Thaddeus Elmer Smyth was born on November 14, 1901, in Tavares, Lake County, Florida. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Class of 1925. He was a career armor officer who taught at the Tank School, later joining the 194th Tank Battalion in the Philippines. He helped form the Provisional Tank Group and fought through the defense of Clark Field and Bataan, where he was captured after April 9, 1942.

LTC Smyth endured the Bataan Death March, Camp O’Donnell, and Cabanatuan.
In December 1944, he was moved to Bilibid Prison, then forced aboard the hell ship Oryoku Maru; after its bombing and sinking at Subic Bay, he survived only to be shipped on the Enoura Maru (bombed at Takao) and finally the Brazil Maru to Japan. Arriving at Moji on January 29, 1945, Smyth was imprisoned at Fukuoka POW Camp #1, where he died of malnutrition on March 5, 1945.

After the war, his cremated remains were recovered from Fukuoka #1 and interred with other POWs at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, Lemay Township, St. Louis County, Missouri, USA in 1949.

Source of information: bataanproject.com