Experiences of WWII Marine Walter Filipek on Okinawa

ladies and gentlemen I have come here to address you and not undress you I stand before you because I'm not behind you IRA politicians say that back when I was 18 years old and going third an office stage just go ahead and say hello my name is hello my name is walter vincent philippic I was born in Raleigh Raleigh County 6 father when were you born 1925 so how old are you right now mr. Philip Eck 49 backwards that makes me 94 do you feel like you're 94 sometimes yes sometimes no sometimes I think I can whip a cat another thumb to catch them with me physically what is it like to be 94 fantastic great and just tell me sir what branch were you in I was in a sixth Marine Division 29th Regiment see Charlie Company and what was your specific role in C Company I was on frontline rifleman and tell me sir what was the highest rank you achieved by the time you left the service corporal and what was the highest award for valor that you received Bronze Star and where all did you see action during the war Okinawa I was on Okinawa April the 1st 1945 I went in on the second wave in the Japanese let us hit the island without gunfire and they wanted us to move in they wanted to come behind it some trappers between two units but that didn't happen we fooled and when we hit they're gonna sergeant I said Gunny there's the brush pile moving upper he said you're crazy wolf I said I might be but I got good eyes so I said put your glasses on him and this Japanese was trying to get to a truck and I said Gunny I won't empty my regular bullets put tracers in there you know some will kill him he said no you ain't 500 yards I said gunner you ever hear Kentucky windage he said yes I have all sorts in York so I emptied my regular bullets put tracers in it and I said now you tell me up over what now because that's the only weapon we'll get him after the fifth shot I got him he said boy I'm glad you on our side and I said yeah I come here to fight I'm ready and we moved then we took the northern end in nineteen days about oh about the 15th president Roosevelt died I think in April 19 and I mean yo 19 and about the 15th of April he died so we was up in northern northern end of Okinawa and about two o'clock in the morning everything was quite and this Japanese can speak very influenza in English he says hey you Marines what you gonna do now your leaders did this marine says we go whip your ass you go home that's what we're done so we secure the door and then we thought was going home we got back where we started from he says pack up we're going down the south help your arm out in trouble - oh Lord let's go anyway we started self-help amount mm-hmm and I mean it was fighting from 7:24 them they had a when we hit the beach here they had a about a 20 inch cannon that shot a bullet looked like a it sound like a this it did go spiral in the area tumbled well we called it the the rolling monster we jump under truck or whatever we can hide under while this was going on but biggest part was dead it never had exploded then we started out headed down south well as we was headin down south it was 724 all night long we had supports from be naval ships with with the big guns but they couldn't penetrate we got to a place called Sugar Loaf Hill that was the worst Battle of Okinawa we've lost practically the whole division er and Japanese was underneath of us we was on top of them well I had a hole dug there about three foot deep with dirt around I mean I have to look up here come with grenades we called a potato masher rolled down the hill I counted three ii did to go off I grabbed it and throws back at grabbing the toes back I throw his back then I throws over the shell I said it might go over as a dud so but we can hear him talking we could not get him from where we was they was underneath we had to go around the tanks had to go around not to burn them out in Sugarloaf was the cane played placer and the blowflies was so thick that you could not even eat your rations you'd put your hand up and try to eat and your hands be covered with blue flies in the bullet holes with the bullet item through my sleeves through my pack through one went through my helmet and every time a bullet go to mo flies with green flies one drawing any of us lived through it but we made it and then when we left there headed south hmmm I don't know the name of the hill or anything but my squad leader got wounded and my lieutenant says I need someone go good and one nobody volunteered to go get it I said I'll go lieutenant on one condition he says what's that I said turn the troops around and fire blast the hill behind me don't worry about where I'm going well I went up the elder and found the squad leader glanced up I said oh he was shot in the stomach I start pulling back my glanced up be company was coming up the point and we was gonna go up the side so was i dragging him back his pack got caught on a root doc took back a bar out to cut that root out and brought him down as I was going down I looked over to the left about 10 15 feet over them the ridge was the machine-gun nest and it was a out there trying to put some around family hiatus well I shot him and crawled up her throat renewed down there now brought the squad leader down whether he survived I do not know medics took him and then I got wounded they took me back to the sickbay there about nine hundred yards in a team I'd land on the car and the doctor I said doc get that Marine they added leg shot off I said take care of him he attempts and more and I do so he took care and then he come to me and checked me I had a strapless I'd it hurt I mean it hurt he says ain't nothing wrong with you I said damn you doc fight my pistol I blew your brains out he says MP MP come get this fight marine take it back to the frontline so then peace come in there nice tinfoil depth I said doc don't come to the frontline cause I'll kill you him peace took me back to the frontline I found my pack normally when anybody got wounded or killed somebody went through the pack to get the purse to blow me and sent Mable back to the family well my pack was erm a rifle still on it but but two buddies drugged me for ten days I could not move I mean they drugged me for ten days we advanced toward a certain end so in turn as we went to the southern in the tanker had napalm in it he stuck the snout in a cave tried to burn his Japs out well evidently one of them survived we walked around and we laid I got two new recruits in that date we had trouble getting birth people replacement I got children recruits and we laid some rock up on a mountain up her and about I said boys y'all go ahead and go to sleep I'm gonna take his first watch or two to our watch at a time they've never saw no combat he thought up with lumen a good aid lit the sky up I look the shadow hit me I was about 10 foot the edge of the cliff they towed up another one and one more step and in on top of us so I shot him he fell down over the cliff and boy jumped