text: "There is a great opportunity for those of you in Stephenville, Texas, to watch the documentary ""William Edwin Dyess and and The Greatest Story of the War in the Pacific.""  Tarleton State University will be showing the film tomorrow and the public is invited to watch it.  Lt. Col. Dyess was a Tarleton State graduate and an American hero in WWII.  While fighting the Japanese on the island of Bataan, outnumbered and under equipped, Dyess and his comrades surrendered to the enemies on April 10, 1942, and were marched to a prisoner-of-war camp in the infamous ?ÛÏBataan Death March.?Û? Nearly a year later, Dyess and nine other American prisoners-of-war, along with two Filipino convicts broke out of the Davao Penal Colony, an escape-proof Imperial Japanese Army prison plantation in the Philippines.  Lt. Col Dyess was awarded Distinguished Flying Cross and Distinguished Service Cross, for his valor.  He died on Dec. 22, 1943 in Burbank, Calif., when he chose to pilot his P-38, which had caught fire, away from a heavily populated area, rather than parachuting to safety.  He landed the plane in a vacant lot, where it exploded on impact and killed him. The movie will be shown in in Room 116 of the O.A. Grant Humanities Building at Tarleton State. To learn more, click here: http://www.yourstephenvilletx.com/news/local/documentary-featuring-wwii-hero-tarleton-alum-william-dyess-to-be/article_393ceeb9-382e-51c1-a075-58616c8c075f.html"