Edward Bruce Jennings was born in December 1924 in Port Arthur, Texas. At his age, children did not worry about the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s]. His father worked for an oil company. He started first grade in September 1932. They were transferred all over Texas, then his father was transferred to an oil field in Louisiana. Jennings spoke with a Texas twang. He finished high school in June 1941 in Opelousas, Louisiana. He went to a trade school and took up machine shop work. After he was drafted and came home, he went to work for one of his uncles. He married his wife in January 1947. He was drafted in April 1943. He went to Camp Beauregard outside of Alexandria [Annotator’s Note: Alexandria, Louisiana]. He was transferred to Texas for basic training. He was stationed at the hospital there. He got guard duty, and later he was in charge of the guard duty.

Edward Bruce Jennings spent 20 or 21 months overseas. He was shipped over in 1944 to Finschhafen, New Guinea attached to the 2nd Field Hospital. He achieved the rank of corporal. The mosquitoes and the rain were bad. All the bad fighting was in the mountains. They would bring the wounded to the hospital. Jennings remembers a young lieutenant staying awake to watch them remove his leg. The wounds were terrible. Some men had double amputations, and scars they would have for the rest of their lives. They were there for several months before going to Leyte [Annotator’s Note: Leyte, the Philippines] in October 1944. They went ashore with the initial wave and then set up a field hospital to treat the wounded. They received an a Meritorious Unit Citation. On 17 November 1944, they invaded Mindoro, the Philippines. They were under constant naval and air bombardment. They got the hospital set up in four hours and were taking wounded. They were there when General MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] returned. When MacArthur realized there was no photographer to capture his return, he went back out on the Higgins boat [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP; also known as the Higgins boat] until they rounded up a photographer.

Edward Bruce Jennings never saw so many planes bombing a place. The naval bombardment was terrible as well. They could hardly see the ships because of the smoke. On the way to Leyte [Annotator’s Note: Leyte, the Philippines], they saw a kamikaze [Annotator's Note: Japanese suicide bombers] dive bomb into one of their escort ships. Everyone on that ship was lost. The plane went right down the stack and there was a cloud of smoke. Everywhere he looked there were bursts of anti-aircraft fire. They saw several more planes shot down. They were in the first wave. The first thing they did was set up the 2nd Field Hospital. It was a maze of tents. They had it set up in three or four hours. On the second or third night, the Japanese tried to overrun their positions. There was a road covered in Japanese bodies the next morning. Then they moved further inland. They brought in dozers, dug shallow graves, pushed all the dead bodies in, and covered them up. A few weeks later, the stench from the graves was unbearable. They did not lose anyone from the 2nd Field Hospital. They were on an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] to go to Mindoro [Annotator’s Note: Mindoro, the Philippines]. The Japanese tried to overrun and blow them off the island. They had some close calls in the hospital. They brought in a squadron of P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft]. It was tradition for the planes to buzz the field and do a flip for the number of kills they got. One guy did seven flips for seven kills. The Japanese gave the troops a good fight. They left on 17 January [Annotator’s Note: 1945]] for Mindanao [Annotator’s Note: Mindanao, the Philippines]. In order to join the Imperial Marines, the Japanese had to be at least six feet tall. Jennings was told not to go into pillboxes [Annotator’s Note: a type of blockhouse, or concrete dug-in guard-post, normally equipped with loopholes through which defenders can fire weapons. It is in effect a trench firing step, hardened to protect against small-arms fire and grenades, and raised to improve the field of fire] because they were booby trapped. They had some good doctors in their hospital. They left Mindanao in late 1945 and went to Japan.

Edward Bruce Jennings remembers that on their way to Japan, a typhoon came up. The ships had to get out of the bay to open water. Ships were running into each other. The waves were tall and rough. They had to tie themselves down if they were on deck. They had no problems with the Japanese. They did not know about radiation. They went to Hiroshima [Annotator’s Note: Hiroshima, Japan] three times. On Mindoro [Annotator’s Note: Mindoro, the Philippines] Jennings got shrapnel in his shoulder and contracted malaria [Annotator's Note: disease caused by a parasite that commonly infects a certain type of mosquito which feeds on humans]. He returned to the states and was discharged in Texas. While guarding an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] that was being unloaded, a kamikaze crashed about 150 yards from them. Jennings and a friend pulled the pilot from the plane and saved his life. Jennings took a flag from the kamikaze pilot. They put him in the 2nd Field Hospital. That night, he tried to signal to his buddies for aerial bombardment. Jennings's commander shot the pilot between the eyes to ensure he would not do it again. [Annotator’s Note: Jennings talks about two atrocities he saw up close.] The pilot was on the cot and could not get up if he wanted to. They took care of him just like he was an American wounded soldier.

Edward Bruce Jennings remembers the bombing was heavy and the Japanese backed off. On Mindoro [Annotator’s Note: Mindoro, the Philippines], they got the hospital set up in four hours under enemy fire. Most of the people he worked with were older than him. They were shelled, but the hospital did not get hit. In Leyte [Annotator’s Note: Leyte, the Philippines] the Japanese fleet was decimated. He was in Mindoro from November 1944 to January 1945. The P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] pilot did seven barrel rolls. The P-47 Thunderbolt [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] was the toughest fighter plane. They saw a lot of gunshot wounds and mine wounds. When he got to Japan, he was an x-ray technician. He was a sergeant with a guard detail. He did not know anyone with post-traumatic stress disorder [Annotator's Note: post-traumatic stress disorder; is a mental health condition triggered by a terrifying event either experienced or witnessed]. He traded packs of cigarettes for a Japanese sword. He would come in contact with the Filipinos every day. Jennings bought a monkey in Mindanao [Annotator’s Note: Mindanao, the Philippines]. The natives were happy to see them. Jennings had a horse in Mindanao. He traded some cigarettes for the horse. In Japan, some of them welcomed the Americans with open arms because the war was over. Their commanding officer was a Cherokee Indian from Oklahoma while they were island hopping [Annotator’s Note: Leapfrogging, also known as island hopping, was a military strategy employed by the Allies in the Pacific War against the Empire of Japan during World War II. The key idea is to bypass heavily fortified enemy islands instead of trying to capture every island in sequence en route to a final target]. They were with the 41st Infantry Division.

Edward Bruce Jennings contracted malaria [Annotator's Note: disease caused by a parasite that commonly infects a certain type of mosquito which feeds on humans]. For years it bothered him. The war taught him things he did not know. He was one of the lucky ones. He did not think about it then. He did the job he was told to do. He realized he should have sympathy for people. He did not have time to be afraid. He did not know he would see so many wounded and crippled people. The war made him proud to be an American. Jennings and his friend pulled a Japanese pilot out of a burning plane. The United States saved many countries and they do not appreciate it. If the United States had not intervened, they would be speaking Japanese or German. Jennings did not like the president [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] until he gave his speech about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. The people who deny the Holocaust should look at the pictures. Jennings did not have trouble with the Japanese while he was there. All citizens should take a trip to the World War Two Museum in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana].