Henry James Bird served with F Company, 2nd Battalion, 18th Regiment, 2nd Marine Division [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 18th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division]. He grew up on a farm in a rural area near Jena, Louisiana. His family always had something to eat as they lived on a farm, and though they did not have much money, they did not really feel the effects of the Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. Bird attended high school in Jena. He was with his future wife on a Sunday when they heard about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] on the radio, he was 19 years old at the time. He knew it was going to be bad, one of his brothers was already in the service at the time. It was going to be a long war. In 1940-1941, the Maneuvers [Annotator's Note: the Louisiana Maneuvers were a series of large-scale U.S. Army exercises held in September 1941] took place in Central Louisiana. Bird saw ill-equipped soldiers and thought there had to be something better than the Army, so he went into the Marine Corps. He went through boot camp in San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California]. Training was physically strenuous and demanding, lasting for seven weeks. Growing up on a farm made him well-equipped to handle it. His drill sergeant, named Young [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], was nice, but tough. Bird was sent directly overseas after boot camp, which he had entered in August 1942. All five sons in the Bird family were serving overseas at the same time: one in the 3rd Army in Europe, one in the Air Force in England, one on the Ledo Road [Annotator's Note: overland connection between India and China] in China, and one in the Pacific, as was Bird. It was not until his own son served in the Vietnam War [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975] that he realized what his parents must have gone through.

Henry James Bird [Annotator's Note: assigned to Company F, 2nd Battalion, 18th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division] was sent overseas directly after boot camp, leaving San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] on troopship Matsonia [Annotator's Note: USS Matsonia (ID-1589)] with no convoy. They did not know where they were going, but 13 days later they arrived in Auckland, New Zealand. They moved on to Wellington [Annotator's Note: Wellington, New Zealand] the next day. They went through some additional training there but were also working unloading ships. Soon they were sent to Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands], around Christmastime 1942 [Annotator's Note: December 1942], for mop up operations [Annotator's Note: part of the Guadalcanal Campaign, 7 August 1942 to 9 February 1943 at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. He had heard nothing good about Guadalcanal from the men who had served there. The living conditions were miserable. The island was secure by the time Bird's unit arrived. It took a few days to get used to the climate. Heading into the jungle was a new experience. It was hot, dirty, humid, and they could not bathe and had no access to fresh water. They were in foxholes, not tents. At the time, morale was good. When his unit was sent to the front to relieve another unit, he saw Japanese bodies. During the night, Japanese soldiers would slip behind their lines which scared Bird.

Henry James Bird [Annotator's Note: assigned to Company F, 2nd Battalion, 18th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division of the US Marine Corps] was happy to leave Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands], heading back to Wellington, New Zealand where the locals treated the soldiers like kings. They would be invited for dinner in the locals' homes. Australian and New Zealander men had been serving since 1939, many of them in Greece and Crete at this time, so there was no protection at home until the Marines arrived. After leaving Guadalcanal in the latter part of February 1943, they were training and recuperating in Wellington. Many men suffered from malaria [Annotator's Note: mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite]. Bird went through demolitions training, along with infantry training. Soon his unit left Wellington for Tarawa [Annotator's Note: Battle of Tarawa, 20 to 23 November 1943 at Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands] without knowing where they were going. They first maneuvered in the New Hebrides [Annotator's Note: now Republic of Vanuatu], then were shown maps of an island code named Helen [Annotator's Note: the code name for Tarawa], in the British Gilbert Islands. Bird did not think there could be much resistance left on the island after the firepower released that morning. He was comforted by this. They headed out on a Higgins boat [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP] as part of the reserves, experiencing some artillery fire so they circled out in the water until dawn then went to the beach. It was worse going in the second morning than the first, they were under crossfire from three directions. The tide was out, so they had get out of the boats in the water and wade in. He was scared, looking for something to hide behind. On the left flank there was a small pier that give a bit of protection, but they still lost a lot of men. He eventually made it to shore, but his unit had scattered and there were very few of them left. He ran into his platoon leader and made it back to his outfit. The Marines were able to advance a bit on the second day, so the night was not too bad. There was a lot of firepower, lots of men evacuated or dead. The water was full of bodies. At night, "Washing Machine Charlie" [Annotator's Note: nickname given to aircraft that performed solitary, nocturnal operations] would fly over to keep them awake. Bird put his demolition training to use on pits and bunkers the Japanese had built. The US performance at Tarawa was tremendous, given the circumstances. Units were scattered and there were so many casualties that individuals had to take over. The island was declared secure on the third day [Annotator's Note: 23 November 1943]. The first thing Bird did was to try to find out who did or did not make it, whether his friends had been killed or not. They picked up the bodies in their area and transported them on ponchos to the gravesite area. He slept that night in a shell crater. Following the battle, Tarawa was wrecked. Everything that could burn was burned down. He was impressed by the Japanese defense of the island, and their fortifications. He found the Japanese to be tough, good soldiers who fought to the death. He respected them as soldiers.

