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Tommy P. Foy

1914 - 2011

Fomer Grant County Representative dies at 96 /

Thomas Turney's 2001 Comments Re Foy /

ABQ Journal Story

“With the Centennial (of New Mexico) coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the Death March, we need to really think about how big a contribution the veterans have made to the State of New Mexico and the military history of New Mexico. The Philippines has a lot of common history militarily with New Mexico.”

 

— Adelamar Alcantara, Ph.D.
President, BCMFofNM, Inc.

 

• Arthur MacArthur, father of General Douglas MacArthur, was Post Commander at Fort Stanton, New Mexico.

• New Mexico Territorial Governor George Curry saw service in the Philippines (1899-1901), serving as Governor of Camarines Province, Chief of Police of Manila, Governor of Isabela Province, and Governor of Samar Province.

• Camp Maximilliano Luna in San Miguel County, the 111th Cavalry and its successor the 200th Coast Artiller (Anti-aircraft)'s summer training grounds, was named for Captain Maximiliano Luna, one of only 3 Hispanos in Teddy Roosevelt's "Rough Riders", and the Speaker of the House (Territory of New Mexico), who while serving under General Lawton in the Philippines in 1899, drowned while crossing a river on Luzon.

When the Japanese bombed Clark Field, Philippine Islands, on December 8, 1941 — December 7th in the US — just hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, New Mexico’s 200th Coast Artillery (Anti-aircraft) was the “first to fire” on the enemy. That night, in order to provide anti-aircraft protection for Manila, the Regiment was split, forming the 515th Coast Artillery, the first battle-born unit of World War II.

 

Starving and diseased, the men held out for four months against an overwhelming enemy until Bataan was surrendered on April 9, 1942, and Corregidor on May 6, 1942. Except for the few who escaped to fight as guerrillas, the survivors of those bloody battles were to suffer 3-1/2 years of the most inhumane treatment known to mankind as prisoners of war. Eight hundred of the just over 1,800 men originally deployed would perish in prison camps or on Hell Ships.

 

In 1943, while the men were suffering as prisoners of war, the City of Albuquerque vowed to build a Memorial to New Mexico’s 200th and 515th Coast Artillery (Anti-aircraft) units.

 

APR. 9, 2011 — Bill Overmier, B Btry 200th CA, and Ernest Montoya, A Btry 515th CA, with Dr. Don Salisbury, Bataan Memorial Museum.
More Photos
 

The Bataan Memorial was dedicated on April 7, 2002 because of the hard work, persistence, and cooperation of many individuals and organizations. The Bataan Veterans Organization, Albuquerque Chapter, never forgot the City’s promise. Leo Padilla, Agapito Silva, William Overmier and Ernest Montoya, survivors of Bataan and Corregidor and slave labor camps in Japan and Manchuria, for many years lobbied the City of Albuquerque and some State legislators for the Memorial. They persevered against many adversities, never losing sight of their dream of having their and their comrades’ contribution to freedom be remembered by generations of New Mexicans to come.

VOICEOVER: SURVIVOR ERNEST MONTOYA

“If you wonder why you dismount at least a mile before encamping; why you walk and cool your horses, and groom and feed them first — before you eat or rest — you will understand the great reliance we place on one another. To make us a unit. We care for each other.”

 

— Col. Charles G. Sage to the “raw recruits” of the 111th Cavalry (before conversion to anti-aircraft) as remembered by Stephan H. Alex, 200th Coast Artillery (AA).

See our Facebook page for important announcements, dates, and items of interest.

200TH COAST ARTILLERY'S
TONY REYNA
OF TAOS PUEBLO
HOTEN POW CAMP
Mukden, Manchuria
Late August 1945

 

View video of liberated
prisoners at Hoten

SEP. 12, 2010 — Six former prisoners of the Japanese and two descendants are in Japan as part of the Japanese/POW Friendship Program. The group includes former POWs Lester Tenney, Joe Alexander, Ed Jackfert, Robert Rosendahl, Earl Szwabo and Donald Versaw. Participants are scheduled to pay courtesy calls on Mr. Katsuya Okada, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Mr. Tetsuro Fukuyama, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary. They will also visit Kyoto and other cities in accordance with their requests.

Current Airman Meets Former POW 200th CA's Eddie Graham

Roger Mansell (1935-2010)

Center for Research: Allied POWs Under the Japanese

OCT. 31, 2010 — Don T. Schloat, artist known for his Palawan Massacre works, seen with former National Guard Bureau Chief, LtGEN Edward Baca (ret.), April 9, 2008 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, passed away in San Diego, California.

DEC. 11, 2010 — The Cathedral of St. John in Albuquerque, New Mexico remembered the 200th Coast Artillery's Regimental Chaplain Frederick B. 'Ted' Howden, Jr. on the anniversary of his death at Davao Prisoner of War Camp.

MAR. 27, 2011 — 6,357 participants entered the Bataan Memorial Death March at White Sands, including the son of the 515th Coast Artillery's Agapito E. 'Gap' Silva, the daughter of Esperdion Archibeque who passed away this last year, and the son and granddaughter of the 200th's William 'Bill' Overmier. We have received a letter from the son of a 31st Infantry man telling of the kindness shown to him by Mrs. Overmier at the March. Read here.

APR. 29-30, 2011 — The 200th Coast Artillery's William 'Bill' Overmier and the 515th Coast Artillery's Valdemar DeHerrera were special honorees during the annual Ruidoso, New Mexico Military Appeciation Weekend. Also honored were Captain Isaac Camacho who was captured in Vietnam in 1963 and was the first prisoner of war to escape the Viet Cong (in 1965); and US Army Wounded Warrior Joshua Bullis, Afghanistan. OVERMIER INTERVIEW VIDEO

Governor Susan Martinez
Proclaims April 9, 2011
BATAAN REMEMBRANCE DAY

APR. 2, 2011 — Monica Moya with photo of her uncle Raymond J. Garcia who died in the sinking of the Arisan Maru in October 1944. Bataan Memorial Park. More Photos