Philippine Scouts The Philippine Scouts was a military organization of the United States Army from 1901 until the end of World War II . Made up of native Filipinos assigned to the United States Army Philippine Department , these troops were generally enlisted and under the command of American officers , however , a handful of Filipinos received commissions from the United States Military Academy . Philippine Scout units were given a suffix of ( PS ) , to distinguish them from other U . S . Army units . The first Scout companies were organized by the US in 1901 to combat the Philippine Revolution led at that time by General Emilio Aguinaldo . In 1919 - 20 , the PS companies were grouped into regiments as part of the US Army and redesignated the 43d , 45th , and 57th Infantry Regiment s , plus the 24th and 25th Field Artillery Regiment s , the 26th Cavalry Regiment ( PS ) and the 91st and 92nd Coast Artillery Regiment s . Service and support formations were also organized as engineer , medical , quartermaster and military police units . The infantry and field artillery regiments were grouped together with the U . S . 31st Infantry Regiment to form the U . S . Army ’ s Philippine Division . At this point , the Scouts became the U . S . Army ’ s front line troops in the Pacific . The Philippine Department assigned the Scouts to subdue the fierce and warlike Moro tribes on the island of Mindanao ( see Moro rebellion ) , and to establish tranquility throughout the islands . In the 1930s , Philippine Scouts , along with the 31st Infantry Regiment , saw action at Jolo , Palawan . Philippine Scout regiments became some of the first United States Army units to be in combat during World War II , until the surrender of USAFFE in May 1942 . Even after that some individual soldiers and units refused to surrender and become beginning elements of the resistance to the Japanese occupation . Later paroled POWs would also join the resistance . Macabebe Scouts . When the Philippine Revolution erupted in 1896 , a Spanish Colonel named Eugenio Blanco who had large estates near the town of Macabebe in Pampanga organized a regiment from among his clients . At the conclusion of the Spanish - American War 270 men of this 72nd Macabebe Regiment found themselves stranded in Manila . Many shipped out to join a Spanish garrison in the Caroline Islands , and the remainder slipped back into Macabebe after it was occupied by the Americans . Some of these offered to serve as native guides for U . S . forces commanded by General Henry Lawton and , after authorization by General Elwell Otis , a company of " Macabebe Scouts " was formed under Lieutenant Matthew A . Batson . The Macabebes proved themselves reliable over the next two months , and Batson formed five companies of 128 men each ; all veterans of service in the Spanish Army . The Batson ' s Macabebe companies saw combat against Aguinaldo ' s forces beginning in October 1899 , after which they were reorganized into the Philippine Cavalry Squadron and enlisted as irregulars . The Macabebes won lasting notability in the operation under General Frederick Funston to capture General Aguinaldo . In 1901 , on the Army ' s recommendation , U . S . President Theodore Roosevelt authorized the formation of a unified native Scouts organization . The Army activated this Native Scouts force in October 1901 by integrating 50 local companies into a single force of 5 , 000 men . Over the next ten years , the Scouts won accolades from their American commanders which contributed to their survival as a unit . Philippine Scouts and U . S . Army Forces in the Far East ( USAFFE ) . On July 26 , 1941 , in preparation for the coming war , President Roosevelt called General Douglas MacArthur back to active duty and put him in charge of a new military organization : The United States Army Forces in the Far East ( USAFFE ) . MacArthur took command of all military forces in the Philippines except the U . S . Navy ’ s Asiatic Fleet . The Philippine Division , Philippine Department and all other Philippine Scout units were included in USAFFE , as was the U . S . Army ’ s Far East Air Force ( FEAF ) . At the time of USAFFE ' s formation , the unit consisted of 22 , 532 troops , of which 11 , 972 were Philippine Scouts . Of the 22 , 532 troops , 10 , 473 were members of the Philippine Division , itself containing 2 , 552 Americans and 7 , 921 Filipinos . All of the division ' s enlisted men , with the exception of the 31st Infantry Regiment and some of the military police and headquarters troops , were Philippine Scouts . Filipino Officers within the Philippine Division , July 1941 . In 1910 , the U . S . Army began sending one outstanding Filipino soldier per year to West Point . Among these cadets were Vicente Lim ( USMA , Class of 1914 ) , Fidel V . Segundo ( 1917 ) , Pastor Martelino ( 1920 ) , and at least five others . By 1941 some of these men had risen to the rank of senior officers , and some transferred to the Philippine Army when the Philippine Commonwealth began to build up its own forces in 1937 . In July 1941 , there were fifteen Filipino Scout Officers within the Philippine Division . Two were in the Headquarters , two were amongst the Special Troops , three in the 45th Infantry Regiment ( PS ) , one in the 57th Infantry Regiment ( PS ) , five in the 24th Field Artillery Regiment ( PS ) , one in