I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2192 

To grant the Congressional Gold Medal to the troops from the United States 

and the Philippines who defended Bataan and Corregidor, in recognition 

of their personal sacrifice and service during World War II. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 9, 2019 

Ms. TORRES SMALL of New Mexico (for herself, Mr. LUJA ́N, and Ms. 

HAALAND) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on House 

Administration, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To grant the Congressional Gold Medal to the troops from 

the United States and the Philippines who defended Bataan and Corregidor, in recognition of their personal 

sacrifice and service during World War II. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Defenders of Bataan 

5 and Corregidor Congressional Gold Medal Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) Hours after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, 

4 Hawaii, Imperial Japanese forces launched an at5 tack on the Philippines, cutting off vital lines of 

6 communication to members of the Armed Forces of 

7 the United States (referred to in this Act as the 

8 ‘‘Armed Forces’’) and Filipino troops in the Far 

9 East under the command of General Douglas Mac10 Arthur. 

11 (2) On December 8, 1941, the 200th and 515th 

12 Coast Artillery Regiments, successors to the New 

13 Mexico National Guardsmen who made up part of 

14 the famed ‘‘Rough Riders’’ of the Spanish-American 

15 War, were the ‘‘first to fire’’. 

16 (3) Despite being cut off from supply lines and 

17 reinforcements, members of the Armed Forces and 

18 Philippine troops quickly executed a plan to delay 

19 the Japanese invasion and defend the Philippines 

20 against that invasion. 

21 (4) Combined U.S.-Filipino ground forces fight 

22 a prolonged six-month resistance to Imperial Ja23 pan’s invasion of the Philippines. With the U.S. un24 able to deliver reinforcements, the U.S.-Filipino 

25 forces slowly deteriorate in combat effectiveness 


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1 through lack of food, supplies, ammunition, and dis2 ease as well as from no air and naval support. 

3 (5) By December 10, 1941, the U.S. Army Air 

4 Corps airfields at Del Carmen, Clark, Nichols, and 

5 Nielson on Luzon in the Philippines, as well as the 

6 nearby U.S. Naval facilities at Cavite and Olongapo 

7 had been destroyed. The surviving sailors, Marines, 

8 and airmen were organized into provisional infantry 

9 units and sent to fight on the Bataan Peninsula. 

10 (6) By April 1942, troops from the United 

11 States and the Philippines had bravely and staunch12 ly fought off enemy attacks in Bataan for more than 

13 4 months under strenuous conditions that resulted 

14 in widespread starvation and disease. 

15 (7) Securing the withdrawal of United States 

16 forces on Luzon to the Bataan Peninsula were— 

17 (A) 1,809 New Mexico National Guards18 men from 200th and 515th Coast Artillery 

19 (Antiaircraft) regiments. First stationed at 

20 Fort Stotsenberg north of Manila, they are 

21 credited as being the ‘‘First to Fire’’ in the de22 fense of the Philippines on December 8, 1941; 

23 (B) 1,006 National Guardsmen of the 

24 192nd GHQ Light Tank Battalion (596) com25 posed of Company A from Janesville, WisVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:41 Apr 18, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2192.IH H2192

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1 consin; Company B from Maywood, Illinois; 

2 Company C from Port Clinton, Ohio; and Com3 pany D from Harrodsburg, Kentucky; and the 

4 194th Light Tank Battalion (410) composed of 

5 Company A from Brainerd, Minnesota; Com6 pany B from Saint Joseph, Missouri; and Com7 pany C from Salinas, California. The 192nd 

8 and 194th Tank Battalions had arrived in the 

9 Philippines on or before Thanksgiving Day 

10 1941; and 

11 (C) barely half of the men from these Na12 tional Guard units returned home at the end of 

13 the war, with the majority dying as POWs of 

14 the Imperial Japanese Army. 

15 (8) By maintaining their position and engaging 

16 the enemy for as long as they did, the troops at Ba17 taan were able to change the momentum of the war, 

18 delaying the Japanese timetable to take control of 

19 the Southeast Pacific for needed war materials. Be20 cause of the heroic actions of the defenders of Ba21 taan, members of the Armed Forces and other Allied 

22 forces throughout the Pacific had time to regroup 

23 and prepare for the successful liberation of the Pa24 cific and the Philippines. 


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1 (9) On April 9, 1942, approximately 12,000 

2 United States military personnel and 66,000 Fili3 pino soldiers became POWs with the surrender of 

4 the American-Filipino forces on the Bataan Penin5 sula in the Philippines by Major General Edward P. 

6 King. 

7 (10) Beginning on April 9 and lasting for al8 most two weeks, troops from the Armed Forces and 

9 the Philippines were taken prisoner and forced to 

10 march 65 miles without any food, water, or medical 

11 care in what came to be known as the ‘‘Bataan 

12 Death March’’. They marched from Marviveles north 

13 to the San Fernando train station. At San Fer14 nando, the men were packed standing in 

15 unventilated boxcars for 24-mile journey by rail to 

16 Capas. Survivors then marched an additional three 

17 miles to the make-shift POW camp at Camp 

18 O’Donnell, an unfinished Philippine Army training 

19 facility. 

