A good summary and detailed timeline of the action across the Pacific during 1944 is available here:
http://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/naval-war-pacific-1944
It references Tinian and Saipan where Jerry served.
Showing posts with label Saipan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saipan. Show all posts
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Monday, April 19, 2010
Episode 6 Pacific
18 April 1942 Lt. Col. James Doolittle USAAF with 16 B-25 Bombers and 80 Airmen launch from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet and strike Japan.
I asked Jerry if he remembered much about the incident.
Jerry was happy with Episode 6. The depiction of guys getting wounded and getting a corpsman up to treat them. The confusion during combat. Scouting up front and getting shot at. All things that Jerry has experienced first hand. He has that great sense of humor and laughs a lot about the crazy things that happened in combat.
He said that there were alot of guys from the southern states.
Jerry give tonight's episode high marks.
Stay tuned, G-3 (operations) is planning to have something special cooking for the episode covering the Invasion of Iwo Jima. Get together with some of Jerry's Marine buddies from the Birthday Ball for chow and them watching the show. Should be good!
"There are two kind of people who understand the MARINES. Marines and the enemy. Everyone else has a second hand opinion."
Unknown
I asked Jerry if he remembered much about the incident.
"Well it was in the papers about the raid. I was a junior in high school. It was a big deal. Hey the military struck right at the heart of Japan."On Pacific Jerry agreed water was a problem. He recalled on Saipan that his canteen got hit with shrapnel. When he brought a wounded Marine back to the beach he found a quick remedy for no canteen.
"I grabbed the wounded guys canteen. He didn't need it and I'd put it to good use." Simple shrug of the shoulders.Guys getting hit.
"Well if a guy got hit several guys would jump up and carry the stretcher. Depending on the size of the guy we'd have two or four guys. There was never a shortage. I and others always felt that if we were hit, someone would take care of us in the same fashion. Plus it got you out of immediate gunfire for a few minutes. I'd try and get a hot cup of coffee and grab as much ammo as I could get, to bring back. We'd drop our packs and ammo belts and grab more at the beach head.'
"The LST's that beached or damaged would be set a up as an aid station. The serious cases would be taken out to the hospital ships."Chamorro Prisoners at Saipan.
"We took a lot of Chamorro Prisoners. They were natives the island. The Japs had forced them into working for them. Myself and another guy were bringing Chamorro prisoners to a camp and a woman went into labor. The other guy said 'Have you ever birthed an animal?" "Ah gee no, I grew up in the city."
The other Marine said no sweat. He delivered the baby and I helped. I carried the baby back to the POW camp. The mother was in better shape then I was for God's sake. It was an experience watching the baby get born and helping."The assault on the airfield on Pacific.
"The thing that strikes me the most is the guys bunching up. We were told that you shouldn't ever bunch up. Lot of guys together. One shell could take everyone out, or a machine gun could do alot of damage . But then you had the senior guys saying follow me or stay close."
"I remember one guy in combat running around hollering; ' I can't find my plate I lost my plate.' He had lost the base plate for the mortar. I was always glad I wasn't in the weapons section carrying the parts to the mortar or the machine gun. It was bad enough having to run like hell but to carry all that equipment..." Then that trade mark chuckle.Jerry said it was a great depiction of combat in the Pacific Theater of Operations. Speilberg and Hanks have captured the moments well. When the Gunny said ' Check your ammo. What do you got and what do you need. Standby to standby." Jerry chuckled.
"Yeah, hey you were glad to have survived. Make a check of your equipment and grab a smoke if you could. You know they filled water in the jerry can. Then they put fuel in them. I think the Navy carted those cans all over the Pacific. God the water tasted like sh#@ from those cans."Intelligence sources say Jerry was getting a little tired of the soap opera part with the girlfriends and other drama. Lets just say G2 had it on good authority.
Jerry was happy with Episode 6. The depiction of guys getting wounded and getting a corpsman up to treat them. The confusion during combat. Scouting up front and getting shot at. All things that Jerry has experienced first hand. He has that great sense of humor and laughs a lot about the crazy things that happened in combat.
He said that there were alot of guys from the southern states.
"They used to laugh like hell at my accent. They always got me to say; 'I parked my car in Harvard yard.' Those guys would fall over laughing. Saying a spoke funny. " Hey you guys should listen to yourselves. You sound pretty funny to me."
Jerry give tonight's episode high marks.
