Biography of Kenneth Rice

I was with the 4^th Marine Regiment in Shanghai when we were transferred to the Philippines about a week before the Pearl Harbor attack.  I was with Col. Andersen in Olongapo and we were attacked about the same time as Pearl Harbor.  Next we were sent to Corregidor where we set up defense on the beaches.

With the fall of the Philippines I was marched as a P.O.W. from Manila to Camp Cabanatuan. I was sent on a work detail under the Japanese officer called the "White Angel" (dressed completely in white and very mean). We were extending an airfield. I was sent back to Cabanatuan Camp where later I was put on a freighter to Japan. Many of the men in the ship’s hold died on the way to Japan. Those that died were dropped into the sea. I can still remember that. In Japan I worked in a coal mine for the Mitsui Company as a slave laborer.

Upon the end of the war I regained my health and stayed in the Marine Corps.

After medical leave I went on recruiting duty in Michigan, my home state, where I met my wife-to-be. We were married in 1950 and our daughter was born in 1951.

I also did a tour in the Korean War.

I was selected for the rank of Sergeant Major in 1956. I was Sergeant Major of Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina under General Wallace M. Green, Jr.

I was transferred to the Air Station, Koneode Bay, Hawaii and in 1960 retired and returned to Saginaw, Michigan, where I went through training for the Saginaw County Sheriff Department I worked up the ranks to Detective Lt. and retired from there.