Joseph P. Fiore, Corporal, US Marine Corps, World War Two, 2002 Interview

Falls New York it is the 18th of February 2004 2:15 p.m. interviewers are Mike Russert and Wayne Clark could you give me your full name date of birth and place of birth please joseph p PR e fi o RP and born in Glens Falls in the art on December 31st 1922 okay what was your educational background prior to entering the service st. Mary's Academy and I took semester at ACC in 1960 when they opened the college in Hudson Falls but I didn't last because I had a raising family and that everything else was was put aside okay do you remember where you were and your reaction when you heard about Pearl Harbor yes I do right down there on Warren Street the place is not there was a newsroom Lenny bull vac ran the newsroom and of course he had some pinball machines in there we used to hang around there and Teddy told me and I were in Woolworths where the theater is gonna be and we're having a cup of hot dogs after school and we walked down towards st. Mary's and extra-extra newspaper and says pearl harbors been bombed so we looked at the newsstand Isis Ted word a hell is Pearl Harbor so neither was the same about a year later I knew her for a harbor was because that we pulled in there and we saw those battle wagons and all as estate and so on and so forth and I never forgot that did you enlist or were you drafted I was I enlisted why did you select the Marines why did you enlist and why did you select the Marines number one because always wanted to be a marine number two I was in the National Guard at the time and I decided that I was gonna phone the Marine Corps and I did where were you with the guard here in Glens Falls yes Company K 115 country they were already federalized they were gone and the only reason I didn't go with them is because I was still 17 years old and myself and three four other guys I had my pack on my back and the whole works and but I'm kind of glad because like I say I always wanted to be a Marine did you have any trouble trying to get out of the National Guard to join no no no they they said one step for any any Guardsman not 18 years old one step forward so four or five of those step forward that was an order and they said all right one upstairs take those clothes off which is surveying clothes on you're being discharged that was it now when did you join the guard in 39 I had just about two years in the National parent it helped me tremendously when I wasn't wearing for because I knew all the drills and manual of arms and etc etc how old were you when you were 16 16 but yeah they knew you were 16 or you know listen were Mikey was on my cousin and I'm Mikie Russo and we always felt that our fathers knew what we were doing because uncle Patsy was in the World War one and he served in Kate company and in France and my father went down then listen ring for and they turned him down because he had eye problems so we went in the National Guard for a while went to pine can we went to Ivan's burg Plattsburgh for summer maneuvers so that's it boys a dark where did you go for your basic training per son now you went in 42 did you still have the O threes or did you get the ideal threes in the National Guard in the National Guard yeah and when when I listen drink or they were issuing the m1 rifles so actually I fired the rifle range with the oh three rifle and the National Guard and the rifle range with the m1 rifle in the Marine Corps okay how long were you in at Parris Island oh let's see from December January probably the end of the end of February I believe it was I can't remember how many weeks it was maybe 14 or 16 weeks did you find that your National Guard training helped you at all yes I did yes I'm the first to say mm-hmm and these sergeants that were drilling us and they saw the way I handled the rifle with the close order drill and that type of stuff you know and they said do you have military service before I said yes sir about two years in the National Guard when the fifth Infantry okay did you have any specialized training after your weeks in boot camp you mean in the Marine Corps yes I was transferred to Quantico Virginia and I was supposed to start a school then for a mechanic for artillery pieces 105's and also the French 45 French 78 that we were using in those days was that a world war one yes yeah nice weapon and they covered us well I'll get into that little later I don't want to keep jumping around I like the way you're asking the questions it helps me alright what I guess now I noticed theorist said you worked with the VAR the flamethrower and demolition specialists where did you receive those trainings or were those part of your basic that was all marine a marine not basic it was from Quantico I shipped out to New River which is camping swim and we trained there we had weapons the VAR was it was over in my foot point and that was a in there three weeks of just that one weapon but it was a beautiful weapon why do you consider it that well the firepower 20-round clip you can fire it individually or you press one button and you can fire the whole 20 rounds and somebody coming at you or something like that especially if the pillbox and game for The Slits did a lot of damage let's heavy weapon I used it in Saipan I used it in him ourselves are you also trained in flamethrower yeah yeah I got a friend of mine is still alive on California Steve Judd he said y'all gonna train you in the splints or I feel like three know pretty well what's all about but let's go so he showed me nomenclatures of the flamethrower hoe you have to open up a bale back here to get the pressure to push the oil mixture of gas and oil down into the line that's gonna go out the gun and then with this hand that was