William Garbo was born in 1924 in Laurel, Mississippi. He was in high school when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He turned 18 during the early part of his senior year of high school and became very anxious to join the United States armed forces. Garbo joined the Army since his eyesight was too poor to pass the physical for the other branches. He was sworn in during his senior year, but remained in high school with the rest of his friends in order to graduate before shipping out. Three days after graduation, he took a Greyhound bus to Camp Shelby, Mississippi. There, Garbo was outfitted with his uniform. A few weeks later, Garbo reported to Camp Lee, Virginia for 14 weeks of basic training, during which time, he was promoted to PFC, private first class. One morning, Garbo's superiors asked if any of the men were familiar with hunting dogs or loved to work with dogs, and told any man interested to report to the sergeant. Garbo volunteered along with six other men. The sergeant told them about the Army's K9 Corps and that they would be training dogs for use in combat. Garbo was accepted into the program and a week later, he boarded a troop train for California. It took almost a week to get to San Francisco. Garbo then boarded a truck to Camp San Carlos. Camp San Carlos was a small camp that boarded only 250 men, but housed some 500 dogs and was only used for dog training purposes. The dogs were recruited and given a serial number. Garbo trained six dogs over a three month span, most of which were messenger dogs. The men used dogs on guard duty and some of the dogs were trained for scouting. Garbo was inducted into the Army in July 1943 and by May 1944 had graduated K9 school. After graduating, Garbo was assigned to the 26th War Dog Platoon. He boarded a truck with the rest of the platoon and its dogs and headed for Fort Morgan in San Francisco. At the docks of Fort Morgan waited a liberty ship equipped with kennels. The living quarters for the men were on the top deck of the ship since the lower decks were packed with war materiels for the South Pacific. On 14 May 1944, the ship departed from San Francisco and arrived in New Guinea 30 days later. The ship traveled in unorthodox sea lanes to avoid Japanese submarines, which made the journey long and tiresome. They landed at Milne Bay. The platoon resided in tents for a few weeks until orders came which sent them into combat. The platoon loaded up with its dogs in two C-47 Skytrains [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft] and took off from a short jungle runway then landed the next morning for a fuel and rest stop before taking off again for Dutch New Guinea. They landed at Aitape on a soggy airfield that had been hastily built by Navy Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of a naval construction battalion]. When Garbo and his platoon left their plane, they heard gunfire and artillery fire in the distance. Garbo and his platoon loaded up in trucks with their dogs and equipment and went to the beach where they set up camp among other troops waiting to go into combat. The 26th War Dog Platoon was billeted with an Australian unit for meals and stayed on the beach for about two weeks before Garbo and the platoon's other messenger, George Dillar [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling], moved out with a group of scouts for the combat zone. The group loaded into an Army DUKW [Annotator's Note: an amphibious truck, referred to as a Duck] and headed out in solitude for a five to seven mile journey down the beach. Near their final destination, the men in Garbo's group saw the body of a Japanese soldier floating in the water near the mouth of a river. The DUKW unloaded Garbo and his team in a clearing near the river where an American 155mm artillery battery was located. Garbo's group arrived there in the evening and set up camp for the night. Initially, Garbo's group wanted to set up jungle hammocks but the artillerymen informed them that, while comfortable, a jungle hammock would inhibit them from waking up ready to fight if the Japanese hit the position at night. Garbo and his companions listened and abandoned their jungle hammocks. Just as darkness swept over the artillery battery, a group of natives approached and deposited the bodies of six dead American soldiers wrapped in ponchos. It was in that moment that Garbo realized the seriousness of war.

