Editing Fort Mills (section)

==Corregidor's flags==

===Flag re-hoisted during bombardment===
On 16 April 1942, during an intense Japanese artillery bombardment, the 100-foot flagpole's [[halyard]] was severed and the flag began to come down. Four men of Battery B, 60th Coast Artillery (AA), including Captain Arthur E. Huff, left shelter to catch the flag before it reached the ground. They repaired the halyard, re-raised the flag, and returned to shelter. Each of them received the [[Silver Star]].<ref>Morton, p. 538</ref>

===Pieces of flag preserved===
Just before surrendering on 6 May 1942, Colonel [[Paul Bunker]], commander of the 59th Coast Artillery and the Seaward Defenses, followed General Wainwright's orders to haul down and burn Corregidor's flag, to avoid turning it over to the Japanese, and run up the white flag. He kept a piece of the American flag that he sewed into his clothing.<ref name=Father>{{cite news|author=Duane Heisinger|title=Father Found, p. 41}}</ref>

On 10 June 1942, in the [[Bilibid Prison]] hospital, Manila, Bunker sent for Colonel Delbert Ausmus, cut the flag remnant into two pieces and gave one of the pieces to Ausmus. He told Colonel Ausmus he did not expect to survive the prison camp and that it was Ausmus' duty to take his piece of the flag to the [[Secretary of War]].<ref name=Flag1>{{cite news|title=Flag Day Brings Memories Of Heroism To Gen. Brougher|publisher=Anniston Star (Alabama)|date=1946-06-16}}</ref> Ausmus concealed the remnant in his shirt cuff, and shortly after the war ended, Ausmus delivered it to Secretary [[Robert B. Patterson|Patterson]].<ref name=Flag1/> In November 1945, Ausmus described the circumstances under which he received the remnant from Bunker:<blockquote>"He was taken to Bilibid prison in Manila and came down with pneumonia. While he was in the hospital Col. Paul D. Bunker of Taunton, Mass., was brought in suffering from seriously infected blisters on his feet and blood poisoning in one leg. On June 10, Bunker watching carefully 'to see that there were no Japs near,' swore him to secrecy, Ausmus continued, and 'said he wanted to turn something over to me to deliver to the Secretary of War.' From beneath a false patch set into the left pocket of his shirt Bunker took a bit of red cloth. Solemnly he gave Ausmus part of it and put the rest back."<ref name=Flag2>{{cite news|title=Last Tattered Fragment of Flag Lowered At Corregidor Is Delivered in Washington|publisher=Abilene Reporter-News|date=1945-11-15}}</ref></blockquote>

On 16 March 1943, Colonel Bunker died in a Japanese prison camp in [[Karenkō Prefecture|Karenko]], [[Taiwan]]. While giving one piece of the flag to Ausmus, he held onto another piece until the time of his death. General Wainwright later recalled the circumstances of Bunker's death in the prison camp, still holding onto the remnant: "He must have suffered ... constant pain of hunger ... I sat with him for a part of the last two hours of his life ... [He was] cremated in the rags in which he had carefully sewn a bit of the American flag he had pulled down in Corregidor."<ref>Heisinger, Father Found, p. 41</ref>

Ausmus did deliver it to the Secretary of War who unveiled it during a speech on the event of Flag Day in June 1946.<ref name=Flag1/> The remnant of the U.S. flag from Corregidor saved by Bunker and Ausmus is on display in the West Point museum.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Class of 1903|publisher=The MacArthur Memorial|url=http://sites.communitylink.org/mac/class1903.html}}</ref>

===Flag raised again on Corregidor===
On 2 March 1945, with Corregidor secured, a flag-raising ceremony with General MacArthur present was held at Topside. With a new flag raised, Colonel Jones of the 503rd Parachute Infantry saluted the general and said simply, "Sir, I present to you Fortress Corregidor."<ref>Smith 1963, pp. 348-349</ref>