Wendell Fertig - Pre-war

Pre-war

Wendell Fertig was born in La Junta, Colorado, where he lived until he completed high school. He then studied engineering at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. After graduation from college, he married his wife Mary. In 1936, he and his family moved to the Philippines where he had a successful career as a civil engineer until the war broke out. Fertig was described as "tall, sandy-haired with an athletic build" and "being calm, genial, deliberate and possessing a remarkable memory and a great facility for remembering names." His experience as an engineer,

... and methods of attacking problems would serve him in the challenges he would face as the leader of the Mindanao guerrillas... It was due primarily to his personal leadership qualities that the Mindanao resistance movement was unified under one leader and became the most successful of all the guerrilla units in the Philippines.

Early in 1941, Fertig was on leave in Manila from his job on Samar. Due to his military classes in college, he held a reserve commission in the United States Army Corps of Engineers. As a result, he was called to duty on 1 June 1941, as a captain (reserve) in the Army Engineers as the United States prepared for war in the Pacific theater. At that time, U.S. analysts believed that the Philippines might be one of the first areas Japan would attack. Fertig's first assignments were as Assistant Engineer, Bataan Field Area, then as Engineer, North Luzon Area. By November 1941, he was Chief of the Construction Section, General Headquarters, and spent most of his time overseeing preparation and improvement of airfields throughout the Philippines.

In late 1941, the U.S. began evacuating the wives and children of military families. In January 1942, according to one of Fertig's daughters, Mary Fertig and their two children, Patricia and Jeannne, left on the last evacuation ship and returned to the United States. However, other sources have Fertig's family leaving the Philippines as early as the summer of 1941. This action was taken to relieve the concerns of officers and enlisted men, called to duty, about the welfare of their families. American civilian families (men, women and children) were not evacuated, so as not to lessen the morale of the citizens of the Philippines. The native people of the Philippines, who could not leave, suffered terribly under the Japanese occupation. It is estimated that at least one out of every 20 Filipinos died at the hands of the Japanese during the occupation.