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Apr 28, 2006

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THUNDERBIRD YOUTH ACADEMY TRUDGES THROUGH DESERT, PAYS HOMAGE TO NATIONAL HEROES

After spending the whole day walking through the scorching desert heat, ten Thunderbird Youth Academy cadets from Oklahoma have a new perspective on what it means to be free.

A co-ed cluster of cadets from Oklahoma's Thunderbird Youth Academy were hand-picked to travel to neighboring New Mexico to take part in the Bataan Memorial Death March, a 26.2-mile trudge through the desert to honor the men who endured the original march in the Philippines during World War II.

"The at-risk youth in our program come from tough backgrounds and they often feel their problems are insurmountable," Academy Director of the Youth Programs Division Heather Arndt said.

"Yet participating in an activity like this makes them think that if the Bataan Death March survivors could make it through that devastating experience, they can certainly overcome and triumph over the many obstacles they face everyday," Arndt said.

Any captured allied forces were forced to march about 75 miles to a prisoner-of-war camp. About 10,000 American and Filipino soldiers endured the march and anybody who fell behind was shot, bayoneted, beheaded or killed.

The selected cadets, chosen on merit, used their trip to pay homage to state hero Elmer Parks. Parks, a veteran of WWII and a resident of Elgin, Okla., endured the trek and lived in a prison camp for three-and-a-half years during the war. The cadets marched in his honor and then paid his wife, Naeoma Parks, a visit on their way back to Oklahoma.

The cadets conducted a flag raising ceremony and then presented Parks with a memorial flag they carried through the march and a Thunderbird Academy t-shirt. Since the march, Parks has been asked to speak to local schools, where she brings a face to history and talks of the Thunderbird Cadets and the Academy.

The Bataan Memorial Death March reenactment draws a flurry of support and interest nationwide and provides opportunities for learning and appreciating the history of our country's veterans. The cadets not only honored a local hero, but they also gained a new outlook on what it means to be brave despite all odds.