Garland Bath was born in January 1925 in Evans County, Georgia in a log cabin. He attended school there. He got his diploma after he got out of the service, because he had quit in the 11th grade to go to work. He is the eighth of nine children. His parents were farmers. His family lost everything they had and had to start over [Annotator's Note: during the Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945]. His father was a sharecropper. His mother had a first cousin who was crippled, that they sent to college before that. His father got a good crop in 1931 and after that everything was alright. Bath worked at an airstrip and was aware of the war. His brother was in the 1393rd Combat Engineers [Annotator's Note: 1393rd Engineer Combat Battalion] on Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. His brother put 29 years in. He was discharged just before his 30th year due to lung problems from Agent Orange [Annotator's Note: chemical defoliant used by the United States]. Bath did not have that many friends at the time [Annotator's Note: of the war]. He had one who he hunted and fished with when he could. They talked about the war a little. Jim [Annotator's Note: no last name given; unable to identify] got called in after they had registered when they turned 18. Bath knew he would go soon and said he wanted to go ahead and join so he could go with Jim. He spoke with the draft board and his father okayed it. They left together but Jim went in the Navy and Bath went in the Army, so they did not see each other until the war was over. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Bath what he was doing and where he was when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] Bath was at his house alone listening to the radio. When he heard the news, he went down and told the colored [Annotator's Note: an ethnic descriptor historically used for Black people in the United States] family that worked the farm with them. When his parents got home, he told them. It kind of pepped him up in a way. He was a kid and wanted to be at war. He was a country boy with nothing to do. He never thought of it [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor], but it did not hurt his feelings. He hated it being done and losing all the boys, but he was kind of glad it started. He knew he was going. His oldest brother had started out in the CC [Annotator's Note: Civilian Conservation Corps; 1933 to 1942] and went to Tybee Island [Annotator's Note: Tybee Island, Georgia] to Fort Screven [Annotator's Note: now Fort Screven historic district; Tybee Island, Georgia] as a cook. He also went into the service near the end of the war. He died of leukemia [Annotator's Note: cancer of blood-forming tissues, including bone marrow and the lymphatic system] while in the service. Three of his older sisters' husbands were in the service. They were all stationed at Fort Screven. Bath was tied up with the military as long as he could remember.

Garland Bath liked being called up for the service. He went to Fort Eustis, Virginia [Annotator's Note: now Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Newport News, Virginia] and told them he wanted to be in antiaircraft. He served his basic training in an antiaircraft battalion as an acoustic corrector operator. The base was at Fort Stewart [Annotator's Note: Fort Stewart, Georgia], and he hoped to be sent there. He wanted to be a machine gunner in antiaircraft. He trained in searchlights, small arms, and machine guns. He went to Fort Bliss, Texas [Annotator's Note: Fort Bliss, in New Mexico and Texas] after that. He had gone in April [Annotator's Note: April 1943] and got to Fort Bliss the last of June [Annotator's Note: June 1943] or the first of July [Annotator's Note: July 1943]. He went to a 40mm [Annotator's Note: Bofors 40mm antiaircraft automatic cannon], automatic weapons battalion that also used .50 caliber machine guns [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun]. He was assistant machine gunner for a while. The machine gunner went AWOL [Annotator's Note: Absent Without Leave], so Bath got his spot for the rest of the war. He was a PFC [Annotator's Note: Private First Class] the whole time. They had platoon sergeants and on up. There were four battalions. The only surprise training that he got was the roughest. It was a jungle combat training course in the Hawaiian Islands. They left Texas in January [Annotator's Note: January 1946] and went to California. They went to Santa Rosa [Annotator's Note: Santa Rosa, California], Marysville [Annotator's Note: Marysville, California], and Sacramento [Annotator's Note: Sacramento, California] air strips where they set up defense and maneuvered against the Filipino 1st Regiment [Annotator's Note: 1st Filipino Infantry Regiment]. They had infantry training and beach landing against the 81st Division [Annotator's Note: 81st Infantry Division]. He got his first leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] to go home. They shipped out to Seattle, Washington in the last of June [Annotator's Note: June 1944] and stayed about two weeks. They left there for Oahu [Annotator's Note: Oahu, Hawaii] where they set up in tents above Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. They trained and fired guns there. Then they went into a jungle combat course. It was rough. They would have sandbags thrown at them to simulate a Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] jumping out of a tree onto them. It was intensive. They had to walk ropes across creeks while the set off explosives. They took night courses in the jungle. It was worse than any combat he got into. It was even more dangerous, but he does not remember anyone getting hurt. The whole outfit [Annotator's Note: 483rd Antiaircraft Automatic Weapons Battalion] did well, and he was proud of his gun battalion. It has a perfect firing record. In the United States, one of the 40s hit a rocket in mid-approach. That is close shooting. They knew they were going down into the Pacific Theater, but not exactly where to. Training was better than just waiting.

