PFC GROVER WILLIAM "BILL" POOL was born on 2 May 1918 in Texas to Hill Baxter Pool and Viola Morrow-Pool.
Service Number: 279302
Grover was raised in Austin, Texas by his father Hill (a school janitor) and mother, Viola.
Pool enlisted in the Marines on 21 December 1939. After completing boot training in San Diego, California he was assigned to the Marine Barracks at Mare Island Navy Yard.
Private Pool served at Mare Island, California until October 1940. He was promoted to Private First Class in September, and late that year, he was transferred to Company E, Second Battalion, Fourth Marines in Shanghai, and he arrived at his overseas post that December.
Pool traveled to the Philippines with his regiment in 1941 where they prepared defenses. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor – closely followed by bombing attacks on installations at Cavite and Olongapo, Central Luzon, Philippines – which dashed hopes of not going to war. PFC Pool fought in the defense of the Philippines, but was cut off on the Bataan Peninsula. His unit was surrendered by General Edward King on 9 April 1942, after a brutal campaign that saw starting American and Filipino troops overwhelmed by superior numbers of Japanese troops.
Pool and the other captives were divided into groups of one hundred men apiece and compelled to walk to their destination – Camp O’Donnell near Tarlac. The resulting brutality would become infamous as the Bataan Death March.
Conditions at O’Donnell, a former Philippine Army camp, were deplorable, to say the least. It was vastly overcrowded, diseases ran rampant, there was little more than a cursory nod towards sanitation, and relief from the heat was second only to the wish for food in the prisoners minds.
Grover Pool was reported dead on 8 May 1942. He was last known to be a prisoner at Camp O’Donnell; the details of his fate are unknown.
It is not known what happened to his body. However there are two Memorial Markers in his honor. One is at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Philippines. The second is at Austin Memorial Park, Austin, Texas.
http://missingmarines.com/category/prisoner-of-war/camp-odonnell/
PFC GROVER WILLIAM "BILL" POOL was born on 2 May 1918 in Texas to Hill Baxter Pool and Viola Morrow-Pool.
Service Number: 279302
Grover was raised in Austin, Texas by his father Hill (a school janitor) and mother, Viola.
Pool enlisted in the Marines on 21 December 1939. After completing boot training in San Diego, California he was assigned to the Marine Barracks at Mare Island Navy Yard.
Private Pool served at Mare Island, California until October 1940. He was promoted to Private First Class in September, and late that year, he was transferred to Company E, Second Battalion, Fourth Marines in Shanghai, and he arrived at his overseas post that December.
Pool traveled to the Philippines with his regiment in 1941 where they prepared defenses. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor – closely followed by bombing attacks on installations at Cavite and Olongapo, Central Luzon, Philippines – which dashed hopes of not going to war. PFC Pool fought in the defense of the Philippines, but was cut off on the Bataan Peninsula. His unit was surrendered by General Edward King on 9 April 1942, after a brutal campaign that saw starting American and Filipino troops overwhelmed by superior numbers of Japanese troops.
Pool and the other captives were divided into groups of one hundred men apiece and compelled to walk to their destination – Camp O’Donnell near Tarlac. The resulting brutality would become infamous as the Bataan Death March.
Conditions at O’Donnell, a former Philippine Army camp, were deplorable, to say the least. It was vastly overcrowded, diseases ran rampant, there was little more than a cursory nod towards sanitation, and relief from the heat was second only to the wish for food in the prisoners minds.
Grover Pool was reported dead on 8 May 1942. He was last known to be a prisoner at Camp O’Donnell; the details of his fate are unknown.
It is not known what happened to his body. However there are two Memorial Markers in his honor. One is at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Philippines. The second is at Austin Memorial Park, Austin, Texas.
http://missingmarines.com/category/prisoner-of-war/camp-odonnell/
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