Ilion High School - Class of 1937

Herkimer Evening Telegram - November 21, 1945

Radio to Dramatize Story Of Cpl. Jack Chesebrough

Article 4

Ilion - The story of an Ilion youth who survived three and a half years in Jap prison camps following the infamous death march on Bataan will be related in a gripping dramatization broadcast by WGY Saturday night, in what promises to be an unforgettable Eighth Victory Loan Drive program.

One Jack Chesebrough, Ilion, now a patient at Rhoads General Hospital, Utica, will take part on the program which will be broadcast at 7:30 p. m. The appearance of Chesebrough is made possible through the cooperation of the Public Relations Division of Rhoads General Hospital.

Earle Pudney of WGY's staff has taken the story of Jack Chesebrough and welded it into a powerful drama under the title "The Saga of Bataan."

Jack Chesebrough enlisted before Pearl Harbor in the U. S. Army Air Force. Stationed in the Philippines he went through the entire campaign with the men under Gen. King, helping to hold off the crack Jap troops during the pre-Christmas retreat from one line to another until the Americans were blocked and cut off from help at Bataan.

With the fall of Bataan in April, 1942, Chesebrough remained a prisoner until Sept. 4, 1945. From a strapping youth weighing 160 pounds he shriveled to a 85 pound skeleton.

Chesebrough endured fiendish tortures at San Fernando, Bilibid prison and Cabanatuan and was finally shipped to Japan aboard a ship in which 1,036 men were crowded for eleven days into the forward hold with only standing room. Steamed rice twice a day and water once only in 24 hours were the rations.

Cpl. Chesebrough was in the mountains working in a copper mine when he was released by fellow Americans on Sept. 4, 1945. He was among the first former prisoners to arrive in Yokohoma from which point he was carried by air to Okinawa and to the Philippines and thence back to the United States by boat. Under the skilled treatment at Rhoads General Hospital the young man has gained in health and flesh and has so far recovered that he will be able to make the trip to Schenectady and speak before the microphone.