Quick Facts
Biography
Halstead C. Fowler (19 April 1889 – 7 September 1950) was a colonel in the United States Army. He commanded the 71st Field Artillery during the Philippines Campaign (1941–42) and was multiply decorated. He was a survivor of the Bataan Death March and prisoner of war.
Early life
Halstead Fowler was born in 1899 in Brooklyn, New York to Halstead P. Fowler and Carrie Haines Fowler. His father was an architect and a captain in the New York National Guard. After his father died, he moved to Charleston, South Carolina where he attended high school and the College of Charleston for one year before transferring to West Point in 1918, graduating in 1920.
Early military career
Fowler spent two and a half years in the 61st Antiaircraft Battalion at Fort Monroe before being sent to the Philippines in 1923. He returned to Fort Sill in the United States and transferred to the field artillery at Fort Benjamin Harrison. He attended the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth and then was an Assistant Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Ohio State University.
Invasion of the Philippines
Fowler returned to the Philippines in October 1941 as a major and soon thereafter a lieutenant colonel, commanding the 71st Field Artillery of the Philippine Army. Fowler's unit fought a delaying action after the Japanese invasion of Lingayen Gulf and retreated south to the Bataan peninsula. For his actions at the Agno River, Luzon in December 1941 and northern Bataan in January 1942, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross twice.
He was wounded in January 1942 and captured after the surrender .
Prisoner of War
Fowler survived the Bataan Death March and was held prisoner at the Bilibid prisoner of war camp. He never fully recover from his wounds and loss of eyesight during captivity and died on 7 September 1950.