After Tarawa [Annotator's Note: Battle of Tarawa, 20 to 23 November 1943 at Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands], Henry James Bird [Annotator's Note: with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 18th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division of the US Marine Corps] was shipped through Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] to the big island of Hilo [Annotator's Note: Hilo, Hawaii]. R&R [Annotator's Note: rest and recuperation] was unheard of then. They were sent up to between the Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa volcanoes, part of the Parker Ranch [Annotator's Note: a working cattle ranch now run by a charitable trust]. They had no tents or blankets; the camp was not yet completed. They had to scrounge around for things to keep them warm. They continued training, especially as so many men had been lost at Tarawa and replacements were coming in, most of them very young, right out of high school. Bird's unit had arrived in Hawaii in December 1943 and shipped out again in the latter part of May [Annotator's Note: May 1944] joining a convoy and heading for the Marshall Islands. He had never seen so many ships in his life as were in the Marshalls. They learned they were going to Saipan in the Northern Marianas, and en route heard about D-Day in Europe [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Before invading Saipan [Annotator's Note: The Battle of Saipan, part of Operation Forager, 15 June to 9 July 1944; Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands], the troops were given more information ahead of time than about any other battle. Saipan was a much bigger island [Annotator's Note: than Tarawa], and there was more land than sea warfare. Bird landed with the second wave on the first day of the invasion. It was the first time he feared that everything was not alright. He was scared. He thought of it like a game of poker where eventually, you are going to get a bad hand. This was his third hand, and he thought sooner or later it would not go well, but he made it through. The landing itself was not bad, but after landing the beaches were hit with a lot of artillery. It was bad, but they had been trained to go forward no matter what. The flies were terrible. Running tanks through the cane fields attracted swarms. Bird contracted malaria [Annotator's Note: mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite] and was sent to the sick bay. His fever broke after seven days, and he was sent right back to his outfit. The infantry had set up a line of fire around Lake Susupe so that the Japanese had only one way to get through. The noise of the resulting crossfire Bird heard that night was the most deafening sound he has ever heard in his life. Battleships offshore offered illumination with star shells [Annotator's Note: artillery used to illuminate the battlefield]. There were also banzai charges [Annotator's Note: Banzai charge; Japanese human wave attacks]. Bird, as a demolitions specialist, was not generally on the front line where these attacks were staged. He was once called back to a large, concrete block building. There had been reports of sounds coming from within. Bird was worried about blowing up an ammunition dump, but succeeded in getting the charge in the opening, blowing the side out of it. He later found out there were just a bunch of goats inside.

Henry James Bird [Annotator's Note: with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 18th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division] never saw Marpi Point [Annotator's Note: a location on Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, where many Japanese civilians and Imperial Japanese Army soldiers committed suicide in July 1944 in order to avoid capture]. He was not particularly surprised to learn of the mass suicides, but it made him think of what would happen when they made it into Japan. At this point in the war, no one was even thinking about going home, even though the war in Europe was coming to an end. When Bird left Saipan, they immediately began preparing for the invasion of Tinian [Annotator's Note: Battle of Tinian, 24 July to 1 August 1944 at Tinian, Mariana Islands]. There were two beaches at Tinian. Bird's unit made a fake landing at one of them, where the Japanese expected them, and the 4th Division [Annotator's Note: 4th Marine Division] landed on the other. The 2nd Marine Division then joined in behind the 4th. There was very little opposition, it was a cake walk compared to the other amphibious invasions he had previously experienced. Before landing on Saipan, they had been told it would be used for the largest airplane the world had ever known, which would be able to reach Japan, the B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber]. The Enola Gay [Annotator's Note: the B-29 that delivered the atomic bomb over Hiroshima on 6 August 1945] took off from Tinian. When Bird saw B-29s begin taking off from Saipan headed for Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan], he felt good about having taken the islands. Saipan [Annotator's Note: The Battle of Saipan, part of Operation Forager, 15 June to 9 July 1944; Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands] and Midway [Annotator's Note: Battle of Midway, 4 to 7 June 1942 at Midway Atoll] were turning points of the Pacific war. Saipan was the first time they really entered the Japanese perimeter. Many Japanese prisoners were taken on Saipan, which was unusual based on what Bird had previously experienced. He had returned to Saipan following the Battle of Tinian and began to hear rumors that the men were going to start being rotated back to the United States. He had not even thought of going home before the war was over, but anyone who had served for two years, as he had, was beginning to be sent home based on a point system [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home]. Bird, however, was passed over. His battalion kept around 90 men to train new recruits that were coming over to replace them. He had to stay an additional three months, but was finally shipped out in December 1944, the best Christmas present he ever got.

Henry James Bird [Annotator's Note: with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 18th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division] boarded a ship home [Annotator's Note: in December 1944]. He first went to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California], and then on to San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] for medical examinations and new uniforms. He got papers in Fort Worth [Annotator's Note: Fort Worth, Texas] that ordered him to report to Norfolk, Virginia 30 days later. He got his first furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] at that time. He was married during those 30 days. He stayed in Norfolk until around 1 August [Annotator's Note: 1 August 1945], because there was a possibility of being sent back overseas, but then the atomic bombs were dropped [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. While getting a haircut, the barber showed Bird a newspaper with the image of the flag raising on Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: United States flag raised on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Japan, 23 February 1945], saying it was going to be one of the most famous pictures of World War 2. The atomic bombings ended all rumors of going overseas. Bird was offered reenlistment but refused and was discharged 18 September 1945. He does not know how to describe how he felt learning that the Japanese had surrendered. The thought of going back overseas put an immense strain on him, especially since he was now married. It was a great relief to know he was going to live. The war forced him to mature. Younger generations could learn from what civilians especially did during the war, everyone contributed to the war effort.