2RHPZ
06-28-2004, 03:43 AM
The Bushmasters: Arizona's Fighting Guardsmen
Over a 102-year period, the Bushmasters fought Apache Indians in the desert,
Spaniards at San Juan Hill, Germans along the Meuse and Japanese in the jungle.
By Joe Patrick
The 158th Regimental Combat Team, the Arizona National Guard unit that gained
fame in World War II as the "Bushmasters" of the South Pacific, had an
inauspicious and downright ragtag birth. The outfit's direct ancestor was a
loose collection of five companies that were formed to defend Arizona Territory
from marauding Apache Indians. The first such unit, Company E, was organized in
the southern Arizona town of Tubac on September 2, 1865, but government red tape
caused a two-month delay before the unit was mustered into service. Lack of
supplies, sickness and desertion plagued the unit. Its commander, Captain Hiram
S. Washburn, complained in a letter to higher authority that "things continued
till very soon the sickly and ragged condition of Company E made them the
laughing stock of their countrymen far and near." Finally, on October 29, a
small amount of clothing was issued to the 97 men of the unit, which was then
officially sworn into service at Tubac as Company E, Arizona Volunteers.
Elsewhere in the territory, frontiersman John D. Walker raised Company C,
Arizona Volunteers, at Maricopa Wells, a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail
Company's stagecoach line to California, some 50 miles south of Phoenix. Company
C was made up entirely of Pima Indians whose chief, Antonio Azul, was also, not
coincidentally, their first sergeant, later rising to the commissioned rank of
first lieutenant. It is suspected that the traditional Pima enmity with the
Apache was the key factor in their enlistment. On April 5, 1866, Captain Walker
wrote Arizona Territorial Adjutant General William Garvin that his company--with
260 additional Pima volunteers--had raided an Apache camp on March 31. He
claimed victory, Company C having killed 25 Apache and taken 16 prisoners and
eight war ponies for the loss of three wounded, one of whom died the following
day.
200-Mile Trek
Soon after Company E's volunteers were sworn in, they were ordered to the
territorial capital of Prescott, to commence operations against the Tonto Apache.
The company started the more than 200-mile trek to Prescott with one-third of
its men sick and only enough horse and wagon transport for the luggage--even the
sick volunteers had to walk.
From Prescott, the company was ordered to proceed to Camp Lincoln--later renamed
Camp Verde--and battled hostile Apache in the Lake Montezuma area of northern
Arizona Territory. Logistic support continued to leave much to be desired.
Resupply of shoes, for example, was so bad that the troops had to make their own
moccasins. Nevertheless, when their year of service ended, the Arizona
Volunteers were mustered out with commendations from both the Regular Army and
the territorial Legislature.
In July 1866, Territorial Secretary James McCormick wrote the U.S. secretary of
war requesting that the Arizona Volunteers be kept on active duty, and that he
have the authority to recruit a full regiment. His letter was answered by U.S.
Army General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant: "I know of no law under which this
regiment should be raised, and special legislation would be necessary for its
equipment, subsistence and payment."
Toward a State Militia
The next 15 years were underscored by continued fighting with hostile Apache,
led by such ruthless and cunning chieftains as Cochise, Victorio, Nana and
Geronimo. Many Arizona communities formed their own organizations to defend
themselves against the depredations of the deadliest mounted guerrilla raiders
in the world. Finally, in 1877, the territorial Legislature authorized the
organization of a state militia and appropriated $10,000 for its use.
Several of Arizona's larger communities contributed to the formation of the 1st
Arizona Infantry Regiment. Prescott led the way by organizing local troops into
a company known initially as the Mulligan Guards, but which was later renamed
the Prescott Grays. Their commander was Captain William Owen "Buckey" O'Neill.
Two of O'Neill's junior officers were Baron and Morris Goldwater, the father and
uncle, respectively, of future U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater.
Hostile Indians did not represent the only threat the 1st Arizona Infantry
Regiment faced. On February 4, 1886, for example, Dennis W. Dilda was convicted
of murder. Like all such executions, his hanging was to be held in public, and O'Neill's
Prescott Grays were called to form a square around the gallows, to guard against
the possibility that members of Dilda's gang would try to free him.
After a last meal that included steak, chicken, oysters, lamb chops, potatoes,
cake, coffee, bread and jelly, Dilda walked up the 13 steps to his final
rendezvous with the hangman. Just as the sheriff pulled the trap-door release, O'Neill
raised his saber and commanded, "Present arms!" Then, as Dilda plummeted to his
final reward, the company commander passed out and fell off his horse.
Bulking Up The Rough Riders
In 1894, General Edward Schwartz increased the strength of the 1st Arizona
Infantry to 12 companies. The regiment was not called into service when the
Spanish-American War broke out four years later, but 127 of its personnel
enlisted in Colonel Leonard Wood's 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, better
known as the "Rough Riders." Among the 10 officers who volunteered to go to Cuba
were Colonel Alexander Brodie, Captain James McClintock and Captain O'Neill.
By July 1898, Wood had relieved an ailing Brig. Gen. S.B.M. Young as commander
of the 2nd Brigade, and command of the Rough Riders had passed to Lt. Col.
Theodore Roosevelt. On July 1, Buckey O'Neill, who had said, "The Spanish bullet
was never molded that would hit me," died instantly when a stray Spanish bullet
struck him in the head before the Rough Riders' charge up Kettle Hill.
During the period of peace following the Spanish-American War, a member of the 1st
Arizona Infantry, Captain Charles W. Harris, designed a flag for his fellow
National Guardsmen to carry to the National Rifle Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio,
in 1911. Nan Hayden, wife of Arizona Senator Carl Hayden, sewed the flag that
would be adopted as the official Arizona state banner in 1916.
