Battle of Bataan

Kenneth Moffett was born in July of 1915 in Healdton OK (an oil patch town). By late 1915, production in their town's oil fields supplied energy for the new automotive age in the United States. Plus, the Allied war machine of World War I. As a result, Healdton had an influx of oilmen moved in stressing the town's facilities. Hastily-built stores, rooming (or boarding) houses and entertainment places turned the once quiet community into a typical oil boom town. Young Kenneth grew up poor - he had a mother, a father, a brother Roscoe and a sister Frieda. Their father left them when Kenneth was only twelve years old. This was just before the Great Depression which was a time of financial crises, Kenneth and Roscoe both helped their mother by working and providing food for their family. The conditions for agriculture in Oklahoma grew bleaker as the depression continued. During the Dust Bowl, the drought in Oklahoma, dust was blowing night and day all throughout the state. Oklahoma farmers moved to town in search of work. These migrants came to personify largely negative images of the depression. Although not all of the migrants in California were from Oklahoma, all were stereotyped as "Okies" by John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath. The depression and prohibition created another kind of outlaw. People feared and revered American gangsters who often controlled liquor sales, gambling and prostitution. These men were often murderers and outright robbers. Sometimes they were involved in the political, social and economic conditions of the times. Infamous names of the era included people such as Al Capone, Jack "Legs" Diamond, John Dillinger, "Baby Face" Nelson and "Pretty Boy" Floyd. Pretty Boy Floyd was an infamous resident of Oklahoma. He was a farm boy who turned into a bank robber who became America's Public Enemy #1. At times law abiding citizens were very much in danger during this time. Bootleggers made moonshine whisky to sell. They paid off some of the law who allowed them to sell it without being arrested. Kenneth decided to steal it and sell it to buy food. Well, that got him in trouble with both the law and the bootleggers so he ran away. Kenneth decided to go into the Navy and joined the Medical Corp as a Pharmacist mate. During World War II his assignment was the Philippines where he was part of the Bataan Death March. On April 9, 1942, the USA surrenders the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese. Approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make a horrific 65-mile march to prison camps. They trekked in intense heat and were subjected to harsh treatment by Japanese guards. Thousands perished in what became known as the Bataan Death March. Kenneth survived the death march and was taken as a Prisoner of War (POW). In the POW camp he and the other Americans were used as slave labor in the coal mines. Because he was a medic he was allowed to treat prisoners as much as he could with little or nothing. The prisoners were given one bowl of rice per day and very occasionally, one piece of fish. It seemed miraculous when the war ended and the prisoners were freed. Kenneth returned to America and met his wife at Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois. She was also in the U.S. Navy as a WAVE, a division consisting entirely of women. WAVE stands for Women Accepted for Volunteer Experience. At the end of the war, these women were not allowed to continue their work with the Navy. This Navy's effort using women at that time was just for the emergency of WWII. Kenneth and Betty got married after knowing each other for just one week. It was true love and over the years, they had five children together. June was born in Texas, Betsy was born in Pennsylvania, Sue was born in California, Kenneth Preston Moffett II was born in Maine and Jack was born in California. They lived happily ever after.