Carl E. Hyde

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Carl Edson Hyde was one of 8 kids. His parents were Lawrence and Lois Hyde, and his siblings were Ronald, Harold, Bernard, Clair, Mildred, Phyllis and Elaine. He was born and raised in Ulysses, Pennsylvania.  

He also liked to play the guitar, hunt and had a great sense of humor. Following in the steps of his family’s military service; he enlisted the US Army on February 27, 1941. He was then stationed in the Philippines attached to the Signal Air Warning Company under the command of General MacAurther. 

The prior war plans assumed that the Philippines defense would require MacAurther’s forces to be greatly augmented by reinforcements once war began. However, the crippling of the Pacific fleet during the attack on Pearl Harbor eliminated the means of getting the additional troops, weapons and supplies to the Philippines before the attack on the Philippines. 

The Japanese started their assault on the Philippines only 8 hours after their attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese sent 130,000 front line troops, 90 tanks and 547 planes on this second surprise attack against American forces. The defenders of the Philippines were comprised of 85% Filipino forces and 15% American forces. None of them had any way of telling just how badly outnumbered they were. 

As the Potter County Historian has stated through research, letters and conversations, Carl with the other Americans and Filipinos took their weapons and ammo into the jungle to take the fight to the Japanese on their terms. No one knows what happened after that. Carl Edson Hyde is one of the thousands of men listed as missing in action during the battle of the Philippines from December 8, 1941 – May 8, 1942. 

Years later, Carl Hyde Jr., the great nephew of Carl E. Hyde, set out to find what happened to his great uncle. “With the help of the invention of the internet,” he says, “I started my quest for information about Carl E. Hyde wherever it would lead.” 

Through his research he found the Army certificate listing his date of death as February 1, 1946. He also found out that Carl was awarded one Purple Heart and three Campaign Medals. He asked his Aunt Elaine what she knew about the medals, and she answered him saying that she knew nothing of any of the medals that had arrived for Carl. Only telegraph about Carl being missing in action her dad had received. 

As a veteran himself, Carl wasn’t happy about this. He was now determined to make sure that his family received the medals that they should have received years earlier. Carl said, “I started my offensive to get them to her.” After all the emails, fax, letters, trips for signatures and phone calls were done, all they could do was wait.  

However, after the long wait the medals of Carl Edson Hyde came home to Ulysses, Pennsylvania on October 17, 2019! Oh, the joy and relief the family felt when the medals that had been earned by their brother/uncle finally came home! 

A few weeks later, on Veteran’s Day 2019, a commemoration and memorial ceremony was held at the Carl E. Hyde Post 963 American Legion in Ulysses, Pennsylvania. Where Carl Hyde Jr. had the honor of presenting his Aunt Eliane the medals of her fallen brother.  

Carl ended his speech that day by saying, “So on this solum and sacred day, November 11, 2019, Veteran’s Day, 78 years after Carl Edson Hyde went missing in action and the year of the 100^th birthday of the American Legion, it is with great honor and sadness we present these items to you Mrs. Winifred Elaine Hyde Flewellyn and ending a chapter, but not the book of Carl Edson Hyde.” 

A few years later, May 10, 2023, the Army sent a Case Summary about Carl E. Hyde, giving more detailed information about him and his service during the Battle of the Philippines. The following is some of the information from that report. 

PERSONAL INFORMATION: 

Private (Pvt) Carl E. Hyde, service number 12023630, enlisted in the service in Buffalo, New York, on 27 February 1941. He was assigned to the Signal Air Warning Company in the Philippines at the time of the United States’ entry into World War II. Likely stationed on either the Bataan Peninsula or the island of Corregidor, he was unaccounted for at the time of Corregidor’s surrender on 6 May 1942. His remains, if recovered, were not identified. For his service, Pvt Hyde received the Purple Heart, and he is memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. Details of Pvt Hyde’s loss are recorded in unit records at the National Archives and Records Administration as well as in his Individual Deceased Personnel File (IDPF).  

CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOSS 

Pvt Hyde was a member of the Signal Air Warning Co, a U.S. Army Air Forces unit based on the Philippine Island of Luzon. The unit had arrived in Manila in August 1941 to supplement the understrength Air Warning Service already based in the Philippines. As part of the Far East Air Force (FEAF), the unit fell under General (Gen) Douglas MacArthur’s United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE). 

