ts while American forces moving south from the Lingayen Gulf trying to improvise a rescue before the Japanese imposed their own solution by killing every POW at Cabanatuan.
The U.S. Army decided it had to take action to save the POWs at Cabanatuan. According to an essay written by Colonel Randy Pullen and published on the U.S. Army website, the commanding general of Sixth U.S. Army, Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger, called on the commander of the 6th Ranger Battalion to free the prisoners. Lt. Col. Henry Mucci was a 1936 graduate of West Point and commanded the 6th Ranger Battalion. Mucci's goal was to go approximately thirty miles behind enemy lines, reach the camp, overcome the guard force, liberate the prisoners and return them safely to friendly lines before the Japanese could react. The thirty miles march would be through open grasslands and rice paddies and would have to be covered with care to avoi
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