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<em>Samuel Alton Madison</em> was born in Portia, Arkansas on 6 September 1917 to Robert S. and Lura Forehand Madison. His mother died when he was a very young child, and his father later married Virginia Garner, who was mother to him throughout his boyhood days. The family moved to Williford, Arkansas where he graduated from grammar and high schools. Following one year at Jonesboro State College, “Alton,” as he was known at home, was admitted to the United States Military Academy on 1 July 1935. As might have been expected, his name, among his fellow plebes, was changed to “Sam” on that day.</p>
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In that unsophisticated period of our history, who would have guessed that this quietly poised and confident young man had been reared in a rural community of population 800? These same attributes were to serve Sam well throughout plebe year, keeping him one step ahead of, and on occasion frustrating, upperclassmen. With his alert sense of humor and dry wit, Sam was comfortable in any group. On those drab Saturday and Sunday afternoons of late winter, he led the charge in the battle of barracks practical jokes. He absorbed his share in good spirit and invariably came up with the most original ideas for retribution.</p>
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Sam never claimed any personal heroes. He was his own man, unpretentious and self-sufficient. He cruised through his four years of academic and physical testing with little apparent effort, and graduated in the top half of his class. When he graduated 12 June 1939, he was ready for the job he had been trained to do.</p>
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Sam’s standing in the class at graduation offered a wide choice of assignment to branch of service, and he elected the Coast Artillery Corps. His first duty station was Fort Winfield Scott, California. Following graduation leave, his travel orders directed movement by US Army transport from New York to San Francisco via the Panama Canal (the most economical way to move military personnel in 1939 when time, 17 days for this trip, was second priority to the War Department budget). The family budget was also a major concern to most Americans in 1939 and Sam, being the devoted son and brother he was, allotted a significant share of his pay to his family.</p>
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Fort Winfield Scott was but a way-stop en route to Fort Drum, Philippine Islands, a fortification in the center of the entrance to Manila Bay. Sam was one of only two officers assigned to that post. As late as August 1941, his letters reflected unqualified confidence in the preparedness of the US harbor defenses. Unfortunately, Japanese strategy and US intelligence information did not coincide, and it became, ultimately, Sam’s painful duty to surrender Fort Drum to the Japanese. The infamous “Death March” and three years of imprisonment on Luzon followed. Typical of the man, one of three brief postcards he was permitted to send to his family during this period told them that he was “well,” to “please see that you keep yourselves in good health,” and “keep that ice box and pantry well stocked, because I’ll be home someday.”</p>
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Sam charmed the ladies but never got around to a serious courtship until he met an Army nurse in the Philippines. The war intervened and she, like Sam, was captured and held in a Japanese prison camp for three years. She survived and remained in touch with the Madison family.</p>
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Sam was among the last group of prisoners moved from Luzon and shipped to Japan. En route, his ship was sunk, but he was among the survivors. The date was 14 December 1944. On 3 February 1945, he died of colitis in a prison camp on Honshu Island.</p>
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Samuel Alton Madison, holder of the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart, had completed his last tour of duty at the age of 27. Surely he knows that the request he made so many times, as he sang the alma mater, was granted:</p>
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“And when our work is done,<br />
Our course on earth is run,<br />
May it be said ‘Well done’<br />
Be thou at peace”</p>