Meet the Samoan unit that fought barefoot during WWII

PO1 Tony Holland I remember the Samoans I met in Hawaii, Big Folks with a Great Sense of Humor.

in 2003/04 the 100th Inf BN was called up to deploy to Iraq -- I was at Schofield Barracks as a 1SG in B quad and I heard the BN before I saw them -- singing cadence in the distance, then I saw them in their slippahs, red sarongs, and blue t-shirts - damned if the lead company wasn't all 6+ ft tall and 200+ pounds. Morale was obviously high -- it was a proud "American" moment to witness

Thank you my fellow military history advocate friend PO1 Tony Holland for posting the 1st Samoan Battalion, Marine Corps Reserve which was formed in 1942.

Images:
1. Major Herbert R. Nusbaum, Commanding swears in Tupelu and three other Samoans into 1st Samoan Battalion, 1942
2. 1st Samoan Battalion display at Marine Corps Reserve Depot in San Diego up until 2012
3. Rifle inspection in formation, 1st Samoan Battalion
4. 1st Samoan Battalion, dental checkup
5. Admin orders for 1st Samoan Battalion

Background from {[nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/npswapa/extContent/usmc/pcn-190-003115-00/sec3.htm]}
American Samoa in the southeast Pacific, whose islands were also a Navy responsibility, was strategically vital as guardian of the sea routes to New Zealand and Australia from the States. At Pago Pago on Tutuila, American Samoa's largest island, there was a deep harbor and a lightly manned naval base. Recognizing its isolation and vulnerability to Japanese attack, the Navy began deploying Marines to augment its meager garrison late in 1940. The advance party of Marines who arrived at Pago Pago on 21 December were members of the 7th Defense Battalion, which had been formally activated at San Diego on the 16th.
Initially a small composite outfit of 400 men, the 7th had a headquarters battery, an infantry company, and an artillery battery as well as a detail whose task it was to raise and train a battalion of Samoan natives as Marine infantrymen. The Samoans, who were American nationals, would help the 7th defend Tutuila's 52 square miles of mountainous and jungled terrain. The defense battalion's main body reached Pago Pago in March 1942 and the 1st Samoan Battalion, Marine Corps Reserve, came into being in August. The Marines in Samoa, thinly manning naval coast defense and antiaircraft guns at Pago Pago and patrolling Tutuila's many isolated beaches were acutely aware that their relative weakness invited Japanese attack. They shared this heightened sense of danger with the Marines in the western Pacific, in China, on Luzon, and at Guam, as well as other defense battalion Marines who were gradually manning the island outposts guarding Hawaii. These few thousand men all knew that they stood a good chance of proving one again the time-honored Marine Corps recruiting slogan "First to Fight," if war came.
FYI Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. CWO3 Dennis M. GySgt Gary Cordeiro MGySgt (Join to see) Capt Jeff S. SSgt (Join to see) SSgt Robert Marx Sgt Justin DavisCrowe Cpl Douglas Loven Cpl (Join to see) PO3 Steven Sherrill CPO Tim Dickey CWO3 (Join to see) LTC Greg Henning SN Greg Wright PO1 John Johnson LTC Tom Jones LTJG Josh Thaxton