Jay Moore recently related the story of Rufus Choate, who was the last survivor of the 99 Abilene boys captured by Japanese forces in World War II and who were part of the Lost Battalion. Choate died on Jan. 31, just six weeks shy of his 102nd birthday.

Moore updated the story to say that after learning about Choate, Abilene City Manager Robert Hanna asked Police Chief Rondell Seratte and Fire Chief Cande Flores if they might send officers to Choate’s service in Dallas. APD Sergeant Josh New and Officer Brian Poyner, along with AFD Captain Cris Tucher and Lt. James Weikel drove to the Dallas-Fort Worth Memorial Cemetery and, on behalf of the citizens of Abilene, offered respects to the Choate family. 

Former Abilenian Holman King attended the memorial service and wrote to say, “It made me swell with pride to see the citizens of Abilene represented by their bravest. I think you have to live someplace else to appreciate how special Abilene is.”

Representing Abilene at the memorial service were left to right APD Officer Brian Poyner, APD Sergeant Josh New, AFD Captain Cris Tucher, and AFD Lt. James Weikel. All photos courtesy Jay Moore

Following is Moore’s original story, which he posted Feb. 28:

Hometown History / The Last Abilene Survivor of the Lost Battalion

Just six weeks shy of turning 102, Rufus Choate died on January 31. He was the last of the Abilene boys who had been a member of the Lost Battalion in World War II. 

Rufus was born in Abilene in 1922, the oldest of Raymond and Emelia Choate’s five children.  The family lived at 1042 Locust Street in a home which still stands. In 1938, at the age of 16, he joined the Texas National Guard to earn a few extra dollars for his family during the Great Depression. Following his graduation from Abilene High in 1940, his unit was activated on November 25, 1940. Thirteen months later he was on the island of Java in the Dutch East Indies. Following World War II, he returned home and worked with his younger brothers, R.B. and Tommy, operating Choate Plumbing before moving to Arlington in 1980. His sister, Frances Bolen, was the longtime owner of Frances’ Beauty Salon here.

The defining event of Rufus’ life lasted from March 1942 to September 1945; during those 42 months he was a prisoner of war, held for most of that time in a Japanese labor camp. 

Ninety-nine men from Abilene and the surrounding area comprised E Battery which was attached to the 131st Field Artillery of the 2nd Battalion, 36th Division.  In all, 534 soldiers, including the men of E Battery, were taken prisoner when the Dutch capitulated the island of Java on March 10, 1942. Five days later, Rufus turned 20.

Newspapers termed the men as “lost” because the War Department would not, or could not, provide details about what happened to the unit. Ninety-one of the 99 men survived the war. Rufus finally returned to Abilene on November 27, 1945. He had been away from home for more than four years.  

On December 7, 1942, exactly one year after Japanese forces bombed Pearl Harbor, Corporal Choate, along with the other captured Abilene boys, disembarked in the cold rain at the port of Nagasaki, Japan. Rufus was listed as prisoner #1010. Their liberation came three-and-a-half years later on September 18, 1945. Many of the men were held at Fukuoka No. 2 prison camp where they were forced to work in a shipyard and later in coal mines. The experience tested their mental and physical endurance — at one point, Rufus weighed just 98 pounds — but it also bound them together in an unbreakable brotherhood lasting for the rest of their lives. The Lost Battalion had a stroke of luck in June of 1945 when they were relocated from Nagasaki to Kyushu, a move that took them away from near certain death when the US bombed Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

On the lawn in front of the old Taylor County courthouse on Oak Street stands a memorial plaque listing the 99 members of Battery E who were part of the Lost Battalion. Today, they are all gone.