War again loomed on March 9, 1916, when Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa
crossed the border and raided the town of Columbus, N.M. In the wake of that
surprise attack, the 1st Arizona Infantry became part of 150,000 National
Guardsmen who were called to active duty for one year, patrolling the border
against further Villista incursions.
WWI Service
On April 8, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany and officially
entered World War I. On August 5, the 1st Arizona Infantry was drafted into
federal service and was redesignated the 158th Infantry Regiment of the 40th
Division. Led in France by Colonel E.P. Grimstead, the regiment served in the
final battles of the war, most notably the Meuse-Argonne campaign from September
to November 1918. After the armistice was signed on November 11, the 158th was
chosen to serve as the honor guard for President Woodrow Wilson at the Paris
Peace Conference.
Upon its return to the United States, the 158th was reassigned to the 45th
Division, but the years of peace were not to pass without notoriety for the
Arizonans. The first trouble came in early April 1924, with a newspaper headline
in the Yuma Sun: "Bridges at Yuma [Arizona] and Needles [California] and the
ferry at Ehrenberg [Arizona] were closed to east-bound travelers. 1,600
motorists being held at Needles by ban."
According to the Yuma Historical Society records, "all this was happening
because the hoof and mouth disease (anthrax), fatal to all livestock and even
man, was brought to Mare Island shipyard in San Francisco Bay on ships from the
Orient the previous year." To contain the deadly disease, most dreaded by
cattlemen, all 36 states immediately imposed quarantines. As part of Arizona's
role in the quarantine, authorities placed a hay wagon and makeshift barricade
in the middle of the bridge crossing the Colorado River, separating Yuma from
Imperial County, Calif.
Soon afterward, Imperial County District Attorney Ernest Utley, with his
secretary, Clara Feustle, and Sheriff Charles Gilette, drove out to the
barricades. A deplorable sight awaited them, in the form of a colossal backload
of stranded motorists. Sanitation facilities simply did not exist. Men sported
several days' growth of beard. Women were sleeping in the back seats of cars, or
even on the bare ground. One pregnant woman had a miscarriage. Children suffered
from blistered feet and severe sunburn. Migrants at Pilot Knob had water only
because a Southern Pacific Railroad engineer dropped off a tank car. Later, the
sympathetic railroader also picked up a load of milk for them in Mecca, Calif.
Lock-and-Load Quarantine
Troops of the 158th Infantry arrived the following day. The first thing the
guardsmen did was to construct a heavy barn-door-like gate in the middle of the
bridge, in front of which they installed a sandbagged machine-gun nest, with a .30-caliber
Browning water-cooled gun. Soldiers of the 158th patrolled the Yuma side of the
bridge 24 hours a day. Occasionally, they would fire a machine-gun burst into
the muddy waters of the Colorado, just to demonstrate to anyone thinking of
jumping the state border that there were real rounds, not blanks, in the gun.
The Arizona veterinarian in charge of the quarantine, Dr. E.L. Stam, designated
five crossing points in his state. At each of them all males, young and old,
went through a disinfectant bath, assisted by guardsmen of the 158th. Selected
ladies from Yuma helped the women to disrobe for their obligatory passage
through the bath. There was one case of a train traveler who locked herself in a
passenger car bathroom rather than be "dipped," but for the most part the
operation proceeded steadily, and the danger of an epidemic was averted.
Guardsmen remained on duty in Yuma until May 20. Corporal Claude Wells of Casa
Grande remembered that the high points of his Yuma experience were the daily
visits of a farm girl from the California side, bearing strawberry shortcake and
cold milk for the troops. For Wells, "it was a lark."
Fight California!
In 1934, while President Franklin D. Roosevelt continued to battle the Great
Depression in America and Chancellor-elect Adolf Hitler was consolidating his
dictatorial powers in Germany, parts of the 158th Infantry Regiment were being
activated again--to defend Arizona against incursions from California.
In mid-March 1934, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District decided (with U.S.
federal approval) to build a dam on the upper part of the Colorado River.
Arizona authorities, however, decided that while the "grape pickers" from
California were welcome to build such a dam in their river, they could not
anchor it on Arizona soil.
Billeted in Parker, men of the 158th installed machine-gun nests and walked
patrols along the eastern side of the Colorado, keeping California workers at
bay for eight months. Ultimately, the "California-Arizona War" went all the way
to the U.S. Supreme Court, whose ruling stated in essence that Arizona simply
could not hold up work on California's dam at gunpoint. Finally, on November 11,
the 158th was deactivated. The fact that that date was World War I Armistice Day
was not lost on the guardsmen as they prepared to return home from their latest
bloodless "war."
Prison Guards
By the mid-1930s, the Arizona State Prison had become a bad national joke.
Prison inmates came and went virtually at will. Escapes were reported daily. In
1938, the National Guardsmen of the 158th were called up for prison duty, and
from July to October they walked the walls and manned the guard towers of the
state prison in Florence. Not a single escape occurred while they were there.
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. By the end of June 1940, France
had fallen to the Germans as well. Although the United States remained
officially neutral in the growing conflict, President Roosevelt ordered all
units of the Arizona National Guard to active federal duty on September 16, 1940.
After hard training at Fort Sill, Okla., and Camp Barkley, Texas, the 158th was
detached from the 45th Division as a "stand alone" unit. Authorized to add units
as needed in order to operate independent of divisional support, if necessary,
the 158th Infantry was later redesignated the 158th Regimental Combat Team (RCT).
