One Puka Puka

One Puka Puka is the twenty-second episode of The Gallant Men. It was written by David Lang and directed by Leslie H. Martinson. It aired on March 2, 1963.

Plot summary
Searching a heavily-damaged Italian town for Germans, the men of Able Company hear music. Ukelele music, in fact. McKenna and company are surprised to discover a squad of Asians and Pacific Islanders wearing American army uniforms and partying down in an abandoned tavern. McKenna is irritated by their lax behavior, and even low-flying German planes don’t jar the men out of their revelry.

McKenna correctly identifies the group as from Hawaii and tells them to knock off the music and dancing. One of the men says they’ve set up an observation post and reveals they belong to One Puka Puka, the 100th Infantry Battalion. The testy McKenna continues chewing out the 100th guys, until one of ukulele players, Joe O’Hara, dons a lieutenant’s helmet and reminds McKenna he is outranked – much to the amusement of the officer’s lighthearted colleagues.

McKenna contacts Benedict by radio and informs him O’Hara won’t let the Able men leave because they’d give away the O.P. if spotted by the German observation planes. Benedict demands the coordinates necessary to neutralize German artillery so Able can move safely about. McKenna is summoned to confer with O’Hara on the second floor of the tavern. McKenna fails to get upstairs by the 100th’s preferred method, a rope thrown through a hole in the second-story floor. He succeeds on the second try and finds O’Hara casually reading a comic book while Gibson and Saunders try to visually locate the German artillery. O’Hara calmly lays out a strategy that relies on air support to get the job done. McKenna says they could also all get killed, a point O’Hara concedes.

Their argument is interrupted by German shell fire. Debris rains from the ceiling of the tavern and buildings outside are blown apart. While everyone scrambles to get downstairs through the aforementioned hole in the floor, McKenna pushes a Nisei private, Murphy, out of the way of a falling beam. The beam lands on McKenna’s ankle and the sergeant cries out in agony. He’s still irritated enough to refuse the help being offered by the 100th men. O’Hara and his men lower McKenna using the rope and he is hastily moved through a trapdoor into the tavern’s basement.

McKenna sees O’Hara using a backpack radio set to contact his headquarters and concludes the Germans must have determined the location of the O.P. by tracing signals from the radio. He blames O’Hara for the bombing. D’Angelo and Lucavich try to talk McKenna out of his confrontational attitude, but McKenna ignores them and secures permission to leave the building. The Able soldiers are initially reluctant to follow him, but he angrily orders them into compliance.

Outside, McKenna and D’Angelo see Wehrmacht soldiers approaching on foot. McKenna decides they have no recourse but to retreat back into the tavern. He trips on debris, and a mix of the Able guys and Nisei carry him back inside, McKenna grouchily shouting the whole time. The Germans enter mere seconds after everyone heads into the basement and shut the trapdoor behind them.

O’Hara nonchalantly asserts the 100th men can take the Germans, a claim even D’Angelo is skeptical to accept. He and Lucavich say the 100th and the 36th should work together to take on the Germans. A radio chat with Benedict solves nothing, and McKenna finally concedes O’Hara is in charge. McKenna says O’Hara won $600 from him when they were both at Schofield Barracks three years prior. The experience left him distrustful of the Nisei.

O’Hara, McKenna and a few others go back up to the tavern’s second floor to re-establish the observation post. McKenna finally spots the German guns and passes coordinates via radio back to Benedict. American tanks and heavy guns begin firing on the German position as McKenna gives updated guidance for aiming. The assault succeeds, forcing the Germans to pull back. But O’Hara notices two German soldiers on foot approaching the tavern. O’Hara leaps from the second story and knocks out one with physical kicks and blows; the second is killed by a knife thrown by “Cowboy,” one of his privates. McKenna is astonished.

The first German private is hauled inside for interrogation. He says there about fifteen more Wehrmacht hiding out in a nearby church. Via radio, Benedict says the Able men and the 100th have to stay put because theirs is the only O.P. in the area. O’Hara says McKenna and the Able guys should stay put and maintain the O.P. while he and his men capture as many Germans as they can using karate, “like Superman.” While McKenna says the plan is “nutty as a fruitcake” and highly risky, D’Angelo, Lucavich, Hanson and Saunders volunteer to aid the Nisei. McKenna begins to join them, but O’Hara, indicating McKenna’s injured ankle, tells him to stay and command the O.P. He and McKenna reach détente.

