Most of the glitter and luxury which had made Hawaii a mecca for vacationists in peacetime was missing on 15 July 1943 when the last Division troops to leave San Francisco debarked in the Islands. Now, Hawaii was the United States' principal Central Pacific base, seething with Air Forces, Army, Navy and Marine Corps personnel assembled for the inevitable westward drive. Martial law had been proclaimed shortly after the Pearl Harbor disaster and all Hawaiian-based units were given an active part in the Islands' defense. The main islands of the group each had their individual perimeters of barbed wire and machine-gun emplacements, and Navy vessels and air patrols drew a wide protective circle around the entire territory. Rigidly enforced blackouts with strict civilian supervision by the military emphasized the warlike atmosphere.

But not even a global conflict could completely conceal Hawaii's natural beauty. On Oahu, home of cosmopolitan Honolulu, Diamond Head continued to impress its majesty upon passengers sailing west from the mainland. However, adjacent Waikiki Beach, covered with a maze of barbed wire and unsightly beach obstacles, mutely notified newcomers that Oahu's status as a playground had temporarily changed. Maui's Haleakala, the world's largest extinct volcano, lent a grandeur to that island that war could not defile. On Hawaii, the "Big Island," sheer splendor radiated from Rainbow Falls, and graceful Mauna Loa towering 13,686 feet above the city of Hilo. Waimea Canyon on Kauai transformed a piece of the "Garden Isle" into a facsimile of Colorado's Rocky Mountains.

In keeping with their surroundings, the people of the Hawaiian Islands were an exotic strain. Although pure Hawaiians were in the minority, the merging of Chinese, Japanese, Polynesian, American, Portuguese and Spanish strains had produced an individual and distinctive people, a mixture of East and West.

Golden Cross troops did not have a chance to become thoroughly acquainted with this strange, yet familiar land until the entire Division was assembled in the Territory. Once this was accomplished the 33d received orders from the Hawaiian Department to assume the defense of the outer islands of the group. General Millikin, Division Special Troops, Divarty Headquarters and the 123d RCT occupied the island of Kauai. Colonel Coulter's 130th RCT went to Hilo for the defense of Hawaii, and the 136th RCT deployed on Maui, where General Myers was assigned as island commander. A single infantry battalion, the 1st, under Lt. Col. Lyman O. Williams, was sent to Molokai. Small detachments covered Lanai and Niihau.

Upon reaching their areas, the three RCTs learned that proper conduct of the mission demanded that each large command be broken down still further. Island defense was held so imperative that it superseded training and other unit functions. Consequently, battalions and companies were cut up into small detachments which fanned out over the islands to protect vulnerable beach areas, ammunition dumps and other important installations. Individual platoons and even single squads were forced to function as independent, self-sufficient units, their only contacts with higher headquarters being by telephone, radio or motor messenger. Housing, feeding and practically every phase of administration became the responsibility of junior officers, platoon sergeants and squad leaders.

A good illustration of how completely a small unit could be divorced from its parent organization lies in the experience of one rifle platoon of Company C, 136th Infantry. As part of the 1st Battalion, this platoon shipped from Maui to Molokai with the rest of its company. Once ashore at Kaunakakai the unit was loaded aboard a small motor yacht and ferried to Lanai, a little island separated from Molokai by a wide channel. The Molokai-Lanai trip consumed ten hours. On Lanai the platoon leader relieved another unit of comparable size and combined his men with a handful of air-raid warning personnel to form the entire American garrison on the island. Senior officer of United States' forces on Lanai was an infantry first lieutenant. Two months passed before his men were relieved from this duty and permitted to rejoin the 1st Battalion on Molokai.

At this time a unique command situation existed within Lt. Gen. Robert C. Richardson's Hawaiian Department. His headquarters on Oahu had split up the Territory into several "districts," each composed of a single large island or two smaller ones. Commanders for these districts were selected by the department and given the sole mission of maintaining Hawaiian defenses. Troops within these districts, regardless of unit, came under the control of island commanders. General Millikin was responsible for Kauai and General Myers had control of Maui, but elsewhere Golden Cross men operated under Hawaiian Department authorities. This unusual chain of command, formulated to give a degree of permanency to the various district headquarters, stripped the Division of much of its autonomy.

Training was not resumed until all elements of the 33d Division had been made familiar with their role in the prosecution of the mission. Battalion and company commanders were given map orientations, and then conducted on island-long reconnaissances in the company of district personnel. Each district then called a series of dry-run alerts which sent troops scurrying from their base camps to beaches, ammunition dumps and assembly areas. Within a few weeks companies aroused in the middle of the night by a district alarm could dress, secure equipment and clear their camps in less than three minutes. As soon as each district was satisfied with Division performances on these moves, emphasis shifted from island defense to training.

Hawaii offered the Division everything in the way of different types of terrain for the conduct of tactical exercises. Each island held tracts of low, rolling hills for normal maneuvering, countless broad landing beaches for amphibious training, towering ridges for practice in mountain warfare and dense, dank jungles for familiarizing troops with ground typical of the Southwest Pacific. District headquarters had no hand in preparing training doctrines or supervising Golden Cross men in this phase of their work. All 33d units functioned under schedules and memoranda sent down by Division headquarters. Despite the fact that infantrymen were spread over four different islands, each regiment trained on an identical level.

Now that Golden Cross personnel had accustomed themselves to the new defense-training routine, their activities in the Hawaiian Islands took on an aspect not unlike garrison life on the mainland. While quarters did not match those of Stateside posts, they were still adequate. Food was of much the same quality as it had been at Camp Forrest and Fort Lewis. Many companies embellished Army fare with sea food furnished by men on pass. After the Division had spent several months on the Islands, the threat to Hawaii's security greatly diminished and the percentage of troops permitted to be absent from camp was increased considerably.

There was no dearth of places to go. Kauai had the plantation towns of Lihue and Waimea, and on Maui, Wailuku was a city similar in size to Tullahoma, Tennessee. Men of the 130th RCT converged on Hilo, second largest city in the Territory. Even on desolate Molokai-site of one of the world's largest leper colonies-Kaunakakai offered a few urban comforts. A smattering of more fortunate persons received short furloughs to Honolulu.

In October the Division underwent its last change in command until after V-J-day. In recognition of General Millikin's noteworthy work in bringing the Golden Cross to a combat peak, the War Department ordered him to return to the United States and assume command of III Corps with headquarters at Atlanta, Georgia. His successor,

Maj. Gen. Percy W. Clarkson, reported to the Hawaiian Department on 18 October and was immediately assigned as Commanding General, 33d Infantry Division.

A marked contrast existed between the old and new commanders. Where General Millikin presented a sober appearance, his successor looked as rugged and earthy as the plains of his native Texas. Erect and broad of shoulder, General Clarkson had about him a mien of quiet confidence. Not a stickler for formality, he embarked on a tour of the Islands shortly after his arrival on Kauai to meet his troops. Men of the Division took to General Clarkson on sight. They liked his aggressive air. When he spoke, always forcefully, the Division knew it had acquired a fighter.

General Clarkson brought twenty-seven years of military experience to the Golden Cross. Commissioned in the Infantry in 1916, a year after his graduation from Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College, he fought through World War I with the 26th Infantry, 1st Division, emerging as Captain Clarkson. His first postwar assignments included a round of service schools, capped by a tour on the War Department General Staff. Upon successful completion of the Command and General Staff School in 1928, the General moved to West Point where he spent five years as a chemistry professor at the Military Academy. General Clarkson returned to duty with troops in 1934 after a year at the Army War College. After a brief tour as Chief of Staff of the 36th (Texas) Division the husky San Antonian became Assistant Division Commander of the 91st Division with the rank of brigadier general. In December 1942 the 87th Division was activated and General Clarkson was named its first commanding general. A second star followed shortly. He relinquished command of the Acorn Division to come to Hawaii and take over the 33d.

Training had supplanted the defense mission almost entirely by New Year's Day of 1944, although many Division elements were still required to be on constant alert. One RCT, Colonel Coulter's 130th, had been shifted from Hawaii to Kauai in December and was actually engaged in training on a full-time basis. Kauai defenses continued to be manned by personnel of the 123d RCT, who alternated between defense and training. Successful invasion of the Gilbert Islands by the Marines with its accompanying dissolution of the Japanese threat to the Hawaiians, was chiefly responsible for this change in Division activity. The last fears of an enemy strike against the Territory were dispelled on 21 January when Marine and Army forces attacked the Marshall Islands. Once the Marshalls were secured the Division was permitted to lay additional stress on reconditioning its personnel. Several Golden Cross observers accompanied the assault waves in the landing on Kwajalein.

With all restrictions on its activities now removed, the Division was able to inaugurate several advanced training phases hitherto foreign to the men. First of these was an extensive program stressing living and fighting in the jungle. Locating proper training areas was simple. New Guinea-type vegetation was plentiful in the mountains of Kauai and Maui. Combat team commanders constructed jungle training centers in these areas, developed courses of instruction and provided an aggressive "faculty" capable of impressing their lessons upon the troops. In answer to the last requirement all division graduates of Lt. Col. Francois d'Eliscu's famous Ranger School at Schofield Barracks were recruited to head the teaching staff.

From their inception these training centers achieved excellent results. Infantrymen, soured from three years of constant training, expressed complete amazement at the new and boundless scope of this training phase. Many, with deep-seated fears that the jungle would deprive their individual and crew-served weapons of potency, were shown that "mid-range" weapons could perform efficiently despite the confines of the bush. Hip-firing ranges were built to demonstrate how effectively infantry arms could function in jungle surroundings. Each man was given several opportunities to hip-fire his rifle, the light and heavy machine guns and the Browning automatic rifle. Mortarmen learned that the light 60, without sight or base plate, was a formidable jungle gun. Instruction by a detachment of engineers in the employment of various demolitions charges and the flamethrower completed the weapons phase.

Other courses included the destruction of enemy pillboxes, hand-to-hand fighting, combat-reaction problems, stream crossings and bayonet assault. High point of the Maui school's program was its demonstration of pillbox reduction. Doughboy observers marveled at the tight coordination shown by the attacking "fire team." From the moment of contact with the "enemy" the team operated smoothly and confidently. First a small base of fire was established around the team's BAR and heavy fire directed against the emplacement's embrasure. Then, the leader took one rifleman, a demolitions man and a flamethrower operator out to one side and began to edge in from the flank. Fire continued to pour into the opening until the demolitions man worked in close enough and the flamethrower was poised to follow up. Suddenly all fire stopped, a dull whoom! sounded as the charge detonated inside the emplacement, and the flamethrower operator raced in to scorch the position.

Platoons and squads were separated into similar fire teams and coached in this one method of attack for hours on end. Experience gained here served the Division well more than a year later on Luzon where combat often was a matter of blasting one pillbox after another.

A postgraduate course in jungle warfare followed once all Division elements had cleared the training centers. Golden Cross engineers on Kauai and Maui built defense installations similar to the ones used by the Japanese in Southwest Pacific fighting. They selected commanding ground for the "enemy" positions and dug in log-reinforced pillboxes concealed by strips of blending foliage to cover all routes of approach. Rifle companies were brought to the base of the jungle-covered ridges, given a proper orientation and field order, and sent forward in the attack. An "enemy" detail armed with rifles and blank-firing machine guns actually defended the ground. Umpires traveled with the assaulting forces to measure advances and assess friendly and enemy casualties.

All phases of the problem were conducted under' combat conditions. When an infantryman was "hit," medics had to crawl forward and administer on-the-spot aid. The only breaks taken were for the sole purpose of correcting flagrant errors. At dusk the companies were required to break contact, pull back into a perimeter, and adopt proper defensive precautions. Water, ammunition and rations were brought forward and distributed under tactical conditions.

These problems were of three-day duration. Once a unit had completed its attack, it was given a thorough critique of its actions. As part of the critique, troops retraced their route on the ground where umpires reconstructed the tactical situation and discussed different methods of successfully pressing forward. Often the conductor of the critique would place the attacking force in the same position it had occupied a day or two before and then request the "enemy" detail to emerge from its concealed pillboxes and foxholes. Most of the outfits were mortified to discover that at several phases in the problem they had been covered from all four sides simultaneously.

February of 1944 saw the 33d transfer its attention from jungle warfare to amphibious training, the most ambitious and advanced training assignment yet undertaken by the Division. Again personnel were transferred from barracks and defense outposts to specially equipped bases. On Maui the 136th RCT assembled under canvas at a huge camp near Kihei, and Golden Cross units on Kauai alternated at an amphibious training center at Port Allen. Each regiment and separate battalion was ordered to transplant its headquarters to the beach. Division insisted that cooks, company clerks, drivers, bandsmen, supply men and other rear-echelon personnel take this training with their units.

Amphibious training in the Hawaiian Islands was limited exclusively to shore-to-shore movements. As a result, troops became acquainted with only the LCVP (landing craft, vehicle-personnel) and the larger LCM (landing craft, medium). Battalions were organized into boat teams shortly after their arrival at the centers and all training was carried on at the boat-team level. Before setting foot in a landing craft, boat teams were thoroughly briefed in the fundamentals of amphibious exercises.

Artillerymen practiced loading and unloading their bulky howitzers from mock-up LCMs; drivers attended a waterproofing school at the center; and infantrymen sat through lengthy periods of instruction to learn how to clear the craft, deploy along the beach and reorganize inland once the sandy approaches had been negotiated. Every man in the 33d Division went to dry-land cargo nets where he was shown how to secure equipment so that his hands were free to grasp the ropes. Following that, instructors demonstrated the correct method of going over the side and then turned the troops loose on the nets.

With the basic phases past, boat teams took to the water. Carrying identifying placards, they were marched down to the dock by landing waves. Cargo nets were employed in descending from the dock to waiting craft. The Navy-manned boats then turned away from shore and headed four or five miles out to a rendezvous. First boats to reach the rendezvous point began to cruise around in a wide circle waiting for other craft in the wave to fall into position. Once every boat in the wave was in the circle and in its proper place, a Navy control vessel issued the signal to make the landing run. Quickly the circle of craft faded into a wide line and swept toward the beach. A few yards offshore the coxswain gave the order, "Brace yourselves!" Seconds later the LCVPs grated to a stop, the ramp dropped, and troops were racing across the white sand.

In the best tradition of the jungle training centers, the amphibious centers also offered a de luxe postgraduate test. With Navy cooperation, it was planned to load an entire battalion landing team on LCVPs and LCMs, make a landing against an organized defense and then have the battalion move inland against other strongpoints. Company C, 108th Engineers, designed defensive installations on Maui for 136th Infantry landings while the rest of the engineer battalion prepared positions on Kauai.

Strongpoints confronting Colonel Draper's men were patterned after Japanese defenses on Betio Island in the Gilberts. Known as "Little Tarawa," it proved to be the roughest training problem attacked by 136th men in their World War II history.

"Little Tarawa" did not get unusually difficult until troop landings and inland reorganization had been effected. Once boat teams reverted back into platoons and companies and began to drive forward they discovered that their path of advance led up a steep ridge running perpendicular to the shore. The ridge was virtually covered with a layer of volcanic rock save for several grassy clearings which housed tremendous concrete pillboxes. "Enemy" details were present all along the ridge top but pillboxes were unoccupied so that 136th troops could actually reduce them with flamethrowers and "live" demolitions charges. Although "Little Tarawa" was only a one-day exercise, it proved to be far more strength-sapping than the three-day jungle problem.

Here the emphasis was on speed. Infantrymen knew that as assault waves they had to push on rapidly so that other elements of the regiment could land and clear the beach. Leaders were required to analyze the situation quickly and keep their units pressing up the ridge. February's normally temperate climate had taken a turn to the humid side and medics were kept busy administering relief to heat-prostration cases. Umpires made each company sweat for its pillboxes. If an attack was expedited in a shabby fashion, umpires declared the units to be "held up by hostile fire" and the platoon had to employ the correct tactics before it was permitted to resume the advance.

Footing was insecure, and on volcanic rock a fall meant painful lacerations from the razor-sharp lava. Men saw a half-day's marching actually eat away the soles of their shoes. Doughboys forced to hit the ground due to "enemy" fire had their clothes shredded by the terrain. The excessive heat built up a thirst in the troops but no breaks were called for rest or replenishment of the water supply. Except for the volcanic rock, "Little Tarawa" was a harbinger of things to come when the 33d Division suffered through the heat and tortures of the Philippine campaign.

Amphibious training ended in early March and the Division returned to base camps and beach positions. Training continued, but now settled back into a less exhausting groove. Expert Infantryman tests were begun and each of the regiments took to the small-arms ranges and various combat courses. Doughboys took their required marches, went through the infiltration course at night and learned the technique of street fighting in engineer-built Jap villages. Every infantryman in the Division was familiarized with all infantry weapons. During this phase many afternoons were spent at outdoor theaters listening to 7th Division veterans discuss enemy conduct during the battle for Kwajalein.

A second major command change occurred in March. Colonel Draper, leader of the 136th Infantry since its activation in April 1942, was relieved from command of the regiment on 14 March by the War Department, and ordered to report to Washington where he was slated to head the Army's war-contract renegotiation branch. Several months after his return to the United States Colonel Draper was promoted to brigadier general. With the end of the war in Europe he went to Germany as economics chief of Military Government headquarters. In the summer of 1947 he was given his second star while on duty at Frankfurt. He left Military Government a few weeks later to become Under Secretary of the Army. The regiment's executive officer, Lt. Col. Ray E. Cavenee, a fifty-year-old Regular, assumed command on 14 March 1944 and was promoted to colonel a month later.

General Richardson's headquarters, now designated Central Pacific Area Headquarters rather than the Hawaiian Department, alerted the Division for movement to the Southwest Pacific at the end of March. In characteristic fashion, General Clarkson made a quick trip to Australia, conferred with General MacArthur, visited the Division's destination in New Guinea and on his return personally carried the news of the alert to members of his command. Speaking to each battalion separately the Division Commander covered Kauai and then flew to Maui to talk to the 136th RCT. Troops gained confidence from the General's visit. They liked the sincere, confident way he discussed the hardships which lay ahead and the capabilities of the Golden Cross to overcome them. So contagious and unconcealed was General Clarkson's feeling of pride in the 33d that a new esprit swept over the Division in the wake of his talks.

Proper observation of security regulations prevented higher headquarters from disclosing the Division's destination to the rank and file of the Golden Cross, but everyone realized that New Guinea was the only logical choice. With the exception of Australia, it was the only area open to American forces. In the spring of 1944 New Guinea represented the outer fringe of General MacArthur's advances in the Southwest Pacific. Even as the Division prepared for its southward move, other infantry divisions in New Guinea were engaged in fierce fighting at Aitape, and final preparations were under way for the invasion of Biak. As for the date of departure, troops could only guess, but all hands knew that the alert presaged an early "Aloha Hawaii."

With the Division's departure to a combat theater imminent, General Clarkson was content to retain the same command and staff group which had achieved such brilliant results in Central Pacific advanced training. Lt. Cols. Frank S. Singer, Frank J. Sackton, William M. Haycock and John J. Dolan remained as G-1, -2, -3, and -4 respectively (Personnel, Intelligence, Plans and Training, and Supply).

Members of the special staff were Lt. Col. Joseph Martz, Adjutant General; Lt. Col. William T. Delihant, Finance Officer; Chaplain (Lt. Col.) William J. Rogers, Division Chaplain; Lt. Col. Jacob M. Arvey, Judge Advocate General; Lt. Col. Leslie R. Ireland, Ordnance Officer; Major Ralph Wagner, Signal Officer; Lt. Col. Fred A. Curl, Chemical Warfare Officer; Lt. Col. Timothy J. Mullen, Division Surgeon; Major Francis P. Kane, Division Engineer; Lt. Col. Ernest Bauman, Inspector

General; Lt. Col. Russell K. Kuhns, Division Quartermaster; Major Andrus B. Neill, Headquarters Commandant; Major Victor E. Warner, Provost Marshal; and Major Eli J. Paris, Special Services Officer.

Colonels Serff, Coulter and Cavenee continued in command of the three infantry regiments. Division Artillery was commanded by General Paxton with Col. Christiancy Pickett serving as artillery executive officer. The 122d Field Artillery Battalion, of the 123d RCT, was headed by Lt. Col. Roland P. Carlson. Lt. Col. William S. Everett led the 124th Field Artillery, assigned to support Colonel Coulter's 130th RCT. Fire support for the 136th RCT came from the 210th Field Artillery under Lt. Colonel MacDonald. In command of medium artillery was Lt. Col. George W. McClure of the 123d Field Artillery. The 108th Medical Battalion functioned under the leadership of Lt. Col. Durand Smith, while Major Kane led the 108th Engineer Combat Battalion.

Again the 130th RCT was the first element of the Division to make the change of station. On 21 April the Blackhawks, with troops of supporting arms and services, boarded inter-island steamers on Kauai and moved to Honolulu. There, personnel were transferred to the Lurline, a huge Army transport. Four days later the 123d RCT and part of Division Headquarters repeated the process, boarding the Matsonia. These vessels were famous luxury liners which had been converted to transport use. In prewar days they made the tourist runs from San Francisco to Australia. Men of the 136th RCT embarked on the Monterey, a sister ship of the Matsonia. The Hawaiian Islands phase for the Golden Cross officially reached an end on 30 April when the Monterey cast loose from its Honolulu moorings and headed "Down Under."