BOB CLEGG
Bob Clegg was born June 24, 1920 and raised in Colfax. He graduated from Colfax High and spent two years at Washington State College in Pullman in pre-law, then decided to work for awhile before returning to college. In October of 1941 he married Lois Elliott when they were twenty-one and nineteen years old. After he returned from World War II he went to work for Lois's dad's business, Elliott's Paint Store, the day after Christmas in 1945. He worked for the family business until 1960, then bought the store and operated it until 1977 when he retired.
When he tired of retirement, he took on the post of Manager of the Port of Whitman County for six years during which time he was involved in the leasing factor and worked with the Port Commission on grain elevators and grain transporting, plus a planeing mill at the Port of Wilma. He retired again in 1983, acquired an RV and he and Lois toured twelve thousand miles around the country. They raised one son and two daughters and he has three grandchildren. He was recently widowed and lives in Colfax, from where he volunteered for military service early in 1942.
Bob Clegg knew he was draftable. He had checked with the Director of the Local Draft Board in 1942 and found he had been classified 3A, but he volunteered anyway for Officer Candidate School, and was in the Army. He took his wife along with him to Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia for his Infantry training after Basic Training at Camp Roberts in California. After thirteen weeks at Fort Benning he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Infantry. He was returned to Camp Roberts and was shortly assigned to the 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiment at Fort Ord, California. The Regiment was then moved to Camp Cook near Santa Maria, California where it was put through Basic and Advanced Training. This took place over a two year period.
However, in early 1944 a War Department Directive was issued allowing Filipinos over the age of thirty-eight to receive a hardship discharge. Over one-third of the enlisted personnel took advantage of the Directive, leaving many officers to be reassigned.
About that time another War Department Directive was received asking for volunteers for a special Jungle Fighting Mission. Many of the officers of the 2nd Filipino Regiment decided to take the opportunity to stay together. They were assembled at Fort Meade, Maryland and soon were on a transport ship, on their way, as they found out later, to India by way of the southern tip of Africa.
They landed in Bombay and were met by two high ranking officers who told them they were now members of Merrill's Marauders. (There is some information on the Marauders in an article titled "The Forgotten War" in Part Seven at the back of this book.) Everyone was completely in the dark as to what their assignments entailed. They then endured a seven-day trip across India, by Indian railroad, headed for Ledo. They later learned that Merrill's Marauders had departed many weeks before Clegg's arrival.
The Marauders had left from Ledo, Assam in Northern India heading for the mountains separating Indian from Burma. Their destination: Myitkyina, Burma, a Japanese stronghold. They journeyed on foot, using mules to carry their supplies. Not only were they confronted by the enemy, but also every disease known to the area including Malaria, Dengue Fever, and Typhus, plus leeches, snakes, and big jungle cats. General Merrill was stricken on that journey by a heart condition but insisted on staying with his troops. It had become obvious that by the time the surviving original Marauders reached Myitkyina, replacements would be needed since they would have just endured a horrible march through Burma, fighting Japanese troops the entire distance.
Upon Clegg's arrival in Myitkyina, it was very clear to him that the Marauders were indeed in bad shape. He then understood the reason he and the other volunteers traveling with him flew in to join the Marauders the day after Merrill's men arrived in Myitkyina.
The Forgotten War suddenly became a reality to Clegg and the rest of the volunteers. The Japanese had fortified on one side of the Myitkyina air strip, the United States troops the other. The new men were required to form units sitting under parachute material tents.
"It was a screwed up mess," recalled Bob, shaking his head at the memory of that day. "I was an anti-tank officer, but there were no anti-tank guns."
The idea was to take that northernmost outpost in Burma away from the Japanese. With minimal indoctrination they engaged a live enemy with live ammo, and lost. They drew back, then the 3rd Battalion, of which Clegg was a part, moved north of the airstrip, with orders to set up a road block, which they established in about six hours.
"Then suddenly a Jap truck showed up," explained Clegg. "They were all so surprised to see someone at the road block that they got away. I think they were as surprised to see us there as we were to see them."
The operation was stalemated for several weeks. A few rounds were fired, and several men were killed, but not much damage was done to the enemy. The Japanese had been there awhile and were well-protected and camouflaged. The 3rd Battalion decided to pull out and called for a B-25 squadron from China to bomb the area. That they did, but the Chinese pilots, for some inexplicable reason, dropped all their bombs in the nearby Irrawaddy River, and never touched the Japanese emplacements.
At that point, the officers in charge recognized that their units were lacking in training, so they brought up another Battalion, one that was trained, to occupy their place. After some intensive training, they moved closer to the Japanese. Clegg and six or seven other men were stationed at an outpost on a rice paddy, and one day decided to move back a bit. Just after they did the Japanese opened up on their former position with a 155 Mountain Howitzer. One of the shells dropped fifteen feet to the right of Clegg as they were evacuating and the exploding shrapnel went through his right arm.
He spent thirty days in the 20th General Hospital in Ledo, Assam, India. It was staffed by University of Pennsylvania medical personnel. "The Army would recruit medical personnel who had trained together and worked well together to staff field hospitals. They knew what to do as a team," Bob explained. "I got really good care. They also sent other teams, like railroad people who were sent to India. Two Battalions of train people were sent to upgrade the India transportation system. They had a rough go for three years, not from artillery, but from disease like dengue, malaria, and yellow fever."
When he had recovered he was sent to China to train Chinese Infantry Officers, some of whom had been in the military fifteen years. "Their methods and tactics were antiquated," said Bob. "We had to work through Chinese interpreters, but they were all intelligent men who spoke perfect English."
When asked if the Chinese officers understood what they were being told, Clegg shrugged and said, "I never knew. The proof was in the practice."
The southwestern area of China has traditionally contained the dregs of China. Governors of other provinces for centuries have sent criminals and derelicts to the Yunan Province to rid themselves of problems. Even as early as Marco Polo's travels, that reality was notable to him. That made it difficult to get the people there to work as a team against the Japanese.
When the A-bomb was dropped, Clegg and the other men stationed in China were not at all aware of what had happened for many days. But soon he was told to fly over the Hump to Calcutta. From Calcutta he was shipped out headed for a Mediterranean Cruise that ultimately would take him home to Colfax. While he had three attacks of malaria while in China, he only had one slight recurrence after his return, something for which he is grateful.
His summed up in one brief statement his attitude about serving in the China-Burma-India war. "In that kind of a mess," he shrugged, "You make the best of it."