[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 66 (Friday, April 16, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E407]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





          RECOGNIZING DANIEL CROWLEY OF SIMSBURY, CONNECTICUT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JAHANA HAYES

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, April 16, 2021

  Mrs. HAYES. Madam Speaker, I rise today to call your attention to 
National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day, which takes place 
annually on April 9th. This day honors the men and women who fought two 
battles, one in combat and another in enduring untold brutality by our 
enemies.
  April 9th is also the 79th anniversary of the start of the infamous 
1942 Bataan Death March in the Philippines. Invading Imperial Japanese 
forces forced more than 80,000 American and Filipino soldiers, sailors, 
airmen, and Marines to walk 65 miles up the Bataan Peninsula in the 
tropical heat without food, water, or medical care while subjecting 
them to beatings, bayonetting, and beheading. Thousands died.
  One of my constituents, Daniel Crowley of Simsbury, Connecticut, is a 
survivor of the Battle of Bataan. A member of the U.S. Army Air Corps, 
he was sent to Bataan in December 1941 after Japan destroyed the 
military airfields in the Philippines. He was part of the United States 
Army's Provisional Air Corps Infantry Regiment and fought in the 
historic Battle of the Points on the Peninsula.
  Daniel avoided the Bataan Death March by swimming from Mariveles on 
Bataan through three miles of shark-infested and mined waters to the 
fortress island of Corregidor. There, he became part of the 4th Marines 
Regimental Reserve who fought a dangerous and desperate shore defense 
until Corregidor fell to Japan on May 6, 1942.
  He was one of 300 Prisoners of War sent to build an airstrip on 
Palawan Island for the Japanese Army. Today this site serves as the 
Philippine Air Force's Antonio Bautista Air Base. Daniel was fortunate 
to be transferred off the island before the December 14, 1944 Palawan 
Massacre where the 150 Prisoners of War remaining on the island were 
doused with aircraft fuel, set afire, and machine gunned to death.
  Instead, Daniel was shipped to Japan aboard a ``hellship'' to be a 
laborer in two copper mines: one owned by Hitachi Ltd. and the other, 
Ashio, owned by the Furukawa Company Group. He labored alongside 
Japanese and conscripted Korean miners as well as Allied and American 
Prisoners of War from the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, 
Hong Kong, Dutch East Indies, Norway, Australia, and China.
  After liberation in September 1945, Daniel returned home to 
Connecticut. He raised a family and became a storied salesman for 
Northwestern Mutual.
  On January 4, 2021, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont proclaimed 
``Pacific War Heroes Day'' in Daniel's honor. After 76 years, Daniel, 
98, finally received his long-denied Combat Infantryman Badge, a 
Prisoner of War Medal, and his previously unknown 1945 promotion to 
Sergeant in a ceremony held at the Air National Guard Base outside 
Hartford, Connecticut.
  Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring now 
Sergeant Daniel Crowley for his extraordinary service to our country 
fighting tyranny and oppression. His and the more than 200 American 
Prisoners of War of Japan from Connecticut have a history we must never 
forget.

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