West Point Speech
The American prisoners were made up of the 131st Texas Field Artillery Unit that had surrendered in Singapore, the survivors of the cruiser Houston, a few flyers who were shot down over the hump, and the survivors of the Sawokla. The 131st survivors were known as the Lost Battalion.
From Changi, I was put in an officers working party of 3000 called H Force. H Force consisted of mostly British, Australian, Dutch and about 10 Americans.
It was then that the rude awakening came.
We left Singapore in small metal covered box cars. POWs were loaded like cattle in a standing position. If someone passed out from the heat or sickness, they could not fall. After several days the box cars had the odor and waste of a sewer barge.
In Thailand, we were ordered off the train and forced to walk about 50 miles to the River Kwai. For the next two years, I worked on the Death railroad. I even worked on the infamous "Bridge over the River Kwai". The 150 mile railroad that crossed the Kwai was known as the Death Railway because over 150,000 POWs and mostly native laborers died in its construction.
