Robert Lapham

Who was Robert Lapham?

Robert Lapham was a reserve Lieutenant in the US Army in World War II.

He served in the Philippines attached to the 45th Infantry, evaded capture in the spring of 1942, and organized a guerrilla regiment in the Central Plains of the northern island of Luzon. He was promoted to Major by war's end, age 28, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by General Douglas MacArthur. Lapham was the third person, after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and MacArthur, to receive the Philippine Legion of Honor.

A graduate of the University of Iowa, Lapham worked for the Chicago branch of the Burroughs Corporation when, as a 2nd lieutenant of infantry in the US Officers Reserve Corps, he was assigned to active duty in the Philippines and sailed from San Francisco on June 5, 1941.

After MacArthur was evacuated to Australia, Gen. Jonathan Wainwright was given command of the Philippine defense force. As talk of surrender began, Lapham sneaked through the lines. In his 1996 book, Lapham’s Raiders: Guerrillas in the Philippines, 1942–45, he explained why he headed to the jungles to fight: "Somehow, I didn’t like the idea of surrendering.