William P. “Perry” Baldwin was born on December 18, 1914, in the District of Columbia. He was married to Betsy Eskridge. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Class of 1937. As a young officer in the 3rd Infantry, Perry held multiple roles, including company officer, mess officer, battalion adjutant for summer training camps, senior instructor, and Officer-in-Charge of the West Point Preparatory School, and participant in the National Rifle Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio.

In 1940, he sailed to the Philippines, where he joined the 57th Infantry at Fort McKinley. Reassigned to the 102nd Regiment, Philippine Scouts, he served on Mindanao until the U.S. forces there surrendered in April 1942. He was captured and held as a prisoner of war at PW Camp #2 in Davao, Mindanao, until December 1944, when he was placed aboard the Oryoku Maru en route to Japan. The ship was bombed and sunk by American aircraft at Subic Bay on December 15, 1944, and he lost his life in the attack.

Maj Baldwin's name is memorialized in the Tablets of the Missing in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Manila, Capital District, National Capital Region, Philippines.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, alumni.westpointaog.org