#49. Preserving the 26th Cavalry’s Profound Impact

Episode 49 – Victor Verano Interview – Episode Transcript

Episode Text

One of the many things I especially enjoy about creating Left Behind is the opportunity to get to know some very interesting people within what I call the “WW2 in The Philippines” community.
One of these friends is Victor Verano, who is the public relations officer for the Philippine Scout Heritage Society and is also a Philippine Scout re-enactor and memorabilia collector. Victor is always sending me the coolest pictures of the memorabilia he’s obtained or pictures of him with various Philippine Scout veterans or at re-enactments – and he’s suggested POWs I should highlight for a few Left Behind episodes.

Now, the Philippine Scout Heritage Society was started by veterans of the Philippine Scouts in the early 1980s as a veteran’s organization and as a way to preserve the legacy of the U.S. Army’s Philippine Scouts for present and future generations.
As the vets have passed away, family members and others – like me and you – are continuing the organization’s preservation work to keep the Scouts’ memories alive.
Their yearly conference is coming up April 10-14, 2024, in Houston, Texas. (It’s actually a joint conference with the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society, which is a similar organization.) And I’m excited to announce that I’ll be speaking at the event on Friday, April 12.
The keynote speaker is John Bradley, who was imprisoned as a child at the Santo Tomas Civilian Internment camp in Manila. And then there will be other speakers and presentations throughout the several days, especially on Friday and Saturday. So, if you find yourself in Houston, come down and join the conference. I’ve put a link with information about the event and registration in the show description.
And if you do come, please stop and introduce yourself to me. I love meeting Left Behind listeners.

In honor of the upcoming event, a I recently sat down with Victor Verano to talk about Philippine Scouts – from his work as a Philippine Scout Re-enactor to the Scout’s critical role on Bataan to Victor’s relationships with the Philippine Scout veterans themselves.
Something I particularly appreciate about Victor is his passion for keeping the Scouts’ memories alive, and I think you’ll appreciate that passion as well.
So, let’s jump in:

