[Annotator's Note: Interviewer is setting up the interview and it begins with small talk about the war.] Arthur Pendleton was born in Central Massachusetts in the country. He had various experiences working on the farm and also worked a job hauling grain. A gentleman that was connected with the business was a Marine at one time. He used to discuss the Marine Corps with Pendleton. Pendleton had never thought about the service but the man's stories sounded like the type of thing that he would be into. Marines talk to each other about all of the things the Marine Corps represents. When they were trained, they were trained in an informal manner compared with how Marines are trained today. Pendleton got the type of training that the experts thought they needed to get the job done. Boot camp was rough for Pendleton. He does not want to elaborate on some of the training. They were pushed hard. Some of the bad things in Pendleton's estimation about the Corps during his time was the lack of inclusion. America preached equality but there was a separation in the Corps from blacks and women. It was Americanism at the time. Pendleton does not remember when Pearl Harbor happened. He was busy working. Pendleton felt that he was doing the right thing. He forgot that the people he was going to fight had guns as well. Right up until Pendleton got into combat he was completely unaware as to what combat was going to be like. He does not believe he was any different. They were all dumb kids. It is how it is today. Young people think fighting is the way to solve a problem because the professionals say so. Pendleton took for granted that the professionals knew what they were talking about. He felt that war is justified when your homeland is threatened and people might invade your shores. However the United States tends not to reverse that thinking and has trouble seeing it from the point of view of the people whose countries we invade. One experience that should not be overlooked is one that not many people talk about. They had been attacked and who knows what the intent would have been in the long run. Joining and then traveling from one place to the other was hard enough. After basic they were shipped across the country. For Pendleton it was from New River to San Francisco.

Arthur Pendleton was friends with Johnny Rivers. Pendelton was in 2nd Squad, 2nd Platoon, which was machine guns. Rivers was in a different platoon. With a heavy machine gun squad they needed more men to not only carry the weapon but to carry the ammunition. Heavy weapons units generally had more support units, too. Heavy weapons squads were matched with rifle squads for protection. It was always a very difficult walk with all of the equipment. The temperature in the South Pacific would soar. Water was nonexistent unless they were wading neck deep in it. They got into water an awful lot. It was a way to avoid being on dangerous trails. Not being able to drink the water was rough. The water would not be fit even after being treated. Pendleton carried a water cooled machinegun [Annotator's Note: a Browning M1917 .30 caliber machine gun]. They knew that the water in their machine gun was fresh water. What they did not realize was that when they packed the machine guns they packed them in cosmoline. Cosmoline was a heavy grease that stuck to metal. The cosmoline had worked its way inside of the machine gun jackets. In the temperatures they were in the cosmoline would melt somewhat. The jacket on the gun would create steam when fired and the water was put into a can so they did not lose that much water. Pendleton could suck on the tube of the machine gun to get a sip of water. Sometimes the cosmoline would be in the tube so he would end up choking on grease. There was a lot going on for D-Day on Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: 7 August 1942]. Riding into the beach, Pendelton's landing craft had to meet up at a rendezvous point. Getting into the landing craft was not that hard. The seas were not angry. Pendleton recalls the diesel exhaust from the landing craft. The whole time during the rendezvous they were inundated with diesel smoke. The whole time they were excited. There were a lot of emotions. It was a traumatic ride. They were not told what to expect. They landed unopposed. No one was killed in the landing that Pendleton knew of. The Japanese were not prepared for them at the time. That was an easy landing. The problems came later.

