Early Life and Family

Gregory Ouzounian was born on November 8, 1919 in Şebinkarahisar, Armenia to Misak and Astric Ouzounian. The family escaped the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and emigrated to America in December 1920. The family settled in Queens, New York. Gregory attended Newtown High School in Elmhurst, New York, graduating in 1938. He started work as a delivery driver for a photographic company.

In 1940 Gregory spent $30 on a car and headed west to California settled in the town of Monrovia, thirty miles to the east of Los Angeles. He completed one year of Community College and was so taken by his new home that he convinced his parents to move out to join him. The family settled in quickly. Misak opened a shoe repair business and Gregory worked as a machine operator for a bookkeeping company.

Shortly after the Ouzounian’s arrived in Monrovia, the military draft started in the United States in October 1940. Rather than wait to be called, Gregory volunteered for service and enlisted in the U.S. Army on his birthday, November 8, 1940.

Military Service

Gregory was inducted at Fort MacArthur, San Pedro California. His induction details list him as 5’ 8” and 148lbs. He spent thirteen weeks of basic training ending in February 1941. With Gregory’s interest in machines, he was assigned to the U.S. Army Air Corps to be trained as an aircraft mechanic.

He was transferred to March Army Airfield, about sixty miles east of his home in Monrovia. After advanced technical training he was assigned to the 19th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 93rd Bombardment Squadron, V Bomber Command. The 19th was equipping with the brand new Boeing B-17 bombers. The Air Corps was expanding rapidly, and trained flight and ground crews were in short supply.

The 19th Bombardment Group (BG) moved to Albuquerque Army Airfield in June 1941 and trained there until September 27, 1941. The group was notified that they were to be transported to San Francisco for departure by ship to an unknown destination. Gregory and over 1,000 men of the 19th BG arrived in San Francisco and embarked on the USAT (U.S. Army Transport) Willard Holbrook. Once the ship had departed the men were informed that they were headed Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii.

The Holbrook arrived in Hawaii on October 11, 1941, took on additional passengers and freight and departed for Manila in the Philippine Islands. The Holbrook arrived in Manila on October 23, 1941. The men of the 19th BG were loaded on to buses and transported sixty miles north to Clark Field where they would be based. Clark Field was located on the island of Luzon, the most populous island in the Philippines. Bombers based at Clark Field would have a large operating radius and would cover Japanese targets in Formosa, China and Indo-China. 250 B-17 bombers were planned for deployment in the Philippines by the end of Spring 1942. The new Far East Air Force (FEAF) and would be the primary deterrent to Japanese aggression in South East Asia.

The men of the 93rd Squadron had a few days to prepare as their aircraft had not yet arrived. The B-17s flew out from Hamilton Field in Northern California on October 20th and made the 7,000-mile trip to Clark Field via Honolulu, Midway Island, Wake Island, Port Moresby, New Guinea and Darwin, Australia. From Darwin the aircraft made the long flight north to Clark Field and arriving on November 3rd.

The runway at Clark Field was the largest in the Philippines but it was far from ideal. The ground was hard packed sod and most of area around the runway was too soft to support the B-17s. There were few hangers and workshop facilities and much of the work was done in open air or in tents. Housing was at a premium and Gregory and the men of the 93rd lived in grass mat buildings west of the main runway.

Flight operations of the 93rd were limited due to the lack of spare parts for the B-17s. Two long range reconnaissance flights were flown each day to the north toward the Japanese bases on Formosa. The flights doubled as training missions to keep wear and tear on the B-17s to a minimum. There were no spare engines available for the B-17 anywhere in the Far East. It was planned that any aircraft needed engine work would be taken out of service and the engines flown back to Hawaii for rebuild.

The squadron was clearly not ready for war, but war was coming. On November 28th, the FEAF was placed on war footing and told to prepare for a Japanese attack. The men dug trenches around the field and set up light anti-aircraft weapons in preparation for a Japanese air attack. Clark Field was judged to be too crowded with aircraft and too close to Japanese bombers based in Formosa. Plans were made to move the aircraft and men of the 93rd to a new field at Del Monte 600 miles south on the island of Mindanao. The 93rd flew their aircraft down to Del Monte on the morning of December 6th. The Gregory and the ground crews would be transferred later once facilities were ready.

War Service

The Japanese attack on the Philippines came on the afternoon of December 8th several hours after the strike on Pearl Harbor. Clark Field was devastated by the Japanese attack and twelve of the nineteen B-17 there were destroyed. The remaining B-17s were dispersed to protect them and the ground crews did the best they could to salvage parts from the destroyed planes to keep the survivors flying.