Earning the Nickname
On December 7, 1941, officers of the 158th called their men to formation and
told them that a place called Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, had been bombed by the
Japanese and that the unit had orders to move out for its fourth war. By January
2, 1942, the 158th RCT, moving under secret orders, was in the Panama Canal Zone
to guard all parts of the vital canal against sabotage. That mission involved
constant training in the art of jungle warfare. It was in Panama that the 158th
acquired its nickname of "Bushmasters" from a deadly snake that inhabited the
jungles there. The RCT's insignia became a snake coiled around a machete, and
its motto was the Spanish word cuidado ("take care")--a reference to avoiding
the snakes and also an admonition to enemy soldiers who would later encounter
the unit's troops.
The 158th stayed in Panama exactly one year. Then the unit was summoned--by name--to
help General Douglas MacArthur in his campaign to return to the Philippines. On
January 2, 1943, the Bushmasters walked up the gangplanks of transports and
headed for the southwestern Pacific. January 16 saw them encamped at the Coomben
Racetrack at Brisbane, Australia.
In March, the 158th was moved to Port Moresby on the island of New Guinea, where
the 32nd and 45th divisions of Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger's Sixth Army had already
defeated the Japanese at Buna, Gona, Lae and Sanananda. At Milne Bay, on New
Guinea, the 2nd Battalion of the 158th (2/158) was assigned the task of acting
as the security force around Krueger's Sixth Army headquarters.
Some of the Bushmasters were depressed; it seemed to them as if they would never
see real combat. But that was about to change. On December 12, the 2nd Battalion
was designated the reserve element for the upcoming invasion of New Britain
Island.
Jungle Combat
On December 15, 1943, U.S. Army troops under the command of Brig. Gen. Julian W.
Cunningham landed at Arawe on New Britain. On December 21, with Japanese
resistance stiffening and with growing evidence of enemy preparations to
counterattack, Cunningham called for reserves. Accordingly, on Christmas Day,
the pride of Safford, Ariz.--Company G of the 158th--was shipped to Arawe to
support the Texans of the 112th Cavalry Regiment. At about that same time,
Company B was leaving Milne Bay aboard a slow Sydney Harbor ferry boat, bound
for Finschhafen. From there, three PT-boats escorted the company to Cape Merkus
Peninsula, where it, too, landed at Arawe. They were joined a short time later
by the rest of 2nd Battalion, under the command of Lt. Col. Fred Stofft of
Tuscon, who would later be adjutant general of Arizona.
After several weeks of heavy fighting, Cunningham launched an offensive on
January 16, 1944, employing the 158th RCT, the 112th Cavalry and the 1st Marine
Division's 1st Tank Battalion. Later that same day, reports came in that the
Japanese were withdrawing.
At Gilnit on February 20, Cunningham's troops made contact with Marines who had
landed at Cape Gloucester. New Britain had been secured. At the same time, the
Japanese air and naval base at Rabaul to the east was effectively neutralized,
eliminating a longtime threat to Australia and to the flanks of the Allied
forces as they advanced along the northern coast of New Guinea.
Replacing the losses suffered on the Arawe Peninsula, the 2/158 was refitted at
Finschhafen. The 1st and 3rd battalions, brought in from Woodlark and Kiriwina
islands, were subsequently reunited with the 2nd, bringing the RCT up to full
strength.
Task Force Tornado
After a short rest period, the 158th was combined with the South Dakota 147th
Field Artillery to create Task Force Tornado. That force was sent to relieve the
163rd RCT of the 41st Division, which had invaded and taken Wakde Island on May
18, and was now engaged in a grueling drive to take Sarmi on the mainland of
Dutch New Guinea. The 158th disembarked at Toem on May 21.
Under the command of Brig. Gen. Edwin D. Patrick, Task Force Tornado unwittingly
advanced into a trap. Initially surprised by the American landing at Wakde,
Japanese Lt. Gen. Hachiro Tagami had recalled the scattered elements of his 36th
"Tiger" Division and amassed a force of 11,000 troops. Only half of them were
combat troops, but those combat troops included first-rate army soldiers and
members of the Naval Guard detachments--well-trained, 6-foot-tall Japanese who
were often mistakenly referred to as marines by Americans. Tagami planned to
encircle Task Force Tornado with two pincers that would meet at the Toem-Arara
beachhead. With their headquarters and supply dumps overrun, the Americans would
be stranded in the jungle.
On the morning of May 23, the 158th crossed the Tor River and advanced on the
Maffin airstrip--only to be stopped by the Japanese. On the following day, the 3rd
Battalion of the 224th Infantry and a company of the 223rd Infantry launched a
banzai charge against the dug-in Bushmasters, but the Japanese were repulsed
with heavy losses. The 158th resumed its advance on May 25, and by that evening
their toughest objective lay before them--a coral ridgeline whose rain forest
was dominated by a single towering tree that earned it the misleading name of
Lone Tree Hill.
Over the next several days, the 158th made agonizingly slow progress,
occasionally capturing a foothold, sometimes pulling back to avoid being caught
in one of Tagami's flanking maneuvers, sometimes beating back the Japanese
attacks. Under pressure from an impatient MacArthur, Patrick visited the command
post of the 158th's commander, Colonel Prugh "Pop" Herndon, along the Snaky
River. Dissatisfied with the situation, he replaced Herndon with a Regular Army
man, Colonel Earl D. "Bulldog" Sandlin. Herndon, who had been with the regiment
for 22 years and commanded it for 12, wept as he said goodbye to his beloved
Bushmasters.
Repulsing the Attack
With the 1st and 2nd battalions of 163rd RCT withdrawn for MacArthur's planned
invasion of Biak (leaving only the 3/163 at Wakde-Sarmi), Patrick pulled the 1/158
back to guard the Toem-Arara beachhead. His prudence paid off, as Tagami's two
pincers closed around the rear area. Thanks in part to poor coordination by the
two Japanese elements and partly to the dogged courage of the defenders, the
Japanese attack, launched on May 30, was a failure.
