Bataan Death March in 1942
Dr. Albert Brown was a 32-year-old practicing dentist with a wife, three children, a pilot’s license and a small air transport business when he was called up for military service in the Philippines in 1937 as the United States geared up for war four years before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The godchild of Buffalo Bill Cody, he is now, at 105 years-of-age, the oldest living American World War II veteran despite the fact that army doctors didn’t expect him to live beyond 50 as a result of his wartime injuries and illnesses. A robust athlete whose basketball team had defeated the famous Harlem Globetrotters, “Doc” Brown, was reduced to less than 90 pounds at war’s end. He spent two years in veterans’ hospitals and did not see to his family again for ten years.
Dr. Brown, right, speaks with Dan Morrow. Photo originally published in the Danbury News-Times.
His remarkable story of surviving the 1942 Bataan Death March as well as the atrocities that ensued at the hands of the Japanese has been documented in a recently published book Forsaken Heroes of the Pacific War: One Man’s True Story by Waterbury native Kevin Moore and Don Morrow of Danbury. Morrow, himself a WWII veteran, met Brown while both were living in California and later brought his story to the attention of Moore, who also resides in Danbury.
The co-authors will discuss Brown’s life and experiences at a book talk and signing at the Silas Bronson Library Thursday, July 21, at 6:30 p.m. Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing. Profits will benefit the Wounded Warriors Project, a nonprofit organization that assists military service members struggling to meet medical, social and personal needs resulting from service-related injuries and illnesses. Admission to the program is free.