Twenty students from Clemson University are traveling to White Sands Missile Range outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico to take part in the Bataan Memorial Death March on Saturday, March 21.

The event pays homage to the U.S. and Filipino soldiers who were prisoners of war (POWs) on the Bataan Peninsula in World War II and forced to march approximately 65 miles through brutal conditions that took the lives of thousands. The event was first held in 1989 and now attracts nearly 10,000 marchers each year.

 

Col. Ben Skardon ’38, the most recent living member of the “Clemson 8” who survived the march — and one of three who survived as a prisoner of war — participated annually in the Bataan Memorial Death March through the age of 101. Though he passed away in 2021, Col. Skardon’s legacy and that of the other survivors remains strong each year through Clemson’s participating student contingent.

“Carrying on the legacy of these heroes is truly an unreal honor,” says Riley McClatchy, a junior industrial engineering major from Charlotte, North Carolina. “Not many who attend have as deep and direct a connection with an actual survivor as we do here at Clemson. After participating in the Bataan March last year, the memory of Col. Skardon’s legacy and others is a driving force for our team.”

McClatchy is the team leader from the Arnold Air Society, an honorary, service-based military student organization connected to Clemson’s Air Force ROTC program. McClatchy and five fellow students from the organization will be competing in the heavy division carrying 35-pound rucksacks. The group has trained for more than three months for the march, rucking hundreds of miles together.

 

McClatchy’s team won’t be alone in representing Clemson, though. For the first time ever, an all-female team will participate in the march. Abbigayle Szcinski is heading up a group of five women from Air Force ROTC planning to ruck the event. Szcinski transferred to Clemson in 2025 and raced in the Clemson 8 Challenge the past two years, describing it as an emotional experience.

Upon first hearing about the Bataan Memorial Death March, she knew immediately it was something she wanted to be part of, and she contacted Clemson 8 coordinator and former Clemson Athletics administrator John Seketa to ask about entering Clemson’s first all-female team.

“It’s not light to carry on the legacy of someone like Col. Ben Skardon,” says Szcinski, a senior mechanical engineering major from Simpsonville, South Carolina. “Col. Skardon honored those he served with until the day he died, coming out year after year in their remembrance. Just as he walked with fellow POWs, our team will walk in their honor, carrying a fraction of their weight but giving it all we have.”

 

Pershing Rifles is sending four members for the event. Ellie Bedard and Vivian Hall will be running the marathon together, while Matthew Vickers and Mitchell Day are competed with 35-pound rucksacks. All four attended last week’s Clemson 8 Challenge, performing a 21-gun salute prior to the event.

Vickers serves as unit lead and competed in last year’s Bataan Memorial Death March. He says although the event is physically and mentally exhausting, it’s also inspiring.

“To finish is a challenge in itself,” he says. “But to know you are enduring only a fraction of what those forced to march in Bataan in 1942 experienced is truly humbling. It’s our honor to go out there and represent Clemson and honor the legacy of those who suffered.”

2026 Bataan Memorial Death March student attendees from Clemson:

Arnold Air Society
Riley McClatchy, industrial engineering (Charlotte, North Carolina)
Thomas Howley, industrial engineering (Webster, New York)
Jack Leahy, economics (Charleston, South Carolina)
Benjamin Lentz, civil engineering (St. Augustine, Florida)
Hudson Spargo, electrical engineering (Belmont, North Carolina)

ROTC
Abbigayle Szcinski, mechanical engineering (Simpsonville, South Carolina)
Emily Apostolico, forest resource management (Charleston, South Carolina)
Teagan Story-Danziger, physics (Starr, South Carolina)
Helen Huynh, exploratory studies (Charleston, South Carolina)
Rachal Lin, biological sciences (Seneca, South Carolina)

Clemson Ranger Club
David Unruh, financial management (Wilton, Connecticut)
Jackson Dodson, agricultural mechanization and business (Central, South Carolina)
Jake Kiss, business (Fairfax, Virginia)
John Mundy, mechanical engineering (Mooresville, North Carolina)
Jimmy Rappel, pre-business (Lake Forest, Illinois)
Mitchell Risinger, economics (Blythewood, South Carolina)

Pershing Rifles – competing as individuals
Matthew Vickers, management (Atlanta, Georgia)
Ellie Bedard, economics (Seneca, South Carolina)
Mitchell Day, industrial engineering (Perry, Georgia)
Vivian Hall, psychology (Lexington, South Carolina)