Community Heroes Series
From the November 2002 issue of Alabama Living magazine

How Americans define the word hero today is different than their generational predecessors. Until the recent events of 9-11, many looked upon sports stars, pop stars, or computer game figures as heroic.
Since 9-11 we've seen a resurgence of patriotism and new faces that have defined, often poignantly, what true heroism is all about. This awaken-ing has also brought renewed interest in the heroes of our past. The courageous acts, often liberally sprinkled with quirks of Fate, of veterans who have been our defenders. This year has been a year of gratitude, remem-brance, and appreciation; the month of November serves this same purpose. The following is a brief account of one of the few surviving American WWII veterans of the Bataan Death March on this, the 60th anniversary of the event. This telling only scratches the surface of this eighty-three year old veteran's remarkable story.

In 1940, as a young man of twenty-one, Drolan Chandler, of Detroit, Alabama entered the U.S. Army Air Corp. From the quiet and peaceful life he'd known growing up in Lamar County, he soon found himself in a life-death struggle taking him thousands of miles away to Japan as a prisoner of war. His faith and sheer luck are the major factors that led him home 3 1/2 years after his journey began. It is the story of a young American determined, beyond all odds, to see his home and his family once again.

Events of war quickly found Airman Chandler in the Bataan region of the Phillippine Islands. After the surrender of Bataan and Corrigidor, Chandler dared an escape. Searching for water and about to drink from a small pond, he was startled to hear someone say, "That water is not clean, drink from this instead." Abruptly, he found himself face to face with a Japanese officer. At bayonet-point the officer asked Chandler where he was from. "Detroit, Alabama," he replied.
"Is that close to Sulligent?" asked the officer, to the utter shock of Chandler. "Yes, sir, it is," he replied. Providence had delivered him into the hands of the enemy, but an enemy who knew of Sulligent, and who had been schooled at the University of Alabama. Because of this, the Japanese officer made Chandler his personal driver. This one act saved him from one of the harshest forced marches known to modern man... the Bataan Death March. At first Chandler refused to drive, claiming that he did not know how. But under threat of death he agreed to drive the officer to the sugar plantation region of the Philippines and along the direct route of the Death March. From his vantage point he witnessed human atrocities of the greatest magnitude.

Chandler served for this American educated Japanese officer over several months at a sugar plantation south of Manila. "I was the only American there," said Chandler. "Almost daily I would ask him to allow me to go back to where the other Americans were being held, but he refused to let me leave. When the officer was sent orders to continue south, Chandler refused to go any further, and against all rationality the Japanese officer handed the American GI an arm band, which would prevent him from being stopped or shot by other Japanese troops, as well as the keys to a truck. "He told me to drive back the way we came, all the way back to Manila. Once there, he told me to drive to the middle of the town to Resolute Statue and leave the truck there," Chandler continued. That's exactly what he did, but by the time he reached the city his body was ravaged by Malaria. Barely able to drive he made it into the city and rolled the truck to a stop at the base of the statue.
Almost immediately he was taken by Japanese soldiers to the outskirts of Manila and held with other Americans at Bilabid Prison. "It was a big prison", recalled Chandler, as he tugged on the soft folds of skin beneath his chin.

Actually, Bilibid was the main prison in the Philippines. The real hard-core prisoners, murders, and rapists, were sent down to the penal colony at Davao, which is on the island on Mindanao. "I was so sick with Malaria at this time that the Japanese actually sent me to the morgue. I was there about three days when an American officer came into the room and awoke me.

