#14. The Audacious and Creative War-Time Strategies of Henry Goodall

Episode 14 – Henry Goodall – Episode Script

Story Intro
[Narrator] Lt. Commander Henry Goodall squinted his eyes against the harsh Philippine sun, searching intently, as hi boat rocks and bobbed with the wave of the China Sea, just offshore Bataan Peninsula’s wester coastline. His boat and another nearby were small motor launches that the sailors had outfitted with make-shift armor and salvaged machine guns to create small “battleships.” The crews manned their battle stations, waiting for Goodall’s orders.
They scanned the cliffs in front of them, looking for caves. No, not for caves, but for the soldiers lurking inside those caves. Enemies. Invaders. The remnants of a Japanese infantry landing unit that was intent on sneaking behind the American lines on Bataan.
But American and Filipino forces had been prepared for the invaders, both on land and by sea. While the Allied ground forces did their part and pushed the invading soldiers over the cliff side, Commander Goodall -- a handsome, former football player with dark hair, a firm chin, and chiseled jaw line -- ensured any Japanese soldiers escaping or hiding in the cliff-side caves wouldn’t be a threat.
The day’s “hunting,” as they called it, had been good. 33 hits. And it seemed that the cliff-side caves were cleared of all would-be invaders.
They’d been at their work since 8 am, and the hot sun beat down mercilessly on the two small, metal motor launches. It was time to head back to base.
But, just then, 4 Japanese dive bombers emerged from the sun’s blinding light, raining bullets on the two vessels.
A Gunner’s Mate, still at his machine gun, emptied a barrage of bullets at an attacking plane. He brought it down – at the cost of his own life, dying while still sitting at his gunner position.
Bombs dropped around Goodall’s boat, crashing into the water, detonating, and blowing holes in the bottom. Shrapnel and other debris hit Goodall in his feet, severely wounding him.
[Goodall] “Beach! Beach!”
[Narrator] he ordered the crews of his litter make-shift Navy.
The crews piloted the small crafts to the Bataan beach as quickly as they could, fighting against the continued onslaught of the Japanese planes and the unforgiving coastal tide. They landed, grabbed their fallen comrades, and sought cover.
[Goodall] “Status report,”
[Narrator] Goodall called to his men, once the threat of strafing had passed. The sailors checked pulses and counted casualties – 3 dead, 4 wounded.
The able men gathered tree limbs which they used to improvise stretchers for the wounded, including Goodall. Then they hacked and hiked their way through the heavy jungle until they reached the small supply road. From there they turned south, for the 10-mile trek back to their home ship anchored at Bataan’s southern tip.
A truck soon approached down the dusty road. The sailors waved their arms overhead, and the truck slowed.
[Sailor] “Hey friend, can we get a lift back to Mariveles,”
[Narrator] a sailor asked.
[Driver] “Jump in,”
[Narrator] the driver answered, jerking his head toward the truck’s rear. The Navy men loaded their improvised stretches into the back of the truck and jumped in as the truck began rumbling down the winding dirt road, back to the USS Canopus.
The day’s events had incapacitated the two makeshift battleships, marking the end of Lt. Commander Goodall’s small-navy brainchild. And Goodall himself was wounded and out of commission. But that small navy had been instrumental in protecting Bataan and preventing the peninsula’s early fall to Japanese soldiers.
And it was just one of the audacious and creative strategies that would earn Lt. Commander Henry Goodall not 1 but 2 of the US military’s highest awards for valor.
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 Anastasia Harman, and I tell you the stories of WW2 servicemen and women, civilians, guerillas, and others captured by Japanese forces in The Philippines. My great-grandfather Alma Salm was one of the POWs, and his memoir inspired me to tell stories of his fellow captives.
In the last episode, I shared the story of Naval Commander Frank Bridget and his rag-tag Naval Battalion. This episode picks up where that one ended – with Bridget’s second in command – Lt. Commander Frank Goodall, who took military creativity to new heights. Or perhaps made military creativity a thing, because is military creativity a thing? I’m not sure.
However, Lt. Commander Goodall’s creative and downright audacious ideas may have bought General MacArthur and the American forces in The Philippines time they wouldn’t otherwise have had.
Let’s jump in.