The Nisei burst into the church and surprise the Germans, immediately engaging in hand-to-hand combat. Inspired by the example, the Able men all leave their M1s with Hanson and hop into the physical combat party. For a short while, everyone’s all jumping and hopping around, flinging their limbs wildly – Nisei, the white Americans, the Germans – and somehow the Americans prevail. All fifteen Germans are taken alive without a shot fired.

The mixed squad relaxes back at the tavern, getting to know each other and relieved about their successful raid. But McKenna spots a German tank slowly approaching. A German soldier who escaped the church runs toward the tank and alerts the driver to the presence of the Americans. Benedict and Kimbro receive a garbled radio message that the Able men need help, and they rush to rescue the group.

A jump cut reveals the tank fell into a disguised trench and the crew is dead. Benedict, Kimbro, Conley Wright and an Able squad are confused when they hear ukulele music wafting down the street. They burst into the tavern to discover the combined Nisei and white Americans strumming and dancing in a near-mirror of scene that opened act one. McKenna is shimmying and drinking straight out of a bottle – until he spots Benedict and snaps into a terrified salute. The sergeant tries, haltingly, to explain the situation, but Benedict cuts him off and says he wants to get out of the village. The Able men say goodbye to the 100th Battalion men and leave town.

G-2 report

 * This episode was probably pretty progressive for 1963, in the way it showed the quirky Asian-Americans to be as effective as any other member of This Man’s Army. Certainly McKenna, the big white dude ordering everyone around, is constantly reminded the 100th’s unorthodox ways work. Conley Wright’s closing narration underscores the theme of working together. But the episode also promotes some stereotypes, such as the Puka Puka men all knowing martial arts and strumming ukuleles for entertainment. The ukulele scene in the abandoned tavern could be construed as bordering on minstrel, in fact. Later in the episode, Benedict is unable to understand O’Hara’s accented speech and even assumes it’s a language other than English (it wasn’t, Jim).
 * We learn in this episode that McKenna joined the Army in 1933 and was stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, for a period in 1941 before the base was attacked. That’s consistent with what we learn about McKenna’s career in the Army in “Signals for an End Run.” He is a career soldier, unlike the draftees and volunteers that made up the bulk of the Army by 1943 and 1944.
 * For a man so concerned about keeping his position secret from Germans, McKenna sure loves shouting loudly as German soldiers approach the tavern.
 * Hawaii native Poncie Ponce, who plays Lt. O'Hara, may have been familiar to Gallant Men viewers. His main claim to fame in 1963 was his role as Kazuo Kim in the Warner-produced detective series Hawaiian Eye (1959-63), which also aired on ABC.
 * Hans Gudegast appears in this episode, in an uncredited role as a German officer. Gudegast was previously seen as a radio operator in “And the End of Evil Things.” He also played German military men in six episodes of Combat! and two episodes of 12 O’Clock High. He is perhaps best known in World War II fiction as Capt. Hans Dietrich, the primary antagonist of The Rat Patrol (1966-68).
 * George Takei is also in this episode! What a pip! Two of his Star Trek: The Original Series co-stars, DeForest Kelley ("A Taste of Peace") and James Doohan ("The Warriors"), also played guest roles in Gallant Men episodes.
 * It’s strongly implied that the names “Murphy” and “O’Hara” borne by the Puka Puka men are Americanized pseudonyms that are easier for native English speakers to pronounce than their birth names.
 * Pvt. Wziecewski makes a brief appearance as the radio operator for Benedict in Gibson’s stead.
 * The 100th Infantry Battalion was created in 1942 under secretive circumstances. More than 1,400 Nisei members of the Hawaii National Guard were put aboard a ship, told not to say goodbye to their families, and shipped off to Oakland, California. Because of their ancestry, the members of the 100th were treated with deep skepticism by white commanders and were put through tests that sought to establish not just their marksmanship or bravery, but their loyalty to the United States. The 100th arrived in Italy in late September 1943, just a few weeks after the 36th Division depicted in The Gallant Men.
 * In the first act, D’Angelo refers to the 100th as “the Purple Heart battalion.” He’s right. The nickname was earned at Monte Cassino in early 1944. Three companies – A, B and C – suffered heavy casualties in their initial approach to the mount. From late January to mid-May, the original battalion was reduced from 1,300 men to about 500. Replacements from the 442nd Regimental Combat Team began replenishing the 100th in May, after Cassino’s capture. By war’s end, 21 members of the 100th Battalion would be awarded the Medal of Honor.