colonial gent
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Joined: 1 Nov. 2007
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The interview was informal enough but even though he was prepared with questions on a legal pad and a small Dictaphone to record the conversation my fourteen year old son was rather nervous. The three of us met in the lobby of a tennis club where we were members. I admit, having read the book "Flags of Our Fathers," I was somewhat anxious about the level of detail the Marine might go into but he, like most of his comrades, was rather guarded about such information. In fact, I got the impression that his discussion with my son was as much conversation as he'd had about his experience since the war ended. I believe he understood his responsibility in the answers he gave went beyond my son getting an A on a history assignment.
A Readers Digest version of the interview went like this:
Q, Where are you from.
A. I was born on top of a mountain in West Virginia.
Q. How old were you when you joined the army?
A. I joined the US. Marines not the Army. I had just turned seventeen in 1943 when I joined. I don't know about the army but at that time you could join the Navy or the Marines at seventeen.
Q. What were your thoughts about the war before you joined?
A. Back in WW2 it was "the" thing to do. Every young man wanted to go and serve his country. Young boys in my school couldn't wait to get out of school and join the armed forces and some of them even left high school early. At that time if you were physically unfit you were classified as a "4F" and no one wanted to get that label or classification. All of my friends had joined and I was eager to join as well.
Q. Where did you serve and what was your rank?
A. My primary engagement was in the Pacific and northern China from 1943 to 1946 and my rank when I left was Sergeant. I was with the 6th Marine Division/ 1st 90 gun battalion....sea going on the cruiser USS Alaska. Our landings were in Iwo Jima in Feb. 1945 and also on April 1st on Okinawa. I also served in the Reserve from 1950 to 1952.
Q. Was your training very hard?
A. It was very demanding but we knew it was necessary. I received extensive training on the 20mm, the 5 inch 38s, the m1 rifle and the bar. In fact, the thing about the Marines is that no matter your station within the corp. from cook or staff office worker to high ranking officer you were qualified with every weapon in the Marine arsenal. I admit I'm a bit biased but I believe the Marine Corp training was superior to any other service in the US military. I remember, coming out of boot camp, I was so pumped up to go and fight and I was thinking, "Boy the Japanese better look out because they aren't going to last six weeks!" All of us were just ready to go and get em. On our way out we stopped at Pearl Harbor and a buddy of mine had a friend in the hospital there so we went to visit him. The wounded there had a tremendous attitude. I'll never forget walking down that long hallway passing the "Right One-Legged Club" and the "Left One-Legged Club" and the "No Arms Club" and so on. But the sight of all those wounded sobered me up a bit about how serious this really was.
Q. Did you see the flag raised on Iwo Jima?
A. I saw the first flag go up on Mt. Suribachi. Those of us who saw it cheered as it went up and the ships off shore fired their guns in salute. The flag in the famous photo you refer to was actually the second flag to go up later in the day. The first one was rather small so they sent some men up to replace it with a larger one but by that time we had resumed fighting the Japanese so most of us didn't see the second flag as it was raised.
Q. What was the most interesting story about your experience in the war?
A. I have all kinds of interesting stories I could tell. I'm not sure exactly what you're interested in but I'll tell you one story, it's a very emotional story for me At the end of the war (Aug. 1945), while we were still in Okinawa, 80 men were sent to a P.O.W. camp near the village of San Tau in the Shantung Province in Northern China. Now you need to remember that the Japanese had been in China since 1937 and by 1945 they had over a 100,000 troops in the Shantung Province. When we arrived there was also the Chinese Nationalists Army which was forming out of their own civil war and as we made our way to the P.O.W. camp we were fired upon continuously but it wasn't the Japanese, as we first thought, it was the Chinese communists. Now I grew up in a small West Virginia town and none of us were rich by any stretch but as an eighteen year old, marching in the hills of Northern China, I couldn't have imagined so much sickness, poverty, and death. It made such an impression that, to this day, I never complain about three things: food, shelter, and clothing......and you (looking at my son) remember that young man. We take way too much for granted. Anyhow, the P.O.W. camp had a mixture of civilian and servicemen. There were Americans, Canadians and British. Now, jumping ahead some forty five years years, my grand daughter is getting married in Wisconsin. During the rehearsal, she introduces me to the minister and his wife and during the course of our conversation I learned that the wife had been in China during WW2 as a 6 yr old with her parents who were missionaries. (here he pauses for a minute) As she realized that I was one of the Marines who had been sent to the P.O.W. camp where she and her parents were being held tears started to stream down her face and she began thanking me over and over. You know, that's the only time anyone ever thanked me. (he pauses for a few seconds again) What are the odds, huh? Anyway, it's a smaller world than you think.
Q. What is the most important thing you would share as a veteran with young people today?
A. Love your country.......and always protect these beautiful freedoms we enjoy today. It really is a blessing to live here and many many men have died to preserve that blessing.
*At the conclusion of the interview, he took us to the trunk of his car where he allowed us to examine his WW2 memorabilia which included a ceremonial samurai sword, the Japanese flag from the P.O.W. camp with numerous signatures from his Marine buddies, and a Japanese infantry rifle. I have to admit, no amount of "study" could have made such an impression on either my son or myself.
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