Aubrey J Freeman

Aubrey J Freeman was born on October 5, 1908, to Ellis Jermaine and Mary Ellen McCusker Freeman in New England, Hettinger County, North Dakota. He enlisted in the Navy at Denver, Colorado, August 1931 and was sent to San Diego, California and was assigned to the Hospital Corps. After several months of training there, he was sent to the Great Lakes Naval Base, Great Lakes, Illinois and served until the station was closed in July 1931. Freeman enlisted in the Army Medical Corps in December 1935 and served at Fort Snelling, Minneapolis, Minnesota until October 1937.  After a short-term discharge, he enlisted for Island service and was sent to the Philippine Islands, Clark Field, Luzon, in January 1938. He returned to the states in July 1943 and enlisted in the Air Corps of the regular Army and served one year at Moffett Field, California and then returned to the Philippine Islands in July 1941. He was at Clark Field, Luzon, Philippines when Clark Field was bombed which was about the same time Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese. Staff Sergeant Freeman served on the 28th Bomber Squadron, 19th Bomber Group, Heavy, United States Army Air Force. He became a prisoner of the Japanese Army while fighting in the Philippines during the war in 1942 and then was declared Missing in Action while being a Prisoner of War of the Japanese Army in the sinking of the "Shinyo Maru". On September 7, 1944, the Japanese ship "Shinyo Maru" was loaded with 750 United States Prisoners of War (POWs) in the cargo holds. The U.S.S. Paddle (SS-263), not knowing that American POWs were on board, fired torpedoes at the ship off of the coast of Mindanao, Philippines and sank it. Some Japanese guards shot prisoners as they struggled from the holds after the attack or were in the water. There were 688 POWs who died when the ship sank, leaving only 82 survivors. There were 47 of the 52 Japanese guards who also died. His remains were not recovered. There is a monument for him at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Manila, Capital District, National Capital Region, Manilla, Philippines, Plot-Tablets of the Missing. He was awarded the Prisoner of War Medal and the Purple Heart. 

Sources: Ancestry/Find a Grave/County Book