They [Annotator's Note: the Army] lost a gun battalion on 7 August [Annotator's Note: 7 August 1944]. Garland Bath, 11 other gunners, and one officer were sent back to the barracks [Annotator's Note: from jungle training in Hawaii]. On 9 August [Annotator's Note: 9 August 1944] they loaded on the USS Harris [Annotator's Note: USS Harris (APA-2)]. He got a certificate for crossing the equator. He would not take anything for that. They did not know where they were going until they were told they were at Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. He had a brother there. He went to his lieutenant and asked if he could go see him. He caught a boat and went ashore. He went to the barracks and called his brother who was out on duty. Bath returned to his ship and a couple hours later his brother climbed aboard. He spent the night. They pulled out of there one morning before daylight. There were ships everywhere he looked. The second morning they told them they were headed to Anguar [Annotator's Note: Anguar, Palau]. The 1st Marines [Annotator's Note: 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] were hitting Peleliu [Annotator's Note: Battle of Peleliu, codenamed Operation Stalemate II; 15 September to 27 November 1944, Peleliu, Palau]. They went to Anguar [Annotator's Note: Anguar, Palau] and started unloading but stopped. The next morning, they were asked to help feed the 81st Division [Annotator's Note: 81st Infantry Division] before they went ashore. Bath only heard one good burst from a BAR [Annotator's Note: M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle] and never heard another shot. Ulithi [Annotator's Note: Ulithi Atoll, Caroline Islands] wound up being the big Navy anchorage afterwards. The 81st pulled out the next day. Bath and his guns went ashore and were left there. They had C rations [Annotator's Note: prepared and canned wet combat food] and a water supply. It was only them there. They dug their guns in and sat around there close to two months. He found a hole on the beach out in the water that was the best swimming hole. He went out every day and laid around for hours. One day he got out and could see two men coming towards him. It was the captain and a lieutenant. He saluted them and said he was glad to see them. That was in November [Annotator's Note: November 1944]. They had just kept their gun clean, looked for Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] flying over, and played around. There were three of them to each of the four guns. There was a trailer with mounts for four .50 caliber machine guns [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun]. Two batteries had half-tracks [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks] and two batteries had trailers. The first of December [Annotator's Note: 1 December 1944], they were told to get their gun ready to be moved to headquarters. The island was just long enough that an emergency landing strip could be cut across the end of it for planes having trouble. He saw a man all torn up who had been a gunner on a dive bomber. The plane could not land on a carrier. They stayed there until the first of January [Annotator's Note: 1 January 1945]. Bath slept in a pup tent. He was called to go pick up supplies. They got in a landing craft to go to cement barges. They got supplies and took them back. A few days after that, and LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] pulled up, they loaded their guns, and they took off. They did not know where they were going. Two days later, they were told they were going to be attached to the 5th Marine Division. [Annotator's Note: A phone rings and they stop until it is silent.]

