"So there I was, looking down on four Generals and a couple of bird Colonels, all kneeling on the floor, bottoms up, poring over a large plotting maps of the Philippine Islands. It was quite a view." (Memoir, p 16)

Roy E. Jolma

War: World War, 1939-1945 Branch: Army Air Forces/Corps Unit: 19th Material Squadron Service Location: United States; Philippines; Japan Rank: Technical Sergeant POW: Yes Place of Birth: WA

When Roy Jolma enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1939, he never expected that within three years his country would be embroiled in war. Stationed in the Phillipines in 1942, he was on Bataan when the American troops there surrendered to the Japanese forces, and he participated in the infamous Bataan Death March. He bounced between several POW camps and was eventually sent to Fukuoka, Japan, to work in the steel mines there. He was liberated in 1945 at the end of the war.