Memorial Day Memories
By Loi Gillera "Courage is a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live in the form of readiness to die" Leodegario Ymas Acosta is a native of Ormoc, Leyte. At 26 he was a little old to be drafted in the army. His outfit, the 24th Field Artillery Regiment, 12th Infantry Division was among the Philippine Army regulars incorporated into the United States Armed Forces Far East (USAFFE). He is a dentist. But in the battlefield of Bataan in the final week of March, 1942, Leodegario was a 1st Lieutenant doing no dentist or artillery work. He was a rifleman. The field hospital is gone. Their artilleries have no ammunition. There is only the Springfield rifle and a few cartridges of 30.06 ammo. In the nights of 28 and 29 March, 1942, Leodegario's company, fighting a rear guard action in the bounderies of Balanga and Pilar, was holding two battallions of Japanese troops. By daybreak of 30 March, all but Leodegario and his sergeant are dead or dying. Realizing the...