Evangelisto (Evans) Ramirez Garcia enlisted in the US Army then volunteered with the NM National Guard 200th Coast Artillery, signing up with Taos H Battery, where a lot of his friends lived.  In Bataan, the 200th were “the first to fire” on the enemy at Clark Field when the Japanese invaded the Philippines.  Evans survived the Bataan Death March, was a POW in the Philippines, and after surviving a hell ship journey, was a POW in Japan, working as a slave laborer in a condemned, abandoned coal mile.  Evans describes how he was a cook for his Japanese captors, who caught him stealing food and sentenced him to death, “They asked me if I wanted to be blindfolded, and I told them Hell No… is it going to take 10 Japanese to kill one American” instead of shooting Evans they beat him in front of his fellow American captives. Evans describes how he maintained his sanity though his captivity by starring into the sky and watching the clouds and thinking of his family. Evan was one of 78,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war from the Bataan Peninsula. Evans was held at the Fukuoka Prison Camp No. 17 until his liberation in 1945.

At the end of the war, he came home to Santa Fe where he started his family.  He worked with Selective Service in Santa Fe for 25 years, retiring in 1972.  He never stopped serving his fellow veterans.   He was involved with the VFW Post 2951 in Santa Fe, organized support with other Bataan Veterans to start the Bataan Memorial Museum (currently the NM Military Museum) and volunteered countless hours at the VA hospital in Albuquerque.  He passed away on January 29, 2011, at the age of 97.  He always said, “Do everything you can so people remember Bataan.”

Notes:

1. “Veteran Survived Bataan March, He Mocked Captors While Facing Death,” Albuquerque Journal, Thursday February 3, 2011, Newspapers.com

Prepared by Steve Martinez, Ph.D. Santa Fe Community College

Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Legacy Memorial, Find Your Veteran

https://www.vlm.cem.va.gov/EVANGELISTORGARCIA/7841CE8