299th Infantry

[Don Bowen]

For those of you with an interest in such things:

I've found the locations of the 299th Infantry (Hawaii National Guard) on Dec 7, 1941. Previous information was not complete and did not mention full details of which units were on which islands.

Now have:
Regimental HQ at Iolani Barracks (Oahu)
1st Battalion on Maui
2nd Battalion on Hawaii
3rd Battalion less Co. K on Kauai
Co. K on Molokai

If anyone has more detail, I'd appreciate it.

[Buck Beach]

ORIGINAL: Don Bowen


For those of you with an interest in such things:

I've found the locations of the 299th Infantry (Hawaii National Guard) on Dec 7, 1941. Previous information was not complete and did not mention full details of which units were on which islands.

Now have:
Regimental HQ at Iolani Barracks (Oahu)
1st Battalion on Maui
2nd Battalion on Hawaii
3rd Battalion less Co. K on Kauai
Co. K on Molokai

If anyone has more detail, I'd appreciate it.

I found this Don.

http://niehorster.orbat.com/013_usa/_41 ... _id-24.htm

Maybe it just says the same thing differently.

Buck

[Don Bowen]

ORIGINAL: Buck Beach

ORIGINAL: Don Bowen


For those of you with an interest in such things:

I've found the locations of the 299th Infantry (Hawaii National Guard) on Dec 7, 1941. Previous information was not complete and did not mention full details of which units were on which islands.

Now have:
Regimental HQ at Iolani Barracks (Oahu)
1st Battalion on Maui
2nd Battalion on Hawaii
3rd Battalion less Co. K on Kauai
Co. K on Molokai

If anyone has more detail, I'd appreciate it.

I found this Don.

http://niehorster.orbat.com/013_usa/_41 ... _id-24.htm

Maybe it just says the same thing differently.

Buck

Leo doesn't have the specific units. Just "Bn here" and "Co there". Also he lists one more company than should exist, which is apparently not accounting for a "(-)" somewhere.

[Buck Beach]

ORIGINAL: Don Bowen

Leo doesn't have the specific units. Just "Bn here" and "Co there". Also he lists one more company than should exist, which is apparently not accounting for a "(-)" somewhere.

I saw the extra but figured it was maybe including the Bn's Heavy Weapons Company at one location on Kauai.

What is "(-)"?

[Don Bowen]

ORIGINAL: Buck Beach

ORIGINAL: Don Bowen

Leo doesn't have the specific units. Just "Bn here" and "Co there". Also he lists one more company than should exist, which is apparently not accounting for a "(-)" somewhere.

I saw the extra but figured it was maybe including the Bn's Heavy Weapons Company at one location on Kauai.

What is "(-)"?

Just means "less something". If a battalion is stationed somewhere with a company detached, it would be listed as "Bn (-)".

[Kereguelen]

ORIGINAL: Buck Beach

ORIGINAL: Don Bowen

Leo doesn't have the specific units. Just "Bn here" and "Co there". Also he lists one more company than should exist, which is apparently not accounting for a "(-)" somewhere.

I saw the extra but figured it was maybe including the Bn's Heavy Weapons Company at one location on Kauai.

What is "(-)"?

The 'extra' Co is probably Co 'C' of 1st Bn, 298th Infantry on Kauai?

[Don Bowen]

ORIGINAL: Kereguelen

ORIGINAL: Buck Beach

ORIGINAL: Don Bowen

Leo doesn't have the specific units. Just "Bn here" and "Co there". Also he lists one more company than should exist, which is apparently not accounting for a "(-)" somewhere.

I saw the extra but figured it was maybe including the Bn's Heavy Weapons Company at one location on Kauai.

What is "(-)"?

The 'extra' Co is probably Co 'C' of 1st Bn, 298th Infantry on Kauai?

Could be. I've seem a couple of references to C/298 on Kauai. Also some questions as to the location of L/299. No doubt that the Battalion Commander of 3rd/298th was Kauai Military Commander on 12/7. Company M/299 was definitely on Kauai.

[ckammp]

I would like to add the 299th Infantry to my version of Babes.
Two questions:

1) Unit strength - should the 299th have same TOE as 298th?

2) Withdraw date - I've found two different dates (12 Jun 42 / 21 Jul 43), does anyone know which is correct?

[Don Bowen]

ORIGINAL: ckammp

I would like to add the 299th Infantry to my version of Babes.
Two questions:

1) Unit strength - should the 299th have same TOE as 298th?

2) Withdraw date - I've found two different dates (12 Jun 42 / 21 Jul 43), does anyone know which is correct?

299th was transferred to Iolani Barracks on June 4, 1942 and officially deactivated on July 21st, 1942. Soldiers of Japanese ancestry transferred to a separate battaion and the remainder to the 298th.

[ckammp]

ORIGINAL: Don Bowen

ORIGINAL: ckammp

I would like to add the 299th Infantry to my version of Babes.
Two questions:

1) Unit strength - should the 299th have same TOE as 298th?

2) Withdraw date - I've found two different dates (12 Jun 42 / 21 Jul 43), does anyone know which is correct?

299th was transferred to Iolani Barracks on June 4, 1942 and officially deactivated on July 21st, 1942. Soldiers of Japanese ancestry transferred to a separate battaion and the remainder to the 298th.

Thank you.

