All the lava lava cloth and patches
named to : WC Perry
The U.S. first gained control over the
Samoan Islands east of 171° west longitude,
principally Tutuila and the Manu group,
in a treaty with Great Britain in 1899. Ad-
ministration was assigned to the Navy De-
partment in 1900 because of a coaling sta-
tion maintained at Pago Pago, Tutuila un-
der an 1878 treaty with Samoan royalty. Ad-
ministration of the islands was transferred
to the Interior Department in 1951.
The first Naval Governor appointed to
American Samoa was Captain Benjamin F.
Tilley. Among his first actions was the for-
mation of a native naval organization as a
guard unit and to assist with keeping the
public peace. The unit was named Fita Fita,
Samoan for"courageous." (1) Initially
trained by Navy officers, Marine Gunnery
Sergeant J. F. Cox arrived at the naval sta-
tion at Pago Pago in 1904 to become thefirst drill instructor for the Fita Fita Guard.
(2) The Guard continued under the guid-
ance of Marine COs thereafter.
As the clouds of WW 2 grew, one of
the duties of the Fita Fita was to assist in
thelinstruction and marksmanship training
of prospective enlistees for the newly
formed First Samoan Battalion, U.S.M.C.R.
Formation of a "…Native Defense Force as
a component of the Marine Corps Re-
serve...was ordered by direction to the
Commandant on 21 April 1941. (3) The first
man enlisted was Sianava Robert Siva-
Aetasi on 20 August. Private Sianava was
assigned to active duty on 16 September.
(4)
Recruitment and training continued
and companies were organized to be as-
signed defensive districts under the com-
mand of Marine NCOs of the 7th DefenseBattalion. Also organized were a 6 inch ar-
tillery unit and a .50 cal, machine gun sec.
tion. Later, training was initiated on 37mm
and 40mm antiaircraft guns. On 9 Decem-
ber 1941, following the attack on Pearl Har-
bor, all members of the battalion enlisted to
date were called to active duty.
A small
number of Samoan Marines were trained
as corpsmen and
litter bearers and as-
signed to the company headquarters staff.
(5)
In January 1942, promotion of six pri-
vates to corporal and ten percent of the
privates to privates, first class was ap
proved. The first man promoted to Corpo-
ral was Sianava Robert Seva'Aetasi, now
by native custom known as Corporal
Sianava. He would later be the first pro-
moted to sergeant, the highest rank among
the Samoan Marines. (6)
