Army Private Horace Whitecotton was a Native American born on August 23, 1917, in Seminole, Oklahoma to Alpheus Homer Whitecotton and Maud nee Robertson. He was a twin to Norace and he had four sisters and three other brothers. Homer was a dairy farmer and the boys helped their father in this endeavor.

Horace went to grammar school in tiny Earlsboro, Oklahoma and represented Prairie Valley School in baseball throwing in April 1934. In 1940 he was living in San Luis Obispo, California with his parents and three brothers.

He registered for the draft on October 16, 1940, in Mesa, Arizona. He was single without dependents. Horace’s Term of Enlistment was “for the Philippine Dept” and his Army Branch was “Coast Artillery Corps or Army Mine Planter Service.” He was assigned to the 60th Air Defense Artillery Regiment which was part of the Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays under the Philippine Coast Artillery Command. The anti-aircraft unit was charged with providing air defense over Manila Bay and the southern tip of the Bataan Peninsula.

The U.S., World War II American and Allied Prisoners of War, 1941-1946 report dated May 7, 1942, lists Horace as a POW in the Philippines. He was first held in Lipa Batanges Luzon camp and subsequently sent to the Batangas Military Prisoner of War Camp where the Japanese had prisoners construct an airfield. In September 1944, the Japanese ordered 159 POWs to return to Manila, holding 150 prisoners on Palawan to finish the airfield.

In late 1944 It became clear to the Japanese that the Allies would overrun the Palawan camp. On December 14, the 150 prisoners were forced into the three cramped, makeshift air raid bunkers they had been allowed to construct earlier. Japanese soldiers poured aviation fuel on top of the bunkers and set them on fire. Those who tried to escape the inferno were killed. Amazingly 11 men managed to escape through a hole in the back of one of the shelters that opened to the edge of a cliff.

On February 14, 1952, the remains of those who died in the inferno were removed from Palawan and reinterred in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in Missouri where they are honored for their courage and sacrifice.

Horace’s twin brother Norace, also served in the Philippines and was a prisoner of war. He was honorably discharged in 1945 and passed away at the age of 92.

https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/278L-DDL/horace-whitecotton-1917-1944. Accessed June 16, 2023.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/905267858/?terms=Horace%20Whitecotton&match=1. Accessed June 16, 2023.

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/278L-DDL. Accessed June 16, 2023.

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/42190:89. Accessed June 16, 2023.

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/dispose-them-massacre-american-pows-philippines. Accessed July 20, 2023.

https://www.fold3.com/record/711768913/whitecotton-horace-us-veterans-gravesites-ca1775-2019. Accessed July 20, 2023.

https://www.fold3.com/memorial/653588008/palawan-massacre. Accessed June 16, 2023.

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