He was the Manila bureau chief for United Press at the outbreak of war, and was the last reporter to leave Corregidor before it fell to the Japanese.
[1] Hewlett worked 23 years as the Washington bureau chief of The Salt Lake Tribune.
[1] Hewlett's limerick poem, "the Battling Bastards of Bataan" came to symbolize that campaign:[2] We're the Battling Bastards of Bataan,No Mama, No Papa, No Uncle Sam,No aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no nieces,No pills, no planes, no artillery pieces,And nobody gives a damn!Departing Corregidor before it fell, at the instruction of Douglas MacArthur, Hewlett followed Frank Merrill in the China-Burma-India theater, then coined the term Angels of Bataan.
[1] His wife, Virginia, working for the High Commissioner to the Philippines, remained in Manila.
[5] Hewlett was a member of Sigma Delta Chi and the National Press Club.