HR0951LRB102 29113 ECR 41048 r

1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, It is highly fitting that the Illinois General
3Assembly pays honor and respect to individuals who have given
4their lives in service to our nation; and
 
5    WHEREAS, In late 1941, U.S. Army Air Corps Private First
6Class John L. Ferguson was a member of the 28th Materiel
7Squadron, U.S. Army Air Forces, when Japanese forces invaded
8the Philippine Islands in December; intense fighting continued
9until the surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on April 9, 1942
10and of Corregidor Island on May 6, 1942; and
 
11    WHEREAS, Thousands of U.S. and Filipino service members
12were captured and interned at POW camps; PFC Ferguson was
13among those reported captured when U.S. forces in Bataan
14surrendered to the Japanese; the captured were subjected to
15the 65-mile Bataan Death March and then held at the Cabanatuan
16POW camp, where more than 2,500 POWs perished during the war;
17and
 
18    WHEREAS, According to prison camp and other historical
19records, PFC Ferguson died on December 10, 1942, and he was
20buried along with other deceased prisoners in the local
21Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery in Common Grave 917; and
 

 

 

HR0951- 2 -LRB102 29113 ECR 41048 r

1    WHEREAS, Following the war, American Graves Registration
2Service (AGRS) personnel exhumed those buried at the
3Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery and relocated the remains to a
4temporary U.S. military mausoleum near Manila; in 1947, the
5AGRS examined the remains in an attempt to identify them; five
6of the sets of remains from Common Grave 917 were identified,
7but the rest were declared unidentifiable; the unidentified
8remains were buried as Unknowns at the Manila American
9Cemetery and Memorial on February 15 and 16, 1950; and
 
10    WHEREAS, In March 2018, the remains associated with Common
11Grave 917 were disinterred and sent for analysis to the
12Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) laboratory at Joint
13Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii; and
 
14    WHEREAS, Although interred as an Unknown at the Manila
15American Cemetery and Memorial, PFC Ferguson's grave was
16meticulously cared for by the American Battle Monuments
17Commission over the past 70 years; and
 
18    WHEREAS, PFC Ferguson will return home and be laid to rest
19in Gridley on October 1, 2022; therefore, be it
 
20    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
21HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
22we honor the life and service of U.S. Army Air Corps Private

 

 

HR0951- 3 -LRB102 29113 ECR 41048 r

1First Class John L. Ferguson, and we honor all who gave the
2ultimate sacrifice in service to our nation; and be it further
 
3    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
4presented to the surviving members of PFC Ferguson's family,
5the Illinois Department of Veteran's Affairs, the Secretary of
6the Department of Transportation, and the American Battle
7Monuments Commission.