Page 5 - Don Samuelson News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

A look through the Brainerd Dispatch archives with Terry McCollough combing the microfilm for tidbits of history through the decades going back to 1921.

A look through the Brainerd Dispatch archives with Terry McCollough combing the microfilm for tidbits of history through the decades going back to 1921.

Now a century old, the veteran said he's had a life that would fill hundreds of pages and grip the reader so strongly they couldn't put it down.

‘It Was An Incredible Life’: Walt Straka, Minnesota’s Last Bataan Death March Survivor, Dies At 101 CBS Minnesota 3 hrs ago Syndicated Local – WCCO | CBS Minnesota MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Minnesota’s last survivor of the Bataan Death March passed away on the Fourth of July. Walt Straka was 101 years old. During World War II he was a member of the 194th Tank Battalion in the Philippines. After surrendering, Japanese soldiers beat the American POWs and forced them to march more than 60 miles in extreme heat and without food or water. Walt’s son and a family friend ...

Bataan Death March survivor Walt Straka (center) receives a standing ovation Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019 during the opening ceremony before the 22nd annual Bataan Memorial March at the Brainerd Armory. Kelly Humphrey / Brainerd Dispatch file photo There were many conversations over the decades, Samuelson said, but it seems to be human nature that even while his friend died at the venerable age of 101, no amount of time is enough to ask everything that needs to be asked, to say everything that needs to be said. “It’s pretty sad seeing the last man in that outfit having passed now,” Samuelso...