’d had about their son in more than a year. A later news article claimed that Pvt Wellman was executed by the Japanese during the Bataan Death March. Of course, we know that Wellman wasn’t serving on Corregidor or part of the Death March.
I find these kinds of errors quite often in newspapers, making it frustrating to find servicemen and women’s actual stories. As a historian, I think it’s important to tell and remember a person’s true story, which is why I work so hard to find what really happened.

By war’s end Camp #3 had been abandoned, and the surviving POWs spread between other Philippines camps and Japan. And when the military went looking for graves of all fallen American soldiers and POWs in The Philippines, none of the searchers knew about these four young men. Thus, their bodies were not found, and they were all reported as Missing in Action and/or Unrecoverable.
And that was…that.
Until, well until the spring of 1946 when a Cabanatuan Camp 3 survivor sent a letter to Mrs. Barbara Wellman in West Virginia. And, in response, Mrs. Wellman sent a letter to the Quarter Master General’s Memorial Division office, saying:
[Barbara] “My son…was reported to have died of wounds received in action of May 6th 1942, but this was a mistake as you will know after reading a story told to me by [Mr. Roland Ferrell], an eye witness to my son’s brutal murder. I am now requesting the return of my son’s body.
“[Mr. Ferrell] said the only thing in the world he ever would return [to Cabanatuan] for would be to locate the grave and bring back his best pal he ever had. I want to know if this is possible, if you’ll let Mr. Ferrell return and show the exact location. And why has this incident never been mentioned in the prosecution of the Japs for their dirty atrocity.
“My son was the first one to be killed from Huntington, West Virginia, and don’t you feel it is a very small request for a mother to ask to let him be one of the first returned? … We will do anything that is possible to help return our son’s body.
“Yours with respect,
Mr. Barabara Wellman”
[Narrator] Mrs. Wellman apparently also included Roland Ferrell’s letter, but sadly I haven’t been able to find it. The Quarter Master General’s office did attempt to contact Mr. Ferrell in fall 1946, but I can’t find record of a response.
In January 1948 – nearly two years after her initial letter – Mrs. Barbara Wellman again wrote the Quarter Master Generals Memorial Division inquiring about the status of her son’s body:
[Barabara] “Some months ago, I wrote the Memorial Department and was informed not to write anymore, that the proper paper would be sent to us later. And as yet we have had no notice of any kind.”
[Narrator] This mother’s anguish screams so loudly from these pages. And the Memorial Division replied they had still not found her son, Hugh Wellman’s remains. This time, however, they welcomed her to call them at any time (although no phone number was given).

But what the Memorial Division told Mrs. Wellman wasn’t exactly true. In the roughly 18 months since her first letter, the Memorial Division had looked into the report regarding Wellman’s death and burial. They began making inquiries among Camp 3 survivors. A Navy Lieutenant stated:
[Navy Lt] “I only know for certain where four unmarked graves were as of October 6, 1942. These 4 men . . . were not buried in the regular cemetery there but on a hill about half a mile away. As I left there and went to Korea Oct 6, 42, I cannot say whether anyone ever put up a marker on their burial place of not. But I know up to that time no one did or was allowed to do so by the Nip army.”
[Narrator] Then, in April 1947, 2 Navy men and former Cabanatuan Camp #3 prisoners went back to the site of Camp 3 with a Memorial Division Graves Registration search party and pointed out the exact location of the graves where Wellman, Benson, Lee, and Jordan were buried.
Armed with that information, the search party exhumed the area and found the remains of 6 individuals in separate graves. They were able to identify Russell Benson, Wesley Jordan, and another POW who died at a different time.
The other three were unidentified at that time and moved to a temporary military cemetery in Manila. But, armed with the information from Mrs. Wellman and other sources, the Memorial Division eventually identified two of those remains to be the remains of Pvt. Hugh Wellman and Cor. Fred Lee.
Thus, in January 1949, Mrs. Barabara Wellman and her husband received a letter from the Memorial Division.
[Letter] “The official report of burial has been received and discloses that the remains of you son were originally buried in an isolated grave at the Cabanatuan Prisoner of War Camp #3, but were later disinterred by our American Graves Registration Personnel, properly identified, and reinterred in the United States Armed Forces Cemetery in Manila.”
[Narrator] The letter gave further instructions on how to apply to have their son’s remains returned home. Thus at 1 pm on Friday, July 22, 1949, the remains of Pvt Hugh Wellman arrived at the Huntington, West Virginia, train station.
A few days later, he was interred in the Wellman Family Cemetery in that same city. Mrs. Wellman’s son was finally home.

