Wendell Fertig, American Hero

"To her we drink, for her we pray,
Our voices silent? Never!

For her we'll fight — let come what may,
The Stars and Stripes forever."

Beginning in late 1941, Japanese Imperial forces began their invasion of the Philippine Islands. For American forces, cut off from supplies and reinforcements by overwhelming Japanese forces employed throughout the South Pacific, it was only a matter of time before the Japanese would achieve a victory. President Roosevelt believed that General Douglas MacArthur, in overall command of military forces in the Philippines, was too valuable to the overall war effort and ordered MacArthur out of the Philippine Islands. In time, all military forces remaining behind, out of ammunition, starving, and denied proper health care, surrendered.

Well, almost all military forces. There was one officer, newly promoted Lieutenant Colonel Wendell Fertig, Engineering Corps, United States Army Reserve, who decided that he was not about to surrender to the Japanese. Sent from Bataan to Mindanao to assist General Sharp, the military commander there, Fertig moved into the hills of Mindanao once General Sharp surrendered to the Japanese.

Lieutenant Colonel Fertig decided that if he was able to resist capture, then it made sense that other American military personnel did as well; they would need leadership. He also considered that hundreds of Philippine scouts could be used as guerilla assets against the Japanese if they could be located and persuaded to follow him. But Fertig was also a realist; what chance would he have of commanding any force of men as a newly promoted lieutenant colonel, and a civil engineer?

So Wendell Fertig promoted himself to the rank of Brigadier General, United States Army and formed one of the most fantastic guerilla operations in America’s entire history. For the next two years, “General” Fertig created and led the United States Forces, Philippines. He amassed over 30,000 armed men, the equivalent of an Army Corps, which included American forces who had managed to escape as prisoners of war, and fighting men of the Philippine Islands. With no formal military training and limited supplies, General Fertig conducted commando type raids against the Japanese to obtain weapons and ammunition, food, medical supplies, and communications equipment. Eventually, in spite of General MacArthur’s initial refusal to believe that any credible forces remained in the Philippines, Fertig began receiving supplies from the Commander, South West Pacific Operating Area (SWPOA) and in time, General Fertig’s forces became the best equipped and most effective irregular fighting force of World War II.

After the war, MacArthur begrudgingly promoted Fertig to Colonel and awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross, and then Fertig quietly returned to his civil engineering profession. Later, however, Colonel Fertig helped to establish the U. S. Army’s Special Warfare Center and he is today regarded as the father of the U. S. Army’s “Special Forces” organization.

Wendell Fertig died in 1975 at the age of 74. For many people in the Philippine Islands, and indeed among many regular Army personnel, he will always be regarded as General Fertig, a true American hero. He deserves to be remembered on Memorial Day.