Department of Defense

Mobilization for Federal Service

On June 1. 1918, pursuant to instructions from the War Department, the First and Second Regiments of Infantry, and the commissioned and enlisted personnel of the Medical Corps attached, were drafted into Federal service, and the following table shows the number of officers and enlisted men drafted, including Medical Corps:

		Officers			Enlisted Men
	Reported	Rejected	Accepted	Reported	Rejected	Accepted
1st Infantry	52	0	52	1,384	377	1,047
2nd Infantry	53	4	49	1,741	288	1,453
Totals	105	4	101	3,125	665	2,500

The total of officers and enlisted men rejected is 20.07 per cent of the number reporting. This, however, in the case of enlisted men, does not mean that rejections were all given for physical disability, a large proportion of these rejections being clue to other causes.

In the mobilization of the Guard, credit must be given to the Territorial Quartermaster and his corps for the dispatch with which the schedule was prepared and the manner in which it was carried out in the transportation of troops and equipment from stations outside of Honolulu.

Mention must also be made of the excellent co-operation by the management of the Inter-Island Steamship Navigation Company, Ltd., in the carrying out of the schedule of transportation, all of which was accomplished without any accident to life or property.

Officers and Enlisted Men Called Into Federal Service

During 1917 and 1918, prior to the induction of the First and Second Regiments into the Federal Service, there were 25 officers and 102 enlisted men authorized to attend three Reserve Officers’ Training Camps held at Schofield Barracks, Oahu. Of these there were 21 officers and 75 enlisted men discharged from the Guard and accepted in the Military services of the United States. In addition to the above, one officer (General Samuel I. Johnson) was called from the National Guard into Federal service with the rank of Major, and six others with the rank held by them in the Guard at the time they were called. In this connection, it may be said that the showing made and results obtained by the officers and enlisted men at the Reserve Officers’ Training Camps; the number of officers called into Federal service with the rank then held by them, and the fact that nearly all of the officers and non-commissioned officers drafted June 1, 1918, retained their former, and in many cases a higher rank, is cause for gratification and shows to great advantage the result of the military training as conducted in the National Guard. Credit for this success must be given to the untiring zeal of Major Edward F. Witsell, U.S.A., the Senior Inspector-Instructor, who during the short time at his disposal, including the time put in at the annual encampment of 1917, did everything within his power to correct errors and bring the organization to as near a state of efficiency for active duty as possible.

– 1917-1918 Annual Report pp.4-5