A salute to the brave

(Part III of “A Pledge to Duty, Honor, Country and God”)

My husband, Philippine STAR publisher and columnist Max Soliven, recalled General Rafael “Rocky” Ileto’s death from heart failure in June 2003. “In war and peace, General Ileto’s heart never failed him. It was Our Lord the Almighty God of Battles and Peace, who finally called him home to heaven for a warrior’s rest. For Rocky Ileto was a paladin and a noble knight in the old-fashioned sense of the term. He stood up for principle to the very end. He had been the lone general who had rejected the Dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos “Letter of Instruction” of Sept. 21, 1972 – the martial law decree under which 400 of us, led by Senator Ninoy Aquino (who ended up my cellmate in Fort Bonifacio) were arrested between midnight and crack of dawn.”

The Father of Scout Rangers

Dubbed the “Father of Scout Rangers” it had been the great Ramon Magsaysay who had told him to forge, into finest steel, a small elite force to be the cutting edge of the struggle to crush the Communist Huk rebellion, which had been more powerful and fanatically devoted to the “dialectic” than the present New People’s Army (NPA).

The protégé of General Ileto, Colonel Dennis Eclarin, who fought with distinction as a Scout Ranger himself in Mindanao – including the epic series of engagements leading to the fall of Camp Abubakar in the bloody battle against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) recounted the tale of how he did it and the men who carried on that elite but not narrowly confined tradition today.

 Dennis Eclarin’s contribution not to the legend but to the reality of the heroism of General Ileto is the 572-page book “The Scout Rangers Combat Guide” far more exciting than the legend. When Ileto was dying in the Philippine Heart Center, he had summoned Eclarin to his sickbed. Beckoning him to come closer, he had whispered into his ear: “Dennis don’t forget those words, Duty, Honor, Country. I live by them.” In this book you can find the chronicles of Ileto and the leaders who succeeded him to live – and often die – by those three ideals.

The history of Scout Rangers

The first chapter records the history of Scout Rangers:

1950 to 1957. The threat of the Huks gave rise to the Scout Rangers. It was in 1950 when the Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon (Hukbalahap) menace was spreading like brushfire. Large-scale operations proved futile against the highly mobile and very elusive rebels. Then came the idea of a compact, hard-hitting unit to match the nature of the rebels. Intrepid and highly skilled in guerilla warfare, the core of this unit would have the stamina to go deep into enemy territory. They would infiltrate stealthily and strike with deadly effectiveness. The unit name Scout Ranger was a combination of the names of two outstanding World War II units: the Alamo Scout, adept in intelligence-gathering missions behind enemy lines, and the US Army Rangers, known for ferocity in combat.

On Nov. 25, 1950, with General Orders No. 325 from Headquarters, Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Scout Ranger Training Center (SRTC) was activated and tasked with training volunteers from the Philippine Army Battalion Combat Teams (BCTs). The first batch of trainees was composed of 12 officers and 100 enlisted personnel, all volunteers selected from different combat battalions. Before the ten-week course was over, many were washed out with only nine officers and 61 enlisted personnel graduating

Their rigid training paid off in surprising dividends that one of the metropolitan dailies’ front page reported “The newly organized Scout Rangers of the Armed Force of the Philippines – a commando unit similar to Carlson Raiders of WWII fame – scored their first Huk casualties including three of the enemy killed and five wounded, in a rough-and-tumble clash in the mountains beyond Olongapo, Zambales.”

The Scout Rangers were instrumental in the neutralization of the top ranking Huk leader Capadocia in Panay, the ambush of Domingo Balgos in Bicol and the capture of the rebel bandit Kamlon, in Jolo. During this time, success seemed to follow each Scout Ranger move, so that the unit was soon dubbed as the “Darling of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.” Having sealed the fate of the Hukbalahap movement by 1957, the combat oriented First Scout Ranger Regiment found itself without a mission and was deactivated with its members sent to the different units of the Philippine Army.

1971 to 1989. The local Communist movement, spearheaded by the New People’s Army, led to the resurrection of the 1st Scout Ranger Regiment in 1971.

With bases in Northeastern Luzon, Samar and Mindanao, the Red guerillas practiced a brand of jungle warfare, which only the well-trained and elite Scout Rangers could match. Hence, on Dec. 8, 1971, the Scout Ranger Training Unit (SRTU) was reactivated.

One of the first accomplishments during this period was the successful raid against the attempted smuggling of a huge NPA arms shipment through M/V Karagatan.

On July 16, 1978, the SRTU was organized into the Scout Ranger Group (SRG), which became organic to the newly formed Army Special Warfare Brigades (SWABde). The SRG’s five companies participated in pacification campaigns all over the country, most notably in Cotabato, Lanao, Davao and Leyte.

The need to recognize the Army’s elite units in the mid-eighties saw the deactivation of the SWABde and the reactivation of the First Scout Ranger Regiment (FSRR) in March 1983. During that time, the NPA’s strength has ballooned into its largest ever. The Communist underground structure had complete or partial control of almost all of the nation’s barangays. But the Scout rangers rose to challenge, unshackling the poor coerced populace from the tentacles of the insurgency. The Rangers silenced the enemy more than any other groups did. Because of its unsullied reputation as an excellent combat force, the FSRR was designated as the “National Maneuver Force” of the AFP on Dec. 1, 1986, and was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation in December of 1988.

 1991 and Beyond. The AFP leadership again saw the need for the FSRR in 1991. The Communist guerillas’ strength has become bolder. The members of Scout Ranger class 103, undergoing their test mission in Kalinga, delivered the first result. They conquered the Mabiga-Poguin Complex in Kalinga – an enemy fortress declared impregnable by infantry units in the area. It took the class one whole week to inch their way into the stronghold which was complete with anti-air raid tunnels, peppered with booby traps and manned by the fierce guerilla fighters.

Humbling defeats of Abu Sayyaf in Basilan, capturing Camp Abubakar

 The Scout Ranger units posted in Mindanao responded to the renewed flare up of hostilities with the Southern Philippines armed groups.

The Abu Sayyaf, suffered a string of humbling defeats at the hands of the 1st Scout Ranger Battalion in Basilan.

The Second Scout Ranger Battalion, on the other hand, struck fear into the hearts of Moro rebels in Maguindanao. The Reina Regente operations recovered a piece of land touted by the rebels as their sanctuary.

In the all-out war against the MILF in 2000, the 2nd Scout Ranger Battalion battled it out to win Camp Abubakar and other MILF strongholds in Cotabato and Maguindanao.

The 4th Scout Ranger Battalion, where Dennis Eclarin was a company commander, was instrumental in conquering enemy camps in Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte and in clearing the impenetrable Narciso Ramos Highway.

The famed First Scout Ranger Regiment under Col. Gabriel Ledesma, received the Presidential Streamer Award in 2000.

The true heroes of the Republic

To date, the First Scout Ranger Regiment remains as the top contributor to the AFP’s combat scoreboard – year in and year out. The battle-wise individuals, who compose the legendary unit, remain strong in their commitment to fight for their Motherland. Offering everything and sometimes getting nothing in return, they are the true heroes of the republic.

(Part III – “Raising a Modern Day Knight”)

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