M’ARTHUR INVADES CENTRAL PHILIPPINES; FOOTHOLD TO SPLIT ISLANDS FIRMLY HELD (10/20/44)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 10/20/44 | Lindesay Parrott, Clifton Daniel, Gene Currivan, Hanson W. Baldwin

[henkster]

Homer

My continued thanks for posting excerpts from Toland’s “The Rising Sun.” It is one of the best accounts of the Pacific War.

[InMemoriam]

Seems appropriate to include the iconic image to go with the narrative today.

[woodbutcher1963]

I think the way my dad felt about MacArthur was no different than the way GI’s in Africa or Europe felt about Patton. If you remember the quote from the movie with George C. Scott some GI in Italy says “there goes Ol’ Blood and Guts” and the other GI says “Yea, our blood and our guts”.

My dad told me many stories about his time during the war. The stories never changed, so I figured they were true. He told me about March Field east of Los Angeles. That there was this desert area out there where there was nothing. They would go out there ride around in jeeps and shoot guns. I buddy tried to get him to invest in real estate out there. He did not. Its name was Palm Springs.

He used to tell me about going to the Brown Derby and standing in line to dance with movie stars. He also got to know the guy that drew all the Flash Gordon comic series. He said he lived up on a hill overlooking the coast.

He told me many stories about New Guinea. It was still a wild country there in the 1944. However, he did not tell me much about the Philippines. I think the fighting was too intense. One thing was: never trust a Jap. They were sneaky SOBs. Also, that is where he got shot, twice. Once in the head(through his helmet) and then in the abdomen. As I stated earlier, the abdomen infection sent him home. I was easy to get infections in the jungle.

My dad was prejudice towards the Japanese for the rest of his life. I was not until 1985 that my mom got him to buy a Honda Accord. Prior to that it was always GM. Although we did have the original SUV: the International Harvester Travelall. I think it had the same engine that they had been putting in tractors(like the super H we had)for 30 years.

Dad passed away 18 years ago at the age of 77. He grew up on a farm, lived through the Depression, two world wars, married and raised four children. He never went to college. He used his heavy equipment experience in the war to get a job as a field mechanic for Yale & Towne. He eventually became an owner operator truck driver. He hauled chemical tankers for 25 years. My mom still lives in the house they bought in 1968 in the suburbs south of Buffalo. She will turn 87 next month.

[colorado tanker]

Thank you very much for your story. That is what I enjoy most about these threads, when someone tells their personal story about their loved one who served.

I have never heard anyone say anything good about New Guinea. It must have been one of the worst places on earth to fight a war.

My dad's story is much less intense. He graduated high school a semester early in 1945 to join the Navy V-12 training program to become a Navy officer. The war with Japan ended earlier than anyone expected, of course, but he did go on to use the GI Bill to become the first college graduate in his family. All three of his brothers served, two in Korea and one in Vietnam.