EAST PROVIDENCE — In 1944, Caesar (Sam) Monteiro was finally old enough to enlist in the U.S. Army and serve his country in her time of need. Born in 1926, in the Fox Point section of Providence he joined up and was sent to cavalry school in Oklahoma.

There he became a full-fledged cavalry man complete with riding boots, riding breeches and spurs. He was part of the 124th Cavalry a Federalized Texas National Guard unit and they were sent by ship from the West coast to Bombay, India across the Pacific and Indian Oceans on a three month voyage.

After a scenic cross country train trip from Fort Riley, Kansas, they crossed the Pacific from their point of embarkation Los Angeles aboard the U.S.S General H.W. Butner a troop transport on July 25, 1944 and stopped in Australia before finally arriving in Bombay, India on February 2.

He said in an interview, that he remembers the Indians as being warm and welcoming. Sam remembers being sea sick most of the time. In India, the 124th Cavalry unit, now a dismounted force, they had traded in their horses for mules, became part of the 5332d provisional brigade and specifically designated the Mars Task Force. They were to be a long range penetration force.

Two days, they set out by train via the India Rail Road to Camp Ramgarh in the province of Bihar. From there, the Mars Task Force (MTF) set out for Burma with 3,000 mules and 7,000 men over rain soaked narrow mountain and jungle trails. Sometimes they were transported by trucks, and there were side wheel steamers and at one point transported in C 47 Dakotas. Dismounted all the way, beneath the dignity of cavalrymen to have to wear backpacks, but they did.

Finally, they arrived at their destination, Camp Landis. Now they were mule skinners. The terrain was incredibly tough according to Ralph Baird, who has written a history of the MTF, the trails went over 8000 feet, sometimes high above the clouds, Sam remembers that vividly. Again, according to Baird and recalled by Sam, it was so exhausting trying to coax those mules along that at times there was as little as two minutes of movement followed by five minutes of rest. As little as 3.5 miles was accomplished in a day.

Through India and into Burma their objective, a Japanese stronghold at Loi Kang and Man Sak, was 350 miles away. Despite depictions of the steaming jungle which were correct at those elevations it got cold at night so cold that water froze in their canteens. They were stripped of most of their equipment to lighten their personal loads. They carried, toiletries, one wool blanket, one poncho, 350 rounds of ammo, clothing, a jungle knife, a machete, a compass, a spoon, a canteen cup, or sometimes just a tin cover to eat off of, three days of rations, green fatigues, combat boots and leggings, final replaced the riding boots, a helmet and their guns. They wore two canteens the water in them had to be treated with tablets or be boiled before it was drinkable. They were supplied every three days by air drops with food, supplies and bales of hay for the mules. Not all the air drops were successful either. Sometimes where they landed was just inaccessible. If hay became scarce, the mules liked freshly cut bamboo.

Those narrow high mountain inevitably led to some mules along with their packs to tumble over the sides. When that happened, it was up to the men to go down and retrieve the supplies and the mule if possible and hoist them by ropes back up to the trail. Those mules were also hauling 75mm pac howitzers up those mountain trails. Back breaking work. All this work led to a lot of injuries, especially march fractures and those men had to be evacuated. That was done by small planes on improvised landing strips.

Some obstacles lay in the path of the MTF along the trail to those villages. The Japanese had built an estimated 80 pill boxes along the ridge all in about a 100 yard area and they would have to be cleared out one by one. The MTF employed every asset they had to move or destroy the Japanese force including artillery, mines, patrols, ambushes and automatic weapons fire but despite all this, those pill boxes would have to be taken. In one instance, a Sgt. Speck volunteered to try and take some out. He asked for a volunteer to go with him and Sam Monteiro stepped forward. Together, he and Speck, successfully put two pill boxes out of commission using hand grenades. For this action Sam was awarded the Bronze Star. Soon thereafter, and because of the pressure from the MTF the Japanese began a southward withdrawal towards Lashio. Mission accomplished and the Burma Road could reopen.

Their mission accomplished, the MTF was disbanded but Sam’s adventure didn’t end there. He was then posted to a post in Shanghai, China, specifically an MP unit. While there he was sent along with two other MP’s and an OSS officer to French Indo China (Viet Nam now) to arrest and return a Japanese General for committing war crimes. He had ordered the murder of American POW’s.

Returning to Shanghai the war eventually came to an end he once again boarded a ship for the trans-Pacific crossing. With the war’s ending, Sam remembers it only took a month this time, no zig zagging required this time and he wasn’t as seasick. He attributes that to having been assigned a job, the ship’s announcer. He would make announcements, page officers etc. It kept him busy and his mind off his stomach. Upon return to the West Coast, he once again embarked on a cross country train trip, which he said was wonderful, and home to Rhode Island and discharged.

After the war, he eventually married and had two sons and they made their home in East Providence ever since. He worked for and retired from the Imperial Knife Company in Providence for 35 years. His grandmother was a founding member of the Cape Verdean Club on Grove Avenue. Sam’s picture appears on the wall of their banquet room along other men of Cape Verdean decent. Sam is alive and well now approaching his 94th birthday still independently living in East Providence.

For his service in the China Burma Theatre during World War II, Sam was awarded the Bronze Star for Valor, the Combat Infantry Badge, the Asia Pacific Campaign Medal and four battle stars, the Good Conduct Medal and the Marksmanship with a rifle badge.

About 92,000 Rhode Islanders served in the armed forces during World War II, only about 2000 are still with us, Sam Monteiro is one of them, thank you Sam.

— Mr. Caisse is an independent historian/researcher and member of the East Providence Historical Society.