BATAAN LEGACY Filipino & American WW II Veterans & Survivors Reunite After 72 Years

The Philippine Consulate General San Francisco & Bataan Legacy Historical Project Present: BATAAN LEGACY Filipino & American WW II Veterans & Survivors Reunite After 72 Years Memorial Day Commemoration Monday, May 26, 2014 at 2PM (Doors Open at 1:30PM) 447 Sutter St., Social Hall, San Francisco, CA 94108 Free Admission San Francisco, CA

– April 22, 2014 – In commemoration of Memorial Day, the Philippine Consulate General, San Francisco and the Bataan Legacy Historical Project will present the Bataan Legacy

– Filipino and American WWII Veterans & Survivors Reunite After 72 Years on Monday, May 26, 2014 at 2PM (Doors will open at 1:30PM).

The event will take place at the Philippine Consulate General office located at 447 Sutter St., Social Hall, San Francisco, CA 94108. Admission is Free. The event will memorialize the men and women who died in the Philippines during WWII. Manila, once called the Pearl of the Orient, became the second most devastated city after Warsaw. Thousands of Filipino and American soldiers died and by the end of the war approximately one million civilians died. The event will feature veterans of the war as well as civilian survivors who will speak about their experiences during the war. Among those expected to attend are Dan Crawley of the 17th Pursuit Squadron (Simsbury, CT), David Tejada of the 12th Signal Co., Ramon Regalado of the 57th Infantry Regiment, Luis Gaerlan, Jr. of the 41st Infantry Regiment, Guillermo Garcia of the Philippine Air Corp/91st Division, George Cawley of the 71st Division, Oscar Leonard and Harold Bergbower of the 28th Bomb Squadron, Bill Sanchez of the 59th Coast Artillery and civilian internees. There are only a handful of WWII veterans of Bataan and Corregidor left, mostly in their nineties. This is a rare opportunity and probably one of the last reunions of Filipino and American veterans and survivors. The Bataan Legacy Historical Project was created by Cecilia Gaerlan to present a comprehensive picture of World War II in the Philippines from different perspectives. It is forming a coalition to implement California Legislation AB199 (2011) which calls for the inclusion of the role of the Filipinos during WWII in the social studies curriculum for Grades 7-12.

For more information, please visit www.bataanlegacy.org; www.facebook.com/BataanLegacy or call (415) 433-6666 Ext. 313 or (510) 520-8540.