Harry Corre - U.S. Army Air Corps - Pvt.
      C Battery 59th CAC Regt (Wheeler) HDM & SB

Garrison Commander Col. Joel D. Hamilton introduces Harry Corre, World War II veteran, prisoner of war and Bataan Death March survivor to an audience Feb. 12 at the McMahon Auditorium. Corre relayed his personal story of battle, capture, survival and freedom during and after one of the most infamous events of the war. The event was sponsored by Fort Carson and the Iron Horse Strong Program. 
(Photo by Scott Prater)

Fort Carson, in conjunction with the Iron Horse Strong Program, wrapped up a week of recognition and remembrance of prisoners of war Feb. 12, 2015 by inviting Harry Corre to speak Feb. 12, 2015 at McMahon Auditorium.
Corre is a World War II veteran, former POW and Bataan Death March survivor.

Once he hit the stage he wasted little time with pleasantries, taking listeners back to 1942 and the Pacific islands of Bataan and Corregidor. The 91-year old vividly described the islands, his Japanese captors and the horrific suffering endured by American and Filipino Soldiers at the time.
The event was the highlight of a week at Fort Carson that featured free screenings of the movie “Unbroken,” for which Corre served as a technical adviser, and a breakfast for retirees where he shared his experiences and listened to those of his fellow veterans.
As an Army corporal stationed on Corregidor, he was sent to Bataan 3 miles away in early 1942 to direct operations in the Philippine Constabulary. At first, Corre trained Filipino civilians in combat tactics. Later he fought along the front lines as the Japanese attacked the island.
Severely outnumbered, Corre and his fellow Soldiers battled for three weeks before a food and ammunition shortage forced them to surrender.
He was taken prisoner along with 12,000 U.S. Service members and 60,000 Filipino soldiers and forced to march in the now infamous Bataan Death March. He marched for more than two days without food or water.
“I saw men shot, bayoneted, even had their heads chopped off, just for falling down,” he said. “They were either exhausted, wounded or severely dehydrated. From what I saw, I knew I simply had to get out of there.” He remembered the third night of the march, a clear sky turned cloudy, then let loose with a torrential rainstorm.
That was the break he needed. “I remember it rained so heavy you could hardly see, so I used that as cover to dive off the road and into the jungle,” he said. And I just kept running. I was afraid to stop.”
He spent three nights in the jungle, finally making his way to a beach on the other side of the island. “I grabbed anything I could find that I thought might float and then started swimming,” he said.
With his makeshift floating device, Corre swam 3 miles against the current, in shark-infested waters back to Corregidor, where he was picked up by U.S. Marines.
He eventually rejoined his unit on Corregidor, but his freedom was short-lived. A month later, U.S. forces surrendered to the Japanese at Corregidor and Corre was once again a prisoner.
He was shipped to the Philippines, where he contracted diphtheria. “I could still walk, however,” he said. “Men were beaten daily and dying from malnutrition, starvation, battle wounds and diseases like dysentery, dengue fever and beriberi.”
He spent two years there working burial detail in a place where men died at a rate of 150 per day. His reprieve came when the Japanese soldiers decided to send some prisoners to work in coal mines on the Japanese mainland. There he was interned at Fukuoka Camp 17.
It was a small reprieve though. His suffering didn’t end. While working 14-hour days in the mines, he survived two cave-ins and contracted jaundice.
Then came the day he heard a loud explosion and saw an enormous cloud rise from across the bay. He later learned the explosion and mushroom cloud was a result of an atomic bomb that dropped on the city of Nagasaki.
Within a few days his Japanese guards had left and U.S. fighter planes buzzed his camp. Bombers later dropped food and supplies. After more than two months he was shipped to an Army facility in San Francisco and he eventually made it home to Boston, where he was honorably discharged.As Corre wrapped his memoir, a captivated crowd of more than 300 sat in stunned silence. After speaking for more than 80 minutes, he cut the silence by asking if anyone had any questions.
How did he manage to survive, what motivated him to keep going and where did he find strength when others couldn’t? Those were just a few of the most immense queries he fielded.
He attributed his perseverance to growing up during the great depression.
“Though I respect religion and religious people, I’ve never been a religious person,” he said. “But, I started working, delivering newspapers when I was 6 years old. My mother worked 15 hours a day, six days a week. Back then, when you wanted or needed something, the only way you could get it was through buying and selling. We didn’t have much. People waited in line for hours just to get a bowl of soup and that was their food for the day.
“When I think back to the days when I joined the Army, most of us Soldiers were scroungers. When you wanted something you went out and got it.
And you found out that there were many number of ways to accomplish your task.”
Speaking to today’s Soldiers and Families who may feel as though life has handed them a raw deal, he finished by saying, “you will be surprised by what the human body can endure.”
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Former American POWs return to Japan to visit site of internment

Article - Stars & Stripes October 2011
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan – Time doesn’t heal all wounds.
If it did, 88-year-old Harry Corre wouldn’t be in Japan right now.
Corre and six other men held as prisoners of war by Japan during World War II arrived in Tokyo Sunday for a weeklong “reconciliation tour” sponsored by the Japanese government.
Some 27,000 U.S. troops were captured by Japan during the war and forced into slave labor. The POWs suffered in hellacious conditions at the hands of their Japanese captors; torture, starvation, disease, exposure and the constant deaths of their brothers in arms. Japan organized the trip to help the men gain a sense of closure to the horrific ordeal. For while they recovered from their injuries and re-nourished their bodies, many say the pain from their psychological wounds has not dulled with time.

