Dyess, Wm. E. (William Edwin), 1916-1943
Dates
- Existence: 1916 - 1943
Biography
Lt. Col. William Edwin Dyess was born in Albany, Texas on August 9, 1916. He enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces, and married Marajen Stevick before going to his assignment in the Philippines. He was captured after the Battle of Bataan and survived the Bataan Death March. After a year of captivity, he escaped with several others, and survived for three months before being evacuated by a U.S. submarine. Back in the United States, he related his experiences to Chicago Tribune writer Charles Leavelle. This story was syndicated as a series of 25 articles by the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate (published in January and February, 1944), and subsequently as a book, The Dyess Story (Putnam, 1944; published in Britain by Angus and Robertson in 1945 under the title Death March from Bataan). The plane accident in California which killed Dyess (December 22, 1943) occurred before approval was granted by the U.S. government to publish his story.