Photo shared by Military Road Museum at Lavaca, Sebeastian Co., Ar. Carl Slater Dyer, Jr. was born September 27, 1924 in Fort Smith, Sebastian Co., Ar. to Carl Slater Sr & Charlotte Durham Dyer. February 16, 1946 he marrued Jean Grandon from Tonica, LaSalle, Illinois. The marriage was in Benton Co., Arkansas. Jean also served in the US Army from 30 May 1945 until 21 March 1946. Her obit says she was a second lieutent. She was a graduate from St. Mary's Nursing School in Illinois. He met her at the Letterman Army Hospital. Carl enlisted in the US Army March 17, 1941 in the Quartermaster Corps. On his enlistment papers he states that he has completed 1 year of high school and his civil occupation was "Semiskilled mechanics and repairmen, motor vehicles". Carl again registered for the military draft March 15, 1946 at Sebastian Co., Ar. On his registration card it says "just discharged". No earlier draft card has been found. Carl Dyer profile from http://americanpowsofjapan.blogspot.com/ CARL DYER, 91, resides in Oglesby, Illinois. He grew up in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Not a fan of schoolwork, Mr. Dyer at 16 convinced the U.S. Army recruiter that he was 18 and enlisted. Sworn in on March 17, 1941 at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in Little Rock, he was sent immediately to California and Fort McDowell (Angel Island). Barely a month later he was on a troop transport to Manila, arriving May 12, 1941. He was stationed with at Fort William McKinley as a member of the 12th Quartermaster Regiment Philippine Scouts supplying gasoline to the troops on Bataan. After Bataan was surrendered on April 9, 1942, he escaped the next day to Corregidor aboard a fresh water barge from Sisiman Cove near Mariveles - where most of the surrendered troops on Bataan began the Bataan Death March. On Corregidor, he was assigned to the defense of Monkey Point. After surrender on May 6th, he joined thousands of other POW on a small open area, the 92nd Garage, to wait nearly three weeks in the tropical sun with little food or water to be sent by boat to Manila. The men were then made to wade ashore before being paraded six miles down Dewey Boulevard on a "Victory March" to the old Spanish-built prison of Bilibid. Within a few days they were moved by train and foot to the squalid Cabanatuan #3 POW Camp. On November 7, 1942, Mr. Dyer and over 1,400 American POWs were transferred to Japan via Formosa by the Hellship Nagato Maruto. After arriving at the Port of Moji, Mr. Dyer was sent to POW Camp Osaka 4-B Tanagawa where he was a slave laborer for Tobishima-gumi (today's Tobishima Corporation). There he helped build breakwater for a primitive dry-dock and submarine base. This camp was noted for the severe malnutrition of its prisonsers and an excessive death rate. It was closed March 20, 1945, and he was then moved to Osaka 8-D Naruo a POW camp to provide slave labor for Showa Denkyoku (Showa Electrode Company, Ltd., today's SEC Carbon, Ltd.) for a graphite factory. This camp was closed in May and he was transferred Osaka 5-B Tsuruga on the Sea of Japan to be a slave stevedore for Tsuruga Harbor Transportation Company (company no longer exists). After the docks were bombed in June, the POWs were shifted between a brickyard and the port. It was at the dock that he listened with the Japanese workers to the Emperor say that the war had ended. After the first food airdrops into his POW camp, he and a number of fellow POWs walked out of the camp and commandeered a train to Tokyo. From there they were flown to Manila on August 29th and then boarded USS Rodman to San Francisco arriving there October 3, 1946. After a check up at Letterman Army Hospital, he was sent home to Fort Smith, Arkansas. He spent several more months at the Hot Springs Army-Navy General Hospital before he was discharged from the Army on March 15, 1946. He took advantage of the GI Bill by taking courses on mechanics at the Fort Smith High School. Mr. Dyer first worked at the Lowell Brickyard in Chicago and then as a tractor operator at the Caterpillar plant in Aurora, Illinois. After retiring in 1985, he and his wife moved to Hawaii, but returned to Illinois in September of 2000. Mr. Dyer was widowed in 2009 after 63 years of marriage to Jean, an Army nurse he met at the Letterman Army Hospital. POW# Philippines POW# 1-9778 World War II Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941-1945 Name:.......................Carl S Dyer Branch of Service:...Quartermaster Corps Rank:........................Corporal Service Number:......17014448 Assigned Unit:.........12th Quartermaster Regiment (Philippine Scouts) Parent Unit:...............Philippine Division Source:.................,....American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor - registration records POW info July 15, 1942 Field Title Value............................................Meaning SERIAL NUMBER..........................17014448...... 17014448 NAME...............................................DYER CARL S... DYER CARL S GRADE, ALPHA................. ............CPL............Corporal GRADE CODE 6............First Lieutenant or Chief nurse or Head dietitian or Head physical therapy aide or Corporal or Technician 5th Grade or Lt. Jr. Grade or First Class, Seaman SERVICE CODE 1............................ARMY ARM OR SERVICE...........................QMC Quartermaster Corps ARM OR SERVICE CODE 50..........QMC: QUARTERMASTER CORPS DATE REPORT: DAY (DD)............. 07 07 DATE REPORT: MONTH (MM)..... 05 05 DATE REPORT: YEAR (Y)............. 2 1942 RACIAL GROUP CODE 1.............. WHITE STATE OF RESIDENCE 87............. Arkansas TYPE OF ORGANIZATION PARENT UNIT NUMBER PARENT UNIT TYPE AREA 45.................................. Southwest Pacific Theatre: Philippine Islands LATEST REPORT DATE:....... DAY (DD) 20 20 LATEST REPORT DATE:....... MONTH (MM) 11 11 LATEST REPORT DATE:....... YEAR (Y) 5 1945 SOURCE OF REPORT 1......... Individual has been reported through sources considered official. STATUS 8................................. Returned to Military Control, Liberated or Repatriated DETAINING POWER 2........... JAPAN CAMP....................................... 611 Osaka Main Camp Chikko Osaka 34-135 REP POW TRANSPORT SHIPS Carl Slater Dyer, Jr. passed away on November 9, 2017 at LaSalle, LaSalle Co., Illinois and is buried in Fairview Cemetery, Tonica, LaSalle Co., Illinois. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hurst Funeral Home Carl Dyer Mr. Dyer served with the U.S. Army and was a POW in Japan for 3 1/2 years. He worked at Lowell Brickyards and then retired from Caterpiller in Aurora. He was a member of Tonica American Legion and American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society. Mr. Dyer was an avid golfer. He was a member of Edgewood, Deer Park, and Dayton Ridge Golf Courses. He was preceded in death by his wife Jean on September 13, 2009, and two sons, Carl and Kim Dyer.