Mobilization Site of Lost Battalion

The call-up followed a joint resolution of Congress on August 27, 1940, that let President Roosevelt federalize the National Guard. The Texas Guard became the Thirty-sixth Infantry Division and reported to Camp Bowie, near Brownwood, that fall; with new officers and draftees it grew from 11,737 to nearly 15,800 men. After the Louisiana maneuvers of 1941 the Second Battalion was alerted for overseas duty. Captured on Java, the Texans were held first at Tanjong Priok near Batavia with 5,500 British and Australian prisoners, then at Bicycle Camp, and later at Changi in Singapore.

What the plaque says

Battery F, 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery, 36th Division, Texas National Guard mobilized here November 1940, for active duty. Sailed from San Francisco, November 1941, was at sea when Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Went to defend Java where unit was captured March 1942. Prisoners in many parts of Asia for three and one-half years. Performed forced labor for Japanese, suffering untold hardships and starvation. 8 of original 63 died. Most deaths occurred building Burma-Siam Railway. Survivors returned after Japanese surrender. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Richardson State Park and Historic Site — 1.5 mi
  The northernmost post of the Texas frontier line, outside Jacksboro, where a stone hospital and six other buildings stand from 1867 and a later Guard unit became the Lost Battalion.
• Old Post Office Museum and Art Center — 26 mi
  Graham's 1936 Art Moderne post office, with a New Deal mural by Alexandre Hogue inside, now the free museum of Young County in the town where the Texas cattle raisers first organized.

More markers nearby

• Butterfield Stage Line — 0.7 mi
• Jack County — 0.9 mi
• First Baptist Church of Jacksboro — 1.0 mi
• Wizard Wells — 11 mi