Samuel Grashio

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Samuel Charles Grashio
U.S Air Force
Years of service1940–1965
Rank Colonel
Unit21st Pursuit Squadron
24th Pursuit Group
Battles/warsWorld War II
 • Battle of Bataan
Awards Distinguished Service Cross
Silver Star (2)
RelationsDevonia Grashio (wife)

Samuel Charles Grashio (April 1, 1918 – October 3, 1999)

Japanese in World War II. He survived the Bataan Death March and participated in the only successful mass escape from a Japanese prison camp.[2]

Grashio was born and raised in

Washington.[3] He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in September 1940.[3] After training, he was sent to the Philippines, arriving in Manila on November 20, 1941, to join the 24th Pursuit Group's 21st Pursuit Squadron as a second lieutenant.[2]

World War II

On December 8, the same day as the

Curtis P-40E fighter airplane.[4] Along with the rest of the 24th Group, he ended up at Bataan, where he flew the last combat mission on April 8, 1942.[2] The Battle of Bataan
ended the next day with an Allied surrender.

Grashio joined the other

lumber camp on Mindanao (Davao Region) to engage in manual labor.[2]

Grashio and his squadron commander, Lieutenant

Jack Hawkins, who had organized the escape.[7] After wandering for three days in the swamp, they contacted a band of Filipino guerrillas.[2] They then joined the Mindanao guerrillas under the command of Lt. Col. Wendell Fertig. Over the course of the next few months, seven of the men were transported a few at a time by submarine to Australia while three stayed behind to continue fighting with the guerrillas.[2] One of these, an Army Air Corps engineering officer named Leo Boelens, was eventually killed by the Japanese.[8] Grashio and Luis Morgan escaped to Australia via submarine.[9]
: 110 

Grashio was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star with cluster during the war.[2]

Later life

He rose to the rank of colonel before retiring in 1965.[2] He then became the assistant to the President of Gonzaga University in Spokane.

He co-authored Return to Freedom: The War Memoirs of Colonel Samuel C. Grashio U.S.A.F. (1982,

ISBN 0-912958-20-0
) with Bernard Norling.

Grashio died in 1999. He was survived by his wife Devonia Grashio.[10] She died in 2015. They had six children: daughters Patricia Ohlidal (deceased), Marilyn (Jim) Cline of Yakima, Judith Dawson, Mary Elizabeth Grashio, Celene (Tony) Riccelli and son Samuel (Laurie) Grashio, all of Spokane.[11]

See also

References

  1. ^ url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/115057009
  2. ^
    Air Force Association
    ). Retrieved May 29, 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Too Little, Too Late". militaryartgallery.com. Retrieved January 24, 2011.
  4. ISBN 1-58544-246-1
    . Retrieved January 24, 2011.
  5. ^ Dyess, W.E., 1944, The Dyess Story, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons
  6. ISBN 0-275-96955-X
    .
  7. ^ Hawkins, Jack L. (1961). Never Say Die. Dorrance & Company. p. 56.
  8. ^ Grashio, Samuel C. (1982). Return to Freedom. University Press. p. 264.
  9. ISBN 0813119499
    .
  10. ^ Larue, Jennifer (July 17, 2010). "92-year-old woman paints from the heart". The Spokesman-Review.
  11. ^ "Obituary: Grashio, Devonia 'Dee'". The Spokesman-Review. April 14, 2015.
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