Murl Schrock listed Santa Cruz County as his residence; however, it is possible that it was the residence of his next of kin.

Murl R. Schrock was the second son of Andrew and Elizabeth Schrock and was born on October 2, 1902, in New Plymouth, Payette County, Idaho. Murl was raised with four brothers Milo, Morris, Murray and Marvin. He enrolled in the University of Nevada at Reno and after his graduation in 1926, was employed as a geologist and mining engineer. Schrock began acquiring mining interests in the Philippines and in 1936 moved to those islands.

The Schrock family subsequently relocated to Modesto and then to Santa Cruz, where Andrew Schrock purchased an apartment house. It is unclear whether Murl ever lived in Santa Cruz during his family's residence there.

In 1941 Murl Schrock volunteered in the US Army and listed Santa Cruz, California, as his residence. It is likely that, because of his previous engineering experience, he was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers.

“The skimpy, 1500 man US Army engineer garrison in the Philippines was almost evenly divided between Filipino and American personnel. After Japanese forces landed there on December 10, the engineers destroyed bridges from one end of Luzon to the other to slow the enemy's advance. The engineers later erected a series of defensive lines on the Bataan Peninsula and fought as infantry in these defenses before succumbing to superior Japanese forces in April and May 1942.”

With the fall of Bataan and Corregidor, Lt. Schrock was captured and confined in prison camp No. 1 at Manila, where he remained until December 13, 1944, when he was placed aboard a ship sending POWs to Japan. The US Navy inadvertently sank the ship; however, Schrock survived, was recaptured and sent to Japan.

On or about February 4, 1945, First Lieutenant Murl R. Schrock is reported to have died in a Japanese prison camp. In 1949 his remains were exhumed, returned to the United States and reinterred at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.

(USDVA; David Gratz, Family Genealogy, Schrock, http://davidgratz. com/family/people/p000001u.htm [15 May 2007 approx.); SCSn Sept. 14, 1945 1:7; Joe N Ballard, Google Books, History of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Page 84, http://books.google.com/ books?id=EKieF_-ycGkC&pg=PA84 [16 September 2008])