Harold DeForest was born in March 1924 in Saint Catherine's, Canada. His mother brought him to the United States when he was a baby but he did not become a citizen until he was in the service. After basic training he was given the option to stay in the United States and remain in the US Army, which would allow him to become an American citizen, or he could return to Canada and go into the Canadian Army. He opted to remain in the US Army and became a citizen. DeForest moved to the United States when he was about one year old after his parents separated. His mother cleaned houses for a living and she and DeForest lived with his aunt in Detroit. Life was tough and there were times when there was not enough to eat but they managed. DeForest's mother remarried and they moved to Highland Park, Michigan when he was seven years old. There, he completed the majority of his schooling. After graduating high school he went into the service. DeForest was still in high school when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. After the Pearl Harbor attack they went out to collect scrap metal, spare tires and anything else that could help the war effort and piled it up in front of the school. DeForest learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor on the radio. He also saw pictures of the damage in the newspaper. When his draft notice arrived, his mother hid it from him. She did not let him know that he had been drafted until it was almost time for him to report. DeForest was drafted in 1943, right after he turned 19. He was sent to Fort Wayne in Detroit for an examination. He was sent home and told to return the following day. When he reported back he was told that he had been accepted and could choose the branch of service he would serve in. He selected the Army because that allowed him another two weeks before he had to report for active duty. DeForest met up with a bunch of guys he went to school with at Fort Custer who were waiting to be shipped out. DeForest's step father had been in World War 1. His mother told him that after he went overseas his step father's hair turned snow white from worrying about him because he knew what war was about.

From Fort Custer, Harold DeForest was sent to Camp Wheeler, Georgia for 13 weeks of basic training. They were on the move all the time. Discipline was a big focus of the training. They also went on a lot of marches and did night problems. The last thing they had to do before graduating from basic training was a 25 mile march. When they got to the gate the band struck up and they all straightened up and marched proudly into the camp. After graduation, DeForest was approached by recruiters looking for volunteers for the airborne but that did not appeal to him. Most of the guys shipped out but, because DeForest was not a citizen, he was held back along with several other soldiers who were not citizens. They were taken to court in Macon, Georgia and sworn in as citizens. Most of the guys DeForest trained with were sent to Europe. One of his friends ended up serving as an orderly on Eisenhower's [Annotator's Note: US Army General, and later President, Dwight D. Eisenhower] train. Being held back was a lonesome feeling. Everyone he knew was gone. It was also the first time that he had been away from home. They were able to call home to his parents and his girlfriend on Sundays. DeForest's mother was proud of him becoming a citizen. She did not become a citizen until after he got home after the war. DeForest took his basic training with an infantry outfit, the 17th Training Battalion. He trained with all of the infantry weapons. Of all of the weapons, he liked the rifle and the mortars the best. He did not care for the machine guns. After going overseas, he was assigned to 4th Platoon and allowed to choose which weapons squad he wanted to join. The 4th Platoon had both mortar and machine gun squads. DeForest chose the mortar squad. DeForest went overseas as a replacement. Before shipping out from Camp Wheeler in Macon, Georgia he was given a ten day delay en route before having to report in at Fort Ord, California. From Fort Ord he went to Camp Stoneman in Pittsburgh, California then got on the boat to go overseas. DeForest went overseas on an old Dutch ship. During the first couple nights out they did not have any trouble but on the third day they hit rough weather and many of the guys got seasick. The bunks were stacked about eight high and guys with top bunks had to climb over everyone else to get up to theirs. During the trip, DeForest was nearly thrown in the brig for disobeying an order. While part of a deck cleanup crew, a sergeant ordered him to carry a case of pop bottles down to the hold. He refused on the grounds that they belonged to someone. He was not put in the brig but was given extra duty. The officer who chewed him out that day ended up in the same unit DeForest was assigned to. The overseas trip was made alone. They crossed the international date line and held a crossing ceremony. Taking part in the ceremony was fun.