POW’s Life Story
Before the War
[Narrator] Henry William Goodall was born September 2, 1900, in Kansas. Henry was the youngest, by 9 years, of the 5 children born to William and Christina Goodall. (One of those children had died before Henry was born).
Henry’s father, William, who worked as a carpet weaver, was from Virginia, and his mother was a 1st generation German American.
Now, here’s something I thought this was interesting – some historic records say that father William was born in Virginia and some say West Virginia. William was born in May 1862. West Virginia didn’t become a state until a year later in June 1863 (when it separated from the Confederate state of Virginia, forming itself as a Union State). So, although I haven’t found exactly where father William was born, I wonder if he was from the area of Virginia that became West Virginia.
Regardless, father William and mother Christina were in Salina, Kansas, by January 1886, when they married. (Their signed marriage record specifically states that they “are not nearer of kin than second cousins. So, genetically speaking, that’s a good thing to know about your parents. I always say it’s better for your family lines to look like a tree rather than a wreath.) William and Christina probably came west during the influx of settlers to the Salina, Kansas, area as it became a hub for agriculture and industry after the train was built.
Father William died when Henry Goodall was 7 years old. And all the older children worked to support the family. In 1910, his mother sewed for private families. A 20-year-old brother was a laborer doing odd jobs, and an 18-year-old sister worked as a stenographer at a sales office.
Henry grew up to be a handsome young man with a tall, slender build, grey eyes and dark hair. He attended Washington High School in Salina, where he became a star football player. During his senior year in 1918, he was a 160-pound quarterback and tackle. You can view his senior-year football picture on my website. The school’s yearbook stated:
[Yearbook] “’Ras’ was largely responsible for successful end runs of the season by his interference. Skinned elbows, or hard knocks do not daunt him. He can always be relied upon to do his best in the backfield.”
[Narrator] “Ras” was, apparently, his nickname. I’m not sure where that came from. I know in his military years, he was sometimes known as “Hap.”
10 days after his 18th birthday on September 2, 1918 – so while he was still the high school football star – Henry registered for the US draft. (World War 1 ended in November 1918, so he wasn’t in real danger of being called up to serve. Still, at least as a mother, I think it would be nerve-wracking for your high-school senior to register for a draft while a war was raging overseas.)
After high school, Henry worked at a Poultry House, at least for a time. A little more than a year after graduating high school, he joined the Navy in September 1920, which is likely when he began school at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1924 and was commissioned as an Ensign. In 1929, he had married Eugenia Strickland, and they spent the 1930s in various locations including San Diego, Maryland, and Washington, DC, as Henry worked his way up the naval officer ranks. The couple welcomed two children into their family during the 1930s. And Henry achieved the rank of Lt. Commander by July 1939. (That’s equivalent to a US Army Major).
By December 1941, Lt. Commander Henry Goodall was the Executive Officer (that is, second in command) of the submarine tender USS Canopus.

