One learns a lot while
serving in the United States Army. Foreign places, stressful conditions, and
absence from home can foster an out-of-the-classroom education that crosses the
boundary of the odd and unusual. Today, tales of strange sea creatures and
haunted islands seem like a bad Sci-Fi marathon. But these were realities for
one U. S. Army soldier stationed overseas at the turn of the 20th
century.
The arts of journal keeping,
letter writing and daily diary entries are becoming extinct as methods of
memory management in today’s technology driven world. What once was detailed on
paper with memory fresh at hand is now posted on YouTube. Today, blogs replace
the diary entries. Hand-written letters to loved ones are far slower than a
quick Facebook ‘poke’ or a cell phone text message.
Historians enjoy a deep
appreciation for the written word. They savor the ability to see the world
through the eyes of someone who never had satellite TV, the internet or a cell
phone. Where explanation was not readily at hand in the strange lands of the
Philippine Islands, the environment was ripe for adventure and the unknown.
Placing one’s self into such situations fosters an education that cannot be
duplicated in any classroom, book or blockbuster movie. A survivor of deadly
and savage situations, Colonel Horace P. Hobbs recorded these well-documented
experiences that lend a degree of depth to the retelling and re-imagining of
Army history.
The odd education of Colonel
Horace P. Hobbs is revealed in his voluminous personal papers held at the U. S.
Army Military History Institute. A letter of august 16,1918, soothes his wife
while he is stationed in France during World War I. “You see it is the women
who suffer most during war. Now I know you and mother are worrying about me and
I am living in the most luxurious comfort and perfect safety just now.” He goes
to great length to explain his lush surroundings and the comfort he is
experiencing, from bathing in a nearby brook, to the size of his room and the
servants who provide for him, as he attempts to console a worry-sick wife. It
would seem, however, that Mrs. Hobbs had been through worse as a military
spouse.
Her husband was stationed in
the Philippines during the insurrection from 1899 to 1901. Colonel Hobbs wrote
a book from his collected journals and memoirs entitled, “Kris and Krag:
Adventures among the Moros of the Southern Philippine Islands.” Among his many
tales, the Colonel tells about a strange native custom on one of the small
islands of taking their boats across a narrow strait to another island and
returning before dark. They explained to him that the island was the home of
the ‘wok-wok’, a powerful ghost who must be appeased with gifts of rice so they
will not harm the people. Upon further inspection the Army discovered the
‘wok-wok’ to be large apes.
Another bizarre chapter in
the Colonel’s education came when he was asked by some villagers to kill a sea
creature which wreaked havoc among the people whenever they slaughtered an
animal for food. The blood would run into the water, and out would come the
creature. The Colonel waited for the apparition to appear after a slaughter,
and he was not disappointed. Upon further inspection he described the animal as
being some kind of mix between an alligator and a crocodile, but one he had
never seen before.
Experience in foreign
places, blended with curiosity and a desire to learn, enabled Colonel Hobbs to
obtain a far greater grasp of the world. These traits provided him with an education
that the average person today cannot obtain from watching television or
searching the web.
- Author
Phil Biggerton & John Ross ( RTC English )
Godivabooks@gmail.com
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