Staff Sergeant WILLIAM “Buck Rogers” “Bill” TALBERT BIDDISON 6660367 KIA

Staff Sergeant WILLIAM “Buck Rogers” “Bill” TALBERT BIDDISON service number 6660367 Killed in Action, United States Army Air Corps. Biddison was a survivor of the Bataan Death March and met his death two years later in a Japanese prisoner of war camp at Osaka. Sergeant Biddison was born in 1906. He was the husband of Ora Etta Biddison, 208 Watson Street, Bossier City , Louisiana and step father of Pharmacist’s Mate, Third Class JAMES HARVEY MALONE. Biddison entered the armed service in 1936 in Columbus, Ohio at the age of 29. Sergeant BIDDISON was 5 feet 10 inches tall weighed 150 pounds and had Blue eyes brown hair. From 1936 to 1939, Sergeant Biddison was stationed at Honolulu in the Hawaiian Islands. Before the war broke out in the Pacific, he was assigned to Savannah Air Base, Georgia Leaving Savannah, Barksdale Field, he served with the 23rd Bomb Squadron, 2nd Materiel Squadron 35th air base Group. He landed in the Philippines November 21, 1941. He was fighting on Bataan with the 48th Materiel Squadron 27th Bombardment Group Light when the American forces met their defeat. He survived the Bataan Death March and the Philippines. On September 20, 1943 Biddison was on the small Japanese freighter the “Taga Maru” AKA Coral Maru. It left the Philippines with about 800 American Prisoner of Wars and after a stop at Takao, Formosa safely docked at Moji, Japan on October 5th. Almost 350 men of the group, enlisted men of all services, were sent to Camp No. 5B at Niigata arriving on October 7, 1943. Sent to a Japanese prison camp at Osaka in 1943, he managed to survive until February 1, 1945. His death was attributed to beriberi and pneumonia. His Family was not informed of his death until November 3, 1945. According to Wayne Smith he met Biddison in 1943 in the POW Camp. Biddison “was known to his fellow POWs as “Buck Rogers”… Buck somehow still managed to fashion a cribbage board, teaching others how to play – bringing a bit of normalcy into their lives. Sadly, he died in camp of poor health and malnutrition six months before the war ended.”

In addition to his wife he is survived by two brothers, Bedford Biddison of Columbus and Emmitt Biddison of San Francisco, and one sister, Mary Biddison, also of San Francisco. As well as 3 step sons James, Truett, and Marvin Malone.

Documents and Photographs of Biddison

Source:

1- THE FIGHTING MEN OF LOUISIANA – LOUISIANA HISTORICAL INSTITUTE – 1946

2- Timothy A. Malone and George Allen Malone Records

3- Information from Melanie Smith that she got from her father Wayne Smith