were taken prisoner and forced to march 65 miles without any food, water, or medical care in what came to be known as the Bataan Death March . (8) During this forced march, thousands of soldiers died, either from starvation, lack of medical care, sheer exhaustion, or abuse by their captors. (9) Conditions at the prisoner of war camps were appalling, leading to increased disease and malnutrition among the prisoners. (10) The prisoners at Camp O’Donnell died at a rate of nearly 400 per day because of the poor conditions of the camp. (11) On June 6, 1942, the prisoners at Camp O’Donnell were transferred to Camp Cabanatuan, north of Camp O’Donnell. (12) Nearly 26,000 of the 50,000 Filipino prisoners of war died at Camp O’Donnell and survivors were gradually paroled from September through December 1942. (13) Between September of 1942 and December of 1944, prisoners of war from the Armed Forces who had survived the horrific death march were shipped north for forced labor aboard hell ships and succumbed in great numbers because of the abysmal conditions. Many of those ships were mistakenly targeted by Allied naval forces because the Japanese military convoys were not properly labeled as carrying prisoners of war. The sinking of the Arisan Maru alone claimed nearly 1,800 lives of members of the Armed Forces. (14) The prisoners who remained in the camps suffered from continued mistreatment, malnutrition, lack of medical care, and horrific conditions until they were liberated in 1945. (15) The veterans of Bataan represented the best of the United States and the Philippines, hailed from various locales across both countries, and represented true diversity. (16) Over the subsequent decades, the veterans of Bataan formed support groups, were honored in local and State memorials, and told their stories to all people of the United States. (17) The United States Navy has continued to honor the history and stories of the veterans of Bataan by naming 2 ships after the battle, including 1 ship that is still in service, the USS