Obeying orders from President Franklin Roosevelt to make his way from the Philippines to Australia to lead the Allied counter-offensive against the Japanese, General Douglas MacArthur escaped from Corregidor to Mindanao aboard PT-41 on March 11, 1942.

Others who rode on the boat with MacArthur included his wife Jean, son Arthur, Arthur’s nanny Ah Cheu, Chief of Staff General Richard Sutherland, aide Lieutenant Colonel Sidney Huff, and the boat’s skipper John D. Bulkeley.

The second leg of MacArthur’s journey to the Philippines would be via a B-17 from Mindanao to Darwin, Australia.

The PT-41 was made by Electric Launch Company (ELCO), an American boat company that operated 1892-1948, and was commissioned July 23, 1941.  PT-41 was destroyed during the war by American forces in April 1942 who were attempting to transfer the boat from the open seas to Lake Lanao where it would be used as a gunboat, but ran into Japanese forces during the attempted overland transfer.  During World War II nearly 400 PT boats were made.

The skipper of PT-41, Lieutenant John Duncan Bulkeley, was a highly revered man in US Navy.  He received the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Pacific during WWII.

The Navy named an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer after him, USS Bulkeley (DDG-84).

He received many other decorations such as the Navy Cross, two Distinguished Service Crosses, Navy Distinguished Service Medal, two Silver Stars, Legion of Merit, two Purple Hearts, and the French Croix de Guerre.  When he passed away on April 6, 1996, at age 84, he was buried with full military honors.

Compiled by MacArthur Memorial intern Chavon Freeman, Virginia Wesleyan College, April 2009

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