[Annotator's Note: Arthur Pendleton served in the US Marine Corps as a machine gunner in Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division and took part in combat operations on Guadalcanal, including the Battle of the Tenaru River.] The landing was uneventful. They landed near a coconut plantation. Coconut trees were everywhere. They learned how to open and eat coconuts because it was hard to get food. The food situation got more critical as time went on. The Japanese suffered through the same problems the Marines went through. Pendleton encountered instances where the Japanese actually ate themselves. After the first major battle things warmed up. Pendleton had been on the island for a few weeks before the Battle of the Tenaru River. They were right on the ocean. They called it the Tenaru but it was really Alligator Creek [Annotator's Note: the Ilu River]. The battle started at night. The Japanese attempted to cross the river and the ocean was on their right side. To get to the Marine flanks they needed to get through the water. This was in the Marines' favor. Pendleton was in reserve and was called up when Rivers and Schmid [Annotator's Note: Johnny Rivers and Al Schmid] were knocked out. Pendleton was not too far from the line, maybe 50 yards. It is hard for him to describe the battle. It was dark. There were flares up everywhere. When the flares went up everything stops. If they moved, they were killed. The battle would stop momentarily when the flare went up. Pendleton did not want to get caught running when a flare was up. He did not know where he was going but he was told where to put his gun. The Tenaru battle was fairly concentrated. It was a fairly small area, maybe a couple hundred of yards in each direction from the center of the line. Jungle battles were usually very concentrated. A lot of men could be wiped out in a small area. Pendleton does not recall who ordered him to the front line during the battle. His platoon commander was Maloy. Colonel Pollack [Annotator's Note: Lieutenant Colonel Edwin A. Pollock was the comanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division at this time] might have had something to do with it as well. When daylight broke there was still some action going on. Every once in awhile a few of the remaining Japanese who were alive would get up and run. Pendleton would open up on them. Colonel Pollack told Pendleton to stop shooting at the Japanese who were running away. He did not want Pendleton to give his position away. It had slowed down a bit but Pendleton was still able to find targets. It was fast and furious.

Arthur Pendleton does not remember who was in the hole with him [Annotator's Note: during the Battle of the Tenaru River on 21 August 1942]. Pendleton has blocked out a lot of things from the war. He does remember people who came in later to replace the dead. When he became a squad leader he had assistant gunners and gunners of his own so he became close to them. They were his men and not just part of the team. Pendleton does not recall what time the Battle of the Tenaru River took place. It did not seem like it was hours and hours; it went by fast. Pendleton is not sure how much of the event has been unconsciously put away. He believes his brain may choose not to remember anything. Pendleton does not recall air or tank support the next morning but he does remember seeing the dead floating in the river. It was filled with bodies. The bodies would float to the surface and they left them in there for days. The sun would cause the body to inflate and at nighttime the crocodiles would chew on the bodies. They could hear the crunching going on at night. The smell of death was everywhere. One of the things that stuck in Pendleton's mind about that particular battle was that the enemy attempted to flank the Marines by crossing a sandbar. They got hung up on barbed wire and machine gunned. A man would be hanging in the wire with his head blown in half. The internals of the head were dripping on the wire. There were human parts all over the place. On the other flank, which was the side toward Henderson field, were two men that Pendleton knew very well. They had caught a shell and they were blown apart. Pendleton suspected it was one of their own guns that did it but he cannot prove it. Pendleton has his suspicions because the Japanese did not bring that much heavy equipment to bear on the Marines that night. Lieutenant Maloy ordered Pendleton and one other to take care of the Marines that had been blown to pieces. Pendleton and a friend gathered up all of the body parts in a poncho and brought them back to the coconut grove for burial. He was told that there is a big cemetery by the coconut grove and in his estimation those two casualties might have been the first graves ever built there. Pendleton never had another incident down in the area of the Tenaru. Most of his time on Guadalcanal after the Tenaru was spent going on special details. Pendleton is not sure why he was picked but he may have volunteered. He does not recall a lot of details about that. They would go on prisoner snatches because were told that if they captured any Japanese they could trade them for American prisoners. Capturing a live Japanese soldier was hard. Pendleton recalls missions when he had to hop around to different islands to do prisoner snatches. When the Japanese occupied these native villages they did so for food and shelter. The huts they occupied were like igloos built of leaves and sticks. A lot of them had to be crawled into. They were dark inside. Pendleton recalled one instance where he climbed into a dark hut and he could sense that someone was inside. He sensed motion in the dark as a Japanese soldier swiped at him with a sword. Pendelton brought his pistol up and shot him and that was the end of that.