William Garbo first entered a combat zone in an Army DUKW [Annotator's Note: an amphibious truck, referred to as a Duck]. He arrived in the late afternoon near the mouth of the Driniumor River on the northern coast of what was then Dutch New Guinea at a 105mm artillery position. As Garbo's group set up camp, a group of natives emerged carrying six dead American soldiers on stretchers. The bodies were covered with ponchos, but their booted feet were exposed. Seeing the dead Americans placed Garbo firmly in the reality of his situation. The next morning, Garbo and his group rose at first light and roused their dogs. Garbo's dog was a black Belgian Shepherd named Teddy and Garbo led him on a leash up a muddy path for about three miles until he and his group came across a group of Americans dug in along the river. The Americans were from a regimental combat team from the US Army’s Dixie Division [Annotator's Note: 31st Infantry Division]. The division consisted mostly of soldiers from the South. Garbo met seven other soldiers from his home town in Mississippi by the end of that day. Garbo's group was attached to the combat team and settled in with them for the night. The Japanese assaulted their positions in the early hours of the morning. The Americans heard the sounds of clanking metal from the river and called back to their mortar crews to fire a flare into the night sky. The flare illuminated the entire scene and revealed the Japanese soldiers moving across the river. The Americans opened up with machine guns and Garbo fired his carbine as flares illuminated the battle until the fighting subsided. To Garbo, the fire fight seemed to last forever. Farther south from Garbo's position, the Japanese had broken through the American lines and Americans from the overrun area retreated to Garbo's position and jumped into the American foxholes there. Daylight brought a tremendous relief to Garbo and his fellow soldiers. Garbo's first combat experience was a trial by fire, and the next morning, he saw the results. The river was full of dead Japanese soldiers. The battle wore on in this fashion for days. Some days there was little or no fighting, but every night brought some form of action. Soon after the first night's battle, Garbo and his dog, Teddy, were selected to go on a patrol. The patrol's scout dog was named Mark and he and his handler led the patrol, which consisted of seven men in total. Garbo brought up the rear. The patrol crossed the Driniumor River unopposed and entered the jungle on the far side. The Japanese held the far side of the river, where the patrol landed, so the men moved silently, using only hand signals. After moving about an hour away from the river, the scout dog became alert which usually indicated an enemy presence nearby. The men of the patrol dropped to the ground as the Japanese patrol went by. It took the Japanese unit nearly an hour to move past the American patrol, but the Americans remained undetected. After the enemy had moved out, the lieutenant in command of the patrol scribbled a message with the patrol's coordinates for regimental command back on the river. Garbo tucked the message into Teddy's collar and sent him back to the river to deliver it. Teddy made it back to the American lines unscathed and delivered the message. The coordinates were sent to the artillery battery near the beach via carrier pigeon and the artillery fired off a barrage directly at the location specified by the lieutenant. Garbo's reconnaissance patrol ran its course then headed back to the American lines. On the way back, Garbo took the lead as his dog, Teddy, had already left the patrol with the lieutenant's message. Garbo wrestled his way through some jungle foliage and stepped into a clearing on the other side where he was met with five pairs of Japanese eyes staring at him. Luckily for Garbo, all five pairs of eyes belonged to dead Japanese soldiers. Garbo and the group made their way back across the river to the American lines. Patrols were sent out daily along the river. Some included war dogs and others did not. Soldiers always wanted dogs with them out on patrol since the dogs could alert them to an enemy presence long before any man could detect the enemy. That kept the Japanese from surprising the Americans. The war dogs were trained from the very beginning not to bark at the enemy. The dogs alerted soldiers to the presence of the enemy without giving away the American positions. Garbo remained stationed on the river and went on numerous patrols and always served as the messenger and many of the patrols were reconnaissance ones.

The Battle of the Driniumor River lasted for 45 days. William Garbo was attached to a regiment of the Army's Dixie Division [Annotator's Note: 124th Regimental Combat Team, 31st Infantry Division] as well as to the 112th Cavalry Regiment. The US Army high command wanted various Army units to experience how war dogs functioned in jungle warfare. One night during the battle, Garbo and his messenger dog, Teddy, were in a bunker style foxhole with another soldier. The foxhole was rectangular in shape with logs perched over the top, but had an opening in the front. Garbo's foxhole was surrounded by other American foxholes in the line so that the position was defended from all four directions. During the late afternoon, a host of animals and insects raised a riotous crescendo as daylight ceded to darkness, but after darkness fell, the noise ceased almost instantaneously. The Americans protected the perimeter of their position with barbed wire and attached empty ration cans to the wire to serve as a noise barrier against stealthy enemies. This particular night, Garbo and his fellow soldier heard rustling near their foxhole and Garbo's dog Teddy repeatedly nudged him with his nose to indicate an unexpected human presence. A Japanese soldier had crawled up on top of the position and dropped a bundle of dynamite in through the opening. Garbo and his foxhole mate scrambled around in the foxhole in an attempt to discard the dynamite, but before they found it, the blasting cap detonated. The Japanese soldier had carried the dynamite bundle across the river, however, and the dynamite was soaked with water. Only the blasting cap exploded, not the dynamite. The blasting cap's explosion was so loud that it temporarily deafened Garbo and his fellow soldier, but it did not hurt them otherwise. After the blasting cap exploded, Garbo and his foxhole mate hurled a couple of grenades out in hopes of killing the enemy, but never confirmed if they did or not. While on the river, a few new replacement troops who had joined the regiment went down to the river to bathe on a seemingly quiet day. While they washed on the sandbar, a Japanese soldier charged out from the jungle on the far side of the river with a sabre, ran across the shallow water and killed two of the men and severely injured a third before the third escaped to the American lines. It was widely understood among veteran troops that it was never acceptable to disarm oneself to bathe in plain view of the enemy, but the new troops did not understand the peril. It was also forbidden for American troops to get out of their foxholes at night as friendly troops might mistakenly kill one of their own in the night. The regiment was resupplied via airdrop from C-47 Skytrains. The regiment's mail was delivered by a currier. Mail call was incredibly important to the men.