[Blackhorse]

If you are going to include the 299th in an OOB, both it and its sister Hawaiian National Guard Reg't (298th) should start significantly understrength (~50% is a reasonable guesstimate). They were both understrength to begin with, and made more so by the involuntary discharge of all Japanese-Americans.

Although on paper the 299th disbanded, as a practical matter the 299th units were "reflagged" as the 298th, and the soldiers of the (now-disbanded) old 298th merged into the reflagged units.

AE avoids all these permutations by starting with the units merged together.

[ckammp]

ORIGINAL: Blackhorse


If you are going to include the 299th in an OOB, both it and its sister Hawaiian National Guard Reg't (298th) should start significantly understrength (~50% is a reasonable guesstimate). They were both understrength to begin with, and made more so by the involuntary discharge of all Japanese-Americans.

Although on paper the 299th disbanded, as a practical matter the 299th units were "reflagged" as the 298th, and the soldiers of the (now-disbanded) old 298th merged into the reflagged units.

AE avoids all these permutations by starting with the units merged together.

Thank you.

Since the 299th's Nisei soldiers were sent the 442nd RCT while the rest of the soldiers were added to the 298th, which withdraw option would you recommend - 1 (no devices returned to pool) or 2 (all devices returned to pool) ?

[Don Bowen]

Small point but the 442nd was recruited in the USA. The Japanese-American soldiers from the Hawaiian National Guard Units formed the 100th Infantry Battalion. The 100th was later assigned to the 442nd for operations in Europe. Excellent fighting record for these units, by the way.

[JeffroK]

From Stantons WW2 OOB, p630 errata.

299th Infantry had battalions based, 1st Bn Maui, 2nd Bn Hawaii, 3rd Bn Kauai from May 41

298th Infantry formed Provisional  Maui, Hawaii & Kauai Bns from 299th Infantry's 1st - 3rd Bns (My guess this is after 299th was inactivated 21/7/42)

Maui & Hawaii Bns merged with I/298 & II/298 respectively in Sept 42. III/298 was formed from Kauai Bn 1/9/42.
Co L/298th Infantry was never activated.

[Blackhorse]

ORIGINAL: ckammp

ORIGINAL: Blackhorse


If you are going to include the 299th in an OOB, both it and its sister Hawaiian National Guard Reg't (298th) should start significantly understrength (~50% is a reasonable guesstimate). They were both understrength to begin with, and made more so by the involuntary discharge of all Japanese-Americans.

Although on paper the 299th disbanded, as a practical matter the 299th units were "reflagged" as the 298th, and the soldiers of the (now-disbanded) old 298th merged into the reflagged units.

AE avoids all these permutations by starting with the units merged together.

Thank you.

Since the 299th's Nisei soldiers were sent the 442nd RCT while the rest of the soldiers were added to the 298th, which withdraw option would you recommend - 1 (no devices returned to pool) or 2 (all devices returned to pool) ?

It's a tough call. Since the Japanese-American soldiers were "quarantined" from the rest of the Hawaiian N.G. regiments (and briefly disarmed) shortly after Pearl Harbor, I'd recommend having the Provisional Battalion as a unit at start (a full-strength battalion: it had 29 officers and 1,277 enlisted men when it departed for Oakland). Although the "Provisional Battalion" wasn't officially formed until May of 1942, the "quarantined" soldiers who composed it were already part of the Army -- and physically separated from their regiments.

When this unit withdraws (5-Jun-42) it takes its devices with them. Perhaps counter-intuitively, this unit should have high morale, despite (or because of) the discrimination they faced. They wanted to prove they were "real Americans" and when they were finally given the chance, in Italy and the ETO, they fought exceptionally well, as Don noted.

When the rest of the (understrength) 299th disbands, its devices should return to the pool.

Historical Note: Dan Inouye from Hawaii, a veteran of the 442nd RCT, is the longest serving United States Senator, and holds the title of President Pro Tempore, which puts him third in line to be President (after the Vice President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives). In the 1990s he received a Medal of Honor for an action with the 442nd when he lost his arm leading a grenade charge that took out a series of German machine gun nests during the campaign in Italy. He met future Senator Bob Dole from Kansas, while both were recovering from their wounds in Army hospitals.

[Blackhorse]

Semi-OT

I dug up this excerpt from Senator Inouye's 1967 autobiography about the homecoming of the 442nd:

". . . The 442nd was toasted and paraded and written about, but our mothers and fathers were the ones who understood, better than any homecoming GI, what we'd brought back with us. They walked tall and proud then, and it was a far cry from the bitter "Speak American!" days.

"And if you were young in Hawaii in that pivotal year, if you were ambitious and believed implicitly in the promise of the Declaration of Indeperndence, what did it matter that you had only one arm? You had given it for America, and America, at last, was yours."

[JWE]

ORIGINAL: Blackhorse
"And if you were young in Hawaii in that pivotal year, if you were ambitious and believed implicitly in the promise of the Declaration of Indeperndence, what did it matter that you had only one arm? You had given it for America, and America, at last, was yours."

And what does it matter if your eyes are slanted,
when your skin holds the color of your ancesters;
And what does it matter if your skin is black,
when your eyes hold the red of the sun over Africa;
And what does it matter if you speak Navajo,
when your heart holds the purple of the mesas;

Good for you Joel ! The more people realize just what those folks did, and what they were willing to sacrifice for the rest of us, then maybe, just maybe, they would think of inviting one of them to dinner. I hold that truth to be self evident; all men are created equal.

Bless ya Bro for highlighting this. Ciao