Evening star., 1944-02-17

tient wait for more than an hour
due to the absence Of one of the
Filipino prisoners who were te
guide us, both convicted and sen.
fenced for murder prior to the out
break Of war, and both kept on at
the prison to aid In supervising the
farm work after the other civilian
felons had been sent away to make
room for the American prisoners
Of war.
These men, Benigno de la Cruz
and Victorio Junarung, helped us
without any thought Of gain fol-
themselves. They did ask that ii
any OF us got free we would inter
cede with President Quezon To
have them restored to freedom once
the Japanese invaders have been
ousted.
zone of my first acts. upon
finally reaching the United
States, was to 60 to Saranac,
N. Y. to see the great Presi-
dent of the Philippines. 1t was
not necessary to make any kind
of request of Quezon, for he
granted it before 1t was asked.
In one mans opinion Manuel
Quezon is a great statesman and
a gallant fighting man.
OF our two guides only Victcrio
previously had made a journey
through the jungles which we now
faced But within an hour he was
forced to admit that he was lost
There was a hurried consultation
whereupon we decided to travel
wholly by compass. And we knew
that the aid of Ben and Victor
would be invaluable, because OF
their knowledge Of jungle travel.
The jungle heat was oppressive,
the noise broken only by our own
careful progress, the sduawk of
startled birds or the chatter of oc-
casional beady-eyed and elusive
monkeys. Soon we were in swamp
with water up to our knees and in
sharp p-edged coogan grass that grew
over our heads. We had to hack
our way every step.
At night we finally found a place
to camp-here the water was only
ankle deep. But cutting of boughs
from trees we managed to build
crude structures which would keep
our blankets above water When
we turned in all of us were near
the point of exhaustion and all of
us slept the sleep of the dead. AS
a result none of us aroused when
the water rose during the night
and we aWoke to find ourselves half
floating in our beds.
Comdr. Mccoy Stricken.
On the second morning Comdr
Mccoy awoke with a feeling of ILL.,
ness. 1t was considerable task for
him to summon enough strength
during the day to keep himself from
falling out-he said that, If this
happened, he would expect the rest
of us to go on. Somehow, he man.
aged to keep going And we were all
glad we had not had to stop; for at
about S pm. we heard the sound Of
rife and machine-gun fire at dis
tance Of about two or three kilo-
meters, in the direction from which
we had just come. And, the next
Comdr. McCoy's indisposi-
tion had cleared away without leav-
ing him in the throes of dysentery
or malaria, as we had feared.
AS an example of the hard going
Of the Philippine jungle, at the end
of the fourth day we had not
more than IL miles from
our escape point. And we soon
found obvious evidence that the
Japs had been on the hunt for us
evidence in the shape of an empty
1903 ammunition clip, and the re-
mains of food which the Jap search
party had eaten.
Shortly thereafter. on a morning
while we were still at breakfast,
Capt. Dyess was standing guard
when he saw two armed Filipinos.
The Filipinos saw Capt. Dyess at
the same time, and one of them
made motions as if he had attempt
ed to fire. Capt. Dyess called to the
Filipinos, but they quietly faded
into the jungle.
Later that day we headed down
a more open trail, and shortly we
met a native whose trail we were
able to follow to a small village.
Two of the natives admitted that
they had been the ones seen in the
jungle by Capt. Dyess. They
thought he was a Jap, they said
One of them had taken careful aim
at Capt. Dyess and had pulled the
trigger. Capt Dyes owed his life to
. faulty cartridge or firing pin.
But the natives gave us news. In
some manner they had learned that
the Japs believed we had escaped in
an effort to round up a raiding
party and attack the prison to
avenge the murder of McFee AS a
result, 200 japanese reinforcements
had been hastily added to the Jap
garrison at the prison.
Comdr. Mccoy:
Once out of immediate danger
from our Jap pursurers, our main
~ oOASiAl wac oliC Va klly oASdl VI dNCl
through unexplored jungles and
rough terrain of Mindanao, in an
effort to get to where we wanted
to CO. No longer were we on a star
vation diet. For instance, note from
my journal that on one morning we
had a breakfast of rice, soft-boiled
eggs, vegetables and coffee, all OBJ
tanned from the countryside. On an
other morning we luxuriated over
menue containing eggs, cottage
cheese, carabao meat and coffee.
One of the vital food items in the
native economy is the carabao,
bovine of the water buffalo type
which is also used as a draft animal.
At several places where we stopped
the natives would kill carabao, salt
the meat heavily. and after cutting
1t in strips place it in the sun to
dry. After IL hours or so in the
Philippine sun this meat seemed to
be cured, and apparently would last
indefinitely
In spite of our vastly improved
food supply, we were as yet by no
means free of the Japs, and there
was still a lot of hardship ahead.
On the third day out, Col. Nell