'Cuidado!' The 158th Infantry 'Bushmasters' in the Pacific
“No greater fighting combat team has ever deployed for battle,” General Douglas McArthur noted after the war of the 158th Infantry Regiment “Bushmasters,” which was made up predominantly of Mexican Americans and members of the Pima and Navajo tribes from Arizona.
The Legacy of the Praise
When MacArthur called them "No greater fighting combat team has ever deployed for battle," he was acknowledging that the Bushmasters possessed a specific, lethal skill set that regular infantry divisions simply didn't have. They were custom-built for the unique horrors of the Pacific war.
The Bushmasters fought continuously for over 300 days in combat without being rotated out. When the war ended, they were chosen for a final, prestigious duty: they were selected to serve as part of the personal honor guard for General MacArthur during the initial occupation of Japan in Tokyo. For a unit made up heavily of Mexican Americans and Native Americans who faced discrimination back home in the Southwest, it was the ultimate validation of their equality and elite status on the world stage.