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f ORMED in 1901 for service in the Philippines, the 27th Infantry Regiment earned the nickname “Wolfhounds” in 1918. That year the 27th Infantry served as part of the U.S. Siberian Expedition sent to guard the estimated one billion dollars’ worth of military supplies sent by the Western Allies to keep Russia fighting Germany in the summer of 1917. With the signing of theTreaty of Brest-Litovsk by the revolutionary government under V. I. Lenin in March 1918, the Allies moved to repossess the aid to prevent its use by the Bolsheviks or the Germans. One of two U.S. regiments sent to Vladivostok, the 27th so tenaciously pursued Bolshevik raiders that a Red Army officer tellingly compared them to the Russian wolfhound, an aggressive animal much favored by the former aristocracy.1 Based at Schofield Barracks, Territory of Hawaii, in the interwar years, Wolfhounds soldiers led the U.S. Army into World War II by firing at Japanese aircraft on December 7, 1941, from their barracks roof. The regiment landed on Guadalcanal on December 29, 1942, as part of the 25th Division’s relief of the 1st Marine Division and fought its way up the Solomon Islands throughout 1943. Refitting in New Zealand, the regiment then sailed for the Philippines, landing on Luzon on January 10, 1945. With the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945, the regiment became part of the designated Occupation force. First stationed at Kagamigahara Airfield in Gifu Prefecture, in mid-1947 the regiment moved to Osaka and established its home at Camp Sakai on the grounds of the former Japanese Naval College.2 4 The 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division 45 46 making men into soldiers By mid-1948 the regiment consisted of the regimental headquarters company and a single understrength battalion, a victim of the postwar demobilization process. With the publication of Training Directive Number Four and the implementation of Constant Flow, however, the 27th began filling out its ranks. The 2nd Battalion was reactivated in April 1949, filled out with transfers from the 1st Cavalry Division. Colonel John W. Childs, the regimental commander, designated Company E of the 2nd Battalion as the unit responsible for administering the initial thirteen-week basic training program to all those soldiers transferred from the 1st Cavalry Division with less than one year of service along with all recent replacements. Transferred men possessing significant experience were apportioned to the several companies of the regiment. The initial phases of basic training lasted from late April to mid-June 1949, when the trainees traveled to AnogoharaTraining Area for field training. After an additional four weeks of instruction and practical exercises, evaluators from the 25th Infantry Division’s G-3 staff section assessed the training proficiency of the new recruits in midJuly . After completing these tests, the trainees were then dispersed among the rifle companies of the regiment. All companies then conducted familiarization training and firing for the new men with the .30-caliber light machine gun, M1919A4. Although each platoon was authorized only one light machine gun, this weapon constituted a large percentage of a platoon’s firepower. As such, all soldiers were expected to be proficient in maintaining and operating the weapon in order to replace wounded or dead gunners.3 The regiment moved to the Eighth Army’s largest training area, Fuji-Susono Maneuver Area, in early August. There, the rifle companies conducted initial training for all men in squad and platoon tactics and continued to train new men on the light machine gun. In addition, the rifle companies’ 60-mm mortar sections, the headquarters company’s 81-mm mortar platoons, and the regimental heavy mortar company’s 4.2-inch mortar platoons conducted gunners’ proficiency training and examinations. Just before returning to the regimental base at Camp Sakai, elements of the regiment and its supporting artillery unit, the 8th Field Artillery Battalion, conducted a combined-arms live-fire demonstration to “acquaint new members of the regiment with the amount and effect of concentrated fire of an Infantry Regiment.”4 Although the regiment returned to Camp Sakai at the conclusion of the firepower demonstration, training did not cease. Soldiers new and old were cross-trained in all individual and crew-served weapons, and the heavy weapons companies (D and H) conducted “crew drills day in and day out.” The new men, now thoroughly integrated into their units, faced one final individual task C h a p t e r 4 [18.227.48.131] Project MUSE...

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