II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1093 

To award a 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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

APRIL 9, 2019 

Mr. UDALL (for himself and Mr. HEINRICH) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs 

A BILL 

To award a 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’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 


pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
2 

•S 1093 IS

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

2 Hawaii, Imperial Japanese forces launched an at3 tack on the Philippines, cutting off vital lines of 

4 communication to members of the Armed Forces of 

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

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

7 East under the command of General Douglas Mac8 Arthur. 

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

10 Coast Artillery Regiments, successors to the New 

11 Mexico National Guardsmen who made up part of 

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

13 War, were the ‘‘first to fire’’. 

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

15 reinforcements, members of the Armed Forces and 

16 Philippine troops quickly executed a plan to delay 

17 the Japanese invasion and defend the Philippines 

18 against that invasion. 

19 (4) Combined Armed Forces and Filipino 

20 ground forces fought a prolonged 6-month resistance 

21 to Imperial Japan’s invasion of the Philippines. 

22 With the Armed Forces unable to deliver reinforce23 ments, the Armed Forces and Filipino forces slowly 

24 deteriorated in combat effectiveness through lack of 


pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
3 

•S 1093 IS

1 food, supplies, ammunition, and disease as well as 

2 from no air and naval support. 

3 (5) By December 10, 1941, the United States 

4 Army Air Corps airfields at Del Carmen, Clark, 

5 Nichols, and Nielson on Luzon in the Philippines, as 

6 well as the nearby United States naval facilities at 

7 Cavite and Olongapo had been destroyed. The sur8 viving sailors, marines, and airmen were organized 

9 into provisional infantry units and sent to fight on 

10 the Bataan Peninsula. 

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

12 States and the Philippines had bravely and staunch13 ly fought off enemy attacks in Bataan for more than 

14 4 months under strenuous conditions that resulted 

15 in widespread starvation and disease. 

16 (7) Securing the withdrawal of Armed Forces 

17 on Luzon to the Bataan Peninsula were: 

18 (A) 1,809 New Mexico National Guards19 men from 200th and 515th Coast Artillery 

20 (Antiaircraft) regiments. First stationed at 

21 Fort Stotsenberg north of Manila, they are 

22 credited as being the ‘‘First to Fire’’ in the de23 fense of the Philippines on December 8, 1941. 

24 (B) 1,006 National Guardsmen of the 

25 192nd GHQ Light Tank Battalion (596) comVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:35 Apr 16, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1093.IS S1093

pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
4 

•S 1093 IS

1 posed of Company A from Janesville, Wis2 consin, Company B from Maywood, Illinois, 

3 Company C from Port Clinton, Ohio, and Com4 pany D from Harrodsburg, Kentucky, and the 

5 194th Light Tank Battalion (410) composed of 

6 Company A from Brainerd, Minnesota, Com7 pany B from Saint Joseph, Missouri, and Com8 pany C from Salinas, California. The 192nd 

9 and 194th Tank Battalions had arrived in the 

10 Philippines on or before Thanksgiving Day, 

11 1941. 

(8) Barely 1 12 ⁄2 of the men from these National 

13 Guard units returned home at the end of the war, 

14 with the majority dying as prisoners of war of the 

15 Imperial Japanese Army. 

16 (9) By maintaining their position and engaging 

17 the enemy for as long as they did, the troops at Ba18 taan were able to change the momentum of the war, 

19 delaying the Japanese timetable to take control of 

20 the Southeast Pacific for needed war materials. Be21 cause of the heroic actions of the defenders of Ba22 taan, members of the Armed Forces and other Allied 

23 forces throughout the Pacific had time to regroup 

24 and prepare for the successful liberation of the Pa25 cific and the Philippines. 


pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
5 

•S 1093 IS

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

2 members of the Armed Forces and 66,000 Filipino 

3 soldiers became prisoners of war with the surrender 

4 of the Armed Forces and Filipino forces on the Ba5 taan Peninsula in the Philippines by Major General 

6 Edward P. King. 

7 (11) Beginning on April 9, 1942, and lasting 

8 for almost 2 weeks, troops from the Armed Forces 

9 and the Philippines were taken prisoner and forced 

10 to march 65 miles without any food, water, or med11 ical 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 the 24-mile journey by rail 

16 to Capas. Survivors then marched an additional 3 

17 miles to the makeshift prisoner-of-war camp at 

18 Camp O’Donnell, an unfinished Philippine Army 

19 training facility. 

20 (12) During this forced march, an estimated 

21 700 members of the Armed Forces and possibly 

22 10,000 Filipino soldiers died from starvation, lack of 

23 medical care, sheer exhaustion, or abuse by their 

24 captors. Hundreds of men on the Death March reVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:35 Apr 16, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1093.IS S1093

pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
6 

•S 1093 IS

1 main unaccounted for from the march and its imme2 diate aftermath. 

3 (13) 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 (14) 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 (15) 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 members of the 

18 Armed Forces as well as over 3,000 Filipino soldiers 

19 and nurses became prisoners of war of Imperial 

20 Japan. 

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

22 O’Donnell were transferred to Camp Cabanatuan, 

23 north of Camp O’Donnell. 

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


pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
7 

•S 1093 IS

1 were gradually paroled from September through De2 cember 1942. 

3 (18) 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 (19) 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 (20) 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 (21) 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. 


pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
8 

•S 1093 IS

1 (22) 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 (23) Many of the survivors of Bataan and Cor8 regidor have died and those who remain continue to 

9 tell their stories. 

10 (24) 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, 


pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
9 

•S 1093 IS

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 at other locations, particularly 

18 at locations that are associated with the prisoners of 

19 war at Bataan and the troops from the United 

20 States and the Philippines who defended Bataan and 

21 Corregidor. 

22 SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 

23 (a) STRIKING OF DUPLICATES.—Under such regula24 tions as the Secretary may prescribe, the Secretary may 


pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS
10 

•S 1093 IS

1 strike duplicates in bronze of the gold medal struck under 

2 section 3. 

3 (b) SELLING OF DUPLICATES.—The Secretary may 

4 sell such duplicates under subsection (a) at a price suffi5 cient to cover the costs of such duplicates, including labor, 

6 materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses. 

7 (c) PROCEEDS OF SALE.—Amounts received from the 

8 sale of duplicate bronze medals under subsection (b) shall 

9 be deposited in the United States Mint Public Enterprise 

10 Fund. 

11 SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS. 

12 (a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—Medals struck under this 

13 Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 

14 31, United States Code. 

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

16 5134 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck 

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

Æ 


pbinns on DSK79D2C42PROD with BILLS