PHILIPPINE SCOUTS WITH A UNIQUE STORY – MANILA ABMC CEMETERY

Donato Cabading was a sergeant with the 45th Infantry Regiment - Philippine Scouts
Donato Cabading – right foreground – was a sergeant with the 45th Infantry Regiment – Philippine Scouts. He died the end of January 1942.

During the early battles in the southwestern Pacific, most of the defenders against Japanese aggressions were Filipino. Among the graves and the Walls of the Missing, you will find many of their names. In this post, some of the stories of the Philippine Scouts, a truly unique unit of the American Army, come forward.

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REMOVING MYSTERY FROM THE WALLS OF THE MISSING – Manila ABMC

A few of the Walls of the Missing - Manila ABMC
A few of the Walls of the Missing – Manila ABMC

Over 36,000 names cover the Walls of the Missing at Manila ABMC Cemetery.  The men unaccounted for during World War 2 all over the southwestern Pacific.  Most serving on ships sunk at sea or planes never coming home.  There are plenty of others, bodies never found in the jungles of the Solomons, New Guinea, the Philippines, Burma or other locations.

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MANILA ABMC CEMETERY – HEROES LIE IN THE MYSTICAL SILENCE

manilaabmc
The chapel at Manila ABMC Cemetery flanked on either side by the hemicycles of the Walls of the Missing.

Surrounded by skyscraping condominium towers on the former site of the Fort McKinley, grass fields festooned with thousands of white granite crosses mark the largest American military cemetery outside of the United States.  The Manila American Battle Monuments Commission – ABMC – Cemetery holds the remains of 17.097 men who died mostly in the World War 2 fighting in New Guinea and the Philippines.  The names of another 36,286 men whose remains never discovered inscribed on The Tablets of the Missing place on limestone piers within two hemicycles separated by a small chapel atop a small hill.  The quiet is out of place in the frenetic world of Bonifacio Global City outside of the cemetery walls. 

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