Arthur Pendleton participated in a lot of covert operations. It was interesting work. Pendleton did not know the culture, but apparently the natives on one island would not go to another island unless invited. Each island had their own culture. Pendleton recalled one time when a few of the natives came to their island. They were small family type groups. They talked about fish. They wanted to go catch fish. They had canoes. Little guys would get into the canoes with them. They were not tall but fairly stocky. The little guys looked like six year olds. Pendleton would take a hand grenade and fish with that. Pretty soon they would come back from underwater with a bunch of fish. The fish were stunned by the explosion. The men would have a fire going and they would take the whole fish and put it on the fire. Pendleton and the Marines were surprised by that. They would take it off the fire and twist the head off. They offered the head to them. They would suck the eyeballs off of the fish. The natives thought it was incredibly funny to watch the Marines throw up after witnessing the fish heads and eyeballs being eaten. [Annotators Note: From 0:56:40:000 to 1:02:30:000 the video is frozen. Video and interview resume at the correct place with no material missing.]

When Arthur Pendleton was on the ridge he recalled a shell from a Japanese naval gun landing in front of them. The shell did not explode but it lifted them out of the emplacement. They ran out of the emplacement but the shell never went off. They never dug it up and they made another emplacement. Coming that close to something that big was scary. They ran a lot of patrols to find where the enemy was. They would get into little skirmishes regularly. Trying to survive was a big thing. There was a lot of walking. Mosquitos at night were horrible. After they left Guadalcanal they went to Cape Gloucester. Pendleton had malaria several times. When he got to Australia they put him in the Army general hospital in Melbourne [Annotator's Note: the 4th General Hospital]. If they did not have malaria in their medical records there was no record of it. During the last presidential campaign Bob Dole made an issue that Kerry [Annotator's Note: Senator John Kerry] did not have records of his injuries. Pendleton is surprised by that attack because he did not have multiple injuries listed in his records either. In other words, it appears to be a common thing. Every time Pendleton got wounded it was treated in the field. Pendleton had one operation in a naval hospital and that was in his records. He took shrapnel on Guadalcanal. Before Guadalcanal, Pendleton was buried by an artillery shell. He still has scars on his eardrums. It does not mean anything to the military unless it was on his records. Pendleton was about to leave Guadalcanal. He was on the beach and had been supplied with an Army tent. Washing Machine Charlie [Annotator's Note: Washing Machine Charlie is a nickname given by American servicemen to any enemy aircraft that operated alone at night] was still active at night. He would carry that one 500 pound bomb every night to keep people awake. Pendleton could always hear when a bomb was dropped from an airplane. After a while he knew where the bomb was going to fall. They knew where that bomb was going. Pendelton told his guys that the bomb was coming to them. The bomb hit close but the soft sand absorbed much of the bomb blast. The sand kicked up by the blast covered Pendleton and that was what saved his life. He was five feet underground and was knocked unconscious. His sergeant knew he was underground so the guys immediately dug him up.

They immediately hauled Arthur Pendleton to the emergency Army tent. He was still knocked out at this point [Annotator's Note: Pendleton had been knocked out by a Japanese artillery round]. At the Army hospital they washed his ears out with water. Pendleton was told later that was the worst thing that could ever happen. When the eardrum is ruptured the canal is opened and putting more stuff in it is not good. Pendleton was deaf for a considerable period of time. He did not know if he would get his hearing back but he did. Pendleton remembers that the same day a ship came in and they had to climb cargo nets to get aboard. That was not an easy thing to do. In good conditions it is hard. Heavy seas make the process harder. Pendleton climbed down a cargo net in a 20 foot sea one time. Many guys got crushed going over the side. Pendleton had never seen such a sorry group of men. The guys were beaten down, tired and hungry. Their shoes had rotted off of their feet. Pendleton's group went to a pile of captured Japanese supplies. They grabbed sandals but they did not fit. A lot of the guys had loin cloths on. Being in the mud and water raised hell with cloth. Their clothes would literally rot off their back. The temperatures were hot. They could walk around like the natives. They always found food. Leaving Guadalcanal was a tough situation but they survived and got off. They went to another port and then to Australia. Pendleton spent a lot of his time in Australia in rehab camps. They were ordered to remain in an enclosure but they would leave anyway. The guards were supposed to stop them by shooting over their head. It was awful. The tents they stayed in were set up right next to each other. In order to set up the tents correctly the ropes had to criss-cross with other tents. Pendleton thinks about liberty and characterizes it as an escape. He had a friend named Tom Brown who always said it was not always bad, they had fun too.