up what happened I said we're just about out of unwanted visitor in there I said I'm going to bed now y'all can have us from here so next morning I walked over I went down there got long jeans restaurants off of him you got a Japanese flag got a rifle I've got them I got the wristwatch and they got the flag yet and come back as we started south again we've got a new lieutenant it's called them a 90-day wonder he says Felipe I said yes sir he said you take your squad at six man he said you take your squad and you go about 200 yards up her daddy and I said no sir lieutenant I ain't gonna do that he said you're talking to an officer I said Luke then I'm talking to shitbird like everybody else on the front lawn they'll kid you the same as me he said I'll court-martial I said I'll be alive too I said Luke tendon do you realize you're trying to put me in the crossfire he said what's the crossbar I said you a lieutenant didn't know what a crossfire is I said them Japs out there shoot this way and marine by me you got me a middle no I ain't going I said I'm gonna give you one peach advice lieutenant you about six-foot-four told you're standing up looking around you had better get down and crawl and give your orders as you go get killed by four o'clock had evening sniper getting right through the night killed him and he would've court-martial me but I said that's all I'll be alive well then we kept on going then we was getting close to Naha and there was a TP they called a TB sanatorium just outside no hall that was the Capitol well the sanatorium that they had was built on a contoured the ground followed the contour of the ground so we got that the end of it there and somebody told us that the doctors nurses use rollerskates to get around where they did and I don't know but that's what they told us anyway there's a bottle ten but twelve building on the end of the pa'dar and I took my rifle and chucked that lock off brown bottles in are no labels on it I said boys we got second here we're out here getting drunk well we unload their packs loaded down with that psyche so we thought it was we got down the road there I don't know about oh maybe a mile and the boys let's take a drink open up is disinfect for the floors in the sanitarium so we had through all other way and as we went further down there towards no hall we found the cave it had sardines in that picture sardines on it that's a that's the most decent meal we had in days I'm telling you it was really really good then we had to walk across the river to get the other side as we started to cross the water was up to the waist we got on the other side everybody starts scratching the water was infested with leeches we had to pull her britches off bull leeches off one another and kept running to go on then we got to these northern end the Gunny sergeant says Feeney pack we captured one prisoner he said you've take him back to the camp but you'd be back here in about a minute I said yes sir he had one picture on him I stripped him he had one picture he wouldn't give a picture up I'll show you the picture I'll give you a copy of it the picture was a Great Wall of China the Japanese soldiers was cutting chinese heads off with their sabers put them in the cage why we do not know but the guy that I got the picture off of it must have been some kin to him he's our uncle or maybe grandpa was something other anyways didn't want to have kids a picture up I had to kill him to get the picture well not come back then these Gunny says lieutenant got killed gonna sergeant took over he said you take these two new recruits and you bump along the shoreline tide was out it was going through there the tide was out in the day I looked up to the right and it was a pair of boots toes down I've told one of their boys I said shoot him he's a in there he said you can't shoot him you can't see him I said shoot him boy he wouldn't do it the other wouldn't do it I said no I won't show you how to do it I said before I do I'm going to tell you he is going to have a grenade in his left hand with his right hand on the pin he's going to he gonna think on somebody gonna get killed here so I shot him pulled him out when I pulled him out he hit the sander and he had that grenade in his left hand he had the pin in his right hand I said boys here he might we might have gotten blown up and someone's where they got hurt anyway he said you can't leave him here after this we're gonna leave him right here I says I'm telling you the tide gonna come up and the fish going to eat him up we ain't gonna do nothing with him now I said boys you bird listen to me close now y'all just got here as we went on around that carry over run upon the cave and I heard some noise I had a demolition pack I took my left hand I slung it on the cave Wow nothing happened and when the boys out then mr. pack up their third dinner nothing happened I said y'all get back here out the ways of it you're coming in a troll now this cave was about maybe 30 inches how's this grenade come rolling down there landed right on the feet I jumped up on the ledge that grenade went off in the concussion past me I rolled back down and the jab come out and shot him and boy says Lord Lord says I didn't we didn't know nothing about this I said no you never lived in no combat as we went around we begin to smell stink I said well I think this is a Japanese jumping off of the cliff committing harakiri before they would surrender they have a Harry Caray knife they would stab themselves in the heart come down make an l-shape make sure it killed him there must have been 150 of Mitch stump it was pitiful awful blowflies great day unbelievable so I said boys let's get back gun he said we got to get back for dark things gonna get rough here well we got back and then when we got back the gun he said we got orders to cross the reef and go to Alan it's called I think II ie Shima and he give us a brief and he says all of you going over and come back or all of you going over none of you coming back I said then that suicide he said yes but that's all murders I says okay about three o'clock in the morning we wade across the reef call reefer and got the other side and never found the on the Elm but they had lots of big guns are 12 inch 8 inch 6 inch guns was built on narrow gauge railroad tracks they run these guns out and firing and running back inside we checked the whole island and did not find a on el and we was told that they had abandoned the island just a couple of days prior to that I mean then we heard Ernie Powell he was the most famous war correspondent ever was on the frontline he got killed the sniper got him through the neck too so we had to go back the same way wait to the tide went down and wait back and well then we getting pretty close to then we was that was about this 98 day I guess it was and then he says well we're going to Guam so they load us up sins to Guam for training to go to Japan and about then they dropped that bomb in nan Nagasaki and Hiroshima just take a