If it hadn't been for Al McGrew, this website wouldn't be here.  I'd already started it, and had come to a point where I had begun to doubt its raison d’être.

Once I'd met him, I knew had it.  

THE CHAPEL AT CABANATUAN - DAUMIER

Paul Whitman

OBITUARY

Al McGrew, 85; WWII prisoner tortured by Japanese
By Tanya Sierra

SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

February 19, 2008

It took more than 30 years for Al McGrew to return to the rocky island of Corregidor, where the Japanese captured him, tortured him and forced him to work for three years during World War II.

When Mr. McGrew did return, he finally came to terms with his brutal captivity.

Mr. McGrew made more than 10 trips to the Philippines beginning in 1981. He became an informal historian of the battle of Corregidor, giving tours and eventually writing a memoir.

“He was probably one of the toughest little guys I've ever known in my whole life,” said friend and fellow prisoner of war Martin Christie, 86, of the San Fernando Valley.

Mr. McGrew died Jan. 27 of cancer. He was 85.

Mr. McGrew shrank from 130 pounds to 80 pounds before escaping. His humor kept him grounded, family and friends say.

“My dad never talked about the war when I was growing up,” said Vicki Maheu. “He didn't join the POW group until 15 years ago.”

Growing up poor in Columbus, Ohio, Mr. McGrew and his best friend, Spencer Bever, joined the Army as a way to see the world. He thought of drilling for oil in Arabia or South America, he said in a 1991 interview.

“With no basic training we were shipped to Corregidor,” he said in that story. “They needed manpower, even untrained men.”

After being beaten, strung up over a fire and enslaved, Mr. McGrew escaped the camp in the summer of 1945.

“We always felt like we were lucky,” said Christie, who served in the Marines. “So many good men that we felt were better than we were died.”

In 1948, Mr. McGrew met and married Marjean Herres in Ohio. They had two children and eventually moved to San Diego. He retired from Control Data Corp. after 27 years when the manufacturing division left San Diego.

In addition to golf, tennis and traveling to Corregidor, Mr. McGrew talked about his experience as a POW to history classes at University of California San Diego, high schools and other organizations.

“He enjoyed being a tour guide there and an amateur historian and being contacted by people all over the world looking for information on Corregidor,” Maheu said.

A memoir of his experiences was published recently in San Francisco, Maheu said.

In addition to his daughter, who lives in San Diego, Mr. McGrew is survived by his wife, Marjean, of Serra Mesa, and his son, Steve McGrew, of San Diego.

A memorial service will be held at noon today at St. Columba's Catholic Church, 3327 Glencolum Drive, followed by a reception in the church hall. Military services will be held at 3 p.m. today at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in Point Loma.

Family members will leave some of Mr. McGrew's ashes at Rosecrans and the rest will be spread in Corregidor.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENTS: 

• ■ Wrote his Memoirs of Army life and as a P.O.W., "Amid Th' Encircling Gloom - Corregidor and Survival" privately published by the Corregidor Historical Society, Ca, 2008.
• ■ Over 10 trips (last in 2001) to Corregidor where Al was photographed on Corregidor by the famous National Geographic photographer, Steve McCurry and assisted McCurry with the setup of some of his photos published by the National Geographic Society article Corregidor Revisited, July 1986.  Al photographed historical sites, acted as tour guide and historian to 10s of visitors to the “rock” during the 1980s and 1990s.  Many of these visitors, former military, historians, and others who had contacted Al via email and phone traveled together to Corregidor on several occasions.
• ■ In 1996, Al, and his wife Marjean, were guests of several Buddhist Monks in Chino, Japan for a memorial of the 50^th anniversary of the last prisoner camp “Suwa” where Al was interned.  His daughter accompanied them to Japan.  Yasuo Komatsu of Kanazawa, Japan, whose husband stayed with Al and Marjean on two occasions and became close friends, made this invitation possible.  Yasuo researched and found the location of Suwa Camp and interviewed many residents about World War II and Suwa Camp.  They had questions for Al and he for the Chino locals.  Yasuo translated many letters back and forth.  The Japanese press followed Al’s visit to Chino and locals were able to hear Al speak at the Community event. Al didn’t relate much of his war experience to his family and friends, but he was fondest of telling the “Hogan’s Heroes-type story”, of breaking out of the newly-built Suwa Prison Camp, late at night, to forage through vegetable gardens of the local Japanese families.  The Suwa Camp had some “loose” boards and the prisoners “broke out” to steal vegetables.  During this visit to Japan, Al, Marjean and Vicki were able to meet the one of the elderly couples from whom he stole vegetables.  The Japanese couple knew that the American prisoners were stealing from them, causing a real hardship for their starving family, yet they did not complain knowing that the prisoners would be harshly punished or worse.