New Mexico: Bataan Death March

Some of the men who went to the Phillippines. Credit: Wilma Ticer Bull and NMSU

When I first arrived in New Mexico, Alamogordo specifically, I learned about the Bataan Memorial Death March. I wasn't clear on why - kind of in the middle of nowhere - there was this annual commemorative hike. I did some desultory research, but nothing New Mexico-specific jumped out at me, and I moved on to other things. It remained puzzling. 

But recently I read Oliver La Farge's essay in The Spell of New Mexico, and this caught me:  

... a whole regiment of New Mexico men, out of the Spanish-speaking hill villages, from the country of the drawling cowhands, from the deserts and mountains of the Indians, a whole regiment of them, .... lost on Bataan. 

Every spring participants in the Bataan Memorial Death March hike up to 26.2 miles through the White Sands Missile Range. Alas, the official memorial march page devotes only one sentence to the New Mexicans in Bataan:  Among those seized were members of the 200^th Coast Artillery, New Mexico National Guard.

Of the 1,816 men in the 200th & 515th Coast Artillery (New Mexican units), 829 died in battle, while prisoners, or immediately after liberation.  There were 987 survivors.

From New Mexico State University:

In the 1930s, the men of the New Mexico National Guard were brothers, cousins, friends, and compadres. Some were part of a tradition -- their fathers, uncles, and grandfathers had also been members of the Guard.....

The New Mexico National Guard likes to remind other guard troops that they are the oldest militia in the United States. They trace their roots to the early 1600s, when a Spanish militia fought hostile Indians in the northern part of the state.....

The men of the 111th were ranch hands, miners, farmers, postal workers, students, professors, lawyers, and doctors. They knew each other from football teams, scout troops, or neighborhoods. They were friends or cousins, or members of the same tribe. ....

They represented New Mexico -- Anglos, Mexican Americans, Native Americans, and anyone else who cared to join. They were from nearly every tribe and every county in the state.

I would point you to a PBS (!) documentary on the 70th anniversary of the Bataan Death March, with an emphasis on the New Mexican units, except that this documentary seems primarily to be a vehicle for political self-aggrandizement by Senator Tom Udall and others. Ick.

Instead, here's a story from one survivor - Lorenzo Banegas.

Over 1800 New Mexican soldiers went to the Phillippines, and only half returned.

I don't know if this is true or not, but I read where New Mexico at the time of the war, only had about half a million residents, and that each was related to or knew at least one soldier caught up in the Bataan death march. 

A few years ago, I read Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and its Aftermath. Diligently researched, well told, and unsparing in its descriptions of the physical, mental, and emotional tortures before, during, and after the death march.

New Mexico: Fauna Exotica

In Missouri, we've got the flying asian carp to contend with.

In the South, the nutria are 10-pound rats, basically, originally from South America.

In Florida, Burmese pythons have slithered to the top of the food chain.

All of the above are transplants - intended or not - from foreign climes.

In New Mexico, there are some big foreign critters to watch out for:

• Oryx
• Ibex
• Barbary sheep

Oryx

Oryx in New Mexico. Credit: Wallagogo Outfitters

I'm showing the above photo so you can get an idea of the size as compared to the person. And how sharp those horns are. 

I remember how excited I was to see oryx in Ethiopia from a bus as I traveled from Harar to Nazret.  Here in New Mexico, they say "oryx breed like rabbits on speed."

 
From what I gather, New Mexico's oryx population peaked at 7000 five years ago, but due to managed hunts, the population is now down to about 3000.

How the oryx got here:


From the High Country News, A Graceful Gazelle Becomes a Pest, October 2001, by Robert Rowley: 

The idea to provide exotic big-game hunting opportunities for local hunters originated just after World War II with Frank C. Hibben, today professor emeritus of archaeology at the University of New Mexico, but then chairman of the New Mexico Game Commission. Mustered out of the Navy in the Mediterranean, Hibben had hunted oryx in the Atlas Mountains in northwest Africa, an area that resembled his adopted state of New Mexico. Hibben believed there was a "niche" in the Chihuahuan Desert that would support a large ungulate. Years later, he paid for and helped to trap 18 oryx which, after quarantine, were shipped from Africa to New Jersey and then on to the Albuquerque Zoo.

Under federal law, the original animals had to spend the rest of their lives confined at the zoo, but their offspring were released onto White Sands Missile Range, a 2.2 million-acre parcel of property. Studies conducted in the 1960s by wildlife-management scientists at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces suggested that the oryx would be successful, but nobody knew just how far they would spread - or how many problems they would cause.

"The oryx thought this was home sweet home," says Hibben, "and they took to New Mexico like ducks to water."

What problems do the oryx cause? 

Awhile back, they created a problem at Holloman Air Force Base when they wandered around on the runways. They were a factor in a number of vehicle crashes at White Sands Missile Base. The oryx trampled or otherwise disturbed native habitat at White Sands National Monument and other fragile areas.

Because of the various state-sanctioned hunting programs over the years, the current oryx population is more manageable today than it was in the past. 