Garland Bath and his outfit [Annotator's Note: 483rd Antiaircraft Automatic Weapons Battalion] were attached to the 5th Marine Division. If needed, they would go ashore with them as infantry [Annotator's Note: at the Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945; Iwo Jima, Japan]. If not, they would go in as antiaircraft support. On D 5 [Annotator's Note: d-day, or the initial landing day, plus five days; 24 February 1945] they went in. The island was in tiers with a steep shoreline of ash. They had claw up it. They had to bulldoze to make roads. The Marines had a tough time in the landing. He could see a pillbox from his gun and Mount Suribachi was close. He sat there half scared to death until the LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] unloaded. A truck pulled the gun around to the other side of the island. Iwo Jima is shaped like a ham, with the knuckle being Suribachi. The airstrips were where the meaty part was. They had one fighter strip called Matsuma [Annotator's Note: Motoyoma Airfield 1]. Above it, the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] had started to build a big bomber strip. It was bad combat for the Marines through there. Bath set up below the first airstrip. The artillery was behind them. There were 105s [Annotator's Note: M2A1 105mm howitzer], 155s [Annotator's Note: M1A1 155mm howitzer], and 75s [Annotator's Note: M1 75mm Pack Howitzer]. They dug their foxholes and filled bags with the sand. It was so hot that they would put ammunition cases on the ground to stand on. The volcanic sand could heat up their coffee. It was a wonder the sulfur did not make them deathly sick. Bath was there until December [Annotator's Note: December 1945] that year, after the war ended. They had four battalions there. The 483rd had 40s [Annotator's Note: Bofors 40mm antiaircraft automatic cannon], 506th [Annotator's Note: 506th Antiaircraft Artillery Gun Battalion] had 90s [Annotator's Note: 90mm antiaircraft gun], and the 409th [Annotator's Note: 409th Antiaircraft Artillery Gun Battalion] had five inch. The Marines left them for the defense of the island. They dug in. He covered his gun pit up.

Around D 7 [Annotator's Note: d-day, the initial day of the operation, plus seven days; 26 March 1945; Iwo Jima, Japan], Garland Bath's gun was moved to on top of the first airstrip [Annotator's Note: for the 483rd Antiaircraft Automatic Weapons Battalion]. That afternoon was the only time he heard a "Wailing Willie" [Annotator's Note: nickname for a bomb or artillery shell that made noise as it traveled through the air]. It made the hair stand up on his arms. It was an awful racket. He could see it. It looked like two 55 gallon drums with a rock on it. It dropped on the strip and right on top of a Sherman tank [Annotator's Note: M4 Sherman medium Tank]. There was nothing left of it. That was the only time he got shot at. His sergeants came up and were fingerprinting a dead Marine. Three bullets came between them. He hit his gun where his foxhole was. He dove right on top of one of his men and ruined his fountain pen. They never found where the shots came from. They were within six or eight hundred yards of the front line. They moved out of there to permanent positions on the island at the end of the airstrip. They cut a road to the shoreline. They sunk two old Japanese freighters for breakwaters. Ducks [Annotator's Note: DUKW; six-wheel-drive amphibious truck; also known as a Duck] would go by their gun to the ships with supplies. Bath and the men would grab stuff off them like beer and lumber. They stayed there until the war ended. They hit the guns every morning and every afternoon. One Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] plane would fly in every now and then. [Annotator's Note: There is an odd tape break.]

[Annotator's Note: The tape begins after a break with Garland Bath mid-sentence.] They [Annotator's Note: 483rd Antiaircraft Automatic Weapons Battalion] ate C rations [Annotator's Note: prepared and canned wet combat food] and K rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals]. Every now and then the company would cook a hot meal. They mostly ate right at their gun. He had his gun dug in like he wanted it. They dug out where they slept and covered it over on top. He swiped three cots off a ship. His gun crew slept on cots instead of dirt. On Ulithi [Annotator's Note: Ulithi Atoll, Caroline Islands], they were served breakfast. On Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands], the ship had steaks from New Zealand. Bath emptied an ammunition case and loaded with steaks he swiped. He had sugar and coffee in boxes too. They fared fairly well. If they had not done things like that, they were stuck with K rations. A good cup of coffee was something. If he had a chance to get a can of it, he would dump the ammunition and take the coffee. He knew he could get more ammunition. They stayed on the island after the Marines left. He dug in good and fixed a nice place to sleep. He lived there until the end of the war. The outfit wanted somebody to work for the stevedore battalion to load stuff to ship back to the United States. He told his captain that would give him good experience and he might get a good job at the Port Authority. His captain thought it was a good idea and put him in charge of a crew loading ships. The trucks and other stuff were dumped in the ocean because it was cheaper than hauling them back. He did that until it was time to go home.