lot of death because we know look what happened if we'd hit Japan wouldn't none of us like getting be alive oh I missed one point there they was dug in from sea to sea and the commander in charge of the 32nd Japanese line they called the Mount shoreline well anyway he called it Japan and he won the crit suicide and percent no you will not kill yourself they will not kill you said you will be the only witness will ever have to tell us what really happened on Okinawa so he give yourself up and another time just before we got the null haul we secured airport these two zeros come landing then they're likely gonna refuel looked around don't their hands up and surrendered we was told that they did not have very good communications on this on the zeroes in fact they said then that mini radios but they come in the fuel up so we captured them too it was an experience you'll never forget if anybody says I think you know what you doing through there are a liar they don't don't tell me better well then we went to China to go to garrison duty went to Ching Wong Towell China and we captured a Japanese stronghold there were that damned initiative I was in charge of it so they had a river running under the bridge I made the Japanese carried that explosive out on the bridge and throw it in the river and I don't care how many boxes you over buddy they took it well then as time went by they had an armored car and the Gunny says who can drive car I says I can't I never had no idea what coming into nothing is the little gasoline engine in an armored car that the useful mail run well I had to use the Japanese to push it to start it so lieutenant anger sake pretty good money goes to lieutenant I said I need a battery for that he said they done I said lieutenant tomorrow morning come you better have me a battery a dead next morning I had a battery don't know where he got didn't care but I run mail run I had it I had about a 30-mile run in that armored car I'd go get the mail indeed they had dual tracks the Japanese blow the tracks up every couple of miles and they'd repair it just like a snake on earth then well that was pretty good there then the colonel had to go to that town about 25 25 miles away so this boy named garland says Walter you take cheap and take the corn roughly yes I will I said Carl I don't think we'd better go on the road I think we'd better go up middle of the creek wasn't very high he said why I said they're gonna be what to ruin but them Japs ain't gonna be smart enough watch the creek so I went up a creek about 25 miles and then Jeep took him up and brought her back same way he said you know that's pretty good thank you I said you have to be you have to be pretty tough and thank you to survive here buddy well he thanked me said you've done a good job soldier on and on and on and on well like I said when it was over with they dropped that bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima it just took a list of death I'm telling you because we did Japan would have been none of us alive I know that I grew up role accounting in Raleigh County in West Virginia West by God Virginia that is it's three miles out of Beckley there were ten polish families 10 now supper and polish families and was just a knit community cold winds above what was your father's profession he was in the World War one he was a sergeant machine gunner on a motorcycle a three-wheeled motorcycle and he went in the coal mines he worked in the coal mine 58 years well one day I was home to work at Scott Roeder and I never said that I was just a young boy running around all night getting in three or four o'clock and I went to the mine superintendent I said mr. nickels I'd like to have a job worked in the mines with my daddy he said son I can't hire you I said why he said you got to have a years experience I said hold right there mr. nickels he said no what I said how can you get that experience let you go in the mines he said son go to the company store get you a heart I'd get you a bucket and B to work in the morning with your daddy I I just got out to service and I went to work I told mom I said well pack me lunch I said pop don't know nothing about this so she packed the lunch he said 'we good and i said pop him we'll work with you i said mr. Nicholl hired me he said he did after yes he did well he got sick one day and he couldn't make it in the Creed mine superintendent says Walter I want you to go in this worked out place here and get these mind tracks out of metal tracks and bring him out here to the front well if you don't know mining why I'll tell you a little about they had by 9 or 10 posts about ten inch diameter to hold the roof up and I was lighting a back leaned against it I felt a split I've turned around chopping lies on that poster were splitting us is holding Michael a lot of weight on her so the boss come back he says how many do you get out I said none I ain't going in there it's going to fall in he said I said I thought I said I know what you told me when my daddy said if wasn't safe don't go and I don't think it's safe he says come on let's go I said Creed don't go he stuck his head around there the place fell in blowed his hat off knocked him down I should see we could have been right in there and then they never found us he's not finding another place to work I come from a large family get 12 of us hmm and three of us still living four of us I got a brother in Oregon Grants Pass Oregon got a brother in Lexington Virginia and I just lost her brother about three months ago Edward five boys all of us in the service one time and my childhood was well as the as you got older you took care of the children himself every time mother going out of a baby she said Walt go get doc banks as a $25 baby that's all recharged mom says go get doc banks another baby another baby 12 of us and then the unions come in my dad was a very strong Union man he held a meetings in in the schools in the color town and Aaron the thugs from a company set up a machine gun up on top of a hill called a machine gun Hill and when the miners the strike then machine-gun David killed him shoot the miners they didn't care well my dad was parked breaking the Union and breaking a bunch up and start a union they called him sergeant Philip Eck no no far as I know he didn't First World War he saw me he marched from Newark New Jersey to Texas they walked it didn't have no transportation and I've got pictures of him bull sticks around his neck and he was a machine gunner on a motorcycle I didn't have no idea but when the war broke out I started training myself men the fellow the name of Carvalho Gursky we start trained herself I was in the Boy Scouts I like one murder badge of being a Eagle Scout how well with string rope from tree to tree and with climbing rope and just anything because I wanted to go to the Marine Corps and reason I wanna go home then blues well now left Parris Island and got the Quonset point like I said that little gun that the quartermaster's bought we gonna