Maurice Edward Wilson – Harrodsburg Tanker

Maurice Edward "Jack" Wilson

Staff Sergeant

Staff Sgt. Maurice Edward "Jack" Wilson (Harrodsburg Tankers, Survivor, WW II) BIRTH 2 MAR 1912 • Mercer County, Kentucky, USA DEATH 2 MAY 1985 • Fayette County, Kentucky, USA; Highest Grade Completed; Elementary school, 8th grade. Occupation; Farming. (He was married with no children)

He worked as a cashier at the Farmers National Bank and became the tank company’s official historian.

Maurice Edward Wilson BIRTH, 2 Mar 1912, Mercer County, Kentucky, USA DEATH, 2 May 1985 (aged 73), Kentucky, USA BURIAL, Unknown MEMORIAL ID, 146282498 Maurice Wilson was a member of D Company, 192nd Tank Battalion. He fought on Bataan and was a Japanese Prisoner of War. He was held for over three years in POW camps in the Philippines and Japan.

Maurice E. “Jack” Wilson Staff Sergeant Maurice E. Wilson joined the Harrodsburg unit before it was federalized in 1940. He did not take part in the Louisiana maneuvers because he was hospitalized at Fort Knox with an eye injury. He was finally allowed to rejoin his unit as they prepared for overseas duty. During the Battle of Bataan, he was reassigned from a tank commander to a mess sergeant because his commanding officer worried that if he got something in his good eye, he would be unable to command his tank. As a mess sergeant, he attempted to feed the men of D Company with anything he could find. When the ordercame for the Filipino and American forces on Bataan to surrender, he and fifteen other members of the company attempted to escape to Australia but instead wound up on Corregidor. He volunteered to go to Ft. Drum and became a member of a gun crew. He was taken prisoner on May 6, 1941 and marched to Bilibid Prison and eventually by train to Cabantuan POW Camp #3. He was sent on a work detail to build runways at Nickols Field and later returned to Bilibid Prison because of illness and eventually back to Cabanatuan. He was put aboard the Taga Maru sailing for Japan in September 1943 where he worked as a stevedore. His legs were severely injured in a fall while there. He returned to the United States by ship almost four years to the day that he had sailed for the Philippines. He returned to Harrodsburg and wore leg braces for the rest of his life. He passed away on May 2, 1985.