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Captain <em>Lawrence Kent Meade</em>, the son of Dr. Chester L. Meade, and Mrs. Rena V. Larson, was born in Mason City, Iowa on June 14, 1911. He died in a prisoner-of-war camp established by the Japanese government somewhere in the Philippine Islands. The death notice reached the U.S. War Department on 16th of June, 1943.</p>
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All through his youth Larry, as he was always known, aspired to become a part of the army of his country. He attended Saint James, a military academy for boys, in Faribault, Minnesota, and learned the rudiments of military drill and discipline early in life. Larry wanted to become a U.S.M.A. cadet so he joined the Iowa National Guard, took the competitive examination for entrance to West Point, and won his appointment, entering the Military Academy on July 1, 1930. All four of his years there were spent with his beloved “I-Co.” A company perhaps more noted for its joie de vie than for its studiousness. On the 12th of June, 1934 he graduated and was commissioned a second lieutenant of field artillery.</p>
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For the next two years Larry was stationed at Fort Sheridan. Illinois with the 1st Battalion of the Third Horsedrawn Field Artillery. While stationed there he acquired a wife. Miss Betsy Isabel Burgess, to whom he was married in the Cadet Chapel at West Point, October 9, 1935. He also acquired a dog, Dusky, and an accordion. The accordion and the dog became famous at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin for their duets.</p>
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In October, 1936 Captain Meade sailed for the Hawaiian Islands where he was on duty for six months with the Thirteenth Motorized Field Artillery at Schofield Barracks. Then his career started on another phase when he was sent to Kilanea Military Camp, on the volcanic island of Hawaii, as officer-in-charge of guests, and innumerable other kindred jobs. In seventeen months he was able to meet many Army and Navy families, as well as members of Senatorial and Congressional parties.</p>
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Next came orders for Field Artillery School at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. There he was assigned to the Eighteenth Field Artillery upon arrival in January, 1939. In the spring of 1939 he decided he wanted to learn anti-aircraft firing, so he applied for transfer to the Coast Artillery. The request was granted, and in December, 1939 he was assigned to the Sixty-ninth Coast Artillery (Anti-aircraft) at Fort Crockett, Texas. After one year at Ft. Crockett, where he at last obtained a battery of his own, he was sent with the regiment to Camp Hulen, Texas, where he was detailed as an instructor to several newly inducted National Guard regiments which had been transferred from other branches of service to antiaircraft artillery.</p>
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November 1, 1941 Captain Meade sailed for the Philippine Islands to be an instructor of anti-aircraft firing with the Philippine National Army and was stationed there one week when hostilities broke out.</p>
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The report of Larry’s death came as a distinct shock to all who knew him. It seems incredible that one so fine and gallant as he could die in such a pitiful manner. After being ill of dengue fever—then sent back to the firing line on Bataan where he was the commanding officer of a battery of 1558 in the 313th Filipino Scout Field Artillery, he was seriously wounded and was again in the hospital when Bataan fell. Then after long months as a prisoner he succumbed to malaria.</p>
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In his book <em>“They Call It Pacific”</em> Clark Lee mentions eating lunch with Captain Lawrence Meade, and in one of Mr. Lee’s newspaper dispatches from Bataan was the first news of Larry’s whereabouts after the war began.</p>
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Captain Meade is survived by his wife and two children, a son, Lawrence, Junior, born in Schofield Barracks General Hospital June 4, 1938, and a daughter, Lloyd Ellen, born at Letterman General Hospital, Presidio of San Francisco, on June 5, 1942, two months after Bataan fell. All members of his family survive him.</p>
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The warmth of Larry’s smile will live on in the hearts of all who knew and loved him.</p>
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