Evening star., 1945-10-23
Gen. Woinwrieht's Own Story:
One Of Two Navy Planes Evocuotine Correedor
Nurses Crashes and Jops Capture Occupants
(Seuenteenth OF a Series.)
BY GEN. JONATHAN nj.
WAINWRIGHT.

rescue planes had reached Lake
Lanao and would fly up to Cor
regidor that night. @
I got in touch Immediately with
Capt. Kenneth Hoeffel, U. S. N,
the senior naval officer on Cor
regidor, and with him chose the
water between Corregidor and Fort
Hughes, on Cabalo Island, as the
most sheltered landing place for
the rescue planes.
At dark, Capt. Hoeffel directed
the minesweeperS Quail and Tan
gier to sweep the mines from the
water strip, and sank and lighted
two buoys to guide the approaching
aircraft.
just after dark they came, like
the messengers from another world,
which they were. They came in low
to make difficult targets of them
selves.
Working as fast as possible, we
put so men and women in the two
planes; 80 nurses-I left the choos-
ing of them up to Col. Cooper, my
surgeon-and 20 others. Among
those 20 were a Mrs. Bewley and
her daughter, Virginia, two fine
American women. Mrs. Bewley's
husband was Manila doctor who
chose to remain behind with his
patients rather than desert them
when the Japs moved into the city
Takes Officers Wife.
There also was a naval officers
wife who somehow had remained
behind, despite the ruling of the
previous spring that all dependents
of military personnel must leave
And Mrs. Seals, wife of Brig. Gen.
Carl Seals. Mrs. Seals was suffer-
ing too badly from arthritis to be
moved out the previous May.
Especially asked for by Macarthur
was Col. Stewart Wood, a we'll
trained staff officer, who was my
assistant chief of staff for intel
hgence, and who had a fine knowl-
edge of Japanese. Macarthur also
asked for, and got, several cryptog-
raphers. With them I sent half
dozen officers, ranging from brig
adler generals to lieutenant col
onels, who were in no physical
condition to take captivity.
I helped many of them into the
little boats that carried them from
the Corregidor dock to the nearby
planes, and bade each of them
goodby. 1t was hard on all of us
who helped with the loading, for
we all knew instinctively that if
the planes got away it would be
the last time We, ourselves, would
ever see them.
Nurse Kisses General.
One of the last to get in was 1t.
Juanita Redmond, a fine and beau
tiful girl from South Carolina. She
did a nice thing. She put her arms
around me and kissed me.
"Oh, thank you, general" she
cried.
We stood there and watched the
two seaplanes roar and take of,
and prayed that they would not be
hit. They were not. They sailed
right off the water beautifully,
pulled out over to the side of Cavite
beyond the range of its antiaircraft
guns and were enveloped in the
night.
Then we turned and walked back
to our jobs.
I went back to my quarters in the
tunnel and after reporting to Mac
Arthur that the planes had gone
away I tried to get some sleep. I
had taken over MacArthurs old
quarters in the tunnel, as I have
said, but added to the natural con-
gestion of the place by putting a
folding cot in the living room" for
Col. Johnny Pugh, one of my aides.
My days on Corregidor began and
ended in that little place, which
seemed so poor and shabby and de-
pressing at that time-but which
later would have been like the Wal
dorf compared to the filth and terror
of our captivity cells.
Started Day at 6.
MY day, during most of the battle
for Corregidor, started about am,
when I would get up, dress, walk
out either the east or west end of
the tunnel for some air and view
of the damage wrought since I slept,
then come back and eat in the hos
pitfalls convalescent mess.
After breakfast I would go to my
headquarters, also in the tunnel,
attend to the paper work at hand,
review the nights reports and the
expectations-increasingly dim-for
the coming day. In the middle of
the morning I would join Maj. Gen
George F. Moore and sometimes
tour the island either by foot or in
his light car, inspecting our ever
dissolving batteries.
At first Gen. Moore and did this
in semi-style, Macarthur had left a
Buick and a Chrysler behind him
But these were soon blown to pieces
by the shelling and bombing, so we
dropped back into Moore's Chevrolet,
a car which saw and lived through
considerable action.
I would get back to the tunnel for
lunch, usually a bowl of soup, and
there would be more paper work,
more information to receive and dis
patch, followed occasionally by an
other inspection tour through the
afternoon. In the evenings I had
my reports to make to Macarthur
and the War Department, summar-
izing the battering we had received
in Manila Bay and the days action
throughout the unoccupied portions
of the Philippines.
Before turning in at night I would
walk outside the tunnel, sit down
and have.:a smoke if the Smelling
was not too bad, and talk with any
body who came along. And then
to BED again, with the usual instruc-
tions to call me if the enemy per-
formed anything out of the ordinary
the ordinary being the systematic
destruction of our last stronghold
Water Cause Of Worry.
A big concern during the last two
weeks on Corregidor was our water
and power supply. Corregidor's
na;kRafioni,,n