The Japanese Army landed at several points around the main island of Luzon and began to march toward Manila from the north and south. Clark Field was abandoned on Christmas Day and Gregory and the remaining ground crews of the 93rd loaded what supplies they could aboard trucks and joined the U.S. and Filipino Forces in the retreat to the Bataan Peninsula.

The decision to retreat to Bataan was made too late to move large amounts of food, medical supplies, and ammunition to the peninsula. All the supplies that the airmen had brought with them were confiscated by the Quartermaster and redistributed across Bataan. The men on Bataan were placed on half rations in January. Their food mostly consisted of rice supplemented by canned meat when available.

There was only one small airfield and a few emergency landing strips on Bataan. All the B-17s had been evacuated to the south so Gregory and the Army Air Force personnel on Bataan were given a new assignment. The pilots and crews gathered near the town of Orion on January 8th and were organized into the Provisional Air Corps Regiment (PACR). The PACR would be used as infantry and became a reserve force for the main line of resistance on Bataan. The men were assigned rifles and basic field gear and they scavenged machine guns from the wrecked aircraft. PACR took up positions on the eastern side of Bataan.

Gregory had likely not fired a weapon since he was in basic training many months before. He certainly would not have been prepared to take up combat positions in a jungle environment against a highly professional and more numerous enemy force. The men were issued Springfield rifles from the Great War with limited ammunition. The men were given five rounds to practice shooting and then sent into the line facing the Japanese. Gregory and his 93rd Squadron mates were assigned to the PACR 2nd Battalion an defended the area anchored by the mountains on left and their fellow airmen in the PACR 1st Battalion on the right.

The Bataan peninsula is thirty miles long and fifteen miles wide. The terrain is dominated by three mountains that run down the center of the peninsula. The west side of the mountain range is rugged jungle. The east side is flat and agricultural with sugar cane fields and rice paddies. The main highway on Bataan, highway 301, runs down the eastern side through the farms and villages down to the town of Mariveles at the southern end of the peninsula.

Gregory and the PACR men were gradually pushed back by the Japanese and by March were defending the Bagac-Orion line south of the San Vicente River. The river was dammed by engineers which created a swap area amongst the rice paddies which made for a good defensive position. The men dug trenches on the front line and fortified them with sandbags and dried sod. Behind the lines the men sheltered under large mango trees and prepared for the inevitable Japanese attack.

The men of Bataan were placed on quarter rations in March and were almost exclusively eating rice. The average daily calorie intake was less than 1000 per man. The short rations wore the men down and many had lost fifty or more pounds. The men did the best they could to supplement their meager rice rations with whatever animals they could find including army mules and horses, small monkeys, pythons and lizards. By the end of March nearly 10,000 of the 70,000 men on Bataan were hospitalized due to malnutrition and malaria.

Gregory and the PACR did their best with what they had and helped stiffen the lines. The Japanese had expected to capture the Philippines in a month, but five months later they were still struggling to eliminate the Philippine and American Forces. This provided the Allied Forces critical time to strengthen Australia and the South Pacific Islands and begin to prepare for a counterattack. The Japanese Army in the Philippines was equally worn down and were reinforced with additional forces after the surrender of the British in Singapore in February 1942.

The reinforced Japanese units included tanks. The men of PACR did not possess any anti-tank weapons and they were defenseless against the armor. The Japanese tanks broke the main line on April 5th and began to roll up the scattered defenders. The forces on Bataan surrendered on April 9th. It was the largest surrender of U.S. Army forces in history. The Japanese were shocked to find double the number of men they had expected. The Japanese failed to appreciate how much the men had been worn down by the four months on limited rations.

Following the surrender, the Japanese marched Gregory and 70,000 American and Filipino prisoners north. The “Bataan Death March” lasted several days and covered 65 miles. Most men only received one scoop of rice during the march and little water. They marched only during the day and temperatures were over 100 degrees. Any man who fell out of the line was killed by Japanese guards. Some were taken out of the line for no apparent reason and shot or beaten to death. The death march ended at the rail station at San Fernando. From there prisoners were stuffed into box cars usually used to transport sugar cane 100 at a time and transported north to Camp O’Donnell. Approximately 400-500 Americans and 12-15,000 Filipinos died during the march.

The men remained at Camp O’Donnell for two months and the death toll continued to rise. During April and May 1942, 1,500 Americans died, mostly of dysentery. Camp O’Donnell had only one functioning water tap for the thousands of men. Water for cleaning was drawn from a stream known to be heavily contaminated. There were very few medical supplies to be had and few doctors.

