Ernest Howard Bridgman was born in Massachusetts circa 1914.

Bridgman enlisted in May 1939 and became a Sergeant in the HQ Company of the Army's Philippines Department.

When the Japanese conquered the Philippine Islands in the Spring of 1942, Sgt. Bridgman became a POW and spent about 2 and a half years at the Cabanatuan prison camp.

As an American invasion became more likely, the Japanese decided to ship POWs to Japan as forced labor. Sgt. Bridgman (and Lt. Walter W. Colpitts also of Teaneck) were among a group of 1800 POWs loaded onto the Arisan Maru cargo ship. This ship, with no markings to indicate it was carrying POWs, was torpedoed and sunk by an American submarine in the South China Sea on October 24, 1944.

All but about a dozen men died. Sgt. Bridgman's sacrifice is memorialized at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.

Ernest H Bridgman