A Case of Treason: The Traitor of Corregidor

In April 1941, Burton C. Stretch Thomson, a twenty-six-year-old 1st Lieutenant in the U. S. Army’s Veterinary Corps, sailed to his new duty station in the Philippine Islands. He is leaving a wife and 7-month old son in Iowa; he will be gone for two years. Arriving in Manila in May 1941 he learns that he has been assigned to the 4th Veterinary Hospital at Fort Stotsenburg in Luzon Province. He will take up his duties as a veterinarian with the 26th Cavalry Regiment. On August 1st, Stretch is transferred to Fort Mills, Corregidor Island. Corregidor is one of the five highly fortified islands at the entrance of Manila Bay. Stretch, as the sole veterinarian, will be responsible for the 25 mules on the island plus regular sanitary inspections. When war breaks out, Stretch is assigned an additional duty as mess officer for the station hospital now located in the confines of Malinta Tunnel. Corregidor’s defenders finally surrender to the Japanese on May 6, 1942. Immediately, betrayal emerged from the ranks of Corregidor’s defenders in the form of a U.S. Army Sergeant. A drawn-out process after the war would finally bring Sergeant John David Provoo before a jury of his peers in late 1952 to defend against the charge of treason. A prolonged investigation by the FBI, a questionable decision by the Department of Justice and an inartful prosecution of the case by the U.S. district attorney would lead to an appeal of the trial court’s finding of guilty.