This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: marcenath Surnames: Rodriguez, Armijo, Overmier Classification: military Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.newmexico.counties.donaana/4376/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Las Cruces Sun News Bataan veterans group disbandsBy Christopher Schurtz/For the Sun-News Posted: 06/06/2010 10:24:15 RIO RANCHO - It was the end of an era for one of the state's oldest veterans organizations. The New Mexico chapter of the American Ex-Prisoners of War, which formed more than 60 years ago, held its last convention this past weekend. Most of its members were veterans of New Mexico's 200th National Guard taken prisoner by the Japanese in the Philippines in 1942. Many of them survived the infamous Bataan Death March, as well as three and half years of brutal prison camps. Now they are men in their 90s. The New Mexico Bataan-Corregidor Foundation reports there are fewer than 75 surviving Bataan veterans from New Mexico. Six of them made it to this last convention. With their numbers rapidly dwindling, the group decided three years ago to disband in 2010. They have transferred all the remaining group funds, as well as hopes of their legacy, to a newly formed New Mexico descendants and guardians group. "Yes, this is the end. But I hope (Bataan) will continue to be honored and remembered," said 92-year old former national commander Ralph Rodriguez of Albuquerque. "Not for me as an individual, but for the sake of history." New Mexico National Guard Commander Maj. Gen. Kenny Montoya assured the group the guard would never stop presenting the annual April 9 flag ceremony at the capitol started in 1946 by Bataan vet Manuel Armijo of Santa Fe. "We will continue to pass this on generation to generation," Montoya said Sunday morning at New Mexico Veterans Memorial in Albuquerque, where guardsmen performed Armijo's flag ceremony. AX-POW commander Bill Overmier, 90, of Albuquerque, said he feels at peace with the New Mexico group coming to an end. "We'll still have a local Bataan organization that will get together. The ceremony couldn't be in better hands than with the New Mexico National Guard," Overmier said. "So I guess it doesn't feel like the end, even though it is." A week after the fall of Bataan on April 9, 1942, a group of parents of some of the 1,800 New Mexicans taken as prisoners of war gathered in Albuquerque and formed the Bataan Relief Organization. The BRO grew to a national group that gathered medical supplies and food for the POWs, and linked grieving families. After the war, the BRO became the Bataan Veterans Organization and held its first national convention in Albuquerque in 1948. The group changed its name to the American Ex-Prisoners of War in 1949. With a membership of 33,000 at its peak, the group has lobbied for veterans and ex-POWs on various issues. But the main activities were its state and national conventions, where members gathered to share stories with the only people who understood their experiences: each other. The national group, now mostly made up of American ex-POWs from WWII-Europe, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf wars, will continue to exist, and will hold its annual convention in September in Albany, Ga. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.