Harold DeForest landed in New Caledonia and was sent to a replacement center. There, he and another guy volunteered to be cooks. To them it was better than going down to the docks and unloading ammunition ships. DeForest's initiation to cooking was cooking more liver than he had ever seen before. The nice thing was that he was on duty for 24 hours then off for 24 hours. When they were off they were able to go into Noumea. Noumea was a mix of many different nationalities. It was interesting. That job did not last too long, however, and they were shipped out. DeForest left New Caledonia and headed for Guadalcanal. He was assigned to Company A, 37th Infantry Division [Annotator's Note: 4th Platoon, Company A, 1st Battalion, 129th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division]. Guadalcanal was only a stop before they reached Bougainville. When they arrived on Bougainville they were assigned to their individual companies. The companies were all dug in when DeForest arrived. It was one of the scariest nights he has ever experienced. There were a couple veterans in the pill box with DeForest that first night and they helped him keep calm. After a couple days he was sent back to the mortar section. On Bougainville, the American forces only took an area five miles in and seven miles wide. They just wanted enough for an airstrip. They took the ground then dug in and waited for the Japanese to attack them. When the Japanese did come they came in droves. There were hundreds of them. On Bougainville, DeForest's unit faced Japanese troops who had previously served in China and were involved in the rape of Nanking. They were the cream of the Japanese crop and were identifiable by the red shoulder patch they wore. When they attacked they never quit. The machine gunners would keep mowing them down and they would just climb over their dead and keep attacking. After the attack the Americans buried the Japanese who had been killed on their side of the barbed wire. There were land mines beyond the barbed wire. There were also outposts. DeForest spent time in the outpost but was luckily never attacked there. The Japanese would cross the mountains and rivers carrying their cannons on their backs and would attack the Americans. The Marines landed first then DeForest's unit. The Americal Division was also there next to them. DeForest served in the 129th Infantry Regiment. His first few nights on the line were very scary. The 129th Infantry Regiment had taken part in combat operations on other Pacific islands before Bougainville. DeForest felt a little out of place when he first joined the 129th Infantry Regiment but later felt that he fit in. The gunner he was with, George Rivers from Coldwater, Michigan, took him under his wing and looked out for him. DeForest and Rivers attended a company reunion in Missouri after the war. When they got there, a flood of memories came back to DeForest. A battalion reunion was held later but the company reunion was like seeing family again. At the reunion, DeForest asked his company commander, Captain John Brelsford [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] from South Carolina, why he always sent Company A out to do all of the dirty jobs. Captain Brelsford replied that he did it because they got the job done. In the Philippines, Captain Brelsford had a radio shot out of his hands and had his rifle shot in half. Brelsford was a great leader.

In Harold DeForest's platoon there were two squads of machine guns and three squads of mortars. There were about 12 men to a squad, just like in the rifle platoons. There was a sergeant who was the observer, two gunners and the rest were ammunition carriers. DeForest was a gunner. He set up and fired the squad's 60 millimeter mortars. They conducted a lot of patrolling and set up a lot of ambushes. The Japanese did launch an attack on the American lines and were able to capture a few pill boxes. After a fierce battle, the Americans were able to retake them. Some of the Americans called in mortar fire on their own pill boxes. During the first banzai attack DeForest experienced, he was too afraid to think of anything other than staying alive. They had been taught back in the United States to shoot the enemy and that it was kill or be killed. DeForest was afraid of the Japanese, especially the Imperial Japanese Marines. DeForest felt fortunate that he was not right up on the front lines where he could see the enemy coming right at them. He did see the enemy dead when he went out to bury them. There was a hatred toward the Japanese, especially when they learned of the rape of Nanking. When the Japanese held up in the caves they had to be dug out with flamethrowers and tanks. When the burning Japanese would run out of the caves sometimes the American infantrymen would shoot them to put them out of their misery and sometimes they would just let them burn.