a round tube here with a with a spark plug in their thumb but you push forward and it set the spark is juice coming out then you opened up when you opened up that pressure taken and middle of the two cylinders you uh you had a another hook where the holes company attaches to the flames over down here well then you crank that down now crank it to just squeeze it now at the same time you touch the spark plug and the flame goes right out volumes over the last if you want to fire the whole whole container of juice would last about 12 13 seconds but we always we trained where you fire maybe every two seconds something like that so that recommends how close you were to the to the emplacement whether it was a cave or part of my report you'll see what we were up against son you don't want to get me into that right now do you no okay okay so how much time did you have of this type of training is all done aboard ship oh you're BA our training in ER oh no no no I was gonna say no Joseph linter okay let me ask you something about the VAR when you were carrying it in the jungle did you remove the bipod or did you leave it on there we had at those a choice we made usually if we were in a position where we'll say a defense position we would use a bipod and it just screws right off but we carried it in such a way slung over your shoulder as you're advancing on the enemy and that was very effective okay when did you leave for overseas we left for overseas in August of 43 I would say August Frank Rossini and I and we were all on that ship and but we didn't know it until later it was a hundred and twenty-fifth replacement battalion and Landon Hawaii a to ABCDE a - e leu stations in Pearl and Hawaiian Islands but I'll have to say just pearl because next from F to another letter in the alphabet they this is okay you're going over to Maui to join the 22nd Marines reinforced that's in the okay and okay fine so we got on the mailboat that's what it was and it took them maybe two three hours to get over there I was around five six o'clock I was getting dark and they had a pineapple warehouse Dole pineapple was in the huge warehouse and that's where that we stayed for the night because we were quite a ways away from the 22nd Marine Regiment and we didn't get there into the squat area and see if we meet our officers until the next day and from that day on until Marshall and campaign and nothing but training hiking grenade learning how to throw a grenade if we didn't have him camp lejeune but we did in in Hawaii and Maui did you do any amphibious training at all yes what did you train on what kind of we trained on the Higgin boat and also the Amtrak's and that's the only two vessels that I know the Higgins boats were the ones you use you have the ramp on the front on the front marker and the amphibs had a ramp in the back yes we every time we went on maneuvers which was almost every other day there was an intensive training how would you rate your training when you ended up in combat going into you know in a wave and landing how would you rate your training do you think of it prepared you for what you you met when you came into a beach no I didn't know what to expect and all I could say and I told this to a lot of people we were bored an amphib and it was everybody was down I think they had 1516 personnel there plus the machine gunners and the two drivers and I said when I go over this side and land on where a lion I know there's gonna be a jet machine gun there waiting for me well when we made the move to get out of that thing we were on dry land and it was right at the end of the runway that we were taking that island for away from the Japanese because we needed it to carry on then I got this was an elite are yeah yeah I was also at Kwajalein but they didn't use it 22nd Marines because they didn't need us so they said they moved up and we talked I think it was three or four months later we're supposed to take and we talked but notice right out our ships went to enemy talk a toll into the harbor and got ready the next day or two days later I can't remember and we made the beachhead in Gibby he and GB ie Island and that's where that that run away so I gotta tell you this is this is it was about six or seven of us that we're just walking up to the other end of the runway this was a fighter strip and as we got halfway there you know and miss Elson pockmarks and the coral that a lot of dusk I said it looked like Mexican jumping beans around here look at those things then we realized it was snipers distance shooting at us well we took off like big birds boy and I'll tell you we we ran the rest of the this strip dig this to get into our area yep alright notice from this article while you were on Ana we talked they nicknamed you the pineapple kid why was that well that last page there it'll tell you this they said I I used 70 over 70 hand grenades in two days of that combat and I know we talked and of course I got wounded there and the next island that we hit in Perry let's go back to your how did you carry they say I know you probably didn't carry 70 at once oh no how did you carry these around with you where did you get them well we had dungarees you know pockets here and you your duty belt hmm hangin by the spoon they called it right and also I picked up a Japanese demolition bag and leather bag about that size right there I would say maybe a little smaller and a head strap so it shows that over my shoulder again that's in the article the guy that wrote the article I never met him I don't know who gave the the okay whether with my company commander or my first platoon commander captain Johnson but I never did find out this is an article that appeared in the post our friends falls in this paper in 1941 44 