Royal Todd

This is a photo of my father shortly after he enlisted in the Army in 1921. By the beginning of WWII he had risen to the rank of Master Sargent. He was stationed at Nichols Airfield in Manila, The Phillipine Islands when the Japanese bombed the base on December 8, 1941. He was with U.S. forces that retreated to the Bataan peninsula and were captured in April 1942. After surviving the infamous Bataan Death March to Camp O'Donnell, he was moved to Cabanatuan POW Camp where he died September 5, 1942. His name is on the Memorial wall at Cabanatuan. After the end of the war, he was re-interred at the Manila American Cemetery at Fort Bonafacio.

Katie E. and Annie L. Todd with unknown friend. The is a studio photo taken in about 1897 in either Casper or Thermopolis, Wyoming. My aunt Katie E. (Todd) Johnson is at the left and my aunt Annie A. (Todd) Wood is at the right. The seated girl is unknown but may be a Bedsaul. My grandparents John R. and Martha A. Todd moved from Missouri to Wyoming in about 1885 and owned sawmills in the Casper mountains and later in the Owl Creek mountains. They built and operated a lumberyard and the Hot Springs Hotel in Thermopolis and homesteaded in the Owl Creek valley west of Thermopolis.

Do you know the seated girl?