Garland Bath boarded a transport and went to either Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands] or Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands]. They got to Saipan and stayed a day and a night. They loaded aboard a big aircraft carrier that had number 16 on it [Annotator's Note: likely the USS Lexington (CV-16)]. Somebody said it was the Enterprise [Annotator's Note: the USS Enterprise (CV-6)], but he is not sure. It had all of the flags showing how many Japanese planes they had shot and the number of ships they had sunk. They came back to Long Beach, California two days ahead of time. He went to bed and the next morning took a train to Atlanta [Annotator's Note: Atlanta, Georgia]. He crossed the Georgia-Alabama line on the morning of his 21st birthday [Annotator's Note: in January 1946]. He was discharged on the 22nd [Annotator's Note: 22 January 1946] and went home. His brother-in-law brought Bath's parents to meet him. The tears were running down his daddy's face. It was the first time he had ever seen him cry. He will never forget it. His daddy was as good a man as there was in the county. He never needed security for a loan. All it took was his word. When Bath was discharged and got back to his barracks, he felt as lost and alone as he had ever been in his life. He did not have anything. He was free but was absolutely lost. He and the boys on the bus had a big time coming home. After that he worked for his daddy for a year. He got home on 22 January [Annotator's Note: 22 January 1946] and went back to high school on 7 February [Annotator's Note: 7 February 1946]. He got his diploma in June [Annotator's Note: June 1946] and went to work with his daddy laying block and doing carpentry work. In September, he got tired of it and went into bridge construction. He left that and his brother-in-law told him to talk someone he knew in the Georgia Power Company. Bath talked to the man and was hired on the spot in 1947. He retired on 26 May 1983.

Garland Bath was on an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] near the battleship Tennessee [Annotator's Note: the USS Tennessee (BB-43)] that was firing on Suribachi [Annotator's Note: Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, Japan]. The morning they raised the flag [Annotator's Note: United States flag raised on Mount Suribachi on 23 February 1943] he was on deck. He saw it a few minutes after they raised it. He told the men they had gotten Suribachi. Once they had that, he was not worried about taking the rest of the island but when they landed, he was. The 5th Marines [Annotator's Note: 5th Marine Division] turned towards Suribachi. The 1st Marines went along the shoreline. The 3rd Marines went inland and across to Suribachi. They went out the first or second night and had a bombing attack. One LST was hit and sunk. That was the only ship combat he got. He never had a submarine attack. He did not wish he had been in more combat. One time he was scared to death on Iwo Jima. An ammunition man on the 40 [Annotator's Note: Bofors 40mm antiaircraft automatic cannon], asked him to go with him and find some souvenirs. There was big pillbox below them and there was nothing there other than the buried dead. The flamethrowers [Annotator's Note: ranged incendiary device that projects a controllable jet of fire] would hit them and then they would just push dirt over them where they laid. After he had set up his guns, he would see flies swarming around a piece of hand, or a head. They would take a shovel and cover it up. It was a small island, and it was a mess because they killed so many Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] on it. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him about the souvenirs.] They went to the edge of the airstrip and Bath crawled up on top it. He heard a racket. It was guard dogs and Marines. They had found a bunch of Japanese money and had it in their pockets. The dogs smelled the Japanese smell. The Marines told them to get out of there because the dogs would tear them up. He told them to throw the money away. Bath did and then did not go souvenir hunting anymore. He stayed at his gun from then on. The dogs were used to keep the Japs from infiltrating. When Bath was moved around the first airstrip. He walked around a corner and saw jeeps and trucks going through. He peeked around a corner and saw a smooth space near the airstrip that was lined solid with dead bodies stacked up on stretchers. He got one good look and smell and that is all he could take. The dead Jap did not stink because he was burnt flesh. The Americans smelled. The Japs only ate rice. The 1st, 3rd, and 5th Marine cemeteries were 1,000 feet square. 5,000 were killed there. He saw 300 or 400 of them. They were brought in truckloads. It made Bath sick.