During the War
[Narrator] As a submarine tender, the Canopus sailed with several patrolling submarines through Asiatic Pacific waters and supplied them with food, weapons, chemicals, and anything else the submarine or crew needed.
In fall 1941, the Canopus pulled into the Cavite Navy Yard on Manila Bay (just south of Manila the city) for extensive overhauls – to become better prepared for war with upgraded armor and new anti-aircraft guns. The ship had finished its refurbishments and was anchored in the bay just outside of Cavite when the war started on December 8, 1941.
As such, she and her crew escaped destruction when Japanese aircraft bombed Cavite on December 10. Instead, they had moved some 10 miles north to one of the docks at Manila Harbor. And, because looking like a war ship had become a detriment, they painted the ship brown to match the docks and spread fishing nets over her – in an effort to disguise the ship as a fishing boat.
It seemingly worked; the ship wasn’t attacked during the several weeks it was anchored at Manila. Or perhaps the Japanese planes had bigger fish to fry.
When the war started, most other US Navy ships left The Philippines, but the Canopus remained in Manila Bay – to take care of her submarines that patrolled the Philippine waters. She and the crew became a sort of floating, mobile submarine base of The Philippines. When the rest of the US forces withdrew to Bataan in late December 1941, Canopus joined them, anchoring in the small harbor at Marivelles on Bataan’s southern-most point.
They attempted to again hide the ship by anchoring in a small cove and re-disguising her as part of the jungle – with mottled green paint and tree branches tied to the masts. The disguise worked for a few days, but Japanese planes bombed it on December 29. I covered this bombing in episode 12.
Thankfully that bombing didn’t destroy the ship. In fact, she was seaworthy again in just a few days. But her seaworthiness, wouldn’t matter because the submarines she tended soon withdrew from Philippine waters. (The Canopus couldn’t leave because of the increasing Japanese naval blockade of The Philippines.) The ship’s Captain Earl Sackett explained:
[Sackett] “When the last of the submarines . . . had pulled out just before the New Year opened, we were left with something of the feeling of a mother when the last of her children has grown up and left the home fires, to battle the world alone.
“Nothing would seem more useless than a submarine tender with no submarines to look out for, but we were soon to find that there were orphans aplenty to be adopted. There were many small Navy ships which were also stranded by the tide of war ebbing toward the south. These needed constant repairs as well as additional equipment for the task ahead of them.
“The word also got around to all Army and Air Force Units, of the well-equipped shops which could and did accomplish miracles of improvisation, and these groups were not slow in making full use of these facilities. Again the men of the Canopus could feel that they had a major share in the new mission -- to hold Bataan.”
[Narrator] So the ship’s machine shop and repair crews got to work fixing and making weapons and other needed items for the fighting men on Bataan. During the day, most sailors remained off ship, so that in case of direct attack, there would be as few casualties as possible.
It was good thinking because the Japanese weren’t done with the Canopus yet. In early January 1942, just a week after the first bombing, the ship was again attacked by bombs. Captain Sackett said:
[Sackett] “Again the closely bunched bomb pattern blanketed the ship, but again only one missile made a direct hit. This time it was a quick-acting fragmentation bomb which struck the side of the towering smokestack, and literally sprayed the upper decks with small fragments.
“The gun crews, which had ducked behind their shields at the last instant before the bombs landed, had little protection from splinters coming down from above, and three-quarters of them were wounded -- fortunately with no fatalities. No serious fires were started, but the upper decks looked like a sieve as hundreds [of pieces of shrapnel] had pierced the light plating.”
[Narrator] The crew surveyed the damage and soon learned that a second bomb detonated underwater, damaging the ships’ underside. Each side of the ship had been pierced with dozens of fragments just above the water line. Below deck, plates and rivets had given away and water was leaking in.
But, miraculously, the “old girl” – as the crew fondly called the ship – wasn’t scrap yet. And Lt. Commander Henry Goodall had an idea to make her Bataan’s best-kept secret.

Days later, a Japanese scouting plane – nicknamed “Photo Joe” by US servicemen – flew over southern Bataan, looking for American ships that had survived the earlier bombing runs.
The pilot was encouraged — an abandoned American ship tilted in Mariveles’s small harbor. Bomb holes peppered her deck, and smoke rose from the hull.
The previous air attacks had succeeded. This American ship was no threat.
Except…
Well, there was something the Japanese scout didn’t realize. The problem was he’d trusted his eyes. And, really, who could blame him — that was his job, right? Scouting. Looking. Seeing.
But that’s where things go wrong, isn’t it? Because, you know, looks can be deceiving.
In fact, the decrepit-looking USS Canopus was a hoax.

Lt. Commander Goodall had realized they could no longer pretend Canopus was a fishing ship or part of the jungle, but they could pretend that the earlier attacks did their job and that the Canopus was useless.

So under Goodall’s direction, the crew used the bombing mess to make Canopus look as abandoned as possible. They made the old ship list (that is, tilt) in the water and placed the cargo booms at odd angles. They hid oily rags in smudge pots near the blackened bomb holes so that smoke rose out of the ship for several days.

