I had already been part of the invasion force in the Philippines. By the end of the day I think I got about eight of them, but I'm not sure. Two I do know, because I used my bayonet. The first I hit right in the throat [motions w/ his hands] and blood came shooting out like a fountain. The other guy I hit in the chest. He didn’t die right away. I had to brace my boot on his head to gain leverage adequate to remove the blade. Actually, I’m not certain if he died but he wasn’t moving when I left him.
"I stabbed 2 men to death and shot 6 others that day… I was 19 years old. "
A couple years later I was brought to a training camp in Guam. I didn’t have to ask what we were training for… We were going to invade Japan. No one talked about it publicly. We didn’t have this constant news on the TV like you have now. But we knew… we knew that most of us wouldn’t make it.
One day I was standing outside the landing strip when I saw my CO with tears in his eyes. He had the oddest smile on his face. “They did it… I’m not sure how, but they did it,” he said. The US had dropped an atomic bomb on Japan.
Even then, surrender wasn’t assured. But it was my best shot. I was a death row inmate receiving a presidential pardon. And I cried too. Those tears weren’t for the 8 men I killed on the Philippines, either. They were mine.
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