Born at Fort Walla Walla in 1883, “Skinny” Gen.J.M Wainwright IV, returned home after enduring three years as a prisoner of Japan during World War Two. “Skinny” was distinguished as the highest-ranking American POW during the war. He and his troops surrendered to the Japanese forces at Corregidor. He first saw action in the Philippines much earlier, in 1908-10 during the Moro Rebellion. “Moro” stood for Muslim – those of the southern Philippines who resisted first Spanish and then American rule. Skinny returned to the Philippines in 1940 to make ready for the Japanese invasion of 1941, and the battles that took Wainwright and thousands more into captivity. Throughout he felt like he had “let his country down,” and was surprised that once freed and back home he was treated as a hero. On Sept. 13, he got his own ticker-tape parade in New York. Horace Sykes does not tell us when he was also celebrated his home town, Walla Walla. [Click to Enlarge]