World War II Honoree

Robert S. Ainsworth

Branch of Service

U.S. Army

Hometown

Columbus, Ohio

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private 1st Class. On March 28, 1941, he entered the Army at Fort Hayes in Columbus, Ohio. Deployed to the Southwest Pacific Theater of Operations, where he experienced combat in the Philippine Islands Campaign, while assigned to Headquarters Company, 192nd Tank Battalion a subordinate unit of the Provisional Tank Group. He participated in the Battle of Bataan (Battle Dates: January 7-April 9, 1942) the conquest of the Philippines by the Imperial Japanese Army and Naval Forces. On April 9, 1942, the Japanese captured him on Luzon while his unit was in retreat to the Bataan Peninsula, and subjected to participate in the Bataan Death March and held in captivity at unknown Prisoner of War Camp 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 came under attack, 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 up his life in the service of his country.