Eugene Phemister Boyt

Captain Eugene “Gene” P. Boyt was born in Houston, Missouri, in 1917 and graduated from Drumright High School, Oklahoma, in 1935. He attended Army ROTC at the Missouri School of Mines and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering before receiving his commission as a Second Lieutenant in 1941.

Boyt was stationed at Clark Field in the Philippines in August 1941. Following intense Japanese bombing in December, American forces withdrew to the Bataan Peninsula, where they fought for four months before surrendering. Captured in April 1942, Boyt endured the 65-mile Bataan Death March to San Fernando. Survivors of the ordeal were transported to Camp O’Donnell and later to Camp Cabanatuan.

In November 1942 Boyt was transported to Japan aboard the “Maggot Maru,” a name American prisoners gave to one of the many notorious “Japanese hellships.” He endured imprisonment in four POW camps that included Camp Tanaguan, Camp Zentsuji, and Camp Roku Roshi. Liberated on 8 September 1945, Boyt weighed only 65 pounds, half his pre-war weight. Boyt’s military decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart, Prisoner of War Medal, and three Presidential Unit Citations.

Boyt’s memoir, Bataan, A Survivor’s Story, was published posthumously in 2004. It is regarded as one of the last eyewitness accounts of the Bataan Death March, and is believed to be the only full-length narrative of the experience written by a combat engineer. Of the approximately 20,000 American POWs captured in the Philippines, an estimated 6,000 died in captivity.

Following the war, Boyt enjoyed a successful career with the Bureau of Reclamation, retiring in 1975 in Chickasha, Oklahoma. He died in September 2003 and rests in Chickasha’s Fairlawn Cemetery.