[Transcript of Interview created by AI and may include typos]
Victor, let's chat about the movie you made.
Let's not really a movie. It's a trailer to a movie that. We were playing around with it and hoping that someday could be shot and filmed. So I was with a few reenacted friends in the Philippines, , this past summer 2023 we go to the Philippines usually every other year and , every time I go I would usually explore a battlefield, go to Bataan, or elsewhere that, you know, I've read about and I'm interested in, in hiking or, or checking out because you read it in the books and it's all in your, in your mind and you, I want to check it out.
Last year I decided, well, I want to go on a trail ride around Fort Stotsonburg, Clark Air Base area. Fort Stotsonburg was the, uh, a big U. S. base, even before the war, , it was the home base of the 26th Cavalry, one of my favorite units. Um, I knew many of the veterans who, who served in that unit. They have this famous, this series of pictures, pre war pictures. Taken by Carl Meidens from Life Magazine and, , among history buffs and reenactors.
That's a series of famous pictures for us. I wanted to go to that area where they were trained, where you could see them riding the horses. , they had the, uh, the scout cars, the armored cars and, , trucks crossing the river. I wanted to check that out so I tell, I was telling my, uh, reenactor friends in the Philippines about , my plan. Hey, I want to go there.
And they had this idea of, hey, what if we take pictures and film , reenactment videos? of us doing cavalry stuff, just like in the pictures. And I was like, well, I wasn't really planning on bringing a helmet and boots and, you know, in my luggage, and they're like, come on, you know, when else are we going to do this?
It'll be really cool. So I said, you know what? Sure. Why not? Let's see if I can fit all that weight into my luggage. And, uh, I got really excited about it, too. Thinking about it now, just like, that's, that's a pretty unique activity. You know, not only are you on a trail ride, you're wearing the uniform, just like in the pictures.
, and the idea is that, hey, let's recreate the pictures, or something close to the pictures, so, , it turned out there were five of us who went on the trail ride, ,
we all met there at, , in Clark and we all suited up in our Philippine scout, World War Two uniforms, tin helmets, wool uniforms, wool shirts, reachers, tall boots. Um, and it was, I don't know if you've ever been in the Philippines, it's like being in August. It's hot. That sounds awful and cool, you know, we were joking about it.
And this is the weather they trained in. This is the gear they training. It's authentic weather.
I did some research as to where in the area, those pictures were taken and I was fairly sure, okay, it's in this area,
The guys were pretty game. We gave them our GoPro cameras and, you know, they were following us. They were having fun. , we also met up with some of our photographer friends. At a point where they could drive their World War II jeep across the river.
And, , they joined us.
Oh, that's how you got the tire tracks in the, in the dirt. I was wondering, I'm like, those look like authentic tire tracks. How did you do that? Okay.
That we had, uh, we had a World War II jeep join us, you know, and the, the owners also reenact or own the jeep. But, they met us on the other side of the river.
So yeah, we had fun. We had fun filming, , videos and, and taking pictures. , And then one of the reenactors, he's a, he's a filmmaker. He said, I'm going to make a concept trailer for a movie that we hope someday will get me.
So, he put together some footages of us with background music and some narrative and turned it into a movie trailer.
We were on that ride for four hours, three hours in sweltering heat. And then the last hour, it was pouring rain, you know, pouring rain. And so we're like, Hey, authentic, this is what they went through. Yes. Weather in the Philippines.
What drew you to the Philippine scouts in the first place?
Well, let me explain the Philippine Scouts because, , the first thing I mentioned to people, , when I'm speaking at an event or, explaining what they are, they're not Boy Scouts.
They were soldiers. They were US Army regulars, uh, in the Philippines. Their units were designated Philippine Scouts. Because the enlisted men were all Filipinos and the officers, for the most part were Americans, although they had Filipino officers as well, especially those who went to West Point, , but the, the, the Philippine scouts were not just, oh, a small portion of the military.
This unit that's meant to scout something. No, there, it's for a whole group designating, , these are good, are Filipino soldiers. , and, and they formed whole units, the 26th Cavalry, the whole regiment, Philippine Scout. So it's 26th Cavalry PS. is their, their official name designation. But they also had the 45th Infantry Philippine Scouts, that's a whole regiment of infantry.
57th Infantry, whole regiment. 24th Field Artillery, 12th Medical, 88th Field Artillery, 86th Field Artillery, 92nd Coast Artillery, 91st, so there were thousands of them. They were Philippine Scouts. , Probably added up to around 12, 000. At the beginning of War of the War, there were 12,000 faith and scouts, and there were US Army regulars, serving in different branches of service, artillery, cavalry, infantry, quartermaster engineers, and so on.
What you said about them being U. S. Army regulars, when I talk about the Philippine Scouts, it's very important for me to point that out that, no, this is U. S. Army,
and I always mentioned this, not to be confused with the Philippine Commonwealth Army. Nothing wrong with them, but they were just mobilized. A few months before the war, , they had very little training. Some of the units, the first time they, they fired your rifles.
The morning that Japanese landed and they were using like old equipment, right? Like, correct. Correct. , they didn't have enough, , equipment, they were well trained in marching and saluting and, and field, drills, but they were not well trained in fighting.
So naturally, , they didn't fare as well in battle in the beginning because later on, they, they learned on the job mostly the fighting were done by them. But the Philippine Scouts being, , for decades, U.
S. Army regulars leading up to World War II, they had that continuity of service and equipment and funding. Their funding came directly from the U. S. Army, not from the Philippine government. So they were well trained. , when the war started and they were put in action, they were always the ones being called to counterattack or plug a hole in the line or do maneuvers because the, , the other.
Units. It's not just the Philippine Army because they pressed into service airmen. You know, they made infantrymen out of the airmen and the sailors. They didn't know how to fight. I mean, you give them a rifle, they'll hold the line and shoot anything that moves in front of you. But the, the actual infantry tactics.
The, the training, the maneuvering were done with the scouts. So they were elite. They're all. Always so grateful when they arrive.
Oh, yeah, I've seen that in so many episodes. Where it's like Oh, the Philippine scouts got there and they took care of the problem. I've heard people call them the backbone of baton, but