the 12th Quartermaster Regiment ( PS ) , and one in the 14th Engineer Regiment ( PS ) . The Philippine Scouts in World War II . On December 7 , 1941 Imperial Japanese forces attacked the U . S . Navy ’ s Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor , bombed the U . S . Army ’ s Far East Air Force at Clark Field in the Philippines , attacked British Hong Kong , and landed troops on the shores of British Malaya , simultaneously . Over the next three months the Japanese Army marched through Southeast Asia , and by March 1942 the Japanese had completely overrun every country and island in the western Pacific — except the Philippines . On the Bataan Peninsula of Luzon Island , the Philippine Scouts , a few U . S Army National Guard units , and ten divisions of poorly equipped , almost untrained Philippine Army soldiers held out against the Japanese . Survivors of the Battle of Bataan , to a man , describe the Philippine Scouts as the backbone of the American defense there . President Franklin Roosevelt awarded the U . S . Army ’ s first three Medals of Honor of World War II to Philippine Scouts : to Sergeant Jose Calugas for action at Culis , Bataan on January 6 , 1942 , to Lieutenant Alexander R . Nininger for action near Abucay , Bataan on January 12 , and to Lieutenant Willibald C . Bianchi for action near Bagac , Bataan on February 3 , 1942 . With the U . S . Navy at Pearl Harbor in shambles , and the Japanese Navy blockading the Philippines , there was no way to send adequate amounts of food , medicine , ammunition or reinforcements to Bataan . Early in the campaign , in January 1942 , General MacArthur ordered that his forces be fed one - half daily rations because the USAFFE food - stocks on Bataan were insufficient for the planned six - month siege . Such a diet did not provide enough calories for men working and fighting in the tropical heat of the Philippines ' Dry Season . Nonetheless , the Scouts and the other soldiers held out for more than four months without adequate food or medicine , while malaria , dysentery and malnutrition ravaged their ranks , and Japanese attacks drove them further down the Bataan Peninsula . In the midst of the Battle of Bataan , on 11 March 1942 , U . S . President Franklin D . Roosevelt ordered General Douglas MacArthur spirited out of the Philippines by PT boat and airplane . Prisoners of War . The Battle of Bataan ended on April 9 , 1942 , when Major General Edward P . King , Jr . , surrendered rather than see any more of his starving , diseased men slaughtered by the advancing enemy . At that point 70 , 000 men became Prisoners of War : about 16 , 000 Americans and 54 , 000 Filipinos . Japanese soldiers marched the emaciated Scouts , American soldiers , and Philippine Army men sixty - five miles up the Bataan Peninsula ' s East Road on the notorious " March of Death , " the Bataan Death March . During the March , Japanese guards shot or bayoneted between 7 , 000 and 10 , 000 men who fell , attempted to escape , or just stopped to quench their thirst at roadside spigots or puddles . They also beat and sometimes killed Filipino civilians who attempted to give food and water to the POWs , and at times flashed the " V " for " Victory " hand - gesture to the defeated soldiers along the length of the Death March . The March ended at the railroad head in San Fernando , Pampanga province . There the POWs were forced into overcrowded " 40 and 10 " railroad cars , which only had enough room for them to sit down in shifts on the final leg of the trip to Capas , Tarlac province . At Capas they were herded into Camp O ' Donnell , a former Philippine Army training camp , which was to be their prison camp . At Camp O ' Donnell the Japanese crammed all 60 , 000 survivors into a Philippine Army camp designed to accommodate 10 , 000 men . There , the Japanese commander greeted each new group of arrivals with the discouraging " Goddamn you to Hell " speech in his native language , and assured the men that they were " captives , " not Prisoners of War , and would be treated as such . There was little running water , sparse food , no medical care , and only slit trenches for sanitation . The heat was intolerable , flies rose out of the latrines and covered the prisoner ’ s food , and malaria , dysentery , beriberi and a host of other diseases swept through the crowds of men . They began to die at the rate of four hundred per day . From September through December 1942 , the Japanese gradually paroled the surviving Philippine Scouts and other Filipino soldiers to their families and to the mayors of their hometowns . But by the time Camp O ' Donnell closed in January 1943 , after eight months of operation , 26 , 000 of the 50 , 000 Filipino Prisoners of War had died there . The Japanese transferred the American prisoners to Cabanatuan , Nueva Ecija province , where conditions were only marginally better . But as U . S . forces pulled closer to the Philippines in 1944 , they evacuated the healthiest American prisoners to Japan and Manchuria , for use as slave laborers . Thousands of men were crammed into the dark holds of cargo ships so tightly that they could not sit or lay down . Again , food and water were scarce , sanitary facilities were non - existent , and the heat in the closed holds of the ships was unbearable . Men suffocated to death standing up . The Japanese