Jim Bollich

James Joseph "Jim" Bollich (August 15, 1921) is a retired American geologist, author, artist, horticulturalist, and amateur ornithologist who served as an enlisted soldier in the United States Army Air Corps in World War II. He was captured by the Japanese and served as a prisoner of warprisoner of war | international law | Britannica (POW) in the notorious Japanese POW concentration camp in Mukden,Microsoft Word - PAC-HOTEN (axpow.org) Manchuria. At age 100, Bollich is one of the oldest of the few known living American survivors of the Bataan Death March.
==Early Life==
Jim Bollich was born on August 15, 1921, in the rural German community of Mowata, Acadia Parish, Louisiana to parents Anton L. Bollich (1870–1958) and Edna N Boudreaux (1886–1966). His father was a member of a Rhineland-PalatinateRhineland-Palatinate | state, Germany | Britannica German immigrant family and of the first European settlers along the banks of the Missouri River near St Helena Nebraska.CASDE | St. Helena -- Cedar County (unl.edu) His mother was a French AcadianAcadian | History | Britannica(Acadie) descendant whose ancestors were exiled from Nova Scotia to Louisiana during the Le Grand DerangementAcadian Expulsion (the Great Upheaval) | The Canadian Encyclopedia in the mid-18th century.
Bollich, one of 11 siblings, was raised on the family farm in Mowata where, in addition to growing and harvesting rice, he also learned hunting, trapping, and fishing. He would later attribute and document these outdoor skills in his book entitled Young James, as one of his means of survival during his military service in the Philippines leading up to the start of World War II, the Bataan Death March, and the following 3 ½ years of captivity in the Japanese POW Mukden camp in Manchuria.
In 1938 Bollich graduated from St Edmund High School in EuniceAcadia Parish Louisiana Genealogy & History Network (msghn.org) Louisiana after which he enrolled in college at Southwestern Louisiana Institute (now University of LouisianaHistory | University of Louisiana at Lafayette at Lafayette) until the end of 1939.
==World War II==
With the advent of war on the horizon in 1940, Bollich left college and enlisted along with high school friend Bruce Miller of Eunice in the Army Air Corps at Barksdale FieldBarksdale Air Force Base > Home (af.mil) in Shreveport Louisiana and assigned to the 16th Bomb Squadron, 27th Bomb Group27th Fighter Group - WWII - World War II - Army Air Forces (armyaircorpsmuseum.org) where he met enlistee Woodrow LeBlanc of Lafayette Louisiana who became a close friend. Soon, the three men were transferred to Manila and assigned to posts in the Philippines.
Eighteen days after their arrival, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor launching the US into war. As the Japanese advanced on the Philippines, Bollich befriended Alex Savoie of Carencro, Louisiana while on duty near Manila. Soon after, Bollich, Miller, LeBlanc, and Savoie and thousands of other US and Filipino soldiers were evacuated to the Bataan Peninsula where they awaited evacuation by the US Navy. But the rescue ships never arrived, and they could not hold out on Bataan as they ran out of food and ammunition supplies. In the weeks prior to the death march, Bollich was wounded from shrapnel when a Japanese bomb fell near his position while he was manning a machine gun. Not fully healed from the shrapnel wound, Bollich, along with Miller, LeBlanc, Savoie and the many American and Filipino soldiers were captured following the Japanese invasion. Bollich, Miller, and LeBlanc survived the Bataan Death March, in which the Japanese forced 78,000 Allied prisoners to trudge 65 miles without rest from Bataan to POW Camp O'Donnell day and night without food and water. After arriving at Camp O'Donnell Bollich was assigned burial detail where, over a period of up to six weeks, his "captors made him dig graves for the 20 to 30 prisoners killed daily by malnourishment and disease". An estimated 12,000 prisoners died during the march including Savoie, of dysentery, after he reached the POW camp at Cabanatuan.October 25, 2006 (dpaa.mil)
Following the Bataan Death March, Bollich, Miller, LeBlanc, and Father Joseph Verbis LaFleur, a Catholic priest and U.S. Army Chaplain from OpelousasOpelousas History, Opelousas Museums, Opelousas Historical Society (townsquarepublications.com) Louisiana who was also captured and assigned to the death march, were evacuated onto hell shipsAnswers may finally be coming for some families of "hell ship" victims, more than 75 years later - CBS News to be delivered to other Japanese POW camps outside the Philippines. Bollich was initially evacuated on the hell ship Tottori Maru to Pusan South Korea, while LeBlanc and Fr LaFleur were assigned to the SS Shinyo Maru. On September 7, 1944, the SS Shinyo Maru was torpedoed and sunk by a U.S. submarine off Sindangan PointSindangan Point Map - Zamboanga Peninsula, Philippines - Mapcarta, Liloy, Zamboanga del Norte, Philippines. Both LeBlanc and Fr LaFleur perished in the sinking of the ship.