[Annotator's Note: Harold DeForest served in the Army as a gunner on a 60mm mortar in Company A, 1st Battalion, 129th Infantry, 37th Infantry Division and took part in combat operations on Bougainville and Luzon.] In order to use their mortars they had to clear lanes of fire. When they were near the beach by the airstrip they had clearance. Most of the trees did not have tops on them anymore as a result of artillery and naval gunfire. Supplies were always easy to get. They were close enough to the beach so the trucks could get to them easily. Malaria was everywhere. The men took Atabrine and quinine to ward off the malaria. DeForest was fortunate in that he did not contract malaria or jungle rot. He did, however, contract ring worm but the medics were able to treat him at the front. The weather on Bougainville was very hot. On top of that, it rained every evening at five. Before they had the pill boxes they dug foxholes but they would fill up with water. They guys would be cold and wet all night. The mosquitoes and centipedes were bad too. Deforest feels that the equipment they were issued was adequate. They would roll up in their ponchos at night to keep the mosquitoes off of them. After leaving Bougainville they went straight to the Philippines. Their commanding general felt that his men were seasoned troops who should just be moved to the next beachhead. The only rest and relaxation they got was when they were pulled off the line. They could play games and have a couple beers every other day. They resented their general for doing that. Everyone else got to go back to Australia or New Zealand but all they did was train and conduct patrols. In addition to combat training they also conducted amphibious assault training. They were picked up by LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] and taken offshore. They climbed over the sides of the LST into the landing craft then their weapons were roped down to them. Then they made runs in to the beach. DeForest was a seasoned veteran by the time he left Bougainville. He had been on the island for about ten months. They left there in late December [Annotator's Note: December 1944] before Christmas. On the way to the Philippines they stopped at a small island on Christmas Day. The soldiers were put ashore to relax for the day. Then they went back aboard and headed to the China Sea. The armada making its way toward the Philippines was an impressive sight. There were ships of all shapes and sizes from transports to battleships. On the LST DeForest was aboard, there were so many tanks and trucks on deck that the men had no place to sleep. They slept wherever they could.

[Annotator's Note: Harold DeForest served in the Army as a gunner on a 60mm mortar in Company A, 1st Battalion, 129th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division and took part in combat operations on Bougainville and Luzon.] As they neared Luzon they began experiencing air raids. During one attack, the wing of a Japanese bomber hit the water and cart wheeled the plane right over DeForest's ship. It was scary. They did not give much thought to the mindset of the Japanese. Some parts of the landings on Luzon were opposed but not where DeForest went ashore at Lingayen Gulf. They went ashore and made their way to their objective. They did not encounter any enemy troops for the first three days they were ashore. They had gone ashore in alligators [Annotator's Note: landing vehicle, tracked, or LVT, also referred to as amtracs]. During the run to the beach, DeForest manned the .50 caliber machine gun mounted on his tractor. That way he was able to see the beach as they headed toward it. He was amazed with the timing of the landing. As they got closer to shore he saw rockets being fired for the first time. DeForest wrote as much as he could to his family and friends. Some of his neighborhood friends would write newsletters to keep him up on what was happening back home. His parents and girlfriend would regularly send him care packages. One package sent to him while they were on Bougainville as full of cheeses that went bad after 30 days in the hot sun. DeForest was called out before mail call and told to take the package out and bury it. It was ripe. While serving overseas DeForest really missed fresh fruit, milk and fresh eggs. The only time they ever went to breakfast on Bougainville was when they had fresh eggs but that was not very often. In the area of the Slot, the Navy did a good job of sinking the Japanese ships coming down that were trying to resupply the Japanese troops in the area.

[Annotator's Note: This segment begins with Harold DeForest talking to the interviewer about his son in law who was murdered in Detroit several years prior to the interview and the interviewer tells about losses in his family as well. They also talk about DeForest's daughter.] When Harold DeForest landed in the Philippines, the local population was out to greet them. It was very different. It was great seeing the Filipinos who had suffered so much at the hands of the Japanese. Being constantly on the move, they were not able to get very close to any of the Filipinos in particular. When they had meals brought to them at the front they would share their food with the local children. In one location, they were invited to dinner by a local family. DeForest and the others brought the family some C rations and the family prepared pigeon and caribou steaks. When they walked down the road the locals would put fresh eggs in their helmets. It was much different than life on Bougainville. They would also eat bananas and sugar cane. When they were on Bougainville they only rarely encountered natives but DeForest does not know if they were from that area or just passing through.

[Annotator's Note: Harold DeForest served in the Army as a gunner on a 60mm mortar in Company A, 1st Battalion, 129th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division and took part in combat operations on Bougainville and Luzon.] The drive from Lingayen Gulf to Manila was about 150 miles. They took their first objective then advanced on their second where they encountered Japanese for the first time on Luzon. They got word that there were Japanese troops in a rice paddy. DeForest's commander wanted to drop mortar shells on them but was told that he could not because there were Filipino troops in the area who were also hunting the Japanese. Riflemen were sent into the rice paddy to root out the Japanese. The Japanese would lie under the water using reeds to breathe through. They would wait for the Americans to pass them then they would get up and attack them from the rear. One of the troops, a BAR [Annotator's Note: Browning Automatic Rifle] man, went from rice paddy to rice paddy just mowing down the Japanese troops. He killed many of them before he himself was killed. For that action he was awarded the Medal of Honor. The man's name was Sergeant Marion. When they lost a friend in combat they just did their best to carry on. In the sergeant's case, he had a squad of guys who took his death badly. They accepted the replacements they received. DeForest did what he could to mentor the new guys. The 37th Infantry Division spent 592 days in combat and suffered nearly 6,000 casualties during the two campaigns DeForest took part in. When they went into Clark Field and Fort Stotsenburg they really took a beating. DeForest's Company A was tasked with assaulting a mountain they referred to as the top of the world. The Japanese had removed all of the heavy weapons from Clark Field and moved them to the mountain top. Things were not bad at the beginning of the advance. After crossing a road running through the area, the Japanese cut loose with everything they had. After Company A secured its portion of the hill they went to the assistance of Company B and helped take that portion of the hill as well. When they came down off the hill the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Platoons each had only ten men and one medic still standing. The 4th Platoon, the weapons platoon, had 23 men left and the Headquarters Platoon had between ten and 23 men left. There were about 63 men left out of an original company strength of 150 to 200 men. That night after the battle they had to go back up the mountain to retrieve their dead. They had not been able to bring them down with them when they had fallen back earlier. It was a difficult task. After the battle, Companies A, B and C were folded together to form a single company. Clark Field and Fort Stotsenburg were loaded with aircraft and weapons that were captured by American troops. The American soldiers felt that they were avenging the men who had fought there early in the war then endured the Bataan Death march. The survivors of the Bataan Death March liberated by Harold DeForest's unit were nothing but skin and bones.

When they left Clark Field, Harold DeForest's Company A [Annotator's Note: Company A, 1st Battalion, 129th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division] was on the point. They walked most of the way but were occasionally able to ride on trucks. One night they were sent on a forced march. They were very spread out and it was raining so hard they could not see the man in front of them. They had to hold on to the pack of the guy they were following. They marched for many miles through the rain and the mud. When they stopped they cleaned their weapons then found a place to crawl up and fall asleep. They were so tired they did not even dig foxholes. DeForest credits the training they received in the United States before going overseas with being physically capable of going on marches like that. On a personal level, DeForest kept himself going for the guys he served with. When DeForest's unit first entered Manila, they went past the Chinese cemetery and the brewery and entered the race track where they spent the night. They could see Manila burning from the top of the stands. After pulling out of the stadium they went into the walled city. To get into the walled city they had to blast holes in the wall. DeForest's job was to fire the mortar in support of the riflemen. While taking a short break a Japanese machine gun opened fire on him. On another occasion he walked through a mine field that he did not know was there. DeForest's unit tried to move to another location. They crossed the Pasig River in some small engineer boats that had been riddled by Japanese bullets, bailing them out with their helmets they entire way. They were not able to find a suitable landing spot and had to turn around and return to their starting point. When they finally got across they were mobbed by Filipinos. Many Filipinos were shot because the American soldiers did not know who to shoot and who not to shoot. It was there at the Pasig River that DeForest was wounded. They had moved into a manufacturing area but were forced to pull back because the Pasig River was on fire and the area was too hot. They pulled back to an area where some Dutch nationals had a bomb shelter they shared with the Americans. The following morning, a Japanese shell hit the foxhole killing two of the guys and wounding three of them including DeForest. He was taken to an aid station and patched up. He was set down next to a fence to wait for an ambulance to pick him up. They were evacuated across a bridge that was under Japanese sniper fire. DeForest was flown out of Manila in a Piper Cub aircraft and back to Clark Field where he was put aboard a C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft] and flown out of the Philippines.

