The floor is opened to the levying of fines. No dining In would be complete without a few ‘violations of the mess” resulting in trips to the grog bowl – a delicious concoction of undisclosed liquids and powders prepared by the candidates. A few violators frequented the grog bowl early and often. But for Class President Andres Quezada-Valdez and his fellow Officer Candidates – Juan Vigil, Kyle Lynch, Donica Howard, Kody Lambright, Marshall Maloy, Brian Salazar, and Johnathon Weber; the true meaning of being a battle buddy would be presented by Col. Steve Garcia, chief of staff, who delivered the key note address, focusing on the importance of the Army’s ‘battle buddy” and the Airmen’s “wingman” all while relating this great message with a great history lesson about our Bataan heroes of World War II, specifically his Grandfather Celso Lucero and his Bataan battle buddies. Garcia said there are so many people who have been touched by our Bataan Heroes and their warrior spirit of struggle, misery, horrors of prison encampment, survival and accomplishment before, during and after their trip to hell, but the why and who remains a mystery to most people. “My Grandpa enlisted in the New Mexico Army National Guard in 1938, but continued working as a miner until his entrance in to active service January 6, 1941 and during these eight months at Ft Bliss, my grandpa would start to forge friendships that would eventually transition to a band of blood brothers built on loyalty, survival, and intestinal fortitude – all keys leading to his return home from Bataan four years later,” Garcia said. “Uvaldo Garcia (my grandma’s brother), Pat Varela, Nino Archibeque, Espiridion “SPEEDY” Ruiz, Ray “Colorado” Marez, Joe Sanchez, Moises Sanchez from Questa, Joe Medina and Tony Reina of Taos, Harold Hubble, Tony Sanchez, Bill Carroll, and Leo Padilla – these were men that my grandpa wrote about in his letters home and the men he’d find peace, safety, loyalty, and true brotherhood with as they all survived reintegration here at home to a society who would never understand the true meaning of Hell on Earth. Only they knew.” Garcia said that to many people, it still remains a mystery. “We will never know their secret, their pain, their loss, their desperate acts in order to survive and that is OK,” Garcia said. “What I do know is that I am a descendant of a real-life warrior who never quit, a warrior who would never surrender, and a warrior who never left a fallen comrade, who never accepted defeat. And with men such as these that I’ve mentioned, there is a sense of peace in my heart knowing that it was all done for us.” Garcia said that after fighting for what seemed an eternity from December 9, 1941 until April 9, 1942, it was with courage, honor, sadness, humility, and sober reality that these men were surrendered to the Japanese Imperial forces. “And once again, it seemed like my grandpa and his band of brothers would be faced with the ultimate test of survival, of which we’d never really understand, but come to respect and honor – 65 miles and eight days and nights of pure living hell. The majority of these men suffered from different diseases, topped by fatigue, malnutrition, dehydration, and the onset of beriberi at the time of surrender.” Garcia said. “They had reached Camp O’Donnell around the 17th of April, where the torture, starvation, and further sickness would engulf these men who had just endured 8 days and nights of hellacious conditions both on the march and in the railcars. Immediately upon arrival at the prison camps, they are were assigned to work details to help build bridges and roads, carry Japanese ammunition, and haul supplies from Clark Field. No rest.” Garcia said that on July 14, a typhoon hit the Philippines, which caused their Japanese captors to hide in their huts, leaving the POWs to take cover on their own and it was at that moment that his grandpa and five other men walked away from the work detail never to return to the hands of their captors. These men were from the 803rd Engineers, attached to the Army Air Corps, and Cpl. Espedirion “Speedy” Ruiz of Gallup, N.M who was his grandpa’s closest battle buddy until he died. They would live and operate as guerilla warfighters alongside the Philippine natives for the next 32 months until their rescue on March 6, 1945. “Speedy and my grandfather wrote the original manual on how to be a true battle buddy,” Garcia said. “We preach this concept to this day to all our Soldiers, old and young, but somehow I think it will never have that same meaning like it did for Corporals Lucero and Ruiz. These two shared a bond that was unbreakable until my grandpa’s passing on June 26, 2007.” Garcia said that upon his grandpa’s return from Bataan and regaining his health, he stayed close to those Bataan brothers whom he’d gone to hell and back with. As hard as he tried to resume a normal life, he and the 800 other New Mexico National Guardsmen were forever changed. Many, if not all of them, left a piece of their soul in that jungle and peninsula, and the Japanese slave camps. The scar in their soul could only be consoled by those who knew and were there. Lucero worked for several years at the Albuquerque VA Hospital serving as the Superintendent of housekeeping. “You see, he had to be close to his fellow brothers in arms as part of his way of coping with society, still serving them and wanting to remain in the midst of those who suffered and survived alongside him,” Garcia said. “In his eyes, nobody was ever going to measure up to the band of brothers and the sacrifices they endured together for God and Country in the forsaken conditions they endured and survived through. What these men experienced in that war can never be understood by us, but only accepted as herculean and unmentionable, and an experience he never wished on any of us.” “I am proud to be standing here today sharing the legacy of Bataan and the New Mexico Army National Guard with you all,” Garcia said in closing. “Don’t put off enriching your mind and heart about the treasure of this Legacy of Honor we have. It holds a treasure that will prove its worth to you as you prepare for and accept your commission as officers in this amazing organization.” Garcia closed by leaving the officer candidates with the anthem of our Bataan heroes: “Battling Bastards of Bataan; No mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam; No aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no nieces; No pills, no planes, no artillery pieces. . . . And nobody gives a damn.”]]>