During the day, Japanese scouts saw a destroyed, abandoned ship. But, during the night . . .
Well, Captain Sackett explained it best:
[Sackett] “Every night the "abandoned hulk" hummed with activity, forging new weapons for the beleaguered forces of Bataan. Evidently the Japs were completely deceived because only one half-hearted attempt was made a week later by dive bombers to finish off the faithful ship, and that was driven away without damage, by our anti-aircraft guns. These had been taken off the ship and mounted on the hills nearby, so as not to draw further retaliation to the vessel.”
[Narrator] Goodall received the Navy Cross – the navy’s second highest award for heroism in combat -- in part for his actions on the Canopus. The citation reads:
[Citation] “Despite the fact that the U.S.S. CANOPUS had been damaged by bombs and was partially beached at Mariveles, the work of repairing weapons and facilities was carried out at night and during non-flying weather. In these very important maintenance tasks and in and about the Section Base, Lieutenant Commander Goodall was exceptionally resourceful in manufacturing parts for extemporized weapons.”
[Narrator] So, while the Japanese saw a decrepit, junked, abandoned ship, Lt. Commander Henry Goodall was successfully hoaxing the enemy and providing creative ways for the Americans to keep fighting.
But his outside-the-box thinking wouldn’t stop there. No, Goodall was just getting started.

[Narrator] With the Canopus safe from attack and relentlessly supporting on-shore troops, Lt. Commander Goodall found his services needed elsewhere.

A Navy aviation commander named Frank Bridget noticed that while Mariveles (at the southern tip of Bataan) and the American front at the northern end were both well-guarded, the Japanese could easily attack and cut off some 20 miles of a vital communication and supply road within short distance of the coast.

Cutting off that road would be disastrous to the American and Filipino resistance. So, as I described last week in Episode 13, Bridget assembled the “Naval Battalion” — a somewhat rag-tag team of sailors, naval aviators, and Marines. Lt. Commander Goodall became the Battalion’s second in command.

As Commander Bridget feared, Japanese troops landed along Bataan’s south western coast at Longoskawayan Point (mere miles from Mariveles) and made their way inland toward the communication road, where the Naval Battalion met them and held them back. But instead of fleeing, the Japanese hid in cliff-side crevices and caves along Longoskawayan Point. Their presence continued to threaten the American front lines.

Captain Sackett recalled:

[Sackett] “The Jap landing force was down, but not yet out. The rugged cliffs under which the remnants had taken refuge, were honeycombed with crevices and caves washed into the rock by wave action in ages past. Practically inaccessible from the land side, it was suicide to try to ferret out the desperate [Japanese], who still had plenty of ammunition and food to stand a long siege.”
[Narrator] But – and I’m sure you’ve already guessed this – Goodall had an idea.

[Sackett] “Attacking the problem from a sailor's viewpoint, [Goodall] conceived a plan for clearing out the hornet's nests by shooting into them from the sea. Here again the Canopus repair men rose to the occasion. Conversion work was started on three of her forty-foot motor launches, to make them into "Mickey-Mouse Battleships," armed with heavy machine guns and a light field piece, and protected by [make-shift armor fashioned from] boiler plate around the engine and gun positions.”

[Narrator] Ever resourceful, the Canopus crew took some of the machine guns from destroyed American aircraft. How’s that for reusing and recycling?

