Agapito "Gap" Encinias Silva

October 22, 1919-June 17, 2007

Agapito "Gap" Encinias Silva was born to Isabel and Mauricio Silva on October 22, 1919 in San Marcial, NM. In 1929 the family moved to Gallup, NM where Gap graduated from Gallup High School in 1939. He enlisted in the New Mexico Army National Guard and was inducted into the regular Army in 1941, assigned to the 200th Coast Artillery and stationed at Ft. Stotsenberg on Clark Field, the Philippines. Gap was taken captive by the Japanese after the fall of Bataan in 1941 and survived 31/2 years in Japan as a prisoner of war. He received many honors and medals for his service, including the Bronze Star, three Purple Hearts, Philippine Defense, American Campaign, Asiatic Pacific Campaign, Philippine Liberation, American Defense, and Honorable Service While A POW. After the war Gap worked at Kirtland Air Force Base and retired in 1973. Following his retirement he enjoyed spending time with family and friends. Gap loved going fishing, gambling (especially at Pai-Gow and Blackjack), and sometimes embellished his golf scores. In the years since WWII, he was an unwavering advocate for veterans and an active life-member of the Bataan Veterans Organization, American Ex-POW's, the DAV, the VFW, the Purple Heart Association, the American Legion, and the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor (of which he was the National Commander from 2004-2006). On November 11, 2004 Gap was honored to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery for Veteran's Day. He was proud to be an instrumental part in the design and realization of the Bataan Memorial Park at the corner of Lomas and Carlisle NE. Gap was also often a guest speaker at local schools and events. He will be remembered for his wonderful sense of humor, his singing and dancing, delicious tacos and chili beans, and his undying and great love for his family and friends.

Agapito Silva received severe leg wounds on Bataan when a bomb dropped directly on his battery. Avoiding capture on Bataan when it fell, Agapito made his way to Corregidor by barge. Surrendered there one month later and was held at Cabanatuan prison camp in the Philippines. He was assigned to the infamous "burial details" when hundreds of prisoners were dying each month of disease and starvation at Cabanatuan. He was transported to Japan in August 1943 on the "Hell Ship" Clide Maru. While a prisoner at Fukuoka prison camp #17 near Omuta, Japan, he slave-labored in the Mitsui Mining Company's coal mines where he suffered a broken back during a mine cave-in. When he fell ill in 2006, Agapito's doctors attributed his condition, in part, to exposure in the coal mines and the harsh treatment suffered while a prisoner of war. In 1999, Agapito joined the class-action lawsuit brought by veterans across the country against the Japanese corporations who profited from American slave-labor during World War II. To this day, all suits have been nullified by the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951. (www.findagrave.com, 2007)