Pvt. Wesley Jordan’s remains were returned to Arlington, Texas, in April 1949, where he rests today at the Parkdale Cemetery.
Pvt. William Russell Benson and Cor. Frederick Lawton Lee were interred, at their families’ requests, in what would become the Manila American Cemetery, where they remain today.

In her original letter to the Quarter Master General’s office, Mrs. Barbara Wellmen asked:
[Barbara] “Why has this incident never been mentioned in the prosecution of the Japs for their dirty atrocity?”
[Narrator] At that time, she was correct, the executions had not been mentioned in any Japanese War Crimes Trials. However, Lt. Col. Shigeji Mori, the camp #3 commander reported to have ordered Wellman, Benson, Lee, and Jordan’s executions was arrested in June 1946.
In October/November 1947, Mori was tried in Yokohama, Japan, for crimes committed at Camp #3. Among the 8 charges was:
[Report] “About 31 May 1942, the accused did willfully and unlawfully order, cause and permit the unlawful killing of Private William R. Benson, Private Wesley E. Jordan, Corporal Frederick L. Lee, and Private Hugh E. Wellman, American Prisoners of War, by shooting them.”
[Narrator] 63-year-old Mori pleaded Not Guilty to this charge and was found Not Guilty as well. And I don’t know why? The document that overviews the prosecution and defense arguments Mori’s entire trial gives specifications for the other charges facing Mori, but not for this specific charge.) Which honestly seems about par for the course of the research for this episode, so many tidbits – with no resolution.)
However, Mori was found Guilty on 5 of those charges – all torture and executions of POWs – and was sentenced to hard labor and life in prison.
I do not know if Mrs. Barbara Wellman ever learned about this trial or its outcome.

While mistreatment, torture, and executions of POWs at Cabanatuan’s POW camps did happen, disease was the main death culprit – especially in the first months after the POWs arrived there.
And we’ll be discussing that in the next POW story.
This is Left Behind.

Outro
Thanks for listening! You can find pictures, maps, and sources about Wellman, Benson, Lee, and Jordan’s story on the Left Behind Facebook page and website and on Instagram @leftbehindpodcast. The links are in the show description.
If you enjoy this podcast, please leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
Left Behind is researched, written, and produced by me, Anastasia Harman.
- Voice overs by: Jake Harenberg, Paul Sutherland, and Tyler Harman
- Special thanks to: John Eakin for providing Individual Deceased Personnel Files for each of the executed men, which allowed me to tell their complete story.
- Dramatizations are based on historical research, although some creative liberty is taken with dialogue.
And remember to subscribe to left behind because next time I’m going to tell you all about the Ripley’s Believe it or Not “Man without a Stomach.”

