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John Hollenhorst reporting Sixty years ago today, a Utah man experienced the climax to one of the most incredible escape stories we've ever heard. It's a story about a terrible massacre, but also about one man's amazing will to survive.
We're happy to say Eugene Nielsen is still with us at the age of 88. His survival 60 years ago is a testament to his courage and determination.
Every year on December 14th, Eugene Nielsen goes to the home of loved ones for a party.
Lorna Murray/ Nielsen's Daughter: "My dad started calling it 'free day.' It's a way to turn the worst event in his life into something positive."
If Nielsen's amazing saga 60 years ago had gone slightly differently, most of these loved ones would never have been born.
Eugene Nielsen/ South Ogden Resident: "I know a lot of this is hard to believe. I don't know how so much of it happened to me."
At the beginning of World War II he was young, in the Army, stationed at Corregidor in The Philippines. In 1942, Japanese forces closed in, capturing thousands of Americans.
Eugene Nielsen: "It was pretty, pretty hard to take."
Nielsen was taken to a POW camp on Palawan Island and held captive for almost three years. On December 14, 1944, American forces were closing in. Japanese guards herded the POW's into trenches and suddenly poured gasoline on them.
Eugene Nielsen: "They brought it down in these five gallon cans and dumped it in the openings."
The guards set the POW's ablaze and opened up with rifles and grenades, killing 139 prisoners. Nielsen somehow managed to scramble out, along with a buddy who was on fire head to toe.
Eugene Nielsen: "He just couldn't control himself. He just muttered like an animal or something. It didn't even sound human."
As machine guns blasted away, Nielsen jumped off a 50 foot cliff. He grabbed a tree on the way down.
Eugene Nielsen: "It just kind of.. it was enough to break my fall. I just rode it down."
After hiding several hours under a pile of garbage, Nielsen jumped in the water and started swimming. Japanese guards fired, wounding him three times.
Eugene Nielsen: "I was in bad shape. I didn't think I had a chance."
Bleeding from his wounds, he swam a meandering route. A big fish---he worried it was a shark---circled him for hours.
Eugene Nielsen: "Counterclockwise. I could reach out and touch it sometimes, it was so close."
He later found out it was a dugong, a sea cow. After 13 hours of swimming, Nielsen came ashore. He spent the first two of his 12 days of Christmas submerged, hiding in a swamp.
Eugene Nielsen: "That was a nasty thing. Lots of animals in there. Mosquitoes, snakes, crocodiles."
Then he began walking. Luckily he linked up with friendly, anti-Japanese Filipinos. They traveled through Japanese territory for days, on foot, on a sailboat, on water buffalos.
Finally, on December 26th, 1944, Nielsen made it to a guerilla base-camp. Two Americans there notified US Army headquarters by radio, and Nielsen heard music coming back through the airwaves.
Eugene Nielsen: "It was Bing Crosby. Singing White Christmas. That was the first music I'd heard for about three years."
Now you know why the Nielsen family celebrates Free Day, every December, and why Eugene Nielsen, 60 years later, is on the verge of tears every time he hears "White Christmas."
