become a matter of record, now, with the hope that this treatment will be improved if the Japanese ever expect to be viewed on a basis of moral equality with civilized peoples. Finally, we feel that the very highest authorities in Japan should be warned before all the world--and warned now, so that there can be no evasion of responsibility--that we are fully aware of Japanese treatment of captured Americans in the Philippine military prisons. In addition, this story is being told--and an unpleasant story it is--with the fervent hope that it will increase by even a small particle the American people's feeling of urgency and necessity for a supreme effort in the Pacific, an effort which must not be allowed to diminish until the complete goal has been reached. Although this report has been prepared as a personal narrative by the senior Army and Navy members of the escape party, we cannot emphasize too strongly that no one person deserves mention above any other. Of the other eight, each lived up to the highest traditions of his individual service. Included in the party were Lieutenant Commander (now Commander) Melvin H. McCoy, USN, Annapolis '27; Major (now Lieutenant Colonel) Stephen S. Mellnik, Coast Artillery, West Point '32S three Air Corps officers, Captain W. E. Dyess and Second Lieutenants L. A. Beelens and Samuel Grashio; three Marine Corps officers, Captain A. C. Shofner and First Lieutenants Jack Hawkins and Michael Dobervich; and two Army sergeants, R. B. Spielman and Paul Marshall. |