380SPCS Airmen complete Bataan Memorial Death March

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Scott P. Farley
  • 310th Space Wing Public Affairs
6 April 2010, SCHRIEVER AFB, Colo. --  Completing the grueling 26.2 mile Bataan Memorial Death March is an accomplishment that Chief Master Sgt. Robert Cherry and Senior Master Sgt. Jeffery Scott will not soon forget, but both sergeants from the 380th Space Control Squadron will quickly tell you, the finishers of this race are not the true heroes of this event.
"The real heroes are the 23 survivors who were there and all of the soldiers who endured the march across the Philippines in 1942," said Sergeant Scott, the 380SPCS Operations Superintendent. "Paying tribute to them was a huge honor."
The 21st annual march, which was held on March 21 in the Tularosa Basin of south-central New Mexico, honors the more than 75,000 American and Filipino soldiers who, after surrendering to the Japanese on April 9, 1942, were marched 61 miles through the sweltering jungles of the Philippines with little food or water. Thousands died along the way from starvation, dehydration, exhaustion, disease, or cruelty, while thousands more died at the hands of their captors in war camps.
The memorial march was first sponsored by the Army ROTC Department at New Mexico State University in 1989, when 100 mostly military participants set out to honor the soldiers of the Bataan Death March. In 1992, the White Sands Missile Range and the New Mexico National Guard have joined in the sponsorship, moving the event to the missile range.
More than 5,700 people, an event record, from every state and countries around the globe, including military from all services and civilians, entered the memorial march that led participants 26.2 miles through the White Sands Missile Range.
The race includes a 26.2 and 15 mile course, with individual and team categories that include the light and heavy, where marchers carry a 35-pound rucksack.
Chief Cherry and Sergeant Scott were accompanied by Lt. Col. Paul Tombarge, the commander of the 16th Space Control Squadron, in the record-setting march, each carrying a 45-pound ruck sack that was filled with an assortment of dried beans that were later donated to the local food bank.
The 380SPCS Squadron Superintendent Chief Cherry said all three of them started the race together and finished together.
"We started at the back and passed hundreds of people along the way," said Chief Cherry. "But we all stayed together."
Chief Cherry, Sergeant Scott and Lt. Col. Tombarge stayed somewhat close together throughout most of the race, all finishing in about 10 hours.
Chief Cherry credited the group's success with preparation, which he said was the most important part of the race and that following the information on the Internet site, http://www.bataanmarch.com, was a simple, but effective way to prepare for the race which both sergeants plan to enter again in 2011.
"I wore body glide, mole skin on hot spots and nylons and would change them out every four or five miles," said Chief Cherry, who hiked locally in Colorado Springs and on Peterson Air Force Base with Sergeant Scott to prepare. "Your mind will quit before your body will quit. If you take care of your feet, you will make it."
Even with the preparation prior to the race and taking care of their feet, the group experienced minor setbacks and felt the toll of the march in the days after the race. Chief Cherry and Sergeant Scott both later lost toenails from the march, while Colonel Tombarge finished the march despite numerous blisters nagging at his progress.
Chief Cherry said the whole event was a solemn experience from the beginning, but it wasn't until he was further into the race where he really had the chance to reflect on what it truly meant.
"We had opening ceremonies where they announced the names of the survivors and the names those survivors who had passed in the last year. I shook hands with many of (the survivors)," said Chief Cherry. "After I started getting fatigued and people started dropping out, I started to think about what they must have gone through."