Who remembers?

The following was given as a sermon on Memorial Day weekend. We print it here as the country observes Veterans Day on Nov. 11.

By Ken Main

PALM SPRINGS, California—Who remembers the Bataan Death March?

In March 1941, 150 men who had enlisted ahead of the draft were awaiting transportation to a port of embarkation. They had the privilege of choosing their assignments, which were an Infantry Division based on the Bataan Peninsula, in the Philippines, and Coast Artillery Units, one of which was on Corregidor.

After about three days, the order came to fall out and climb aboard trucks, which were soon filled and roaring down the street and out of sight, leaving one man standing alone. I was that man!

Reason? Delayed parental consent. My comrades-at-arms went on that dangerous, disastrous journey. About one year later, Gen. Jonathan Wainwright was forced to surrender his troops to the Japanese. Had he known what would befall them in the next days and months, he would likely have ordered total resistance to the death of every man and woman.

About 70,000 men were forced to march under a blazing sun without food or water for three or four days to prison camps. When one faltered or fell, or tried to help another, he was shot or beaten or bayoneted without mercy. About 10,000 men failed to complete the march. The death rate in the prison camps was high, because of savagery, malnutrition, disease and slave labor.

Does our Savior Jesus Christ remember the Bataan Death March and the soldiers’ sacrifices and cries for help?

In August 1945, our troop ship, traveling zigzag in a convoy bound for the island of Leyte and Manila, in the Philippines, was on the high seas at about the same time as the U.S.S. Indianapolis.

This heavy cruiser had just delivered components of the atomic bomb to the island of Tinian and was also en route to Leyte. A Japanese submarine intercepted our warship and fired torpedoes. The Indianapolis went down in just 15 minutes, taking almost half the crew to the bottom with her.

Several hundred men went into the sea; many were wounded. They tried to form groups to survive until help arrived. In just a short time dorsal fins appeared and a savage shark attack began. The struggle and desperation that followed makes one heartsick to describe.

Does Jesus have the men of the Indianapolis in mind? Does he know the names of the men who lost the battle with the predators of the sea?

Some of us have personal reasons to remember those times of great peril and sacrifice. As a sergeant, my name was included in an order for special training for operating a landing craft, the kind you see in the movies that goes ashore in combat conditions, drops the ramp and delivers troops and equipment as part of the invasion force.

For some reason, the order was rescinded. Was my life spared again for some reason? More than 2,500 men were killed on D-day; 8,500 wounded.

My wife’s brother Jim was a flight engineer and gunner on a B-17 that was shot down over Germany. He bailed out and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of war. The 487th Bomb Group lost 230 airmen in missions over Germany. Will Jesus forget these troops and airmen in that great day yet to come?

A total of 13,067 Marines gave their lives in Vietnam. Our son, Gary, was a Marine and served there in that war. He came home OK. Over time, 200 or more Marines were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Does our Savior Jesus understand the suffering, brutality, pain, anguish, fear, the cries for help that occurred on Bataan, Normandy, Vietnam and more recently, at the World Trade Center?

The answer is in Isaiah 53:3-4: "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.... Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows."

Does our great Lord God have a rescue plan in place for all who are under the sea and under the earth?

Yes, it is summarized in Revelation 21:3-5: " ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.... He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away!’ He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ "

The following is inscribed on a monument in Corregidor:

Sleep my sons, your duty done

For freedom light has come.

Sleep in the silent depths of the sea

Or in your bed of hallowed sod

Until you hear at dawn

The low clear reveille of God.

The greatest Memorial Day of all time is in our future. We will celebrate that one with our Savior Jesus Christ—and we will all sing together: "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord" with extreme excitement and great gladness.

Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2002