World War II Honoree

Edwin L. Christensen

Branch of Service

U.S. Army Air Force

Hometown

Ross, Montana

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private 1st Class. Deployed to the Philippine Islands, Southwest Pacific Theater of Operations after the completion of his training. While stationed at Clark Field, he served with Headquarters Squadron, Fifth Air Base Group, V-Bomber 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 an unknown Prisoner of War Camp for 27 months. On August 20, 1944, he boarded a ‘Hell Ship’, an unmarked merchant vessel, the Japanese Shinyo Maru along with 749 other American prisoners destined for a Prisoner of War Camp in Japan. Reported Missing in Action, lost at sea Thursday, September 7, 1944 when the Transport came under attack, torpedoed and sunk by the United States Submarine, USS Paddle. 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 Airman, an American Patriot, awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, who so gallantly gave his life in the service of his country.