By Ollie Reed Jr. |
ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Its beginnings were humble, but also proud and brave.
An American flag, mounted secretly and endangered in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, was made from pieces of red blanket, white bedclothes and blue denim overalls.
For 25 years it was kept in a cupboard in the house of Joseph O. “Jose” Quintero in Albuquerque, the American soldier who was responsible for its creation.
Then it traveled with Army Lt. Gen. Edward Baca traveled through all of the US states and territories and seven continents as Baca told the story of the flag and the brave men who fought the Japanese in the Philippines before falling victim to the enemy during World War II.
Now that flag, whose parts were once wrapped in canvas and buried in dirt to hide it from Japanese guards, is on its way to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, the reports.
“One of the first places my father gave his flag speech was at the Smithsonian,” said retired Colonel Brian Baca, son of Lieutenant General Baca, who died in September 2020.
“He said then he would flag the Smithsonian and my father’s word was his bond.”
Brian Baca, who is retired from the Army National Guard, and his sister, Karen Nielsen, who is retired from the Air Force National Guard, recently attended a New Mexico National Guard strategic planning conference at the Andaluz Hotel in Albuquerque to explore the history of the Flag telling soldiers and airmen.
“We couldn’t let the flag leave New Mexico without doing something like that,” said Brian Baca. “It was great to tell this story for the last time in front of these soldiers.”
The flag was due to be delivered to Smithsonian agents in Albuquerque in September. There are plans to make a replica of the flag to be kept in New Mexico.
Quintero died in Albuquerque in November 2000 at the age of 82. According to his obituary, he was born in Fort Worth, the oldest of nine children. He moved to Albuquerque in 1946 and worked as a research technician for the federal government.
During World War II, he served as a corporal with the US Army’s 60th Coastal Artillery Regiment on Corregidor. Like the many New Mexicans who served in the 200th and 515th coastal artillery regiments in Bataan and Corregidor, the men of the 60th were defeated by the Japanese in the spring of 1942.
“They held the Japanese back for months,” said Brian Baca. “They were eventually conquered by disease, hunger and a lack of ammunition.”
Many of the defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, who survived the fighting, the forced marches after their defeat and their first incarceration in the Philippines, were put on ships and taken to prisoner-of-war and labor camps in Japan in hellish conditions. Quintero was among those sent to Japan.
It took Quintero more than a year to make the flag. His fellow prisoners helped.
A Canadian soldier, a double amputee who had access to a sewing machine to mend the uniforms of Japanese soldiers, put the flag together.
“Jose wanted the flag to pay homage to those who died around him,” said Brian Baca. “But if the Japanese had found it, it could have mean death not only for him but also for his comrades. Jose didn’t even know how many states were in the union or what the meaning of the 13 stripes was. He had to ask an officer. “
In the early 1990s, General Baca was speaking to a group of Bataan and Corregidor survivors at a hotel in Albuquerque when Jose Quintero came up to him with his flag, Baca told his story, and entrusted the general with it. Baca promised to tell the story of the incredible origins of the flag and the men it honored wherever he went.
“He told the story in Russia,” said Brian Baca. “One of the last places he visited was the Philippines.”
Nielsen said her father told the story to all of his children and grandchildren. She said it was difficult to fly the flag.
“I’m very sorry,” she said. “It’s like letting part of my father go. It’s very emotional. “
But her brother believes the flag must go to the Smithsonian in order for its story to live on.
“Memories are what we have now,” said Brian.
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