Albert Brown, 1905–2011

The oldest survivor of the Bataan Death March

During his three years in a Japanese POW camp, and on the infamous Bataan Death March that got him there, Albert Brown suffered a broken back and neck, a bayonet wound, and a dozen tropical diseases. When he was freed, at the end of World War II, a doctor told the 40-year-old artillery officer to enjoy life while he could, because he wouldn’t see 50. But Brown—the oldest Bataan survivor—made it to 105. “He had this incredible spirit to live and overcome,” said his biographer, Kevin Moore. “Positive thinking or whatever you call it, he survived.”

The Nebraska-born dentist and Army reservist was shipped off to the Philippines in September 1941, just three months before Japan invaded the country. Outnumbered, the American and Filipino forces pulled back into the mountainous jungles of Bataan province near Manila. “After four months of intense fighting—their ranks reduced by hunger and disease and with no reinforcements in sight—they surrendered,” said The New York Times.

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