spend no money on no blues you're gonna be dead you won't work that's all right keep him I'll make it but we've done this before of a devil of a lot of training well the war was going on you know and we figure one Ds day with gavone there when i was 17 i gen asked her Woodrow Wilson High School and they come up they wanted people I'm a service I volunteered they get my to give me my diploma and I volunteered to go well I went to Berkeley with the recruiter he took his Charleston he got drunk went to Fry's alley we ended up the sleeping in the police station that night I said what no where are we getting into here then finally went to Parris Island went to Parris Island that drill instructor says I achieve recruits guilt forget the bulkhead well I didn't know what no bulkhead was they give us her to give us a pack give us the clothing give us the rifle with cosmorly and all on it and put a Sun helmet on I put that Sun element on down my eyes I stopped laid my rifle down on my seabag to adjust my helmet his drill instructor looked at me and I grinned at him he had a swagger stick oh probably two foot long with the 50 caliber bullet on the end of it hit me across the dike going head dairy said boy don't never look at me and grin again what am i into now line up against the bulkhead didn't know what a bulkhead was well as time went by said we grabbed a field day a field day I thought we gonna play ball and have a good time our field day we had to care all the bunks outside and all the lockers outside and holy stone to deck holy stone the deck got salt water and they give us bricks and we rubbed it on the floor until him nail he had shined then we carried everything back in well the DI says if you don't like what's going on just step out I'll whip you this little old boy stepped out there they put the box to go he wasn't very big but the drill instructor should go behind the bikes and well have Adele had boy whip the devil out of them because he was a champion state champion boxer Florida but the DI says I ain't gonna hold against you I asked for it and you give it to me and there's the went out on a rifle range it was probably a hundred and ten degrees it was hot and we started marching backwards and forwards backwards boards the drill instructor under a shade tree and when we got done it was about three of us left at least he says boy I got three Marines out there rest of them done passed out and if we was marching if a marine fell in front of you nobody stopped to help him out just walk over him and keep her on the going I mean we ever was under some strict rigid training and we're stacking rifles one day well seven rifles we stack tomorrow and a boy kicked it and it fell over and he blamed it on me I had to sleep for them several rifles across my chest that night he still teaching us now said mr. Gardner I did not knock them down that other guy did he said he said you did I saw did not anyway I saw survived over you yell radio radio I don't remember but December 7th I don't remember what I was doing have been 15 what was that like to hear that your country had been attacked well I knew eventually if a war went on we gonna have to go so man throughout the boys start training like I said wrote from tree to tree and climbing and everything I took some pretty extensive training buddy farmer in there Rhode Island Rhode Island Naval Air Station 100 Marines and 10,000 sailors and airmen we had to guard the post and out on guard duty one day and these women would bring for a husband in his a Air Base bring a husband in well the colonel was there one day in the women bring her husband go back out well this won't bring her husband and she didn't have a badge on and I wouldn't let her to Colonel says ma'am did you hear my century he said where's your badge she says I've been coming through here for month two he said you heard him where's your badge she says at home he said lady you go back you get that bad you spitting on your left breath word belonging then you come back in here he says my sin triangle let you in I mean I'm sure and I knew she had a husband she's bringing in but with the colonel ER with the colonel er oh he had a face like a bulldog and every time you saw it he wanted you to salute this one boy didn't salute him he stopped him said son wouldn't you talk to your superior officer he said yes sir he says I'm lonely bastard around here with the face like a bulldog when you see it you saluted that's Christmas we got him a choc bulldog put on his desk he had the carpenters come out and breaking build a glass case and put that Bulldog in boy he was tough and he felt us out one day he says all you Marines line up out there and this woman come in there with her daughter her daughter was pregnant he said hi which one of you Marines and I had anything to do with her they done made it up about ten of them stepped out there he says ma'am how's your daughter sissy's 21 he says that she's kept her ass up nice off the ground this wasn't about face boys go about your business he was a tough guy I'm telling you buddy after Rhode Island well we went to beaver tail it was out post to beaver tail and they had a 16-foot chain-link fence around the big radar station they got a couple of boys up from Guadalcanal and they were shell-shocked they didn't care for nothing anyway well we had four people walking the post you got any started to come up one day and it's one marine Gunny somebody out there Gunny took his pistol out and shot six times I think I got him this was about three o'clock in the morning all of us had to go out there and search that see if we got that heat Germans you know nobody there the boy just pulled the gun his leg you know and then boys they didn't care for nothing the six Marine Division was formed overseas and disbanded overseas at the only division and we was made up of oh I don't know the old salt they called one have been on battle before where the boys from Raleigh Earl Griffith the buddy of mine he heard I was on Guadalcanal and he found out where I was sleeping well he caught a big iguana he was probably two and a half foot long and put him in the Baybayin well I crawled not an iguana hit me buddy I coughed or that psych up got and he sounds like her laugh and her old grifter was his name it's the experience you will never forget and everything just like happened yesterday don't nothing bother me no Guadalcanal we disband on well we was going they didn't tell us where we was going when we left water canal we're supposed stop it I'll go on the mug mug says you're gonna drink all the beer you won't need all ice cream well the ship couldn't get in very close so we got on them lcvps and was going in and get beer and ice cream we got one beer in no ice cream no refrigeration we said you're gonna get all the beer you own ice cream before you go in the battle but they didn't tell us where we was going they didn't tell us where it's going Oakland all everything was a secret so when back on ship the FO burn all got caught