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<em>Guy Haines Stubbs </em>was born on 10 May 1901, in Peach Bottom, Pennsylvania, the son of Doctor and Mrs. Ambrose H. Stubbs. He graduated from the Peach Bottom High School in 1918 and entered the Military Academy the following August.</p>
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He entered a starry-eyed idealist. Adopting the Academy's code of "Duty, Honor, Country” as his own, he made it the dominant factor of his life and service. He was a warm, friendly person, enjoying the comradeship of his fellows, but he was also intolerant of those whose performance fell short of their capabilities, or whose conduct did not merit his respect.</p>
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His cadet days were relatively uneventful and irreproachable, unless an infrequent Off-Limits hike along the Engineers’ Trace of the future Storm King Highway of a Sunday afternoon might be considered an offense. His academic standing was comfortable, allowing him time for an occasional game of bridge as the day of graduation approached.</p>
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Graduating in 1923, Guy was commissioned in the Army Air Corps and assigned to the Primary Flying School at Brooks Field. Progressing to the Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field he failed to qualify as a flyer and elected to become a coast artilleryman. In this service he had the usual battery officer assignments, with the frequent foreign tours that characterized that arm during the humdrum Twenties, serving in Hawaii and the Philippine Islands. With a natural predeliction, reinforced by instruction in motors in the Air Corps, he became a top-flight motor officer, keeping his fleets of aged, World War I vehicles in excellent running order.</p>
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Upon his completion of the battery officers course in 1929, his competencc in motors was recognized by assignment to the Advanced Motor Transport Course which he completed the following year.</p>
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During the mid-Thirties he served for three years with the Civilian Conservation Corps, as adjutant and executive officer of a CCC District in the 1st Corps Area, and a fourth year as CCC Adjutant General in the Corps Area headquarters. In 1938 he was assigned as a student to the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.</p>
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Tlie following summer he was ordered to the Philippines for duty with the Harbor Defenses of Manila Bay, served twice as commanding officer of Fort Drum, The Rock,” and later became assistant G3 of the Harbor Defense Command. As the fateful day, 7 December 1941, approached, he was assigned as antiaircraft liaison officer with the U.S. Army Forces, Far East, first in Manila, and then, as the situation deteriorated, in Bataan. Of this period he later wrote:</p>
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‘‘I was fresh from the C&GS College and found time to marvel at how we just had to do things after the cloud of war obscured everything. No one could have convinced me that two weeks after the outbreak of war I would hold up trucks chosen at random from the streets, and commandeer truck and driver for the trip to Bataan with, for instance, a load of radios I had commandeered from the Postal Telegraph Authority...”</p>
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And still later: “We had not counted on organizing a crack infantry regiment made up of aviators who had no planes, but we did, and they held their line to the bitter end. Our AAA brigade had little preparation for duty in the line either, but that is where they were during their most desperate hours. They held the last line on Bataan while General King made such arrangements as he could for the surrender.</p>
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“No one could have been prepared either for the heart-crushing sight of our own troops, ravaged by starvation, malaria, dysentery, and defeat, in full rout. Those troops fought well and had held out two or three times longer than the plans said they could, but there is a limit to all things.</p>
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“I am proud of that campaign and proud, too, that I got two battlefield promotions in three months of action, from the greatest CG of them all, General MacArthur.”</p>
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Parenthetically—and unfortunately—but as might be expected in such times, these promotions could not be confirmed following the war.</p>
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The surrender, for Guy, occurred at Headquarters Luzon Force on 9 April 1942. The frightful Death March that followed is best described in Guy’s words:</p>
