19 Nov thru 10 December

Company did regular camp duties  and staged for their next mission.”

19 Nov thru 11 December

Company bivouaced near Maragona, Leyte for training for coming operation/ in the meantime the men enjoyed the dandy beach by swimming and playing ball on the sands. Many Nippon planes were shot down from the skies overhead. So foxholes had to be dug, beside each man’s bed. One day the regiment undressed a Nippon kamikaze pilot, that struck a liberty ship in the bay. Many men lost their lives and the ship burned continuously all night. Every night anti-aircraft batteries expended much rounds of tracer at the Nips. It resembled Coney Island on the fourth of July. The P-38 did its job of clearing the sky of (blank).

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0800 hr

All money must be exchanged to Philippine Pesos. The only method of expenditure will be for payment for laundry, which the natives in the vicinity do very cheaply. Our troops had Australian, Dutch, and American currency.

1000 hr 21 Nov

The first meeting of the mission was held by Colonel Jones, RCT C.O. for Reg’t and Bn staffs and Co. Commanders. Because of our dearth of airfields on Leyte, the 503d will make its first beach-head. We will be part of a task force aggregating 15,000.

0900 hr

Conditioning training will begin today-calisthenics. Also specialized training for coming mission to include aircraft identification, detection of booby-traps, road blocks, construction of concertina barbed wire obstructions, fire control, security intelligence and pertinent defense tactics.

 After our objective is taken a perimeter defense will be established to protect against counter attack, and maintained for duration of mission. Heavy Jap reinforcements and counter attacks must be expected. We are going right into the Japs back yard to secure an area and defend it while airstrips are being constructed. Details and target area will be entered at a later date.

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0800 hr

Thanksgiving Day, and turkey with all the dressings. With over 1/4 million troops on Leyte, and supply a problem, this delicacy was a surprise.

Our 3rd red alert of the evening just ended. Although overcast at times, the skies are brightened by a 1/2 moon, and visibility afforded Jap planes. Dive bombers attacked shipping in harbor yesterday, but heavy Naval ach-ach drove them away.

P-38’s and P-61’s afford our air cover along with the third fleet carriers.

1000 hr

Our P-38’s just put on a stirring exhibition, assisted by a Jap dive bomber, right out in front of our Bn area. The Nip came out of the sun and made for a transport convoy. 38’s raced after him across the harbor, at about 3000 ft, and a short burst set the zero on fire. The Nip held his course until over the convoy, and dove at the largest transport missing it by feet. The entire combat team lined the beach, echoing their appreciation, and offering advice to the P-38’s. Morale rose 100% when the Nip flamed up. Our next mission will depend largely on air cover.

 A secretive administrative order was received today from our Task Force CO, Brig. Gen. Dunckel. We are now part of L-3 task Force; up to present we were components of K-2 Task Force. The order covered MR’s, casualty reports, mailing addresses, daily strength reports, and periodic reports- their compilation, and channels of command.

 The largest single unit of the Task Force will be a Regimental Combat Team, augmented by separate Bn’s and special troops.

 The mission of the entire Task Force will be to construct, defend and maintain air-strips, which will give us cover and supply air cover for a large invasion of the main Jap defenses on Luzon, to come shortly after our mission.

The air strips in consideration were utilized by U.S. Air Force during the Philippine Campaign of 1941-42, but have not been maintained or used by the Japs since. They are overgrown with grass, and combat engineers of our Task Force will ready the strip as soon as possible for our fighters. The wet season is just coming to an end, and the weather should favor us.