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<em>Melvin Herbert Rosen</em> was born in Gloucester, MA, of immigrant parents who had escaped persecution in Czarist Russia, met, and married in the United States. Most of the relatives they left behind perished in the Holocaust. No one familiar with Mel’s back­ground expected to have a West Point gradu­ate or career Army officer in the family.</p>
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In 1935, Mel graduated from Gloucester High School as class valedictorian. He relished Gloucester’s ROTC program, serving as a cadet captain and company commander, experiences that started his lifelong love affair with the Army.</p>
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Mel enrolled on scholarship in M.I.T.’s aeronautical engineering program. At M.I.T. he competed for an appointment to West Point and was designated second alternate. When the principal and first alternate failed to meet the re­quirements, Mel joined the Class of 1940.</p>
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Plebe year, Mel joined a small group of Jewish cadets who attended voluntary Jewish services on Saturday afternoons. This was the genesis of the first Jewish Cadet Chapel Squad at West Point.</p>
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Upon graduation, Mel requested assign­ment in the Field Artillery at Ft. Stotsenburg, Philippine Islands. He correctly surmised that the Japanese would first attack the U.S. and the Philippines. He also assumed forces in the Philippines would have the best weaponry. Mel was incorrect. When he arrived at Ft. Stotsenburg in January 1941, he was assigned to the Philippine Scouts (PS). The soldiers were magnificent, but the equipment was antiquat­ed. Mel recalled turning to a friend and class­mate and saying, “Murph, we’ve been had!”</p>
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As a second lieutenant, Mel organized and commanded E Battery, 2d Battalion, 88th FA (PS). He was the only officer in the battery. On 8 Dec 1941 (7 December in the U.S.), Mel was a first lieutenant and assistant operations officer in the Provisional Field Artillery Brigade, which the Japanese attacked hours after Pearl Harbor.</p>
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Eleven days later, CPT Rosen was on the first battlefield promotion list of WWII. He later com­manded the battery he had organized, fighting with E Battery until Bataan was surrendered 9 Apr 1942 and he became a prisoner of the Japanese.</p>
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Mel survived the notorious Death March and was sent to the Davao Penal Colony, where he survived for two and a half years. There, he planted rice, weeded rice, harvest­ed rice, and labored as a lumberjack. As the Americans pushed north, the Japanese moved most of their prisoners back to Luzon.</p>
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On 13 Dec 1944, the Japanese moved 1,619 American POWs, including Mel, to Japan in the infamous “Hell Ships.” U.S. Navy dive bombers destroyed the unmarked <em>Oryoku Maru,</em> however, Mel and the other survivors swam ashore. There, the Japanese rounded them up and put them aboard the <em>Enoura Maru.</em> This second unmarked ship was also bombed by the Navy. Survivors were put on a third ship, the <em>Brazil Maru,</em> which arrived in Japan on 30 Jan 1945 with about 430 of the original group. Many of Mel’s comrades died in the following months.</p>
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After the “Bataan Death March,” the “Hell Ships,” and three and a half years of Japanese prison camps, Mel arrived in Japan weighing eighty-eight pounds. He was liberated from Inchon, Korea, in September 1945. He chose to return home slowly via ship, rather than by air, not wanting his parents to see him so ill. (More about Mel Rosen’s history is at www. us-japandialogueonpows.org/Rosen.htm.)</p>
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Mel was evacuated to the States and hospital­ized at Camp Devens, MA. On leave from the hospital, he met Olive Oppenheim, whom he married a year and a half later in 1947. Then, he returned early to active duty and attended the Officers Advanced Course No. 1 at Ft. Sill, OK.</p>
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After COL Rosen completed the Advanced Artillery Course at Ft. Sill, the Rosens went to the 2d Infantry Division at Ft. Lewis, WA, where he was assistant division G-4, executive officer of the 38th FA Battalion, and 2d Division Artillery Operations and Plans Officer. He then spent three and a half years in the Pentagon as chief of plans and policy in the G-4 Procurement Division of the Army Staff. After completing CGSC at Ft. Leavenworth, KS, he was assigned to Heidelberg, Germany, where he served in the Procurement Division of Headquarters, U.S. Army Europe. Olive and new daughter Barbara (named for the patron saint of the Field Artillery) joined him there.</p>
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In 1956, Mel took command of the 775th FA Battalion and Dolan Barracks in Schwabisch Hall, Germany. He next was assigned to the faculty of the CGSC where he taught nuclear weapons. In 1961, son David was born, and Mel received his promotion to colonel and orders to the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks. He completed a master’s degree in international affairs from George Washington University, in Washington, DC, during this assignment. After graduation, Mel spent three years with the Defense Intelligence Agency.</p>
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An unaccompanied tour in Korea followed. Ironically, on the 20th anniversary of the day he was liberated from the POW camp in Inchon, Mel took command of the area where his for­mer camp had been located. He commanded the 20th General Support Group and ASCOM District Command, which included more than 14,500 personnel. In 1966, he returned to the U.S. to be stationed with Combat Developments Command at Ft. Belvoir, VA. There, he helped to design and establish the Army’s Institute of Land Combat, which he later commanded.</p>
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Mel retired in December 1970. He subse­quently worked as an analyst and project man­ager for Research Analysis Corporation/General Research Corporation, Litton Industries, and Systems Research and Applications Corporation (SRA). He authored more than 20 publications, including the <em>History of the Philippine Scouts Field Artillery.</em> He retired from this sector in 1985.</p>
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Mel’s awards included the Silver Star, Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster, Bronze Star, Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster, Army Commendation Medal, three medals from the Republic of the Philippines, three U.S. Presidential Unit Citations, and a Philippine Presidential Unit Citation. In 1990, the King of Norway, Olav V, awarded Mel and Olive Saint Olav Medals, the highest award given by the King to non-Norwegians.</p>
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Mel is missed dearly by his survivors: his wife of 60 years, Olive Rosen, daughter Barbara (Gregg Powell) Rosen, and son David (Jeannette Wrysinski) Rosen, grandchildren Jacob Rosen, Aren and Adam Scardaci, and Heather Powell, great-grandchildren Morgan and Savannah Goodrich, and niece Arlene (Robert) Malech.</p>
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