He told me he had noticed when they brought me down, and when he checked the morgue today and saw that my body had not begun to decay, he knew that I surely must be alive," he recalled. "He brought water and rice, and took me outside and washed me off. I was taken back up in the main area and the American officer told me he'd find some medicine.
Somehow, he arranged to get me some pills for Malaria from a vet, and I started regaining my strength." After leaving the prison, Drolan arrived in San Fernando, got on a train, and headed for Camp O'Donnell. "They packed us in the boxcar s like sardines, so tight you couldn't sit down. Then they shut the door. If you passed out, you couldn't fall down. We were on the train from early morning until late afternoon without getting out. People died in the railroad cars, and if they did it didn't matter because they stood like the rest of us...at least until the door opened and people moved, and the bodies fell out of the car."
Barely hanging on to his health and battling his on-going case of Malaria, Drolan survived. Malaria, transmitted by mosquitoes, was a prevalent menace in the Filipinos. "Malaria was a foe to all of the men. Everyone had it, but the worst was the guys with cerebral (brain) Malaria. They were the walking dead," he said as he recalled seeing a man from his squad that he tried to help, dying of it.
Chandler suffered from the sickness his entire time as a POW.
"The ones that gave in to it were the ones who never made it back home," he said. "They just gave up to their situation," echoed Evelyn Chandler, Drolan's wife. "Drolan was determined to come back to us," she continued. "I was indeed," Chandler confirmed softly as his voice broke with emotion.

Cabanatuan and beyond
From the train the POWs walked about eight miles to Camp O'Donnell.
"At the camp I became very sick again. Me and this one other American were placed at an area before they bury you.
I wasn't ready to die and I made myself climb back up to the top of the hill. I was in a hospital from July '42 until November '42. The camp doctors kept sticking needles in my back. They said 'Son, you're not gonna make it', and I said 'Hell, yes I am. I've planned all along on going home!' I got up from the table and walked out."

In July of 1943, Chandler was one of the first 500 POWs sent by ship to Japan. Once there they were forced into slave labor and mining camps. He was there for two years.
Liberation
"The actual bombing by the Americans started at the end of 1944 and intensified in 1945," said Chandler. "Coming from the mines on August 9, 1945, I heard a tremendous boom then saw a large mushroom cloud in the distance," he recalled. What he witnessed was the light from the atomic bomb dropped on nearby Nagasaki as it flashed across the sky. "We were liberated shortly after that," he said.
On the ship back to the states an officer asked the POW's to write a letter home and Chandler gratefully completed this task.

He survived Bataan, he survived Malaria, he survived the mines, and in the end he witnessed one of the most catastrophic events of WWII, the bombing of Nagasaki. In a final twist of Fate, the letter he was asked to write while aboard ship was delivered to his parents only two hours before he walked through their door and intothe open arms of his family. Summing up his experience, he said simply, "God just done things for me."

Amendment to story

Battling Bastards of Bataan - *The picture below is of the Camp O'Donnell Memorial Monument. The memorial was built by the organization known as "The Battling Bastards of Bataan" to honor those American men who died at Camp O'Donnell, while prisoners of the Japanese. The Cement Cross is a replica of the original cement cross built by the POWs.

The monument is located in the Capas National Shrine, in Capas, Tarlac, Philippines,adjacent to the memorial for the Philippine Army dead. Camp O'Donnell was the first prison camp for the men who survived the "Death March". The picture was taken by James Litton.
The "Cross" was built as a memorial to the thousands who died in that camp. It is as much a part of Bataan as the participants in that battle. The inscription on the base of the "Cross" reads "Omnia Pro Patria": All For Country. On the wall behind the "Cross" are inscribed the names of the men who died at Camp O'Donnell.

The original "Cement Cross" is now on display in the National Prisoner of War Museum, at the Andersonville National Historic Site, Andersonville, GA. It was brought to this country by Bataan survivors.

*Many thanks to Maj. Richard M. Gordon(USA Ret.) for the information regarding this organization. When asked to use quotes and portions of his Website for this article he kindly wrote, "Ours is an honest truthful account of Bataan and its aftermath. Good luck. Major, US Army Retired Commander, Adjutant,Battling Bastards of Bataan". For those wishing to join this organization, or know of other Bataan survivors who would be interested in this information please refer to the Membership page.

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