The USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum, in partnership with the Bataan Legacy Historical Society, the Philippine Scouts Heritage Society and the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society, will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Bataan Death March on Sunday, April 10 at the USS Hornet in Alameda.

The event will begin at 10 a.m. with a panel discussion on the bombing of the hell ships Oryoku Maru and Enoura Maru by Air Group 11 (CVG-11), which was stationed at the USS Hornet (CV-12). Then a memorial ceremony will begin at 11:30 a.m. There will also be an exhibition on WWII in the Philippines, the Hell Ships and Air Group 11.

Eighty years ago, on April 9, 1942, approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops of the U.S. Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) were forced to surrender to the Imperial Japanese Army after fighting in the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines. Despite suffering from massive disease, starvation and fighting without any air support, the USAFFE troops were able to delay the 50-day timetable of the Japanese Army by holding on to Bataan for 99 days. After the Fall of Bataan they were forced to march to their prison camp about 65 miles away under extreme tropical conditions with no provisions for food, water, shelter or medicine. Thousands died during this march, which became infamously known as the Bataan Death March. It became a rallying cry in the United States as thousands enlisted to join the war.

Master of ceremonies will be Brig. General Steven McLaughlin and Keynote speaker will be Vice Admiral Michael McAllister, Commander of the U.S. Coast Guard, Pacific Area.