As soon as the first launch was armed and armored, Lt. Commander Goodall led the first mission. Captain Sackett continued:
[Sackett] “No sooner had the first experimental model been finished, than the enthusiastic crew led by "Hap" Goodall, put their brainchild into commission and started out. It was a seven- or eight-mile cruise by water to Longoskawayan Point, but they made two round trips the first day, blasting scores of Japs out of their caves with gunfire. As evidence of their success, they brought in two prisoners alive but dazed, and three others which had not survived the return voyage.
“Our Canopus crew at last felt amply revenged for the loss of seven shipmates who fell during the land fighting [with the Naval Battalion], as well as for the six who died in the first bombing of the ship. They were now veterans, and could look any man in the eye.”
[Narrator] With Longoskawayan Point cleared, the “Mickey Mouse” navy was called upon to help another group of Allied soldiers.
When Japanese forces had landed on Longoskawayn Point, they were actually in the wrong place. You see, they were part of a larger invasion unit that was supposed to land about 10 miles north at Quinauan Point. But between awful maps, a treacherous tide, and US Navy patrols, only a portion actually landed on Quinauan Point.
The Japanese forces on Quinauan Point had better success than those on Longoskawayan. They established a foothold in the point’s dense jungle, using the foliage and landscape to their advantage. A battalion of Philippine Scouts (a US Army unit made up almost entirely of highly trained, elite Filippino soldiers) engaged the Japanese, but the heavy growth made moving and fighting difficult and dangerous.
The Philippine Scout commander explained:
[Commander] “The enemy never made any movements or signs of attacking our force but just lay in wait for us to make a move and when we did casualties occurred and we still could not see even one enemy."
[Narrator] After a week of fighting, the Scouts and the Japanese invaders were at stalemate. When the Scouts were able to push the Japanese back to the coast, the Scouts incurred heavy casualties. On January 29, a full week after the Japanese first landed at Quinauan, 2 additional companies of Philippine Scouts joined the fight.
They helped continue to push the Japanese forces back to the sea, but still at the price of heavy casualties – some estimates say as high as 50%. (Keep in mind that the term “Casualty” refers to wounded men as well as those killed in action. Still, 50% is horribly high.)
One serviceman observed:
[Captain] “The Scouts had occupied fifty yards more of the high jungle above the bay-at terrible cost to themselves. Their casualties had run about fifty percent. The sight and stench of death were everywhere. The jungle, droning with insects, was almost unbearably hot.”
By January 30, after more than a week of fighting, a Philippine Scout commander explained that those Scouts still able to fight were
[Commander] “dead tired from loss of sleep and exposure.”
[Narrator] Finally, on January 31, the US Army was able to send tanks to help clear the point. The infantry and tankers pushed the Japanese back to the tip of Quinauan Point in an area about the size of a football field – the Allied line on one side of the Japanese, a cliff edge on the other.
I’m going to pause here. The Japanese were finding that defeating American and Filipino forces on Bataan was harder than expected. The first several weeks of the war and the initial ground invasion of The Philippines had been easy conquests for Japanese forces. But once withdrawn to Bataan, the American and Filipino forces were putting up a determined fight.
An NBC news report in January 1942, had this to say about Filipino forces:
[Narrator] This news report says Filipino guerillas, and I’m not clear if that’s referring to the Filipino military forces or actual guerilla organizations since guerilla operations didn’t start in earnest until the US surrendered The Philippines.
Regardless, the Filipino resistance seems to have surprised the Japanese.
So back on Quinauan Point, where the Philippine Scouts and the tanks had backed Japanese forces to the tip, something strange happened. Witnesses later reported that the Japanese soldiers screamed, yelled, ripped off their uniforms, and leapt off the cliff.
In a 2020 article for the National WW2 Museum, Pacific war expert Richard B. Frank said:
[Frank] “Japanese servicemen regarded surrender as unthinkable. Virtually every Japanese unit fought near to annihilation—a record unparalleled in modern history. Voluntary surrenders were rare. More often, prisoners were only those Japanese left by wounds or debilitation too helpless to take their own life.”