Sources
GENERAL
Carolyn Younger, “The Ship that Couldn’t Sink,” from St. Helena Star, transcription online at ConcreteBattleship.org, The Ship That Couldn't Sink (concretebattleship.org), accessed 7 May 2024.
“Log,” Cabanatuan Prisoners of War Concentration Camp Number Three of the Philippine Islands, record kept by POWs at the camp, page 1, images online, “Cabanatuan 3 Daily Log,” image 21, Records from Other Sections of Philippine Archives Collection, Cabanatuan 3 Daily Log - PVAO Archives Collection, accessed 10 May 2024.
Louis Morton, “Chapter 31: The Fall of Corregidor,” The Fall of the Philippines
“Order of Battle, 59th Coast Artillery Regiment,” Corregidor.org, https://corregidor.org/btty_histories/control/order_battle_59.htm, accessed 7 May 2024.
Seaman First Class, USN Bruce Elliott, quote in bio for PFC William Russell Benson (1921-1942) - Find a Grave Memorial, accessed 10 May 2024.
United States of America vs. Shigeji Mori, Review of the Staff Judge Advocate,” pdf version, online at “Cabanatuan POW Camp, Philippines,” Mansell.com, Cabanatuan POW Camp description and significant documents (mansell.com), accessed 14 May 2024.

BENSON
William R Benson entry, “U.S., World War II Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941-1945,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2010, original data: National Archives and Records Administration, World War II Prisoners of the Japanese File, 2007 Update, 1941-1945. ARC ID: 212383, World War II Prisoners of the Japanese Data Files, 4/2005 - 10/2007, ARC ID: 731002, Records of the Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, Collection ADBC, ARC: 718969, National Archives at College Park. College Park, Maryland, accessed 30 April 2024.
William R Benson entry, “U.S., World War II American and Allied Prisoners of War, 1941-1946,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, 2005, original data: World War II Prisoners of War Data File [Archival Database], Records of World War II Prisoners of War, 1942-1947, Records of the Office of the Provost Marshal General, Record Group 389, National Archives at College Park, College Park, Md., accessed 30 April 2024.
PFC William Russell Benson (1921-1942) - Find a Grave Memorial, accessed 30 April 2024.
Helmer Benson, 1911, Alberta, Canada, Marriages Index, 1898-1944, database online: Ancestry.com: Lehi, Utah, 2017, original data: Alberta Marriage Indexes, Provincial Archives of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, accessed 30 April 2024
Helmer Adolph Benson, Alberta, Canada, Homestead Records, 1870-1930, database online: Ancestry.com, Lehi, Utah, 2016, original data: Alberta Homestead Records, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, accessed 30 April 2024
Helmer Benson family, 1916 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2009, original data: Original data: Canada. "Census returns for 1916 Census of Prairie Provinces." Statistics of Canada Fonds, Record Group 31-C-1. LAC microfilm T-21925 to T-21956. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa. 1916 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © Copyright 2009 Intellectual Reserve, Inc., accessed 30 April 2024.
Russell Benson, Montebello, Los Angeles, California, “1940 United States Federal Census,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2012, Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940, T627, 4,643 roll, accessed 30 April 2024.
William R Benson entry, “US, World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2005, original data: National Archives and Records Administration, Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, 1938-1946 [Archival Database], ARC: 1263923, “World War II Army Enlistment Records,” Records of the National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 64, National Archives at College Park, College Park, Maryland, accessed 30 April 2024.
“Gordon Benson S 1/C Home on 30-Day Leave,” Dec 16, 1944, page 1, Record Searchlight, Redding, California, online at Newspapers.com, accessed 30 April 2024.
“In the Fight,” Sep 20, 1945, page 1, The Shasta Courier, Redding, California, online at Newspapers.com, accessed 30 April 2024.
“Affidavits Describe How Japanese Buried Sick Captives Alive,” Jun 16, 1948, page 19, Lubbock Morning Avalanche, online at Newspapers.com, acce3ssed 30 April 2024.
“Letters Asked on Estate of Man Killed in Action,” Jan 16, 1946, page 1, Record Searchlight, Redding, California, online at Newspapers.com, accessed 30 April 2024.
William R Benson entry, “U.S., World War II and Korean Conflict Veterans Interred Overseas,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2000; original data: National Archives and Records Administration, Register, World War II Dead Interred in American Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil and World War II and Korea Missing or Lost or Buried at Sea, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, accessed 30 April 2024
William R. Benson entry, “U.S., Headstone and Interment Records for U.S., Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, 1942-1949,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2014, original data: Cemetery Records, Records of the American Battle Monuments Commission, Arlington, VA., Headstone Inscription and Interment Records for U.S. Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, 1942–1949, Series A1 43, NAI ID: 7408555, Records of the American Battle Monuments Commission, 1918–ca. 1995, Record Group 117, The National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C, accessed 30 April 2024.