right yes now how are you wounded on enemy talk well I was going to think I just explained her I was ready to blow up another small installation and some over there and back of that insulation dropped a mortar in our area and I had already pulled a pen but I had to spoon in my hand so I know I was I was okay but when I got hit I went right down and my friend Steve seemed order against key who the later changed his name to when he got out of the Marine Corps listen he ran up to me he was hit with the same shrapnel that I was received I received and he threw himself on top of me and grabbed the grenade and threw it as far as he could and then exploded and but our other people had their rifles and somebody had my BA our because I was doing my thing with the grenades in that type of night so I was very fortunate who took care of you taken care of by a corpsman and well first thing they did when Minsky grabbed me with her budget in the arm he was trying to get me there's a tank coming up to cover us and sergeant Brown he had his m1 and he took me on the other side and they dragged me right down to that tank put me in the back of it Department fixed me up give me a shadow Hennessy brandy to first drink ahead in a long time how badly were you wounded I I still get a quarter in death or Thurlow addresses Oh 14 15 pieces of shrapnel still in my body he take each has taken several out of it he said you want to keep doing this I said no no I let him stay right there I'm still carrying it where are you evacuated to ayiiia I went aboard the USS solace and it's a funny thing and I say this is on it's funny because the solace was a destroyer in World War one and my wife's father mr. Wayne fair served on the solace a nice nice is Elaine dead sir served on and the solises she's was a solo session well they converted that to the hospital ship that I will not now were you married before you went into service yes I had a young child and they went where will you take him where you take him to a hospital or a your naval hospital at Pearl City mm-hmm beautiful place right now they closed it as a hospital now its headquarters for the whole Marine Corps of the Pacific and I could see it now beautiful I was awarded a Purple Heart there there's copies of it and they took maybe about a hundred of us that were in the hospital and they they got us some khakis and had a ceremony of pinning the Purple Hearts on up all these Marines and I was fortunate enough to have mine pinned down by Admiral Nimitz so that's I never saw the photograph yeah how long were you asking lice I would say I was there about ten days ten days to two weeks and then I ended up down in a Transit Center waiting to be reassigned that was interviewed that's where they found out about this thing I wasn't the idea of a hospital and my sister sent me to the article and the pineapple kid story in the paper gave them that story well that's the surface for you so it has that nickname stuck with you all the way tears oh yeah yeah one of my close friends hey I'm gonna be dead walking down the street hey now um did you go back to the 22nd Marines or I lost my outfit you did and I lost promotions I'm still a private now after this time and if I had known that I would have never gone to the hospital ship I would have got off some way I love that little outfit it was a reinforced regiment which later became part of the 6th Marine Division so where were you assigned I was assigned within the Transit Center and it had us going up to at night and 11 o'clock at night to press shirts for the Marine Air Wing up in a year some place up in the mountains and I came down and I went over to the it was a Raider installation marine Raiders and they knocked on the door and who came out was Franklin Roosevelt's son marine major and they said sir I'd like to join the Raiders as well my friend you're too late because we just received orders and disbanded in readers battalions and they're filtering them into the marine divisions that were already at that point in time there was five marine divisions and then the sixth finally get their act together and they ended up in on Okinawa as it as a division so most of you then that we're doing this work were combat Marines who had been wounded that were pressing shirts and so on oh boy we were hot I imagine so how did you end that duty well very it was an accident for the second Marine Division it's all ready to go to go to Saipan and to LSTs blow up in Pearl Harbor and they happened to be part of the 18th Marines which were two battalions of flamethrowers and demolition people and one CB Battalion so get the word that you're you're going to on that LSD out there the number can't remember sighs okay fine that's okay with me so I went out there and that's when I met Steve jug of course his name was not Steve jutting at the time but anyway so we we trained made some dummy runs on different islands Maui we're on our way for a second got there there's no question when they drop that ramp on the LSD this 17 inches all cranked up their motors and the fumes were just out of this world boy talk about guys being sick and just before that we had our breakfast at 4:00 a.m. it was steaks eggs as many steaks as you wanted it's just your last dinner fork right so anyway I lost my hope miss chair some wave hit that LST and everybody all over the place so they got more steaks out and cook them for us and we still we ate good then next morning when they dropped that ramp and the amphib started going out I was probably in the second-last amphib to hit the ramp and go down the ramp and of the water and they make big circles and that's the way we lived until a certain hour beachhead that was always at 8:45 quarter to 9:00 we were supposed to hit the