The Battle of the Driniumor River ended in August of 1944 after the Japanese 18th Army had been completely decimated. The American 112th Cavalry Regiment, to which William Garbo was temporarily attached, suffered 500 to 600 casualties out of 1,500 total men. Garbo was pulled off the front lines along with his regiment and sent to a safe camp on the beach where the men ate hot meals and slept on cots with mosquito nets. At the camp, the men were kept busy with menial tasks designed to take their minds off of combat. Garbo saw men who had lost their minds as a result of prolonged exposure to intense combat. From there, Garbo and his fellow soldiers boarded a troopship and attempted to take their personal war loot of Japanese bayonets, helmets, and other trinkets, but were all told to leave their war trophies behind. The troop ship took them to Halmahera where they docked for a few days while waiting for other troop ships to amass there. Garbo later discovered that the troop ships forming up at Halmahera carried the troops for the invasion of the Philippines. After three days the convoy moved out. The convoy went to the island of Leyte, where Garbo and his unit unloaded and went ashore about a week after the initial landings had begun. Garbo landed at White Beach and moved inland totally unopposed. He and his unit then received orders to move into the Leyte Valley where the Japanese put up heavy resistance. Before Garbo's unit moved out however, they received some replacement troops to bolster their ranks but they did not get as many as they needed. By this time, Garbo had been transferred from the 26th Quartermaster Corps War Dog Platoon to the 112th Cavalry Regiment, in which he was assigned to a machine gun squad. After the Battle of the Driniumor River had ended and Garbo was back on the beach with his unit for rest and recovery, one of the men in the 26th War Dog Platoon played a dirty prank on the platoon's lieutenant. While the lieutenant was away, the prankster, Russell Thompson [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling], put dog feces in the lieutenant's cot. When the lieutenant discovered the prank, Thompson never stepped forward and none of the men told on him. Since no one claimed responsibility for the prank, the lieutenant threatened to transfer men out of the unit in hopes of cracking the prankster. Fed up with the entire situation, Garbo, along with six other men, all stepped forward for a transfer and the men were divided up among the three different units on the river whose numbers had been depleted in battle and needed replacements.

After William Garbo was transferred to the 112th Cavalry Regiment [Annotator's Note: G Troop, 2nd Squadron, 112th Cavalry Regiment] after the Battle of the Driniumor River, he was on a ship bound for the Philippines for the invasion of Leyte. The invasion of Leyte, however, had begun nearly two weeks prior to Garbo's arrival. Garbo landed at White Beach and moved inland to a staging area where he assembled with his unit. From there Garbo moved out with his unit to the Leyte Valley where they received replacement troops to bolster the regiment's strength. Garbo received a new assistant gunner in his machine gun squad, but the man was an older recruit who was married and absolutely terrified of combat. The replacement's nerves almost had deadly consequences for Garbo. In one instance, Garbo's machine gun squad packed up their gear in order to move out from a rice patty. Garbo picked up the tripod and asked his new assistant gunner to pick up the gun. The replacement had taken the ammunition belt out of the breach but had not cleared the loaded round from the chamber. He picked up the gun and squeezed the trigger and shot the bullet directly into the mud between Garbo's legs. That night, Garbo was in a foxhole with his assistant gunner and the replacement was unnerved by the sounds of water buffalo sloshing through a nearby rice patty. Garbo woke up from a nap to find that the replacement unknowingly had his .45 caliber pistol pointed directly at Garbo's head. Later, the replacement lost his nerve completely and killed a water buffalo. The next morning brought a wave of relief to Garbo, but as his unit moved up a trail between two rice patties, a Japanese artillery barrage zeroed in on the trail and rained shells down on the Americans. Garbo and his men dove into the rice patties for cover, and had to move up the trail in increments as sporadic Japanese artillery fire harassed their advance. Finally, the group reached a coconut grove at the end of the trail, but soon after they got there, a massive artillery barrage hit the grove and caused some casualties. Garbo dove into a foxhole followed closely by his assistant gunner, who dove in on top of him. The replacement received a minor wound during the barrage, but it was enough for him to be pulled off the line, much to Garbo's relief. Garbo later received a new assistant gunner. Garbo and his unit moved up into the foothills that preceded the rainforest covered mountains of Leyte. As the unit moved out of the coconut grove, a thick, damp fog descended on the Americans and a light rain began to fall. Despite the miserable weather, the fog at least provided Garbo and his unit cover from artillery, as the Japanese could not pinpoint their movements.

