Alamo Scouts

Krueger sought to create an all volunteer elite unit consisting of small teams which could operate deep behind enemy lines.

Furthermore, the unit assumed a central role in organizing large-scale guerrilla operations, establishing road watch stations, attempting to locate and capture or kill Japanese flag officers, and performing direct action missions, such as the Cabanatuan POW Camp liberation.

In January 1945 the scouts were teamed with elements of the 6th Ranger Battalion and Filipino guerrilla units to liberate 513 POWs in a daring night attack.

These two scouts then set up a covert observation post inside a shack in the rice fields that surrounded the POW camp.

The Alamo Scouts performed 110 known missions behind enemy lines, mainly in New Guinea and the Philippines, without losing a single man.

The Raid at Cabanatuan, carried out by a combined team of Alamo Scouts, Rangers and Filipino guerrillas, has been depicted in feature films.

It was disbanded in 2021 Troop 253 in East Grand Rapids, Michigan has an Alamo Scouts patrol, named in honor of the original unit.

A team of Alamo Scouts, February 1944.
A team of Alamo Scouts, February 1945.