Name: Samuel McCullough Rank: Colonel Service Number: O-009816 Service: 60th Coast Artillery Regiment, US Army Awards: Legion of Merit, Prisoner of War Medal, Purple Heart, McCullough Road at Fort Baker named in his honor and memory Date of Birth: June 14, 1896 Place of Birth: Waltham, Middlesex County, Massachusetts Date of Enlistment: October 1917 Place of Enlistment: Massachusetts Address at Enlistment: Massachusetts Age at Enlistment: 20 Height: 6 feet Complexion: Ruddy Eye Color: Blue Hair Color: Brown Occupation: Served in the US Army in WWI, and in the interwar period Marital Status: Married Religion: Protestant Next of Kin: Helen B. McCullough (Wife), 1301 West 13th Street, Austin, Texas Date of Death: September 1, 1942 Age: 46 Cemetery: Manila American Cemetery, Manila, Philippines Grave: Plot A, Row 11, Grave 83 Samuel ‘Mac’ McCullough was the son of John McCullough (1863-1944), and Ella Blackie (Falconer) McCullough (1870-1905) born in Greenhill, Pictou County, Nova Scotia. He was the husband of Helen Donesta (Hendrickson) McCullough, and the father of Mary Cecelia (McCullough) Carroll Hancock (1920-2019) and Kathleen "Kitty" Adair (McCullough) Kotzebue (1922-1997). Samuel’s first cousin, Rear Admiral Leonard W. Murray (1896-1971), CB, CBE, served in the Royal Canadian Navy, and played a significant role in the Battle of the Atlantic. He commanded the Newfoundland Escort Force from 1941-43, and from 1943 to the end of the war was Commander-in-Chief, Canadian Northwest Atlantic. He was the only Canadian to command an Allied theatre of operations during both the First and Second World War. Both of his brothers-in-law also served in the US Armed Forces. Samuel’s grandson, United States Air Force Major John Leonard Carroll, DFC (1940-1972), the son of his Samuel’s sister Mary, was killed in the Vietnam War on November 7, 1972, serving with the 56th Special Operations Wing, 20th Tactical Air Support Squadron, and flying from the Udorn Royal Thai Air Base in Thailand. Samuel graduated from Weston High School, Weston, Massachusetts in 1914, and from the Co-operative School of Engineering of Northeastern College in Boston, Mass. with a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1917. He had a lengthy and varied military career at multiple posts which included the following: Coast Artillery Corps, commissioned Oct 1917 Fort Strong, Massachusetts – Apr-Oct 1918 Camp Eustis, Virginia – Oct 1918-Jan 1921 Fort Kamehameha, Pearl Harbor defenses, Queen Emma Pt., Honolulu, Hawaii – Feb 1921-Feb 1924 Fort Eustis, Virginia – Feb 1924-Aug 1928 (promoted Captain, May 1928) Coast Artillery School, Fort Monroe, Virginia – Sep 1928-Aug 1929 Fort Mills, Philippine Islands – Oct 1929-Jul 1932 Fort Sheridan, Illinois – Aug 1932-May 1935 (Battery E, then Battery A, 61st Coast Artillery) CCC duty, Michigan – Apr-May 1935 National Guard Instructor, Concord, New Hampshire – Jun 1935-Sep 1938 (promoted Major, Jul 1937) Command & General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas – Sep 1938-Jun 1939 Chemical Warfare School, Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland – Jun-Aug 1939 Governors Island, New York – Aug 1939 Harbor Defenses of Manila & Subic Bays, Fort Mills, Philippines – Oct 1939-Dec 1939 An excerpt, ‘A Parade Ground – day’ from ‘Your Grandfather’s Saber – a Century of Sacrifice’ by David Kotzebue recounts an incident from Sam McCullough’s time while stationed at Fort Kamehameha, part of the coastal artillery defenses of Pearl, in Hawaii in 1924. “An Army parade ground, Fort Kamehameha, Hi., ca. 1924. A crowd of civilians and military brass assembles in bleachers. A voice blares over the loudspeakers. Voice: Good morning, distinguished visitors and family members of the officers and men of the 31st Calvary Battalion and the 12th Coast Artillery Detachment, Ft. Kamehameha, Hawaii. Today's parade marks the graduation of a new class of recruits from Basic Training. Ladies and Gentlemen: I give you the 31st Calvary Battalion and the 12th Coast