On June 5, components of the 6th Infantry Division arrived at Arara, freeing the
1/158 to join the other two battalions in their continuing efforts to take Lone
Tree Hill. Finally, on June 15, the 20th Infantry relieved the 158th. It would
take the 6th Division weeks of bitter fighting to finally wrest Lone Tree Hill
from Tagami's Tiger Division. By the time they succeeded, the Americans had
incurred about 2,000 casualties overall. The Bushmasters suffered 70 dead, 257
wounded and 4 missing. Known enemy losses during that same period were 3,870
killed and 15 taken prisoner. Although still formidable on the defensive, the
Japanese 36th Division was no longer an effective offensive force in New Guinea.
The surviving division members ultimately withdrew to Tagami's peninsular
headquarters at Sarmi, where they remained isolated for the rest of the war.
One of the 158th RCT's finest hours was the invasion of Noemfoor Island. Again
teamed up with the 147th Field Artillery, and given excellent air support by the
U.S. Fifth Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force, the 158th hit the
beaches on July 2 and quickly overran its primary objective, the Kamiri airfield.
While reinforcements arrived by parachute, the 158th pushed on to take the
Kornasoren airfield on July 4. On July 5, organized resistance on the island was
broken when a battalion of the 158th, advancing southwest from Kamiri, smashed
an enemy counterattack. The Japanese airfields were poor, but Army engineers,
aided by the Bushmasters, developed a runway and facilities suitable for four-engine
bombers, to support further island-hopping by MacArthur.
Luzon Campaign
The 158th's greatest campaign still lay ahead. At midnight on January 10, 1945,
the 158th RCT, now commanded by Brig. Gen. Hanford "Jack" MacNider and attached
to Maj. Gen. Leonard F. Wing's 43rd Division, entered Lingayen Gulf and landed
on the Philippine island of Luzon. Among the first dangers the Bushmasters
encountered was a 320mm howitzer with a 16-foot barrel that the Japanese had
mounted on railroad tracks, firing on the beachhead from a dug-in position
between the towns of Damortis and Rosario. The big gun was so well camouflaged
that aircraft could not find it.
The 158th pushed inland to take Routes 3 and 11 near the DamortisRosario road.
At 3:15 p.m. on January 12, an American patrol entered the town of Damortis and
captured four enemy fieldpieces and 150 tons of ammunition. Unknown to the
Bushmasters, however, they were only six miles from the headquarters of Lt. Gen.
Tomoyuki Yama****a, commander of the Japanese Fourteenth Area Army. As the
Bushmasters advanced through a narrow defile, they came under a massive
artillery barrage that littered the road with casualties in a matter of minutes.
Thereafter, that day was known to the Bushmasters as "Bloody Sunday," and the
nearby town was known as "Rigor Damortis."
As fighting continued, another noteworthy Bushmaster exploit took place at
Cataguintingan. There, Company G, led by Captain Bayard W. Hart, a Cherokee
Indian, found the camouflaged lair of the giant howitzer that had been shelling
the Lingayen beachhead. The gun was duly captured and 164 of its defenders
killed for the loss of only one Bushmaster wounded. Company G was issued a
Presidential Unit Citation for that feat.
Despite stubborn resistance from Yama****a's troops, the 158th, with the
assistance of 29 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers of Marine squadron VMSB-241,
finally secured its objectives. The commander of the 158th, General MacNider,
later wrote of their efforts: "To be able to say in years to come that you
fought along the Damortis Rosario Line with the 158th Regimental Combat Team
will give you a proud and well-earned distinction."
Opening the Batangas
March 12 found the Bushmasters and part of the 11th Airborne Division involved
in fierce fighting on the Batangas Peninsula that helped open Balayan Bay and
Batangas Bay to American shipping. The 158th lost 45 men securing the peninsula,
but the Japanese lost 781.
April 1, 1945, was marked by two more D-days, as U.S. Marines landed on Okinawa
and the 158th RCT invaded the Bicol Peninsula on southern Luzon. Despite sniper
fire, the Bushmasters advanced 500 miles inland before they encountered their
first roadblock. Twenty minutes after coming ashore, the troops reported that
the beachhead was secure, and General MacNider came ashore to take charge.
Legaspi fell to the Bushmasters on that same day. The heaviest fighting took
place farther inland on April 3, but after a series of sharp engagements,
Japanese opposition collapsed, and mopping up operations were quickly completed
after April 4. When it was finally withdrawn from Luzon, the 158th's casualties
totaled 226 killed, 1,046 wounded and 20 missing.
The 158th RCT was scheduled to spearhead the invasion of the Japanese home
islands, but the atomic bomb strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki compelled the
Japanese to surrender on August 14, 1945. With the great odyssey over, the 158th
was deactivated at Utsunomiya, Japan, on January 17, 1946.
Infantry to Transportation
In the decade after World War II, millions of dollars were spent to modernize
the Army National Guard. The 158th Regiment went through reorganization twice to
achieve that goal. Finally, on December 3, 1967, the 158th Infantry, with battle
streamers waving, formed for the last time to hear General Orders No. 75,
converting the fine old regiment into military police and truck transportation
units.
During its 102 years as an infantry unit, about 300,000 men are believed to have
served in the 158th. The Bushmasters' battle honors are on display at the
Headquarters Detachment of the 158th Military Police Battalion in Tucson.
Joe Patrick writes from Tombstone, Ariz. For further reading, try Bushmasters:
America's Jungle Warriors, by Anthony Arthur.
