WICHITA, KANSAS -- Four JROTC cadets from Wichita's West High School are getting ready to honor the survivors of the Bataan Death March.
The students are traveling to the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on March 17 to take part in a memorial march.
In April 1942, tens of thousands of American and Filipino soldiers were forced to march 62 miles in the jungles of the Bataan peninsula by Japanese forces. An estimated 7,000 to 10,000 died during the march.
The JROTC cadets have been training since November, 2012, marching up to 20 miles at a stretch and have totaled more than 200 miles.
They'll be marching 26.2 miles wearing a backpack filled with water and other supplies.
The cadets will also meet survivors of the actual Bataan Death March and will learn what these veterans endured and how they survived.
When the 4 students return, they'll give presentations about their experience in the New Mexico desert and what they learned from the memorial march.
