A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE 1st RECONNAISSANCE BATTALION (SPECIAL), U.S. ARMY, 1942-1946: Originally Written by: 1ST LT. DAVID T. VIVIT (AUS, Ret) For the 1973 Souvenir Program of the 1st & 2nd Filipino Infantry Association of San Francisco, San Jose and the Salinas Chapters. I used these biographies for my own YAHOO Geocities website for over ten (10) years. THIS SECRET organization was conceived by General MacArthur and his staff even as they were being evacuated from the Philippines to Australia in March 1942. They knew that parts of thearchipelago remained under guerrilla control and somehow a link had to be established between them and his Headquarters. The main problem was where to procure the personnel for this clandestine unit. General Douglas MacArthurs summoned his closest aide, Lt. Col. Courtney Whitney and gave him this task. He immediately started recruiting personnel from the newly formed U.S. Armys 1st & 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments. In California during the first part of 1943, he visited Camp Beale (near Marysville) and Camp Cooke (near Lompoc) to seek for eligible volunteers. Meanwhile, a selected group of enlisted men were sent to the Army Signal School at Camp Crowder, Missouri or to Camp Kohler, California. They would be trained as radio signal operators and sent to Australia to form the 978th Signal Service Company. The 978th was one (1) of the two (2) companies of the 5217th Battalion. A larger group of officers and men were also sent to the Army Language School at the Presidio of Monterey, California. Here they learned elementary Japanese, Japanese ship and aircraft recognition and sailing. These were the officers and men who formed the other bigger company, the Reconnaissance Company. After three (3) months, the first big contingent of officers and men were shipped to Australia. They arrived there in November 1943 just before the second party left for the Philippines. Other groups followed them from the Regiments through Monterey until the company was brought up to its authorized strength. In Australia, with their war cry, Bahala Na! (Come What May!), they went through intensive and extensive training under the Australian Army. While the nucleus had arrived in Australia in April 1942 with a handful of officers and men, some of the patients and crew from the hospital ship, USS Mactan were among the many who volunteered. These Filipino officers and men soon became the members of this elite organization. A few of the officers and men were sent directly to Australia to join the volunteers from the Philippines. They formed the 5217th Reconnaissance Battalion (Provisional) which later became the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (Special). They set up at Camp X in Tabragalba just outside Beaudesert, fifty (50) miles south of Brisbane. After weeks of training and operating under the Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB) the first party was sent to the Philippines in October 1943. In the meantime, other Pinoy soldiers of the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion (Special) continued and completed the equally tough SEA WARFARE School on Frazer Island. It was here they learned swimming, underwater demolition, sabotage and guerrilla tactics. In July 1944, an 82nd Airborne Division cadre comprising of one (1) officer and five (5) non-commissioned officers arrived from Italy. The airborne cadre arrived to train a group of men for a pre-invasion mission of sabotage and communication disruptions. Now hardened, the men were ready for the toughest of all their training. But they lacked adequate facilities and proper training aids. They improvised their own C-47 mock door and didnt have a tower to practice jumping. And this coupled with the Australian pilots inexperience caused a large number of casualties, probably a record, in the first class qualifying jumps. But this didnt daunt the volunteers, for the bigger second class fared better. Captain C. Earl Walter, their commander graduated sixty-six (66) Filipino American soldiers who earned their basic parachute wings While all this training was going on, more parties were being sent to the Islands. Parties of ten (10) to thirty (30) officers and men were outfitted in Brisbane and flown to Darwin. It was here they boarded submarines. These were the same ones which evacuated President Manuel Quezon and his exiled Commonwealth officers from the guerrilla bands were brought back to Australia to lead some of the parties back to the Islands. There were nine (9) parties sent, the last one (1) in a destroyer. This was the party that raised the American flag on Homonhom Island three (3) days before MacArthur landed on Leyte on October 20, 1944. The eighth and last submarine was sunk without a survivor by our own planes in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the greatest Naval battle in history. The paratroopers who were supposed to be the last and biggest party were never dropped because the invasion was advanced two (2) months ahead of the original MacArthur planned invasion in Mindanao. After the long and dangerous voyage through the Japanese blockade, the submarines landed in guerrilla controlled areas (as depicted in the motion picture Back to Bataan), although in some cases the reception was not quite as pleasant as in the picture. But this was the best part of this mission. After landing, the soldiers became civilians and disguised as fishermen, they fanned out through the length and breadth of the Islands in sail or just plain row boats. In co-operation with the guerrillas, much needed supplies such as medicines, small arms, ammunition, food, cigarettes and that rare wartime commodity called whiskey were disbursed. Later they brought and circulated the I Shall Return magazine and the new and legal Liberty peso bills to further confuse the enemy. The men of the 978th Signal Services Company set up radio stations while the men of the Reconnaissance Company posed as fishermen, farmers, merchants, taxi and caretela drivers. They even worked as mess boys in Japanese officers clubs to include General Yamashitas gathering important information. A few were caught and paid the supreme penalty meted out to spies. This information was sent to guerrilla headquarters in Mindinao which relayed it through Darwin and consecutively to MacArthurs Headquarters in Brisbane. General MacArthur based all gathered military intelligence for the strategy of the invasion. When he returned to Leyte, the 1st Reconnaissance Battalions mission was practically over. But the men didnt stop there. They went on to supply important information which led to decisive battles and engaged in commando tactics, blowing up bridges and ammo dumps. For their splendid accomplishments, the Commandos of the Balaha-Na! Battalion earned General MacArthurs individual and Unit Commendations plus the U.S. Presidential Unit Citation. But curiously enough, it was awarded the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation for its work in the Resistance Movement. Because of the limited space in the submarines (started with three and ended up with one) not all the officers and men saw action in the Philippines. It was for the Korean War to prove the mettle of these well trained but battle untested men. Besides two who were killed, that unexpected war produced four outstanding Bahala-Na! officers, two of them paratroopers - all heroes in their own right. BAHALA NA! - COME WHAT MAY! IN HONOR OF OUR FATHERS! 72ND ANNIVERSARY (1942-2014) !st Reconnaissance Battalion (Special) Heroes of WWII: ** SOUND OFF IF YOU KNOW WHO ANY OF THESE HEROES ARE!!!
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 05:52:34 +0000
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