Odyssey of a Philippine Scout: Fighting, Escaping and Evading the Japanese, 1941-1944

Odyssey of a Philippine Scout is the true, verified story of a young American lieutenant s stubborn refusal to give in to overwhelming odds.
In the earliest, darkest days of American combat involvement in World War II, the small, vastly outnumbered United States forces in the Philippine Islands fought a bitter, hopeless battle against the invading Japanese. Among the US Army defenders of the Philippines- then still a US Protectorate in the process of gaining independence -were several regiments of "Philippine Scouts," units consisting of well-trained, highly disciplined Filipino enlisted men and American Regular Army officers. One of these regiments, the 26th Cavalry Regiment (Philippine Scouts, or PS) was the last US Army horse cavalry regiment to ever see action as a mounted unit; its soldiers fought in the desperate, ferocious battles on the island of Luzon in December 1941 and early 1942 against Japanese infantry, supported by tanks and artillery.
Arthur Kendal Whitehead was one of the officers in the 26th, and was knocked out of action in one of the Regiment s first engagements against the Japanese. Separated from his unit, Lieutenant Whitehead spent over two years in his attempts to regain contact with American forces in an odyssey that took him to islands throughout the Philippine Archipelago and eventually by small boat to Australia. In the process, he not only evaded myriad determined Japanese Imperial Army units and patrols, but was captured, escaped, and hunted by a tenacious and cruel enemy. Along his tortuous and perilous path, he encountered the full spectrum of factions in the Philippines, from his fellow desperate American and Filipino soldiers and sailors, to peace-loving and kind Filipino farmers, fishermen and merchants, to merciless renegades and bandits . . . and many others with agendas and outlooks somewhere in between.
Odyssey of a Philippine Scout is a thrilling and inspirational example of the legendary