Over a 102-year period, the Bushmasters fought Apache Indians in the desert,
Spaniards at San Juan Hill, Germans along the Meuse and Japanese in the jungle.
By Joe Patrick
The 158th Regimental Combat Team, the Arizona National Guard unit that gained
fame in World War II as the "Bushmasters" of the South Pacific, had an
inauspicious and downright ragtag birth. The outfit's direct ancestor was a
loose collection of five companies that were formed to defend Arizona Territory
from marauding Apache Indians. The first such unit, Company E, was organized in
the southern Arizona town of Tubac on September 2, 1865, but government red tape
caused a two-month delay before the unit was mustered into service. Lack of
supplies, sickness and desertion plagued the unit. Its commander, Captain Hiram
S. Washburn, complained in a letter to higher authority that "things continued
till very soon the sickly and ragged condition of Company E made them the
laughing stock of their countrymen far and near." Finally, on October 29, a
small amount of clothing was issued to the 97 men of the unit, which was then
officially sworn into service at Tubac as Company E, Arizona Volunteers.
Elsewhere in the territory, frontiersman John D. Walker raised Company C,
Arizona Volunteers, at Maricopa Wells, a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail
Company's stagecoach line to California, some 50 miles south of Phoenix. Company
C was made up entirely of Pima Indians whose chief, Antonio Azul, was also, not
coincidentally, their first sergeant, later rising to the commissioned rank of
first lieutenant. It is suspected that the traditional Pima enmity with the
Apache was the key factor in their enlistment. On April 5, 1866, Captain Walker
wrote Arizona Territorial Adjutant General William Garvin that his company--with
260 additional Pima volunteers--had raided an Apache camp on March 31. He
claimed victory, Company C having killed 25 Apache and taken 16 prisoners and
eight war ponies for the loss of three wounded, one of whom died the following
day.
200-Mile Trek
Soon after Company E's volunteers were sworn in, they were ordered to the
territorial capital of Prescott, to commence operations against the Tonto Apache.
The company started the more than 200-mile trek to Prescott with one-third of
its men sick and only enough horse and wagon transport for the luggage--even the
sick volunteers had to walk.
From Prescott, the company was ordered to proceed to Camp Lincoln--later renamed
Camp Verde--and battled hostile Apache in the Lake Montezuma area of northern
Arizona Territory. Logistic support continued to leave much to be desired.
Resupply of shoes, for example, was so bad that the troops had to make their own
moccasins. Nevertheless, when their year of service ended, the Arizona
Volunteers were mustered out with commendations from both the Regular Army and
the territorial Legislature.
In July 1866, Territorial Secretary James McCormick wrote the U.S. secretary of
war requesting that the Arizona Volunteers be kept on active duty, and that he
have the authority to recruit a full regiment. His letter was answered by U.S.
Army General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant: "I know of no law under which this
regiment should be raised, and special legislation would be necessary for its
equipment, subsistence and payment."
Toward a State Militia
The next 15 years were underscored by continued fighting with hostile Apache,
led by such ruthless and cunning chieftains as Cochise, Victorio, Nana and
Geronimo. Many Arizona communities formed their own organizations to defend
themselves against the depredations of the deadliest mounted guerrilla raiders
in the world. Finally, in 1877, the territorial Legislature authorized the
organization of a state militia and appropriated $10,000 for its use.
Several of Arizona's larger communities contributed to the formation of the 1st
Arizona Infantry Regiment. Prescott led the way by organizing local troops into
a company known initially as the Mulligan Guards, but which was later renamed
the Prescott Grays. Their commander was Captain William Owen "Buckey" O'Neill.
Two of O'Neill's junior officers were Baron and Morris Goldwater, the father and
uncle, respectively, of future U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater.
Hostile Indians did not represent the only threat the 1st Arizona Infantry
Regiment faced. On February 4, 1886, for example, Dennis W. Dilda was convicted
of murder. Like all such executions, his hanging was to be held in public, and O'Neill's
Prescott Grays were called to form a square around the gallows, to guard against
the possibility that members of Dilda's gang would try to free him.
After a last meal that included steak, chicken, oysters, lamb chops, potatoes,
cake, coffee, bread and jelly, Dilda walked up the 13 steps to his final
rendezvous with the hangman. Just as the sheriff pulled the trap-door release, O'Neill
raised his saber and commanded, "Present arms!" Then, as Dilda plummeted to his
final reward, the company commander passed out and fell off his horse.
Bulking Up The Rough Riders
In 1894, General Edward Schwartz increased the strength of the 1st Arizona
Infantry to 12 companies. The regiment was not called into service when the
Spanish-American War broke out four years later, but 127 of its personnel
enlisted in Colonel Leonard Wood's 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, better
known as the "Rough Riders." Among the 10 officers who volunteered to go to Cuba
were Colonel Alexander Brodie, Captain James McClintock and Captain O'Neill.
By July 1898, Wood had relieved an ailing Brig. Gen. S.B.M. Young as commander
of the 2nd Brigade, and command of the Rough Riders had passed to Lt. Col.
Theodore Roosevelt. On July 1, Buckey O'Neill, who had said, "The Spanish bullet
was never molded that would hit me," died instantly when a stray Spanish bullet
struck him in the head before the Rough Riders' charge up Kettle Hill.
During the period of peace following the Spanish-American War, a member of the 1st
Arizona Infantry, Captain Charles W. Harris, designed a flag for his fellow
National Guardsmen to carry to the National Rifle Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio,
in 1911. Nan Hayden, wife of Arizona Senator Carl Hayden, sewed the flag that
would be adopted as the official Arizona state banner in 1916.