JORDAN
Wesley E Jordan entry, “U.S., World War II Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941-1945,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2010, original data: National Archives and Records Administration, World War II Prisoners of the Japanese File, 2007 Update, 1941-1945. ARC ID: 212383, World War II Prisoners of the Japanese Data Files, 4/2005 - 10/2007, ARC ID: 731002, Records of the Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, Collection ADBC, ARC: 718969, National Archives at College Park. College Park, Maryland, accessed 29 April 2024
Wesley E Jordan entry, “U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1861-1985,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2012, original data: Applications for Headstones for U.S. Military Veterans, 1925-1941, Microfilm publication M1916, 134 rolls, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives at Washington, D.C., and Applications for Headstones, January 1, 1925–June 30, 1970 NAID: 596118, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774–1985, Record Group 92, National Archives at St. Louis. Missouri, accessed 29 April 2024.
Wesley Efird Jordan, 12 March 1918, “Texas, U.S., Birth Index, 1903-1997,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2005, original data: Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997, Texas: Texas Department of State Health Services, Microfiche, accessed 29 April 2024; Wesley Efird Jordan, 12 Mar 1918, “Texas, U.S., Birth Certificates, 1903-1932,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2013, original data: Texas Department of State Health Services, Texas Birth Certificates, 1903–1932, iArchives, Orem, Utah, accessed 29 April 2024.
Albert B Jordan family, Dallas Precinct 22, Dallas, Texas, “1920 Census | 1920 US Federal Census Records,” Database online: Ancestry.com, Lehi, UT, 2010, original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920 (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls), Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C, accessed 30 April 2024.
A Barney Jordan family, Texas, Tarrant, Arlington, “1930 US Federal Census Records,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, 2002, original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930, T626, 2,667 rolls, accessed 29 April 2024.
Albert B Jordan family, Texas, Tarrant, Arlington, “1940 United States Federal Census,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2012, Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940, T627, 4,643 roll, accessed 29 April 2024.
“Services for Private Set,” Apr 21, 1949, page 39, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, online at Newspapers.com, accessed 30 April 2024.
“Pvt Wesley E. Jordan,” printed memorial, publication unknown, jpg version, online at Pvt Wesley Efird Jordan (1918-1942) - Find a Grave Memorial, accessed 29 April 2024.
Wesley E Jordan entry, “U.S., World War II American and Allied Prisoners of War, 1941-1946,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, 2005, original data: World War II Prisoners of War Data File [Archival Database], Records of World War II Prisoners of War, 1942-1947, Records of the Office of the Provost Marshal General, Record Group 389, National Archives at College Park, College Park, Md., accessed 29 April 2024; Wesley E Jordan entry, “U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1861-1985,”

