N.M. Guard unit leaving today for Balikatan

[unhappycamper]

N.M. Guard unit leaving today for Balikatan
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Feb 11, 2008 11:34:43 EST

LAS CRUCES, N.M. — A unit of the National Guard is scheduled to leave Monday for a training exercise in the Philippines, the first time New Mexico guard troops will visit the Pacific islands since World War II.

Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 200th Infantry, based in Las Cruces, will participate in the Balikatan 2008 Training Exercise later this month. The unit is commanded by Lt. Col. Marc Arellano.

New Mexico has a special connection to the Philippines because of the infamous Bataan Death March, which included captured troops from the New Mexico National Guard’s 200th Coast Artillery.

Some 70,000 American and Filipino troops who surrendered to Japanese forces on the Bataan Peninsula in April 1942 and were forced to march 65 miles without food or water to prison camps.

Those who collapsed along the way were shot or bayoneted. About 1,800 of the captives were from New Mexico; fewer than 900 of those men survived the march or the following years in prison camps.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_nmguard_080211/