in the typhoon two Marines were sleeping up on top of the deck in the LCVP lend the craft personnel it broke loose tidal waves I mean it listed from side to side well they didn't go get him they just left him and it was you know on that ship we was on they had a counter that we adolfo when that thing with list from side to side em trees probably 20 feet across so you lose treasures eaten out of just grab a tray and eat and that tail in that ship would come up out of the water when you go back down that prop hit just shook that ship I mean boy it was something well when we was on northern and Colonel please Dale said do you want us to blast that northern end he said no my crazy Marines were taketh and by golly we lost a lot of people her but he wouldn't blast it but the the Japs was dug in like I said from sea to sea and we got down in there they put a whole regiment down in this walkway and he had spider holds up and it was a spider hold up when I knocked that machine-gun nest out he come up from the bottom but he tried to put some greenery in front and I said well and he was situated about 10 12 foot over the knoll and we would not have saw him til we topped out neither killed everyone in C Company and B company boats they didn't tell us where was the mountains all had names they didn't tell us nothing and the Japanese was set up on three mountains half moon was one of them and Sugarloaf was one Horseshoe yeah Horseshoe and they were set up anyway you go they had sights on you it took a long time to get him out but we did it well they were situated I don't know three big the highest points on Okinawa and they had machine-gun nest up on top of them and had any mortar look like a big not on hill to me but is pretty good-sized and like I said they was dug in underneath of us was on top of them an earl canoe - buddy of mine did I met after 70 some years lived about ten miles from here he was a machine gunner in a drop day hey drop D yeah they dropped a grenade in and shot his leg off mangled his leg and he couldn't get no paramedic to help him this is what he told me he said he start crawling now he got down out of his foxhole and got a couple of they are down and Knute Rockne picked him up was going to carry him Japp shot him in the back and Earl said had to crawl further another guy picked him up and he got shot I mean they was all over buddy I'm telling you it's just hard to get away from no matter what director you went there's a in front of you we heard there gonna be a Banzai attack so we laid down shoulder to shoulder what was left of us with the machine gun pistols and everything we had and they come through well and we mowed them down when we got done there was about three deep we had to walk over top of them next morning lieutenant this lieutenant had he said y'all mowed him down did yes - yes - did I mean what do you expect the dresser over here for I said they taught us to kill or be killed in the Marine Corps he said yeah that's all saying kill or be killed I would say probably a hundred I mean they was piled up her buddy just knee-deep we had to walk over top of them next morning they tried to infiltrate they were determined to well let's just say they more or less committed suicide by and several of them had their women with him the Japanese officers had a woman with him on the front line we killed them - anybody got drinking anybody got inside got kills didn't make no difference the Okinawans are supposed to be the longest living people on earth and how many died digging them caves I don't know but we went in caves you can see pick marks for the Okinawans dug like I said this was from see to see him Japanese had access to both seas well as we moved along the Japanese propaganda that we would kill all of them but we didn't kill him we fed him and we had some love we had a lot of them tell us where the Japs was I mean were there hiding you know which helped us considerably - oh yes yes our paramedics provided first aid they provided first aid - few Japs yes what you could most time they just shot him full of morphine call department called us when we call him a chancre mechanics cone patch him up shoot him for morphine go to the Nexen I mean they was all it was nothing it was nothing be laying down there on the front line with the leg hit you on the back or arm off of a buddy just knock it off keep right on dorm no sir no we lost them too fast I had old Doug about four foot deep and this sergeant we're replacement come in take the squad over mm-hmm yet take crap he says I'm gonna dig a hole there and then in your whole life they know you ain't this is my home my castle I see you're angling in my house he says I'm a sergeant I said you might be a sergeant but to me you a shitbird like everybody else they'll kid you we said what am I going to do I said you gonna go out and sell like I doing everybody else well they went out there he pulled his pants down her sniper got him cause teachers but had crap all over him he come fill in the hole er I'm laughing he says I'll to shoot you I had my rifle on my says go ahead sergeant anytime buddy I'm telling you're gonna be a dead sergeant I said you should be thankful I'll let you come in my hole I said down you ain't gonna last long he said why I said because she was standing up looking around well he didn't that evening he killed him sniper got him he got out of the hole and I looked behind a tree had a few branches on her back behind me there I saw them shake I shot that out he hit the ground I see well that's for killing my buddy and I didn't even know him I did not know any names really I didn't because we delude them too Faiers please please tail I think it was but they was back to the rear echelon they never got up front line when you took out the machine-gun nest when you threw the grenades in the machine-gun nest do you know how many Japanese were there no no I'm saying that was one of them of spider holes that they had him come up through periodically they had a ladder there that come up shoot machine gun then go back down I have no idea how many but I know that if we're the top that ridge wouldn't Bend none of us live today well we was going up to the side and Baker Cummings coming up to the point when I saw my wounded squad leader I just glanced up which was a stupid thing to do Baker company was shooting at us we're shooting at them I hollered down lieutenant get on a radio which we had ready to add the string wires didn't have no modern stuff we had to sling wires and if wire got blowed into radio man would go out and repair to have communications anyway he called Baker company ever think whitened down we're shootin one another and I'm I say right now it was Baker company shot my squad leader I'm almost positive well I'm drug him off and they come and got him I don't know what happened to him don't know was he the survive not don't know nothing I say just hang on buddy I'll get you down to safety hang on buddy I'll get you down he weighed about 250 pound no