OBITUARY

Rogger Tiefenbach, 87; POW in WWII for more than 3 years

Rogger Evart Tiefenbach

By Elizabeth Fitzsimons Staff Writer

In the den of Margaret Tiefenbach'shome in El Cajon sits an aluminum bowl, nobigger than a cereal bowl, that holds therecord of her husband's life as a prisoner ofwar 60 years ago.In a descending swirl, Rogger Evart Tiefenbach used a file he kept hidden in his shoe to etch important dates and events onthe bowl after he was captured by the Japanese during World War II. "That was his diary and his connection to the real world," said son-in-law Robert Kapaska. Years later, it would become a symbol of his survival, a relic he shared with the students whose classes he visited. Mr. Tiefenbach's three-year, four-month imp r i s o nme n t f o r e v e r c h a n g e d h im, Kapaska said. Material objects meant little. He found joy in life's simple pleasures: seeing the sun rise and set, sharing a meal with his family. "He ate well. There was always food in the house. And his favorite thing was going out to have a meal with the family," Kapaska said. Mr. Tiefenbach, a retired naval officer and longtime NAS-SCO employee, died March 22 from complications associated with a rare form of leukemia. He was 87. Diagnosed in 2003, Mr. Tiefenbach was told by his doctors that the leukemia may have resulted from his naval service during Operation Hardtack I, the U.S. government's testing of atomic bombs in the Pacific in 1958. T h e e l d e s t o f s e v e n c h i l d r e n , Mr. Tiefenbach was born on April 9, 1918, in St. Joseph, Mich. Mr. Tiefenbach attended school up to the eighth grade. As a teenager, he cared for his younger siblings and cooked the family's meals. In his free time, he would

search the nearby woods for bottles to turn in for pennies he'd save for important purchases, such as a bicycle. In 1938, Mr. Tiefenbach went to Detroit to enlist in the Navy. But he was turned away for being three pounds underweight. Determined to enter the service, Mr. Tiefenbach gobbled down three pounds of bananas and some sardines and went back to the recruiting office later that day. He was weighed again, and this time he met the requirement. As a machinist's mate, Mr. Tiefenbach was sent to the Pacific. It was on his 24th

birthday, April 9, 1942, that Bataan fell to the Japanese. The crew of Mr. Tiefenbach's submarine tender, the Canopus, scuttled the vessel and escaped to Corregidor Island, known as The Rock. The men held out until May 6,1942, when they surrendered to the Japanese. Mr. Tiefenbach would be moved from one camp to the next until his release in Japan in September 1945. While a prisoner, Mr. Tiefenbach found

an aluminum mess bowl, and he began etching a diary into the metal with a file he kept hidden in his shoe. Mr. Tiefenbach later told his family that he made it day to day by simply doing what he was told and never arguing with his captors. If he was eating, he would concentrate on eating. If he was working, he would focus on that. "That's what he did to survive the war," said Kapaska, who is writing a book about Mr. Tiefenbach. "He saw many of his fellow POWs Just give up. They lost hope and that's when everything would go down from there." Mr. Tiefenbach never harbored any anger toward the Japanese after his release. "All the time he ever talked about them, he said it was war. But he did tell me if he ever was to be captured again, he would run," Margaret Tiefenbach said. After his release, Mr. Tiefenbach returned to Michigan. In 1946, he married Elizabeth Balos. The couple raised three children while Mr. Tiefenbach continued his 22-year career in the Navy, stationed in San Diego and Honolulu. Mr. Tiefenbach retired from the Navy in 1959 as a chief warrant officer. He joined National Steel and Shipbuilding Co., or NASSCO, in the early 1960s and worked there until his retirement in 1983. Elizabeth Tiefenbach died of pancreatic cancer in 1972. Mr. Tiefenbach had cared for his ailing wife for seven years, his family said. Not long after his wife's death, he met Margaret Hudson. The couple married, and Mr. Tiefenbach adopted Margaret's daughter. The Tiefenbachs were married for 33years. After his retirement, the Tiefenbachs bought a motor home and spent four years touring the country. Back home in El Cajon, Mr. Tiefenbach spent his free time attending Padres games. Recently, he had been speaking to East County schools about the war and his time as a POW. Stories that he shared on Web sites helped the families of deceased sailors learn

about their loved ones' last days and thecircumstances of their deaths. In one case, a woman from Virginia asked Mr. Ti e f enba ch whe the r he knew her brother. Not only did he know the man, the two were best friends - bunkmates who took liberty together and spent their off-dufr hours playing the game acey deucey. Mr. Tiefenbach was able to tell the woman about her brother's last months and how he died, bringing closure to her family, Kapaska said. Mr. Tiefenbach is survived by his wife, Ma r g a r e t T i e f e n b a c h ; s o n s , R i c h a r d Tiefenbach of San Diego and Stephen Tiefenbach of Oceanside; daughters, Suzie McDonald of Anza and Patti Kapaska of El Cajon; stepsons, Jim Howland and Donald Howland of San Diego; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Mr. Tiefenbach was to be be given full military honors at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.

Rogger E Tiefenbach