After enduring an artillery barrage in a coconut grove, William Garbo's unit [Annotator's Note: G Troop, 2nd Squadron, 112th Cavalry Regiment] moved out during a quiet spell from battle and headed toward the foothills of Leyte's rainforest covered mountains. Garbo was in a machine gun squad, but his assistant gunner was wounded in the artillery barrage, so the machine gun squad leader, Willie Sundy [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling], offered to assist Garbo as a gunner. Unfortunately for Garbo, the afternoon after the artillery barrage in the orchard, as the men of G Troop dug in, a runner found Sundy and informed him that he had enough points to go home. Sundy looked Garbo in the eyes for a long while, then picked up his gear, walked back across the field, and disappeared into the fog. Sundy's departure left Garbo alone again, until a new replacement, Dale White, became Garbo's new assistant. After Garbo finished digging his foxhole without Sundy, G Troop was ordered to move up the trail even farther. The troop made it into the foothills before the men stopped and dug in for the night. It poured rain that night. Then, as darkness fell, the men thought they saw the Japanese descending the hills in force, but they quickly realized it was only a herd of large monkeys. After an uneventful night, the troop moved up the trail but had to pause frequently to remove Japanese booby traps. Garbo's troop ascended higher into the mountains and started taking artillery fire about every 50 feet. G Troop was preceded by B Troop, 112th Cavalry in the advance up the hills, and B Troop was called on to make an assault on a hill called Baker Hill. B Troop made several assaults on Baker Hill, but failed each time to dislodge the dug in Japanese defenders, all while sustaining heavy casualties. Once G Troop reached the base of the hill, it was ordered to make the next assault the following morning. G Troop spent the night under ponchos at the base of the hill as torrential rain fell all night. After a miserable night, Garbo and the men of G Troop awoke on that Sunday morning to Lieutenant Meeks' orders to fix bayonets and grab hand grenades for the assault on Baker Hill. Garbo hunkered down at the base of the hill with the rest of his troop as American artillery pounded the Japanese positions. Garbo temporarily thought of his life at home on a Sunday morning, until the artillery abruptly stopped and Lieutenant Meeks gave the signal to attack. Troop G rushed up the hill as the Japanese lay in wait not far ahead. The combat was intense and some soldiers became embroiled in hand to hand combat with the Japanese. Garbo threw three grenades in the assault, most assuredly wounding numerous Japanese soldiers, but never got into hand to hand combat. Troop G made it to the top of Baker Hill where they met up with another American unit that had assaulted from the other side. With the hill secure, Garbo and G Troop began to move out along the trail after a brief rest when Colonel MacMains and part of 2nd Squadron came up. Colonel MacMains ordered G Troop to move up the trail but to close the gaps between men. G Troop was strung out single file down the trail and were high enough on the mountain ridge that they were enveloped in clouds. The troop advanced and only paused to remove occasional booby traps. Once the sun began poking through, Japanese artillery began to fall on the Americans again. During one barrage, a shell landed right in the middle of Garbo's squad. The blast killed one man, blew the leg off another, and wounded a third in the back. Garbo grabbed the man wounded in the back and took him to cover before he removed the shrapnel from the man's back with his trench knife. Garbo assured the man that he would live and that the wound had earned him a ticket home. By that point, the medics had done about all they could for the dead and wounded, so G Troop regrouped and moved out down the trail.

As William Garbo and the men of G Troop, 2nd Squadron, 112th Cavalry Regiment, moved out along a mountain trail from Baker Hill, Japanese artillery observers called down sporadic artillery fire on them. The men of G Troop were strung out about the length of a football field in formation. After those who had been wounded in an artillery barrage had been evacuated back down the trail, G Troop again moved forward. As the men advanced, Japanese soldiers would pop up out of nowhere and engage the Americans. The Japanese soldiers were well dressed and well equipped. They did not resemble soldiers from a rag tag army, but were hardened fighting men. After one particular fire fight, G Troop moved out along the trail when a .30 caliber American machine gun cut loose on the column. The Japanese had snuck into the line of a different American unit, cut the throats of the gunner and his assistant, and stolen the machine gun which opened up on G Troop. G Troop's advance up the trail was perilous due to Japanese ambushes and the constant threat of sporadic artillery fire. Those left unscathed after such attacks continued up the trail in both pouring rain and sunshine until they reached the end of the ridge, at which point the trail descended down the mountain toward the city of Ormoc. G Troop dug in at the end of the ridge and Garbo set up his machine gun, but the Japanese surprised the Americans the next morning with a banzai charge on G Troop's position. The American machine guns cut down the enemy in droves as they charged the American positions, but the Japanese attack was relentless and the bodies of the enemy were stacked so high by the end of the fight, that Garbo could not believe the carnage was real. The following day, Garbo received orders to lead a three man patrol down the trail in order to determine how far down the Japanese positions were. Garbo led his patrol over and around the piles of dead Japanese from the previous fight at a slow, cautious pace. Garbo's patrol was moving down a very steep incline, when the patrol's point man, a guy from Texas, was shot in the stomach. Garbo pulled him back and got him and the rest of the patrol back to the American positions and reported where they had encountered the Japanese. At that time, G Troop had been moving through the mountains for an entire week under heavy rain and had even endured an earthquake shortly after the Japanese banzai charge. At that point, G Troop was ordered to hold their position and wait to be relieved by a different American unit. During G Troop's time in the mountains, supplies were dropped by a Piper Cub airplane every day. After one supply drop, which brought Garbo a much desired pair of fresh, dry socks, Colonel Hooper [Annotator's Note: Charles L. Hooper, eventual commander of 112th Cavalry Regiment] and the plane's pilot had to crash land near the American beach on Leyte after Japanese small arms fire damaged the plane after it resupplied G Troop.

