A pastor is an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. A pastor also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation.
Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Geographically located in the South Central region of the country, Texas shares borders with the U.S. states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the southwest, while the Gulf of Mexico is to the southeast.
The Bataan Death March was the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000–80,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war from Saysain Point, Bagac, Bataan and Mariveles to Camp O'Donnell, Capas, Tarlac, via San Fernando, Pampanga, where the prisoners were loaded onto trains. The transfer began on April 9, 1942, after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II. The total distance marched from Mariveles to San Fernando and from the Capas Train Station to Camp O'Donnell is variously reported by differing sources as between 60 and 69.6 miles. Differing sources also report widely differing prisoner of war casualties prior to reaching Camp O'Donnell: from 5,000 to 18,000 Filipino deaths and 500 to 650 American deaths during the march. The march was characterized by severe physical abuse and wanton killings, and was later judged by an Allied military commission to be a Japanese war crime.
Plain Dealing is a town in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,015 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Shreveport–Bossier City Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Louisiana is a state in the Deep South region of the South Central United States. It is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States. Louisiana is bordered by the state of Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, Mississippi to the east, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. A large part of its eastern boundary is demarcated by the Mississippi River. Louisiana is the only U.S. state with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are equivalent to counties. The state's capital is Baton Rouge, and its largest city is New Orleans.
Baytown is a city within Harris County and partially in Chambers County in the Gulf Coast region of the U.S. state of Texas. Located within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area, it lies on the northern side of the Galveston Bay complex near the outlets of the San Jacinto River and Buffalo Bayou. It is the sixth-largest city within this metropolitan area. Major highways serving the city include State Highway 146 and Interstate 10. As of 2010, Baytown had a population of 71,802, and it had an estimated population of 75,992 in 2016. As of 2018 Baytown had an estimated population of 85,000 people.
POW years
Snyder was so eager to join the United States Army that he claimed to have been a year older than his actual age. In June 1940, he wanted to "get in on the ground floor" of a second world conflict which seemed imminent to many. "I was seventeen. I went by myself and enlisted," Snyder said. His parents were reluctant to give their consent and regretted having done so when Snyder was declared missing in action at Bataan.[2]
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution. As the oldest and most senior branch of the U.S. military in order of precedence, the modern U.S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, which was formed to fight the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)—before the United States of America was established as a country. After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784 to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The United States Army considers itself descended from the Continental Army, and dates its institutional inception from the origin of that armed force in 1775.
Missing in action (MIA) is a casualty classification assigned to combatants, military chaplains, combat medics, and prisoners of war who are reported missing during wartime or ceasefire. They may have been killed, wounded, captured, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave has been positively identified. Becoming MIA has been an occupational risk for as long as there has been warfare.
After serving fifteen months at Fort Crockett in Galveston, Snyder was deployed to the Philippines as a combat medic in the 3rd Battalion of the 31st Infantry. From that outfit of twenty-nine men, he was one of five who returned to the United States.[2]
Fort Crockett is a government reservation on Galveston Island overlooking the Gulf of Mexico originally built as a defense installation to protect the city and harbor of Galveston and to secure the entrance to Galveston Bay, thus protecting the commercial and industrial ports of Galveston and Houston and the extensive oil refineries in the bay area. The facility is now managed by the US NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, and hosts the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Laboratory, the Texas Institute of Oceanography, as well as some university facilities. The area still contains several historical buildings and military fortifications.
Galveston is a coastal resort city and port off the southeast coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the American State of Texas. The community of 209.3 square miles (542 km2), with an estimated population of 50,180 in 2015, is the county seat of surrounding Galveston County and second-largest municipality in the county. It is also within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area at its southern end on the northwestern coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
A medic is an umbrella term for a person involved in medicine. The following fall under this term: a medical doctor, medical student and sometimes a medically-trained individual participating in an emergency such as a paramedic or an emergency medical responder.
On Snyder's death at the age of eighty-five, the Houston Chronicle quoted his daughter, Theda Cuellar of Houston: "He had no hatred towards those people. As a Christian, he put away all that hatred, but he wanted people to know what they went through." Cuellar said that her father suffered twice from malaria during the internment and was left for dead, but a United States Army buddy stole medicine from the Japanese invaders and nursed Snyder to health.[1]
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. As of April 2016, it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. With its 1995 buy-out of long-time rival the Houston Post, the Chronicle became Houston's newspaper of record.
Christians are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words Christ and Christian derive from the Koine Greek title Christós (Χριστός), a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach (מָשִׁיחַ).
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases it can cause yellow skin, seizures, coma, or death. Symptoms usually begin ten to fifteen days after being bitten by an infected mosquito. If not properly treated, people may have recurrences of the disease months later. In those who have recently survived an infection, reinfection usually causes milder symptoms. This partial resistance disappears over months to years if the person has no continuing exposure to malaria.
