Photographs from the Wilma Ticer Bull Collection

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Neal Ticer of Portales, New Mexico (left) was a corporal with E Battery of the 200th Coast Artillery (Anti-aircraft) when he sailed for the Philippines in late summer of 1941. He left behind his young bride, Wilma Ticer (below).

After the fall of Bataan, Ticer met fellow prisoner of war Floyd Johnson Bull, of Stafford, Arizona (698th Ordinance Aviation, Army Air Corp) The men made a pact: if one of them did not survive the war, the other would contact the family left behind. Neal Ticer was 24 years old when he lost his life on 24 October 1944 on the Japanese Hell Ship Arisan Maru. Mrs. Ticer married Floyd Bull a couple of years after he returned from the war.

Although Corporal Ticer did not returned from the Philippines, he sent back many photographs to his wife. She graciously made these photographs accessible to people wanting to learn about Bataan and World War II.

Corporal Neal Ticer and Mrs. Wilma Ticer, El Paso, Texas, as the 200th begins its journey to the Philippines.