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w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m
Sanananda
O
N SEPTEMBER 16, 1940, 1,735 MEMBERS OF THE MONTANA ARMY
NATIONAL GUARD'S 163RD INFANTRY REGIMENT WERE SWORN
INTO FEDERAL MILITARY SERVICE TO PROTECT AND DEFEND
THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION. Companies were stationed across
the state: 1st Battalion at Sidney, Poplar, Bozeman and Harlowton/White-
hall; 2nd Battalion at Culbertson/Wolf Point, Kalispell, Glasgow and Bill-
ings; 3rd Battalion at Great Falls, Lewistown, Billings and Chinook, with
medics at Whitefish and Service Company at Bozeman. These men
from Montana's small towns and ranching communities had
no idea they were about to face some of the most brutal jun-
gle warfare in American military history, or that their Na-
tional Guard unit would spend longer overseas than any
other American division in World War II.
INTO THE JUNGLE HELL
Montana's 163rd Infantry Regimental Combat Team
Headquarters, as well as its 1st Battalion Headquar-
ters and weapons Companies D, H, and M, each in
their turn slipped inside the steaming jungle pe-
rimeter called HUGGINS, as 163rd Commander
Colonel Jens Doe assumed command of the Sa-
nananda Front on January 3, 1943. Earlier, Lieu-
tenant Harold Fisk from Company C, patrolling
with Australian infantry, killed a Japanese snip-
er hidden in a vine-encased tree. Now Com-
pany B men were climbing into water-filled
two-man foxholes in the jungle surrounding
HUGGINS, a 75 x 50-yard grassy and bushy
flat place under sniper-filled trees. After they'd
by COLONEL (RETIRED) JOHN B. DRISCOLL
