In the now closed ATMB thread @DrDeth got all pissy that his father was mentioned in this thread, and flips out that “lies are being spread”.
Since the thread is locked, I can’t link to it.
Since he is accusing posters of lying about his father, which is rather ironic, then I’ll set the record straight.
I posted part of this before earlier in this thread, but because he is specifically stating that lies are being said about his father, then I want to include the additional research which should demonstrate that the only lies being said about his father are have been made by him.
In the recent WWII thread in GD, DD makes this incredible claim:
From wiki, The Philippine Defense Medal is a military award and decoration of the Republic of the Philippines which is awarded to recognize the initial resistance against Japanese invasion between the dates of 8 December 1941 and 15 June 1942. The award was first created in December 1944, and was issued as the Philippine Defense Ribbon . A full-sized medal was authorized and added in July, 1945
The Philippine Liberation Medal is a military award of the Republic of the Philippines which was created by an order of Commonwealth Army of the Philippines Headquarters on 20 December 1944, and was issued as the Philippine Liberation Ribbon . The decoration was presented to any service member, of both Philippine Commonwealth and allied militaries, who participated in the liberation of the Philippine Islands between the dates of 17 October 1944, and 2 September 1945. A full-sized medal was authorized and added on 22 July 1945.[1]
The Philippine Independence Medal [1] is a military award and decoration of the Republic of the Philippines which was created by order of the Philippine Army Headquarters on 3 July 1946 as the Philippine Independence Ribbon . The medal was added in 1968.[2] The medal recognizes those members of the military who had participated in multiple Philippine Commonwealth military operations during the years of World War II.
As someone with a considerable interest in WWII, and who has studied the Pacific War, I believe that this is a case of “stolen valor”, e.g., claiming that his father has medals which he did not receive. I don’t know, and frankly don’t care if it was his father who lied or DD himself, but someone is lying and it’s not other posters.
DD made some outlandish claims about his father:
I debunked the story earlier but since he’s calling us (me?) liars, let me go into greater detail.
Japan attacked the Philippines hours after Pearl Harbor, and completely caught the defenders unprepared. Not only did they decimate the USAAF, again, on the ground, they caused considerable damage to the US navy base. Admiral Hart, the commander of the Asiatic Fleet decided that it was no longer tenable to keep his base there and had most of the fleet sail.
The most of the Asiatic fleet and the several hundred thousands of tons of civilian shipping were ordered to leave on December 10th. Some combat ships, subs and PT boats were left behind as well as a few PBY aircraft.
After December 10th, the Navy was not longer able to withdraw more than a handful of high ranking personnel. The remaining warships were withdrawn when Manila was abandoned on Christmas and more than several thousand navy personnel were trapped with no escape.
The Japanese had an effective blockage of the Philippines, no surface ships were able to make it to the Philippines.
When the decision was made by McArthur to abandon Manila on December 25, the navy commander had to leave by submarine and only the most important and valuable officers were flown out in the one PBY available. The last submarine left the December 31, and it would not have taken a sick army nobody with them.
McArthur and the few members of the Bataan gang famously escaped on March 11, 1942, in four PT boats.
DD’s story is impossible. It would be overwhelmingly unlikely that any army personnel were evacuated on December 10th, and the claim is that he father didn’t join until the 8th, so that would be completely impossible.
Having malaria was actually, and unfortunately, all too common. The Army Heritage Center reports estimates that “roughly 24,000 out of the 75,000 American and Filipino defenders were suffering from malaria at the time of the invasion. Given that the Japanese invasion force included only 57,000 troops, the loss of an entire division’s worth of Soldiers was significant.”
These 24,000 troops were not invalided to Australia and then sent home. Woudl that father have been? Someone is lying.
Other parts of his story are also impossible or highly improbable. I’ve already established that his father wasn’t evacuated to Australia and then on to the States, but equally improbable would be the claim that a member of the "Bataan Gang’ (senior staff officers comprising the core of MacArthur’s GHQ for the duration of the war) would somehow personally request a nobody be returned from the States to be a gofer (who also typed at a memo once for a senior staff officer).
It makes no sense at all. There are no claims of extraordinary heroism as to why the father would have come to the attention of this group of generals, and then is was not attached to any particular department. Why would a general have a nobody tracked down (in the pre computerized record keeping age) and brought over to do something that any of the other 8 million recruits could do?
The claim also fails the internal consistency test. DD’s father has been repeatedly trotted out to push an conspiracy theory that FDR had advance knowledge of the Japanese attack, with the extraordinary claim that his father would have special insider knowledge of what would have been one of the greatest secrets of WWII.
This secret knowledge was supposedly passed along by NCOs, yet the much more accessible identity of his supposed benefactor was withheld from him.
There are simply no believable elements to the story. Why was Boeing flying planes into PI? Why was a trained aircrew recruit not assigned as an aircrew? Why was a raw recruit with no training or experience assigned to HQ?
The fall of the Philippines has rightfully been called one of the worse defeats in American history. The American forces were completely unprepared for the severity of the Japanese attack and were thrown into complete chaos. Somehow they managed a rather brilliant fighting retreat to Bataan, having to contend with untold hardships.
Yet somehow, an untrained civilian recruit did something so outstanding that he was personally remembered and then the great army bureaucracy was mobilized to track him down and get him reassigned as a generic gofer and pool typist. It just doesn’t make sense.
This is my initial debunking: