On the morning of the 21st, following the 4.2-inch mortar fire on the Manila Hotel the previous evening, Butler left Phillips in the Dormitory OP with the SCR-300 radio and the OP field phone. He would receive and relay communication between Butler and the mortar position north of the river at Malacanyan Palace. The 2nd platoon jeep and wire team was called in from the 2nd Battalion, 148th Infantry, which had been relieved in that sector by 5th Cavalry troops.

Butler went with the jeep and telephone team west toward the bay and north until he located a 12th Cavalry troop commander and his command post (CP) about 500 yards south of the Manila Hotel, which his troop was then assaulting. The captain was sitting on a sidewalk with his back to a garden wall, a field phone and runners keeping him in touch with his platoons and the squadron CP. His patrols had reported earlier that the west wing of the hotel (closest to the beach) had no windows and Jap resistance was concentrated in the basement. There seemed to be no immediate need for further 4.2 support, so the 2nd platoon OP party returned to the Dormitory and reported to McClelland at his CP, co-located with all three firing platoons of Company C, 82nd CMB, on the Palace grounds.

Jack Butler - History of the 82nd CMB