After American forces under General Edward P. King, surrendered on April 9, 1942, Snyder, along with some 12,000 American and 68,000 Filipino defenders of the Bataan peninsula, was forced to march sixty-eight miles over fourteen days to the prison camp. On this journey, a large number of the soldiers, denied food and water by the Japanese, perished.[1] In surrendering, King disobeyed orders, but Snyder and other captives contended that the general had no alternative. Snyder said that the surrender was respected by the men who were afflicted from a lack of food, quinine, medicine, and ammunition.[2]
Edward Postell King Jr. was a Major General in the United States Army who gained prominence for leading the defense of the Bataan Peninsula in the Battle of Bataan against the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in World War II.
Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to Plasmodium falciparum that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While used for restless legs syndrome, it is not recommended for this purpose due to the risk of side effects. It can be taken by mouth or used intravenously. Malaria resistance to quinine occurs in certain areas of the world. Quinine is also the ingredient in tonic water that gives it its bitter taste.
"I think it was one of the bravest things for him [General King] to do. He risked his whole military career when he did that because he did it against orders. He's a tremendous man in my eyes. He saved about 12,000 Americans' lives," said Snyder in a Memorial Day 2007 interview with his hometown Baytown Sun newspaper.[2]
In his own words, Snyder recalled the Death March:
"Any troops who fell behind were executed. Japanese troops beat soldiers randomly, and denied the POWs food and water for many days. One of their tortures was known as the sun treatment. The Philippines in April is very hot. Therefore, the POWs were forced to sit in the sun without any shade, helmets, or water. Anyone who dared ask for water was executed. On the rare occasion they were given any food, it was only a handful of contaminated rice. When the prisoners were allowed to sleep for a few hours at night, they were packed into enclosures so tight that they could barely move. Those who lived collapsed on the dead bodies of their comrades. For only a brief part of the march would POWs be packed into railroad cars and allowed to ride. Those who did not die in the suffocating boxcars were forced to march about seven more miles until they reached their camp. It took the POWs over a week to reach their destination."[2]
Snyder said that the march could have been easily achieved had the men been in good physical condition and not denied sustenance. "It was the condition that we were in that made it... a death sentence." Snyder said that he and his comrades could barely walk a few steps without seeing another dead body. They saw so many of their friends die ... I know this sounds hard to believe, but we actually got used to death," Snyder recalled.[2]
With the end of the war, Sndyer and 105 other prisoners were liberated on August 15, 1945. Years after his captivity, Snyder attended a military reunion in the Philippines. Donald Knox, in the book Death March: The Survivors of Bataan (New York: Harcourt Brace Inc., 1981), recalls Snyder having asked his Filipino guide why a particular group of children was holding the "V" for victory sign to the visiting American veterans. "What do those little kids know about that sign?", Snyder asked. The guide replied, "They may not know how to read and write, but they know about Bataan."[4]
After the war, Snyder returned to the Houston area and worked as a pipefitter for Ethyl Corporation. A co-worker conducted a Bible study group in which Snyder agreed to participate.[1] He had not been a Christian during his military service. He had described his personal anger as essential to having overcome the odds against survival at Bataan. On being converted to Christianity and called to the ministry, Snyder said that he believed that God instilled anger in him to bring him through Bataan.[2]
Over the years, Snyder served as pastor of various Houston area Baptist churches, including Kashmere Garden, Northwood Manor, East Houston, and Candlestick.[1]
First unable to forget the suffering that he endured as a prisoner, Snyder harbored a strong hatred for the men who showed no mercy to him and other captive Americans and Filipinos. "When I got back [to the United States], if I had the power to push a button and sink every island in Japan, that's what I would have done. But since the Lord's been in my life, I've been back to Japan four times to preach to them. I love them."[2]
Death
Snyder died in the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Houston. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Florence. In addition to daughter Theda Cuellar, survivors include his second wife, Lan'l Snyder of Baytown; sons, Kyle Snyder of Goliad, David Smith of Crosby, and Gregg Smith of Baytown; other daughter, Renae Haskins of Pasadena, Texas; three brothers, Alva John Hammer of Baytown and C.J. Snyder and Michael Snyder of Louisiana; and three sisters, Margaret A. Selzler of Raeford, North Carolina, Judy Marie Snyder Knippers (born ca. 1950) and husband William C. "Buddy" Knippers of Dry Prong in Grant Parish, and Faye Harris of Louisiana.[1]
Services were held on May 15 at First Baptist Church in Galena Park. Interment was at San Jacinto Memorial Park Cemetery near Baytown.[1]
Related Research Articles
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person, whether a combatant or a non-combatant, who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1660.
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