Jerry Wagner was one of the men captured by the Japanese on Bataan. He and the other American soldiers and civilians were brutally made to take the famed “death march” to the eventually reached prison camps.

Wagner was an Army Medic of the late 1930's, and as such discovered his knowledge and up-to-date medications were over and above anything the Japanese Military could provide for their own troops.

Jerry and the other half dozen men of his capability had every bit of their medical supplies and equipment inventoried and locked by their captors. The Japanese problem was they had no conception of how to prescribe or apply the American medical miracles. The American Medics actually were used instead of the regular physicians, because they were much better at what they did.

The newly discovered sulfa drugs were the most impressive to the Camp Officers, because of their already legendary treatment for gonorrhea.

The captives were randomly grouped in companies of about fifty men. Each company had to select their Captain, whose major responsibility was making sure every man was in line for the three or four times a day roll calls. The Japanese Commander had the siren turned on for three minutes whenever he decided the prisoners had to run to the Cabanatuan parade ground for a head count.

Anyone who was not present when the siren whined down had to march back and forth for at least six hours on the gravel of the gathering place. Few of the prisoners had foot covering enough to prevent their feet from becoming a mass of bruises and cuts after being punished in that manner.

Needless to say; the moment the siren started, there was a mad rush of all the men from their flimsy barracks to avoid the late penalty. This headlong stampede three or more times a day became an almost impossibility as the effects of the starvation diet began to debilitate more and more of the prison population.

When it became obvious to the Japanese officers that some of the men could not form a line in the allotted time, they instituted a replacement program.

The group Captain had to select one of the stronger men to take the long walk for every tardy member of their command.

The Medical personnel did not have to undergo the inhuman treatment imposed on the bulk of the captives. They did have to watch every formation and every punishment handed out.

One group Captain was a redheaded Irishman from Boston. He had a fiery temper and an even deeper hatred for his captors. Jerry Wagner watched the day “Red” was told to select three of his men for the walk. He did not make a move or point to anyone. The Japanese Officer strode up and hit him in the face with a bamboo rod he held in his gloved hand. At that point “Red” spit in his face.

The entire camp was forced to stand in the sun for the hour it took to set a pole in the ground, tie Captain Flynn to it and beat him to a pulp with rifle butts.

One morning one of the prisoners came up to the wire and said to Jerry, “Could I get one of your sulfa Pills?” Wagner told him that the pills were counted every day and if one was missing it would mean he could get the rifle butt death treatment. The prisoner informed him that he knew what would happen if the pills came up short in the daily check, but he said, “Just loan it to me for three hours, I promise on my life you'll get it back.”

The valuable loan was made and repaid in the allotted time. No questions were asked and no answers were given about the transaction between the medical and general compound prisoners.

Wagner did begin to notice a few things in the ensuing weeks. Some of the men began to wear Japanese military boots to shield their sore feet. A chicken showed up in the stew to augment the regular rat meat for protein content.

Eventually the opportunity arose for Wagner to talk with the prisoner who borrowed the tablet. He learned it was used to form a mold. The mold became the source of many ersatz wonder drug tablets made from plaster scraped off the walls of the barracks. These were traded to the Japanese enlisted guards for boots, chicken and some other needed items. Of course, “the clap” the soldiers contracted seemed to react favorably after a week or ten days from the time they noticed the penis drip and bought the pills. This caused a wave of attention for the prisoner's ability to medicate the sexually transmitted disease and resulted in more help for the men in the compound.

Jerry's final thoughts about the pill scam was that at least his tormentors who survived the War had a very good chance of never becoming fathers because of the sterility effect of untreated Gonorrhea.