Last U.S. survivor of Bataan Death March buried with honors

Paul Ketchum died just six weeks shy of his 103rd birthday. USAF

The last known U.S. survivor of World War II’s infamous Bataan Death March was buried with military honors at the Veterans Cemetery near Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

Paul Kerchum died last December just six weeks shy of his 103 birthday. A motorcycle escort, an A-10 flyover, Honor Guards from the Air Force, and from the Army honored the life and long service of the retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant, according to KGUN 9 News.

Born Jan. 25, 1920, Kerchum started his military career at 17 after he joined the U.S. Army in 1938 during the Great Depression.

Paul Ketchum in 1946. OBITUARY

He served with E Company, 27th Infantry and was stationed in Hawaii, then re-enlisted as a member of the B Company, 31st Infantry Regiment and served in the Philippines from 1940 to 1945.

Kerchum survived the Bataan Death March. While on that 55-mile forced march from Mariveles to the San Fernando rail head, he recalled how men were shot, bayoneted, beheaded or beaten to death by Japanese soldiers. He spent three and a half years as a prisoner of war in Japanese Army labor camps in the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan.

After the war, in 1945, Kerchum enlisted in what was then the U.S. Army Air Corps, later the U.S. Air Force. ). He also fought in the Korean War.

He retired from the military after 29 years’ service (eight years in the Army and 21 in the Air Force. He moved to Benson, Arizona in 1966, until he passed away.