on MacArthur's orders on 13 April. Knox, Kelly and Akers were evacuated on 23 April, and Brantingham also made one of the last flights out from Mindanao. Sharp surrendered on Mindanao on 10 May. MacArthur subsequently nominated Bulkeley for the Medal of Honor. The Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, Admiral Ernest King was not going to let MacArthur award the Medal of Honor to a naval officer, so he wrote a citation for Bulkeley on behalf of the Navy. Roosevelt presented it to Bulkeley in a ceremony in the Oval Office on 4 August 1942. Bulkeley contributed to a book about his PT squadron's exploits, entitled They Were Expendable. Parts were serialized in Reader's Digest and Life magazines and it became a bestseller in 1942. In 1944, it was adapted as a movie of the same name, with Robert Montgomery playing a character based on Bulkeley, John Wayne one based on Kelly, and Donna Reed in the role of an Army nurse with whom Kelly had a brief liaison. Postwar analysis found that most of the book's claims were exaggerated. The staff that MacArthur brought with him from Corregidor formed the nucleus of General Headquarters (GHQ) Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA). The "Bataan Gang", as they came to be called, remained with MacArthur for the duration, and were noted for their fanatical loyalty to him. So too was Bulkeley, who lauded MacArthur as "the greatest general as well as statesman since George Washington", and hailed his decision to escape on PT boats as a stroke of genius. Unfortunately, Brigadier General Harold H. George, who had escaped with MacArthur from Corregidor, was killed on duty in April 1942 at Batchelor Field, southeast of Darwin, when a USAAF P-40 lost control on takeoff and slammed into George and his party who had just landed in a Lockheed C-40 to inspect the airfields of northern Australia on behalf of MacArthur. George and two others died in the tragic accident. MacArthur eventually kept his promise, and returned to the Philippines. The Bataan Gang returned to Corregidor in March 1945 on four PT boats. Notes References 1942 in the Philippines Escape from the Philippines March 1942 events Military history of the Philippines during World War II PT boats Voyages