[Narrator] “Virtually every Japanese unit fought near to annihilation.” Think about that for a moment. The depth of the indoctrination in Japanese servicemen of Japanese military rhetoric and honor is hard for me to understands, as a 21st century American. It was hard for mid-20th century Americans to understand.
Furthermore, Japanese troops and civilians were told that
[Frank] “Americans would inflict unlimited atrocities on captured [servicemen] and civilians and then exterminate them.”
[Narrator] I’ve seen this sentiment recorded in several sources as I’ve researched for this podcast. I believe it added to the no-surrender-at-any-cost mentality of Japanese troops. Later in the war, Americans saw the same behavior in civilians when the US invaded Saipan, a Japanese island colony in the Pacific. As author Richard Frank explained:
[Frank] “Several thousand [Japanese civilians] took their own lives rather than be captured [by US forces]. Wrenching newsreels widely seen by Americans showed scenes of Japanese families committing suicide together, including death leaps from cliffs.”
[Narrator] So the Japanese troops leaping off Quinauan Point seems to go along with this theme.
Other Japanese soldiers climbed down the Quinauan Point cliff to rock ledges and caves, where they already had prepared positions. Still other Japanese soldiers were down on the beach, so apparently below the cliff. American and Filipino forces on the cliff continued to shoot at the enemy forces. One observer later said:
[Observer] “I'll never forget the little Filipino who had set up an air-cooled machine gun at the brink [of the cliff] and was peppering the crowded beach far below. At each burst he shrieked with laughter, beat his helmet against the ground, lay back to whoop with glee, then sat up to get in another burst.”
[Narrator] Quinauan Point was cleared, but there were Japanese holdouts in the cliff-side caves that continued to pose a threat. Also, the Japanese, although outnumbered and unable to advance or retreat, refused to surrender. Surrender, as discussed earlier, being dishonorable and unthinkable to the soldiers.
At first the Scouts tried various methods to rout out the Japanese holdouts – like lowering boxes of dynamite with lit fuses over the side of the cliff. After those methods didn’t work (and ended up with heavy casualties), the US Army finally called Lt. Commander Goodall’s little Navy back into service.
The two “Mickey Mouse battleships,” augmented by two small whale boats carrying airmen from the Naval Battalion, arrived around 8 am on February 8. The boat’s gunners started firing at targets marked by white sheets that Scouts had lowered over the cliff to show Japanese positions. Goodall’s men were successful, hitting at least 33 enemy invaders that day. Then the whale boats landed the Naval Battalion men, who made sure the enemy was eradicated.
The Japanese landings on Longoskawayn Point and Quinauan Point ended in the complete destruction of 2nd Battalion of the Japanese 20th Infantry. 300 Japanese were lost on Longoskawayan; 600 on Quinauan. And the remainder died when their landing barges were torpedoed by American patrol boats.
Japanese General Homa, who was over the Japanese forces in The Philippines at this time, said that the Battalion was:
[Homma] “Lost without a trace.”
[Narrator] On the Allied side, casualties were heavy as well. The Battles at Longoskawayan and at Quinauan caused more than 500 casualties – including at least 160 dead, the majority of them Philippine Scouts
And the Japanese continued to attempt landings along Bataan’s western coast. Collectively, the landings and subsequent battles at Longoskawayan, Quinauan, and other coastal locations are known as the Battle of the Points.
Goodall received the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions during the Battle of the Points. Regarding his efforts at Quinauan Point, the citation reads:
[Citation] “During the entire operation Lieutenant Commander Goodall maintained an exposed position and directed in detail the maneuver and fire of all the boats in his detachment despite intense hostile fire from the beach and repeated bombing and strafing attacks by enemy dive bombers.”
[Narrator] Returning from their mission on February 8, 1942, Goodall’s small navy encountered 4 Japanese dive bombers. The planes dove for the boats, while US sailors returned fire with on-board machine guns. Japanese bullets and bombs rained down, punching holes in the boats.
Goodall, his feet seriously wounded, ordered the American boats to shore and, according to the Distinguished Service Cross citation,
[Citation] “calmly directed the care of other injured men.”
[Narrator] 3 men were dead. 4 men, including Goodall, were wounded.
The survivors fashioned stretchers and carried their brothers-in-arms through the Bataan jungle to the communication road. There they found an American truck driver who gave them a ride back to Mariveles, the Canopus, and (relative) safety.

