(logo jingle) (triumphant music) (plane droning) - Well, basically, I started out in what they call the Pioneers, which is no longer in existence They're part of the engineers.

We were in the same regiment as the engineers, anyhow.

The only difference, we done mostly pick and shovel work and help loading and unloading supplies Actually, we worked with the engineers and if the infantry needed help on the front lines, we ended up there too.

Jack of all trades and master of none, I always said.

- [Sherece] What would you say is the most memorable day of your service?

- Memorable day?

(planes droning overhead) I think other than getting home on leave for Christmas with my brother, Peleliu sticks in my mind the most because when we went in to Peleliu, we made for Cape Gloucester, New Britain, first, and then we went to an island called Pavuvu for a staging area, and there was nothing there but rotten coconuts and coconut palm fronds.

And we had to clean all that stuff up and that was overrun with rats and land crabs.

So we had to push that all into piles with Caterpillars, crawler tractors and after we got it all piled together then we took the leaves off of the palm fronds and used them for clubs and killed rats and land crabs.

And then they finally fired those piles, they took and put fuel oil all around and soaked them in fuel oil and lit 'em and burned up the crabs.

And anything that came out of there we had to kill right away, they were on fire.

And then from Pavuvu, then we went to Peleliu.

And on board ship, the captain of our outfit, so the outfit I was in, he told us how many Japs were supposedly on Peleliu and how many Marines were going ashore.

He said, "You got a choice to make.

There isn't room for all of us on that island."

'Cause the island was two and a half miles wide and five and a half miles long, that's all there was.

And he said, "You're gonna have to make up your mind who stays."

So we knew what we were doing.

They told us when we went in, figured a week to 10 days, we were there for the six weeks of the worst combat we ever hit.

Guadalcanal guys said it was much worse than Guadalcanal.

And then after Peleliu, then the Guadalcanal guys, after New Britain, half of the Guadalcanal guys went back stateside.

And then after Peleliu, the rest of 'em went back stateside, so it was all new personnel and were the old timers, then.

And then when we went to Okinawa, I and another guy had supplies and we were truck drivers, and we had supplies on our trucks that apparently they didn't need right away.

So we got to stay on board ship for three days.

And the other guy, he wanted to get ashore because of kamikazi pilots that were dive-bombing their ship.

And I said, "What the heck you worried about that for?"

I said, "We got three square meals and a dry bunk to sleep in."

The guy said, "The captain of the ship isn't any better than you or I if we do get hit."

He wanted to get on shore.

(planes droning loudly overhead) (explosions) A couple of good ones!

(laughs) - [Sherece] I felt the heat from that one.

- Yeah.

(both laughing) I did, too.

I'd say 70 years ago I would've hit the deck with that.

- [Sherece] Yeah, exactly.

(Paul laughing) But anyhow, when we got... on shore on Okinawa it was just a walk-in, but about the fourth day is when the infantry hit the real opposition and from then on it just kept getting worse.

And I drove the truck hauling supplies and we were drowning in axle deep mud with all six wheels running.

One day I changed three outta five tires and our spare rack had room for two and I had changed two of 'em on the road.

(plane droning overhead) And the third one, when I came into the motor pool, the third one was on the inside dual.

So we had to take that off and then put a full set of new tires on it and it was digging into mud that was filled with shrapnel, and that shrapnel cut the tires.

But we were just pushing our way through things, hauling supplies up to the front lines where the guys needed it and then getting back, getting ready for another load.

So that's what I did on Okinawa.

I enjoyed myself driving trucks, too.

- [Sherece] Yeah?

- I drove trucks and Jeeps and four-by-fours and then the engineers, when I was in there, I got on heavy equipment, so I had a little experience with that.

(planes droning overhead) I got back to the States the 6th of November '45, and that happened to be my girlfriend's birthday.

So I called her from Oceanside and told her I was back in the States.

(plane droning overhead) And I didn't get discharged until the 23rd of December and I couldn't get a bus or a train to get from California to Minnesota.

So I hitched a ride with some guys from Texas 'cause my kid brother was in the Navy at our Navy base in Texas.

And I knew that, so I got a ride there and I spent Christmas with him and then he got leave and the two of us came home in a snowstorm on New Year's Eve of '46.

We got as far as Owatonna on a train and started hitchhiking.

And we got over east of Mankato.

There used to be a filling station there.

And the guy dropped us off there, we stood outside for a while and got chilled through.

And then we went inside and the place was open.

And got inside and the guy sitting at the counter having a beer turned around, called us my name.

And anyhow, he says, "What the hell are you doing here?"

Well, we said we're trying to hitchhike home.

He said, "Hitchhike?

Hell, I'll take you."

He had a Model-A Ford, we fought snow all the way back to Minnesota to our own place.

(chuckles) - [Sherece] So, you had to stay there?

- Pardon?

(plane droning overhead) - [Sherece] Do you end up staying there, then?

- Yeah.

Actually, they took me over to my then girlfriend's place and they put me up for the night and we stayed there.

And then in March she and I got married.

I took flying lessons on a Aeronca Champ for several years after I came out, but I couldn't afford a plane, so then I ended up dropping it and just kept on farming.

And when I got rounded out, I ended up, like I said, a truck driver, and then I bought the Caterpillar and went to contracting.

And then the state game warden job.

I spent 25 years on that.

I don't know what else there is.

- [Sherece] Any advice you would give young people today?

- Well, do the best you can and hope for the best.

Keep on one day at a time.

That's all you can handle.

- [Sherece] And you might live to be 101.

- I'd say the good Lord isn't ready for me yet.

Whatever's coming must be something I gotta wait and see.

- [Sherece] Yeah?

- And I'm not worried about it.

I don't lose any sleep.

- [Sherece] Good.

- I go to bed at night and shut off.

Wake up in the morning and then I'm ready for another day.

- [Sherece] Yeah.

(Paul chuckles) (triumphant music) (plane droning) (triumphant music continues)