Shadows In the Jungle (9 page)

Yearning for action, the twenty-year-old Buschur now acted on the bulletin board announcement and volunteered for the Scouts. He was accepted for the ASTC's third class.

The end of the interviews was not the end of the weeding-out process.

William Blaise, who was one of the few men who had joined the army before Pearl Harbor and would become a member of the ASTC's third class, recalled, “The first night they put us in a big tent and gave us cards, checkers, and different games. They said training would start first thing in the morning. The next morning some of the men were sent back already. The staff was looking for loudmouths and bullies, and where else but in a card game could you find loudmouths and bullies? They sent the blowhards back right away. You had to have men who could live and work together. Same way with the officers. You would look at the teams and you wouldn't know who the officers were.”

In the end, less than half of the men interviewed were accepted for training. These soldiers represented a variety of military and ethnic backgrounds, including infantrymen, artillerymen, tankers, paratroopers, signalmen, and engineers. Most were Caucasian, but a number of others were Filipino, Hispanic, and Native Americans from at least twenty tribes, including Chippewa, Navajo, Apache, Choctaw, Sioux, Pawnee, Cherokee, and Seminole. Of the thirty-eight men in the first graduating class on February 5, 1944, nine would be Native Americans.

On the first day of training, the Scout candidates would gather in the screened-in mess hall, seated on hard wooden benches, while Bradshaw addressed them.

“You will certainly agree that this is the nicest all-around camp that you have attended in this theater,” he told the candidates. “It is a good camp because all have worked together to make it so. You are expected to help keep it that way. A part of your training and a thing you will be strictly graded on is the manner in which you conduct yourselves. You may have had the idea that Alamo Scouts is an organization of cutthroats and toughs. We want you to be tough—just as tough as you can make yourselves—but we don't have any place in this organization for a ‘tough.' This type of work does not call for bums and tramps. It calls for the highest qualities of soldiering. Self-discipline is one of the first attributes. Be considerate of your fellow soldiers and of temperate disposition. You will be treated as individuals and as men—gentlemen, if you please. You will be expected to respond in a similar manner.

“Remember, you were not asked to come to this training center. It is our understanding that each and every one of you is a volunteer of his own free will and accord. If there is any one of you who has any reservations, mental or otherwise, make yourself known to the Director of Training and you will be released to return to your organization without any questions.

“You will be closely observed during all of the six weeks you are here. If it is found that you are not mentally, temperamentally, or physically fit and up to the standards required; if it is found that you are not giving it all you have; if it is found that you are not sincerely trying—you will be returned. Time is too precious to waste on those who do not fit. There are no disciplinary problems here. Breaches of discipline are quickly disposed of by returning the violator to his unit.

“The officers of the staff are here with the single thought of furnishing you with their best in the way of training. There is no need for you to have the slightest fear of them. They are ordinary human beings, just as you and I are, and they hope you will consider them as such in your contacts with them. Practically all of us started in the army as privates, including myself. Most of us are civilian soldiers doing the simple job of trying to help our country win a war. If you have any suggestions to offer, any real criticism or complaint or anything else you want to get off your chest, we encourage you to discuss it with a member of the staff; or, if you are hesitant to do that, then simply write a note and drop it in the mailbox in the dayroom. You do not even need to sign it. The relationships here are very informal, based as they are on mutual respect and sincere effort.

“At the conclusion of this class, some of you will be selected as Alamo Scouts and retained to execute such reconnaissance missions as the army commander may desire. The majority of you will be returned to your units, where your training will stand you in good stead and where you will be available to your division, regimental, and battalion commanders for their missions. A few of you will not make the grade for one reason or another. In any event, you will be better soldiers for what you have received here and it is hoped that you always carry with you the tradition and esprit de corps of the ‘Alamo Scouts.'

“Training begins tomorrow. That is all.”

* * *

Bradshaw was as good as his word. At five thirty a.m. the men were roused, and after a breakfast of powdered scrambled eggs, fried corned beef, fresh fruit, such as mangoes, coconuts, and oranges, and coffee, the day began in earnest.

The men were divided into teams consisting of an officer and six to ten men, depending on the ratio of officers to enlisted men. For the most part they would remain together all through training or until attrition, which often ran as high as 40 percent in the first two weeks, made the team too small to function. At that time they might be combined with another dwindling group. On occasion, Scouts were rotated to different teams in order to get to know other men and officers.

One of the first orders of business was to draw equipment: black swimming trunks, jungle first aid packets—which included morphine syrettes, sulfa drugs, a small bandage, water purification tablets, and assorted tropical ointments—weapons, compass, binoculars, machete, pistol belt, poncho, cartridge pouch, canteen, and trench knife.

The standard uniform was an olive green herringbone or two-piece camouflage fatigues with soft cap and high quarter hobnail shoes with optional leggings. Rank insignia was worn during training but was not to be worn in action. Officers' bars were an invitation for an enemy bullet in the field.

The teams, on average, were equipped with two pairs of binoculars, two map cases, two compasses, and two canteens per man. Each man carried a personal knife (no machetes) and one hundred rounds of ammo—which was found to be too much and was cut back—four flares, two Handi-Talkie radios, and a rubber boat, complete with CO2 capsule, although some also relied on hand pumps.

A physical examination was next, after which the men were led to the dock area.

“You now have some free swimming time,” they were told. “Controlled swimming starts tomorrow. Jump in and have fun.”

The men did, but soon learned that nothing in the Scouts would be “free.” The water was deep, twenty-eight feet, which meant the men had to paddle around. Those who tired before the “free swim” was over and had to get out or be pulled out were shipped back to their units.

Controlled swimming meant that the men had to paddle from the dock to a point about half a mile out and back. Sometimes they were taken a mile or more out and dumped over the side and told to swim.