“It doesn’t go away,” said Corre, who works for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Los Angeles. “And it never will.”
Many of the Americans captured by Japan — including Corre and the others in his group — were sent to work directly for Japanese companies fueling the war effort at more than 100 camps throughout Japan. Several of the some 60 companies are still in business today, though only one agreed to participate in the tour.
Those not sent to the companies worked directly for the Japanese military in the Philippines, China and elsewhere in the Pacific.
Tens of thousands of other Allied troops and Chinese, Koreans and Filipinos were also captured by Japan during WWII and the preceding Sino-Japanese War and worked alongside the Americans at the corporate and military work camps.
Army Col. Jeff Oppenheim, left, shakes hands with 91-year-old Harold A. Bergbower, following a lecture at Temple University on Oct. 17, 2011, in Tokyo. Bergbower and six other WWII POWs are touring Japan this week this week seeking closure to the brutal treatment they endured while held captive.
Corre attributes his own survival at a work camp in Omuta in southwestern Japan to the demise of his fellow soldiers, some of whom would trade their meager daily mush rations for his cigarettes. “I’m sure there’s a lot of guys I starved to death,” he said during a lecture Monday night at Temple University in Tokyo.
“I’m not proud of it, but I survived,” Corre said. “When you are a POW, the only thing you think about is how to live, not the next guy.”
The guilt and horror still consume his thoughts, even his dreams. “The best thing you can do is talk about your experience,” Corre said, echoing advice he said he doles out to other veterans at the VA hospital in Los Angeles. “But there’s no way you forget it.”
Correction
An earlier version of this story incorrectly characterized the number of U.S. POWs who died or were killed after being captured by Japan during WWII. Of the approximately 27,000 POWs, roughly 40 percent perished, 1,115 of them after being sent to Japan to work as forced laborers.
The POWs who came to Japan were dispersed among more than 100 camps run by approximately 60 companies.

 LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Harry Corre enlisted in the Army in 1940 and was sent to the Philippines, but things quickly escalated after the country surrendered. He was captured on Bataan and ended up in a POW camp. Corre decided then if he survived, he wanted to do something to help his fellow soldiers.
"At that time because of the -- what I had seen and how many men had died, that I swore that when I got out, I would do all I could for veterans," Corre said.
After the war, Corre began a career as an aerospace engineer. Years later, visiting the VA, Corre joined a POW group and was asked if he wanted to work as a patient advocate.  His answer was an unequivocal yes.

To view the full interview on video, go to this lin: https://abc7.com/society/former-pow-uses-experience-to-counsel-others-at-va-in-la/2702868/

Another article featuring Harry:
As a patient advocate at the VA WLA campus, Harry Corre assists Veterans who are having trouble navigating the VA’s healthcare system. “I’m helping people who have problems and don’t know what to do about them. They come here for help and get frustrated because they don’t know how to go about getting that help,” Corre said. “I understand their frustrations and I understand what they are going through and I try to help them the best I can.”
Corre’s understanding is based on his own experiences as veteran and former prisoner of war. Corre was captured by the Japanese during the Battle of Bataan 1942 when he was a 19-year-old Army corporal serving in the 59th Coast Artillery Regiment.  He escaped the infamous Bataan Death March by swimming, with the assistance of a hastily improvised floatation device, three and a half miles to Corregidor, where he rejoined his unit. Unfortunately, Corre soon found himself a prisoner of war once again when Corregidor fell to the Japanese within a month of his escape. 
Corre was sent to a Japanese labor camp where he spent the next three years of his life working in a coal mine under horrendous conditions. He was only 97 pounds when he was freed at the end of the war, the result of years of malnutrition and hard labor.
“Most of us in the labor camp were severely underweight so they sent us to the Philippines to fatten up before sending us home. They set up a special kitchen that was open 24-hours a day that would serve you anything you wanted – steak, ice cream, anything.“ The first item Corre ordered from the kitchen was a big, juicy steak. “I could only eat one bite of it. My body couldn’t handle it. It was four or five months before I could eat a real meal again.”
After being released from the Army, Corre returned to his hometown of Boston. He remembers walking into a VA hospital there to see a doctor and being accused of looking for a handout by the first guy he talked.  “The first thing he said is, ‘All you want is money.’ So I very efficiently gave him the finger and walked out,” Corre remembered.
Fortunately, things have improved over the years. “Today’s VA is a lot different than what I dealt with when I first got out. That was 65 years ago,” Corre acknowledged. “It is because of what I went through then that I try to let people know that I’m here to help them. I’ll help them as much as I can within my authority.”
 
Now 87-years-old, Corre continues to help Veterans as a patient advocate four days a week and has no plans of retiring any time soon.  “I’ve already retired twice and the best thing for me to is to keep working. It keeps my mind active and gives me something to do and I’m helping veterans. I find helping veterans