Mack was born in his grandparent’s home. He lived there as an infant. When he got a little older his parents moved to a farm in Viola, Illinois. His growing up years were not that eventful. He attended grade one through eight in a one room country schoolhouse. There were about three kids per grade. They were allowed one glass of milk per day and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. They always had food on the table because they lived on a farm. There was no television. Their closest neighbor wa about a half mile away. Mack enjoyed his childhood. He had good parents. There were a lot of people living in his house. His mother’s parents were living with them because they lost everything in the Great Depression. Growing up he got a lot of supervision. He helped to bale the hay. He never went to the third grade on the account of the other two kids in his grade moving away. The teacher said congratulations “you’re in fourth”. Mack graduated in high school in 1943. He got a little radio w he was twelve years old that he was really happy to get. He got a new bike when he was fourteen years old. They made their own fun on the farm. It was a happy time through the 1930's. Mack remembers Pearl Harbor very vividly. They sat down to dinner that Sunday night and they heard the news broadcasted over the radio.

Mack graduated from high school June 1st, 1943. He entered the United States Navy on July 13th, 1943 and was discharged in 1946 as a nineteen year old. His entire two and a half years of service, he was a teenager. He never came home once. He went to boot camp when he enlisted. He was trained at Great Lakes Naval training station. After he completed boot camp they assigned people to different branches. Mack worked for an undertaker at a funeral home. The Navy told him because of that background they were going to put him in the hospital corps. That training was also at Great Lakes. There was a hospital on base. This was the summer and fall of 1943. Mack was sent to San Diego Naval Hospital. He was stationed there and had good duty at San Diego. He was assigned to take care of a Lt. Col. who was wounded at Tarawa. His name was Lt. Col. George Shell. He was mangled thoroughly. Mack was assigned to him; he did everything for that man. He corresponded with him when he went overseas. Shell influenced Mack to become a Marine Corpsman. He went back to VMI [Annotator’s Note: Virginia Military Institute] to visit George Shells’ grave. Mack volunteered for the Fleet Marine Force. He was sent to corpsman training school. He went to combat medical training. That took place in California and was very intense. Everyone in the Marine Corps is trained as a rifleman first. They endured much of the same training as the regular Marines. He was sent overseas in September of 1944.

Mack was attached to the Sixth Marine Division and sent to Guadalcanal for training. The Sixth Marine Division was formed specifically for Okinawa. He was attached to the 22nd Regiment. He was assigned to be a line corpsman. The training on Guadalcanal was intense. They knew they were getting close. A lot of the training was centered around, "if this happens, what will you do?" After four months of intense training on Guadalcanal they were formed into different units. This is when Mack became a line corpsman. They were put aboard transports in February of 1945. They rendezvoused on Ulithi Island. They were not told where they were going until they got close. It was a fierce battle that raged for eighty two days. Mack's unit landed on Green Beach Number 2. They got them up early and they all had steak and eggs. Around six in the morning they went over the side and got into the Higgins boats [Annotator’s Note: LCVPs or Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel]. Mack was in the third platoon. There was always one or two corpsman to a platoon. Mack hit the beach in the second assault wave. There was very little resistance on the first day. There was occasional sniper fire. Their objective was Yonton airfield. It was secured on the first day. Okinawa was about sixty miles long. At the narrowest point Okinawa is about five to six miles long. The Marine Corps took the north end of the island and the army took the southern end of the island. 

