WW2 Philippine Fallen - Andrew Hepburn, Bataan Death March survivor + most decorated air mission of war

Cpl. Andrew Hepburn served with the 192nd Tank Battalion prior to becoming a prisoner on war in the Philippines.
https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/19453852/person/818662105/media/50bc424c-4471-4844-a062-2793b9cc6f48?_phsrc=TeO2&_phstart=successSource
https://forum.m1911.org/showthread.php?67838-The-Period-Pics-Thread-(Thread-permanent-pics-period)/page6
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/140534733/andrew-hepburn 

Andrew Hepburn never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.

He was born on July 25, 1918 in North Ireland. His parents Samuel and Mary were also both born in Ireland. His father worked as a bricklayer. Apart from Andrew, the Hepburns had one other son. Andrew completed four years of high school.

He joined the army on November 25, 1940 via the Illinois National Guard. He became a Tech 4 in Company B, 192nd Tank Battalion. It was supposed to be a one year assignment, but the 192nd Tank Battalion was sent to the Philippines, arriving on November 20, 1941. The men were given a Thanksgiving dinner upon arriving at Clark Field. They watched helplessly as a Japanese air attack on December 8, 1941 destroyed nearly all the planes parked on the field.

Cpl. Hepburn's unit was moved to Bataan where it held out with dwindling food and ammunition until April 1942. After surrendering, Cpl Hepburn suffered through the Bataan Death March. He was a POW in Camp O'Donnell and Cabanatuan. Health care was atrocious and illnesses that could be easily survived with proper diet and medicine felled many prisoners. Cpl. Hepburn contract tuberculosis and died on October 18, 1943.

His grave is at Town of Maine Cemetery in Park Ridge, Illinois.

Thank you Cpl. Hepburn for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Andrew.

Medal of Honor Hero Jay Zeamer

Born on the same day as Andrew Hepburn was Jay Zeamer from Pennsylvania. He became an Eagle Scout growing up in New Jersey. He attended a military school instead of his local high school and after one year at junior college transferred to Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he joined the MIT flying club. He graduated with a degree in civil engineering in 1940.

After joining the Army Air Forces in March 1941, he was trained to fly B-26 Marauders. His unit, the 22nd Bomb Group was sent to Australia in April 1942. While there he transferred to the 43rd Bomb Group which was equipped with B-17 Flying Fortresses. He had no flight training in B-17s so he had to scrounge to get seat time as a co-pilot. He rebuilt a damaged plane from the scrap yard so he could have a plane of his own to fly in the pilot position.

During his war service Captain Zeamer would earn two Silver Stars, two Distinguished Service Crosses, and the Medal of Honor. The book Lucky 666 by Bob Drury and Tom Calvin, is an excellent account of Cpt. Zeamer and the crew of the B-17 known as Old 666. 

Old 666 was a specially modified B-17 that was used for special photo-recon missions. Expected to fly beyond the range of fighter protection, it was decked out with extra heavy caliber guns. This included a fixed .50 caliber mounted in the nose that Zeamer could fire from his pilot's column. 

Zeamer and his crew volunteered to fly a recon mission over Bougainville to obtain the photos needed for McArthur's next island target. On June 16, 1943 they took off as a solo plane for the 1,200 mile round trip flight. After taking the pictures, Old 666 was chased by nine enemy fighters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Zeamer_Jr.
https://airwarworldwar2.wordpress.com/2016/10/21/debunking-the-myths-of-old-666/ 

Despite being wounded in the leg, Zeamer held off all the enemy fighters for nearly an hour and kept the plane flying despite extensive damage and injuries to much of the crew. His bombardier, who was the only one killed on the mission, was also awarded the Medal of Honor and each of the rest of the crew were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. This was the most highly decorated single mission and crew of the whole war.

Zeamer retired as a lieutenant colonel and worked in the aerospace industry after the war. He died in 2007. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.


Last year on this date I profiled Medal of Honor hero Robert Roeder, 88th Infantry Division. You can read about Robert here.

On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!

I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.

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WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by

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http://www.tggf.org