Escape from Davao by Lukacs John D

Author:Lukacs, John D. [Lukacs, John D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2015-05-21T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

Unexplored

There was no trail and I am wandering still

In search of something lost upon a hill …

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21–WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 1943

Davao and Agusan Provinces

The flotilla glided through the morning mists hanging over the

Libuganon River, the escapees watching wistfully as the Eligio David family, waving from the riverbank, receded into the distance.

In a procession reminiscent of a traveling circus, the expedition had commenced at 0800 after an emotional farewell during which the Davids were presented a curious assortment of parting gifts: a pearl stud from Shanghai; quinine pills; some soap; a check for $40 drawn from a Quantico, Virginia, bank—all Mike Dobervich recalled having in the account. The Americans regretted that they could not give more, but there was no way they could ever repay the Filipinos.

They had left with warm memories—and supplies. In three days Laureta’s men had assembled 300 pounds of rice and corn; six dozen eggs; nine blocks of sugar; twenty pounds of coffee; a bamboo tube of salt; pecks of tomatoes, beans, and dried peas. There was also 110 pounds of salted carabao jerky, plus twenty squawking chickens, housed in a portable coop.

McCoy had acquired a .45 caliber Colt revolver. Boelens left with a swollen jaw, thanks to the painful extraction of a wisdom tooth. And Dobervich was just plain lucky to leave. Racked with a fever and vomiting, he was quarantined in his own craft while the rest of the thirty-six-man detachment occupied the other five barotos, the twenty-foot dugout canoes that would be pulled, paddled, or poled up the shallow river on the first leg of their journey.

While roughly ten of Laureta’s men accompanied the expedition as soldiers, the work of propelling the barotos was the responsibility of the Ata tribesmen who served as cargadores. Laureta, the escapees learned, had taken the Atas’ elders hostage in order to pacify their territory. And though the Atas feared Laureta, the Americans stared uneasily at the pygmies’ primitive yet deadly arsenal of spears and poison-tipped arrows.

Also along for at least part of the journey were Laureta, Lieutenants Tuvilla and Rivera, Sergeant Baguilod, and, much to the delight of the escapees, Big Boy. The sight of Big Boy cradling his BAR as they snaked along the shimmering river was reassuring. Another welcome addition was Sgt. Magdaleno Dueñas. Nearly thirty years old, yet barely five feet tall with a whistling, high-pitched voice, the hardworking Dueñas was responsible for their baggage. He wanted nothing more than to be an American soldier and citizen, so the next best thing for him was to serve alongside Americans.

At 1730, the party stopped for the night at a small outpost called Florida. “Here we were given an example of how Filipinos can throw things together. In no time at all they had built a serviceable table, served coffee, and then rice and meat,” McCoy wrote in his log. The laborious process of setting up—erecting shelters, starting a fire, and preparing meals—then striking camp would be repeated daily and the Americans would never stop being amazed at the skill and efficiency of the Filipinos.

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