Archives West Finding Aid

Clayton Johnston Hileman was born August 16, 1911, and after graduating from Lincoln High School in Portland, OR, in 1931, attended Glendale Junior College in California. In September of 1936 he legally changed his name to Clayton Hileman Mickelson. He appears to have effectively been adopted at some point – while his transcript lists C.E. Hileman as his father’s name, every other document later in life credits Henry A. and Margaret ‘Peggy’ J. Mickelsen, married in 1929, of Portland as his parents. The ‘son’ vs. ‘sen’ difference between the names would create confusion in later years; it appears this was a bureaucratic error as Clayton would use Mickelsen himself. He then enrolled at Washington State College (not far from where his mother had been raised in Colfax), where he graduated in 1939 with a PhD in Veterinary Medicine.

He went to work as a veterinarian in Pasadena, CA, and entered the Veterinary Corps Reserve of the Army in June, 1939. On Nov. 15, 1940 he went on active duty and was assigned to the 26th Cavalry, in the Philippines.

He received the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving with Veterinary Corps, 26th Cavalry Regiment, Philippine Scouts, in action against enemy forces on 22 December 1941, in the Philippine Islands. He had driven a veterinary vehicle onto a bridge under heavy assault to block enemy tanks, and remained to set it on fire, presenting the enemy from pursuing the retreating allies.

When the Japanese captured Bataan in early 1942, Mickelsen was taken prisoner, and was part of the Bataan Death March. He was in prison camps for nearly three years, dying of avitaminosis on Feb. 4, 1945 at the Fukuoka Prisoner of War Camp in Japan.