The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1944-02-18
Form bataan
Relief Unit
Seek TO Aid
Jop Coptivss

Establishment of Mount
Clemens chapter of the FEEDER
ated Organizations for Bataan
Relief is being attempted by
Mrs. Sadie Geren. whose hus-
band, Sergt. Doak Geren, for
merly of Selfridge Field, has
been missing since the fall of
Bataan.
Purpose of the national or
ganization is to enable relatives
of Jap prisoners land all men
now fighting the Japanese) to
exchange scraps of information
with each other through cent
raj office in Washington; to urge
the War Department to aid
guerrilla fighters in the Philip
pines; to petition for regular Red
Cross parcels for prisoners, and
to rehabilitate the men when
they return after the war.
Mrs. Geren returned this
week from Washington, D. c.,
where she participated in or
ganization of the Bataan Fed
eration-and incidentally toC<,
an active part in quashing
much-criticized plan for the
erection of pretentious monu-
ments to the men of Bataan and
Corrigidor
MANY UNREPORTED
$50 many are missing and un-
reported, like my husband, and
we all cling to the hope that they
are alive in some Japanese
prison." Mrs. Geren points out.
ITO erect monuments to these
men would be like burying them
before they are dead. Any such
money should 60 into food and
clothing for prisoners. supplies
for the Philippine guerillas and
war bonds"
Relatives of men in the armed
forces in the Pacific area, es-
pecially those captured by the
japanese, are urged by Mrs.
Geren to form the local organi-
cation. She can be reached at
10l Clinton street, phone 1858.
Mrs. Geren's story of her hus-
bands case is typical of that of
thousands of other Womenfolk
of the Bataan and Corrigidor
heroes. and she bears her bur-
den of grief as courageously as
the men braved the terrorism
and atrocities of the Japs.
LONG AT SELFRIBGE
Doak Geren was the popular
leading mechanic of the 18th
Pursuit Group at Selfridge Field
for some years prior to the Pa
cific war scare" that became
reality at Pearl Harbor Dec. Z,
1941.
Under command of the late
Colone' Boyd Buzz Wagner, the
Selfridge men left for Manila
early in 1941, and Mrs. Geren
later visited with her husband
there from February to June IL.
She returned to the States when
the Pacific situation was grave.
She last heard from her hus-
band on March 2, l942-a let
ter in which he described the
efforts of the Selfridge men to
hold their few planes together
with baling wire and string
in an effort to keep the Japs at
bay.
Manila, Bataan and Corrigi-
dor fell, and the March OF
Death was staged.
Searching everywhere for any
scrap of information on her
husbands fate, Mrs. Geren
found only one trace of him.
Life magazine published a pic
ture of a hospital ward at Mari
veles, in which her husband was
clearly shown under medical
care in bed. The Japs were
closely approaching then.
Col. Carlos Romulo and a
score of other Philippine figures
were personally questioned by
Mrs. Geren. Col. Henry B.
Clagett, former Selfridge COM
mandant, aided by Major
Thorne, his son-inlaw, unearth-
ed one piece of cheering news,
They found an officer who sal>
that a few hours before Japs
captured the American hospital,
he had seen Doak Geren bun
died into a staff car and taken
away with other wounded.
II is for the exchange of such
vital information that the Ba-
taan Relief organization is be-
ing formed here.
Mrs. Geren, who until recent
ly worked a 10-hour shift in the.
Packard plant on war equip
ment, has another interest in
the war besides her husband.
Her son, by a former marriage,
Staff Sergt. Edgar r. Leach, %,
is fighting in the Italian sector