POLAND — Local veteran Ron Hosler will be the guest speaker for this month’s World War II Heritage Group gathering at A La Cart Catering in Canfield on Dec. 16.

Hosler was commissioned an infantry second lieutenant from the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at the University of Montana in 1972. He has served more than 33 years in numerous units and installations in the states and overseas. His last assignment was as the assistant professor of military science at Youngstown State University. As a historian, Hosler has had several articles published by the Army Historical Foundation publication “On Point.”

Hosler retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel and serves as a commissioner for the Mahoning County Veterans Service Commission.

As for his topic, the Bataan Death March came after U.S. and Filipino troops were faced with a Japanese invasion after Pearl Harbor. The invasion of the Philippines came the day after the Pearl Harbor attack. Within a month, Manila was captured and the U.S.-Filipino defenders were forced to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula.

On April 9, 1942, with forces starving and disease spreading, U.S. Maj. Gen. Edward King Jr. surrendered 75,000 American troops to the Japanese. After the surrender, the prisoners of war were forced to march 65 miles from the Bataan Peninsula to prison camps with very little food or drink. An estimated 17,000 men died in that march and shortly after.

“My topic centers around a Japanese propaganda photograph taken during the Bataan Death March of three captured American soldiers, and what happened to them,” Hosler said. “I will also briefly talk about the events that led to the death march.”

Hosler said the American public was not aware of the death march until January 1944. The military had received some reports of the death march but kept it confidential to prevent unnecessary grief. Families that had relatives in the Philippines that were captured by the Japanese only received a notice that they were prisoners of war. Final disposition was made to these families in late 1945 after the war was over.

“There was much outrage and American civilians and soldiers were resentful to the Japanese for this war crime,” Hosler said.

Hosler’s family are not strangers to the Death March because of a family tie to that horrible event of WWII.

“My mother’s cousin was a soldier in the Philippines at the time of the death march, fought on Bataan, survived the death march, but died in a prisoner of war camp in the Philippines in 1942,” he said. “He was buried in a mass grave and his remains could possibly be identified. He is listed as missing, remains not recovered. I’ve been to the Manila American Cemetery and found his name on the ‘Wall of the Missing’,” Hosler said.

For those interested in the topic, reservations can be made by calling Dave Frank at 330-757-0515. The speech will be preceded by a buffet dinner. Reservations are due by Thursday.