Benigno G. Tabora

Benigno Tabora died of an illness at the Life Care Center of Acton in Acton, Massachusetts, on February 17, 2008. He was survived by his wife, Mae T. (Fontaine) Tabora. The couple had been married for 32 years. His first wife, Emelia Caranto, died in 1974. Tabora was also survived by four children—Cara, Merlene, Elden and Napoleon—and two stepdaughters, Gail and Linda.

Tabora remained in the Army following the Korean War. He retired from active duty in 1968 with the rank of Sergeant Major. Tabora spent a total of 31 years in the Army.

Tabora and thousands of other American servicemen were captured by the Japanese following the outbreak World War II and the occupation of the Philippines. Tabora survived the infamous Bataan Death March in April 1942, in which hundreds of other prisoners died. For the following eight months, Tabora was held as a POW at the Camp O'Donnell internment camp at the end of the Bataan Death March. Tabora was starved and tortured by the Japanese soldiers who guarded the POW camp. Tabora was stabbed with a bayonet and beaten with rifle butts when nine of his men escaped the camp. Japanese soldiers also held Tabora's head in water as a form of torture.

Benigno G. Tabora (November 20, 1915 – February 17, 2008) was a Filipino American veteran of both World War II and the Korean War. Tabora was one of the last of an increasingly dwindling group of veterans who survived the Bataan Death March in May 1942 after the Japanese captured the Philippines during World War II. He spent eight months as a prisoner of war in a Japanese internment camp. Tabora served in the military intelligence during his 31 years in the Army.

Tabora was born in Lingayen in the Philippines on November 20, 1915, to parents Benigno and Felipe (deGuzman) Tabora. He joined the United States Army when he was 21 years old and served in the 45th Infantry Regiment of the Philippine Scouts, rising to corporal by the time of the Japanese invasion of the Philippines.