Jose Calugas

Jose Cabalfin Calugas (December 29, 1907 – January 18, 1998) was a member of the Philippine Scouts during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for actions during the Battle of Bataan.

At the age of 23, Calugas joined the Philippine Scouts of the United States Army and completed training as an artilleryman and served with different artillery batteries of the Philippine Scouts until his unit was mobilized to fight in World War II. After noticing one of his unit's gun batteries had been put out of commission and its crew killed, he gathered several members of his unit together, dug in and attempted to defend the line. He was captured along with other members of his unit and forced to march to a distant enemy prison camp, where he was held as a prisoner of war. When he was released in 1943, he was secretly assigned to a guerrilla unit in the Philippines where he fought for the liberation of the Philippines from the Japanese.

After World War II, Calugas received a direct commission and became a United States citizen. After retiring from the Army, he settled in Tacoma, Washington.

Early life and military training Calugas was born in Barrio Tagsing, Leon, Iloilo, Philippines, on December 29, 1907. For his actions on that day, his superiors recommended Calugas for the United States military's highest decoration for valor, the Medal of Honor. Before he could receive it, however, all American forces on Bataan surrendered to Japanese forces.

Surrender of Bataan and the death march Prisoners during the march from Bataan to the prison camp, May 1942. (National Archives) Arguably, the Battle of Bataan represented the most intense phase of Imperial Japan's invasion of the Philippines during World War II. During the final stage of the Battle of Bataan and after repeated assaults and artillery fire by Japanese forces, the communications and defenses of the allies on Bataan peninsula had been almost completely destroyed. On the last two days, the entire Allied defense collapsed, clogging all roads with refugees and fleeing troops. By April 8, the senior U.S. commander on Bataan, Major General Edward "Ned" P. King, Jr., decided further resistance was futile, and explored proposals for surrender. On April 9, 1942, approximately 76,000 Filipino and American troops surrendered to a Japanese army of 54,000 men under Lt. General Masaharu Homma. This was the single largest surrender of one of its military forces in American history. Route of the Bataan Death March. The section from San Fernando to Capas was by rail. The prisoners marched the last 8 miles from Capas to Camp O'Donnell. After the surrender, Calugas and the other prisoners marched from Mariveles to Camp O'Donnell, a prison camp in the province of Tarlac. The Japanese, having expected the fighting to continue, anticipated about 25,000 prisoners of war and were inadequately prepared or unwilling to transport a group of prisoners three times the size. The majority of the prisoners of war were immediately relieved of their belongings and endured a 61-mile (98 km) march in deep dust, over vehicle-broken macadam roads, and crammed into rail cars for the portion of the journey from San Fernando to Capas. En route, over 21,000 men and women died from disease, starvation, dehydration, heat prostration, untreated wounds, and wanton execution. The deaths of Filipinos to Americans was disproportionately high: approximately 5,000–10,000 Filipino and 600–650 American prisoners of war died on the Bataan Death March. Calugas remained a prisoner at Camp O'Donnell until January 1943, when he was released to work for the Japanese. As an officer of the guerrilla unit, he participated in the attack on the Japanese garrison at Karangalan. While serving in Okinawa, Calugas completed the process of becoming a naturalized United States citizen. His wife of 52 years died in 1991.

Medal of Honor citation The action for which the award was made took place near Culis, Bataan Province, Philippine Islands, on 16 January 1942. A battery gun position was bombed and shelled by the enemy until 1 gun was put out of commission and all the cannoneers were killed or wounded. Sgt. Calugas, a mess sergeant of another battery, voluntarily and without orders ran 1,000 yards across the shell-swept area to the gun position. There he organized a volunteer squad which placed the gun back in commission and fired effectively against the enemy, although the position remained under constant and heavy Japanese artillery fire.

Awards and decorations Calugas earned multiple military decorations before he died, including the Medal of Honor.

Legacy On Mount Samat, there is a relief commemorating the event that lead to the awarding of the Medal of Honor.

Calugas was portrayed by Filipino actor Ronnie Lazaro in a 2003 one-hour Philippine documentary A Legacy of Heroes: The Story of Bataan and Corregidor.

His Medal of Honor was given to the Fort's museum for safekeeping and display by Calugas and his family before his death.

In 2006, a 36-unit apartment building, designed for low-income and disabled residents was dedicated as the "Sgt. Jose Calugas, Sr. Apartments" in High Point, Seattle.

On Memorial Day in 2009, his memory was honored at the Living War Memorial Park on a memorial that had previously been established there.