There were little pockets of resistance [Annotator’s Note: during the first days on Okinawa]. His company started heading north. Mack makes the point that he has learned more about what he did since by reading books. He notes that as one man he could only see so far. Richard Bush, of Mack’s unit was awarded the Medal of Honor for taking Mt. Yaegaki. After that part of the island had been secured they pushed south. There was a lot of resistance and heavy fighting. Mack was never involved in ha to hand combat. His duties included taking care of the wounded and getting to the men that were hurt. When the platoon sergeant yells “corpsmen up” the corpsmen responds instantly. There is no questioning. They treated men with sulfa and morphine. They carried lots of different kinds of bandages. Mack remembers helping a Marine who a part of his leg severed because it was run over by a tank. Mack had to carry the man over half a mile. He had clamped him off and bandaged him up before he starte carrying him. It began to rain a lot on Okinawa. Mack remembers lying in a fox hole that began to fill up with mud. He went seventeen days without taking his clothes and boots off. Eventually they got more and more replacements. They would pull off of the line occasionally to get replacements. The big battle they encountered on Okinawa took place at Sugar Loaf Hill. Mack was a part of the force attacking Sugar Loaf. They started to assault Sugar Loaf on May 12 [Annotator’s Note: 1945]. On May 9th Mack's platoon was crossing the Osakawa River. There was a bridge across the river but it had been blown up. They ended up crossing the river at night and as they did they were attacked. A few of his buddies were killed. One of Mack’s friends was Sgt. Ray Gillespie. Gillespie was severely wounded crossing that river on May 10th. Mack took care of him. He was badly shot up and his intestines were hanging out. He ended up living.

Mack was out of action for about 12 days. They put him right back on the line after he healed. He wanted to get back on the line with his buddies. He eventually met Schlinder about fifty years later at a reunion. Schlinder always makes it a point to thank Mack. Mack remembers going to a reunion and a man in a wheelchair caught notice of him. They saw each other and they realized that they recognized each other. The man in the wheelchair had been badly shot up. He started yelling for people to help him up and the man shouted out, "I need to stand up; I have to stand up for my corpsman." Mack went over to him and they embraced. Mack remembers treating this man at one point during Okinawa but it was before Sugar Loaf. The Marines love their corpsman. They actually have a saying: "you can talk about my mother; you can talk about my father, but by God do not talk about my corpsman." Mack makes special note about the bond that occurs between men, especially Marines, during combat. Around the first of June, Mack ended up near Naha, Okinawa. There was rubble everywhere. They fought at Kinishi ridge. Mack was about a half a mile away when the US Flag was hoisted on Okinawa. He remembers hearing people shouting and cheering.

The battle ended on June 21st [Annotator’s Note: On Okinawa in 1945]. The Sixth Marine Division went on to China. Mack did not go to China with his company or regiment. He was put back in the Navy. As a result he got sent to Japan with the Navy. He had been assigned to another LST [Annotator’s Note: Landing Ship, Tank]. The LST that he was on was converted to a mini hospital ship. Mack was able to go ashore two or three weeks after they had dropped the atomic bombs. He went to within fifteen miles of the epicenter at Nagasaki. Even at fifteen miles there was still a lot of devastation. He never got up to Tokyo but he went to different ports such as Kobe and Osaka.Mack would treat Marines for any problems they had. He got to come home in January 1946. He had to earn his points to go home and by the first of January 1946 he was able to return. They were aboard a troop transport. They knew about when they were going to come into San Francisco. That morning there was a lot of fog in San Francisco; Mack remembers peering through the fog to see home. He remembers specifically when the fog opened up and he saw the Golden Gate bridge. He will never forget that. He could not wait to get processed and get out of there. He went to a restaurant and ordered a quart of milk. Mack was processed and put on a troop train. It took five days for Mack to get home to Chicago. He came into the Rock Island station. He had never called home. He did not hear the sound of his mother’s voice for two and a half years. His mom and dad were waiting for him as he got off of the train.

When Mack was going into Okinawa in the Higgins boat, he claims he had a vision. It was a vision of his mother. His mother was a church organist. She was playing the organ and wearing a pink dress that had big blue flowers on it. They landed at Green Beach Two. He came home to live with his parents. He never gave another thought of that vision. When Easter came around again his mother said she was going to make her own dress. She asked if he wanted to see her dress from last year.At one point Mack was delegated to take a group of wounded soldiers to an LST [Annotator’s Note: Landing Ship, Tank]. He was a 3rd Class Pharmacists mate. He was in charge of taking six to eight Marines out to the LST. He was busy with one guy who was bleeding out bad. Mack looked down at a man and he asked if he could have a drink out of Mack’s canteen. Mack did not pay any attention because he was busy. The man asked for water again. Mack yelled back at the man, 'Don’t you see I am trying to save this m give me a second!" Mack finished up with the man he was saving and went over to the man asking for water only to realize he had no arms and could not get water himself. Mack never got over that. His daughter was forty two years old before she ever learned that her dad had been awarded a Purple Heart. He remembers going back to work and forgetting everything. To this day he gets startled by loud noises. Mack married his first wife in 1950. In 1955 his oldest daughter was born. His daughter turned out to be a doctor.

