Benny Dan Osecky, Survived Bataan Death March, 90, Washington Post
DGH
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/19/AR2010031904565.html
BENNY DAN OSECKY, 90
Benny Dan Osecky, 90, dies; survived Bataan Death March
March 20, 2010
Benny Dan Osecky, 90, a retired Air Force senior master sergeant who
survived the Bataan Death March and later was a flight crew member on
presidential airplanes for nine years, died March 7 [2010] at the Aarondale
Retirement and Assisted Living Community in Springfield. He had dementia.
Sgt. Osecky, an Army Air Forces master sergeant, was serving at Clark Field
in the Philippines when the United States entered World War II. He was among
those ordered to surrender April 9, 1942, when the U.S. commander determined
that they could no longer hold off the Japanese. The next day, 12,000 U.S.
and 66,000 Filipino prisoners began a brutal six-day, 65-mile march to a POW
camp. The U.S. Air Force estimates 11,000 people died en route and thousands
more died during imprisonment.
Sgt. Osecky survived 42 months in POW camps O'Donnell, Cabanatuan, Las Pinas
and Bilibid on Luzon Island. He was among thousands sent in "hell ships" to
Japan at the end of the war. U.S. bombers, not realizing POWs were aboard,
sank at least one of the ships Sgt. Osecky was on, but he was recaptured and
shipped to Japan. U.S. Marines freed him in September 1945.
He resumed his service with the Air Force and was assigned to the
presidential aircraft squadron at National Airport in 1949. He was the
flight engineer under President Harry S. Truman and was a member of the
security detail under President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
In 1958, Sgt. Osecky was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in South Africa and
later served at a Strategic Air Command base in Columbus, Ohio. He retired
from the Air Force in 1962. His military decorations included the Bronze
Star Medal.
After settling in Annandale, Sgt. Osecky became a police officer at National
Airport and worked for the Federal Aviation Administration as a mechanic,
scheduler and inspector until his second retirement in 1983.
Born in Eckman, W.Va., to immigrant Ukrainian parents, Sgt. Osecky left home
amid the Great Depression to work in the Civilian Conservation Corps in
Arizona and California. He joined the Army in 1938 and volunteered for the
Army Air Corps.
He was a volunteer with the Boy Scouts and a member of several veterans and
military organizations.
His wife of 62 years, Helen Modzik Osecky, died in January.
Survivors include three children, Benjamin Daniel Osecky of Fort Collins,
Colo., Elaine Wade of Annandale and Thomas Osecky of Aldie; three sisters,
Mary Hughes, Helen Selensky and Christine Godfrey, all of Morgantown, W.Va.;
a brother, Samuel Osecky of Leonardtown; and four grandchildren.
--
Patricia Sullivan
RBraga
"DGH" <peri...@eudoramail.com> wrote:
<<snip>>>
> Sgt. Osecky, an Army Air Forces master sergeant, was serving at Clark Field
> in the Philippines when the United States entered World War II. He was among
> those ordered to surrender April 9, 1942, when the U.S. commander determined
> that they could no longer hold off the Japanese. The next day, 12,000 U.S.
> and 66,000 Filipino prisoners began a brutal six-day, 65-mile march to a POW
> camp. The U.S. Air Force estimates 11,000 people died en route and thousands
> more died during imprisonment.
>
> Sgt. Osecky survived 42 months in POW camps O'Donnell, Cabanatuan, Las Pinas
> and Bilibid on Luzon Island. He was among thousands sent in "hell ships" to
> Japan at the end of the war. U.S. bombers, not realizing POWs were aboard,
> sank at least one of the ships Sgt. Osecky was on, but he was recaptured and
> shipped to Japan. U.S. Marines freed him in September 1945.
>
<<snip>>
Not to diminish Mr. Osecky's ordeals and accomplishments, but he was not
really a Death March veteran, since the distance between where he was
stationed at Clark Field and Camp O'Donnell (which was the terminus of
the Death March) was just a few miles.
The ones who suffered the most were taken prisoner on Bataan Peninsula
and the fortress island of Corregidor, off the southern tip of Bataan.
In 1982, as a member of the military serving in the Philippines, I
participated in a motorcycle escort of returning veterans, commemorating
the 40th anniversary of that march, along the full length of the trek.
The veterans were riding in buses and other transport, escorted by a
couple dozen of us on motorcyles, flags flying proudly. I noticed more
than a few tear-stained faces of local citizens lining the route
(especially among the older generation). It was a moving moment, and
remains fresh in my mind almost thirty years later...