Lieutenant William Edward Trogstad
William Edward Trogstad was born to Mads and Aasta Trogstad, immigrants from Norway, on September 21, 1916. He was raised in Las Vegas NM and graduated from Las Vegas HS in 1934. He then enrolled at NMAMC, leaving school after the 1937 school year. At the time of his enrollment his parents had both died and he reported his sister as his guardian.
He then went into the mining industry with stints in Terrero NM and Arizona. In 1941, he and his wife, Martha Bowler Trogstad moved to the Philippines where he was employed with Morrison Mining as a mining engineer.
After the outbreak of hostilities he joined the US Army and was commissioned as a Lieutenant and assigned to the 201st Combat Engineer Battalion (Philippine). The unit, along with the 202nd Combat Engineer battalion served as a strategic reserve on the Bataan Peninsula until 7 April, when they were hastened forward to stem the Japanese offensive. It is reported that Lt Trogstad was wounded during the ensuing hours of battle.
On April 9, 1942, the weakened survivors from the combined American and Filipino forces were unconditionally surrendered to the Japanese.
Most POWs were assembled in Mariveles at the southern tip of the Bataan peninsula and forced to march to San Fernando, Pampanga. Wounded men were assisted by able-bodied prisoners or carried on crude stretchers. Stragglers were beaten or killed. Civilians who showed mercy to the prisoners endured a similar fate. The incident covered a distance of 104 kilometers (65 miles) and became known as the Bataan Death March.
The final leg of the northward journey was completed inside stifling railway boxcars that took them to the prison set up at Camp O’Donnell. . Most of the American POWs were eventually transferred to Cabanatuan. The captured soldiers were subjected to inhumane conditions. Death from malnutrition, disease and abuse was a common occurrence. More than 4,000 American POWs and 25,000 Filipino POWs died in these two camps alone.
Lieutenant William Edward Trogstad died while a prisoner, most likely from disease and malnourishment, on November 7, 1942 at the age of 26. Today his remains rest at the Manila American Cemetery.
His wife was interred at the Santo Tomas Camp until freed by the American Forces in 1945. After the war she married a fellow internee whose wife had died at Santo Tomas.
Historical Source: Bataan Memorial Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jack W. Bradley, 515th Coast Artillery, who, despite a debilitating illness, wrote the history — engraved on three of the columns