Minor Happenings on Guam

When we first landed we encountered a lot of rain one day. When you moved on this slick mud it was very hard to keep your feet, but we learned to take shorter steps. One day we came upon a familiar scene; Keith, always looking for a fight, had found another one; on the way to Oceanside from Farragut he was playing cards with this guy; they argued; Keith slapped him, and the shorter guy slapped him back! Well, now here they are on Guam, in the mud and Keith wanted someone to get the other guy off him because he wanted to box; no one offered anything to either contestant and there they were; Keith pinned in the mud and the shorter guy took some mud and smeared his face! I left with some friends. At the end of our stay on Guam we heard Keith had hit an officer and was in the brig! No surprise there. At Barrigada a Seabee showed up with his bulldozer and knocked down coconut trees, and we would run along throwing big clogs of dirt, etc. to kill the rats. About every eight days we rotated and that day was free; we could do anything, wash clothes; take a shower (we jerry-rigged a bucket of water over our heads so we could get water and the shower was set up between the tents). Also, I should mention that the urinal consisted of a 3-4" diameter pipe buried in the ground, at an angle so the opening was about 26-30 inches above ground, which we all used. We always noticed that a daughter of the Chamorros living in the hut above us was always washing clothes about 40 feet from us and when using the urinal we were looking right at her working. We ignored her mostly, as she probably did us.

My Buddy Fred

The next day we were just starting to work when a squad of Marines showed up; stopped briefly and then marched out of our area into the jungle. It was time to clear the Barrigada area-again!
The Japanese who were loose in the jungle of Guam just seemed to gravitate to this area. I saw Fred Midcap, my buddy from Boulder and he was sad looking - his brother Don, about sixteen had been returning to the farm at night, with a buddy, and failed to see the train that was already going across the road; their car hit the train; and miraculously everyone seemed to survive, but Don died the next day, very suddenly. It was a shock. I had traveled that road before and you could actually see car lights coming towards you, under the train because the road was elevated. I asked Fred what was going on with all the Japanese in Barrigada and he said that when the Marines landed they swept through so rapidly the Japanese never seemed to get set to create a defense; as a result many Japanese hid and were by-passed! But so many, I asked, and Buddy said they had 50 prisoners right now and took me to them. Sure enough, there they were; and while we were watching two Marines were ordering them to a different area. One was so short, even though he wore a small uniform it was way too big and he had trouble keeping up. Even so, he moved a lot faster when a Marine guard kicked him in the rear end to move faster! I was surprised, but Fred wasn't.

Little Joe Shows Us the Scene

We asked Little Joe where they were and he took us all up there. He showed us the area where the three Japanese soldiers lived and they had camouflaged the area so it was unnoticeable to the casual observer. One person found a little gold Buddha; there were prayer sticks made out of balsa wood, which was very light. I found some pictures of a Japanese squad posing for their picture and someone gave me a few prayer sticks; I didn't really want either one, and neither did Little Joe. We went to view their bodies and it was a gory mess for the two who used their hand grenades, and already flies had been attracted to them. They were very short, one was less than five feet tall; the two others probably five feet even to five feet one inches tall. They all wore leggings that had been carefully wound up their legs and all wore a broad belt that had carried their hand grenades. I was tempted to take a belt but there was blood on all three, so I declined. Later a Marine came, who had heard the two large explosions and he found a flag that one soldier wore under his belt. It had many Japanese signs and looked like it had been signed by family and/or friends. Although I hated the Japanese because of Pearl Harbor I had no feelings for or against these three men; actually, they looked more like boys. However, it was hard to forget the atrocities the Japanese had committed at Corregidor; the Bataan Death March; in China, and the torture of captive Marines at Guadalcanal, where they used water to extend a captive's stomach, plus other tortures. No question, war is hell! The shocker came when we all realized we had gone within 8-10 yards of them yesterday, while running up and down the path! We were very lucky, but still - dumb!

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!

Little Joe Appears, Listens and Disappears

I greeted Little Joe, told him what had happened, and then we both went to the tank, which had absorbed the shot; showed him the spot where the bullet hit. Then both sets of eyes took in the angle of the bullet and I showed him where we all thought the bullet came from. I used a sweeping hand motion to show where I thought the Japanese were. Little Joe took this all in, without saying a word. I left him at the tank and went to talk to some of the other guys and when I turned to look back at Little Joe I discovered he had left just as he had come - silently. I really don't remember thinking any more about L.J. All of us told the new Lt. who, by now, had taken off all his ranking insignia, that we needed to talk about this business of leaving 2 men, alone, for about an hour. He simply said that we should split 50-50 and no more 2 men left...period! He agreed that the area was becoming more dangerous. He said he would take care of it, and he did. Now there would be about 4 men leaving for chow and an almost immediate return for the other four. We were all satisfied with the new arrangement. This new Lt. had "seen the light" and made some good decisions, which is all that we wanted. I also remember he never wore that style hat again. We saw him some more, but when he came he looked very much like us and had unobtrusively hidden his ranking bars, but we could see them. I liked him, and so did the rest of the guys. We respected his decisions, plus he was likable.

