World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseJose Cabalfin Calugas was born in Leon, Panay Island, Philippines in Dec 1907. His mother passed away in 1917, and he dropped out of school in order to earn money to help support the family. He joined the Philippine Scouts of the United States Army in 1930, and was trained in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, United States. Returning to the Philippines, he was assigned to 24th Artillery Regiment of the Philippine Scouts at Fort Stotsenburg, Pampanga. He was later reassigned to 88th Field Artillery Regiment of the Philippine Scouts. When Japan invaded the Philippines in Dec 1941, he held the rank of sergeant. His unit was mobilized for the defense of the American territory and was sent to the Bataan peninsula. Because his unit did not possess enough artillery pieces, he was assigned as a mess sergeant, placed in charge of meal preparations on the front lines. On 16 Jan 1942, near Culis, he noticed that one of his unit's 75-millimeter M1917 field gun crews had been wiped out. Without orders, he gathered volunteers to crew the silenced gun, firing it on known Japanese positions for the remainder of the afternoon. At nightfall, the officially assigned replacement gun crew arrived, and he returned to mess duty. He was recommended for the Medal of Honor by his commanding officer, but before any considerations could be made, Bataan fell under Japanese control, and he became a prisoner of war. He survived the Bataan Death March and was imprisoned at Camp O'Donnell north of Bataan. In Jan 1943, he was released for work at a Japanese-controlled rice mill. While there, he secretly joined an anti-Japanese guerrilla unit code named No. 227 Old Bronco, offering his military training to lead ambushes against Japanese soldiers. In 1945, the recommendation for the Medal of Honor was officially approved, and the medal was presented to him by General George Marshall. He was also given a commission in the United States Army. He was later deployed to Okinawa, Japan with the US 44th Infantry Regiment and later United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands for occupation duty. While in Okinawa, he completed the process of becoming a naturalized US citizen. He was later assigned to Fort Lewis, Washington, United States. In 1957, he retired from the US Army at the rank of captain. He moved to Tacoma, Washington and earned a business degree from University of Puget Sound in 1961. He worked for Boeing for some years. He passed away in Tacoma in Jan 1998.

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