When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Mel Amler was a sociable and motivated dental student completing his first semester at New York University. The following spring, the US Army commissioned him and thousands of his classmates nationwide in the Medical Administrative Corps (MAC) Reserve. Their coursework was accelerated to supply the armed forces with critically needed dental officers. Upon graduation, the newly minted dentists were whisked off to basic training and to combat zones worldwide. Armed with a .45 automatic and carbine, his newly gained profession, and a commission as a First Lieutenant, Mel found himself deep in the jungles of Mindanao, The Philippines. Standing watch duty in the pitch-black rain-flooded midnight, he wondered how this city boy who loved science and music had come to this.

The experiences that happened in his life are written to lend support of the things The author wrote in Part 2 of this book. H. Torrevillas, M.D, 75. A General Practitioner and a Fellow of the Australian Medical Acupuncture College, After graduation {1966} from medical School (UERMMMC) worked in the hinterlands of northern Phillipines for 9 years. He Migrated to Australia in 1976, worked in hospitals for 3 years, went to private Practice from 1979 to 2010. Now retired.

"Throughout its history, the United States has fought its major wars by mobilizing large numbers of citizen-soldiers. While the small, peacetime, regular army provided trained leadership and a framework for growth, the citizen-soldier, from the minuteman of the American Revolution to Civil War volunteers and the draftees of World War II, have successfully prosecuted the nation's major wars. But the Army, and the nation, have never fully resolved the myriad problems surrounding the mobilization and employment of reserve troops. National Guard divisions in World War II suffered from neglect during the interwar period and Great Depression, and regular Army commanders often replaced or relieved National Guard officers, which generated lingering resentment. At the same time, draftees from across the nation diluted the regional affiliations of many units, with a corresponding effect on morale and esprit de corps. Chris Rein's study of one division, recruited from the Gulf South and employed in the Southwest Pacific Theater in 1944 and 1945, highlights the challenges of reserve mobilization, training, and the combat deployment of National Guard units. His account demonstrates the still-strong connections between the local communities that hosted and supported National Guard companies before the war, even after an influx of new personnel nationalized the units and they shipped overseas. The 31st Division, reorganized after combat deployment in World War I, consisted primarily of infantry regiments from Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and, until 1942, Louisiana. Mobilized for federal service in late 1940, the division participated in the critical Louisiana and Carolina Maneuvers in 1941, but then languished for the next two years as a training organization, though it provided trained cadres and replacements for other divisions the Army deployed to Europe and the Pacific. In 1944, the division finally shipped overseas, enduring the brutal conditions in the Southwest Pacific, but successfully conducting landings on the New Guinea coast in support of Gen. Douglas MacArthur's "island hopping" campaign directed at liberating the Philippines. After a change in leadership, on the second day of the amphibious assault on Morotai, the division supported the liberation of Mindanao, the southernmost major island in the archipelago, before redeploying for demobilization at the end of 1945. Rein's study traces the division's decades of duty from the interwar period, when it contended with a series of devastating natural disasters, through its mobilization and combat deployment. However, within the 31st Division's story, there are several significant issues that remain highly relevant for reserve deployment today. The first centers on the issue of World War II-era National Guard leadership. The Army implemented a "purge" of overage and less competent National Guard division commanders in order to replace them with younger officers of the regular Army. Maj. Gen. John C. Persons, a pre-war Birmingham resident and Alabama National Guard officer, commanded the division throughout the peacetime mobilization and training and the first operation in New Guinea, only to be summarily fired on the second day of the Morotai landings, an action not adequately explained in the existing literature. The second issue concerns the Army's "nationalization" of regional units. While this policy has the benefit of spreading any casualties across the nation, rather than duplicate the horrific losses of the "Bedford Boys" of the 29th Infantry Division that devastated one small Virginia community, it also erodes regional identity and esprit de corps. This work is a case study of the strength and weaknesses of units with a regional identity and explores the connections with the home front once that identity erodes. It also examines the Dixie Division's operational and strategic evolution, but just as importantly details drawn from soldiers' correspondence and oral histories to show how their exposure to a larger world, including service alongside African-American and Filipino units, changed their views on race and post-war society"--

Sent by God In this intriguing book, Roland Buck describes his personal encounters with angels and what the Bible tells us about these messengers of God. You’ll find out how God’s messengers impact your own life and how God is using angels to help usher in the great end-times harvest of souls before the return of Jesus. Read how God uses angels to... Protect believers Wage spiritual warfare Comfort and encourage Bring blessings Bring strength during trials Assist in bringing people to Christ Disclose God’s will Bring answers to prayer Glorify God’s name As you become aware of the remarkable role of these messengers of God, you’ll gain increased faith and confidence in God’s plan for your life, for the ministry of believers, and for the salvation of multitudes of people leading to the second coming of Christ.

Escape on Mindanao is U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Melvyn H McCoy's account of his wartime experiences in the Philippines: the defense and fall of Corregidor Island, the Bataan Death March, his internment in Camp Cabanatuan, his transfer to Bilibid Prison in Manila, and finally being sent to the Davao Penal Colony on Mindanao. From the Davao camp, McCoy escaped and led nine other servicemen and two Filipinos on a hazardous journey to a rendezvous with an American submarine which would take them to freedom and safety in Australia. His daily log provides an insight into the dangers the escapees faced, the difficulties in travelling in the jungles and swamps of Mindanao, harrowing encounters with Japanese patrols, and heartwarming accounts of the generosity and assistance of Filipino citizens and guerrillas along the way. For his service, McCoy was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. The commendation read as follows: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Commander [then Lieutenant Commander] Melvyn Harvey McCoy, United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in action in the Philippine Islands, from 4 April to 9 July 1943. After eleven months as a Prisoner of War, and in weakened physical condition, Commander McCoy outwitted the Japanese guards on 4 April 1943, escaped from a prison camp, eluding pursuing patrols, and made his way on foot and by small boat from the vicinity of Davao to northern Mindanao. Hearing of a United States force in Misamis Occidental he contrived to reach its headquarters on foot and by launch. Arrangements for his evacuation having been made, he continued on foot through enemy-occupied territory. By using mountain trails, he avoided capture by numerous Japanese patrols and arrived at the rendezvous. Commander McCoy's courage in the face of great danger and his fortitude despite his physical weakness enabled him to escape and to rejoin the United States forces with information of great military value.