I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3603 
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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 28, 2021 
Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ (for herself, Mr. MEIJER, Mr. THOMPSON of Cali-
fornia, Mr. TONY GONZALES of Texas, Mr. GALLEGO, Mr. BACON, Mr. 
CUELLAR, Miss GONZA´LEZ-COLO´N, Ms. NORTON, and Mr. COHEN) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Finan-
cial 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 award a Congressional Gold Medal to the troops from 
the United States and the Philippines who defended Ba-
taan and Corregidor, in recognition of their personal 
sacrifice and service during World War II. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Defenders of Bataan 
and Corregidor Congressional Gold Medal Act’’. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
05:34 Jun 24, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00001
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3603.IH
H3603
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Hours after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, 
Hawaii, Imperial Japanese forces launched an at-
tack on the Philippines, cutting off vital lines of 
communication to members of the Armed Forces of 
the United States (referred to in this Act as the 
‘‘Armed Forces’’) and Filipino troops in the Far 
East under the command of General Douglas Mac-
Arthur. 
(2) On December 8, 1941, the 200th and 515th 
Coast Artillery Regiments, successors to the New 
Mexico National Guardsmen who made up part of 
the famed ‘‘Rough Riders’’ of the Spanish-American 
War, were the ‘‘first to fire’’. 
(3) Despite being cut off from supply lines and 
reinforcements, members of the Armed Forces and 
Philippine troops quickly executed a plan to delay 
the Japanese invasion and defend the Philippines 
against that invasion. 
(4) Combined Armed Forces and Filipino 
ground forces fought a prolonged 6-month resistance 
to Imperial Japan’s invasion of the Philippines. 
With the Armed Forces unable to deliver reinforce-
ments, the Armed Forces and Filipino forces slowly 
deteriorated in combat effectiveness from— 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
05:34 Jun 24, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00002
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3603.IH
H3603
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
(A) lack of food, supplies, and ammunition; 
(B) disease; and 
(C) no air and naval support. 
(5) By December 10, 1941, the United States 
Army Air Corps airfields at Del Carmen, Clark, 
Nichols, and Nielson on Luzon in the Philippines, as 
well as the nearby United States naval facilities at 
Cavite and Olongapo, had been destroyed. The sur-
viving sailors, marines, and airmen were organized 
into provisional infantry units and sent to fight on 
the Bataan Peninsula. 
(6) By April 1942, troops from the United 
States and the Philippines had bravely and staunch-
ly fought off enemy attacks in Bataan for more than 
4 months under strenuous conditions that resulted 
in widespread starvation and disease. 
(7) Securing the withdrawal of Armed Forces 
on Luzon to the Bataan Peninsula were the fol-
lowing: 
(A) 1,809 New Mexico National Guards-
men from 200th and 515th Coast Artillery 
(Antiaircraft) regiments. First stationed at 
Fort Stotsenberg north of Manila, they are 
credited as being the ‘‘first to fire’’ in the de-
fense of the Philippines on December 8, 1941. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
05:34 Jun 24, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00003
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3603.IH
H3603
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
(B) 1,006 National Guardsmen of the 
192nd GHQ Light Tank Battalion (596) com-
posed of Company A from Janesville, Wis-
consin, Company B from Maywood, Illinois, 
Company C from Port Clinton, Ohio, and Com-
pany D from Harrodsburg, Kentucky, and the 
194th Light Tank Battalion (410) composed of 
Company A from Brainerd, Minnesota, Com-
pany B from Saint Joseph, Missouri, and Com-
pany C from Salinas, California. The 192nd 
and 194th Tank Battalions had arrived in the 
Philippines on or before Thanksgiving Day, 
1941. 
(8) Barely 1⁄2 of the men from the National 
Guard units described in paragraph (7) returned 
home at the end of the war, with the majority dying 
as prisoners of war of the Imperial Japanese Army. 
(9) By maintaining their position and engaging 
the enemy for as long as they did, the troops at Ba-
taan were able to change the momentum of the war, 
delaying the Japanese timetable to take control of 
the Southeast Pacific for needed war materials. Be-
cause of the heroic actions of the defenders of Ba-
taan, members of the Armed Forces and other Allied 
forces throughout the Pacific had time to regroup 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
05:34 Jun 24, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3603.IH
H3603
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
and prepare for the successful liberation of the Pa-
cific and the Philippines. 
(10) On April 9, 1942, approximately 12,000 
members of the Armed Forces and 66,000 Filipino 
soldiers became prisoners of war with the surrender 
of the Armed Forces and Filipino forces on the Ba-
taan Peninsula in the Philippines by Major General 
Edward P. King. 
(11) Beginning on April 9, 1942, and lasting 
for almost 2 weeks, troops from the Armed Forces 
and the Philippines were taken prisoner and forced 
to march 65 miles without any food, water, or med-
ical care in what came to be known as the ‘‘Bataan 
Death March’’. They marched from Marviveles north 
to the San Fernando train station. At San Fer-
nando, 
the 
men 
were 
packed 
standing 
in 
unventilated boxcars for the 24-mile journey by rail 
to Capas. Survivors then marched an additional 3 
miles to the makeshift prisoner-of-war camp at 
Camp O’Donnell, an unfinished Philippine Army 
training facility. 
