World War II Honoree

Eldon Tobias Chastain

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Sherrill, Arkansas

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Private 1st Class. On June 4, 1941, he entered the United States Marine Corps from Utah, receiving his combat infantry training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California. Deployed to the Philippine Islands, Southwest Pacific Theater of Operations, serving with Mike Company, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment. He participated in the Philippine Campaign, the conquest of the Philippine Islands by the Imperial Japanese Army and Naval Forces. While retreating to the Bataan Peninsula in the Battle of Bataan (Battle Dates: January 7-April 9, 1942), the Japanese forces captured him on the last day of the battle. His captors subjected him to participate in the Bataan Death March, incarcerated for 29 months at an unknown Prisoner of War Camp. 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 is recorded in the Tablets of the Missing, memorialized at the American Cemetery located at Fort Bonifacio in Manila, Philippine Islands. This Marine, an American Patriot, awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, who so gallantly gave his life for his country.