After over a week in combat on a mountain ridge, William Garbo and the men of G Troop, 2nd Squadron, 112th Cavalry Regiment were relieved and started back toward the rear. The strain brought on by the combat conditions made the journey back to the beach especially difficult for them. Once they arrived at the beach, however, the men were met by the Salvation Army with a large barrel of Coca Cola and cookies. The 2nd Squadron was transported by trucks to a camp where they stayed in tents and slept on cots. There, they cleaned their weapons and rested up for their next assignment. The men were weary from the strains of combat which made it a struggle for them to keep their guard up. When Garbo went to clean his .45 caliber pistol, he thought there was no round left in the chamber and jokingly raised it and pointed the gun at his friend Dale White. He almost pulled the trigger, but ended up pulling it with the pistol aimed straight up. When Garbo fired, a round went right through the top of the tent, which would have hit White had Garbo not made the decision to point the pistol up. In Garbo's view, moments of mental relapse like that cost a lot of men their lives. Garbo removed his boots for the first time in the tent and his feet swelled up so bad that he could not put them back on. His left foot became infected. Garbo did not leave his unit until, while on guard duty at a bridge, his left leg swelled up so severely that the infection threatened to cost Garbo his leg. He was picked up by an ambulance, taken to an airfield and flown to Biak where he was treated at a general hospital. Biak was still in range of Japanese bombers at that time and, even as Garbo received treatment for his leg, the island was occasionally bombed. Garbo remained on the island for two or three weeks. He spent Christmas Day, 1944 in the hospital. He was released and taken to a replacement depot where he was informed that it would take some time to arrange his assignment back to his unit. Garbo opted to find his own way back to his unit and signed out of the replacement depot after relaxing with some friends he had made in the hospital. Garbo secured a ride back to the Philippines on a PT boat and served as a gunner on the boat during the journey. Garbo had learned that the 112th Cavalry Regiment had moved to Luzon, and was able to hitch a ride on a transport plane to an airfield there. After celebrating his going away with his friends and a few beers, Garbo boarded the transport plane and flew to an airfield on Mindanao. From Mindanao the plane flew to Luzon and landed at Clark Airfield. Garbo thanked the pilot, grabbed his bag and hitched a ride in an ammunition truck toward Manila, where the American forces had the city under siege. Garbo saw hundreds of refugees fleeing from the city due to the fighting. Manila was burning when Garbo arrived. Garbo did not know where G Troop was until he saw a few friends of his from the unit in a jeep. Garbo hopped in the jeep with them and drove back to G Troop. G Troop was stationed at a village called Marongko outside of Manila and Garbo met up with the rest of the troop there. Garbo immediately retrieved his mail and found that he had 85 letters from his family and friends which had accumulated over his absence. He checked back in with G Troop and received his duffle bag and discovered that his personal items remained untouched.

William Garbo returned to G Troop, 2nd Squadron, 112th Cavalry Regiment on the island of Luzon in the Philippines after his stay in the hospital and immediately went back out on daily patrols. Garbo led three to seven man reconnaissance patrols through rice paddies and across the river to the north of town in order to spot enemy positions and movements. One day, Garbo led a three man patrol out from Marongko to the south toward the next village. Once they reached the village, the patrol began searching the buildings. Garbo opened the door to one stucco building and came face to face with a Korean geisha girl in full dress and wig accompanied by an old Filipino man and woman clinging to each of her arms in a protective posture. Garbo stood and stared at the three with his Thompson submachine gun. Garbo saw the fear in the Korean girl's eyes and decided to back out of the house slowly in favor of reporting the three to command as opposed to capturing them. On another patrol, Garbo and his men followed a Filipino guide to the far side of the river. They entered a village that their guide claimed to be his home town, but as they moved forward, the guide let out a scream. The patrol caught up to the guide to see that his wife and mother lay dead in front of him, brutally murdered by bayonets. Garbo had never seen someone so agonized in his life. The patrol buried the guide's family and then continued on in search of a Japanese artillery position. Garbo and his men moved past an abandoned American outpost when they heard an American B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] bomber and watched it circle over a tree covered hill directly to their front. The Japanese opened up with small arms fire on the aircraft, which revealed to Garbo and his patrol the Japanese positions on the hill. Garbo's patrol was exposed on a narrow trail between two rice patties and, in one of the rice patties, Garbo noticed a water buffalo snorting as if to charge at Garbo. The American patrol backed away and spent the night lying in a grass field off the trail, then woke up the next morning and hurried back to the village to report their findings. Garbo's next assignment in Marongko was to set up a machine gun ambush on the American side of the river, so Garbo deployed his machine gun in some trees and bushes just behind the river bank. The ambush was designed to attack Japanese forces attempting to cross the river, as numerous Japanese had crossed the river at night in order to harass the Americans in and around Marongko. That night, Garbo and his men heard the Japanese wade across the river and creep up on the gravel bank right in front of them. However, Garbo and his men could barely see the enemy in the darkness and had no flares to illuminate the scene. When the enemy came close enough for Garbo and his men to see their silhouettes, the machine gun cut loose and the Americans opened up with small arms fire as well. The Japanese tried to retaliate by throwing a Molotov cocktail at the Americans, but Garbo hit the bottle with a bullet and exploded it before the Japanese soldier could throw it. The Japanese then retreated back across the river. Garbo is unsure of how many enemy soldiers he and his men killed or wounded in that ambush. In Garbo's view, the machine gun ambush was not an extremely wise combat decision, but he and his men made it through.