Cape Gloucester was a rough campaign for Arthur Pendelton. They captured prisoners. Some of the fellas that had lost close friends could not handle taking the Japanese prisoners. At night they would tell the Japanese soldiers to start running for their own lines. As soon as the Japanese began to run they would shoot them. There was a small contingent of Marines sent to another part of the island to guard a trail but Pendleton landed with the main body of Marines. The trees were in bad shape from consistent shelling. The Army had supplied them with hammocks but the trees that were weakened would fall during the night. Some guys got crushed during the night. They were chosen to go to the other side of the island. They figured out that the main body of Japanese that were there would attack. Pendleton's unit had the job of cutting off the retreating forces but instead they ended up cutting off the main force of Japanese. Pendleton's group got the brunt. They retreated at great expense. The ridges on Cape Gloucester were incredibly steep. Pendleton's group would string barbed wire on the edge of the ridge and at night they would hang hand grenades on the wire with the pin pulled out almost two-thirds of the way. Anything that brushed the wire would set the grenades off. In the heavy rain the grenades would fall off. Someone would go check it out in the morning. It was a way of surviving. Pendleton could hear the Japanese at night. The Japanese were incredible jungle fighters. They were a formidable enemy. Pendleton recalls the ridge where a battle took place. The ridge was so narrow it could only fit one person at a time. It did get a little hairy at one point. Pendleton was right at the top of the ridge with his machine gun. The Japanese got very close to him. They finally had to get out of the ridge area because it was more than they could handle. They pulled back out of the entire area. All Pendleton remembers is that they had amphibious tanks. They were the old style amphibious tanks, not like something seen in use today. They were almost like square boxes with a caterpillar track on either side. Pendleton can remember being one of the last to leave there. The ocean was a little choppy. They had the foresight to bring a bulldozer in. The bulldozer would push out the amphibious tank when the wave went out. The tank would get caught into the wave. It would go on and on. The Japanese would respond with mortars. Pendleton got shrapnel on Cape Gloucester.

Arthur Pendleton was happy to get off of Cape Gloucester. They were there during the monsoon season. It was a terribly muddy place and they were walking in mud up to their knees. The rain never stopped. It was cold all of the time because there was no sun. They would find a little depression in the ground filled with water and the guys would huddle in the pool to warm it up. It took a terrible toll on their bodies but they were young and strong. They could withstand that kind of stuff. They never had the right kind of food but they had better food at Cape Gloucester because the Army was involved. Pendleton learned recently that his buddy Frank was on Cape Gloucester. Pendleton had to depend on the guys around him to survive. He became very close to them. He thinks the reason he does not remember many things is because he developed an attitude of survival. Pendleton developed a hard shell. It was a job that they had to do. They were not there for a vacation; they were there to kill. They were professional killers and they were good at it. It sounds bad but that was the way it was. Pendleton had methods of survival he devised for himself and his men. If they were in a landing craft that struck a reef and thought they were ashore because they could see the beach a lot of times they would just drop into the water. If they had equipment on they sank like a rock. Pendleton taught the guys that carried automatic weapons to drop their machine gun belts. That would give them some buoyancy. They had to hang onto their weapons. When they got to the surface they dumped the water out of the gun. They would pick a bush or something that they were going to go to. They would fire into that one spot and if anyone was there they won't be firing back. The other people would be firing at their targets. Pendleton survived using that method. Being wounded was not a problem. Being critically wounded was the problem.

Arthur Pendleton went to Pavuvu after Cape Gloucester. There, he dealt with a bout of appendicitis which almost killed him. The days that Pendleton was on the way to the hospital were extremely rough. When it first started he crawled up the main street on Pavuvu [Annotator's Note: Main Street was the area created by the tent set up on Pavuvu]. Pendleton is not sure how his appendix did not explode. Laying on the docks waiting for boats was terrible. The guys were dying right on the docks waiting for the boats to come. Pendleton had to leave his men. They all got killed on Peleliu. One of Pendleton's close friends became the squad leader and he was killed on Peleliu. He was a basketball player for the University of Pennsylvania. Pendleton was told by a man who was on the hospital ship that his friend had been hit in the head and put on a hospital ship. He was patched up and sent back to his unit but was hit again. Then he was shot in his legs and lower body. He was taken back to the hospital ship. They told him that they had to amputate his legs but he died right on the ship. He was quite a guy. [Annotator's Note: The video is frozen from 1:54:06 to 1:55:04. Interview resumes as normal at 1:55:04]. On Cape Gloucester, Pendleton recalls walking back after the action at Coffin Corner. He got separated from his guys at one point but he was able to navigate his way back. It took quite a while to get back. Pendleton had caught a piece of shrapnel in his heel. He was able to pull it out and put a little mud on it. Out on a patrol Pendleton found a machine gun. It was the most unique machine gun he ever found. It was so simple that Pendleton was able to take it apart. The gun had been made in Czechoslovakia and somehow it had filtered down into Japanese hands. Pendleton took the gun apart and put it in his bag. When Pendleton came back it was gone. He asked some of the guys who had been in camp what happened to the gun. Some officers came by and said they needed the gun for investigative purposes. Pendelton has no idea if this was true.

Not a lot occurred on Cape Gloucester. Arthur Pendleton put in a lot of time on Cape Gloucester that was incredibly dull. Gloucester was horrible because of the rain and the effect it had on the terrain. Mud was everywhere. Sometimes the mud was up to their knees. Pendleton had a jungle hammock. Cape Gloucester was the first time they had them. They were made with a roof on them. When the hammock was hung between two trees or posts there was a roof on it. The hammock had mosquito netting and the bottom was canvas. Under the bottom were some straps to hang their rifles. If they fell asleep with their arms hanging over the edge of the hammock they would still have them inside of the mosquito netting. The hammock was a couple of feet off of the ground. That was the ideal height for being killed during an air raid. An air raid came and Pendleton swung back and forth until he tipped himself over so he could be closer to the ground. He tipped it over but he was still hanging in the air. Thankfully nothing hit him. Pendleton never used the hammock again after that because too many people got killed. They slept on the ground and in the water. Pendleton recalls an incident when they went on patrol to look for the enemy on Cape Gloucester. They walked deep into the jungle and the person in charge found them a place to stay for the night. They were off of a trail in the middle of an opening in the jungle. The Japanese lost many battles trying to hack their way through the jungle which was impossible because of the huge banyan trees. The banyan tree had huge veins that came down. The trees were probably 35 to 40 feet in circumference. A person could easily hide in a root system on one of the banyan trees and if anyone came by they would not see them. Since it was a confined area they were not to use firearms. They posted guards with knives. That was a departure from the ordinary but they did it. Pendleton can recall standing guard. It was eerie. He was always waiting for someone to try to come past. If someone came, he would have to kill them with his hands but nothing happened on his watch. In the morning when they woke up the mosquitos had done a number on the guys. Their eyes were swollen over and their faces were swollen and out of proportion. It was extreme. Everyone was so exhausted that it did not matter. Pendleton never forgot that situation. Probably the worst mosquito encounter of the war.

