Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin Cossel | 525th Military Police Battalion Sgt. Laura Garcia leans in during a 15-mile force...... read more read more
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GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba -- The pre-dawn darkness masks the steely look of determination and resolve ironed across the 15 faces of the 525th Military Police Battalion soldiers. The challenge ahead of them will push them to their physical and mental limits — five won’t make it. For every soldier who steps off from Kittery Beach at 5:30 a.m. Sunday, the goal is the same: earn a spot on the team heading to the high deserts of White Sands, N.M. for the 26.2-mile Bataan Memorial Death March.
“This is why the U.S. military is the most lethal force in the world,” battalion chaplain, Capt. Garland Mason said to the soldiers as they prepared for the 15-mile trek. “Here we are at 5:30 in the morning on a Sunday — when others are still asleep — and we’re going for a ruck march!”
On April 9, 1942, thousands of American and Filipino service members were surrendered to Japanese forces. Those taken prisoner were marched for days through the scorching hot Philippine jungles on their way to the infamous prison facility, Camp O’Donnell. Along the way, those who fell were killed, those who talked back to their captors were killed and those who stopped to help a fallen comrade ran the risk of an on-the-spot execution.
In a series of essays written for the American Veterans Center, one survivor of the Bataan Death March, Army Col. Melvin Rosen, recalled witnessing such an incident of extreme brutality suffered by those captured.
“In the field where we met the Japanese, there was a large rectangular latrine off to the side. One American soldier had to defecate, and so he ran over to the latrine,” Rosen wrote. “A Japanese patrol immediately went over and stabbed the American with his bayonet. Now, sometimes a bayonet does not come out cleanly, so the Japanese patrol shoved the man off his weapon into the latrine. A nearby Japanese patrolman was laughing. You do not know frustration until you have witnessed something of the likes of this.”
Recognizing the significance of the event and the impact on families in New Mexico – the New Mexico National Guard’s 200th Coast Artillery was among those captured at Bataan -- the Army ROTC Department at New Mexico State University began sponsoring the memorial march in 1989. The earliest days of the march saw only 100 or so participate. However, by 2010, more than 5,000 service members, civilians and foreign military personal participated in the march.
On Guantanamo Bay, the group marched out and the journey Sgt. Laura Garcia of the 525th MP Battalion would later describe as “Hell … the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” began.
The course took the troopers all over the Naval Station. Reaching the top of John Paul Jones Hill – the halfway mark – the troopers turned around and headed back to Kittery Beach for the finish.
Leading the charge to New Mexico was Master Sgt. Brian Stuckey. Stuckey started the ruck march at the front and never looked back, crossing the finish line first in three hours, three minutes.
Stuckey explained the 525th will send a team of six soldiers to New Mexico to serve as the battalion’s representatives. In addition to this march, there will be another next Sunday. The top six finishers will begin the arduous training program to compete in White Sands, March 27. Just behind Stuckey, finishing second, was the battalion’s Command Sgt. Maj., Daniel Borrero. Borrero has already participated in one Bataan Memorial Death March so the advice he gave to Soldiers beginning the journey came from firsthand experience.
“This isn’t something you can wake up for on Sunday morning, throw on a ruck and go do,” Borrero said. “You’ve got to train; you’ve got to work up to it.”
Borrero said one of the reasons he loves challenges like the Bataan Memorial Death March so much is how these sorts of events embody the Warrior Ethos.
“I will never quit, that piece of the Warrior Ethos was exemplified today,” Borrero said. “Just take a look at the faces of the Soldiers as they cross the finish line and you’ll see it in their eyes.”
One such soldier, Pfc. Brandon Cummings, fell across the finish line, his bottled water falling from his hand, his broken rucksack spilling out in front of him. Cummings finished in third with a time of three hours and 15 minutes, his body wracked with pain as on-hand medics attended to the doubled-over trooper.
“Its just cramps,” he explained. “My legs are completely cramping.”
A few minutes later, Cummings limped around the parking lot of Kittery Beach with his friend and fellow soldier, Pvt. Danny Harris.
“I wouldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for my battle buddy here,” Cummings said, pointing to Harris. “He really helped me out there at the end when I really thought I was just going to give up.”
Cummings said in addition to his fellow trooper getting him through the end, his love of competition drove him to compete in the first place.
“I’m ready to go on, to go to New Mexico,” Cummings said. “I’m ready to win.”
| Date Taken: | 01.16.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 01.25.2011 13:55 |
| Story ID: | 64184 |
| Location: | GUANTANAMO BAY, CU |
| Web Views: | 126 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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