Lieutenant Babe Meeks informed William Garbo and the men of G Troop, 2nd Squadron, 112th Cavalry Regiment, that the he was to lead a combat patrol into Japanese territory in the Ipo Dam area in support of F Troop. Garbo and Lieutenant Meeks' combat patrol crossed the Loag River and moved alongside the Angat River, where the men of the combat patrol dug in around a mound in the middle of a rice paddy which was in full view from all directions. Garbo set up his machine gun in his foxhole, but his normal assistant gunner, Dale White, was not on the patrol and Garbo had an unfamiliar assistant. Garbo took first watch, then woke his assistant after two hours and instructed him to remain vigilant, but not to shoot unless he had a clear target so that he did not reveal their position too early. Garbo lay back and fell right to sleep due to his fatigue. Garbo's assistant gunner heard the Japanese sneaking up the mound towards the American positions, but before anyone shot at the enemy, a Japanese soldier had gotten close enough to lob a grenade at the American foxholes. The grenade bounced in between Garbo's foxhole and the one next to his, but ultimately fell into the adjacent foxhole, which was only three feet away. A man named Arthur Davis was in the adjacent foxhole and the grenade wounded him pretty severely. After the grenade exploded, Garbo's assistant gunner opened up with the machine gun and one of the tracer rounds ignited a grass hut in the middle of the rice paddy which illuminated the whole scene. The Japanese were determined to infiltrate the American lines, but Garbo and his comrades held through the night. The next morning, Arthur Davis was evacuated to a command post by two other men in the patrol, and ultimately survived. The patrol moved out to another hilltop which overlooked the Ipo Dam, which provided a vantage point to observe the advance of F Troop. The patrol then helplessly watched as a swarm of Japanese soldiers descended on F Troop's advance and cut down the Americans. As Garbo and the men on patrol looked on, the Japanese spotted their position. As all of this was going on, the patrol received word from the command post that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had passed away. After the men heard the grim news, Japanese mortar rounds began falling on the patrol's position. Lieutenant Meeks radioed back to the command post that F Troop was overrun and requested permission to abandon the hill. The request was denied. Instead, the commander ordered the patrol to hold the hill for as long as possible. The mortar fire on Garbo's position intensified. A round landed right near his foxhole and completely destroyed the butt end of his assistant gunner's rifle, but his assistant was unhurt. Meeks radioed back to the command post again informing the commander that the patrol was vacating the hill, then closed the transmission. The patrol followed a Filipino guide down the hill and about five miles back to an American outpost. The men on guard at the outpost asked the group a series of American sports questions until they were satisfied and allowed the patrol to enter their perimeter. There, Garbo and his comrades slept deeply, but one of the men completely lost his mind that night and had to be sent back blindfolded ahead of the rest of the patrol with two other men.

In total, William Garbo and the men of G Troop, 2nd Squadron, 112th Cavalry Regiment spent about a month in the village of Marongko on Luzon. During that time, patrols were sent out daily, but the Japanese skillfully concealed their mountain artillery positions. American forces captured a Korean man who was forced into the Japanese Army, however, and he was sent up in a Piper Cub airplane and revealed the Japanese artillery positions from the air. After a few last days in Marongko, as the dry season neared an end, the 112th Cavalry was sent to relieve the 42nd Infantry Division which was dug in on a hill designated Horseshoe Hill, just north of Antipolo, Luzon. Garbo never went to the troop staging area. Instead, G Troop was sent directly to Horseshoe Hill. G Troop dug in around the hill and resumed daily patrols. The Japanese attempted to infiltrate the American positions at night, a tactic Garbo and his comrades were familiar with. One night, Garbo saw a friend of his from a different platoon in G Troop get blown out of his foxhole by a Japanese satchel charge. The explosion severely wounded the man and he laid just outside his foxhole all night calling for help, but no one could safely reach him before he bled to death. One day, Garbo was asked to lead another patrol, but this patrol was to be accompanied by a new lieutenant from West Point. Despite his status as an officer, the lieutenant let Garbo lead the patrol due to his combat experience, a decision which Garbo respected greatly. The patrol eventually found the location of a Japanese artillery position on a nearby mountain side. Garbo led the patrol as close to the enemy position as possible. American artillery mistakenly fired on Garbo's patrol. Garbo swiftly led the patrol back through a blinding rain until they passed through the American lines. This patrol effectively ended Garbo's involvement at Horseshoe Hill. G Troop was resupplied with K rations and water and served a hot meal before it deployed into the Santa Maria Mountains. G Troop's mission was