Artillery Detachment. The crowd scans the parade ground. A cadre of officers and flag-bearers march from the barracks. They take their position in the center of the parade ground, in front of the bleachers. The Army band begins to play, "Pass in Review." A Calvary company rides forth from the portal of the barracks. The crowd in the bleachers applauds. More Calvary companies follow. They circle the parade field. Horse-drawn Field Artillery cannons follow. They near the bleachers. Helen McCullough, a 20-something, red-headed Army wife, watches from the bleachers. She holds Kitty, her 3-year-old red-headed daughter, as well as Mary, her 5-year-old red-headed daughter. Helen tries to keep Kitty from squirming. At the head of the first Cavalry company rides Capt. Samuel McCullough, He's a tall, thin, red-headed Army officer. Helen's husband and Kitty's father. Helen McCullough (Pointing): Look, Kitty, there's daddy! Kitty: Daddy! Kitty squirms loose from her mother and toddles out towards her father and the approaching horses. The crowd in the bleachers rises to their feet. They gasp and point as Kitty toddles towards the oncoming calvary. Mary jumps and applauds. Sam sees the approaching toddler. In one movement, he reaches down. He swoops her from the ground. He rides in front of the battalion commander. He salutes with one hand and holds Kitty with the other. Kitty mimics her father and salutes, too. The crowd laughs and applauds. The battalion commander salutes Sam and Kitty back. Battalion Commander: Looks like you've got another redhead on your hands, Captain McCullough. Sam rides past. He holds his daughter on his lap in front of him. Sam: Indeed, I do, sir; indeed, I do. He finishes his salute. Kitty mimics her father. They ride past the reviewing stand. He sings to Kitty under his breath. Sam: This is the Army, Miss McCullough. After a number of posts in the continental United States and Hawaii and a posting in the Philippines from 1929- 1932, Samuel was assigned to Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays at Fort Mills in the Philippines prior to America’s involvement in World War II, in 1939. When Samuel McCullough arrived in the Philippines in October 1939, he joined the Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays as Intelligence and Publicity Officer, a role that placed him at the centre of the American defensive preparations on Corregidor as tensions in the Pacific steadily worsened. What began as a routine overseas posting quickly transformed into a desperate struggle for survival when Japan invaded in December 1941. McCullough served throughout the siege, later becoming Executive Officer for Beach Defense, one of the senior officers responsible for coordinating the island’s final resistance. Ill and already hospitalized with urinary complications and amebic dysentery at the Fort Mills station hospital in Corregidor, he was captured when Corregidor fell on May 6, 1942, and was transferred to Bilibid Prison in Manila with other sick and wounded prisoners of war. There, amid deprivation, malnutrition, and inadequate medical care, he succumbed to carcinoma and starvation on September 1, 1942, at 0635 hours. After the war his remains were disinterred and brought to 7747 USAF Cemetery, Manila #2, Philippine Islands where they were reburied on June 13, 1945 – Block 1, Row 14, Grave 1730 (D-D Number 8563). The deceased in Manila #2 (over 11,000 American soldiers) rested there until their removal to the American Graves Registration Service Manila Mausoleum in the summer of 1948. From there, according to the wishes of his next of kin (daughter, Mrs. Mary C. Carroll), Colonel Samuel McCullough was buried in his final resting place "side by side with *comrades who also gave their lives for their country" in 7701 Fort William McKinley Military Cemetery (now known as the Manila American Cemetery) – Plot A, Row 11, Grave 83. Customary military funeral services were conducted over the grave at the time of burial.

Sources honorstates.org findagrave