Combined Units
The regimental commander, Colonel Pence, took his regiment into the field as a unit for the first time on December 13, holding exercises that ran until the day before Christmas. Training was getting into higher levels now. Battalion staffs learned to work with the regimental staff. Battalions attacked or took defensive positions side by side, coordinating their fires, helping each other out of tough spots, keeping contact in heavily wooded terrain. Tactics were going into high levels, but the privates in the rear rank, the guys who carried the rifles and brought up the ammunition, still wanted to know why. Why did the regimental commander do this? Why did we withdraw to this position instead of another one? The officers and the NCO’s did their best to answer an avalanche of questions ranging from “How much artillery support do we have for this problem?” to the inevitable “What the hell happened to the chow last night?” Some of the GI’s who kept the officers on their toes with questions were later officers themselves—platoon leaders and company commanders.
Christmas Day saw the regiment back in camp Shelby getting ready for Christmas dinner. Thanksgiving had been spent in the field, but the cooks and mess sorgens gave the companies a real Christmas feast. The men stuff themselves until movement became an effort. Company parties that night shook the walls and rattled the windows for miles around as the men adjourned to the mess halls to drink beer and sing. The next day they took to the field again for more problems.
The final phase of training before maneuvers was combined training, which involved work with artillery support since the 522nd was still on maneuvers it was impossible for the Combat Team to function as a unit; however, the problems went on with the aid of a “borrowed” artillery battalion. Part of the time was spent working with the 232nd Engineers, who demonstrated their abilities in support of the infantry. Several times the regimental commander called on the engineers to execute demolitions and then dig in as an infantry to defend them so as to delay an enemy advance. The rest of the time before maneuvers was devoted to cleaning up equipment after many weeks in the field and brushing up on small-unit problems and firing again.
The Office of Strategic Services, the cloak-and-dagger society, put in an appearance at regimental headquarters early in January. On the 14th, four officers and nineteen enlisted men left with Captain Parker of the OSS for an unknown destination. What part these men played in the war is not known to the members of the . to this day, but most of the GIs felt that if the Nisei were good enough for OSS, they could play on anybody’s team.
Just five days later, on January 19, ten officers and 165 men were transferred to Fort George G Meade, Maryland. They were going overseas as replacements for the Nisei 100th Infantry Battalion, fighting with the veteran 34th Division in the hills before Cassino. This first group of replacements reached the 100th just in time to participate in the battle of Anzio when Anzio was still one of the hottest spots on the face of the earth.