Ibex

Ibex in New Mexico. Credit: Organ Mountain Outfitting

Unlike the oryx population, the Persian ibex population remains constant in the hundreds and not the thousands. The ibex also, thus far, have remained within the confines of their original release area in the Florida Mountains near Deming, New Mexico.

Like the oryx, the ibex were brought to New Mexico for the pleasure of domestic big-game hunters. The New Mexico Game and Fish Department introduced them to New Mexico at about the same time as the oryx.

In the photo above, the ibex looks immense, but they generally get up to 30" height at the shoulders. Males get up to 150 pounds; females, 90.

A good summary of the Persian ibex in New Mexico is here.


Barbary sheep

Barbary sheep in New Mexico. Credit: Freedom Outfitters

It's generally agreed that New Mexico's Barbary sheep population grew from two sources: 1) a private ranch in New Mexico had imported the sheep from Africa, and some began to escape into the New Mexico countryside in 1943; and 2) in 1950, the New Mexico Game and Fish Department introduced Barbary sheep into areas where the native desert bighorn sheep had disappeared.

Recently, there's been talk about eliminating the Barbary sheep from the Carlsbad National Park and re-introducing desert bighorn sheep. Barbary sheep outweigh the desert bighorn sheep and they eat a more diverse diet than the bighorn, giving them the survival advantage. 

The Barbary sheep can be as tall as 3 feet or so at the shoulder and weigh up to 300 pounds, while the desert bighorn weigh up to 200 pounds.


I didn't know any of this until I talked to some of the folks at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park. Just another one of those things that make New Mexico an extraordinary place.

New Mexico: Sonic Booms

BOOM!!

It startled the heck out of me, and then I remembered where I was, Alamogordo, which is only 10 miles from the Holloman Air Force Base and the White Sands Missile Range (Army). Right. Sonic boom. Cool.


BOOM!!

And a few moments later, again.

New Mexico: Trinity Site

Trinity Site,White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico

On two days a year, the military opens the Trinity Site to visitors - the first Saturday in April and the first Saturday in October.

On October 6, I went to the site. I overhead an official say that between 2000-2200 people generally turn out for the semi-annual open houses.

Trinity Site, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico

To put it all in a ramekin, the Trinity Site is where the first atomic bomb was tested. July 16, 1945.

Created what they called a glass crater. There is "trinitite" laying about on the site. Although visitors are instructed not to take any away, I suspect much has been removed regardless. I think below I got a photo of some trinitite. The green, glassy rock that is just right of center.

Trinitite, Trinity Site, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico

 
The crater's since been filled in with sand, atop of which is an obelisk monument.

Trinity Site, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico

The visit started in the morning at the back of Tularosa High School. There were maybe a hundred cars in the caravan? Most vehicles had NM plates, but there were representatives from Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas, California, Washington, Idaho, Arizona, Texas, and Michigan.

The "Alamogordo caravan" (which really is the Tularosa caravan) left about a quarter after 8:00 a.m. This caravan goes through the White Sands Missile Range, normally cut off from visitors.

We each received signs to put in our windshield.

Trinity Site, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico

And we were off ....

Some people arrive at the site via other caravans, from Socorro or Las Cruces, for instance. You can also come on your own.

Cutting through the missile range land, it's about 85 miles to the site from Tularosa. This cuts off a large bit of mileage than if I'd have had to go around to Socorro and then to San Antonio (NM) and then down to the site. It takes close to two hours to get from Tularosa to the Trinity Site. 

There was a hot dog/burger concession set up. A line of porta-potties. A souvenir concession from the White Sands National Monument. Some atomic fans waving geiger counters across various items at their booth.  An information booth. A Trinity Site souvenir booth. (There was a Trinity Site tape measure, of all things.)

Along with many others, I walked to ground zero. Along the chain link fence surrounding the area were photos describing events and people related to the bomb.

Trinity Site, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico

 Someone pointed out a blue-tailed skink.

Skink at Trinity Site, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico

There was also something that looked like a cross between a toad and a lizard, but its coloring was so blended in with the brown/yellow grass, I was sure my camera wouldn't pick it up properly. It could have been a horny toad, which is actually a lizard. I'm not sure. I don't recall actual horns.

Trinity Site, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico

I'm unsure how I feel about being at the Trinity Site. I do experience some cognitive dissonance in the low levels of radiation that exist there today (apparently) versus what we've had pounded into our psyches about how many eons it takes for radiation from an atomic bomb to go to "safe" levels. Does this mean I take away a sense that atomic weapons are "not that bad"? No. The take-away is my inability to reconcile two alleged realities.

Our return caravan was diminished to 34 vehicles from what I estimated to be about 100 vehicles in the morning. All of us were free to depart by the Stallion Gate and loop around to wherever our next destination was. Our return:

As an aside, there were hunters clustered at the entrance gate when we left the missile range on into Tularosa. A meat processing concession was set up by the gate. I had seen signs on the missile range road cautioning drivers about ... deer? No .... elk? No. ..... Oryx. Yes.

Credit: D'Oh Boy

There'll be more on New Mexico's oryx and ibexes and other alien animals in a future story.