The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-11-07

would watch all but a tiny portion
of the vegetables unloaded and
carried inside. Then the alr.>st
empty carts-containing usually tho
stalks of onions and the green tons
Of carrots-would be moved over
TO our kitchen and dumped.
AS our conditions became worse
the little squad room we had set
aside as hospital became more
and more damned. We had ex.
cellent American, British, Aus
tralian and Dutch doctors avail
able at the camp. But they had no
proper equipment, drugs or medi-
cines with which to treat us.
On February 10, 1943, Master
Sgt. James Cavanaugh, of the
headquarters company of the old
II Corps, died as direct result of
starvation, his death fastened by
streptococcus throat infection
for which our doctors were not able
to receive proper medicines.
A few weeks later Col. Paul D.
Bunker, 59th Coast Artillery, U. S.
Army, the man who had had the
depressing duty of raising the
white flag over Corregidor, died
for want Of drugs which I am sure
the Japs themselves possessed in
their own hospital.
Col. Bunker had commanded the
seward defense on Corregidor
He was a big, hearty, robust man
and had been "a great football
player at West Point. He had a
strapping body which needed
plenty of fuel, and he must have
suffered beyond belief from the
constant pain of hunger. 1 sat
with him for a part of the last two
hours of his life. He had moist
beri beri. His legs, feet, arms and
hands were swelled incredibly
from the water with which he had
tried to assuage his hunger.
Write Notes
More of us made wills after that.
or sat down and wrote memoranda
to one another. Maj Gen. William
F. Sharp came to me on March
10, 1913, and handed me a sheet
of paper on which he had written:
"For General Wainwright or
the Senior American Officer
present at the time of my de-
mise.
"W In case of my demise,
while a Prisoner of War at
Karenko, request that the
following disposition be made
of my body and effects:
(a) Have body cremated and
ashes buried in an urn at the
Prisoner of War cemetery in
Karenk0, with name on urn
and name-board to make fu-
ture Identification possible.
"(b) Record location with
Senior American Quartermas-
ter Corps officer.
"(c) Notify my wife, brother
and sister of my demise at
first opportunity, also the Adj
jutant General, War Depart
ment, Washington, D. C.
"(d) Addresses of my rela-
tives are as follows: Mrs.
Katheryn L. Sharp twife),
Monkton, Baltimore County,
Maryland; Mrs. Ellen D. Sharp
Mallory (sister) CO Col. ]. S.
i Mallory, FA, U. S. Army.
"H) Call upon Colonel Ben
Hur Chastaine, U. S. Army,
Prisoner of War here in camp,
to take charge of my personal
effects and especially my per-
sonal and official papers, and
to make such disposition of
them as shall request of him
in = separate paper.
The Japs saved the cruelest
trick of all for the higher-ranking
officers during the last days at
Karenko.
Late in March our camp re-
ceived $1,000 pounds of Red Cross
supplies from South Africa. 1t was
sheer miracle, and as we saw
the God-send come in we knew
that we were about to be saved
from death by a perfect avalanche
of canned corned beef, biscuits,
cheese, jam, sugar, cocoa, tea and
host of other blessings-includ-
ing many boxes of shoes.
It was too good to be true. and
that was just about the case. The
Japs told us that they would dis
tribute this golden harvest '1ater.
At the time the Illustration was