RARE IMAGE! “Bataan Death March” Alf Larson Signed 10X8 B&W Photo

Description: Up for auction “Bataan Death March” Alf Larson Hand Signed 10X8 B&W Photo. ES-1829B In 1945, not long after he returned home to Duluth from the war, Larson's parents "insisted" that he join them for dinner with two friends and their daughter, Jane. He walked in to find the woman who would become his wife stirring gravy on the stove. Still emaciated from the war, Larson found the combination of the fragrant food and a lovely lady intoxicating, said his daughter, Linda Judge, also of Crystal. "The joke is, she was only stirring the gravy" that her mother had made, Judge said, laughing. "My mom was not the greatest cook." Alf and Jane married and raised a son and two daughters. He re-enlisted in 1948, this time in the Air Force as a flight engineer. After his discharge six years later, the family moved to Crystal, where Larson spent the rest of his life. He worked long hours as an electrical engineer and eventually owned a small consulting company. Jane took care of the books. Larson got his pilot's license, learned to scuba dive and, later in life, became engrossed in astronomy. He volunteered, hosting visitors at the American Swedish Institute, helping process pensions at the VA and handling tarantulas at the Minnesota Zoo. It was at the zoo that Larson met Peterson. "They had only a nodding acquaintance until a zoo publication ran an article in 1994 about Larson's life, mentioning his time as a prisoner of war," a 2000 Star Tribune article said. Over many months, Peterson patiently encouraged Larson to share his story, most of which even his wife did not know. "I had a hard time telling about this," Larson was quoted as saying. "It brought back a lot of memories. Some I didn't mind. Some were traumatic. I'll tell the truth. My voice actually broke a couple times." Staff Sgt. Larson, assigned to the Army Air Forces, was one of 7,500 American servicemen captured by the Japanese in the Philippine Islands in April 1942. They were marched more than 70 miles under barbaric conditions. "Men went stark raving mad," Larson told Peterson. "If people would fall down and couldn't go any further, the Japanese would either bayonet or shoot them." Larson carried in the crotch of his drawers a copy of the New Testament and Psalms. Each day in the camps, where he was more than once confined for days in a tin shack, he would steal glances at it. "My favorite Psalm was, and still is, Psalm 23," he wrote in a letter he read at church. "When food was scarce, which was all the time, I would think of Psalm 23, 'You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.'" In 2003, after hearing Larson's story, Gov. Tim Pawlenty invited him to attend his State of the State address, in which he thanked Larson for his service. Larson said he was "pleased and excited about the 'doings' at the Capitol," but had one reservation: "Just so he doesn't call me a hero. I'm not a hero. I was just doing my job."

Price: 299.99 USD

Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

End Time: 2025-01-10T14:26:37.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD