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<em>William Allen Orr</em> was born at Heardmont, Georgia, on 19 December 1915, the son of Samuel Marshall and Alma Carithers Orr. His family moved to Anderson, South Carolina, when he was a boy. Following high school graduation in 1932, “Bill” as he was always known to family and friends, went to Clemson College for a year, where his participation in ROTC led to an affinity for military standards of personal responsibility and discipline. He became interested in the service academies. Appointments were much sought after, since the great depression was at its nadir when Bill studied on his own for the highly competitive examinations for an appointment. He won an appointment to the United States Military Academy from Representative John C. Taylor, 4th District of South Carolina. He entered West Point in July 1934 as a cadet in the Class of 1938.</p>
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To his classmates, Bill Orr was the paradigm of an attractive young southern gentleman. His personality was warm and outgoing. Blessed with a strong sense of humor, sincere, guileless and unpretentious, he was a straight-up person. He was handsome and military in appearance. Possessed with a brilliant mind, Bill excelled in academics. He always wore stars on his collar and stood twelfth in the class of 301 cadets at graduation. The Special Orders promulgating the graduation and commissioning of the members of the United States Military Academy Class of 1938 designated Bill Orr as a “Distinguished Cadet.”</p>
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Various other accomplishments supported this honor. Bill’s activities included intramural sports and horseback riding. He was on the <em>Howitzer</em> staff. Bill was a first-stringer on the Engineers team in the annual Engineer-Goat gridiron classic. On the military side, he was promoted from cadet lieutenant to cadet captain during his first class year, and commanded Company K. Two challenging and revealing special assignments graced Bill Orr’s cadet career: Honor Committee representative for K Company and cadet academic coach. Selection to help administer the Honor Code of West Point was clear affirmation of his high personal integrity and stature within the Corps. As an academic coach, he devoted substantial amounts of his own time to working individually with cadets who were having difficulty maintaining proficient grades, particularly in math and physics. It was wholly characteristic of Bill to use his talents in this fashion for the betterment—perhaps survival as cadets—of others.</p>
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After graduation 14 June 1938, Second Lieutenant Bill Orr served in the Los Angeles District of the Corps of Engineers until February 1940. He was then transferred to the Philippine Islands and assigned to the 14th Engineers. During this assignment at Fort William McKinley, near Manila on the Island of Luzon, he served successively as transportation officer, supply officer, and Headquarters and Service Company commander of the 14th, after which he was promoted to battalion commander of the 2nd Battalion.</p>
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His immediate superior during this period stated, in a letter to Bill’s parents after his death, that “Bill’s work was always of an outstanding and superior nature and his officers and men had confidence in his ability. Service with him was a pleasure and a privilege.”</p>
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In December 1941, Bill was elevated to Assistant G-l, Philippine Division (P.S.). He served in that capacity, and with G-4, until he was captured at the fall of Bataan on 9 April 1942. An officer of the Philippine Division staff (colonel, G-4) with whom Bill worked closely during the horrific siege operations at Bataan, stated in a postwar letter to Bill’s family, “On Bataan, during his campaign, Bill risked his life daily in pursuit of his duty. When others hesitated to proceed, because they considered the obstacles insurmountable, fearlessly and unhesitatingly, he showed the task could be done, and how to do it, by doing it himself. He always returned from the most hazardous missions unshaken and ready to undertake the next. His service was invaluable.”</p>
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It was during the ineffably evil “Death March” that followed Bataan’s fall that the heroic dimensions of Bill Orr’s combat leadership became starkly visible. The unbelievable cruelty of the Japanese captors to the American, Filipino, Australian and other captive marchers has long been exposed. That, plus the heat, dust, almost total withholding of food and water from the marchers, and the unconscionable denial of rest opportunities for them during at least four days and four nights, meant terrible death to a multitude of valiant fighting men. From southern Bataan, in this first displacement phase, the men thus were forced, at bayonet point, to walk some sixty to ninety miles, depending on their place of capture.</p>