(12) During this forced march, an estimated 
700 members of the Armed Forces and possibly 
10,000 Filipino soldiers died from starvation, lack of 
medical care, sheer exhaustion, or abuse by their 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
05:34 Jun 24, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3603.IH
H3603
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
captors. Hundreds of men on the Death March re-
main unaccounted for from the march and its imme-
diate aftermath. 
(13) Conditions at the prisoner-of-war camps 
were appalling, leading to increased disease and mal-
nutrition, which precipitated extraordinary death 
rates of as high as 300 per day. 
(14) Thousands of troops fought under siege 
conditions on Corregidor (Fort Mills), a fortress is-
land in Manila Bay, the headquarters of the wartime 
U.S. Army Forces in the Far East, and the nearby 
fortified islands of Fort Hughes, Fort Drum, and 
Fort Frank until May 6, 1942. 
(15) On May 6, 1942, Corregidor, which had 
become the military command center for all the Phil-
ippines, United States Forces in the Philippines 
(USFIP), was surrendered by Lt. General Jonathan 
M. Wainwright. Nearly 10,000 members of the 
Armed Forces as well as more than 3,000 Filipino 
soldiers and nurses became prisoners of war of Im-
perial Japan. 
(16) On June 6, 1942, the prisoners at Camp 
O’Donnell were transferred to Camp Cabanatuan, 
north of Camp O’Donnell. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
05:34 Jun 24, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3603.IH
H3603
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
(17) Nearly 26,000 of the 50,000 Filipino pris-
oners of war died at Camp O’Donnell and survivors 
were gradually paroled from September through De-
cember 1942. 
(18) Between September of 1942 and December 
of 1944, prisoners of war from the Armed Forces 
who had survived the horrific Death March were 
shipped north for forced labor aboard ‘‘hell ships’’ 
and succumbed in great numbers because of the 
abysmal conditions. Many of those ships were mis-
takenly targeted by Allied naval forces because the 
Japanese military convoys were not properly labeled 
as carrying prisoners of war. The sinking of the 
Arisan Maru alone claimed nearly 1,800 lives of 
members of the Armed Forces. 
(19) The prisoners who remained in the camps 
suffered from continued mistreatment, malnutrition, 
lack of medical care, and horrific conditions until 
they were liberated in 1945. 
(20) The veterans of Bataan and Corregidor 
represented the best of the United States and the 
Philippines, hailed from various locales across both 
countries, and represented true diversity. 
(21) Over the subsequent decades, the veterans 
of Bataan and Corregidor formed support groups, 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
21:22 Jul 07, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3603.IH
H3603
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
were honored in local and State memorials, and told 
their stories to all people of the United States. 
(22) The United States Navy has continued to 
honor the history and stories of the veterans of Ba-
taan by naming 2 ships after the battle, including 1 
ship that is still in service, the USS Bataan (LHD– 
5), in memory of their valor and honorable resist-
ance against Imperial Japanese forces. 
(23) Many of the survivors of Bataan and Cor-
regidor have died and those who remain continue to 
tell their stories. 
(24) The people of the United States and the 
Philippines are forever indebted to these men for— 
(A) the courage and tenacity they dem-
onstrated during the first 4 months of World 
War II fighting against enemy soldiers; and 
(B) the perseverance they demonstrated 
during 3 years of capture, imprisonment, and 
atrocious conditions, while maintaining dignity, 
honor, patriotism, and loyalty. 
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 
(a) AWARD
AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of the 
House of Representatives and the President pro tempore 
of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements for the 
collective award, on behalf of Congress, of a gold medal 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
05:34 Jun 24, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00008
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3603.IH
H3603
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
of appropriate design 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. 
(b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For purposes of the 
award under subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury 
(referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall strike 
the gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and in-
scriptions, to be determined by the Secretary. 
(c) SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Following the award of the 
gold medal under subsection (a), the gold medal 
shall be given to the Smithsonian Institution, where 
it shall be displayed as appropriate and made avail-
able for research. 
(2) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of 
Congress that the Smithsonian Institution should 
make the gold medal received under paragraph (1) 
available for display at other locations, particularly 
at locations that are associated with the prisoners of 
war at Bataan and the troops from the United 
States and the Philippines who defended Bataan and 
Corregidor. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
05:34 Jun 24, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00009
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3603.IH
H3603
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS
SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 
(a) STRIKING OF DUPLICATES.—Under such regula-
tions as the Secretary may prescribe, the Secretary may 
strike duplicates in bronze of the gold medal struck under 
section 3. 
(b) SELLING OF DUPLICATES.—The Secretary may 
sell such duplicates under subsection (a) at a price suffi-
cient to cover the costs of such duplicates, including labor, 
materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses. 
(c) PROCEEDS OF SALE.—Amounts received from the 
sale of duplicate bronze medals under subsection (b) shall 
be deposited in the United States Mint Public Enterprise 
Fund. 
SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS. 
(a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—Medals struck under this 
Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 
31, United States Code. 
(b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of section 
5134 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck 
under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items. 
Æ 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
05:34 Jun 24, 2021
Jkt 019200
PO 00000
Frm 00010
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6301
E:\BILLS\H3603.IH
H3603
kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS