158th Infantry Regiment (United States)
The 158th Infantry Regiment is an infantry unit of the Arizona National Guard. The regiment has served abroad in World War I, World War II and Afghanistan.
In 1967 then Governor of Arizona Jack Williams signed into law that 3 December would be "Bushmaster Day" in the State of Arizona in honor of the regiment's service.
History
The 158th Infantry takes its lineage directly from the 1st Arizona Volunteer Infantry which was formed in late 1865 and disbanded in late 1866. The unit participated in a number of campaigns against the Apache during the Apache Wars and comprised companies of Maricopa and Pima American Indians.During the Spanish–American War the unit morphed to another unit and formed the additional element known as the Arizona 1st Volunteer Cavalry. They soon adopted as the motto "Cuidado" a Spanish word meaning "take care" in reference to when they would patrol for them to be on guard. However, later the term would be applied far more liberally when the 158th was conducting jungle warfare training in Panama and the deadly pit viper from which they drew their nickname infested the jungle, from here Bushmasters would tell each other to beware of the snake. In 1916, during the Pancho Villa Expedition, an expeditionary force led by General John Pershing into Mexico, the 1st Arizona Volunteer Infantry guarded and patrolled the border between Douglas and Naco, Arizona until World War I was declared on 6 April 1917.
World War I
The 1st Arizona Infantry was drafted into federal service 5 August 1917 and re-designated as the 158th Infantry Regiment as part of the 79th Brigade, of the 40th Division. The division was sent overseas to France in August 1918. The regiment saw no active service at the front, however, its men furnished replacement personnel to other units. The regiment acted as the guard of honor to President Woodrow Wilson during his visit to France in 1918, and the regimental band marched and performed in the Allied Victory Parade which he attended. On April 6, 1919, the regiment sailed from the Port of Bordeaux, France and arrived at the port of Hoboken, New Jersey on April 17, 1919, aboard the USS Iowan, The 158th Infantry was relieved from assignment to the 40th Division on 20 April 1919, and was demobilized on 3 May 1919 at Camp Kearny, California.Interwar period
The 158th Infantry was reconstituted in the National Guard in 1921, assigned to the 45th Division, and allotted to the state of Arizona. The regiment was reorganized from 1922 to 1924, with the headquarters organized and federally recognized at Phoenix, Arizona, on 12 September 1924. The headquarters was relocated on 11 October 1932 to Tucson, Arizona. In 1924, F Company was formed as an all-native American unit made up of alumni of the Phoenix Indian School.In March 1934 the 158th Infantry Regiment participated in an unusual deployment. After California unilaterally announced, without the agreement of Arizona, it would begin construction of the Parker Dam across the Colorado River, Arizona’s governor Benjamin Baker Moeur sent a contingent of six members of the Arizona National Guard to the banks of the river. In November 1934, after California began building a bridge across the river to begin dam construction, the governor declared martial law and mobilized 100 National Guard troops with rifles and machine guns from the 158th Infantry Regiment under the command of Major Franklin Pomeroy to block construction. The troops commandeered two steamboats, mounted machine guns on the boats, and thus was born what would be nicknamed the Arizona Navy. The issue was later resolved peacefully through federal law and negotiations as part of the Colorado River Compact.
World War II
At the outbreak of World War II, the unit was ordered into Federal service on 16 September 1940 and started training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The regiment then moved to Camp Barkeley, Texas in February 1941 and conducted maneuvers in Louisiana. After the United States declared war on 8 December 1941, the unit was detached from the 45th Division and was sent to Panama to reinforce the defenses of the Panama Canal Zone arriving 2 January 1942. The regiment was relieved of assignment to the 45th on 11 February 1942 and became a separate infantry regiment. This was done as the "square" divisions of the US Army were reorganized as triangular divisions. The US Army operated a number of separate infantry regiments during the war. Of these, approximately 29 separate regiments, including the 158th participated in overseas campaigns.The 158th was assigned to the Panama Mobile Force where it joined a veteran jungle unit, the 14th Infantry "Jungleers," and the 5th Infantry in conducting security operations in the Panama Canal Zone. During this time the men of the 158th built training facilities and conducted numerous patrols in the dense Panamanian jungle. Their main tool for hacking out jungle trails was the machete. The thick jungle concealed many hazardous plants, insects, and animals, including the highly venomous snake known as the Bushmaster. The 158th subsequently adopted the nickname "Bushmasters" and created a shoulder sleeve insignia which showed a Bushmaster snake wrapped around the blade of a machete. Encounters with deadly snakes were common, lending new significance to the regiment's Spanish motto "Cuidado" which originated with the 1st Arizona Volunteer Infantry.
In 1942, the 158th was one of four infantry regiments of the Panama Mobile Force chosen to create and train a jungle platoon which was used to test specialized jungle equipment, weapons, tactics, and rations. The success of these platoons led the Caribbean Defense Command to order "training in jungle warfare tactics for all echelons of this command will be placed in high priority." Undoubtedly, the bulk of the 158th also gained considerable jungle experience during the course of the regiment's routine operations. In November 1942 the Bushmasters were ordered to prepare for transfer to Australia as part of the buildup of General Walter Krueger's 6th Army. As a result, the regiment did not have sufficient time to conduct comprehensive jungle warfare training for all echelons before its embarkation in early January 1943.
The Bushmasters arrived at Brisbane, Australia in late January 1943. In mid-March the regiment received orders to move in echelons to Port Moresby, New Guinea. The entire regiment was assembled there by the end of the month. From there it moved to Milne Bay in late May. In the early morning hours of 24 June the first elements of the 158th Regiment, less 2nd Battalion, began landing on the unoccupied island of Kiriwina, New Guinea as part of Operation Chronicle. This unit was to act as a shore party in unloading equipment and supplied. The purpose of the operation was to occupy the island and construct an airfield for planned operations on New Britain. The bulk of the regiment's two battalions arrived at dawn on 30 June. In mid-July, the 2nd Battalion, which since 20 June had been providing security for 6th Army Headquarters at Milne Bay, was ordered to Goodenough Island, New Guinea as a security force. On 21 October General Kruger moved his 6th Army Headquarters to Goodenough Island, where the 2nd Battalion resumed its security duties for that headquarters. The regiment was spread out between Kiriwina, Woodlark and Goodenough Islands in New Guinea.
Company G, 158th Regiment embarked for Arawe, New Britain on 15 December, as part of Operation Director and was soon joined by the remainder of the 2nd Battalion and began combat duties in the Arawe area. After being relieved at Arawe, the 2nd Battalion sailed to Finschhafen, where they rejoined the 1st and 3rd Battalions who had been on garrison duty on Woodlark and Kiriwina islands. At Finschhafen, the 158th Regiment was redesignated the 158th Regimental Combat Team.
By order of Alamo Force Headquarters the 158th RCT was sent to Toem, Netherlands New Guinea to join Task Force Tornado which included the 163rd Regimental Combat Team, 41st Division. The combat team arrived at Toem on 21 May 1944 and began relieving elements of the 163rd RCT at the Tor River two days later. The regimental combat team was ordered to capture a Japanese airfield to the North West at Sarmi. The area was defended by strong elements of the Imperial Japanese 36th Division. For several days the two units fought a series of vicious engagements on and around an important intermediate objective known by the Americans as Lone Tree Hill. These engagements represented the opening blows of the Battle of Lone Tree Hill. The 158th RCT was relieved on 14 June by the 20th Regiment, 6th Infantry Division so it could prepare for a pending operation. The 6th Infantry Division relieved the rest of Task Force Tornado and resumed the effort to take Lone Tree Hill and capture the Japanese airfield at Sarmi. "During its operations in the Wakde-Sarmi area the 158th RCT lost 70 men killed, 257 wounded, and 4 missing. The unit took 11 Japanese prisoners and estimated that it killed 920 of the enemy.
On 2 July, the regimental combat team went ashore as part of the Battle of Noemfoor on Noemfoor Island, Netherlands New Guinea, to capture the airfields and to provide security for the engineers upgrading the airfields to operational use. As part of General Douglas MacArthur's return to the Philippines, the regimental combat team under the command of the much respected and admired General Hanford MacNider landed at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon as part of the invasion of Lingayen Gulf on 11 January 1945 and suffered heavy casualties from well dug in Japanese forces along the Damortis-Rosario road. In heavy fighting on 1–2 February Company G, captured two 30 cm Japanese Howitzers which were directing heavy fire on American ground forces and killed 164 enemy soldiers. For this action Company G was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. The entire regiment would be awarded the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation for its fighting in the Philippines.
The next objective tasked to the regimental combat team was Batangas, Luzon where they cleared the area around Balayan Bay and Batangas Bay, which took three weeks to subdue. Then on 1 April, the regimental combat team invaded the Bicol Peninsula, landing at Legaspi. F Company was made up most of Native Americans from the main tribes of the Salt River Valley, but was led by white officers. Many of these officers, who survived combat, later recounted participating in Native American rituals; such as becoming blood brothers and purifying their warrior's spirit before battle. Although these rituals are not today performed by the majority of the unit's soldiers, they still use Japanese saki to toast with in reference to the supply captured by the regiment during its time in the Philippines. After being relieved in Philippines campaign, the regiment was selected as part of the planned Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan, the Bushmasters were chosen to attack the island of Tanegashima to capture the island's air warning stations two days prior to the Allied assault on Kyūshū. Japan surrendered after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On 13 October 1945, the regimental combat team landed in Yokohama, Japan to be part of the Occupation of Japan. The 158th Regimental Combat Team was inactivated at Utsunomiya, Japan, on 17 January 1946.
General MacArthur gave the Bushmasters the accolade, "No greater fighting combat team has ever deployed for battle".