Stay tuned, G-3 (operations) is planning to have something special cooking for the episode covering the Invasion of Iwo Jima. Get together with some of Jerry's Marine buddies from the Birthday Ball for chow and them watching the show. Should be good!
"There are two kind of people who understand the MARINES. Marines and the enemy. Everyone else has a second hand opinion."
Unknown
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Pacific Chapter 5
Well again a couple of classic stories from Jerry tonight.
On Pacific Chapter 5 we saw Eugene Sledge and the replacements filter in to the camp. Bob Leckie came back with gifts of magazines, books and comic books.
Eugene Sledge hooks up with Sid Phillips. At one point as they are walking through the camp, I noticed a handwritten sign on a post that indicated the direction of the 4th JASCO. It was quick and Jerry didn't notice it.
John Basilone met up with his brother George in LA. George Basilone was wearing the 4th Division Patch on his blouse.
"There was a rumor John Basilone was come to the 4th. You know, the guy had a great reputation. Something like that, a guy might feel he has an obligation to to live up to that reputation. He certainly didn't have to prove anything. Part of me wonders if he took one to many chances. After Saipan and Tinian I was a little nervous. I had seen so many guys get hit. Hey, after Iwo Jima we were practicing pretty hard to hit the Japanese. I just felt my luck would have run out. I had been very lucky. So many guys..." Jerry said.
Jerry mentioned the land crabs were brutal. When he came ashore at Saipan he tore his dungarees and got a scratch on the front of his leg.
"I tore the pants from the top of the leggings all the way up to above my knee. I was very concerned about the crabs eating my leg. Yeah I wasn't too crazy about that."
On the landing at Peleliu, he shook his head in acknowledgement of the guys doing a low crawl up from the water.
"I did that and dug a fox hole behind a big tree about forty yards up from the beach. That tree was about nineteen inches in diameter. By the third day it was about the size of a twig. 'One day. We'll be all done.' the officers said. Famous last words." Then, that all too familiar chuckle.
"On Saipan my right leg went numb and I thought I had been shot. I reached down and my dungarees were all wet. I wiped my hand on pants and then licked my hand. Well it wasn't blood. Then I realized my canteen was shot and had leaked all over my leg. I had been laying on my side in one position that my leg had fallen asleep."
Japanese tanks. "Tanks. You got close and threw grenades into the treads. Pretty much did the job. Thank God they weren't bigger. At Iwo, it was different as far as tanks went. We didn't run across many of them. At least not my unit."
The Gunnery Sgt. The Gunny was running a firing line. A second lieutenant finishes and turns into the line with his weapon pointed at other Marines. The Gunny came unglued. He gives the "shave tail" a serious dressing down on firearms safety and etiquette of the pistol. He informs the LT where he will holster the pistol if it happens again. Jerry didn't intially pick up on it the violation. He was chuckling about the Gunny screaming at the LT. Then I pointed out the violation and Jerry started giggling pretty hard. The LT looks for some help from the Captain. The Captain reaffirms the Gunny.
"We had some guys who would scream and shout at you. They would be smirking and laughing. They were trying to help you. Then you had some guys who were just plain mean. They were some tough SOB's. You avoided guys like that as much as you could."
On guys taking the teeth of the dead.
"Well we had a lot of guys do that. Word spread pretty quick about the gold in the teeth. I couldn't leave my pliers down anywhere. If I didn't keep them on me, they'd be gone. It was well known that the all the Japanese had gold for fillings in their teeth. Some guys did strange things."
Overall pretty good episode. Jerry's number one complaint? It ends too quickly.
"Marines I see as two breeds, Rottweilers or Dobermans, because Marines come in two sizes big and mean, or skinny and mean. They're are aggressive on attack and tenacious on defense. They've got really short hair and they always go for the throat!" RADM Jay R. Stark 10 NOV 1995
On Pacific Chapter 5 we saw Eugene Sledge and the replacements filter in to the camp. Bob Leckie came back with gifts of magazines, books and comic books.
Eugene Sledge hooks up with Sid Phillips. At one point as they are walking through the camp, I noticed a handwritten sign on a post that indicated the direction of the 4th JASCO. It was quick and Jerry didn't notice it.
John Basilone met up with his brother George in LA. George Basilone was wearing the 4th Division Patch on his blouse.
