The Philippine Scouts

[Kampilan]

Link

The Philippine Scouts - U.S. Army

1900 - 1946

The Philippine Scouts (PS) were composed of Filipino's enlisted as members of the regular United States Army. The units were generally officered by Americans and a few Filipino graduates of the U.S.M.A. at West Point. The enlisted men were paid at regular US Army rates. In the Philippines this made them among the better paid people i their home villages. With only a few exceptions the Philippine Scout formations were segregated. By law their service was restricted to the Philippines except in time of war. The first units were raised in company sized units during 1899-1900 to supplement regular American forces suppressing the Philippine War of Independence or the Philipine Insurrection. Following the cessation of substantial hostilities the PS units were grouped into battalions and regiments of Philippine Infantry. In 1919-1920 the regiments were reorganized and redesignated as the 43rd, 45th, and 57th Infantry Regiments (Philippine Scouts), the 24th and 25th Field Artillery Regiments (PS) and later the 26th Cavalry Regiment (PS). Service and support formations were also organized including coast artillery, medical, and quartermaster units as well as an integrated Fil-Am military police company.

Following the creation of the Commonwealth responsibility for internal security devolved to the Philippine Constabulary. One of the few instances of sending i regular troops took place at Jolo, Palawan in the late 1930s. Elements of the US Army's 31st Infantry and PS units were sent to Jolo to support the Constabulary. This was one of the few actual field operations during the interwar years

The Philippine Scouts made up the backbone of the regular American forces in the Philippines prior to World War II. With a pre-war strength of approximately 7,000 men they composed two infantry regiments, one cavalry regiment, two coast artillery regiments, and two field artillery regiments, plus some supporting units of the Philippine Division. All of these formations were considerably under normal war strength throughout most of their existence. This lead to remarkably stable rotsters. For example, in the summer of 1941 the average longevity among the enlisted ranks of the 26th Cavalry was 13 years. Beginning in 1939 expansion began.

Much to the credit of the men involved, when faced with certain death or capture by Japanese forces during the defense of Bataan, remarkably few of them deserted. It would have been very easy for the individual Scouts to have simply shed their uniforms and vanished into the general population.

more at the link :thumb:

[dannybou]

Excellent, thanks for the info!! :thumb:

[RichardS]

Thanks for the great info! I always felt that the Philippino Scouts were one of the great unsung heros of WWII. If I had the money; I'd do a movie on them like Go For Broke did for the Neisei.

Cheers!


:armed:

[Thomas McPeek]

Great:thumb: Thanks for the info

[Stage]

My Grandpa talked about those scouts in a letter home to my Grandmother. I've got a beautiful picture that he took during the war framed in my living room. It's of Manila Bay with the bombed out city all around and hundreds of sailors coming ashore on leave. He said of all the places he wound up during the war, Manila was the most fun. He said it was one of the few places that was civilized.

[Janos]

Originally posted by RichardS
Thanks for the great info! I always felt that the Philippino Scouts were one of the great unsung heros of WWII. If I had the money; I'd do a movie on them like Go For Broke did for the Neisei.

Cheers!


:armed:

The Duke made a good movie featuring the Phil. Scouts, with Anthony Quinn. A lot of Japanese (strange, they look like Mexicans) got killed in that one! He liberates a prison camp but the stars are the Philipinos in the movie!

JS

[RichardS]

Originally posted by Janos
The Duke made a good movie featuring the Phil. Scouts, with Anthony Quinn. A lot of Japanese (strange, they look like Mexicans) got killed in that one! He liberates a prison camp but the stars are the Philipinos in the movie!

JS

Yeah, I know. But I'd want a more honest and real story. Ya know? :Thumb:

Cheers!


:armed:

[Saint Jeremy]

That would be back to bataan. The chick was hot in it as well

[DANJANOU]

It will be interesting to see if the movie version of Ghost Soldiers due out this summer covers that all important contribution of the Filippinos to the Cabatuan raid.

Kampilan

What impressed me the most when I visited the US military cemetary in Makati earlier this year was that on the panels that list the names of the dead and missing those of the Scouts and other Filippinos are intermingled in with their comrades from the US Army, Marines, USN and not seperated and segregated on seperate panels.

That is the way it should be. They fought and fell together as brothers in arms and should rest for eternity together.

[johnbryan]

Originally Posted by DANJANOU

It will be interesting to see if the movie version of Ghost Soldiers due out this summer covers that all important contribution of the Filippinos to the Cabatuan raid.

Kampilan

What impressed me the most when I visited the US military cemetary in Makati earlier this year was that on the panels that list the names of the dead and missing those of the Scouts and other Filippinos are intermingled in with their comrades from the US Army, Marines, USN and not seperated and segregated on seperate panels.

That is the way it should be. They fought and fell together as brothers in arms and should rest for eternity together.

Agreed. Amen and God speed!!

[snake284000]

I may be prejudiced but the Filipinos as a people are some of the greatest people I have ever been around. Most are dirt poor and barely get by, but they have the biggest hearts and don't know much but hard work and fear of God. Some of the most moral and good people I know are Filipinos. You can hear some wild stories about Manila and around the area, but it's no different than any other big city. I have lived around and with them and I love them. I can see why the Philippine Scouts were such good fighters and soldiers. In fact, I loved them so much I ended up marrying one. I made my first visit to Bataan this past September, 2006. My wife is from the island of Negros, so when we go there we spend most of our time there. It's about 300 miles South of Luzon where Manila and Bataan are located, so I just never seemed to have the time to go there. But we spent most of 2006 in the Philippines immigrating my wife's daughter, so I made time to go to Bataan. We drove down to Mariveles and visited the Death March Memorial and as we drove along the Death March route from there to San Fernando I could just imagine what it was like in April, 1942. Next visit we're going up to Capas and O'Donnell and over to Cabanatuan. Anyone who has the time and money to visit the Philippines should go and see for themselves what those guys went through. Anyway, anyone who is still living and knew my uncle, Rudyard K. (Rudy) Grimes, please feel free to reply to me either here or on my email address, <snake284@hotmail.com>
Thanks,
Mike