Commissioner Leon Honors a Courageous World War II Veteran
On Monday, May 4, 2015 Commissioner Leon honored Mr. Harry Edward Steen Sr., a courageous World War II veteran who died in his sleep on April 18, 2015 in his home at the age of 97. He was the last surviving Bataan Death March member in El Paso. Today, there are less than 25 survivors left in the country.
Mr. Steen’s widow, a close family friend and family from Arizona and Allen, TX were present to receive this resolution in his honor.
Harry Edward Steen, Sr. was born on March 7, 1918 in St. John's, Arizona to Tex Annie Laura Birmingham and Harry Steen. After graduating from Reserve High School in 1936, moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where he was drafted into the US Army on April 3, 1941, and initially assigned to Fort Bliss, Texas.
Mr. Steen was part of the first battalion that boarded the ship USS Pearce not knowing where they were headed over-seas until noticing a sign with the word “Manila” posted on the windshield of one of the Army trucks on the ship, realizing they were headed for the Philippines arriving on September 16, 1941.
In December 1941, during World War II, Mr. Steen was present during an attack by the Japanese Military on Clarke Air Field, 200 yards away from where he stood. In April of 1942, The Island of Corregidor was attacked, and after a three month battle Bataan surrendered, leaving many dead and Mr. Steen and other Americans taken as prisoners.
Harry E. Steen Sr. along with other Americans and Filipinos begin to endure what was known as the ‘Bataan Death March’, leaving thousands of prisoners with no food or water and suffering from extreme hunger, disease and abuse. Over a period of three and a half years, he and other tortured prisoners were fed a rice ball a day, returning at a mere eighty pounds when he was liberated at war’s end in 1945.
Upon his return to the states, Mr. Steen met and married his wife, Mary Lou Steen, and moved the family to El Paso in the early 1970s and called El Paso home ever since. Mr. Steen was married to Mary Lou Steen for 58 years and had 5 children.
