Jungle Scouts

They were a platoon of misfits—and proud of it. Soldiers like Rodney Orange, Myron Wadsworth Folsom, Tex Whaley, Vic Svagdis, Ace Meyer, and Bruiser Neerman, rebellious young men who bristled at military authority, who had a chip on their shoulder and something to prove. Among them were a Chicago cop, a Los Angeles milkman, a Pennsylvania coal miner—and a budding reporter, John Justin Smith, who joined them in a handpicked U.S. Army Intelligence & Reconnaissance Platoon that acted as their regiment’s eyes and ears in the jungles of New Guinea in World War II. They didn’t always get along, but they got the job done.

In this vivid, punchy memoir, Smith remembers the campaign for New Guinea—one of World War II’s longest and most brutal—as experienced by this unit of free spirits and malcontents who rejected army discipline and just wanted to have a go at the Japanese. Recruited for their unmilitary demeanor and trained in commando-style warfare, Smith and his brothers-in-arms were infantry scouts tasked with conducting patrols—isolated and alone—out in front of the main body of American forces. In the unforgiving jungles of New Guinea, they lived in slime and squalor and often lacked food, proper clothing, and medical care. They endured torrential downpours, smothering humidity, filthy mud, and debilitating malaria. Over the course of 100 missions, they met a tenacious Japanese enemy prepared to fight to the last man with snipers, ambushes, boobytraps, and suicidal tactics.

John Justin Smith’s narrative—a rare new World War II memoir—takes readers deep into the New Guinea jungle alongside an unorthodox band of brothers who fought the Japanese their own way. It is an unforgettable journey into the heart of the jungle, the heart of combat, and the heart of brotherhood.