LEE
Fred L Lee entry, “U.S., World War II Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941-1945,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2010, original data: National Archives and Records Administration, World War II Prisoners of the Japanese File, 2007 Update, 1941-1945. ARC ID: 212383, World War II Prisoners of the Japanese Data Files, 4/2005 - 10/2007, ARC ID: 731002, Records of the Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, Collection ADBC, ARC: 718969, National Archives at College Park. College Park, Maryland, accessed 1 May 2024.
Fred L Lee entry, “U.S., World War II American and Allied Prisoners of War, 1941-1946,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, 2005, original data: World War II Prisoners of War Data File [Archival Database], Records of World War II Prisoners of War, 1942-1947, Records of the Office of the Provost Marshal General, Record Group 389, National Archives at College Park, College Park, Md., accessed 1 May 2024.
Fred L Lee entry, “US, World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2005, original data: National Archives and Records Administration, Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, 1938-1946 [Archival Database], ARC: 1263923, “World War II Army Enlistment Records,” Records of the National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 64, National Archives at College Park, College Park, Maryland, accessed 1 May 2024
Corp Frederick Lawton Lee (1921-1942) - Find a Grave Memorial, accessed 1 May 2024.
Malcolm A Lee family, Hemet, Riverside, California, “1930 US Federal Census Records,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, 2002, original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930, T626, 2,667 rolls, accessed 1 May 2024.
W Lowry Lee family, Dawson County, Texas, “1940 United States Federal Census,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2012, Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940, T627, 4,643 roll, accessed 1 May 2024.
Fred L Lee entry, “U.S., World War II and Korean Conflict Veterans Interred Overseas,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2000; original data: National Archives and Records Administration, Register, World War II Dead Interred in American Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil and World War II and Korea Missing or Lost or Buried at Sea, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, accessed 1 May 2024.
Fred L Lee entry, “U.S., Headstone and Interment Records for U.S., Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, 1942-1949,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2014, original data: Cemetery Records, Records of the American Battle Monuments Commission, Arlington, VA., Headstone Inscription and Interment Records for U.S. Military Cemeteries on Foreign Soil, 1942–1949, Series A1 43, NAI ID: 7408555, Records of the American Battle Monuments Commission, 1918–ca. 1995, Record Group 117, The National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C, accessed 1 May 2024.

WELLMAN
Hugh E Wellman entry, “U.S., World War II Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941-1945,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2010, original data: National Archives and Records Administration, World War II Prisoners of the Japanese File, 2007 Update, 1941-1945. ARC ID: 212383, World War II Prisoners of the Japanese Data Files, 4/2005 - 10/2007, ARC ID: 731002, Records of the Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, Collection ADBC, ARC: 718969, National Archives at College Park. College Park, Maryland, accessed 1 May 2024.
Hugh E Wellman entry, “U.S., World War II American and Allied Prisoners of War, 1941-1946,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, 2005, original data: World War II Prisoners of War Data File [Archival Database], Records of World War II Prisoners of War, 1942-1947, Records of the Office of the Provost Marshal General, Record Group 389, National Archives at College Park, College Park, Md., accessed 1 May 2024.
Hugh Edward Wellman entry, “West Virginia, U.S., Births Index, 1804-1938,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2011, original data: "West Virginia Births," Index, FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2008, 2009, From digital images of copies of originals housed in County Courthouses throughout West Virginia, accessed 1 May 2024
Hugh E Wellman entry, “U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1861-1985,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2012, original data: Applications for Headstones for U.S. Military Veterans, 1925-1941, Microfilm publication M1916, 134 rolls, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92, National Archives at Washington, D.C., and Applications for Headstones, January 1, 1925–June 30, 1970 NAID: 596118, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774–1985, Record Group 92, National Archives at St. Louis. Missouri, accessed 1 May 2024.
Noah Wellman family, Huntington, Cabell, West Virginia, “1930 US Federal Census Records,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, 2002, original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930, T626, 2,667 rolls, accessed 1 May 2024.
Hugh Wellman, West Virginia State Prison, Moundsville, Marshall, West Virginia, “1940 United States Federal Census,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2012, Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940, T627, 4,643 roll, accessed 1 May 2024.
Herbert D Wellman, Cabell County Jail, Huntington, Cabell, West Virginia, “1940 United States Federal Census,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2012, Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940, T627, 4,643 roll, accessed 1 May 2024.
Hugh E Wellman entry, “US, World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2005, original data: National Archives and Records Administration, Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, 1938-1946 [Archival Database], ARC: 1263923, “World War II Army Enlistment Records,” Records of the National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 64, National Archives at College Park, College Park, Maryland, accessed 1 May 2024.
Big Sandy News, 4 August 1949, text found online at PVT Hugh Edward Wellman (1921-1942) - Find a Grave Memorial, accessed 1 May 2024.