Bataan Day Event April 9 at Veterans Park: The Remember Bataan Foundation is inviting the public to an event on April 9 recognizing the 83rd anniversary of the surrender of Bataan. The event takes place at 4:30 pm by the Defenders of Bataan Memorial at Las Cruces Veterans Memorial Park, located at 2651 N. Roadrunner Parkway. The event will culminate with the lowering of the city’s garrison flag, which will fly throughout the day.

Descendants and friends of the ex-POWs are encouraged to attend and share their memories, but all are invited to the event. The foundation will display several of the “Faces of Bataan” banners – these are portraits of the ex-POWs - used in the most recent Bataan Memorial March last month at WSMR. The march drew more than 5,500 participants from around the country.

More than 1,800 members of the New Mexico National Guard’s 200th Coast Artillery regiment were surrendered in the Philippines along with 70,000 other American and Filipino troops on April 9, 1942. They were put on a 65-mile forced march under brutal conditions, which became known as the Bataan Death March. Three years as prisoners of war followed, with only about half of the New Mexican POWs surviving their ordeal.

Today, Bataan is one of the most memorialized historical events in New Mexico, with more than two dozen memorials of various kinds around the state. Also on April 9, the N.M. National Guard will hold the official state commemoration in Santa Fe by the Bataan memorial on the capitol grounds next to the Roundhouse.