Clifford Strickland

Clifford Harley Strickland - US Army Airforce – Technician Fifth Grade, was positively identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency on December 20, 2023, eighty-two years after his death in the notorious Japanese Cabanatuan POW Camp near the village of Capas, in the central part of Luzon Island in the Philippines. He was twenty-five years old at the time of his death, July 29, 1942.

Clifford enlisted in the Army in April of 1940 and was serving with Company C, 803rd Engineer Battalion Aviation when they arrived in the Philippines on October 23, 1941. The unit expanded airfields and other military facilities in northern Luzon as part of a buildup of U.S. Army Forces in the far-east responding to growing tensions between the United States and Japan. Within hours of the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese air raids began to strike the U.S. airfields on Luzon. A full scall invasion of Luzon began on December 22, 1941. Clifford along with the rest of the 803rd joined the other U.S. and Filipino forces in defending the Island against the Japanese invaders and battled for over three months with no reinforcements or resupply. Finally, out of ammunition and food the sick and starving U.S. and Filipino troops surrendered to the Japanese on April 9, 1942.

Clifford became one of the thousands of soldiers who were forcibly marched over 60 miles to the town of San Fernando on what became known as the “Bataan Death March”, or to those brave soldiers who endured it, “The Hike”. During the march the Japanese soldiers brutalized their prisoners by beating them, bayoneting, shooting, and leaving the dead and dying where they lay. At San Fernando the POWs were loaded onto small boxcars, more than 100 men at a time in over 100-degree temps and shipped by rail to Camp O’Donell. The heat was intolerable, and disease was rampant. The death rate at the camp was estimated at 400 per day. The number of troops who died during the march was estimated at over 20,000.

Clifford was later taken by rail to the Cabanatuan Prison Camp where there were more wretched conditions. Food and water were extremely limited, all prisoners suffered from severe malnutrition. Of the approximately 8,000 prisoners held at Cabanatuan it is estimated that over 2,800 died. Malaria, beriberi, dysentery, and dengue fever were rampant, which eventually led to Clifford’s death on July 29, 1942. He was buried with 13 of his brothers in arms who died that same day in Common Grave 215. His remains were positively identified by the DPAA through forensics analysis including DNA testing with samples taken from his sister Dorothy, his niece Quita and his great nephew, Brett.

Clifford was the third child of eleven children born to Clarence Alfred Strickland and Lydia Bell (McCumber) Strickland on January 6, 1917, in Fowler, Colorado. Clifford’s brothers and sisters who have all joined him in eternity are from oldest to youngest: Madelyn, Willis Roy, Glenn Elmer, Dorothy, Milton, Dolores, Charles, Donald, Dale, and William. Clifford has one surviving sister-in-law, our own and dearest Aunt Betty, who married Clifford’s youngest brother William.

Our family, especially his parents, brothers and sisters struggled with the loss of Clifford all their lives. We know him through the stories they shared of him at family gatherings and reunions and all the pictures and letters that they have kept and handed down to us. Stories of how hard a worker he was on the farm, how he like to sing the song “Cool Water” how he loved horses and even signed up for a horse and mule unit assigned to the Philippines. Mostly, of how much he loved and cared for his family, especially his siblings and his niece and nephew Bobby and Imogene. They were the only two at that time!

He wrote letters home almost weekly and several have been saved and passed down to us. His love for his family and longing for home were obvious. He sent money home to help in what were very hard times. In one letter before shipping to the Philippines he wished his mother a happy Mother’s Day, which would be the last time, and told her he loved her. He shared poems about soldiers and shared math problems with his younger siblings asking them to send him back the answers. He sent gifts to his cousins for graduation. He even advised his family to discourage his brother Milton from joining the military foreign service; because he thought one person serving for the family in the foreign service was enough.

Clifford has 37 nieces and nephews of which 28 are still living, 79 great nieces and nephews with 75 still living, 117 great-great nieces and nephews and 67 great-great-great nieces and nephews. We all remember Uncle Clifford as our hero and a part of the “Greatest Generation” who gave his life for our freedom.

He will be finally laid to rest back near his beloved home and his near his parent’s final resting place in Union Highland Cemetery in Florence, Colorado, following his funeral service at Solid Rock Christian Fellowship Church in Florence. Graveside services will start at 2:00 P.M. on June 29th, 2024, eighty-two years after his ultimate sacrifice for his country. Finally our Uncle Clifford’s military status can read, ACCOUNTED FOR!! Amen.