World War II Honoree

Edmund Read Dabney, Jr.

Branch of Service

U.S. Army Air Force

Hometown

Ringgold, Tennessee

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Staff Sergeant. Deployed to the Philippine Islands, Southwest Pacific Theater of Operations after the completion of his training. Served as an Aircraft Mechanic while stationed at Nichols Field with the 21st Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group, V-Interceptor Command, a subordinate unit of the United States Far East Fifth Air Force. He participated in the Philippine Islands Campaign, assigned to a Provisional Infantry Company (Battle Dates: December 8, 1941-May 6, 1942), the conquest of the Philippine Islands by the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy forces. The enemy captured him on Luzon, April 9, 1942 in the Battle of Bataan, while his unit was in retreat to the Bataan Peninsula. His captors subjected him to participate in the Bataan Death March and held in captivity at the Prisoner of War Camp #1 Cabanatuan Nueva Province on Luzon for 30 months. On October 11, 1944, he boarded a ‘Hell Ship’ an unmarked merchant vessel, the Japanese, Arisan Maru along with 1,781 other American prisoners destined for a Prisoner of War Camp in Japan. Reported as Missing in Action, lost at sea Tuesday, October 24, 1944 when the transport was torpedoed and sunk during a typhoon by a United States Submarine. In remembrance of the Brave, his name appears in the Tablets of The Missing and memorialized at the Manila American Cemetery located at Fort Bonifacio, in the Philippine Islands. Decoration: This Soldier, an American Patriot, awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, who so gallantly gave his life in the service of his country.