War again loomed on March 9, 1916, when Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa
crossed the border and raided the town of Columbus, N.M. In the wake of that
surprise attack, the 1st Arizona Infantry became part of 150,000 National
Guardsmen who were called to active duty for one year, patrolling the border
against further Villista incursions.
WWI Service
On April 8, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany and officially
entered World War I. On August 5, the 1st Arizona Infantry was drafted into
federal service and was redesignated the 158th Infantry Regiment of the 40th
Division. Led in France by Colonel E.P. Grimstead, the regiment served in the
final battles of the war, most notably the Meuse-Argonne campaign from September
to November 1918. After the armistice was signed on November 11, the 158th was
chosen to serve as the honor guard for President Woodrow Wilson at the Paris
Peace Conference.
Upon its return to the United States, the 158th was reassigned to the 45th
Division, but the years of peace were not to pass without notoriety for the
Arizonans. The first trouble came in early April 1924, with a newspaper headline
in the Yuma Sun: "Bridges at Yuma [Arizona] and Needles [California] and the
ferry at Ehrenberg [Arizona] were closed to east-bound travelers. 1,600
motorists being held at Needles by ban."
According to the Yuma Historical Society records, "all this was happening
because the hoof and mouth disease (anthrax), fatal to all livestock and even
man, was brought to Mare Island shipyard in San Francisco Bay on ships from the
Orient the previous year." To contain the deadly disease, most dreaded by
cattlemen, all 36 states immediately imposed quarantines. As part of Arizona's
role in the quarantine, authorities placed a hay wagon and makeshift barricade
in the middle of the bridge crossing the Colorado River, separating Yuma from
Imperial County, Calif.
Soon afterward, Imperial County District Attorney Ernest Utley, with his
secretary, Clara Feustle, and Sheriff Charles Gilette, drove out to the
barricades. A deplorable sight awaited them, in the form of a colossal backload
of stranded motorists. Sanitation facilities simply did not exist. Men sported
several days' growth of beard. Women were sleeping in the back seats of cars, or
even on the bare ground. One pregnant woman had a miscarriage. Children suffered
from blistered feet and severe sunburn. Migrants at Pilot Knob had water only
because a Southern Pacific Railroad engineer dropped off a tank car. Later, the
sympathetic railroader also picked up a load of milk for them in Mecca, Calif.
Lock-and-Load Quarantine
Troops of the 158th Infantry arrived the following day. The first thing the
guardsmen did was to construct a heavy barn-door-like gate in the middle of the
bridge, in front of which they installed a sandbagged machine-gun nest, with a .30-caliber
Browning water-cooled gun. Soldiers of the 158th patrolled the Yuma side of the
bridge 24 hours a day. Occasionally, they would fire a machine-gun burst into
the muddy waters of the Colorado, just to demonstrate to anyone thinking of
jumping the state border that there were real rounds, not blanks, in the gun.
The Arizona veterinarian in charge of the quarantine, Dr. E.L. Stam, designated
five crossing points in his state. At each of them all males, young and old,
went through a disinfectant bath, assisted by guardsmen of the 158th. Selected
ladies from Yuma helped the women to disrobe for their obligatory passage
through the bath. There was one case of a train traveler who locked herself in a
passenger car bathroom rather than be "dipped," but for the most part the
operation proceeded steadily, and the danger of an epidemic was averted.
Guardsmen remained on duty in Yuma until May 20. Corporal Claude Wells of Casa
Grande remembered that the high points of his Yuma experience were the daily
visits of a farm girl from the California side, bearing strawberry shortcake and
cold milk for the troops. For Wells, "it was a lark."
Fight California!
In 1934, while President Franklin D. Roosevelt continued to battle the Great
Depression in America and Chancellor-elect Adolf Hitler was consolidating his
dictatorial powers in Germany, parts of the 158th Infantry Regiment were being
activated again--to defend Arizona against incursions from California.
In mid-March 1934, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District decided (with U.S.
federal approval) to build a dam on the upper part of the Colorado River.
Arizona authorities, however, decided that while the "grape pickers" from
California were welcome to build such a dam in their river, they could not
anchor it on Arizona soil.
Billeted in Parker, men of the 158th installed machine-gun nests and walked
patrols along the eastern side of the Colorado, keeping California workers at
bay for eight months. Ultimately, the "California-Arizona War" went all the way
to the U.S. Supreme Court, whose ruling stated in essence that Arizona simply
could not hold up work on California's dam at gunpoint. Finally, on November 11,
the 158th was deactivated. The fact that that date was World War I Armistice Day
was not lost on the guardsmen as they prepared to return home from their latest
bloodless "war."
Prison Guards
By the mid-1930s, the Arizona State Prison had become a bad national joke.
Prison inmates came and went virtually at will. Escapes were reported daily. In
1938, the National Guardsmen of the 158th were called up for prison duty, and
from July to October they walked the walls and manned the guard towers of the
state prison in Florence. Not a single escape occurred while they were there.
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. By the end of June 1940, France
had fallen to the Germans as well. Although the United States remained
officially neutral in the growing conflict, President Roosevelt ordered all
units of the Arizona National Guard to active federal duty on September 16, 1940.
After hard training at Fort Sill, Okla., and Camp Barkley, Texas, the 158th was
detached from the 45th Division as a "stand alone" unit. Authorized to add units
as needed in order to operate independent of divisional support, if necessary,
the 158th Infantry was later redesignated the 158th Regimental Combat Team (RCT).
