News-Info-Alerts

Re: Corregidor Nurse-POW Passes

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: January 10, 2003

"Bataan POW vet dies
Farmer was last living nurse from WWII POW camp

By HOLLIE SAUNDERS
The Eagle-Gazette Staff

A woman who spent several years as a prisoner of war during World War II has died.

Sallie Phillips Farmer, 88, formerly of Thurston, died Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2003, at Sterling House, Lancaster.

Farmer graduated from SS Mary and Elizabeth School of Nursing as a registered nurse in 1935. She served her country as a captain in the Army Nurse Corps from 1937-1946. She was stationed in the Philippine Islands where she was taken as a prisoner of war in 1942.

Farmer was one of the area World War II veterans who told their stories through word and photos as part of a World War II commemorative display in 1995 at Ohio University-Lancaster campus.

According to Farmer's handwritten notes, she received her orders to go to Manila in the Philippine Islands.

She was stationed at Fort Stotsenberg Station Hospital where she was in charge of the operating room. At that time, most of the American civilians and allies were advised to leave the Philippine Islands in the event of war with Japan.

On the morning of Dec. 8, 1941, she and other military personnel learned of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. That afternoon, the Japanese began to bomb the base. On Dec. 24, they evacuated Fort Stotsenberg. Farmer and four other nurses were ordered to Manila for duty at Sternberg Hospital. On Christmas Day they reached Bataan.

Farmer wrote by the end of March, 1942, there were 7,000 patients in the hospital area. In April, the Americans surrendered Bataan to the Japanese.

On April 7, she and others were ordered to Corregidor, an island across the bay from Bataan. The hospital there was actually one of six tunnels that were blasted through a mountain by the Army Corps of Engineer in 1938. The other tunnels were used to store food and ammunition.

By the end of April, the Americans surrendered Corregidor to the Japanese rather than sacrifice the 13,000 personnel stationed there. On May 6, 1942, the American flag was lowered and the Japanese took over. The fighting troops were taken from the island immediately, but the patients and medical personnel remained there until July 3.

Farmer wrote that after a few days of captivity, she learned a few sacks of flour had been left behind. She and a nurse friend decided to go after them.

They crawled along a ledge about halfway along the ceiling to get to the flour. They could see down in what had been the general's headquarters and saw the Japanese soldiers eating a meal. She said she was sickened because the Japanese used the American flag as a tablecloth.

On July 3, Farmer and the other medical personnel were taken to Santa Thomas POW Camp in Manila. She was assigned to general nursing duty in the camp hospital.

Because they received no supplies, Farmer and the other prisoners had to improvise. One nurse had bought many bolts of string, and an Englishman who was an engineer designed knitting needles from bamboos. They were able to knit underpants and socks from the string, and wore those until the end of the war.

Finally, on Feb. 3, 1945, after three years of captivity, the Americans took over the camp. She was evacuated from Santa Thomas, and reached home in March 1945. She returned to duty after six weeks and was stationed at Fort Hayes in Columbus.

Farmer was interviewed by Joe Farmer, a young reporter from the Catholic Times, about the war. She wrote that the pictures he took of her did not turn out very well, and he asked her to return to the office for retakes.

The young reporter took her home instead of calling a cab. The next day, he asked her out to the movies. After a month of persistence, Farmer finally said yes.

They became friends and married in October 1946.

For her performance during the war, Farmer received the Bronze Star Medal, Distinguished Unit Badge with Two Clusters, American Campaign Medal and the Philippine Defense Medal.

She retired from Children's Hospital, Columbus, and was a Red Cross volunteer.

Farmer is survived by her husband of 56 years, Deacon Joseph A. Farmer, Pleasantville, two sons, three daughters and other family members.

A Funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, Buckeye Lake.

Copyright ©2003 Lancaster Eagle-Gazette. "