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 futility of continued fighting, Leodegario raised a white shirt. The fighting stopped and runners (Pilipinos who served with the Japanese as interpreters and peons) took their rifles and accompanied the two to the Japanese lines.

The two Pilipinos were just about a few yards away from the bunch of grinning Japanese soldiers when at a given signal, Leodegario and his sergeant pulled grenades hidden under their uniform, bit the pins and hurled the missiles in the direction of the Japanese.

Witnesses say Leodegario and his sergeant were riddled with bullets and died on the spot. Witnesses also said the two explosions killed at least a dozen of the Japanese. This account was in the journal of retired Col. Sebastian Aguilar, then a corporal and one of the wounded soldier in the battle of Balanga-Pilar. The Bronze Star medal posthumously awarded by the U.S. Army to Leodegario was received by his younger sister, Ricarda Acosta Gillera, my mother.

One reason I keep Memorial Day close to my heart.

Loi