Bollich endured three and a half years of imprisonment in Mukden camp until he was liberated by the Russian army on his 24th birthday, August15, 1945. During captivity, Bollich and the other POW enlistees were fed meager meals comprising cornmeal mush and soybean soup three times a day. Bollich became afflicted with several diseases to include malaria, dysentery, Beri-Beri, hepatitis, scurvyScurvy: Symptoms, causes, treatment, and prevention (medicalnewstoday.com), pneumonia, and frostbite in addition to malnutrition. Before reaching the prison camp he lost 70 pounds weighing 90 pounds upon arrival. At his liberation and release from Mukden by the Russians, over three years later, he weighed 115 pounds.
Also, during captivity POW officers were allowed pens and tablets for documentation purposes, but this was not the case for POW enlistees. Despite not having pen and pad to journal, Bollich relied on his excellent memory to recall vivid details and chronology of events he experienced. After 50 years of holding his story inside of him, Bollich chronicled much of what he endured and witnessed in his 1993 book entitled Bataan Death March: A Soldier's Story
==Post-World War II==
In the fall of 1945, before returning to his boyhood home in rural Acadia Parish, Bollich stopped at a barber shop in Crowley Louisiana for a haircut. It was there that he learned for the first time, from the barber, the fate of his two brothers, Andrew and Stephen, who died in Europe during the war. 2nd Lt Andrew Leo Bollich, a P-40 pilot with the 319th Fighter Squadron, went missing in action during a combat flight over southern SardiniaSardinia | History, People, & Points of Interest | Britannica on June 24, 1943. 2nd Lt Stephen Joseph Bollich, a B-24 Bombardier with the 758th Bomb Squadron, 459th Bomb Group, died of severe head injury in FoggiaFoggia | Italy | Britannica Italy on March 27, 1944.
Bollich retired from the U.S Army Air Corps on February 17,1946 with the rank of Sergeant. Soon after, he re-enrolled in college and completed his bachelor's degree in 1948 then moved to Albuquerque, enrolled in the University of New Mexico, and earned a master's degree in geology. It was there that he met and married paleontologist Celia Faith Hendren in 1949. After graduation he enrolled in the University of WyomingThe Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Wyoming, University of - Wikisource, the free online library in Laramie to commence post-graduate studies. He was awarded a Fulbright ScholarshipHistory | Fulbright Scholar Program (cies.org) to which he enrolled into the University of QueenslandHistory of UQ - About UQ - University of Queensland in BrisbaneHistory of Brisbane - Brisbane Australia (brisbane-australia.com) Australia for post-graduate geological research. He returned to Lafayette Louisiana in 1953 to raise his family and work for Tenneco Oil Company until his retirement in 1986.
During his life after the war, he developed personal friendships with US Representative Clay Higgins, US Representative Charles BoustanyHonorable Charles Boustany, Jr., M.D. - Capitol Counsel LLC, Louisiana Senator Jesse Knowles, numerous other elected and government officials, Major General Bob G. Hollingsworth. other military leaders and veterans, civic leaders and civilians. His military uniform, commendation medals and ribbons, and Samurai sword are displayed on the USS Kidd Museum in Baton Rouge Louisiana. On October 16, 2014, Bollich was inducted into Living Legends at the Acadian Museum in Erath Louisiana. In 2019 he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
Bollich turned 100 years old on August 15, 2021. His wife, Celia, died in 2016 after 67 years of marriage. They had three children with the oldest daughter succumbing to an illness at age three. The two living daughters are Sally Rue (Stephen) and Melinda Gilbert (Ronald). James Bollich has 5 grandchildren, and 7 great grandchildren. He lives in Lafayette Louisiana in the same home since 1953.
Military Commendations
# American Campaign Medal
# American Defense Service Medal with one Bronze Star
# Army Good Conduct Medal
# Asiatic-Pacific medal with two Bronze Stars
# Bronze Star
# Congressional Gold Medal
# Philippine Defense Medal
# POW Medal
# Philippine Independence Medal
# Philippine Liberation Medal
# Philippine President's Medal
# President Unit Citation with two Oak-leaf Clusters
# Purple Heart
#WWII Victory Medal
Novels
# Bataan Death March: A Soldier's Journal
# Young James
# Rebel Grandfather
# Still Miles to Go
# Escaped 
# From Buggies to Jets
# Innocents at War
# White Cotton over Black Gold
# The Search
Category:1921 births
Category:American geologists 
Category:American authors