DUANE
Duane's take
The marker says it plain, and it's my honor to pass it along to you now. Some stories start with a battle, and some start with a silence — the silence that falls when men disappear and nobody back home quite knows where they went or whether they're coming back. This is one of those stories.
They were the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery, part of the 36th Infantry Division. Native sons. Texas men.
And on March 3, 1942, on the island of Java, the Japanese took them prisoner. Just like that. Gone.
Three and a half years. That's how long those gallant men — and that word, gallant, is earned here — that's how long they were held captive. You think about the people waiting back home in Wichita County, watching the calendar, listening for news that was slow in coming and often didn't come at all.
Then, September 2, 1945, the living members were released. The monument the community put up doesn't separate the living from the dead with any ceremony or flourish. It honors them together — those who came home and those who did not — with two words that carry a weight no speech can quite match: humble gratitude.
August 1951. Wichita County stood up and said: we remember the Lost Battalion. Every last one of them.
And now, rolling down this Texas road, so do you.
What the marker says
To the memory of those honored members of the Lost Battalion, native sons, members of the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery, 36th Infantry Division. On March 3, 1942, these gallant men were taken prisoner by the Japanese on Java, held captive for three and one half years. The living members were released September 2, 1945. To these valiant men living and dead we offer our humble gratitude, August 1951.