beach and we did it we'd hit it right pretty pretty closer I'm either between quarter to nine nine o'clock a.m. we hit that Beach red beach on Saipan all hell broke loose Japs at our Tillery big artillery up in the mountains and they're pouring a lot of lead down on the and the beachhead I've got the hell out of there quick the only place you can go is forward that's what we did was that hotter than when he went on a navy talk or the beachhead yes it was very hot I lasted beachhead was June 15 1944 I remember telling the guy that's of course I'm Jan June 6th was invasion of Europe so he says you know nobody's ever gonna hear about the 2nd Marine Division going in the Saipan ok because we felt you know all the war was over there but they they know where we were and look at my second Purple Heart their July 2nd what happened to him no I got I got a good sized piece of shrapnel or it could have been a bullet I don't know what it was I went in here and it came out inside here so down I went another marine that was with us Steve Judd is the one that trained me in two plates over courtship and I've Ackerman was very close to me and he beats down we were ready we were on our way into Europe and from the top of the mountain down went to the back of the background so as we got got going and I was on the legend this round came in there and he reached down and I lost my rifle number one so I got my hand another guy we had my other hand and they pulled me up on the ledge and they had a stretcher there four guys took me off the beach off the office of the battlefield and get me to a rare area then the doctor and he says and you feel anything in there I said no pretty numb so he had this long scissors you know so he goes right in where the bullet came out or the shrapnel and he hits something solid he took out a piece of shrapnel about that they gotta make out of the wound so he says are you you'll be okay now another shot of hennessey brandy now hello where did you go for your hospitalization on that one this is very interesting they got me out of there and they got me back to the battalion CP that was with the 3rd battalion 6th Marines and a guy from Fort Edward a couple days before father Gallagher said Mass and we took a beating one night and guide the Angelica's name and thought the gatherers had seen mass you know and this guy is sitting in back of me and on his butt on the ground and he's left and after mass was over that's what the hell's the matter with you here's father Gallagher same medicine and you're laughing it says Joe you don't recognize me do you I says know who you I look down at his jacket in Jellico I says guy you got to do me a favor I said you got to write your father right away and you tell him to go up and see my father and tell him tell my father everything is fine I'm okay I'm living okay and he did am i mrs. G Angelica guy Dean Jellico mr. Dean Jellico went up to see my father and he says my father says again and you know twice wouldn't in a six month period well anyway they strapped me to a Jeep that was a I was a stone that stretcher and they had the seat taken down no windows in it in the back of the driver set another wounded marine a head injury and they lashed him in there pretty good so he wouldn't fall out and they last me down and we went down that mountain that we just came up to about three days to get on top and I've G got down there in about an hour Terry Oliver and he got us down on the beach and we waited that night we spent in the radio station abandoned radio station and next day to put his son digging boats and took us out to the hospital ship solace again so I was on that hospital ship twice took us into the Russell Islands and I broke out in the highs he got me ashore took me up to the hospital put me in isolation start treatment on me so very sick Chaplin came in father Slavin from Troy New York he said hi Joe warrior as his fine father I says I haven't received communion quite a while which I'll take care of that don't worry about it it's okay no he says you know father Ryan is in the next island over there and what ideas get ahold and see if him come over and see you he was at the st. Mary's Parish Sheriff's Office I said oh gee that'd be good I'd be fine well that turns of the worse they had IVs and bullet arms morphine every 12 hours midnight and no around 10 o'clock yes and there's give me another shot Jesus no you gotta wait until doing and she's never budged I'll tell you I was in a scream that I was very uncomfortable so anyways 18 days and the only thing that saved me we're gonna take the leg off how does leave an acid maybe captain in charge of the hospital he's just you what do you what do you think his chances are he says it'd be dead by morning no you see I'm still alive corpsman came up to me after 18 days when I got out of it and during that period of time towards when I was getting better that was asleep and maybe captain of the hospital put a Purple Heart on my pillow I was asleep so I didn't I woke up what the hell is this I said I'd never expected to have two four parts you know but anyway yeah later on a couple days later when I was really getting better oh the only thing that saved my life was the miracle drug it was just starting to be used in the Pacific penicillin I've been a friend of penicillin so long diver now you wrote here that you had a very interesting experience while you were in intensive care Oh Bob oh oh god he was great he came in with Patty Thomas and I can't remember the guy that had the guitar I shouldn't know their name but I don't know Jerry Colonna Jerry Colonna was there yeah he and Bob Hope that is get going bye Carol only had a mustache but it was a thick long ever I remember so I would touch the