[Narrator] The wounded Goodall ended up on Corregidor, the island fortress off the coast of Bataan where American and Filipino forces held out for another month after Bataan fell in April 1942. He became a prisoner of war on May 6, 1942, when the Japanese invaded Corregidor after months of siege and sustained bombing.

So started Goodall’s 33 months as a POW.
During that time, he joined the 1,000s of other American and Filipino POWs in a forced march through Manila enroute to Cabanatuan POW camp 70 miles/112 kilometers north of the city. (This was a different march than the infamous Bataan Death March.)

He likely spent the majority of his time at the Cabanatuan POW camps, although I’ve found few records of his POW movements. Cabanatuan POWs endured starvation, diseases, beatings, and tortuous work camps.

Nearly 3 years after capture, Henry Goodall found himself incarcerated at Bilibid Prison in Manila (as was fellow Canopus sailor John Burk from Episode 9). The war had turned in the American’s favor and there had been heavy fighting, mainly by air, for several days. The hungry POWs at Bilibid eagerly awaited the “Yanks with tanks and steaks and cakes.”

At 11:45 am, on February 8, 1945, the Japanese guards left the prison because they “had been assigned another duty.” The POWs remained inside Bilibid for safety (since they were in the middle of a war zone) and even positioned their own guards to keep unwanted visitors out of the prison.
Around 6 pm, a rifle butt knocked a hole in one of the prison’s wooden shutters. American forces surrounded the prison walls, curious to know what was inside. They had assumed Japanese forces but were surprised to find – and liberate – more than 1,000 POWs.

After the War & Legacy
[Narrator] Henry Goodall remained in the Navy after liberation. After the war, the Goodall family moved around the US, likely following Henry’s stations -- in Norfolk, Virginia, Florida, Illinois, and Texas. He retired from the Navy in 1954 as a Rear Admiral.
In the 1960s and 70s, retired Rear Admiral Goodall was a highlighted guest and speaker at several national conventions of the American Ex-Prisoners of War organization. He served, for a time, as the honorary commander of the organization.
The American Ex-Prisoners of War organization began as the “Bataan Relief Organization” in New Mexico on April 14, 1942, just days after Bataan fell to the Japanese. Under the motto of – “We will not let them down” – this group was organized by parents, wives, and girlfriends of servicemen on Bataan to send relief to the POWs.
After the war, freed POWs took over leadership of the organization and the name changed to American Ex-Prisoners of War” to include vets from the European Theater, and eventually all former POWs, Civilian Internees, and their families and descendants from any war.
While the conventions were a great chance for former POWs to get together with their prisoner buddies and share memories and souvenirs, they also worked on resolutions and advocacy for former POWs. In 1977, when retired Rear Admiral Goodall was a featured guest, the group intended to address issues such as amnesty for Vietnam draft dodgers and cancelation of the B-1 Bomber Project.
One of the organizations biggest wins was the 1979 Congressional Proclamation signed by President Jimmy Carter proclaiming the third Friday in September as National Prisoner Of War and Missing In Action Recognition Day.
The organization exists today, headquartered in Arlington, Texas, and is a service organization that advocates for former POWs and their families.

Henry Goodall died on August 6, 1988, near San Diego, California, just one month before his 88th birthday, and only 3 months after his wife’s passing. He was survived by his 2 children and 5 grandchildren.
In the end, the hometown football star returned to Salina, Kansas. He rests in Gypsum Hill Cemetery near his parents and 2 siblings.

Let’s step back to February 1942 when Lt. Commander Goodall was fighting Japanese landing forces from his “Mickey Mouse Battleships.”
At the same time, American and Filipino forces on Bataan were fighting and defending at two fronts – one on either side of the Bataan mountains. It was a hellish battlefront, and the allied forces suffered many casualties.
And, of course, with many causalities, there came battlefield hospitals – and battlefield nurses. Nurses who up until they arrived on the Bataan Peninsula were totally untrained and unprepared for nursing in battlefield hospitals. But these women were tough, hardworking, and beloved by the servicemen they served.
More on that next week.
This is Left Behind.

Outro
Thanks for listening! You can find pictures, maps, and sources about Henry Goodall’s story on my website; the link is in the show description.
If you enjoy this podcast, please consider leaving a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Spreading the word about this podcast left me continue sharing these amazing stories.
Left Behind is researched, written, recorded, edited, and produced by me, Anastasia Harman. Voice overs by Tyler Harman, Connor Davis . Dramatizations are based on historical research, although some creative liberty is taken.
I’ll be back next week with a nurse who started the war on Bataan and ended by following General Patton’s army into France and then Germany.

