On reporting for duty on December 21, 1941 we discovered that the SOP did not have advance information of our coming and did not know what to do with us. We set up our radio and tried to contact Cavite but the intervening hills made it useless. We were assigned to quarters but with the exception of classmates, did not feel at home for the time we were attached to the 1st Bn. Early in wording Of the 23rd we were awakened and told to report to Col. Beecher. On arriving we were ordered to form a rifle company and be prepared to move out at dawn to fight a delaying action. It was quite a job for we were under-officered and had too few NCO’s but, at dawn, we were ready. We stood by all morning but nothing materialized. We spent many dreary hours unloading equipment that came down from Cavite and much time running to foxholes when air raid sirens wailed.
Carter B. Simpson
(November 3, 1915 — December 31, 1944), Captain, USMC. Served on Bataan and Corregidor; P.O.W.; perished on the hellship Oryoku Maru.
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