Earning the Nickname
On December 7, 1941, officers of the 158th called their men to formation and
told them that a place called Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, had been bombed by the
Japanese and that the unit had orders to move out for its fourth war. By January
2, 1942, the 158th RCT, moving under secret orders, was in the Panama Canal Zone
to guard all parts of the vital canal against sabotage. That mission involved
constant training in the art of jungle warfare. It was in Panama that the 158th
acquired its nickname of "Bushmasters" from a deadly snake that inhabited the
jungles there. The RCT's insignia became a snake coiled around a machete, and
its motto was the Spanish word cuidado ("take care")--a reference to avoiding
the snakes and also an admonition to enemy soldiers who would later encounter
the unit's troops.
The 158th stayed in Panama exactly one year. Then the unit was summoned--by name--to
help General Douglas MacArthur in his campaign to return to the Philippines. On
January 2, 1943, the Bushmasters walked up the gangplanks of transports and
headed for the southwestern Pacific. January 16 saw them encamped at the Coomben
Racetrack at Brisbane, Australia.
In March, the 158th was moved to Port Moresby on the island of New Guinea, where
the 32nd and 45th divisions of Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger's Sixth Army had already
defeated the Japanese at Buna, Gona, Lae and Sanananda. At Milne Bay, on New
Guinea, the 2nd Battalion of the 158th (2/158) was assigned the task of acting
as the security force around Krueger's Sixth Army headquarters.
Some of the Bushmasters were depressed; it seemed to them as if they would never
see real combat. But that was about to change. On December 12, the 2nd Battalion
was designated the reserve element for the upcoming invasion of New Britain
Island.
Jungle Combat
On December 15, 1943, U.S. Army troops under the command of Brig. Gen. Julian W.
Cunningham landed at Arawe on New Britain. On December 21, with Japanese
resistance stiffening and with growing evidence of enemy preparations to
counterattack, Cunningham called for reserves. Accordingly, on Christmas Day,
the pride of Safford, Ariz.--Company G of the 158th--was shipped to Arawe to
support the Texans of the 112th Cavalry Regiment. At about that same time,
Company B was leaving Milne Bay aboard a slow Sydney Harbor ferry boat, bound
for Finschhafen. From there, three PT-boats escorted the company to Cape Merkus
Peninsula, where it, too, landed at Arawe. They were joined a short time later
by the rest of 2nd Battalion, under the command of Lt. Col. Fred Stofft of
Tuscon, who would later be adjutant general of Arizona.
After several weeks of heavy fighting, Cunningham launched an offensive on
January 16, 1944, employing the 158th RCT, the 112th Cavalry and the 1st Marine
Division's 1st Tank Battalion. Later that same day, reports came in that the
Japanese were withdrawing.
At Gilnit on February 20, Cunningham's troops made contact with Marines who had
landed at Cape Gloucester. New Britain had been secured. At the same time, the
Japanese air and naval base at Rabaul to the east was effectively neutralized,
eliminating a longtime threat to Australia and to the flanks of the Allied
forces as they advanced along the northern coast of New Guinea.
Replacing the losses suffered on the Arawe Peninsula, the 2/158 was refitted at
Finschhafen. The 1st and 3rd battalions, brought in from Woodlark and Kiriwina
islands, were subsequently reunited with the 2nd, bringing the RCT up to full
strength.
Task Force Tornado
After a short rest period, the 158th was combined with the South Dakota 147th
Field Artillery to create Task Force Tornado. That force was sent to relieve the
163rd RCT of the 41st Division, which had invaded and taken Wakde Island on May
18, and was now engaged in a grueling drive to take Sarmi on the mainland of
Dutch New Guinea. The 158th disembarked at Toem on May 21.
Under the command of Brig. Gen. Edwin D. Patrick, Task Force Tornado unwittingly
advanced into a trap. Initially surprised by the American landing at Wakde,
Japanese Lt. Gen. Hachiro Tagami had recalled the scattered elements of his 36th
"Tiger" Division and amassed a force of 11,000 troops. Only half of them were
combat troops, but those combat troops included first-rate army soldiers and
members of the Naval Guard detachments--well-trained, 6-foot-tall Japanese who
were often mistakenly referred to as marines by Americans. Tagami planned to
encircle Task Force Tornado with two pincers that would meet at the Toem-Arara
beachhead. With their headquarters and supply dumps overrun, the Americans would
be stranded in the jungle.
On the morning of May 23, the 158th crossed the Tor River and advanced on the
Maffin airstrip--only to be stopped by the Japanese. On the following day, the 3rd
Battalion of the 224th Infantry and a company of the 223rd Infantry launched a
banzai charge against the dug-in Bushmasters, but the Japanese were repulsed
with heavy losses. The 158th resumed its advance on May 25, and by that evening
their toughest objective lay before them--a coral ridgeline whose rain forest
was dominated by a single towering tree that earned it the misleading name of
Lone Tree Hill.
Over the next several days, the 158th made agonizingly slow progress,
occasionally capturing a foothold, sometimes pulling back to avoid being caught
in one of Tagami's flanking maneuvers, sometimes beating back the Japanese
attacks. Under pressure from an impatient MacArthur, Patrick visited the command
post of the 158th's commander, Colonel Prugh "Pop" Herndon, along the Snaky
River. Dissatisfied with the situation, he replaced Herndon with a Regular Army
man, Colonel Earl D. "Bulldog" Sandlin. Herndon, who had been with the regiment
for 22 years and commanded it for 12, wept as he said goodbye to his beloved
Bushmasters.
Repulsing the Attack
With the 1st and 2nd battalions of 163rd RCT withdrawn for MacArthur's planned
invasion of Biak (leaving only the 3/163 at Wakde-Sarmi), Patrick pulled the 1/158
back to guard the Toem-Arara beachhead. His prudence paid off, as Tagami's two
pincers closed around the rear area. Thanks in part to poor coordination by the
two Japanese elements and partly to the dogged courage of the defenders, the
Japanese attack, launched on May 30, was a failure.