"There was a rumor John Basilone was come to the 4th. You know, the guy had a great reputation. Something like that, a guy might feel he has an obligation to to live up to that reputation. He certainly didn't have to prove anything. Part of me wonders if he took one to many chances. After Saipan and Tinian I was a little nervous. I had seen so many guys get hit. Hey, after Iwo Jima we were practicing pretty hard to hit the Japanese. I just felt my luck would have run out. I had been very lucky. So many guys..." Jerry said.
Jerry mentioned the land crabs were brutal. When he came ashore at Saipan he tore his dungarees and got a scratch on the front of his leg.
"I tore the pants from the top of the leggings all the way up to above my knee. I was very concerned about the crabs eating my leg. Yeah I wasn't too crazy about that."
On the landing at Peleliu, he shook his head in acknowledgement of the guys doing a low crawl up from the water.
"I did that and dug a fox hole behind a big tree about forty yards up from the beach. That tree was about nineteen inches in diameter. By the third day it was about the size of a twig. 'One day. We'll be all done.' the officers said. Famous last words." Then, that all too familiar chuckle.
"On Saipan my right leg went numb and I thought I had been shot. I reached down and my dungarees were all wet. I wiped my hand on pants and then licked my hand. Well it wasn't blood. Then I realized my canteen was shot and had leaked all over my leg. I had been laying on my side in one position that my leg had fallen asleep."
Japanese tanks. "Tanks. You got close and threw grenades into the treads. Pretty much did the job. Thank God they weren't bigger. At Iwo, it was different as far as tanks went. We didn't run across many of them. At least not my unit."
The Gunnery Sgt. The Gunny was running a firing line. A second lieutenant finishes and turns into the line with his weapon pointed at other Marines. The Gunny came unglued. He gives the "shave tail" a serious dressing down on firearms safety and etiquette of the pistol. He informs the LT where he will holster the pistol if it happens again. Jerry didn't intially pick up on it the violation. He was chuckling about the Gunny screaming at the LT. Then I pointed out the violation and Jerry started giggling pretty hard. The LT looks for some help from the Captain. The Captain reaffirms the Gunny.
"We had some guys who would scream and shout at you. They would be smirking and laughing. They were trying to help you. Then you had some guys who were just plain mean. They were some tough SOB's. You avoided guys like that as much as you could."
On guys taking the teeth of the dead.
"Well we had a lot of guys do that. Word spread pretty quick about the gold in the teeth. I couldn't leave my pliers down anywhere. If I didn't keep them on me, they'd be gone. It was well known that the all the Japanese had gold for fillings in their teeth. Some guys did strange things."
Overall pretty good episode. Jerry's number one complaint? It ends too quickly.
"Marines I see as two breeds, Rottweilers or Dobermans, because Marines come in two sizes big and mean, or skinny and mean. They're are aggressive on attack and tenacious on defense. They've got really short hair and they always go for the throat!" RADM Jay R. Stark 10 NOV 1995
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Medal showcase
Helen Geoffroy, sister-in-law on the Joyal side of the family, had Jerry's medals and ribbons put into this special case. Here Jerry holds the case:
Here is a closer photo of the full case:
Here is a closeup showing more details:
Here is a closer photo of the full case:
Here is a closeup showing more details:
The photo is one of the few with Jerry in his US Marine Corp uniform from World War II. Who is he holding? Niece Paula Brousseau.
I'll get the descriptions of his medals and ribbons for another posting. I'll also take some more pictures on a day with better natural lighting. I was having some fun avoiding getting too much reflection in the glass covering the medals.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Jerry's Story: Joint Assault Signal Company
Jerry talks about his work on Saipan and Tinian as part of the Joint Assault Signal Company, a group also made famous in the movie "The Whisperers".
Time: approx. 6 minutes
Time: approx. 6 minutes
Audio file -> https://jerry-sherlocks-story.captivate.fm/episode/gs-002-jerry-recalls-the-joint-assault-signal-company
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Jerry's Story: Foxhole clarifications
Jerry provides some background clarifications on the foxholes and vegetation found on the islands.
Time: approx. 2 minutes
Audio file -> https://jerry-sherlocks-story.captivate.fm/episode/gs-003-jerry-recalls-some-foxhole-clarifications
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Jerry's Story: US Marine Health Records
Jerry talks about his health records and how he grew during his time in the US Marines.
Time: about 6 minutes
Time: about 6 minutes
Audio file -> https://jerry-sherlocks-story.captivate.fm/episode/gs-007-jerry-recalls-trying-to-get-his-marine-health-records
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