World War I: Stories from our Veterans Bill Dowell Bill Dowell was a Marine with combat experience who participated in the fighting on Saipan, Tinian, and Okinawa, He finished his tour during the occupation of Japan following the end of the war. Can you describe what an average day was like during the war? In bootcamp, the average day began by getting up early. You had roll call, mess call, and then you did a lot of drilling. You had lunch, and then you drilled again until four o’clock in the afternoon, We came back and did laundry and anything else that had to be done. Then you had supper, then at night you had swimming. You had to be able to swim four lengths of the pool before you got out of bootcamp. Once you passed that you didn’t have to go back swimming ‘any more but they would find something else for you to do until 10:00 o’clock at night. Then there was taps and that’s it, lights are out. You were up at 5:00 o'clock the next morning. That goes on for twelve weeks. What types of drills did you do? We marched and did close order drill with a rifle Can you describe an average day when the fighting was going on? An average day was to keep you butt down so you didn’t get shot. ‘They would start early in the morning and go until dark. Then at night you dig a foxhole. You have two people in a foxhole at atime, One stays awake while the other one sleeps for two hours. The one that’s awake wakes up the one that is sleeping and then he sleeps for two hours and that goes on through the night. In case you have an attack, they don’t catch everyone sleeping How long did the fighting go on? On Saipan we fought for forty-five days. When we went to Tinian, we fought for another thirty days, Our unit fought on Okinawa for thirty days, That was the extent of our fighting. What was the hardest part of being in the war? The hardest part of being in the war was leaving home. If T had to do it again, I would do it. There are things that have (o be done. A lot of people said they would never do it again but I think they are wrong. What did serving your country mean to you during your active duty? figured it was my duty at that time. They needed me. I enlisted because I wanted a certain, branch of service. If you are drafted they put you in the army or navy. Very few draftees went into the Marine Corps because they could recruit all the men they needed. (©2001 D.C. Everest Area Schools Publictons ByWhat does the word “enemy” mean to you? When you are fighting it means watch out for them. You don’t know who is the enemy. We had ‘women that we thought were surrendering. ‘They had children on both sides of them as they walked up and they would drop to the ground and the kids would fire a machine gun strapped to the woman’s back. At the time it was anything Oriental who was your enemy. ‘That is who we had against us. Did you have any contact with concentration camps? Never had anything to do with the concentration camps. What did you know about them? Well, we knew that there were concentration camps and if you got caught you would be placed in a concentration camp. There all your privileges are taken away from you. You do what they tell you to do, not what your government wants you to do. Did you know what kinds of activities were going on in the concentration camps at that time? When you are out there in the Pacific you don’t get too much news of what's going on. You know what’s going on around you and that’s about it. Was it hard not knowing what was going on? It didn’t bother me at all, I don’t know if it bothered anybody else. Did you ever imagine what would happen if you were caught? No, it never entered my mind, We lost men on the islands that were captured and tortured, The Japs would put bamboo shoots up their fingernails or they would lay them on bamboo, Bamboo grows very fast and makes sharp points and that would grow. We were not allowed to torture anybody. There were things we were not supposed to carry. I cartied a pair of brass knuckles. If the fighting was close enough I would put on the knuckles, They are illegal but the general took them out of my cartridge belt one day and he put them on and said “don’t lose them”. Is there one particular experience that stands out in your mind? The one experience that stands out in my mind the most is when I got hit, I went down to the ground and I came up with my hands around my head and called for the corpsman. I said, “I've been hit”, My head is split wide open and the corpsman looked and said “stick your hands down” and blood was all over. It was a little knick that went through my helmet and just knicked my skull, The corpsman put a litle shaving cream on it and put a bandage on and that was it. At that time shaving cream was good to put on a wound, ‘That stands out, it was pretty close. After that, did you rethink your decision about enlisting? The only thing that made me rethink about reenlisting was that my father had been ill and had asked if I could come home. The doctors down there had requested that I come home for my dad but the general would not OK my coming home at that time. So I had to wait six months for our outfit fo come home, I was going (o reenlist, but with that T said no, My dad was OK. There ‘was no reason they had to keep me there, (©2001 D.C. Beret Area Schools Publications 100World War It: Stories from our Veterans Did you go through a lot of emotional stress when they wouldn’t let you go home? ‘The colonel called me into his office and told me the general refused. He told me to get a sawed off shotgun, an MP band for my arm, and an MP helmet and double OO buck for the shotgun, He had four prisoners brought over. They were up for general court martial, and I had to guard them. They were told that if they made one wrong step I would shoot them. His orders are to shoot you. Upon him shooting you, we will fine him $1.00 for the shell and transfer him back to the states so he can see his father. The colonel wanted to get me back. I couldn’t get those guys todo anything wrong. They were up for general court martial where they could have been executed, That was in Japan. What kind of reception did you get when you returned to the United States? When we got back, we were supposed to pull into San Diego. They didn’t have room for us there, so they took on more supplies for the ship and we had to go from San Diego down through the Panama Canal over through the Caribbean and up to Norfolk, Virginia. We unloaded our ship and different fellows went to different places. ‘The group I was with came to Great Lakes Naval Training Center for discharge. When I got there my folks were waiting. They knew what time I would be in because I kept in contact with them. What was the journey like when you knew you were coming back to America? Makes no difference where you are going to be discharged. ‘That was what we were coming back for, to be broken up and discharged. We got discharged on the Atlantic coast. You have to realize that if they don’t have room for you, you have to go to the next place. The only thing bad bout it was they took on a cargo of milk. We went without milk for two years and the guys wanted milk and they put it on the ship. But, we got to see more places like the Panama Canal. What was the scariest part of the war for you? ‘The scariest part was the invasions. When you were invading an island, you are coming in a landing craft and you hit the beach. You come in waves, first wave, second wave, third, and fourth, ‘There are lines of ships and landing crafts coming in and you hit the beach, The first wave is supposed to move inland right away. Now the enemy is firing on the beach and they don’t have the range on the first wave. After the first wave they are getting the range of the beach and that is where you lose a lot of people, That is the scariest part, otherwise it is just a job. That's the way I feit about it, Did you make any lasting friendships Ihaven’t seen anybody I was with in the service since 30 days after my discharge, There is nobody that I would go and visit, We had one guy who came home with me. I lived in Kenosha, just a few miles from Great Lakes where we got discharged. We took him home to Missouri where he lived and that was the last I saw him. Is there a message for the students? War is hell. Itis a necessity at times. (©2001 D.C Everest Azea Schools Publietons 101World War tories from our Veterans Anything else you would like to add? On Okinawa, just before I got hit, General Buckner was looking down from a hillside, We could see his big binoculars over the stones watching what was going on. We were finishing up on f ‘Okinawa, and we had passed a gun positioned up in the rocks and they had everything marked on the walls. All the distances were recorded and we heard a shot, We turned around and there were shots getting the range. There were three more shots and they hit the rocks and killed Buckner and the whole group. I think we all put forth. We didn’t do anything spectacular, we just did our jobs. We had one sergeant on Saipan who was shot in the knee. When he got out of the hospital and came back to duty on Tinian he got shot again. In the Marine Corps, at that time, if you got two wounds, you went home. But he didn’t want to go home. When we were on Okinawa we don’t know where the shell came from but it hit a foxhole and blew both his legs off below the knees. Those are the things you see. I had three boys in Kenosha that I played baseball with and they were in the Marine Corps. I buried the three of them on Saipan and later I reburied them in Kenosha. (©2001 D.C Everest Area Schools Publications a2 i aaa