The Next Day

The next day we went into Barrigada Receiving Station and had just started working when, all of a sudden, we heard a small caliber gun go off not far away, from the same area as the day before; we hit the deck but no bullet had seemed to have come our way. We just stayed where we were and then suddenly there were two loud explosions! We ducked and just watched to see what was going on; finally, we were able to see Little Joe coming down the path. He calmly greeted us, as we asked what happened up there. He told us he took a circuitous route so that he slowly came into the suspected area early that a.m. from behind; then he waited for any action he could see or hear; pretty soon he saw a Japanese come out of the underbrush, walk a short distance and relieve himself; then he saw another and another! Three! He saw no one else and he waited until he was sure there were no more nearby; then he positioned his gun and waited. Pretty soon all three were in view; then almost as suddenly Little Joe saw two walk a short distance away from him and one remained and looked around. Little Joe lined up his Navy supplied carbine and fired; the soldier dropped immediately; the other two started running away from the area and then one after another they took a hand grenade from their belt; put the grenade to their stomachs, pulled the pin and blew themselves up! So one shot resulted in all three deaths! Incredible! We were absolutely stunned with this accounting. One shot! It was startling to realize this had all happened within about one hundred fifty yards from our viewing point!