“Chow will be ready when you get in,” the instructor barked.

On occasion, the men had to swim carrying gear, the rationale being that their boat might capsize and they would have to save their equipment. Another drill involved swimming out to a waiting boat, where they would find their gear. There, they had to put it on, while still in the water, and swim back. Sometimes strings were stretched out across the water, and when a man came to one, he had to swim under it.

Lt. Robert “Red” Sumner recalled his first day of training when he and his team, fully dressed, were taken half a mile out into the bay on an LCVP landing craft. Then, by the half-mile buoy, the ramp was lowered and they were told to get off.

“I gathered my squad and off the ramp we went, jump or dive, and about twenty minutes later we were on the beach, somewhat tired but none the worse,” he wrote years later. “From this point on, we were off and running for our six weeks.”

One especially memorable, and frightening, drill was on how to avoid enemy fire while in the water. As the swimmers approached a boat or a pier, an instructor stood, brandishing a Tommy gun.

“Duck,” he would yell, and the men went down as fast and deep as they could, moving left or right as they dove, for an instant later, the water where their heads had been was peppered with submachine-gun fire.

Teeples recalled one drill where the men dove into the water on one side of the pier, then swam underwater around the front of the pier, to the other side, a distance of sixty or seventy feet.

Littlefield recalled the intense training and how easy it was for a man to get booted out of the ASTC. His tent mate, for example, was a “helluva fine soldier,” Littlefield recalled, who was sent back to his unit because he snored loudly, which would never do for someone behind enemy lines.

Bob Buschur worried. He was not a great swimmer, and swimming was an important part of Scout training. During his first time swimming out to the rubber boat, he recalled reaching it and placing his hands on the boat to rest. An instructor on board the boat stepped on Buschur's fingers, forcing the young man to let go.

“You came out here to swim and practice diving, not to rest,” he was gruffly told.

By far, the most physically demanding and dangerous part of the water training was learning to handle the ungainly rubber boats. Ten hours a week were devoted to this, including rowing the boats through the hazardous coral spray on the windward side of a cove at Hollandia. To practice nighttime navigation, two men would row a mile out, pick out a landmark on the shore, and fix a compass reading on the mark. Then they were required to cover their heads with a poncho and, using just the compass, row to shore in an attempt to land as close as possible to the mark.

During the first day of training, each team was issued a six- or ten-man rubber boat with oars. Their instructors, Lieutenants Beckworth, Frederick A. Sukup, Daily P. Gambill, and Henry R. Chalko, taught them how to inflate the craft with lung power, pumps, and CO
₂
cartridges, how to board and launch them from PT boats and J-boats, and how to maneuver and land in rough surf. They also learned how to conceal and recover boats once onshore.

The men drilled in daylight and at night. The drills were often dangerous and, on one occasion, deadly. At Tami Beach near Hollandia, a rubber boat capsized and two Scout candidates drowned. They would prove to be the unit's only fatalities in two years of active duty.

* * *

Onshore, training included communications skills in Morse code and radio. Every Scout candidate underwent this training in case the team's appointed radioman was killed or wounded. They were also taught the use of the blinker light and had to be able to send ten words per minute. The Scouts were trained on the SCR-288 walkie-talkie; the SCR-300 radio, which was carried on a man's back; and the SCR-694 radio, which was powered by a hand-cranked electrical generator, and which, with its greater range, came in handy later in the war during extended missions in the Philippines, when the men were living and moving with the guerrilla bands. They also learned to use the Australian ATR-4 radio.

But sometimes communication would involve dealing with natives and the enemy verbally, so members of the Netherlands East Indies Administration taught the men Melanesian pidgin English, a language developed through interisland trade that blended native words with English. The Scouts would not be fluent in the language, but would at least know how to ask for food, water, and inquire about the location of the enemy troops. In the Philippines, pidgin English was replaced by Tagalog. The Scouts were also taught basic Japanese, particularly key military words they might overhear.

Courses taught included map reading, the use of the compass and how to find one's way through unfamiliar terrain, how to read latitude and longitude to call in airdrops or guide boats in to shore. They learned how to recognize rivers, valleys, and mountains.

For intelligence-gathering skills, the men were schooled in how to plan missions, including how many men to take, how much food and ammo would be needed, the types of weapons best suited, and the length of the mission. They attended classes on Japanese order of battle and how to handle prisoners. They sketched coastlines, beaches, and other terrain features, to clear the way for invasions, and learned to analyze beach gradients, tides, reefs, vegetation, fresh water sources, soil and sand composition, roads and trails.

Classes were also held on how to evaluate enemy morale, physical condition, defenses, both fixed and mobile installations, bivouac areas, bridges, roads, ammo dumps, airfields, lines of communication, and other targets of opportunity.

“When, where, what, why, who covers everything you need to find out on an intelligence operation,” Bradshaw told them. “Never forget that and never vary the order.”

Methods of concealment were taught, ways to protect themselves by the use of grease paint, mud, grass, and other ways of blending in.

To survive in the harsh environment of the jungle, the men learned basic reconnaissance and patrolling skills, including escape and evasive techniques, taught by Australian 1st Lt. Raymond “Moose” Watson, on detached duty from the Australian New Guinea Administration Police. Earlier in the war, deep behind enemy lines, Watson and another soldier, along with two native police officers, somewhat derogatorily called “police boys,” had trekked across northern New Guinea, including unexplored regions, to observe enemy shipping. The Japanese jumped them, and though they escaped, they lost all of their weapons and supplies. The police boys helped the white men to survive by showing them the ways of the jungle.

Now he was teaching the Scouts those same survival techniques and jungle skills, including tracking, which beetles and grubs were edible, and how to tap drinkable water from certain vines.