Autobiographical Narrative,
Interview, and Speeches,
including Twenty-Four Years
of U. S. Army Service
by Elton D. ("E. D.") Winstead
Fall, 1983; June 18, 1992; June 14, 2001; Fall, 1994; August 23, 2006

Part 2: Enlistment in the U. S. Army 1934 through
             Pearl Harbor Day 1941

Part 3: Pearl Harbor Day 1941, Prisoner of War
             for almost three years, through the end of
             World War II 1945

             1992 Letter to Asbury L. Nix, author of Corregidor: Oasis of Hope (1991)
                   Nine pages of personal stories while a POW.  Contains some details not in other documents.

                    1983 Interview with Lt. Colonel E. D. Winstead
                             Liberation Day: "These were strictly front-line troops and they shared their food with us.  Actually they had outrun their supply lines, because they fought their way down into Manila, and the battle kept going around – the supply lines just didn’t catch up, because the Japanese troops folded in behind them across the highway so they were actually cut off.  So, for a little while, it was debatable as to whether or not we were actually liberated, or the Japs were going to have more prisoners.  But, at least a little different fighting chance.  So, the battle was around; there were Japanese all around in higher buildings overlooking the wall.  There was some sniper fire coming into the compound, shell fragments of one kind or another, mortar shells.  So we were still in the midst of a battle-field."

              EDW Speech Manuscript/Transcript about 1939 - 1945 given Fall 1994
                             "I did survive - and I think with integrity and honor."

              "E. D. Winstead Day" TV Interviews and Speech Video March 31, 1995
                                 

              EDW's January 1995 Letter to Smithsonian about Enola Gay
                               "Your attempt to portray the Japanese as "innocent victims of our cruel aggression" is obnoxious and insulting."

              The Private War of Captain Winstead, Keeper of the Warehouse of Bullets (the untold story of an American Hero) by Hal Glickman
                                This national article "The Private War of Captain Winstead" was written in early 2000 by Hal Glickman while both he and E. D. Winstead lived in Durham, NC. "Hal Glickman: novelist, journalist, editor, ad copywriter, and public relations professional. In World War II, he was escort officer for General Jonathan Wainwright, hero of Bataan, at the surrender of General Tomoyuki Yamashita, Glickman accepted the sword of surrender from Yamashita. He has authored Whitey's Kid, Blue Wave Coming, and Call Me Algy. Glickman is a Harvard classmate of John F. Kennedy, and resides in Durham, North Carolina."

EDW excerpt: "We got orders to stand down by noon on the sixth. What would happen next? We didn't kid ourselves. The reality was that we were under the control of the enemy. And General Moore reminded us that the Japanese showed their true colors in China, Malaysia and Pacific Islands conquests. We could expect them to operate on the same three objectives - slave labor, starvation and annihilation."

EDW excerpt: "The exhilaration I felt with my destruction of the gunpowder and stacked charges was, of course, concealed from both the enemy and my fellow Americans. What I was doing carried a death sentence if found out. The only life risked on my course of action would be my own."

Note from RLW: My father E. D. Winstead was an Army officer on Corregidor with General MacArthur, and then he was a prisoner of war held in the Philippines for almost three years by the Japanese. This is what my father said about a couple of incidents with General MacArthur:

1) I recall my father telling me and others about an occasion when he and General MacArthur, along with a few others, were sitting at the same table eating a meal outside when one of the air attacks resumed.  (This was before General MacArthur was ordered to leave the Philippines, before the surrender of Bataan, and before the shelling of Corregidor by Japanese artillery from Bataan.)  This was outside, near the entrance to Malinta Tunnel.  The others at the table immediately scattered for shelter, however General MacArthur just sat there, leaving General MacArthur and my father sitting at the table alone with each other.  My father told us that he was waiting for General MacArthur to leave first.  However, General MacArthur said to my father, “The enemy bomb that will kill me has not been made yet.”  At that point my father said, “Please excuse me, General,” and left for shelter.  I think this story illustrates that my father observed and believed that General MacArthur had an effective way to keep fear under absolute control.

2) In an interview, my father commented about a different occasion when he observed General MacArthur: “There is a very limited middle ground with MacArthur.  They either like him or they dislike him.  I happen to like the man.  I lived with him, worked with him, observed him under fire.  Fear to me is a normal emotion.  I think that MacArthur, like everybody else, recognized fear.  But he had it under absolute control.  I have seen him stand in the middle of the road in a Japanese air-raid.  After the air-raid was over, he got back in his automobile and went on to where he was headed to begin with.  I think this is a little foolish, but — . “

For more information about my father, the Army officer and college professor, see  http://raywinstead.com/edw/index.shtm.

              American Prisoners of War in the Philippine Islands
                         Office of the Provost Marshal General Report
                                  November 19, 1945
              An account of the fate of American prisoners of war from the time they were
              captured until they were established in fairly permanent camps