Jonathan Vallejos and Rudy Armijo, natives of Belen,

Jonathan Vallejos and Rudy Armijo, natives of Belen, N.M., are best friends participating in the Bataan Memorial Death March. Vallejos did the death march five times and on his sixth year he volunteered to help out at the water points. Armijo is doing the march for the third time. “This is my third year in a row, he is my best friend. He just talked me into it one year and it just stuck. Yeah, I just kept doing it. Plus, I’m a military historian, so I know about the actual event in April of 1942,” said Armijo. “We figured those men had to go through Bataan to protect us, so this is a way for us to honor them and push our bodies, though not nearly in the way they had to go through.” Vallejos, an active guard with New Mexico National Guard, feels a sense of pride in being a part of the death march for six years in a row. Although, he is not participating this year, he still remembers those fallen comrades and relatives who suffered in the past. “It gives me a sense of pride. Also, one of my uncles died in Bataan and thats another reason I do it- for his memory,” said Vallejos. (U.S. Army photo by: Sgt. Maricris C. McLane)