20 (11) During this forced march, an estimated 

21 700 American and possibly 10,000 thousand Filipino 

22 soldiers died from starvation, lack of medical care, 

23 sheer exhaustion, or abuse by their captors. Hun24 dreds of men on the Death March remain unacVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:41 Apr 18, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2192.IH H2192

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1 counted for from the march and its immediate after2 math. 

3 (12) Conditions at the prisoner of war camps 

4 were appalling, leading to increased disease and mal5 nutrition, which precipitated extraordinary death 

6 rates of as high as 300 per day. 

7 (13) Thousands of troops fought under siege 

8 conditions on Corregidor (Fort Mills), a fortress is9 land in Manila Bay, the headquarters of the wartime 

10 U.S. Army Forces in the Far East, and the nearby 

11 fortified islands of Fort Hughes, Fort Drum, and 

12 Fort Frank until May 6, 1942. 

13 (14) On May 6, 1942, Corregidor, which had 

14 become the military command center for all the Phil15 ippines, United States Forces in the Philippines 

16 (USFIP), was surrendered by Lt. General Jonathan 

17 M. Wainwright. Nearly 10,000 American soldiers, 

18 sailors, airmen, and Marines as well as over 3,000 

19 Filipino soldiers and nurses become POWs of Impe20 rial Japan. 

21 (15) On June 6, 1942, the prisoners at Camp 

22 O’Donnell were transferred to Camp Cabanatuan, 

23 north of Camp O’Donnell. 

24 (16) Nearly 26,000 of the 50,000 Filipino pris25 oners of war died at Camp O’Donnell and survivors 


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1 were gradually paroled from September through De2 cember 1942. 

3 (17) Between September of 1942 and December 

4 of 1944, prisoners of war from the Armed Forces 

5 who had survived the horrific death march were 

6 shipped north for forced labor aboard ‘‘hell ships’’ 

7 and succumbed in great numbers because of the 

8 abysmal conditions. Many of those ships were mis9 takenly targeted by Allied naval forces because the 

10 Japanese military convoys were not properly labeled 

11 as carrying prisoners of war. The sinking of the 

12 Arisan Maru alone claimed nearly 1,800 lives of 

13 members of the Armed Forces. 

14 (18) The prisoners who remained in the camps 

15 suffered from continued mistreatment, malnutrition, 

16 lack of medical care, and horrific conditions until 

17 they were liberated in 1945. 

18 (19) The veterans of Bataan and Corregidor 

19 represented the best of the United States and the 

20 Philippines, hailed from various locales across both 

21 countries, and represented true diversity. 

22 (20) Over the subsequent decades, the veterans 

23 of Bataan and Corregidor formed support groups, 

24 were honored in local and State memorials, and told 

25 their stories to all people of the United States. 


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1 (21) The United States Navy has continued to 

2 honor the history and stories of the veterans of Ba3 taan by naming 2 ships after the battle, including 1 

4 ship that is still in service, the USS Bataan (LHD– 

5 5), in memory of their valor and honorable resist6 ance against Imperial Japanese forces. 

7 (22) Many of the survivors of Bataan and Cor8 regidor have died and those who remain continue to 

9 tell their stories. 

10 (23) The people of the United States and the 

11 Philippines are forever indebted to these men for— 

12 (A) the courage and tenacity they dem13 onstrated during the first 4 months of World 

14 War II fighting against enemy soldiers; and 

15 (B) the perseverance they demonstrated 

16 during 3 years of capture, imprisonment, and 

17 atrocious conditions, while maintaining dignity, 

18 honor, patriotism, and loyalty. 

19 SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 

20 (a) AWARD AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of the 

21 House of Representatives and the President pro tempore 

22 of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements for the 

23 collective award, on behalf of Congress, of a gold medal 

24 of appropriate design to the troops from the United States 

25 and the Philippines who defended Bataan and Corregidor, 


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1 in recognition of their personal sacrifice and service during 

2 World War II. 

3 (b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For purposes of the 

4 award under subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury 

5 (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall strike 

6 the gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and in7 scriptions, to be determined by the Secretary. 

8 (c) SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.— 

9 (1) IN GENERAL.—Following the award of the 

10 gold medal under subsection (a), the gold medal 

11 shall be given to the Smithsonian Institution, where 

12 it shall be displayed as appropriate and made avail13 able for research. 

14 (2) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of 

15 Congress that the Smithsonian Institution should 

16 make the gold medal received under paragraph (1) 

17 available for display elsewhere, particularly at other 

18 appropriate locations that are associated with the 

19 troops from the United States and the Philippines 

20 who defended Bataan and Corregidor. 

21 SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 

22 The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 

23 bronze of the gold medal struck pursuant to section 3 

24 under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, at 

25 a price sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, 


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1 materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses, 

2 and the cost of the gold medal. 

3 SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS. 

4 (a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—The medals struck pursu5 ant to this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 

6 51 of title 31, United States Code. 

7 (b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of section 

8 5134 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck 

9 under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items. 

Æ 


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