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Re: WW II Ex-POW Publishes Experiences

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: May 27, 2003

"Ex-POW publishes WWII experiences

By Teresa Wood staff writer

A soldier-turned-author has become a salesman since finishing a book chronicling his experiences during the Bataan Death March and as a prisoner of war during World War II.

Nettles Island resident Robert "Bob" Body, 79, finished the 200-page book about six weeks ago. He struck a deal with Back Yard Publisher in Stuart to print the book and has sold more than 400 copies of "I Survived the Bataan Death March."

Body carries a box of the books wherever he goes and has added the subject to his repertoire of stories he tells when asked to speak about his World War II experiences at various community events.

"I tell people it took me five years, two computers and three women," Body joked.

At $14.95 a copy, Body said he started to make money after selling the first hundred or so books.

"It's not paying me for the five years it took for me to write it," Body said, "but I'm really so damn proud of this book it's not even funny."

Body was among the forces defending the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines at the beginning of the U.S. involvement in World War II. When they surrendered to the Japanese, Body and thousands of others were forced to march for seven to eight days in 120-degree heat in what later became known as the Bataan Death March.

It is estimated 10,000 Americans and Filipinos died during the 100-mile trek, and many more died before the war ended.

Body said he is most proud of the part of his book in which he describes the liberation of Cabanatuan, the POW camp he was held at for more than two years.

The soldiers knew Allied forces were in the area because they heard and saw U.S. planes flying overhead. On Jan. 30, 1945, about an hour before Body and two others were to execute an escape plan, "the normally quiet camp erupted in gunfire," Body wrote.

"I heard a scraping sound and when I turned, standing in front of me was the biggest person I had seen in a long time," he wrote. "I did not recognize the uniform the man was wearing or the weapon he was carrying."

The man was a U.S. Army Ranger and told the soldiers to head for the gate, freeing more than 500 prisoners. They sailed home, arriving in San Francisco as war heroes.

"We were seeing something that we had long ago given up hope of ever seeing again," Body wrote. "I think that next to the night we were liberated from Cabanatuan, the next best day was when the fog lifted and there was the Golden Gate Bridge."


teresa.wood@scripps.com
© 2002 The E.W. Scripps Co. "