Garcia, Benny – ww2 Pacific

Rank and Name, Private First Class Benny C. Garcia.

Unit/Placed in, 200th Coast Artillery Regiment.

Benny was serving with the Coast Artillery Corps (Anti-Aircraft) in the Bataan Peninsula, Philippines when Japan began their invasion of 8 Dec 1941. The USA surrendered to them on 9 Apr 1942. He survived the Bataan Death March that followed, and was imprisoned at Camp Cabanatuan, he went on transport to a pow Camp in Japan with the “Hell Ship” Arisan Maru when it was sunk by the American submarine USS Shark, (Hell Ships were not marked as POW carriers).

Camp Cabanatuan(Pangatian) (former HQ 91^st Philippine army Division)

After the Japanese occupation in 1942, the camp was converted by the Imperial Japanese Army into the Cabanatuan POW Camp. At its height, 8,000 prisoners were detained at this location. The prisoners also included some civilians including one British and one Norwegian citizen. This POW Camp detained prisoners until liberated during the night of January 30, 1945.

The rectangular camp spanned roughly 25 acres and was 800 yards deep by 600 yards wide, divided by a road in the center. The camp consisted of a barracks for Japanese guards, barracks for prisoners, a hospital and water tower enclosed by barbed wire with guard towers.

Arisan Maru

The Arisan Maru was a Hell Ships (former Cargo, used for Transport POW’s to other Camps) sunk on Nov. 24, 1944.

The Arisan Maru, sailed from Manila on October 11, 1944 for Japan. This ship was sunk by the American submarine, USS Shark with three torpedoes, on November 24, 1944. There were 1800 POWs aboard – nine men survived this sinking. Two days later, five of the survivors were rescued by a Chinese fishing junk. The Chinese helped them reach American Air Corps forces. Other survivors were recaptured by a Japanese destroyer and taken to Formosa.

This Hell Ship sank in the South China Sea making it the worst naval disaster in the history of the United States.

Benny is born approx. on 18 April 1919 in Bernalillo County, New Mexico.

Father, Octavio Garcia.

Mother, Sarite M. Garcia.

Sister(s), Coranelo A. and Evangslin L. Garcia.

Brother(s), Calstro B. Garcia.

Benny enlisted the service in New Mexico with service number # 20842976.

Benny was KIA when the Arisan Maru was Torpedoed (friendly fire, no awareness of pow transport) by the U.S. Submarine USS Shark with three torpedoes, he tried to escape and the Japanese guards shot him on Oct 24, 1944, he is honored with a Purple Heart, Good Combat Ribbon, Good Conduct Medal, American Campaign Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, WW II Victory Medal.

Benny is buried/mentioned at Manila American Cemetery and Memorial Manila, Metro Manila, National Capital Region, Philippines.

Walls of the missing.

Benny also has a Memorial Grave at Santa Fe National Cemetery

Santa Fe, Santa Fe County, New Mexico, USA.

Thanks to, https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LR4Q-MWH

Jean Louis Vijgen, ww2-Pacific.com ww2-europe.com

Air Force Info, Rolland Swank.

ABMC Website, https://abmc.gov

Marines Info, https://missingmarines.com/ Geoffrey Roecker

Seabees History Bob Smith https://seabeehf.org/

Navy Info, http://navylog.navymemorial.org

POW Info, http://www.mansell.com Dwight Rider and Wes injerd.