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“I've had scant preparation for POW status, but we learned fast at the hands of the most brutal beasts ever to disgrace the uniform of an army. Corregidor held its fire for several days after the surrender of Bataan in the hope that the Japs would move us out of danger, but the Japs held many of us in sight of Corregidor while they moved their own artillery into position to fire on the Island. Finally the Jap artillery did open up, shielded by American POW’s. This was too much, so the Harbor Defense guns were turned on the Jap gun positions. Piute Lindsay and several others were hit by one of the first bursts, but when I finally got to O’Donnell, that stout soldier at once urged, ‘Don’t let anyone blame our people for shooting Lindsay down. That string got a Jap ammo dump, and Japs were flying in all directions. It must have killed a dozen of them, and I had my money’s worth right there.’ (Piute later died of exposure on a third POW ship after having survived the sinking of two others.)</p>
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“Sergeant Carlos Hanson and 1 escaped from the column twice on the Death March, hoping to get to the Zambales Mountains, but we were caught both times, and both times were sentenced to death by Jap corporals sitting as a sort of summary court. The first corporal was easily talked out of it; he even gave us some water and rice before sending us back to the column. The second one sentenced us to be buried alive in a much-used latrine and sent us to our fate under guard. But our guard became interested in five Filipinos who were being buried alive in the latrine ahead of us, and if you think that we were there when he looked our way again, you are totally mistaken. We mingled rapidly with the other jam-packed POW's and were not spotted in the search that followed. I often wondered what happened to that Jap guard. They were plenty rough on their own soldiers."</p>
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Of nine members of his Class who were taken prisoner by the Japanese, Guy alone survived the forty-one months of deprivation, degradation, and agony, sustained by raw courage and an indomitable will. He first went to Camp O'Donnell, but was soon transferred to Cabantuan No.l. In November he went to Mindanao and later to the Davao Penal Colony where he worked in the rice fields, contracting schistosomiasis japonica there. He also suffered from malaria, beriberi, and dysentery.</p>
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In June of 1944 Guy passed through Manila en route to Japan, and, after a ghastly trip aboard a prison ship, reached Yokaichi on 4 September.</p>
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When his final release came on 6 September 1945, he was in a wretched condition having lost most of his teeth from dietary deficiencies. He spent the next year and a half in hospitals, including six months in Japan where he testified in the War Crimes trials. By the end of this time, however, he had recovered his health and was returned to a full duty status—a tribute to his tremendous vitality.</p>
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He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, and the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster for two wounds received in prison: once when he was stabbed in the wrist by a Jap guard, and again for wounds inflicted by a belt buckle during a beating the Japs gave him.</p>
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In 1940, while he was at Corregidor, Guy met an Army nurse, Minnie Brcese. She was also captured and was interned at Santo Tomas University. As a nurse she was allowed a considerable amount of freedom of movement at first, and at grave personal risk smuggled messages, medicines, and packets to the prisoners. The full story of her activities is a saga in its own right and deserves separate treatment. In time, the Japs found out that she was not only a nurse but an Army nurse, and severely restricted her activities.</p>
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Guy and Minnie were married in 1947 and were blessed with two children: Susan Louise, bom in 1949, and Guy Haines Jr., in 1950. His family brought Guy years of happiness and fulfillment after the tragic earlier years of the decade.</p>
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Upon his return to duty in 1947, Guy attended the Guided Missiles Course at Fort Bliss, Texas. He then served briefly as commander of a guided missiles regiment, but in November 1948 he was assigned to Fort Sam Houston and remained there as executive officer of the post until July 1951.</p>
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His last assignment was at the University of San Francisco where he was PMS&T. In August 1954, when he retired, he resisted the charms of California and the blandishments of the local realtors in favor of San Antonio. There he was instrumental in organizing, and became a director of, the Brooks Field National Bank and was active in veterans’ and civic activities. In 1960 he became ill and had to curtail his activities, but in recognition of his services he was made an honorary director by the board of directors of the bank.</p>
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The years of abuse which Guy’s body had taken could not be denied; his illness became progressively worse until, in 1963, he was admitted to the Veteran’s Administration Hospital at Waco, Texas. On 29 September 1965 his wracked body could take no more, and this gallant officer and devoted husband and father found peace at last.</p>