because I had to lieutenant had the troops what we left blast the hillside behind me because I said don't worry about where I'm going he knows sir it was behind me I said they killed me gonna be for mine he says I'll do that that's what he did they just blasted the hillside behind me we was in the valley had to drag I couldn't carry him had to drive you had to drive him he weighed about 250 pound [Music] well their artillery was mostly duds I'm telling you they did not that very good artillery but most of mine was hand-to-hand combat they said let's go and that's what we're doing just go go go go go go they didn't tell us what was going what we're gonna be running into nothing coastal freely I don't think the squad leaders even knew then when he got wounded did not took over squad I had 6 people [Music] races against the Japanese artillery shows or the mortars yeah they had a mortar huh well they had a mortar that was the biggest part it was dug but they did have mortar shells you every day every day in 724 buddy they never they didn't want to give up until we broke through the mounts or Uihlein then things eased up to them mount sure aligned when they know they lost that they know they done lost the battle that's when he want to commit suicide and then for said no you will give up and then you will tell that they say wrote a book I've never solved but they say he wrote a book about to experience no we had course errors as we was on the open one time I remember laying down crawling on the line on frontline there he's coursers but with the fifth caliber machine gun wasn't in foot in front of us for strafing and we was crawling along no it was our coursers our coursers clearing the path for us to advance no they'd a Souls but anytime you land down there in that sand boy and that machine comes straight 10 12 foot in front of you they had to be good didn't he oh yeah yeah when several of them we went in one cave yes poor Chuck from Oklahoma big and tall there was no fireplace in this cave he rats up on top the mammal and he felt something he found the Harry Caray knife that probably belonged to a general he that emeral in the handles I said that's mine Chuck he said no hell no that ain't yours I said yeah but you were told I am he said no it ain't yours that handle was probably worth thousands of thousand dollars they all had a Harry Caray knife and they believed in it we had one guy had a pair pliers two Japanese soldiers that were dead had a lot of gold teeth he would take his rifle butt and bash her mouth in take that gold he sent eight thousand dollars worth the gold back one day and they caught him they said that's not what we're done you can't do that but he did do it they believed in gold no no no just a few of them but this one they caught he sent $8,000 worth the gold home yes there was really 1600 ships around Okinawa and the attacks the commander in charge of the Navy gave orders to pull out because there was little too many ships if they were pulled I wouldn't none of us been alive but our commander talk them into spend another day and they did but around Okinawa which is 16 miles wide and 55 miles long I walk from one end to the other from side to side then then oh yes oh yes the ship next to me got hit and in Japanese I guess in a navy it throw him out and he was about 50 yards from our ship floating well they took a rope in the hook and brought him up on top and stripped him he had a the sheepskin jacket on and sheepskin pants they stripped him ice are we going to him now don't know that throw him back in the water you know good does he's dead yeah they was really they really hit us pretty hard I don't know I mean tips with damage before they hit us pretty hard I'm telling you when nothing left well I wasn't actually I was only out church and aha but I went to a Marine reunion one time down in Norfolk and this guy's talking to he was telling me that he helped take naho he said he walked close to baby bridge I said you are not the you a liar there was no baby Bridger I said the best away after naho was secured the CB he's come here and put the bridge in he never talked to me no more he stayed here at all time cuz like I caught him in a lie I said boy whose lie about it tell the truth Oh yo yo hmm we usually try to get about them caves couldn't do it nay palms only think we can use a tank with napalm on well they burn him out that day palm was red hot then I'm not using now so I've been told they burn him out and someone was digging so deep that you couldn't burn him out we get we had a we on the frontline had a group coming behind us a mop-up crew and what they'd done I don't know but I was on the front line all the time a crew come back and took care of some of the wounded they also treated Japanese they'd give him first aid and and we round them all up and they sent him off to Japan or China rather I spent a night in one in a tomb cattitude with the big urns when they died he put them in urn that little opening we crawl to it I just got a couple new recruits in and like I said replacement it was hard to get anyway I hope this tomb up crawled in there wrapped around one that bigger and tried to sleep two fleas in there with the biggest flies around here that gives flea powder they thrive don't they like to eat us up big fleas humongous fleas and I said we'll be safer here tonight anyway I'm two boys they don't wanna go said and people didn't I said yellow you gonna be dead too unless you go in there and hide the night I did to care where the Sun come up next morning or not just didn't bother me a bit buddy I didn't worry about nothing I've done what I had to do and I did 18:18 buddy and I could crawl faster on my hands and knees most people could run monsoon season water wet wet wet wet live with the condition lived in the water you slept in the water and they give us haleh's on tablets to purify our drinking water we'd stop in the stream fill the canteen up put a house on tablet in it try to purify woke up stream ten foot to goat there with all four of us sticking up our Rock and already we didn't pour the water out water was pretty scarce hey I'm slip in the mud many a night did have nowhere else to go monsoon season all rush them did too I probably went the longest probably about 15 20 days and then we took a helmet liner out and took a shower and a helmet when we could find the decent stream but like I said you find decent stream and go to be dead up for 10 or 12 feet and it didn't stop you took a shower now you could take a shower and in the hell but I'm telling you spun shower should you helmet up they give us those bar soap know what Ralph and you could clean up never had no dry socks they run it on your feet buddy no if you did they got wet you didn't have time for number just fight fight fight but it allowed loss of rival no like I told my lieutenant I said lieutenant you better get down I said I've done had a couple were my daggone socks run off my feet all right they won't get me I said lieutenant first