Highway dedication in Dripping Springs for John Allen McCarty
We will soon be honoring a local veteran who served during World War II by dedicating a portion of US Highway 290 to his memory.
On Thursday, August 20th TxDOT will be constructing signs on the east side of Dripping Springs and at the Hays County – Blanco County boundary to the west of town honoring John Allen McCarty, who was born in 1915 in the Henly area. In 1941 he enlisted in the U. S. Army and by September of that year he arrived in the Philippines in General Douglas McArthur’s Army of the Pacific.
Not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the start of hostilities in the Pacific Theater, Japanese forces assaulted U. S. forces in the Philippines. Areas attacked around Manilla included Clark Field and the Bataan Peninsula. Captain John Bergstrom, for whom Bergstrom Air Force Base was named, died in that attack on Clark. PFC John McCarty, serving with the 200th Coast Artillery in an anti-aircraft battery on Bataan was one of the valiant soldiers who fought, but was ordered by commanders to surrender when complete destruction of the U. S. force was imminent.
Already worn and weak from months of battling the Japanese attack, “Mac” McCarty and his fellow American and Filipino soldiers were not ready to be force-marched 65 miles in about six days to internment camps north of the Bataan Peninsula. Only by the grace of God did he survive the ordeal, as thousands who marched were either murdered by Japanese soldiers or left to die from either wounds or health problems. An excellent book, Cabanatuan, Japanese Death Camp authored by Vince Taylor, chronicles Mac McCarty’s ordeal while in Japanese captivity.
A daring raid by Rangers of the 6th U.S. Army rescued the prisoners from Bataan who survived, among whom John McCarty was included. A 2005 movie, The Great Raid tells the tale of the raid.
Mr. McCarty passed away in 2003 after living his final years in Dripping Springs.
Both the Hays County Commissioners Court and the Dripping Springs City Council passed resolutions to honor this local hero for his exceptional service to our nation and finally, after the effort of roughly two years spent in pursuing this honor, it is being realized. Our thanks go to a number of dedicated public servants for making this happen, to include ( but not limited to) Commissioner Ray Whisenant, Judges Bert Cobb and Ruben Becerra and their Commissioners Courts, Mayor Todd Purcell, Andrea Cunningham, and the Dripping Springs City Council, TxDot employees Epigmenio Gonzalez, Mike Schulze, David Baroi, and Michele Romage-Chambers.
Funding for the project was provided by the Knights of Columbus Council 11695, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post#2933, and American Legion Post#290, all of which are in Dripping Springs.