(AMERICAN MILITARY NEWS) – A former Clemson English professor who survived the Bataan Death March during World War II died Monday at age 104. Retired Col. Ben Skardon died at his home in Clemson.
A native of Walterboro, Skardon was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army after his graduation in 1938 from the then-all-male military Clemson College.
In 1942, Skardon and some 75,000 other American and Filipino troops were forced to march 65 miles to prison camps in what has become known as the Bataan Death March. It was hot, and the Japanese tortured their captives. Thousands died.
