Your article in the March 12 edition, titled “Veterans fight for full equity,” focused on the subject of the World War II Filipinos who fought for the U.S. Army and believed that they should receive compensation for their service. After 60 years, this has finally been granted.
However, there is a local historical aspect to this story that has not been mentioned.
Camp Cooke, Camp Roberts, and Camp San Luis Obispo were training locations for many special units during World War II.
One of the special organizations at Camp Cooke, now Vandenberg Air Force Base, Lompoc, was the Army 2nd Filipino-American Infantry Regiment. It, along with the 1st Regiment, comprised some 7,000 Filipino-American soldiers. The 1st Regiment was formed at Camp San Luis Obispo in 1942, and many soldiers in the 2nd Regiment trained at Camp Cooke, Camp Hunter Liggett, and Camp Roberts before heading to the South Pacific where they joined other Army troops to re-conquer and occupy the Philippines. Before leaving, each soldier received one of the traditional bolo knives.
The regiment was shipped to New Guinea in May 1944, and then on to the Philippines. Col. Charles Clifford was the regimental commander at Camp Cooke.
So we can see that the Philippine invasion effort was early on and well planned by the Army, with the Filipino troops coming from many areas and training as a team locally.
This article appears in Mar 19-26, 2009.