mustache you should be careful about this is why he says snipers around here you know so so so I laugh that petty tom is saying a song for me just great it made me feel right at home know about home made the remark a marine did you see my short or were you sick before no way then he came to glens falls second time I met him we presented him with a fly from the Marine Corps League and one from the American Legion and I told my said less my wife said to me when they called us up on the stage or the present and she said now don't go at living with this guy because he Yuko yeah I said I told that surviving on this party wouldn't do that I said yeah I know you wasn't I oh yeah he's been my idol for a long time how long were you hospitalized you're with your second wounding was it July 2nd and and I was there until sometime first part of August then we went to what a canal for a transfer station Russell Islands as in me is just a little ways from water canal but that's where all the replacements waited for ships to come in and take troops back too so we got back into our base camp on Saipan and that was Thanksgiving Day so we got in line and just as we got there the last two words Rivas they ran out of Turkey well I'm screaming I'm I'm madder than a wet hen and this sergeant looked at me and he says a joke we didn't ask you to join this outfit you enlisted inches yes sir and that's the last time I ever blew my stack in the Marine Corps they asked for it now they send you back into a combat unit same outfit same outfit yeah and well it's just I would have been I would have been in there for a long time for the rest of the war but hey Vandergriff who had the first Marine Division on what a canal when he got back to the States Guadalcanal was secured in February of 40 43 and he went back to the States and he made confident and marine corps first thing he did first thing that her Lina's duties there he signed an order that any marine wanted twice in a six-month period automatically goes back to the States or rehab so captain sent for what medulla and myself both of us had the same type of thing he was wounded twice and so on so forth and he said to the captain says look at you got one hour to get your gear together and there's a ship I named a quarter below down there and in 10 of a harbor get on it I says Kenton what am I gonna do with the other 59 minutes I have nothing at just what I'm wearing it's okay fine drag get going so we got we get down there we ended up in Pearl Harbor I come down with malaria I told the Medora I said don't you take me to a hospital because I want to get on that ship tomorrow it's a good chance okay so he took care of me there's one thing that you mentioned that was an unusual duty that you performed when you were going to flamethrower cave to cave well one was a hut early in the campaign we were going up to the mountain nor was this sense I hear yes captain says you know I'd like to have that burnt down to the ground because we don't want any Japs to come down there and set up a machine gun in there any one day like come to pepper the hell out of us okay so juggle wits he had to be a are so he covered me when I was going over there and I heard this crying I said we've done it he came up he said my god wonderful that was us so we we knew a few words in Japanese like a doctor than our surrender or you die and this the old lady came out there she has three or four kids with her I just shook my head I said I've ever burned that place at that point in time I think I would have blown my brains up later on had happened again only in the cave on the other side of the mountain there was some nuns in there well they had no the Japanese took the nuns out but anyway we never saw him again and this lady came out with all kids and some of those kids there I mean this high I wrote our own ships them during the bombardment of that area while we were gonna take those kids were hit with shrapnel I never talked shape and then our corpsman hadlen they took care it's over lady I wore a rosary around my neck and so she pointed it at me she was a Catholic so I took it off and I gave it to her oh gosh she wanted to polish my shoes and everything I said no no no no stop that and she's the one that told us that the Japanese took the nuns that way I got all the father Gallagher and they said look at this is what happened and he says all right get three or four guys we're going to out and see I said take five o'clock dark in an hour you know and he says we're going on is okay fine so we went out that we didn't go too far because thank you would have been lost we heard later that one of the nuns was killed by one of the Japanese and the Mother Superior was in Troy at one of the conference an evangelist I read the article where she was on site man oh man I called her up and she says I'm leaving tomorrow for Spain these were Spanish people and I will never be back in the United States and I didn't have a car just to go to Saratoga was a big deal and right after the war so I got a file on her yeah well after you were wounded the second time and sent back to the States were you discharged then no no I wasn't assigned to the first guard company guard duty and first sergeant the guard come here Raymond F McCluskey jr. never forget them boy did he love his booze well anyway he says hey where's Fiore right here top and he says you can type can't you I said yeah get your gear together you're working for me in the office brother give me liberty at night and weekends and all the old words yeah so that's where I ended up and they made corporal under him there was gonna next day we're gonna make make me a sergeant and that's when the Marine Corps froze all all promotions on that day so I didn't make