ships were unmarked and some of them were torpedoed by American submarines . More of the men died of malnutrition and exposure in the work camps . By the time Japan surrendered and the U . S . and Filipino Army liberated the Bataan Prisoners of War , two - thirds of the American prisoners had died in Japanese custody . Liberation and the “ New ” Scouts . During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines an extensive Filipino guerrilla movement sprang up . In some cases the guerrilla units were led by escaped American officers ( e . g . , Wendell Fertig ) and often included " paroled " Philippine Scout and Philippine Commonwealth Army soldiers , along with civilian members of the Philippine underground . As MacArthur ’ s forces , supported by the guerrillas , liberated the Philippine Islands , the surviving Philippine Scouts stepped forward and rejoined the U . S . Army . The Filipino guerrillas joined them , and the U . S . Army set up new Philippine Scout units , reconstituting the old Philippine Division as the 12th Infantry Division . Subordinate units included the 43rd , 44th and 45th Infantry Regiment s ( PS ) ; 23rd , 24th and 88th Field Artillery ( PS ) Battalions ; 56th Engineer Battalion ( PS ) and the 57th Infantry Regiment ( PS ) . The “ New Scouts ” actively participated in combat against the Japanese Army in north Luzon , served as military police to restore order and help locate pockets of escaped Japanese in the south , and served as occupation forces on Okinawa . As planning for the invasion of Japan progressed , the Philippine Scouts were included in the invasion forces , and were selected to become part of the occupying force once Japan was defeated . After Japan surrendered in August 1945 , the United States granted the Republic of the Philippines full independence on July 4 , 1946 . At that point the ethnically Filipino Philippine Scouts held a unique status in U . S . military history : they were soldiers in the regular U . S . Army , but now they were citizens of a foreign country . To solve this dilemma , the United States offered the Filipinos in the Philippine Scouts full U . S . citizenship . Many of the surviving Scouts , perhaps around 1 , 000 , accepted , and the Army transferred them to other units to finish their military careers . With the consent of the Philippine government , Congress approved the maintenance of 50 , 000 Philippine Scouts . Under Major General Hibbs , Philippine Division as the 12th Infantry Division ( PS ) was reconstituted . Unlike its previous organization enlisted personnel of the division were exclusively Philippine Scouts . The War Department also proposed organizing a second Philippine Scout division , the 14th , but never did so . In the end President Truman disbanded the Philippine Scouts as an official element of the United States Army , and all of their unit colors were retired in 1947 , and finally disbanded in December 1948 . Legacy . Many of the former Philippine Scouts went on to serve the United States in military careers of twenty and more years , campaigning in the Korean War , the build - up to the planned invasion of Cuba during the October 1962 Missile Crisis , the Vietnam War , and the Cold War . Children of the Scouts ( known as " Army Soup " in pre - World War II Fort William McKinley days ) sometimes carried on their fathers ' military traditions and also became US Army soldiers and Marines . Two Philippine Scout children even earned the stars of US Army generals : Lt . General Edward Soriano and Major General Antonio M . Taguba . A third , Brig . General Oscar G . Hilman , a native of Washington state and an armor officer who had started out as an enlisted man , earned his star in a long career in the Army National Guard . Unlike other non - citizen veterans , veterans of the Philippine Division and other Filipinos that fought as part of the USAFFE were never granted citizenship . Since 1993 , various bills have been introduced to the United States Congress under the name Filipino Veterans Fairness Act to rectify this . However , this was a complicated matter as after the liberation of the Philippines members of the Philippine Scouts were offered enlistments and in some applicable cases commissions in the US Army and subsequent citizenship . Large numbers of " old " Philippine Scouts ( those enlisting before or during World War II ) took advantage of this . However , most " new " Philippine Scouts ( those recruited following the war , mostly for occupation duty on Okinawa and elsewhere ) were not offered citizenship . Language similar to the aforementioned proposed legislation was inserted by the Senate into the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which was signed into law . This provided a one - time payment to those veterans who are recognized as being soldiers or recognized guerrilla members by the United States or their surviving spouse . Even this , however , falls far short of the benefits available to similar veterans of other units . In 2012 , a documentary film named " Forgotten Soldiers " was produced by Donald A . Pata , with the help of Associate Instructor Chris Schaefer of the University of Utah , and narrated by Lou Diamond Phillips . The film received awards from the City of Los Angeles , the California Senate , County of Los Angeles , and at the Beloit International Film Festival .