Professor Greg Jackson

General Douglas MacArthur's I Shall Return Declaration of March 20, 1942 becomes an anthem and a mission statement for the Allied forces in the Pacific.

When the general reaches Melbourne, FDR's representative, Patrick Hurley, tells him he's now a hero to America, on par with aviator Charles Lindbergh and Great War Commander General Black Jack Pershing.

Doug is also promoted to Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific Area.

In other words, all U.S.

military branches and even some allied forces in the region now answer to him.

But Doug's popularity isn't soaring back in Bataan.

Feeling abandoned, his soldiers mock their distant and safe commander, calling him Dugout Doug.

With rations running low and any sign of relief still wanting, the men on Bataan are losing steam and hope.

United Press correspondent Frank Hewlett pens a poem that becomes an instant hit with many an American on the peninsula.

To quote it in part, We're the battling bastards of Bataan.

No mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam.

No aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no nieces.

No pills, no planes, no artillery pieces.

And nobody gives a damn.

An understandable sentiment.

But more people give a damn than Baton's defenders, or the battling bastards, as the poem calls them, might feel.

With Doug MacArthur running the bigger picture from Australia, General Skinny Wainwright is giving all the dams he can as he steps up as commander of all American and Filipino forces in the Philippines, leaving General Edward King as the field commander over Bataan.

As Skinny tells one of his aides, Lee marched on Gettysburg with less men than I have.

We're not licked yet.

Nice thought, Skinny, but Robert E. Lee lost that one.