to establish a concealed position in the mountains in order to intercept and ambush Japanese forces retreating from Manila. For three days, Garbo and his men stayed hidden above the main mountain trials and a river bed, which Japanese forces used to retreat. After three days, however, the men were out of water so the 2nd Squadron commander, then Major MacMains, ordered the men to go down to the river to get some. The men made their way down to the river and restocked their water supply until Japanese small arms fire forced them back up into the mountains. The next morning, the fog in the mountains was heavy, so Garbo was ordered to take one machine gun from his two machine gun squad down into the river valley and set up an ambush. A replacement officer, a lieutenant new to the troop, went with Garbo's ambush squad, but the lieutenant was inexperienced and an untested combat leader. Garbo set up his machine gun with his assistant gunner, Dale White, but the lieutenant had gone off to relieve himself and ordered Garbo not to fire until he gave the order. While the lieutenant was away, however, the Japanese advanced up the river in force right in front of Garbo's position. Garbo opened up with his machine gun and killed about 15 enemy soldiers in the first foray. A few Japanese soldiers escaped the onslaught but Garbo killed or wounded most all the rest. Garbo watched one wounded Japanese soldier kill himself with a grenade to evade capture by the Americans. The lieutenant who had forbidden Garbo to fire without his order immediately realized that hesitation got men killed in combat and did not berate Garbo for firing at will. A Japanese soldier then moved up the river with a white flag. Garbo took him prisoner and moved his squad, and his prisoner, back to the American command post. During a rain storm shortly after that, however, as the prisoner's Filipino guards ran to the shade to get out of the rain, the prisoner hopped up and ran off before anyone could shoot him. The prisoner knew the location of the American command post and was on the run, which was a bad situation for the Americans.

A day after William Garbo and his machine gun squad successfully ambushed a group of Japanese soldiers in a mountain riverbed, the unit abandoned its concealed mountain positions in order to move up the river valley and press the Japanese forces toward a town called Santa Inez. The advance up the river bed was brutal as Japanese resistance increased with every step. The enemy set up ambushes, as did the Americans. Finally, the advance halted at Santa Inez. G Troop and the rest of 2nd Squadron dug in along the right bank of the river and established a command post on the opposite bank. From their position along the river bank, the Americans sent out reconnaissance patrols in order to find the Japanese positions. On the morning of 24 June 1945, Garbo was ordered to take one machine gun from his squad and lead a combat patrol up the river to see how far they could get. After advancing less than 50 yards, the Americans were ambushed by Japanese machine guns. Machine gun fire immediately pinned down the patrol. Three men were killed and a few others were wounded. One man was shot through the knee and another was hit in the stomach, but they could not be reached since Japanese sniper and machine gun fire was too dense. Garbo and his comrades turned to a new officer in the regiment. The officer froze up and Garbo's staff sergeant did everything he could to get orders out of the man. In the absence of orders from the patrol's ranking officer, and with darkness falling over the scene, the staff sergeant took over and ordered the remaining men of the patrol to pull back on the sound of his whistle. The whistle sounded just as light began fading fast; Garbo removed his pack, left his machine gun for another soldier, and grabbed the man who was wounded through the knee. Under constant sniper fire, Garbo carried the wounded man out of the river and into the tall grass beyond the river bank. The men regrouped on a hillside far out of sight of the Japanese. Garbo saw his friend from Kentucky, who was shot through the stomach, lying near him with a faint pulse. Garbo saw a medic and implored him to save his friend, but the medic said the wound was too severe and there was nothing he could do. After his friend passed, Garbo became depressed as the survivors of the patrol dug their foxholes for the night on the hillside. Just as Garbo and his men settled in, they heard a grenade go off in the distance. Shortly thereafter, the lead BAR [Annotator's Note: M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle] man on the patrol rejoined the men on the hill. He had remained in cover all day, but was unable to retreat with the rest of the men. In the darkness, Japanese soldiers came down to scavenge the dead Americans, thus, with the element of surprise, the man jumped up, threw his rifle and a grenade at the enemy and high tailed it out. The man even brought Garbo's abandoned pack back to him. During the night, a man in a foxhole not far from Garbo went to relieve himself. Despite his warning to Garbo and the other men in the foxholes, his foxhole partner had fallen back asleep briefly, and, when the man returned, his foxhole companion forgot his warning and shot him dead, which left the entire patrol in an even further state of depression.

