Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Ceremony

In memory of the 515th Coast Artillery, this ceremony will celebrate the men who were held out for four months against an overwhelming enemy until Bataan and Corregidor surrendered in April and May of 1942.

In memory of the 515th Coast Artillery, this ceremony will celebrate the men who were starving and diseased and held out for four months against an overwhelming enemy until Bataan was surrendered on April 9, 1942, and Corregidor on May 6, 1942. Except for the few who escaped to fight as guerrillas, the survivors of those bloody battles were to suffer 3-1/2 years of the most inhumane treatment known to mankind as prisoners of war. Eight hundred of the just over 1,800 men originally deployed would perish in prison camps or on Hell Ships.

In 1943, while the men were suffering as prisoners of war, the City of Albuquerque vowed to build a Memorial to New Mexico’s 200th and 515th Coast Artillery (Anti-aircraft) units.