Lester Tenney, “the last man from [Company B], and the last Maywood-born member of the 192nd Tank Batallion,” who died last month at 96. | Maywood Bataan Day Organization 

Saturday, March 4, 2017 || By Local News Curator || @maywoodnews

Lester Tenney, “the last man from [Company B], and the last Maywood-born member of the 192nd Tank Batallion,” according to a statement put out by the Maywood Bataan Day Organization last month, has died. The MBDO added that Tenney was also a former president of the American Bataan Clan, MBDO’s predecessor.

Tenney died last month in California after a short hospitalization, according to an article published by the San Diego Union-Tribune at the time. Tenney, among the last living survivors of the Bataan Death March, said that he survived the ordeal “by setting small goals for himself as he walked,” the Union-Tribune wrote.

“Make it to that stand of trees,” reporters John Wilkens and Peter Rowe reported of Tenney’s fight for survival. “Make it to that herd of water buffalo. By the time he and the other survivors staggered into Japanese prison camps, thousands had died.

“It was awful. It was inhumane. It was barbaric,” recalled Tenney, who is survived by Betty, his wife of 57 years; a son; two stepson; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Read more about Tenney’s fight for survival here. Read the MBDO’s release on Tenney’s death here. VFP

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