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The quoted G-4 officer stated, “On the ‘Death March’ his [Bill’s] calm fortitude and enduring strength inspired other hungry, weary, sick and dying marchers to drain the wells of endurance in an effort to reach the end. He gave moral support to the faltering by his positive attitude of ‘never say quit and die—keep going.’ He even gave physical aid to the weakening and shared their burdens … In Prison of War Camp I saw him only at Camp O’Donnell. There, amid unspeakable horrors, where so many wanted only to lie down and die, his unrelenting determination and inspiring example encouraged them to abandon despair and make a supreme effort to live, and I have been told by many who were with him in Cabanatuan, and later in Japan, he unhesitatingly accepted humiliation and painful punishment in ever-vigilant efforts to shield his fellow Prisoners of War against such cruel treatment. All of his prison camp comrades admired, respected and loved him.”</p>
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A West Point classmate, also a Bataan survivor, stated in an interview that Bill Orr was the incarnation of what a West Point graduate can be when his leadership skills and character are tested to the outer limits. He reported that Bill demonstrated potentials of becoming, in time, one of the very top military leaders of our nation. As de facto leader of prisoners in his camp, Bill was entrusted by them to be custodian and sole allocator of their scarce food distributions, and pitifully scant medical supplies. Since food and medicine literally equated to survival, the POW’s thus placed their lives in his hands, confident of his utter fairness.</p>
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In November 1942, Bill was transferred from the Cabanatuan camp on Luzon via the cattleboat Negato Maru to Japan, where he was confined in various camps, including Tanagawa and Zent-suji. His tireless efforts to lead by serving brought him more beatings and humiliation, which ended only with the liberation of the prisoners.</p>
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For his “meritorious service” and “courageous conduct” as senior American officer at the Tanagawa Prison Camp from November 1942 to August 1943, Bill Orr was cited for the Bronze Star Medal by the War Department. His POW leadership was fully recognized.</p>
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Bill was hospitalized for many months back in the United States (Letterman, Botner, and Moore General Hospitals). Like most of the prisoners, he had suffered grievously from dysentery, malaria and (probably) beriberi, which was common.</p>
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In September 1946, he attended Texas A&M University, where he earned a master’s degree in civil engineering. On 1 June 1947, he joined the ROTC staff at the University of Minnesota. Two years later he was assigned to the office of the District Engineer, Corps of Engineers, St. Paul, Minnesota, where he performed challenging professional engineering assignments.</p>
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With returning health during these postwar years, Bill revived an ambition long held: to broaden his professional base as an Army officer, and for an initial step, to qualify for the physically demanding and rugged service of airborne troops. Unable to work out official assignment to paratroop training, Bill undertook to acquire proficiency in parachute jumping on a private basis at his own expense.</p>
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On 25 August 1950, as part of a private training program at the St. Paul Airport, he made a parachute jump from a plane at about 1800 feet, but was blown by a gust of wind to the nearby Mississippi River, where he landed in the water. Tragically, he was unable to free himself from the tangled cords of his parachute. He drowned before rescuers en route could reach him.</p>
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Bill Orr never married. He is survived by a sister, Mrs. B. Warwick Davenport of Richmond, Virginia, and two brothers, Mr. Samuel M. Orr, Jr. of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Mr. Robert J. Orr, of Spartanburg, South Carolina.</p>
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The epitaph on the headstone of his grave, composed by his family, encapsulates the heart and soul of this noble West Pointer:</p>
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“WILLIAM ALLEN ORR PATRIOT AND SOLDIER SURVIVOR OF INFAMOUS BATAAN MARCH 1942 FEARLESS IN PURSUIT OF DUTY CONSTANT IN PRESERVATION OF HONOR MAGNIFICENT IN SERVICE TO COUNTRY”</p>
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Lieutenant Colonel William Allen Orr, officer and gentleman, sans peur et sans reproche, dearly loved by family and friends, abundantly earned his place of honor in the Long Gray Line.</p>
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<em>Art Smith, a roommate</em></p>
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