That was the end of combat for Harold DeForest. After DeForest got out of the hospital he was supposed to go back to duty. He was in Hollandia, New Guinea at the time and had to wait for transportation back to duty. That was when he got scared. He did not want to go back to combat. He made it as far as Leyte but never made it all the way back to his outfit. On Leyte, a Navy doctor had him hospitalized and operated on him. While he was in the replacement depot back on Hollandia he got a job making donuts for the Red Cross for extra pay. He had it made but that duty only lasted a month then he was sent back to the replacement depot. His next assignment was to guard WACs [Annotator's Note: Women's Army Corps] and nurses in Hollandia. DeForest ended up spending a total of nine months in the hospital. The medical care he received was to notch. While he was in one hospital he went to visit a friend who was in another area who had lost an arm. The guy was a little older that DeForest and told him that he was glad it was him who lost his arm and not DeForest or one of the other young guys. The wounded DeForest was evacuated with were sent home at different times. The only soldier DeForest ever wrote to had been killed, unbeknownst to him. The guy was an Australian named John L. Sullivan and had served with the unit that relieved them on Bougainville. After leaving Bougainville, DeForest wrote to Sullivan. He got a letter back from Sullivan's mother informing him that he had been killed on Bougainville. DeForest encountered survivors of the Bataan Death March while in the hospital. It was horrible seeing them like that. They were only skin and bones. They [Annotator's Note: the Japanese] were not human, they were fanatics.

Harold DeForest was on Leyte on his way back to the 37th Infantry Division when the atomic bomb was dropped and the war ended. He later learned that they 37th Infantry Division was set to make a beachhead on Tokyo on 1 March 1946. When he heard this it made him glad that the war was over. DeForest admired both wartime presidents, Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin D. Roosevelt] and Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman]. He feels that they were two of the greatest presidents the United States has ever had, except maybe Kennedy [Annotator's Note: President John F. Kennedy]. Learning of President Roosevelt's death saddened DeForest and the men around him. They did not know what Truman was going to do. DeForest was glad that the atomic bombs were dropped. He felt sorry for the people who died in the blasts but feels that more lives were saved. They knew that Japanese would not stop and every Japanese man, woman and child would fight them to the end. DeForest returned to the United States toward the end of 1945. He was discharged in November 1945. Sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge was a thrill for him. When he had originally deployed overseas, he looked at the bridge and wondered if he would ever see it again. When they passed under the bridge going out they had a submarine going out next to them. DeForest had no idea how big a submarine was until he saw it. When he saw an aircraft carrier it blew is mind. DeForest remembers sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge coming home but other than that he has no memory of the trip back. After going ashore in San Francisco they were sent to Letterman General Hospital for a while. There, a Red Cross girl took five of them out for dinner. They had a great time. From San Francisco he went by hospital train to Battle Creek [Annotator's Note: Battle Creek, Michigan]. It was nice to be home. DeForest was a PFC when he left the service.

After leaving the service, Harold DeForest wanted to go to the Chrysler Institute to study engineering but he had to go to work at Dodge instead. Finally, one of his neighbors called and offered him an office job with the Detroit Times. He started out in an office then moved to the press room. When the Detroit Times was bought out by the Detroit News, he stayed on with the company. DeForest worked for the Detroit News for more than 30 years before retiring. He was in the newspaper business from 1947 until the day he retired. DeForest married his high school sweetheart. He carried her picture around with him while he was overseas. World War 2 made DeForest more conscious of helping other people. He believes that he was spared for that reason. After the war, he joined many veterans organizations. He also volunteers at the VA [Annotator's Note: Veterans Administration] Hospital in Detroit. He still visits the VA hospital once a week for four to six hours. Every Christmas, they make sure everyone gets a new blanket and they have a Santa Clause who hands out gifts. They host Bingo games, ice cream socials and take guys to ball games. These events are all worked by volunteers. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer talks about a veterans organization he worked with along with his ex wife.] Many of the veterans in veterans homes just want someone to talk to. For DeForest, this interview is a way to express what he experienced. Many veterans do not talk about the war. His daughter's father in law never talked about his experiences as a medic during the war. He had seen too many horrible things. In Manila they were trying to take a building. As the Americans entered the building the Japanese dropped grenades down on them. The Americans backed out and called up a tank which destroyed the building. It was much different than jungle fighting. There were instances where the Japanese soldiers took hostages in the buildings they occupied. They raped the women and beheaded the kids. That was something DeForest will never forget.

Harold DeForest fought in World War 2 because he loves this country and felt that it was worth fighting for. His experiences during the war made him appreciate things more. He raised a good family and is proud of them. He lost his wife nine years before this interview. It can be lonely at times but his kids and grandkids are always stopping by and that helps. One thing from the war that stands out to DeForest is the friends he made in the service. He enjoyed going to reunions and renewing friendships. Institutions like The National WWII Museum are very important. Otherwise the people of this country would not know what the veterans of World War 2 went through.