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A hero came home from Bataan. Lieut. John Duncan Bulkeley, a hero of the Subic Bay sinking of a 5,000-ton Jap supply ship and commander of the PT boat squadron which whisked MacArthur out of the Philippines, arrived in San Francisco last week, and was flown across the continent to New York. People were waiting to see him: his wife, his mother and father, his 19-months-old daughter, whom he had not seen since last August, his five-weeks-old son, whom he had never seen. There also were cheering neighbors, U.S. flags fluttering in the doorway of his apartment house in Long Island City--and the press.

The New York Sun reported microscopically: "The hero who never faltered in daring raids seemed slightly shy as he took his wife into his arms under the gaze of the large group of reporters."

Lieut. Bulkeley made stiff little speeches for the press and the newsreels: "He [General MacArthur] believes that with a couple of hundred of them [PTs] we could sweep the Japanese from the sea...The Japanese are very brave, pugnacious fighters. . . . We feel the Navy is trying to do a good job in the Far East. . . ."

Then he elbowed his way into his apartment house. "There," said the Sun, "his waiting mother wrapped him briefly in her arms. Next he caught up and kissed his daughter, Joan." He posed, frozen-faced, while photographers snapped him getting reacquainted with Joan (see cut). Asked his favorite dish, he said, "I don't care what it is so long as Mom cooks it." Said the 30-year-old hero of Bataan: "I'm going to spend every minute I can with my family."

Next day, by invitation, he went to Borough Hall, received a scroll from the borough president. The 62nd Coast Artillery Corps Band played Anchors Aweigh. That evening Hero Bulkeley made a broadcast.

With him were Lieut. Robert Kelly and Ensign George E. Cox Jr., fellow torpedo-boat heroes from Bataan. They all looked just as unhappy, just as frozen-faced.

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