On June 5, components of the 6th Infantry Division arrived at Arara, freeing the
1/158 to join the other two battalions in their continuing efforts to take Lone
Tree Hill. Finally, on June 15, the 20th Infantry relieved the 158th. It would
take the 6th Division weeks of bitter fighting to finally wrest Lone Tree Hill
from Tagami's Tiger Division. By the time they succeeded, the Americans had
incurred about 2,000 casualties overall. The Bushmasters suffered 70 dead, 257
wounded and 4 missing. Known enemy losses during that same period were 3,870
killed and 15 taken prisoner. Although still formidable on the defensive, the
Japanese 36th Division was no longer an effective offensive force in New Guinea.
The surviving division members ultimately withdrew to Tagami's peninsular
headquarters at Sarmi, where they remained isolated for the rest of the war.
One of the 158th RCT's finest hours was the invasion of Noemfoor Island. Again
teamed up with the 147th Field Artillery, and given excellent air support by the
U.S. Fifth Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force, the 158th hit the
beaches on July 2 and quickly overran its primary objective, the Kamiri airfield.
While reinforcements arrived by parachute, the 158th pushed on to take the
Kornasoren airfield on July 4. On July 5, organized resistance on the island was
broken when a battalion of the 158th, advancing southwest from Kamiri, smashed
an enemy counterattack. The Japanese airfields were poor, but Army engineers,
aided by the Bushmasters, developed a runway and facilities suitable for four-engine
bombers, to support further island-hopping by MacArthur.
Luzon Campaign
The 158th's greatest campaign still lay ahead. At midnight on January 10, 1945,
the 158th RCT, now commanded by Brig. Gen. Hanford "Jack" MacNider and attached
to Maj. Gen. Leonard F. Wing's 43rd Division, entered Lingayen Gulf and landed
on the Philippine island of Luzon. Among the first dangers the Bushmasters
encountered was a 320mm howitzer with a 16-foot barrel that the Japanese had
mounted on railroad tracks, firing on the beachhead from a dug-in position
between the towns of Damortis and Rosario. The big gun was so well camouflaged
that aircraft could not find it.
The 158th pushed inland to take Routes 3 and 11 near the DamortisRosario road.
At 3:15 p.m. on January 12, an American patrol entered the town of Damortis and
captured four enemy fieldpieces and 150 tons of ammunition. Unknown to the
Bushmasters, however, they were only six miles from the headquarters of Lt. Gen.
Tomoyuki Yama****a, commander of the Japanese Fourteenth Area Army. As the
Bushmasters advanced through a narrow defile, they came under a massive
artillery barrage that littered the road with casualties in a matter of minutes.
Thereafter, that day was known to the Bushmasters as "Bloody Sunday," and the
nearby town was known as "Rigor Damortis."
As fighting continued, another noteworthy Bushmaster exploit took place at
Cataguintingan. There, Company G, led by Captain Bayard W. Hart, a Cherokee
Indian, found the camouflaged lair of the giant howitzer that had been shelling
the Lingayen beachhead. The gun was duly captured and 164 of its defenders
killed for the loss of only one Bushmaster wounded. Company G was issued a
Presidential Unit Citation for that feat.
Despite stubborn resistance from Yama****a's troops, the 158th, with the
assistance of 29 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers of Marine squadron VMSB-241,
finally secured its objectives. The commander of the 158th, General MacNider,
later wrote of their efforts: "To be able to say in years to come that you
fought along the Damortis Rosario Line with the 158th Regimental Combat Team
will give you a proud and well-earned distinction."
Opening the Batangas
March 12 found the Bushmasters and part of the 11th Airborne Division involved
in fierce fighting on the Batangas Peninsula that helped open Balayan Bay and
Batangas Bay to American shipping. The 158th lost 45 men securing the peninsula,
but the Japanese lost 781.
April 1, 1945, was marked by two more D-days, as U.S. Marines landed on Okinawa
and the 158th RCT invaded the Bicol Peninsula on southern Luzon. Despite sniper
fire, the Bushmasters advanced 500 miles inland before they encountered their
first roadblock. Twenty minutes after coming ashore, the troops reported that
the beachhead was secure, and General MacNider came ashore to take charge.
Legaspi fell to the Bushmasters on that same day. The heaviest fighting took
place farther inland on April 3, but after a series of sharp engagements,
Japanese opposition collapsed, and mopping up operations were quickly completed
after April 4. When it was finally withdrawn from Luzon, the 158th's casualties
totaled 226 killed, 1,046 wounded and 20 missing.
The 158th RCT was scheduled to spearhead the invasion of the Japanese home
islands, but the atomic bomb strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki compelled the
Japanese to surrender on August 14, 1945. With the great odyssey over, the 158th
was deactivated at Utsunomiya, Japan, on January 17, 1946.
Infantry to Transportation
In the decade after World War II, millions of dollars were spent to modernize
the Army National Guard. The 158th Regiment went through reorganization twice to
achieve that goal. Finally, on December 3, 1967, the 158th Infantry, with battle
streamers waving, formed for the last time to hear General Orders No. 75,
converting the fine old regiment into military police and truck transportation
units.
During its 102 years as an infantry unit, about 300,000 men are believed to have
served in the 158th. The Bushmasters' battle honors are on display at the
Headquarters Detachment of the 158th Military Police Battalion in Tucson.
Joe Patrick writes from Tombstone, Ariz. For further reading, try Bushmasters:
America's Jungle Warriors, by Anthony Arthur.