Clyde Hymel was born in Garyville, Louisiana in April 1926, and had fun growing up there. His father was a supervisor at Godchaux Sugar Company in Reserve [Annotator's Note: Reserve, Louisiana]. Hymel was one of 13 children. He was 15 years old when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was working at a filling station when the news came over the radio. He did not know where Pearl Harbor was. Hymel joined the Marines when he was 17 years old. He enlisted because he loved adventure and knew it would be a great one. He went to San Diego [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego in San Diego, California] for boot camp, and was then sent to Camp Pendleton [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California] before being shipped to Pearl Harbor where he remained for a few weeks waiting for a convoy. They then went to Tinian [Annotator's Note: Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands] on a troop transport. It was the ship's maiden voyage. Hymel was in one of the first waves to land at Tinian [Annotator's Note: the Battle of Tinian, 24 July to 1 August 1944]. It was his first combat experience. He was not concerned for his safety, he saw it all as an adventure. It took them [Annotator's Note: the 1st Marine Division] eight or nine days to secure the island. They could see Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands] from Tinian. One night they saw a squadron of Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] planes. Three airfields were subsequently built on Tinian by Navy Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions] once the island was taken. Hymel was then sent to Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] where he was put in an antiaircraft battalion as a loader on a 90mm [Annotator's Note: 90mm gun M1/M2/M3 heavy anti-aircraft and anti-tank gun]. They had four of these guns set up in the main square, and when one gun was fired, the other three went off. They were synchronized. The men slept in tents and the food was not too bad, but they did not get enough of it. He volunteered for mess duty in order to get more food. On Tinian, they had to fig foxholes but not on Guam. Guam was secure by the time he arrived. He would take a patrol out twice a week to find remaining Japanese soldiers in the jungle. Not all of them surrendered. Hymel remained on Guam until the war ended. He had to stay a lot longer than the older guys, since they had enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] and he did not. After the war, they did not have much to do on Guam. It got boring. Hymel was finally sent home in 1946 and was discharged in San Diego, and returned to Garyville [Annotator's Note: Garyville, Louisiana]. He went back to work at Godchaux Sugar a week later. He worked there for 23 years and then worked at Kaiser [Annotator's Note: Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Plant], retiring from there. He used the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] to get his high school diploma. He remains friends with some of the friends he made while in the Marine Corps. He has attended reunions.