Frank Hewlett

Frank West Hewlett (1913 in Pocatello, Idaho – July 7, 1983) was an American journalist and war correspondent during World War II. He was the Manila bureau chief for United Press at the outbreak of war, and was the last reporter to leave Corregidor before it fell to the Japanese.^[1]

Education

Hewlett obtained his degree from Idaho State University. He was later a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.^[1]

Career

Hewlett worked 23 years as the Washington bureau chief of The Salt Lake Tribune.^[1] Throughout his career he has worked as a reporter for Japan Times, The Seattle Times, Spokane Spokesman-Review, Tulsa World, Albuquerque Journal, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, and Guam Daily News.^[1]

Hewlett's limerick poem, "the Battling Bastards of Bataan" came to symbolize that campaign:^[2]

We're the Battling Bastards of Bataan,
No Mama, No Papa, No Uncle Sam,
No aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no nieces,
No pills, no planes, no artillery pieces,
And nobody gives a damn!

Departing Corregidor before it fell, at the instruction of Douglas MacArthur, Hewlett followed Frank Merrill in the China-Burma-India theater, then coined the term Angels of Bataan.^[1] His wife, Virginia, working for the High Commissioner to the Philippines, remained in Manila.^[3] She was interned at Santo Tomas Internment Camp and was not part of the prisoner exchange in the early part of the war, to his disappointment.^[4] They reunited during the raid to free the survivors in February 1945. She died in 1979.^[5][6] Later he would briefly work for the Department of Defense before returning to the private sector.^[5]

Hewlett was a member of Sigma Delta Chi and the National Press Club.^[1]

Awards and honors

He won the National Headline Award in 1942 from his reporting of Bataan and Corregidor.^[1]

Death

Hewlett died at the age of 74 in Arlington, Virginia from bronchial pneumonia.^[7] He was survived by his sister, daughter, and two grandchildren.^[5]

References

1. "Former United Press war correspondent Frank West Hewlett dead at 74". UPI. 8 July 1983. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
2. John A. Adams (8 April 2016). The Fightin' Texas Aggie Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor. Texas A&M University Press. p. 54. ISBN 978-1-62349-421-6.
   Vamik D. Volkan (19 December 2013). Animal Killer: Transmission of War Trauma From One Generation to the Next. Karnac Books. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-78220-073-4.
   Howard Langer (1999). World War II: An Encyclopedia of Quotations. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 260. ISBN 978-0-313-30018-9.
3. Ray Moseley (2017). Reporting War: How Foreign Correspondents Risked Capture, Torture, and Death to Cover World War II. Yale University Press. p. 123. ISBN 978-0-300-22466-5.
4. Ray Moseley (2017). Reporting War: How Foreign Correspondents Risked Capture, Torture, and Death to Cover World War II. Yale University Press. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-300-22466-5.
5. J. Y. Smith (9 July 1983). "Frank Hewlett, Reporter for Utah Paper". The Washington Post. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
6. Ray Moseley (2017). Reporting War: How Foreign Correspondents Risked Capture, Torture, and Death to Cover World War II. Yale University Press. p. 332. ISBN 978-0-300-22466-5.
7. "Frank Hewlett, 74, Journalist - Covered War and Washington". The New York Times. 9 July 1983. Retrieved 26 July 2013.