carpet all right sergeant you were in the States when the war ended yes I was Brazil I had my my my papers I was gonna they were gonna fly flamethrowers to finish up the battle on Okinawa well the war was over when they dropped a bomb so do you remember your reaction when you heard about the dropping of the atomic bombs I says there's gonna be a spot in heaven for Harry Truman dropping that bomb because I I had Joe warbles a friend of mine he's still around here and when as well as I think he was in Navy intelligence and and he Tomi's as we figured at least a million casualties if we took those two islands and it was supposed to be in November of 45 the first island six months later I mean what a slaughter well then turn to halt why don't we just stay in the car and I I want to stay dr. comer says no way Joe again I can't okay you you're not physically fit for combat Colonel Hall was mad axes Colonel Isis I I'm a carpool and I I can't get a rabies I'll make you sergeant tomorrow I said yeah but I need subs and quarters my wife in the youngster they wanted to come down to the down to Philadelphia well anyway didn't have to worry about it the war was over and I took my discharge and come on did she ever make use of the GI Bill yes bought a house for percent what the 5220 Club yes I took debt for the month of December for weeks and then my father asked me to come in as a grocery business and you want a liquor store there so I think that's about the only thing I had but I later I retired some time from everything else and took my new york state retirement check which was about $95 a month so what she was gonna say there no Oh Pat Hurley was director of the Warren County Veterans Service Agency and he was gonna retire so he did Bolton was chairman of the Veterans Committee I served on the Warner County Board of Supervisors for 14 years from the second Ward so I know all these guys and so can you help me there well you became involved with the veterans yep okay new yeah oh yeah Pat come down to see me had to request a dick Bolton and he's enjoys I'm retiring and they Bolton wanted to know if you'd be interested in taking my job I looked at him this is bad that's the only job I come out of retirement for the only one and he said okay buddy you got and so he did that for 11 years I worked until it was 67 years old and then I wanted to stay till 1970 but it didn't work out because I didn't get it along with some supervisors that wanted to run my office anyway did you ever join the veterans organizations at all yeah you name it DAV Marine Corps League American Legion VFW second Marine Division sixth Marine Division and the life member and all those with one exception the American Legion Oh I retired in 89 and I don't want to work anymore my wife says use you're working so hard for the Marine Corps League I said I don't work hard at all at this point in time you know what I'm doing now with myself every day I can I go fishing I'm a nice sister I was on the lake yesterday had a good mess go home a nice lot of birds I'll clean them tonight did you ever stay in contact with I think you mentioned you had stayed in contact with some that served with you yeah Seymour Dugan ski he's one jumped on me in he came to glens falls he ended up in New York Police Department detective division and he came to mind Falls he knew where I lived and he comes into my father's liquor store I looked at him and I said a drag that's what you called him drag so I kept in touch with him and I was chairman of Warren County days at the World's Fair in 64 and 65 and I used to call him when I go down to New York and we got together had a few drinks like I say he came to glens falls he had to go up to the rig matter prison to bring a prisoner back to New York for trial or something so I stayed in touch with him and then all of a sudden I called them no answer no nothing and time Golin are confident he's just retired from the Hudson Falls Police Department and he I told him the stories I'm telling you so he said let me see what I can find out and he found out this girl called him back and says yep see murder in ski changed his name to no one's gonna forget that well anyway changed his name and he he went to Florida to live and he died in 1995 I said it's just too bad I didn't do something earlier and the guy that pulled me out on Saipan was a marine and he brought up in an orphanage in New York and he he got killed two days three days after I was wounded after the war they built that National Cemetery and Punchbowl in Hawaii Honolulu and and Steve Judd went over there with the second Marine Division Association and he he found Ackerman's grave and my wife went over there with her mother and she took up the chair of his grave and brought her back but I always wanted to go back to Hawaii just to see were you married then I did in 1999 Greg Rossini and I went to Hawaii and I did what I had to do I said it took over 50 years to get here Here I am thanks how do you think your time the Marine Corps and service affected your life that's easy anything I did anything I I always said the Marine Corps helped me don't thought me Halep to survive and that's the truth nobody every once a lot of somebody's at ease you never left the Marine Corps says no I did my way if it gives me that too okay well thank you very much for your interview oh yeah thank you so I have the originals of the purple hearts that I received

Channel: New York State Military Museum

Views: 50,499

Keywords: Veteran., Military., US Marines (Armed Force), World War II (Military Conflict), 2nd Marine Division (Military Unit), 22nd Marines, 18th Marine Regiment

Id: Se3NbbZpe9w

Length: 56min 40sec (3400 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 26 2015