I was not planning on another installment of the Defenders of the Bataan this week, but I received three significant messages about the men that I felt I needed to share.
The first phone call was from Mrs. Carol DeHart Harrell of Meadows of Dan. Carol DeHart Harrell grew up in Floyd and is the daughter of the late Clarence A. DeHart and Vera Sumpter DeHart; she married Mahlon Harrell of Meadows of Dan.
Mrs. Harrell called me to share that her mother’s brother, Sgt. Melvin Harmon Sumpter was hospitalized at the Newton D. Baker Hospital in Martinsburg, West Virginia. This was the same hospital that Ralph Jefferson Turner, Sr. spent six months recovering from the serious burns he received during the war.
The doctors were not expecting Sgt. Sumpter to survive his injuries from the war, so his family was taking turns driving from Floyd to West Virginia to visit him. Mrs. Harrell, who was 10 years old at the time, begged her mother to come along to visit her dying uncle.
Mrs. Harrell’s mother had attended college with a relative of Ralph J. Turner’s and had heard that Turner was in the same hospital as her brother, so plans were made to visit Ralph Turner too. Mrs. Harrell said she could remember it like it was yesterday. She said that Ralph Turner was wrapped in bandages from head to toe, but he was so happy and excited to see folks from the area where he grew up. Mrs. Harrell stated that after she read the Patrick Pioneers article about Turner, all those memories came flooding back, like it was yesterday. Mrs. Harrell’s uncle, Sgt. Melvin Harmon Sumpter passed away on the 30th of November 1945; he was 33 years old. Sumpter’s body was brought back to Floyd where he was buried in Jacksonville Cemetery.
The second phone call I received was from Viola Trent Skinnell who grew up in the Critz area. Mrs. Skinnell is the daughter of the late Cyclone Thomas Trent and Era Eliza Cummings Trent. Cyclone was the brother to James Walter Trent who endured so much suffering in the Japanese concentration camps.
Mrs. Skinnell said that when Trent returned home, after enduring the beatings, torture, and medical experiments, he was legally blind and unable to work. Mrs. Skinnell said that Trent also shared the pepper story (see Part Four) with her and that he had hidden the pepper in his boot, but the Japanese had detected the scent of the crushed pepper. Trent told his niece, Mrs. Skinnell, that he mostly survived by eating sweet potato vines.
Sandy Rodgers emailed me and said that his parents, William and Margaret Dalton Rodgers were friends with James Trent. After reading the ‘Pioneer’ story last week, Rodgers stated that it confirmed the stories of torture and experiments that he had heard Trent sharing with his parents.
As we celebrate our country’s 248th birthday this week, may we never forget men like Camden Bryant, Stanley Aaron, James Trent, Ralph Turner, Hayne Dominick, Jr., and Melvin Sumpter. These brave men endured and sacrificed so much so that we could keep the independence and freedoms that we cherish. Woody may be reached at rockcastlecreek1@gmail.com or (276) 692-9626.
