The Battling Bastards
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I learned this poem many years ago, I have no idea why, but I remembered it.
The criticism was cruel, but it was true that McArthur had visited Bataan from Corregidor only once during the fighting, on January 10. The men now sensed that with him gone, they were expendable. Their feeling was summed up well by Frank Hewlett, the only US war correspondent left in the islands:
We’re the battling bastards of Bataan.
No mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam,
No aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no nieces,
No pills, no planes, no artillery pieces
And nobody gives a damn.
