World War II Honoree

Charles Wesley Zwolle

Branch of Service

U.S. Army

Hometown

Marion, Ohio

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private. Served in the Philippine Islands, Southwest Pacific Theater of Operations assigned to Easy Battery an element of the 59th Anti-aircraft Regiment, the Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays. While stationed at Fort Mills on the island of Corregidor ‘The Rock’, he participated in the Battle of Corregidor (Battle Dates: May 5-6, 1942). The Japanese Imperial Forces captured him on the second day of the invasion when General Wainwright, Commander of allied forces capitulated to the enemy. His captors transferred him to the mainland after his detainment of two weeks on Corregidor, and held in captivity at the Old Bilibid Prisoner of War Camp #3 Rizal, Manila for 29 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 a United States Submarine torpedoed and sunk the transport during a typhoon. 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 up his life for his country.