All the time Garland Bath was on Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan], they had one night raid at Anguar [Annotator's Note: Anguar, Palau]. His battalion [Annotator's Note: 483rd Antiaircraft Automatic Weapons Battalion] did not fire on it. A Jake [Annotator's Note: Aichi E13A Jake reconnaissance aircraft] came in and dropped one bomb on the beach. A night fighter came in and they shot at it. A 90 [Annotator's Note: 90 mm antiaircraft gun] firing at it, hit a tree and it killed one and injured others in a gun battery. They had one killed by a sniper too. When they got to Iwo Jima, they lost two half-tracks [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks] and two or three men. The Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] raided an Air Force pilot sleeping tent one night. C Battery [Annotator's Note: Battery C, 483rd Antiaircraft Automatic Weapons Battalion] killed several Japs defending it. C Battery got just about all the combat in the whole outfit. That is the way the chips fell. Bath says that if he would have seen a Japanese, he would have killed him. He does not care if he had been holding his hands up, he would have killed him. In Burma [Annotator's Note: present day Myanmar], and places like that, they let them get by them and then the Japs would turn and kill them. No way that would have happened to Bath. He could pick out a Jap plane in one second. He did not have any strong feelings towards the Germans, but he was not trained in that field. He was trained in the Pacific and 99 percent of it was Japanese. They were all [Annotator's Note: the Japanese aircraft] just about alike. The Sallys [Annotator's Note: Mitsubishi Ki-21 Sally heavy bomber] were just a twin engine bomber. They had Zekes [Annotator's Note: Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter aircraft, referred to as the Zeke or Zero] and Haps [Annotator's Note: A6M3-32 version of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, Hap, or Hamp fighter aircraft]. By the time it hit you, you could tell. You could tell a 51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] was American by the square tail. The Japs were rounded. He knew them like the palm of his hand. He had to. He had to make a split decision whether to fire or not right then. He had to protect his gun. He never saw a plane, so he never made a mistake. They had six Sallys come in twice on Iwo Jima. The came on the first full moon in February [Annotator's Note: February 1945] and in March [Annotator's Note: March 1945]. They got them all. The 90s and the night fighters got them. They were crack outfits. They were back up ground troops as well as antiaircraft. Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] took his antiaircraft in Germany and turned them into infantry to back up the tanks.

Garland Bath can only say the government spent a lot on him, he learned a lot of stuff, and spent a lot of time at sea. The only time he ever fired was test firing the guns. He never fired on a plane. It just worked out that way. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Bath what he thought about the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945.] He was on Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan] when it was dropped. The B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] flew by all the time. The damaged planes would land there and come in right over his gun. He saw planes come in with only two motors running. He saw a 24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] come in with three motors running and you could have driven a car through it. Both sides were completely out. It crashed when it landed. It was nothing to see a 29 come in all shot up. They lost over 5,000 men on Iwo Jima in combat [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945]. They saved over 10,000 lives landing planes there coming back. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks again about the atomic bomb being dropped.] Bath was glad because he knew it was the end of the war. It was a relief. There was nothing to celebrate with. About every month they could get hot beer and they had to walk to get it. It was not worth it. By that time, they had already taken Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, 1 April to 22 June 1945, Okinawa, Japan]. That is what kept them from bombing Bath and his men so badly. Bath's most memorable experience of the war is when he saw his daddy cry. That is something like his serial number, he will never forget it. Bath fought because it was his duty and a family responsibility. The war made a man out of him. His service means everything to him. He would much rather have the name of veteran than draft dodger or non-veteran. It makes him feel proud. He is feeling good talking right now. The Daughters of the Confederacy [Annotator's Note: The United Daughters of the Confederacy is an American hereditary association] pulled him and made a big deal out of it. He did nothing, he just went. If duty calls, you go to it. The war means survival to America today. He feels that it is important for there to be institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana]. World War 2 should be taught and recognized today as a national holiday and to celebrate for what it has meant to the United States. Future generations should be taught so they will not forget. He was on television and the news made a big deal of the Daughters of the Confederacy talking to him. He is proud of himself. He is 90 years old, and he feels like he has accomplished something. With this [Annotator's Note: this interview] he will never be forgotten.