“On Siapan, the rains come down. There’s a gully, and a tiny beach to go in on at night. The Japs found out we were coming and moved in for the masacre. They would go in block left, in line of the marines which were advancing and taking the island. The marines operate in the day, advance and kill. The Japs work at night.”
In boot camp, Dad learned basic training and morse code. He then moved into the area of reconnaissance training, which was a longer, more involved process. He had an address that went with his unit, they had a completely different color and style of camouflage uniform, and a movie was made about them. This force of 25 men, was trained to carry out very specialized missions throughout the Pacific.
The invasion of Siapan was planned in advance. The 5th Amphibious Corp – Reconnaissance Battalion arrived via Destroyer, and at that time, they had no contact with the 4th Division. A navy, grasshopper plane flew over the area and saw that the Japs had been informed and were sitting there waiting for them. The mission was wiped out. It would have been an all-out massacre. A quick, one-day decision was made, and they became part of the 4th Division, assigned to temporary replacement for casualties. That first day, they unloaded, the 2nd day they made contact with their new group. Though the initial mission was cancelled, they still spent 6 weeks on Siapan.
In their special camouflage, the men of the 5th Amphibious enjoyed extra consideration and respect from the men of the 4th Division. This was true, up until the day when they were all sitting around, getting acquainted, chewing the fat. The subject turned to religion. Most of them were Catholic, a few Protestants, Dad claimed Baptist, and one man in the 4th Division said he was an Atheist. That made quite a disturbance and while everyone was reacting to his statement, Dad opened his mouth and said, “Anyone who thinks that way, deserves a whoopin”! The athiest said, “Do you want to give me a whoopin”? Dad said, “Yeah”! So the fist fight began. It didn’t last long. After a few minutes, Dad called it off. Because he got to thinking that this guy was not asking for a fight, and he had the right to think anyway he wanted to think.
At the end of Siapan, and while they were still on the island, they got a shave, haircut, and shower, more training, and a little R&R. That was the first time anyone had seen Dad with a clean shave. He said they all really had fun that day, joking about his baby face. Within a week, they struck out again, for the invasion of Tinian.
Tinian was nothing but walk, walk, walk, every square inch of the island, covering the place, looking. They marched at 4th step speed. Dad carried his pack plus all the radio equipment, which was another 40 pounds. One day he became totally exhausted while marching with his load. He told the guy next to him that he had to give his heart a rest. So he stepped out of line and sat down, fully vulnerable to ambush without the protection of the line.
He had only been there about 3 minutes when another marine stepped out of line and came to him saying, “I will carry your radios”. Dad looked up and saw that it was the atheist. His surname was Haines, from New Jersey. And Dad learned later, he was the New Jersey Boys Club boxing champion.