The Janesville 99 - A Monument still standing.

Monuments commemorating our soldiers are so common that it is easy to look right past them.  This one in downtown Janesville Wisconsin is eye catching because of the tank on top.  But once you look more closely it tells a remarkable story with no need of decorative flourish.

The American war effort did not begin with Pearl Harbor.  As it was clear things were going to get difficult there were efforts to begin preparations much earlier.  In November of 1940 four companies of National Guard troops were mobilized and formed into the 192nd Tank Battalion.  Company A -with 99 men - came from Janesville.  They trained at an armory a couple of blocks from this site before moving on to Fort Knox in Kentucky.  One year later they deployed to the Philippines, arriving at Clark Field and Fort Stostsenberg on Thanksgiving Day.  They must have been barely unpacked when the Japanese attacked on December 8th, 1941.

The American response to the subsequent invasion was brave and resolute...but also doomed.  The 192nd fought during the retreat down the Bataan peninsula until their eventual surrender on April 9th.  So far they had only two dead during the actual fighting, and remarkably only lost one during the ensuing Bataan Death March.  But of the 99 men who arrived in the Philippines, only 35 made it home alive.  

They died of disease and malnutrition and outright murder at foul prison camps all across Asia.  15 were lost when their unmarked transport ship was torpedoed by an American submarine.  The remains of many were lost forever.  At sea or in unmarked jungle graves.  But their comrades, the lucky or the resolute who made it back alive never forgot them.

This is a photo of most of the survivors, posing in front of a much more modern tank than the lightweight Stuart M3s they rode into battle.  The date of the photo is not clear, probably 1946....most are still in uniform but said uniforms are not hanging loosely on them.  Of the 23 men I see only one who is smiling.  They were remembering hardships, but they remembered something else too.

"This memorial stands in fulfillment of a pledge by the tank company boys to their comrades on Bataan".

As I write in 2020 the men of Company A are all gone.  When they dedicated the monument they marked with stars the ones who had died in service.  And left room for the addition of later markers when the survivors joined the final muster.

A heroic tale, albeit one full of sadness.  But at least in times when monuments are being toppled by mobs who don't know - or worse yet, don't care - about the sacrifice of brave men and women who preceded them, surely a monument such as this will be safe?

Or will it?  Another monument and another story next time....

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Addendum.  There were not many survivors of Company A, and some of them never spoke of their experiences.  One who did was Forrest Knox.  If you can bear it, his tale is recounted HERE