The men at Camp O’Donnell were transferred to various prison camps in central Luzon. The largest camp was Cabanatuan. Cabanatuan held 8,000 American and Filipino prisoners. Gregory was transferred to Cabanatuan Camp Number 1. The camp conditions were poor, and food and water supply were extremely limited. The prison became more crowded in late May when more American prisoners arrived after the surrender of the island of Corregidor. The recent arrivals were in better physical condition than the Bataan marchers, but the lack of supplies led to malnutrition and outbreaks of malaria and dysentery throughout the camp.

Death

Prisoners at Cabanatuan were dying at a rate of 25-30 per week. The prisoners held on as best they could. Had the prisoners had access to proper medical care and food, the majority would have survived. Of the 27,000 Americans taken prisoner by the Japanese in World War II nearly 40% died in captivity. By contrast, the death rate of American prisoners in Nazi Germany was 1%.

Unfortunately for Gregory, he was one of those who died in Japanese hands. The details of Gregory’s life in the camp are limited. What is known is that he, like so many others, suffered from dysentery and malnutrition. He survived the hell of the death march and Camp O’Donnell but his health failed him. On November 13, 1942, Private Gregory Ouzounian died in Cabanatuan Prison Camp Number 1, Nueva Ecija Province, Territory of the Philippines, aged 23.

Aftermath

Little information about the fate of the men of Bataan was available to the families in the United States in the months following the surrender. Misak and Astric Ouzounian were informed in May 1942 that their son was missing in action. The first Red Cross visits to the Philippine camps occurred in November 1942 and information about the prisoners started to trickle out.

Misak opened a jewelry repair shop and Astric became involved with the Monrovia Red Cross and rolled bandages for use by the military. She joined a group of parents of those missing and prisoners of war.

The first news of Gregory arrived on April 15, 1943. The Ouzounian’s were notified that Gregory was alive in a telegram from the Army Adjutant General via the Swiss Red Cross. The local newspaper published an article about the joy Astric felt about the news and her excitement about being able to write him.

Unfortunately, Astric’s joy did not last. In July 1943, the Ouzounian’s were informed by War Department telegram that Gregory was confirmed dead. The true story of the Bataan death march and the mistreatment of Allied prisoners started to appear in the press at the same time. A few prisoners had escaped and returned to allied lines. They brought the details of the suffering and mistreatment of the death marchers and their subsequent imprisonment. Precious few of Gregory’s fellow prisoners returned when the war ended in 1945.

Gregory was not forgotten in his adopted hometown. In 1947 a memorial fountain was built at Monrovia Library Park for those killed in World War II. Gregory’s parents attended the dedication, and he was remembered in the local newspaper as one of those who had given all for his country.

Today

American casualties from the war were gathered from around the world and returned to the United States in 1947. Gregory’s body was not found. The dead were buried quickly at Cabanatuan and there were no individual markers. Some prisoners secretly kept maps and information, but it was incomplete and much of it was lost as the prisoners were moved back to Japan in the later years of the war. As a result, identifying and recovering remains interred at Cabanatuan was difficult and few were positively identified.

The Defense Department considers Gregory’s case a still open and classified as “Active Pursuit” which means there is some possibility of a recovery. Attempts are still being made to find, collect and identify remains and it is hoped that his remains will be found and returned home. For now, he is remembered on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

We honor and remember Private Gregory Ouzounian and may his endeavors and those of men like him never fade.

Awards for Actions

Army Presidential Unit Citation

Purple Heart

Prisoner of War Medal

Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal

American Campaign Medal

Philippine Campaign Medal

World War II Victory Medal

Sources

Bartsch, William H. December 8, 1941: MacArthur’s Pearl Harbor. Texas A&M University Press. 2003

Bartsch, William H. Doomed from the Start. Texas A&M University Press. 1992

Burton, John. Fortnight of Infamy: The Collapse of Allied Airpower West of Pearl Harbor. Naval Institute Press. 2006.

Mendelson, Sheldon H. Operations of the Provisional Air Corps Regiment in the Defense of the Bataan Peninsula, P.I., 8 January – 10 April 1942 (Philippine Islands Campaign) Personal Experience of a Platoon Leader. United States Army 1947.

Monrovia Daily News Post 1941-1947

Salecker, Gene Eric. Fortress Against the Sun. Combined Publishing. 2001.

Sloan, Bill. Undefeated: America’s Heroic Fight for Bataan and Corregidor. Simon & Schuster. 2012

Whitman, John W. Bataan: Our last ditch. Hippocrene Books. 1990.

This piece was written by John Wayne Carlson as part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org/), with the goal of eventually honoring all 400,000 American service members who were killed during World War II.

Clark Field 1941

B17D in the Philippines 1941

93rd Bombardment Squardron