re: Odd history or little known facts about your hometown.

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I know a very large number of American and Filipino prisoners were taken when Bataan and Corregidor fell. Maybe 100,000? Not sure how many were Americans. Seems strange to think that even with that many prisoners that five would be from Bogalusa and even stranger that they weren't related in some way. That's a cool bit of trivia!

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There's a great account of the surrender of the troops on Bataan and Corregidor in Hampton Sides' book, The Ghost Soldiers. Incidentally, the troops who surrendered on Coregidor did not endure the Death March, they were taken to Manila and then to the camps. Of the five men from Bogalusa on the Death March, I said four were sent to China and Japan - that's not correct. One, Sgt. Oliver Hartford, died in the prison camp. Three were sent on the death ships to slave labor camps. One POW, Hugh Cutrer, gave evidence in the war crime trials of one of the Japanese officers involved with the death ships.

The four men who returned home got on with their lives. One of them, Robert May, became a police officer and was killed after only a short time on the job responding to a domestic dispute.