thing you want to do is take them damn bars off and stick them in your pocket of throw away I did a shiny bars I'd lieutenant bars he finally took them off I said them Japs is going to spot that they're going to kill you well I don't know there's a patrol we just whoever squad leader was let's go let's go go go goes are we done [Music] myself no yeah with with the with the group no nothing - by yourself oh yeah yeah like I said where we're going they never told us you freeze enemy fire we stopped might be pinned down two or three days before we can move again but we kept advancing slowly slowly slowly and finally took it sugarloaf hill the tanks had to go on a scout search all the way around and didn't come back in we couldn't get him from the top and we had no bombs that would penetrate it they had going the outskirts all the way around come into them and shoot a mouse we could hear we can hear murmurs on sugarloaf we can hear there's underneath this we can hear I'm talking solid rock oh yeah yeah I went over the top yes sir we went over the top buddy flying colors after the tanks got around the burner Mountain and they had them 50 caliber machine guns yeah after they got him out and then we went over the top stand up er everybody let's go and it was hmm now we've found dead Japs with Marine Corps boot on jackets on and bandoliers the Japanese have a 31 caliber they could shoot our ammunition but we could not shoot their ammunition in their sniper rifle was a 25 caliber pretty awkward - boy they was good than snipers anything they get behind just like when you know just anything behind the island probably should have been no more bombs stowed on it to level things but if they didn't have time I guess had a date set and they just followed the rigmarole I don't know I went on I went in on the second land second thing they did well we also had things - and I hated to go behind the tank they drew all the fire every time they spotted the tank they threw the grenades they threw the knee mortar and bombs everything else but then there was protection Oh Lord yes well when they hit him and locked the tracks most of them when they lost his track they was down they couldn't do nothing but yeah a lot of things I've got some pictures in there fuel instead of a book on sugar like I said we was on top of theirs underneath us and they could go out and throw grenades at us angle angle to the damages they throw grenades at us that's good then they go back and only way we got them out was our tanks went on the outskirts all the way around and come back in in shot her mouth shut napalm in there and 50 caliber I was on Okinawa and we was advancing towards no halt and the gunnery sergeant says Walt take the prisoner back but you be back here in a minute I said yes sir I said a minute he said your what I said I said I'll be back so I was taking this prisoner back I started searching him he only had one picture on him that's it nothing else he wouldn't give it up I said yes yes he said no no I said yes yes I want the picture well I looked at my watch that time was going by I had to shoot him get the picture but I did do that what to do and he had a picture of Japanese soldiers cutting Chinese heads off put them in a cage what's behind it I do not know except I was told maybe they were just checking her swords I was told that the face cut a head off one whackies a good soldier whether true or not I do not know I'll show you the picture in a few minutes right now we're telling what happened and why this was taken in China that's a great bowl the Great Wall of China and that is something to see - I've been all over it he just come it was lost he was trying to find the time founded his company trying to find some of these people he was lost he just showed up nowhere he thought his hands up when he saw us so the gun he says take him back but you'd be back here remember we have to move on yes sir no sir it did not bother me I had to do what I have to do not done nothing not done bother me nothing too far away and you get stuck back there by yourself there's Japs all around you know that's what the gun he said he said you'll be back here in a minute we as a group but you go back by yourself get stuck out there you're dead duck this is a photo I got off that and that's the only thing he had on him but when the Gunny sergeant says you be back here in a minute that meant I had to get back or did get be left and I was not going to be left so I had to shoot him he got the picture left him lay then rejoined and we moved on we're looking at a photo taken against it the Great Wall of China and looks like two Japanese soldiers whether they're officers not do not know was trying to well they was really checking the sword see how good sharply or I guess in fact cut a head off and put it in the case in one wacky was a good swordsman so they told me now that's all I know about Chinese they cut Chinese heads off and put it in and look like a birdcage you know that's a good example of the Japanese brutality you know during the war just how brutal and inhumane they were yes any other experiences you had that made you realize just how ferocious mister what I've done I've killed him first you know they taught me kill or be killed and I killed didn't ask no questions and that's what I've done you couldn't trust them if they got too close to you they can had a grenade on you they could have a pistol you never know so shoot first and live longer yes yes yes they pretend to be dead and some of them pull other Japs on top of them well you know when we moved ahead we didn't have time to do a whole lot because we had to move we may move one day and be pinned down for two days and another day we may move cover five miles just never know sometimes we was pinned down for two days and never got to move but the Japanese I never trusted you would find them laying there to think you were dead but neither had a grenade in their hand or pistol and you had to be mighty mighty careful how you handle it - sometimes I took the rifle with a bayonet on and turn them over and when they move on users alive so you shoot them going about your business it's cruel but anyway I've done it hmm yeah real real well if you've never been there you really don't know what it is till you've been on the frontline you run into the people I think I know what it is no you did not know till you've been there it did not bother me it did not bother me I don't care where they kill me or not just never that bothered me of coach hey it was war kill or be killed I never thought about anything did have no girlfriends back here then didn't have nothing to go to but my family I didn't worry about nothing and I'm same way now I don't worry about nothing right now don't do it a bit worried oh yeah oh yeah I've had people cover it up with newspaper they can find one try to protect themselves I've had people in my whole with me that would jump out and try to run not grab them pull them back save her life you get killed just