Arthur Pendleton does not recall to much more about Cape Gloucester. There was nothing pleasant about it and he was glad to get out of it. Pavuvu was their rear staging area and it was not good. Pendleton did not stay on Pavuvu for long. They had tents and it was a great break from what they had prior. Pendleton had not slept under a cover for a long time. One night he woke up and saw the Japanese coming. He started waking everyone up telling them that the Japanese were coming. Guys just yelled for him to go back to sleep. Pendleton was in delirium because of his appendix attack. He crawled out of his tent. He knew the headquarters was at the end of the tents. He got on his hands and knees and started going down the street then he passed out. Pendleton does not remember anything else about Pavuvu. When he awoke, he was on a dock on a stretcher. The sun came out and it was brutally hot. Pendleton wanted some water. He lay on the dock until the sun went down that evening. There were more stretchers beside Pendleton. More men kept coming. Pendleton does not know how long he was there. He awoke when he was put on the boat. He tried to talk to someone next to him but the man was dead. Pendleton does not remember anything about the appendectomy. Because of the temperature the healing process took a long time. They told Pendleton that he could not go back to his outfit, which had just landed on Peleliu. They eventually put Pendleton on a ship and he ended up back in San Diego. His gunner took over the squad and was killed. His entire squad was killed. After a week in San Diego he headed to the East Coast on a train. The train went through Chicago. The people in Chicago knew about the train and about the 1st Marine Division men who were on it. They were lined up for miles cheering the train as it came into Chicago. Their final stop was at Grand Central. People came aboard the train and physically carried them off. Pendleton was carried to Rockaway Beach on Long Island. He was treated well. He was there for two or three weeks. It was shocking going through the changes. The food was better. The accommodations were better. Pendleton was given some liberty at home and then he had to report to North Carolina. From North Carolina, Pendelton went into various types of training. He helped put on demonstrations for the Army during which he would demonstrate various tactics and techniques. They still had the same rules and regulations to abide by but they got treated differently because they were veterans. Pendleton made a lot of friends and had a lot of fun. At the end of his fourth year which he had signed up for, he was discharged. Pendleton was discharged at the closest base to his home. People pulled guard duty and they even had a horse detail. Pendleton did not sign up for more service at the time nor did he pay any attention to discharge protocol. At that time, had Pendleton claimed the injuries he had sustained, he would have had a medical record. The only thing in his medical record was the operation done on his appendix. Pendleton met another 1st Marine Division veteran named Frank Pomroy. Being friends with people was not the most important thing during the war. The more important aspect was keeping men safe. Pendleton did socialize a bit with some people in Australia but he did not become close friends with guys until after the war. They found a common bond because they had experienced the same things. Pendleton knew Robert Leckie, the author of Helmet for my Pillow, but did not spend time with him. Some of the people were more socially minded but most of the time that was not the case. Pendleton did not want to get close to guys who he knew would be killed. If he did not know the person it made it easier. It was traumatic enough seeing people killed who he did not know. Pendleton could never quite understand why the American public has created certain preferences for veterans but he agrees with their feelings. There were so many men who got pensioned off by the government who were never wounded. Some of them had not even been in combat. They were able to manipulate the system to benefit them when others truly needed it. Pendleton knows a lot of those people. One of Pendelton's men is a case. The last time they met he had his legs shredded and he suffered terribly after the war but he never got a cent from the government. They never processed his case, even though all of this time he has suffered. Weeks before Pendleton met the man he got a pension but he died a few weeks later. This happened over and over. For some reason many people never got what they deserved. Pendleton is not talking about money. He would probably turn it down.

