US Air Corps Private Roy Leon McInnis was born in Conecuh, County, Alabama on March 20, 1920, the son of Ernest Leon McInnis (1894-1952) and Aline Miller (1900-1979). His father was a WWI veteran who enlisted on 9-16-1916 and was stationed with the 167th Infantry Regiment of the 32nd Infantry Division. He was discharged on January 3, 1919. He would support his family first as an auto mechanic in 1930 then as a rural mail carrier while the family was still living in McDavid, Florida in 1935. As for Roy, he would graduate from Century High School in Century, Florida in the class of 1937. After graduation he worked as a post office clerk, most likely a job his father helped him get since he was a mail carrier himself. By 1940, his father had returned to his former occupation of an auto mechanic for the federal WPA program while Roy had become a transfer agent for the post office.
All of that came to an end when Roy was inducted into the US Army Air Corps on October 8, 1940, and upon completion of his training was assigned to the 27th Bombardment Group. This group contained the 16th, 17th, 91st, HQ, 2nd Observation, and 454th Ordinance Squadrons. On November 1, 1941, Roy and his bomb group set sail for the Philippines only 37 days before Pearl Harbor. Even though his group was equipped with A-24 Banshee bombers, their planes never arrived after they were diverted following Pearl Harbor. By March 1942, groups of VIP personnel were placed on submarines and evacuated from the Philippines just before they were overwhelmed by the Japanese. But they were forced to leave behind 173 officers and 2,317 enlisted men plus four nurses who became prisoners of war when Corregidor capitulated. Roy was one of those unlucky prisoners.
And he was also unlucky enough to be sent to Camp O'Donnell whose conditions and treatment was one of the worse in history. To make matters even worse on May 22nd, the Japanese formed the Tayabas Road Detail of 300 POWs to go to Tabayas Province to build the Tayabas Road. The health of this group was already extremely poor with 80% suffering from malaria, beriberi, and other forms of diarrhea. The men arrived at the work location following a long hike from the main road on May 28th, leaving one soldier dead along the way. They had started out on trucks then boarded railroad flatcars before being told to start walking. Even though they were ill with fevers and dysentery, they walked to the site fifteen miles through the jungle. Upon arrival, they were forced to sleep on bare rocks out in the weather under driving rains from the monsoons. Then they began clearing the jungle to build the road with nothing but picks and shovels. With little food, poor sanitation and no shelter the men began to quickly deteriorate. Soon they became sicker and sicker and began dying. (Source "Tears in the Darkness by Michael and Elizabeth Norman).
Those that became too sick to work were transported to Bilibid Prison in Manila and admitted to the Naval Hospital there. Private Roy Leon McInnis was one of those who arrived on July 16th greatly emaciated and malnourished. This was in addition to suffering from malaria for the last two months. He was immediately placed on quinine and vitamin therapy, but his condition grew worse by the day. He finally passed away on July 18th and was buried in the hospital cemetery. The total number of dead from disease, starvation, and execution will never be known but those that could be found were disinterred and removed to the Manila American Cemetery after the war.
Comments