From August through December 1941, the Signal Air Warning Co completed training and set up and tested its equipment. By the time of the Japanese attack on the Luzon airfields beginning 8 December 1941, the company had deployed to five different locations. The Signal Air Warning Co had its headquarters at Nielson Airfield, and four detachments had been placed at Tagaytay Ridge, Burgos Point (Cape Bojeador), Paracale, and Iba Airfield. 

When Japanese forces attacked the Philippines, not all the radar sets at the Signal Air Warning Co’s detachments were operational. The one at Iba was among those that worked, but Japanese bombing and strafing attacks quickly put it out of operation.” 

 Japanese air attacks savaged the American air forces in the Philippines and quickly overwhelmed their air warning and defense capabilities Japanese forces began a full-scale invasion of Luzon on 22 December 1941. In response, Gen MacArthur ordered a withdrawal of USAFFE to the Bataan Peninsula to hold out for reinforcements. Unfortunately, in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack and other Japanese advances throughout the Pacific, no reinforcements were forthcoming. The bulk of the Signal Air Warning Co participated in the defense of Bataan. Portions of the company fought with the V Interceptor Command, while one detachment moved to the island of Corregidor.  

Despite facing shortages of food, medicine, and other supplies, the American and Filipino troops on Bataan held out for over three months. Finally, on 9 April 1942, USAFFE forces on Bataan surrendered to the Japanese, and the majority of them were subjected to the 65-mile “Bataan Death March” into captivity. Corregidor and the other islands in Manila Bay held out nearly another month but surrendered on 6 May 1942. By the summer of 1942, most of the prisoners from Bataan had joined those from Corregidor at Camp Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija Province, Philippines. It would be nearly three years before conventional U.S. forces returned to Bataan and a search for missing service members could begin.  

Following their capture, American prisoners of war (POWs) compiled records in an effort to account for those who were not present in their camps. A master list created at the Cabanatuan POW Camp states that Pvt Hyde took to the hills after the surrender of Bataan, and that he was last seen on Bataan on 19 February 1943. 

Another prisoner, Major (Maj) Calvin Chunn, compiled unit records based on testimony from other captives. In one such record, he recorded that Pvt Hyde joined Second Lieutenant (2d Lt) Jolly, 2d Lt Jesse Boak, and others in hiding in the Abucay area on Bataan. On 14 February 1943, Japanese troops reportedly surrounded a house where they were staying, capturing the others and taking them to Cabanatuan. The record states that Pvt Hyde fled, and was believed killed, but his fate was not known for certain. 

The American Graves Registration Service (AGRS), U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, was charged with recovering and identifying fallen U.S. personnel in the Pacific Theater of Operations after World War II. The AGRS sent search teams throughout Bataan from 1945 to 1947 but did not document any evidence related to the fate of Pvt Hyde. 

In the absence of any specific evidence regarding Pvt Hyde’s fate, the War Department issued a declaration of death, effective 1 February 1946, for the purpose of according benefits to his family, noting that he had been “missing in action since 7 May 1942, following the surrender of Corregidor.” This was the standard description attached to individuals known to be on Bataan or Corregidor but for whom no other information was available. 

After unsuccessfully comparing Pvt Hyde to unidentified remains, or “Unknowns,” from Bataan, an AGRS Board of Review recommended on 28 March 1950 that he be declared nonrecoverable. The Office of the Quartermaster General approved that recommendation on 10 May 1950. While there is little information on the fate of Pvt Hyde, available documentation suggests that he died on the Bataan Peninsula while evading capture in early 1943. 

Researchers at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) are conducting a comprehensive review of over 600 Unknowns recovered from Bataan. The intent is to propose the disinterment of individual Unknowns for comparison to candidates lost in the area. To support this effort, DPAA is seeking DNA Family Reference Samples (FRS) from the family members for all individuals for whom it has little available loss information, including Pvt Hyde. 

NEXT STEPS: 

Researchers at DPAA will continue to conduct new research and to look for additional loss information for Pvt Hyde. In addition to the review of Unknowns from Bataan, DPAA and its partners periodically conduct field investigations in the Philippines. Any new information acquired through these efforts will be assessed for potential association to the case of Pvt Hyde.