Dr. Lester Tenney and Regent Laurel Lemarié

Regent Laurel Lemarié presented a DAR Community Service award to Dr. Lester Tenney at the November meeting in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the community along with a donation to support Care Packages from Home.  Dr. Tenney and other members of his retirement community started Care Packages from Home and have sent 14,000 packages to troops in combat zones over the last five years.  Dr. Tenney, recounted his survival on the brutal Bataan Death March and three-and-a-half years as a Japanese prisoner of war and slave laborer during World War II. He wrote about his experiences in his book, My Hitch in Hell.  As last commander of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, Dr. Tenney led a delegation of former POW’s to Japan as part of the Japanese/American POW Friendship Program.  The visit culminated with an apology from the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs for the inhumane treatment of American POW’s by the Japanese military during World War II.

Submitted by: Katharine Dixon