Mack has had a good life. He worked for the Army Corps of Engineers for thirty five years. He retired in 1981. His career was a good one. He started out quite low on the pay scale and went back to school on the G.I. Bill. Mack took an early retirement in 1981 because he felt a call to the ministry. He went to Dallas Seminary and was ordained in 1984. He was an associate pastor and then became the pastor of his hometown. Mack retired from that in 1991. His first wife passed away in 1987. Mack then met Nancy; she was a member of his congregation. He lived alone for seven years. He has fifteen grandchildren. They keep very busy with their family and church. Mack was a chaplain that worked with families who had children with life threatening diseases. Mack's life has been filled with many good things. His father was in World War I and he regrets that he did not talk much with his father about it. Mack appreciates that people such as Tommy Lofton are videotaping their experiences. Mack’ father passed away in 1960.The appreciation for the corpsman was not born out of training. The bond that Marines have with their corpsman is born out of combat. Mack notes that corpsmen were not allowed in the Marine Corps league.

Mack has had a good life. He worked for the Army Corps of Engineers for thirty five years. He retired in 1981. His career was a good one. He started out quite low on the pay scale and went back to school on the G.I. Bill. Mack took an early retirement in 1981 because he felt a call to the ministry. He went to Dallas Seminary and was ordained in 1984. He was an associate pastor and then became the pastor of his hometown. Mack retired from that in 1991. His first wife passed away in 1987. Mack then met Nancy; she was a member of his congregation. He lived alone for seven years. He has fifteen grandchildren. They keep very busy with their family and church. Mack was a chaplain that worked with families who had children with life threatening diseases. Mack's life has been filled with many good things. His father was in World War I and he regrets that he did not talk much with his father about it. Mack appreciates that people such as Tommy Lofton are videotaping their experiences. Mack’ father passed away in 1960.

Mack is the chaplain of the Sixth Marine Division Association. He notes that the ranks are getting very thin. The reunions are not going to be meeting for much longer.

Mack was going to bring his carbine home with him. He put it in his sea bag and had all of his stuff packed around it. When they were coming into California word got around that they were searching sea bags. Mack took his M-1 and threw it overboard. They wore the average Marine green uniform. The corpsmen were allowed to wear the Marine combat uniform however they were never allowed to wear the dress blues. Mack had a helmet cover but it was not camouflaged.

Mack is the chaplain of the Sixth Marine Division Association. He notes that the ranks are getting very thin. The reunions are not going to be meeting for much longer.Mack does not remember much fear when he was going in [Annotator’s Note: during the invasion of Okinawa]. There was a little resistance and Mack could hear naval artillery but other than that things were quiet. Mack’s first experience of fear came when he had to help out his first badly wounded Marine. The Marine died. He remembers his senior officer yelling at Mack to move on and work on another one. He did not see his first casualty for a few days. He carried everything on him that the Marines did. There was no red cross helmet or armbands. Some of the men painted a tiny red cross on the helmet that did not stand out as much. A Japanese soldier would have to get really close to see that a soldier was a medic. They had to carry splints, lots of sulfa drugs. They carried lots of morphine shots. They did have whole blood. It was refrigerated. They used it rather close to the line. They used plasma mixed with whole blood and saline and gave it intravenously. Mack feels like he saved a lot of people and that; the corpsmen were constantly doing a great job. They were also issued M-1 Carbines. They carried their carbine. Most Corpsman somehow or someway confiscated a .45 pistol.