Arthur Pendleton never claimed his injuries. The system is incredibly wrong. It can be different. Pendleton did ask for a hearing aid. He applied for disability when he first got out. When he finally did apply for a hearing aid, he was refused. Pendleton still has the scars on his eardrums. Pendelton and his buddies who are living with this stuff are still here. He got 21 dollars a month for his service. People should not have to ask for what they rightly deserve. Pendleton knows many men who have been ignored. They are not going to force the issue because they have been through too much. People say if you want it you have to ask for it but Pendleton does not think it should be that way. He still feels very strongly that we are not taking care of our veterans who do the work. Not everyone who goes into the service but the people who are actually out there doing the job. Pendleton recalled making fun of almost everything. The guys had to not take things too seriously. Everything was a joke to them. When they were standing in line to get food it was a joke. Even when guys got shot they would make a joke sometimes. There were times when they could not make a joke out of it because they were feeling too lousy. When they packed food supplies they would pack them in tin cans. The tin was probably six inches wide and a foot and a half high. It was a large rectangular tin with a handle on it. The tin was packed into a wooden crate to protect it from being damaged. When a ship was sunk the crates would come up and float to shore. They were more or less vacuum-packed so they would float. If there was a storm or heavy winds they would slip down to the ocean and check to see if any crates washed ashore. One day, two crates came ashore. Pendleton's section picked them up and they opened it. In one crate was flour and the other was strawberry jam. Pendleton had an idea. He was able to make a pancake. They were big pancakes. They had a party with that. The only problem was that they could not go to the bathroom for a couple of weeks. When they were finally able to go, they all had diarrhea.

[Annotator's Note: Arthur Pendleton served in the US Marine Corps as a machine gunner in Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division and took part in combat operations on Guadalcanal, including the Battle of the Tenaru River, and Cape Gloucester.] When they dug their facilities, they would dig a trench and set up an area where they could sit to relieve themselves. Upon completion of relieving one's self, they had to put some dirt on top of it. Pendleton was relieving himself when an air raid occurred. A bomb landed close and Pendleton was blown off of his toilet seat. As he hit the ground a wild pig rolled over the top of him and he was knocked unconscious. Pendleton was laying there naked. The concussion messed up his insides. After surviving a concussion it takes a minute for things to settle down. He could not get too close to people because people were dying daily. The amazing thing about it all was that it was such a small area that was getting bombed on Guadalcanal. The Japanese bombers would drop tons of bombs. They came day after day. They thought they would kill everybody. The Japanese concentrated mainly on the airstrip. When they did drop bombs there they would destroy most everything there. They were more after the planes than the personnel. The ships would shell from the ocean and that was hell. The Navy could not combat the Japanese force at that point. The shelling was devastating. It was morally and physically devastating. Pendleton has forgotten a lot. They did have an a lot of fun in spite of all of the bad. A Japanese submarine came close to shore one time and all of the guys would thumb their nose or moon them and when the submarine would start firing its deck gun they would all jump back in their holes. It was like a circus. Pendleton appreciates what the museum is doing. [ Annotator's Note: at 2:50:17 the video freezes.]

Arthur Pendleton made a lot of friends and had a lot of fun. At the end of his fourth year which he had signed up for he was discharged. Pendleton was discharged at the closest base to his home. People pulled guard duty and they even had a horse detail. Pendelton did not sign up for more service at the time nor did he pay any attention to discharge protocol. At that time, had Pendleton claimed the injuries he had sustained, he would have had a medical record. The only thing in his medical record was the operation done on his appendix by Navy personnel. Pendleton met another 1st Marine Division veteran named Frank Pomroy. Being friends with people was not the most important thing during the war. The more important aspect was keeping men safe. Pendleton did not socialize a lot. Pendleton knew Pomroy but he did not socialize a lot. Pendleton socialized a bit with some people in Australia. Pendleton did not become close friends with guys until after the war. They found a common bond because they had experienced the same things. Pendleton was attempting to establish a life for himself. All of the guys went through that. Pendleton should have known more people but that's just the way it was. Pendleton knew Robert Leckie, the author of Helmet for my Pillow, but did not spend time with him. Socialization was mainly localized to their squad. Pendleton did not know all of the guys in his platoon. They knew the guys they experienced combat with. Pendleton did not want to get close to guys who he knew would be killed. If he did not know the person it made it easier. It was traumatic enough seeing people killed who he did not know. The rest of the men would probably have the same feeling. It's still traumatic. Pendleton's personal feeling about the end result of the war is that he could never quite understand why the American public has created certain preferences for veterans. Pendleton agrees with their feelings, however, he could never understand why, when people do battle, it is not possible for our government to recognize specifically what they did. There were so many men who got pensioned off by the government who were never wounded. Some had nothing to do with combat. They were able to manipulate the system to benefit them when others truly needed it. Pendleton knows a lot of these people. One of Pendleton's men is a case. The last time they met he had his legs shredded and he suffered terribly after the war. He never got a cent from the government. They never processed his case even though all of this time he has suffered through the injuries. Weeks before Pendleton met the man he got a pension but he died a few weeks after. This happened over and over. Pendleton knows of people who went through it. For some reason and who knows why so many people never got what they deserved.