saying this whole word you've got some protection and I'm telling you you can dig a hole door if you had to except for them on top about cliff reason ends up in the rock i pile rock up about a foot high no no I wasn't Sugarloaf he was where that tank shot the napalm in that in that cave and that soldier come up out of there that night he scaled that cliff when they throwed the deluminator grenade up let the sky up why I said always was something wrong I'm thinking something wrong here I'll turn my rifle round finger on the trigger throw it up another one he was just about stepped in a hole not shot him for he stepped in the hole and boys - boys jumped up what happened I said visitor we didn't need so I said well I'm going to bed I'm gonna try to sleep y'all could take a rest to watch all night one more step had been on top of us he scaled up a cliff do not bend to attack that I mean he was right on top of us no we've done we've done left sugarloaf italy was headed toward null Hall mm-hmm and there was a tunnel from C to C that the Japanese in we was probably right along that tunnel somewhere they did not tell us where we was going what was going to just go go go and kill anything that moved and I'm telling you we was outnumbered probably somebody said twelve fifteen to one anyway but we survived a lot of praying my squad leader was up on observation point got wounded with nobody I'll get him we got a new lieutenant and he didn't know nobody and we didn't know nothing about him he says I need a volunteer to go get the squad leader he was out on the observation point with no one volunteer I said lieutenant I'll volunteer under one condition he said what's that I said turn the troops around and blast the hillside behind me I said if I get shot they're gonna be from behind not where I'm going so he turned his hoof around they saw shoot that hillside behind him I started up the hill though probably dressed said mother yard say turn the yards anybody I got up on top found the squad leader there glanced over her head and looked at and Company B was coming up to point shooting at us and I'm saying that one of them hit hit him that's my opinion whether true or not I don't know but that's what I observed anybody anywhere I start dragging him off for weight about 250 pound at least he's packed got caught on a route I took the k-bar off cut the route start dragging him down as I was dragging him down I glanced to the left and spotted a Japanese pillbox machining on this a out there was putting some green around try to hide it well I shot it and I woke up other before those were grenade down it and I think it might have been one of them spirals we talked about on the mount story back in line anyway not brought the squad leader down they took him back whether he survived I do not know don't know nothing about it didn't even know his name because we was losing so fast we didn't know one another and all I know where they took him back and flew him on a ship that's all I know about it spider hole is a hole that the Japanese had from the tunnel from one sea to the other they had ladders they'd climb up take a machine gun shoot shoot and then go back down in there so we couldn't get him until he might have popped up about time they popped up for your close father then we shot him then other than that we never could get him if I had to knock that machine-gun nest out it was about ten or twelve foot over the ridge you would have had to got on top of the ridge and he would mow down everybody in sight so we're not knocked without that put us up to that B company was coming up on a point and we was coming up on the side we did not know it until I glanced up and saw B company I hold her down the lieutenant I said lieutenant called B company tell him cease fire he did and all the far no more shooting now I'll read Mossad faces for the Bronx or I did not know that I got the Bronze Star until I was on about six months Dean aid the Marine Corps recruiter brought to the house and says here's your Bronze Star I said for what he said the heroic feat I said doing what he said you were on top healing drug of squad leader off yes I did he said what the Bronze Star for I said why so late he says I don't know but I'm delivered to you right now will you sign up again I said I will not had my belly full ain't going nowhere okay you people listening I'm going to read the citation that was given to me for the bronze star and the bronze star is for heroic feat in action the President of the United States takes pleasure and present the bronze star medal to private first class Walter V Philip Eck United States Marine Corps citation for heroic achievement while serving in the rifleman Company C 1st battalion 29th marine 6th Marine Division in action against the enemy Japanese forces on Okinawa ryuko Island June 12th June 1945 while the company was attacking a strongly defended hill on the rougarou island or Peninsula private first class Philip Eck unhesitating of his squad leader who was lying wounded on exposed position on the forward slope of a burn Ridge although subject to intense machine-gun fire although subject to intense Japanese machine-gun fire while carrying his room to squad leader to safety he noted the position of a hostile weapon and later directed to fire of other members of the squad with the result that the enemy gun which had held up advance his platoon with sounds by his courageous and Nicias and [Music] unselfish devotion to the duty he contribute materially to the excess of his attack and upheld a highest tradition of United States Service private first class Philip pack is authorized to wear combat v

Channel: Legends of WWII

Views: 19,361

Rating: 4.9173126 out of 5

Keywords: world war II, veterans, world war II veterans, world war 2, combat veterans, heros of world war, heros of war

Id: AjDap8orszk

Length: 94min 44sec (5684 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 21 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/disgustandhorror]

"No sir, I ain't gon' do that."

"You're talking to an officer."

"I'm talkin to a shitbird like everybody else on the front line, they'll kill you same as me."

"I'll court martial you."

"I'll be alive."

[u/TobyMcguire52]

HOLY FUCK! This hard charger is 94 and looks better than most of the Senior Staff in my Company when I was in. Much respect Devil.

[u/MediumGreyLight]

Our unit went on a tour of the southern site when I was at Futenma, and I read Sledge's two books.

I just finished Bloody Okinawa. What a mess. Arty/NGF/Air only kept the Japs from leaving their caves. The Marines and army had to use the 'blowtorch and corkscrew'. Shoot at all the openings while a flamethrower or flametank got close enough to fire on the cave, spray fire down there, then throw in a satchel charge to close the mouth.

There were times they found airshafts on the ridge so they would stretch hoses from the tanks, or engineers would construct troughs, pump in the naptha, and drop in a grenade to kill everyone.