OSS VETERAN REUNION BRINGS YOUTH NEWS OF FATHER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000300320003-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 22, 1999
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: June 26, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

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CPYRGH$anitized - Approv'N FoI Nease : CIA-RDP75-00001 R
CPYRGHT FOIAb3b
TALK OF GUERRILLA FIGHTING IN BURMA
By ARTITUR GOLDEN
Star &Mff Writer
In a room crowded ' wi i war
etcrans whose bonds of friend-
hip wclc forged in savage
ungle fighting, George Ikeda,
8, searched for information
bout a man he had loved.
Ikeda wanted to know about
s father.
The elder Ikeda was an
f jicer_in .Detachment 101 of the
~.iper-secret Office, of Strategic
erg}.fie and participated in the
outfit's-' spectacular guerrilla
xploits behind enemy lines
urma during World War II. H
died in an airplane crash six
years ago.
"I suppose I just wasp'
curious then about what kind o
Barnwell snooK his head and "We did what was necessary,
s
s
aid: "I didn't even- know he by means fair or foul, to
i
as dead until you told me." achieve our objectives," Eifler
Not many others recalled declared..
awaiian-born Capt. Chick Eifler was an unusual man to
Ikeda. head an unusual mission. A high
His son was told it was com-, school dropout, he enlisted in cers to etachedAfrroml the man body of the Army in 1922. "They kicked
troops to serve _for_ extended' me out when they found I was
15," he chuckled..
periods with native gucrrillas,: Later Eifler became a Lose
o that opportunities for friend- Angeles policeman, border
hips were limited. patrol officer and building
Although Ikeda learned little contractor. He joined the Army
,bout his father, he learned a ! Reserve and was called to
of about the tough, dirty; I' extended active duty shortly
ruthless war in which his father before the war sbarted. Eifler
ought. He heard of battles in was, commanding a prisoner of
)laces with Kipl ingesque j, war camp on Hawaii when he
names, like Lawksawk, Pang l, was summoned to .Washington ?
Cara, and Loilem. And he heard' to form the detachment.
to
of tactics used by his father and;
officers which today are i Discharged after a head
being employed by the Viet ,, wound sustained in a landing
ong. o p e r a t i o n, Eifler quickly
The detachment's first con-l'climbed the academic totem
mander, Carl Eifler, of Monte- pole. He was graduated -from
rey, Calif., described the group high school and received four II unit
colle behinde onl y enemy Orlin Warted by j doctorate in prees sycholog uuding a
Americans." Its mission was to. What troubles Eifler today Is
recruit and train Burmese that many of the weapons and
natives for sabotage and intelli- tactics used by the detachment
gence operations in Japanese- areeing employed by the Viet
held territory." Cong.
Eiflcr...a beefy, silver-haired "They are fighting as we
fought. It Is difficult to over.
psychologist, handpicked the first 21 men for the detachment, he said. "They are
"It came to a punk Army picking the time and place to
;fight as we did.".
captain to implement special
There is an important differ-
warfare in a quarter of the
ence, however.
world" he said.
'its peak, Eifler's outfit "In Burma,' we ran the guer-
grew. rilla warfare and knew our
to about 300 Americans-
enemy, . said Al Richter, a
all volunteers - and 3 . No oaptain with the detachment
Burmese,_mainly Kachin tribes-,
who is now a Falls Church.
men. With this handful of men,' businessman.
the detachment covered a 10, "In Viet Nam, the Viet Cong
000-square mile area of steam- is the guerrilla and he knows
ing jungles and impassable who the enemy is."
roads: Eifler's detachment utilized a'
In its devastating hit-and-run brutal 'arsenal of homemade!
operations, the detachment weapons. It perfected the punji-
killed 5,000 Japanese troops which were fire-'hardened pieces
while taking fewer than 400 of bamboo. Sometimes the punji
casualties. Ina key series of sticks were, shuck into balls and
man my father was," Iked out
said. "But I want to find ou f
Ikeda, of Cabin John, Md., has
Hotel where Detachment 10
held its annual reunion thi
week. At a reception, the Le
high University sophomor
examined photographs of th
old outfit's personnel, read th
unit's citations and tried to f'
his father's buddies.
Reserve Officers' Trainin
Corps in college and some da
may have to face the same typ
or guerrilla warfare in whic
his father engaged more tha
two decades ago.
"I don't think the people her
want to relive the war," th
young man said. "But th
experiences of the war mad
them very close. If I went
Viet Nam, I would enjoy mee
ing others who went with m
when it was all over."
Lt. Col. Dan Barnwell
Springfield, Va., was among th
iatner.
time." Barnwell told the sle -
der, blackhaircd student. "Yo
dad was very indiistrious an
.cooks to practicedf~'
SS:Vetercm Reurnon brings'.
Youth News of' Father
.
engagements near the Stillwell
Road in Burma, the detachment
killed 1,247 enemy soldiers and
lost only 37 'Americans and
~ natives..
Approved For Release : CIA:RDP75-00001"R000300320003-7
wung on a rope. y yin
ts way got stuck," said Bill
Martin, of Cheyenne, Wyo. "It
could tear hell out of a man."
The punji sticks also were
used in ambushes which be-
came a trademark of the de-
tachment. "We would line the,
jungle on either side with the'
sticks," said James Ward, of
Bethesda, now a:li'oreign Serv-
ice officer. lie added:
,,we would let the advance
parties through, and then we
would open up with machine
guns at their front, and mortars
at their rear. They couldn't go
forward or backward, and the
punji sticks prevented them
from going in any other direc-
tion."
Ward pointed out that the
group did not intend to annihi-
late the enemy but to "harass
and kill as malty as possible"
before melting back into ? the
jungle.
Few people at the reunion
were interested in, discussing
strategy, tactics, and the long
days without a decent meal in
malaria infested jungles.
"When you' look back, you
remember the good things;
Ward said., "The bad side your
memory doesn't: dweU ono".;