Hometown Heroes
Lt. Col. Allen Thayer, U.S. Army (1905-1945) – died in captivity
By Michael Rocchetti
By December of 1944, Allied Forces were closing in on the home islands of Japan, and General MacArthur’s forces had returned to the Philippines to liberate those islands from the Japanese occupation. The Japanese forces were retreating, but they were not allowing their Allied prisoners to remain in the Philippines. 
There were thousands of U.S. troops that had been captured by the Japanese after the fall of Corregidor in early 1942, and these prisoners were forced to endure brutal and inhumane treatment during the infamous Bataan Death March and during the long years of captivity in the Philippines.
In late 1944, the Japanese started transferring U.S. and Allied POWs from prison camps in the Philippines to slave labor camps in Japan – and they were using unmarked troop ships to transport these POWs. These troop transport ships were seen as legitimate military targets by U.S. aircrews and were bombed repeatedly. Unfortunately, in the fog and friction of war, more than 1,600 U.S. POWs were killed in these air attacks. Among them was Lt Colonel Allen Thayer from Putnam.
Allen Thayer was born June 7, 1905, in Willimantic, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Thayer of 19 King St., Putnam. He graduated from Putnam High School in 1924. He was later commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army upon graduation from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1928. As an Army officer, he served in various parts of this country and was then detailed to the Philippine Islands. Although his wife and three sons had evacuated the Philippines, he was still in the Islands when war with Japan broke out. He was active in the entire defense of the Philippines and was not taken prisoner until the end of the resistance. 
Allen Thayer was captured by the Japanese during the fall of Corregidor in May of 1942 while assigned to the 62nd Infantry Regiment of the 61st Infantry Division, the “Philippine Scout Division”. According to information obtained from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Lt Col Allen Thayer was lost during the sinking of the Japanese transport ship Brazil Maru while in transit as a POW from the Philippines to Japan. He was lost somewhere in the China Seas near the Tsushima Straits of Japan. 
His death date is officially listed as Jan. 18, 1945. He has a cenotaph at the Riverdale Cemetery, in Columbus, Ga. Lieutenant Colonel Thayer is also memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.
In addition to his parents, he was survived by a brother Henry, a sister Martha, his wife Marjorie (Roberts) Thayer of Columbus, Ga, and three sons – Allen, David, and John.
He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star Medal. The citation which accompanied the award said that Lieutenant Colonel Thayer won the Silver Star Medal “For gallantry in action while commanding the 62d Infantry in the vicinity of Dalirig, Bukidnon, Mindanao, Philippine Islands, during May 7 and 8, 1942. During periods of heavy shelling of the 62d Infantry by the Japanese, Colonel Thayer made a number of personal visits to his front-line units, thereby inspiring confidence in the unseasoned troops of his command.”
Hometown Heroes books can be purchased online at: https://hometown-heroes-of-the-quiet-corner.myshopify.com/  - all proceeds benefit the local American Legion Post. Hometown Heroes is a series published in the Putnam Town Crier & Northeast Ledger with this mission: We owe it to our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines to make sure that they are never forgotten, and that the memory of their service and sacrifice will forever live on in the hearts and minds of the grateful people of Putnam.

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