Sources
“Bilibid Liberation Roster,” found online at https://www.west-point.org/family/japanese-pow/BLR.htm, accessed 10 December 2019.
Christina Goodall family, 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line], Ancestry.com, original data from Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls), Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C., accessed 10 February 2020.
Christina Goodal family, 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line], Ancestry.com, images reproduced by FamilySearch, 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, Washington, D.C., access 10 February 2020.
Earl LeRoy Sackett, chapters VI and VII, History of the Original USS Canopus, 1943, found online at http://as9.larryshomeport.com/html/chapter_vi.html, accessed 10 February 2020.
Eugenia S Goodall entry, California, Death Index, 1940-1997 [database on-line], Ancestry.com, original data: State of California, California Death Index, 1940-1997, Sacramento, CA, USA: State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics, accessed 10 February 2020.
Henry Goodall entry, U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line], Ancestry.com, original data: United States, Selective Service System, World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, M1509, 4,582 rolls, imaged from Family History Library microfilm, accessed 10 February 2020.
Henry William Goodall entry , U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 [database on-line], Ancestry.com, original data from Social Security Administration, Social Security Death Index, Master File, Social Security Administration, accessed 10 February 2020.
Henry William Goodall entry, 1943 book, U.S., Select Military Registers, 1862-1985 [database on-line], Ancestry.com, original data: United States Military Registers, 1902–1985, Salem, Oregon: Oregon State Library, accessed 10 February 2020.
Henry W Goodall family, 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line], Ancestry.com, 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 10 February 2020.
Henry William Goodall entry, “Distinguished Service Cross WWII / Navy,” Home of Heroes: Medal of Honor and Military History, found online at https://homeofheroes.com/distinguished-service-cross/world-war-ii-distinguished-service-cross-recipients/distinguished-service-cross-wwii-navy/, accessed 10 February 2020.
Henry W. Goodall entry, World War II Prisoners of War, 1941-1946 [database on-line], Ancestry.com, original data: National Archives and Records Administration, 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 10 February 2020.
Henry William Goodall entry, California, Death Index, 1940-1997 [database on-line], Ancestry.com, original data: State of California, California Death Index, 1940-1997, Sacramento, CA, USA: State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics, accessed 10 February 2020.
Henry W. Goodall entry, U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 [database on-line], Ancestry.com, original data: Social Security Applications and Claims, 1936-2007, accessed 10 February 2020.
Memorial for RADM Henry William Goodall, Find a Grave, found online at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22817340, accessed 10 February 2020.
“New Bilibid Prison,” Wikipedia, found online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Bilibid_Prison, accessed 11 December 2019.
Salina High School, 1919, Salina, Kansas, Ancestry.com, U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1999 [database on-line], accessed 10 February 2020.
Sgt. Ike Thomas, “The Last Days of Bilibid,” found online at https://www.west-point.org/family/japanese-pow/Hudson%20Files/LastDaysBilibid.htm, accessed 10 December 2019.
William Goodall family, 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line], Ancestry.com, original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census, Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900, T623, 1854 rolls, accessed 10 February 2020.
Images
Image 1. High school pictures. Salina High School, 1919, Salina, Kansas, Ancestry.com, U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1999 [database on-line], accessed 10 Feburary 2020.
Image 2. USS Canopus with submarines. Official US Navy image, image number 80-G-1014615, in the collections of the US National Archives and Records Administration, found online at Naval History and Heritage Command, Department of the Navy, https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-c/as9.htm, accessed 19 August 2019.
Image 3. Goodall Navy portrait. Found on the memorial for RADM Henry William Goodall, Find a Grave, found online at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22817340, accessed 10 February 2020.
Image 4. Bataan map. Created by Anastasia Harman.
Image 5. USS Quail. “The U.S. Navy minesweeper USS Quail (AM-15) in the Philippines,” US Navy photo, taken about 1930, Wikimedia Commons, found online at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Quail_(AM_15).jpg, accessed 11 February 2020.
Image 6. Bataan coast line. Image licensed from Adobe Stock Images.
Image 7. American POWs in Manila. From “USAFFE Troops Taken War Prisoners in Corregidor March thru Manila,” The Sunday Tribune, Manila, Philippines, 7 June 1942, page 3, found online at Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/120682464999523850/?nic=1, accessed 15 October 2019. Note: This was a Japanese-controlled newspaper.
Image 8. Bilibid Prison. Liberated POWs at Bilibid. Bettmann/Corbis photo found online at http://projects.wsj.com/lobotomyfiles/?ch=sidebar, accessed 10 December 2019.
Image 9. Liberated Bilibid POWs. Liberated POWs at Bilibid. Bettmann/Corbis photo found online at http://projects.wsj.com/lobotomyfiles/?ch=sidebar, accessed 10 December 2019.
Image 10. Goodall’s headstone. Found on the memorial for RADM Henry William Goodall, Find a Grave, found online at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22817340, accessed 10 February 2020.