Alamo Scout, DMOR 1st SF Regiment. Retired MG Robert L. Shirkey, Alamo Scout Team Leader (Team Shirkey), died peacefully in his sleep on February 13, 2014 at the age of 89 in Kansas City, Missouri. He was one of the two remaining living Alamo Scout Team Leaders.
RIP, Sir.
Richard
From his DMOR citation:
While serving in the Pacific area of operations, he volunteered to join the Alamo Scouts and served under General Walter Krueger. He graduated from the Alamo Scouts Training Center in 1945, and became one of only 21 officers to lead an Alamo Scout team on combat missions during World War II. Shirkey led his team on special missions on the island of Luzon, Philippines, through the summer of 1945.
On a mission of particular import to Gen. Krueger and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, then Lt. Shirkey and his team, moved 65 miles behind the Japanese lines to confirm the presence of Japanese General Yamashita on the island. The team captured a Japanese officer, and evacuated him back to American-held
territory, where he confirmed to U.S. Army Intelligence that Gen. Yamashita was in direct command on the island.
Later that year, Lt. Shirkey was ordered to take his team and link-up with 200 Filipino guerrillas and then land the guerrillas on the beach in Palanan Bay with the help of the two U.S. Navy LCIs and two gunboats. When the ramp went down, the guerrilla leader balked at the idea. Shirkey moved past the guerrilla leader and led his team and the guerrillas in a successful combat beach assault. He then led the force inland where they engaged and eliminated the enemy.
He ultimately led six special-operations combat missions, including back-to-back deep-penetration missions around Bontoc and Atok, Luzon, that resulted in one of the longest periods spent behind Japanese lines of any Alamo Scout team. Later Lt. Shirkey returned to the 158th RCT (Bushmasters) to help spearhead the invasion of Japan. After the Japanese surrender, Lt. Shirkey landed on the Japanese island of Honshu.
At Utsunomiya in the Tochigi Prefecture, Japanese General Seiki, commander of the 6th Imperial Japanese Army, personally surrendered to Lt. Shirkey by presenting his centuries-old samurai sword to him. The sword is now on display in the World War II exhibits of the National Infantry Museum, Fort Benning, Ga.
(Cont'd)
http://www.soc.mil/swcS/RegimentalHo...sf_shirkey.pdf
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