Infinite Wisdom

The world of war is not a fully comprehensible, let alone a morally satisfactory, place.

--Michael Walzer

La Triviata

• The royal crown of Serbia is made of metal taken from a cannon fired by the Serbian national hero Karageorge (1752-1817) at the onset of his rebellion against the Turks in 1804.
• Mithradates the Great (120-63 B.C.), King of Pontus and one of the most inveterate foes of Rome, is reputed to have never forgotten the name of a single soldier in his army.
• In her old age the widow of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, wartime chief of the German Abwher, and a co-conspirator in the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler in July of 1944, was supported by an American pension apparently arranged by Allen Dulles, head of the C.I.A.
• Cosmopolitan, that indispensable guide for the modern woman, was founded in 1889 by John Walker, who had washed out of West Point in his third year, 1868.
• The first battle flag ever captured by America's Army was that of the 7th Royal Fusiliers, in 1775.

Briefing:

The Philippine Scouts

The Philippine Scouts began as a contingent of Filipinos who supported the United States during the Philippine Insurrection (1899-1902), when the primarily Tagalog anti-Spanish Philippine insurgents under Emilio Aguinaldo attempted to form an independent "Philippine Republic." Recruited initially from among the many non-Tagalog speaking ethnic groups in the islands, with Aguinaldo's acceptance of U.S. authority in 1901, the force was opened to all Filipinos. Authorized a strength of 5,000 in 1902, the rank-and-file were Filipino. Initially the officers were entirely American, but after 1912, with the graduation of the first Filipino from West Point, an increasing number of Filipinos also served as officers in the Scouts. Many later prominent American officers, such as John J. Pershing, served in the Scouts during the ongoing Moro insurgency, a rebellion among the Moslem tribes of the southern islands, which had few ties to Aguinaldo's earlier movement.

Although companies of the Scouts initially were recruited on the basis of linguistic unity, in 1908, when battalions were authorized, this policy was abandoned, and Tagalog tended to become the common language of the corps. By the end of World War I there were five provisional regiments of Scouts, who had come to comprise the bulk of the U.S. garrison in the islands. In 1920-1921 the Scouts were formally incorporated into the Regular Army.

As initially constituted the Philippine Scouts comprised the

43rd Infantry Regiment
45th Infantry Regiment
57th Infantry Regiment
26th Cavalry Regiment
23rd Field Artillery Regiment
24th Field Artillery Regiment
91st Coast Artillery Regiment
92nd Coast Artillery Regiment
14th Engineer Regiment

There were also medical, signal, quartermaster, and other ancillary units. The infantry, field artillery, engineers, and signals formed the bulk of the Philippine Division, with the 31st Infantry, an American unit. The division had only about 10,000 men, mostly Filipinos, with American officers. On the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Philippine Division was the primary combat force in the islands.
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