Arthur Pendleton never claimed his injuries. He does not know if he ever will or if he even wants to. The system is incredibly wrong. It can be different. Pendleton did ask for a hearing aid. He applied for disability when he first got out. No medical record. When he applied for a hearing aid he was refused. Pendleton still has the scars on his eardrums. If the government can give millions of dollars to unfortunate people, yet ignore the men who are willingly giving their lives for the country and are getting nothing, it is an unfortunate situation. Pendleton and his buddies who are living with this stuff are still here. Pendleton got 21 dollars a month for his services. People should not have to ask for what they rightly deserve. Pendleton knows many men who have been ignored. They are not going to force the issue because they have been through too much. People say if you want it you have to ask for it. Pendleton does not think it should be that way. Pendleton still feels very strongly that we are not taking care of our veterans who do the work. Not all of the people that go into the service but for the people who are actually out there doing the job. Pendleton hopes that it could be worked into something. Pendleton recalled making fun of almost everything. The guys had to not take things too seriously. Even when they were standing in line to get food, when there was food, it was a joke. Even when guys got shot they would make a joke sometimes. There were times when they could not make a joke out of it because they were feeling too lousy. When they packed food supplies they would pack them in tin cans. The tin was probably six inches wide and a foot and a half high. It was a large rectangular tin with a handle on it. The tin was packed into a wooden crate to protect the tin from being damaged. When a ship was sunk the crates would come up and float to shore. If there was a storm or heavy wind they would slip down to the ocean and check out to see if any crates floated to shore. One day two crates came to shore. Pendleton's section picked them up and they opened it. In one crate was flour and the other was strawberry jam. Pendleton made pancakes. They had a party with that. The only problem was that they could not go to the bathroom for a couple of weeks. When they were finally able to go, they all had diarrhea.

[Annotator's Note: Arthur Pendleton served in the US Marine Corps as a machine gunner in Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division and took part in combat operations on Guadalcanal, including the Battle of the Tenaru River, and Cape Gloucester.] When they dug their facilities they would dig a trench and set up an area where they could sit to relieve themselves. Upon completion of relieving one's self, they had to put dirt on top of it. Pendleton was relieving himself when an air raid occurred. A bomb landed close and Pendleton was blown off of his toilet seat. As he hit the ground, a wild pig rolled over the top of him and he was knocked unconscious. Pendleton was laying there naked. The concussion messed up his insides. Pendleton notes that after surviving a concussion it takes a minute for things to settle down. Pendleton could not get too close to people because people were dying daily. The amazing thing about it all was that it was such a small area that was getting bombed on Guadalcanal. The area was not that big. The Japanese bombers would drop tons of bombs. They came day after day. You would have thought they could kill everybody. The Japanese concentrated mainly on the airstrip. When they did drop bombs there they would destroy most everything. They were more after the planes then the personnel. The ships would shell from the ocean and that was hell. The Navy could not combat the Japanese force at that point. The shelling was devastating. It was morally and physically devastating. Pendleton has forgotten a lot. They did have a lot of fun in spite of all of the bad. A Japanese submarine came close to shore one time and all of the guys would thumb their nose or moon them and when the submarine would start firing its deck gun they would all jump back in their holes. It was like a circus.