the more I learn about the Philippine scout units, they're just amazing.
When we started attending their reunions in 2007, the reenactors. Oh, they loved it. And I remember, they were ganging up on us. Like, hey, they want a picture, a group picture. But they were like, make sure the patch shows.
You know? So we're like, the reenactors would be like standing sideways to the patches. in the picture so it's, it's really fun. I would wear the wool shirt, the wool shirts, like that olive drab color. Because technically the scouts.
When, when they fell, , fell back into Bataan, they were wearing wool shirts, because it was December, January, it's kind of cooler, cooler months, especially out in the field. So, I was wearing that at the reunion in 2009, and one of the scouts, uh, David Tejada, He was, uh, with the 12 Sigma company. He came up to me he was touching my uniform, the wool shirt, and he said, that's what I wore at the Death March. You know, that gets flea infested, that PLW camp, that that wool shirt, and I was like, I don't even think about those things, you know, I would never think of that in a million years.
But that little, remark is like that gets infested PLW camp, Holy cow. Yeah, I would think so. You know, yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah, that's like, I just been there.
I love those little details that bring it more to life.
One of the 26 cavalry guys, , Dan Figura Shun, he was in the last charge with Ed Ramsey in Bataan.
When I first met him, he's walking around just regular leather shoes, dress shoes, but he wore spurs. . And I came as a cavalry with my cavalry impression, which is a really hard impression to put together because you needed to have the boots. It's hard to find the boots, but I found something similar on eBay
At the reunion, even though we were just indoors, my feet were killing me and I, I sat down and trying to adjust the laces. I was trying to put it back on and I was very slow with it. And he was like, he was almost giggling. And he was talking to another scout, I was like, he's going to get left behind. You know, if the bugle calls, you know, boots and saddles, he'll get left behind.
And the other guy was laughing too. Didn't you say that, , that picture of him playing with Cavalry toys are your toys or something like that? I'll put that online too.
This part of my hobby, I'm always on the lookout for possible 26 cavalry figures. Because there's none to be had. You got all kinds of toy soldiers, but there's nothing that could pass for, , Philippine Scouts, and especially a 26th Cavalry, it's just not to be had.
Well, I found something online, and I bought it, painted it, and I brought it as part of my display, , at the Reunion.
and so he would be playing with the, the figures and lining them up accordingly, showing us how they, you know, the formations. Because he would also be, , explaining to us, this is our formation, the, uh, the troops. The commander would be here, the bugler would be here, so yeah, so he was having fun with them. I took a picture. The veterans I've become really good friends with, one of them was Felipe Fernandez. He was really for a 90 plus year old. He was really good with computers, he would type his memoirs in a Word document, he would email them to me, and his birthday's in August. I thought, hey, maybe it'll be a good birthday gift for him if I turn this into a, bound book and then I'll add our pictures together and the pictures he sent me, Oh, it was the best birthday gift.
It was so happy that he can have more, cause he, uh, cause he wanted to give them out, out to his family that was fun.
You know, something I think is so interesting about the 26th cavalry is that it was the last horse mounted cavalry of the U S army.
In 2009, the 25th anniversary of the Philippine Scouts Heritage Society, uh, we had it in, , Long Beach, California, and because being a 25th. Anniversary, there's so many of them that went, probably like 25, 30 scouts were there, and I was in charge of, the programming, and I, I scheduled a panel talk by the veterans, and it just so happened that those who said yes, yeah, sure, I'll, I'll be in the panel, we're all
26 gallery, that's 3 of them. So Philippe, Ed Ramsey, , Dan Figura Shun,
his dad is a pretty jolly guy. He's, , all smiles, very, very warm and happy.
, when one time I saw him, I actually you know, like, reliving, they were cut off, , when they retreated to Bataan, , in Kulis, the first line of defense, , they were, they were not on the main line, they were like, , left most of the line. with the 31st Infantry holding the line, the American 31st Infantry.
They were at the farthermost end of the line and they didn't get the order to retreat, right? And they were cut off there's only one road and it was already, , occupied by the Japanese. They had to go cross country. And this is why we're talking about deep ravines. , rough country to get over back to friendly lines and they couldn't ride their horses.
They had to leave them this really steep trails. they were so hungry. They were so tired. He was talking about this at the, at the panel They were so hungry. That one of the mules or horses that couldn't stay up like it fell and was very severely injured from a fall because of the ravines.
Well, they couldn't do anything for that horse. Right. And they decided to eat the horse. Right. And of course, they couldn't, they couldn't cook. The smoke would give away their position, the fire. wrong. Oh my gosh. And so he was choking up while talking about that. Yeah, they were all like looking at the vets.
Somebody bring a tissue, you know, to the table,
I, Would be pretty awesome drug to have met these guys, before they all passed away. And it's it feels like in the last 10 years, especially the last have passed and it's sad..
I'm actually kicking myself for not being involved earlier, but I just couldn't because of Um, Yeah, I just had other priorities at that time. And I'm glad to catch the tail end of it, and that's, you know, that's a lot even.
I just try to take videos and pictures and tell their stories. It's just to preserve that moment.

And that’s something Victor and I have in common – we’re both preservers at heart, trying to keep alive the memories of the men and women who sacrificed so much on those Bataan battlefields.
10 Left Behind episodes have focused on the Philippine Scouts – including telling the stories of three veterans Victor mentioned here: Dan Figuracion, Felipe Fernandez, and Ed Ramsey, who were all part of the 26th Cavalry.
I’ve put links in the show description to all the Philippine Scout episodes. Their stories truly are incredible, and include those of:
- Alexander Nininger, the first person to receive the Medal of Honor during WW2.
- Jose Calugas, the only Filipino to win the Congressional Medal
- Wilibald Bianchi, who’s the third and final man on Bataan to receive that honor, which I followed up a few months later with the story of Jim Daly, who was Bianchi’s best friend.
Just to name a few others.
Also, this was just part of my longer conversation with Victor about his role as a historical reenactor, and I’m excited to share more of his story in a few weeks.

In the meantime, that’s Left Behind the Scenes for today. Be sure to like and subscribe so that you’re the first to know when I drop next week’s episode – telling the story of what happened in the first days after Corregidor fall.
Have a fantastic week.