Mr. William Garbo, Sr. 26th Quartermaster War Dog Platoon 124th Infantry Regiment and 112th Cavalry Regiment in World War II Mr. Bill Garbo lives in Jackson, Mississippi, where he now practices architecture on a limited basis. He said, "It keeps me alive and well." Bill said, "During the war we were allowed to have Brownie cameras. We were asked not to take pictures in combat. We broke that rule, and I'm so glad I did. I took many pictures. I also wrote many letters home, and in some of them I drew sketches. Some of them made it through the censors and my mother saved every one of them. When the war was over, I turned my back on it for 35 or 40 years. But it wasn't over. I wanted to talk to somebody who was on patrol with me. Richard Boteler is a good friend. I started writing. I had boxes full of black and white pictures, and I decided to preserve them. I scanned more than 1000 pages of old letters, sketches, envelopes, and stamps dating from 1943 to 1946." Bill said that at first he wanted to be a P-38 pilot, but was color blind and nearsighted. In July 1944 he was assigned to the 124th Infantry Regiment, and started the war at the Driniumor River near Aitape, New Guinea. He said, "I thought I was in a place in the world where no other living person from my part of the country had ever been. I dug my foxhole, and then met every one of those boys in the 124th from my hometown of Laurel, Mississippi! The next day there was a terrible breakthrough, a bonzai attack by the Japanese. After that every day began with quiet; then suddenly there would be a firefight. I was reassigned to the 112th Cavalry because they lost a lot of people and needed replacements fast. I joined G Troop, 2nd Squadron, 112th Cavalry Regiment." Here is an excerpt from "Defending the Driniumor: Covering Force Operations in New Guinea, 1944" by Dr. Edward J. Drea: "Pvt. William Garbo had arrived at Troop G that day [12 July 1945] as a replacement and promptly became an ammunition bearer. After dark he found himself in a machine gun pit, about the size of a dining room table, covered with ponchos and logs. Although he had listened to everything the veterans had said, nothing had prepared him for a night in a pit so black that he could not see his hand in front of his face. It was so still that he could hear the Driniumor flowing past, but more menacing sounds of five Japanese infiltrators soon followed. A Japanese soldier climbed onto the logs covering Garbo's dugout and hurled a bundle of dynamite onto the startled machine gun crew. Only the detonator caps exploded, deafening the Americans and covering them with sulphur powder. Grenades, followed by American small arms fire, killed two of the infiltrators, and the surviving Japanese escaped into the jungle darkness." "Before going overseas, I had special training with the War Dogs at San Carlos, California, near Palo Alto. We trained the canines for scout, rescue, guard, and messenger service. There were no 'Attack Dogs.' A War Dog Platoon had 60 dogs, 2 per man. You couldn't be surprised by the enemy in dense jungle if you had a scout dog with you on patrol. The dog moved with the point man and was trained to give an alert signal when it detected the enemy. The dogs were trained not to bark. They would stop and freeze, and look in the direction of the enemy. Then the point man would give the 'palm down' signal, and the patrol would hunker down and wait. Soon we would see the enemy and attack them. Every day was cat and mouse, hide and seek in the dense jungle. I'm 77 years old, so I was just a youngster back then. The older men kept me out of trouble. I learned never to crawl out of my foxhole at night. Before nightfall we always filled our canteens and got ammo. After dark we never got out of our holes, even to take a dump! I witnessed many people get killed who got out of their holes at night." "After New Guinea we invaded Leyte. Then we invaded Luzon and freed the prisoners in the POW camp in Manila. On Luzon, a Field Hospital followed us into the mountains. I was wounded, and one of the medics pulled me behind a huge boulder and took care of me. He saved my life. I didn't realize how badly I had been hit. An artery in my leg had been punctured by artillery shrapnel. The next morning I was airevaced by helicopter. That was how I met Fred Duncan." "I was in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945, and witnessed the Japanese surrender. Then we occupied Japan. On 3 September 1945 we landed at the Naval Air Station at Tatayama on Tokyo Bay. I was the Sergeant in charge of a village south of Tatayama. It was wonderful. There was no combat. We carried loaded weapons, but there was no shooting. The Japanese people eventually became friendly and brought us food." "We were men from all walks of life. During the war, officers and enlisted didn't mix; but now there is an open forum between officers and enlisted at our reunions." -------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr. William Garbo, Sr. 2006 Cherokee Drive Jackson, Mississippi 39211 Telephone (601) 362-5255 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Sources: (1) Telephone conversation between Mr. Bill Garbo and Paul Webber on 2 February 2002 (2) A document sent by Mr. Garbo about the 26th Quartermaster War Dog Platoon (3) Mr. Garbo's account of combat at the Driniumor River (4) "Defending the Driniumor: Covering Force Operations in New Guinea, 1944" by Dr. Edward J. Drea Transcribed by Paul M. Webber on 13 March 2002 Home Page: http://home.pcisys.net/~pwebber/31_id/rtw.htm