After a narrow escape from a deadly Japanese ambush, and a tragic friendly fire casualty that night, William Garbo and his combat patrol [Annotator's Note: from G Troop, 2nd Squadron, 112th Cavalry Regiment] moved up to a point surrounded by boulders. The men dug their fox holes around the perimeter of the hill and Garbo deployed his two machine guns to establish a crossfire zone to effectively shred any potential Japanese assault. That night, Garbo gathered his squad and read the Bible with them, which gave Garbo and his men comfort. Generally, religion was a private matter, personal to each soldier. That night, however, the squad read the Bible and prayed together. Garbo took the first watch with the machine gun, which lasted two hours, and after that time a soldier by the name of Crance [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] took over watch with the gun. Garbo laid back and went to sleep next to another man in his foxhole, Tex Carroll [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling]. During the night, the Japanese periodically shelled the area around the American positions, but Garbo was so fatigued that he slept through the barrages. One shell, however, burst in a tree right above Garbo's foxhole and sprayed shrapnel all around the area. Crance, who was on the machine gun, was peppered with shrapnel in his back. Tex Carroll and Garbo were thrown from the foxhole by the blast. Carroll asked Garbo if he was hurt, but Garbo did not think he was. Garbo's ears were bleeding, he had cuts on his face, and his boot was filling with blood, which gave him a sensation as though he was standing in water. The blast shredded Garbo's fatigues. Carroll and Garbo stumbled to the medic's makeshift aid station. The medic had been treating the wounds in Crance's back, but when he saw Garbo, he left Crance and immediately began treating Garbo. It turned out that the artery in Garbo's leg had been punctured and Garbo was unknowingly bleeding to death. The medic treated Garbo, gave him a dose of morphine and laid him down to rest under a half tent where he fell asleep until the next morning. The next day, a small American helicopter miraculously identified the American positions and offered to evacuate Garbo. Garbo accepted the invitation and the helicopter took off. Garbo dropped a sack of rations and supplies out of the helicopter to the 2nd Squadron's command post back down the river before the helicopter flew out to a tent hospital in the rear. Doctors operated on Garbo's leg at the hospital, cleaned out his wound, then he was moved to the ward to recover, which took about a month. G Troop was pulled out of combat a few days later. Garbo never knew if the bodies of American casualties were ever extracted from the combat zones in the mountains. Garbo returned to G Troop, 2nd Squadron, 112th Cavalry Regiment and resumed command of his machine gun squad which had by then been outfitted with new equipment and replacements. Garbo and G Troop then began to prepare for the invasion of Japan.

Once William Garbo returned to G Troop, 2nd Squadron, 112th Cavalry Regiment, he resumed command of his machine gun squad. By that time the squad consisted of new equipment and replacements. Each day trained for the invasion [Annotator's Note: the planned invasion of Japan]. After a week or two of preparation, Garbo and his men learned of the first atomic bombing of Japan. That was quickly followed by news of the second bombing. Finally, they learned that Japan decided to sue for peace. Garbo and his men were ecstatic. He and his fellow soldiers flooded the troop area and fired rounds from their rifles into the air, which was a foolish thing to do, but, due to their unbridled joy, the men fired anyway. Arrangements were made for G Troop to travel by truck to Bataan, where they boarded troop ships and gathered the necessary supplies for the occupation of Japan. After waiting for a typhoon to pass through the China Sea, Garbo's convoy departed the Philippines. They arrived in Tokyo Bay after a five day journey. In Tokyo Bay, Garbo and his men witnessed the signing of the peace agreement on 2 September 1945. The next day, Garbo and G Troop landed at Tateyama Airdrome in Japan and occupied the city of Tateyama. From there, Garbo and his men were sent down to the small fishing town of Tomisaki. The Japanese people learned to like the American occupiers, and the Americans respected the Japanese people and their property. Eventually, Garbo got his notice that he was being sent home. He left Japan in mid December 1945. He boarded ship and arrived in Seattle, Washington on Christmas Eve. Garbo departed the ship on Christmas day and spent the day with a nice family at their home in Seattle. Garbo loaded onto a truck back at the docks and was sent to a replacement depot in Seattle. From there he boarded a troop train that took him all the way back to Camp Shelby, Mississippi. Garbo was discharged at Camp Shelby on 6 January 1946. While Garbo served in the 26th Quartermaster Corps War Dog Platoon, he participated in training the dogs that he took with him into combat. The dogs were kept in kennels at the camp, and each dog was chained to its kennel so that they could roam around the kennel, but not roam free. Each day, Garbo and his platoon went to the kennels, picked up their dogs, and marched them as a platoon, repeatedly disciplining the dogs when they barked, so that, eventually, the dogs learned not to bark at all. In a matter of six weeks, the men had trained the dogs to carry messages further and further distances, they had trained the dogs to understand hand signals, and trained them to respond to vocal signals. Before the dogs could be cleared to go overseas, each dog had to be inspected by the professor of the program, an old German soldier from the First World War who was an expert in dog training. The inspection was carried out in an arena in which the man had to put the dogs through a series of tasks, all while giving only silent signals. Garbo began training his dog in November [Annotator's Note: November 1943] and was finished by March of the following year. After graduating, Garbo was assigned to the 26th War Dog Platoon. The platoon consisted of 30 men, each with two dogs. He deployed overseas with the platoon. In Garbo's view, the war did not change his personality, but the war became a benchmark for anything he did in his postwar life. Due to his experiences in the war, Garbo realized just how precious life is. Garbo had always been a very patriotic person, but the war only strengthened his love for the country he fought for, the United States of America. Ultimately, the war made William Garbo a better man.