The Crazy Lt. Dressed Like an Admiral

The next a.m. the Lt. came with his binoculars and tried to see if there was a body where we shot, about 100 yards away; he saw nothing. A few days later a new Lt. came, with what I remember as a Frank Buck type jungle helmet with gold bars. It may not have been what I described, and it may have been a military issue hat, but he wanted to take a better look at the disabled Japanese tank so we showed him what we had observed. We were standing a little away from him while he looked, but we were all close, when all of a sudden a bullet came with a thud, accompanied by a loud bang! We all immediately dropped to the ground, looked to see if everyone was o.k.; they were and we grabbed our carbines and took off running in the direction we were sure the shot came from! Dumb!! But we didn't hesitate; found a path towards that direction and went up over a small rise. Again - dumb! We realized we were in the jungle and had seen nothing so we started carefully coming back down the path we came. The vegetation was very heavy in spots and you couldn't really see in at all. We went back to the Lt. who was very visibly shaken, since the bullet had come closest to him. As we were pointing out the area we thought the shot came from up walked Little Joe! (Cont'd)

2 Men Left Behind Problems

The approximately 6 other guys had some of the same problems as we did and once fired their carbines, but all ended o.k. I wasn't always with the same man as we had odd rotations; but one time we two were sitting; one looking back and sideways and the other looking forward and sideways, with our carbines in our hands when we both, almost at the same time saw a funny movement in some tall grass; coming toward us! Japs, we thought! We whispered not to fire until they came into a clearing about 20 yards from us! The movement in the grass came closer and closer and we now aimed our carbines at the expected opening--and out came some wild chickens!!! We broke out in quiet nervous laughter. The guys all laughed at that one when we returned to base and told them. Still, it was serious business. Still later I was with a guy I didn't particularly like; he liked looking in all directions and I thought we did better with one looking one way and the other looking the other way. We had hardly gotten started when right in front of me I saw a Japanese soldier start across a clearing in the direction where the Chomorro was shot in the stomach. I told my partner I was going to shoot; lined up my carbine and shot; missed, and he broke into a run; I fired again and he fell! My partner fired just a second behind my second shot. He was almost out of the clearing when he fell. We weren't sure we hit him but we weren't about to go looking! We told the Lt. when we saw him and he reported this also. The Marine guards thought we were crazy and they were right! The squad should be split 4-4 if they couldn't take us all back! Won't happen though. The Lt. thought it was o.k. the way it was.

Inspecting the Japanese Tank

A few days had passed and we did what we could do to make it easier for the building of the Receiver Station. Then we decided to look at a Japanese 2 man tank; it was very small compared to U.S. tanks; we looked inside and wondered how the men could work in that small space, but then remembered how small the Japanese were. The tread on our side looked a little off, but we couldn't see structural damage, so it must have been disabled or run out of gas. There was another one at jungle edge. We always did a visual of everything each a.m. and all had looked o.k., so we were unprepared to see that the generator now only had one tarp! Oh, oh. Some Japs must have swiped it and thought we wouldn't notice. We reported it to the stupid Lt. and he said he would make a report. That day it was my turn, with another guy, to be part of the 2 men left behind routine and we had the same thought; the Japs who stole the tarp are probably close by - nice! We decided to sit back to back or at least one would be looking back while the other was looking forward. El Stupido finally had chow and came back for us - no problem. Several days later we were all working when we suddenly heard a shot; then silence, and then movement towards us. We grabbed out carbines and waited. It was 2 Chamorros and they were carrying an older guy, probably in his forties. He had come upon some Japs, who shot him in the stomach. We directed them to the jeep which the Lt. had turned over to us as he "had things to do at camp", and one of the guys drove the three Chamorros back to the Medics. We never learned whether he lived or died, but assumed he died. Should have asked Little Joe, but forgot each time.

Duties at Barrigada

An extremely large generator was placed right next to where the Receiver station was being set up and was covered by two tarps for protection. We started clearing the area and one of the guys raised a board and suddenly white smoke came pouring out. We quickly put some distance away from this presumed danger, while trying to decide what it was; it looked like white phosphorus and we said "phosphorus bomb!" but couldn't decide what that meant either; so we just kept our distance until finally it ceased emitting the white vapor and we worked on other things. Talking later with the Marines we decided we were in no danger - it was spent. Then we realized some creosoted logs were in the wrong place, but we didn't have the gloves to handle them so we later requested Seabee help when they brought in equipment to knock down some coconut trees. We decided to do something else to save whatever could be used in the building of the station. It was sort of a lost day in our minds. The Lt. came in about chow time and took all but two of us in the jeep (no room for any more); we immediately wondered about the wisdom of leaving only two people but the Lt., a 90 day wonder, said all would be o.k. After we all had dinner, including the Lt. (!) he went back and picked up the other two people, who after all had their carbines in case they needed them! We started being wary of this Lt's direction.