Free Shadows In the Jungle by Larry Alexander

camp was being built, Bradshaw turned his attention to the men who would be training there. He decided early that combat veterans would get first preference. He wanted physically fit men of courage, drive, skill, intelligence, and good judgment. Backwoodsmen, or men used to life in the wilderness, were preferred. The candidates would have to be able to swim half a mile in rough surf, and have twenty-twenty vision. Probably most of all, they had to have endurance, to be able to withstand long marches with little or no rest, and prolonged periods behind enemy lines, with a minimum of food.
    Training would be an ongoing process, Bradshaw knew. The rigorous program he and his instructors had mapped out guaranteed that all but the fittest would be weeded out over the six-week course. Of those who completed the training, some, but not all, would be retained and assigned to a team, consisting of one officer and six enlisted men. The rest would still graduate as qualified Scouts, but would be returned to their original units, either because they were not selected for a team or at their own or their commanding officer’s personal request, to perform reconnaissance duties there. After graduation, a new class would be recruited, and the process repeated, to meet the war’s demand.
    As the 6th Army advanced across New Guinea and, eventually, the Philippines, the Alamo Scout Training Camp, or ASTC, would move with it. The Fergusson Island camp, for example, would exist until April 8, when it would be moved to Mange Point near Finschhafen, New Guinea. On July 3, the camp would reopen at Cape Kassoe near Hollandia, the former capital of Dutch-owned western New Guinea. There it would remain until after the invasion of the Philippines, when the ASTC training camp would move to Leyte, then to Luzon, first to Calasiao and, finally, to Mabayo on Subic Bay.
    But that was all still in the future. For now, the first ASTC opened on December 3, 1943, with class set to begin on December 27.
    Orders were sent to every regiment under Krueger’s command to furnish headquarters with the names of one hundred prescreened candidates, enlisted men, and junior grade officers, along with a list of criteria they were to meet. The men were to be interviewed by their platoon leaders and/or company commanders. Usually, but not always, they were told that the duty they were being interviewed for was extremely hazardous, and they could refuse if they so desired. Those who made it through that level were next interviewed by regimental and division officers. Following that process, the top one hundred were sent to Bradshaw. 1
    Unless the candidates were at remote outposts, in which case they were accepted based solely on their commander’s recommendation, each man selected was interviewed by either Bradshaw or Williams. Andy Smith, who would later take part in the Alamo Scouts’ most famous mission at Cabanatuan, was one of the former. Told he “fit the qualifications,” he was sent to the ASTC without an interview.
    Those who did go through the interview would be called into a room and told to sit at a table across from his interviewer. On the table, scattered at random, would be about twenty-five items, such as a pack of cigarettes, a lighter, a compass, a pencil, a comb, a watch, a button, and so forth. Throughout the interview, no mention of these items would be made. Instead, the man was asked about his background and where he was from, his prewar occupation, and his family.
    He was asked if he liked the outdoors, and how well he worked with others. If the man was an officer or noncommissioned officer, he was asked how he felt about taking advice or even orders from a private. Throughout this, the prospective Scout was being assessed for his intelligence, his common sense, and his ability to work as a member of a team. Those who fell short in any of these categories were sent packing.
    To test his motivation, a man would again be briefed