US Army Philippine Scouts
The United States Army Philippine Scouts were a military organization in the Philippine Department of the US Army created in 1901. These troops were generally FIilipinos and Filipino-Americans assigned to the US Army Philippine Department and generally led by Caucasian American commissioned officers. There were also some Filipino Americans who received commissions from West Point.
They were disbanded in 1948 by the Republic of the Philippines after their country's independence after World War II. The Filipino soldiers in these regiments were granted U. S. citizenship if they wished to continue their service in the US Army. They would continue to serve the US in other conflicts of the 20th century such as the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
Notable Events and Persons - The Outbreak of WW II
The Philippine Scouts were elite, professional soldiers. Per Army Colonel John Olson of the 57th Infantry Regiment (PS) the Scouts were "notorious shots" whose expert marksmanship would earn them the enmity of the Japanese invaders in the jungles of Bataan. Survivors of the Battle of Bataan would describe the Philippine Scouts as the backbone of the American Defense there.
The first Asian Medal of Honor was awarded to Jose B Nisperos in February 1913. A member of the US Army's 34th Company (PS) his award were due to his actions on September 24, 1911. While badly wounded with a broken and lacerated left arm he continued to fire his rifle with one arm, repulsing the enemy and preventing the annihilation of his unit.
President Franklin Roosevelt awarded the U.S. Army’s first three Medals of Honor of World War II to Philippine Scouts: to Sergeant Jose Calugas for action at Culis, Bataan on January 6, 1942, to Lieutenant Alexander R. Nininger for action near Abucay, Bataan on January 12, and to Lieutenant Willibald C. Bianchi for action near Bagac, Bataan on February 3, 1942. Of the three only Calugas would survive the war. Nininger would die in the action that earned him his Medal of Honor and Bianchi would die on January 9, 1945 being transported in an unmarked Japanese prison ship ("Hellship").
The 26th Cavalry Regiment (PS) also carried out the last recorded cavalry charge in US Army history. First lieutenant Edwin P Ramsey was commanding a 27-man, mostly Filipino G Troop of the 26th (PS) when they encountered the enemy in the village of Morong on the Bataan peninsula on January 16, 1942. Despite being heavily outnumbered by an infantry force supported by tanks, Ramsey ordered the last cavalry charge in American military history. The surprised Japanese broke and fled. Ramsey and his men held their position for five hours under heavy fire, until reinforcements could be brought up. He would later be awarded the Silver Star and the Purple Heart for this action.
Breakdown of Philippine Scout units at the Outbreak of WW II
The following is a breakdown of Philippine Scout Units at the outbreak of World War II for the United States in the US Armed Forces - Far East (USAFFE).
Note that Philippine Scout units were given a suffix of "(PS)" to distinguish them from other US Army units. Historically the "Scouts" designation were given to units of indigenous troops in the US Military (e.g. Apache Scouts, Navajo Scouts).
- 26th Cavalry Regiment (PS)
- 43rd Infantry Regiment (PS)
- 45th Infantry Regiment (PS)
- 57th Infantry Regiment (PS)
In the Destroyermen Series
Among the surviving Prisoners of War on the Hellship MIzuki Maru were Filipino servicemen of the Philippine Scouts. One of them is Captain Enrico Galay. Per his Destroyermen Wiki entry: Brevet Captain Enrico Galay [is] a Corporal in the [US Army] Philippine Scouts. Later he is a Lieutenant with Chack-Sab-At.
Based on what has already been published there are other Filipinos who are Philippine Scouts among the survivors. Captain Reddy mentions that he's glad that his Filipino steward, Juan Marcos, is no longer the lone Filipino on the alternate world.
Timeline of Events prior to Transition
In the timeline of the Fall of the Philippines, Bataan fell on April 9, 1942. General King surrendered the remainder of US troops on the peninsula. The order was given that Philippine Scout regiments evacuate to Corregidor. With the chaos of the evacuation, the regiments would not get out in time. While some Philippine Scouts did evacuate to Corregidor, the majority of them would be forced to endure the Bataan Death March.
A total of 70,000 men became Prisoners of War: about 16,000 Americans and 54,000 Filipinos. Japanese soldiers marched the emaciated Scouts, American soldiers, and Philippine Army men sixty-five miles up the Bataan Peninsula's East Road on the notorious "March of Death," the Bataan Death March. During the March, Japanese guards shot or bayoneted between 7,000 and 10,000 men who fell, attempted to escape, or just stopped to quench their thirst at roadside spigots or puddles. They also beat and sometimes killed Filipino civilians who attempted to give food and water to the POWs, and at times flashed the "V" for "Victory" hand-gesture to the defeated soldiers along the length of the Death March.
The March ended at the railroad head in San Fernando, Pampanga province. There the POWs were forced into overcrowded "40 and 10" railroad cars, which only had enough room for them to sit down in shifts on the final leg of the trip to Capas, Tarlac province. At Capas they were herded into Camp O'Donnell, a former Philippine Army training camp, which was to be their prison camp.
At Camp O'Donnell the Japanese crammed all 60,000 survivors into a Philippine Army camp designed to accommodate 10,000 men. There, the Japanese commander greeted each new group of arrivals with the discouraging "Goddamn you to Hell" speech in his native language, and assured the men that they were "captives," not Prisoners of War, and would be treated as such. There was little running water, sparse food, no medical care, and only slit trenches for sanitation. The heat was intolerable, flies rose out of the latrines and covered the prisoner's food, and malaria, dysentery, beriberi and a host of other diseases swept through the crowds of men. They began to die at the rate of four hundred per day.
From September through December 1942, the Japanese gradually paroled the surviving Philippine Scouts and other Filipino soldiers to their families and to the mayors of their hometowns. But by the time Camp O'Donnell closed in January 1943, after eight months of operation, 26,000 of the 50,000 Filipino Prisoners of War had died there.
The Japanese transferred the American prisoners to Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija province, where conditions were only marginally better. But as U.S. forces pulled closer to the Philippines in 1944, they evacuated the healthiest American prisoners to Japan and Manchuria, for use as slave laborers. Thousands of men were crammed into the dark holds of cargo ships so tightly that they could not sit or lay down. Again, food and water were scarce, sanitary facilities were non-existent, and the heat in the closed holds of the ships was unbearable. Men suffocated to death standing up. The Japanese ships were unmarked and some of them were torpedoed by American submarines. More of the men died of malnutrition and exposure in the work camps. By the time Japan surrendered and the U.S. and Filipino Army liberated the Bataan Prisoners of War, two-thirds of the American prisoners had died in Japanese custody.
Presence In the Destroyermen Timeline
There are some common possibilities for the presence of FIlipino POW's, like the Scouts, on the Hellships.
It is possible that the Scouts did not have someone to vouch for them when they were being paroled from the prison camps. Family members or hometown mayors and leaders may have been unable, or possibly unwilling, to vouch for the Scouts in the custody of the Imperial Japanese. In some cases their families may have died during the battle for the Philippines or in the aftermath. It's also possible that they might have been too ill to be released, as the prisoners were required to be able to walk out on their own.
The Scouts still not seen in the story may come from a variety of military specialties. There were Filipino engineers, artillerymen and horse cavalrymen for example.