The seizure and liberation of the southern Philippines was assigned to Tenth Corps Headquarters, the Americal Division, the 24th Division, 31st Division and the 503rd PRCT.  Only under General MacArthur�s direct order did General Krueger reluctantly release the 503d to General Eichelberger, and when the decision became known at our level, there was hardly a 503d PRCT officer who didn't share Krueger's reservations.

 At a time when the invasion of Japan was in its final stages of planning, and special troops such as paratroopers would be vital,  Eichelberger would send in a lightly armed hardly more than half strength parachute RCT (which at full strength numbered 3,000 men) to engage in five months of heavy infantry duty � whilst leaving two Infantry RCT's (the 185th and the 160th)  reinforced by corps arms (that's 10,000 men) on the reserve benches. Eichelberger, an adequate Army commander when held on a tight leash, was not a first-rank soldier of Krueger's caliber. "Regiments here," he  had once advised MacArthur from New Guinea, "soon have the strength of battalions and a little later are not much more than companies." In the foxholes of Buna and Gona then, it was little wonder that he had been called "Eichelbutcher."