Judge James Gulotta was born in November 1923 and grew up in New Orleans. He went through the depression years which were tough. His father was a lawyer who did not make much money during the depression years. Gulotta started attending classes at Tulane at the age of 15 because he wanted to be a lawyer and stayed there until he turned 17. By then the war had broken out. Gulotta tried to get into the naval ROTC [Annotators Note: Reserve Officers Training Corps] but was too short. When the ROTC class was called to active duty, all of Gulotta's friends left. Not wanting to stay there by himself he enlisted in the army with some friends from Tulane who were not in the ROTC. He was sent to Camp Beauregard for screening and evaluation. Gulotta ended up in the intelligence and recon in the infantry. He was sent to Fort Riley, Kansas for basic training. After completing basic training he was retained to teach one basic training course. After that he was sent overseas. Gulotta joined the army in March 1943. Gulotta had been at Fort Riley for about two weeks when he was made a sergeant. He was only 17 years old at the time. The training was tough but he made it through. After completing his six weeks of basic training he stayed on to train others in bayonet drill and judo then he went overseas.

James Gulotta was sent to New Caledonia. New Caledonia was a French possession which was used a staging area for new troops. The Americal Division was formed in the Fiji Islands. The division was formed from outfits from other units. It was the only division without a number. Gulotta joined the Americal Division in New Caledonia. After some advanced training they went to Guadalcanal to mop up the island. Being in an I&R unit [Annotator's Note: Intelligence and Reconnaissance], Gulotta's training consisted of map reading and stealth training for operations behind enemy lines. In combat, Gulotta led teams of ten to 20 men that operated behind enemy lines. They were to pick up as much information as they could about the enemy. They carried a radio and could radio either naval vessels on station offshore or they would contact the Army Air Forces. After calling in the enemy's location, they would move a safe distance away from where they could observe the bombing of the enemy position. They usually went out for about ten days. They would not carry food with them. Instead, they would carry three ration bars. As a result, Gulotta went down to 88 pounds during the war. Gulotta enjoyed his time on New Caledonia. When he left there he did not know where he was going until they were on the ship. They did not have any trouble when they got to Guadalcanal because the Marines had already secured the island. Their job was to scout out and mop up the Japanese hold outs on the island. The first patrol Gulotta went on he ran into two Japanese soldiers who were lost and were foraging out in the jungle. The sergeant told Gulotta to shoot the two enemy soldiers but he was unable to fire his weapon. After the first shot was fired, however, killing was no problem. The transition from a quiet academic life to becoming a mean individual who harbored a lot of hate toward the Japanese was amazing. The first two Japanese soldiers Gulotta came across were in a field about 75 to 100 yards away. He could not miss. He just could not pull the trigger. He does not recall who fired the first shot but does recall that it happened that same day. They encountered a group of Japanese soldiers who opened fire on them. That was when Gulotta overcame his inability to kill.

[Annotator's Note: James Gulotta served in the Army as an intelligence and reconnaissance team leader in the 21st Reconnaissance Troop, Americal Division.] Every division in the Army has a reconnaissance troop or company. In the Americal Division it was the 21st Reconnaissance Troop. It was a reconnaissance and intelligence company made up of three platoons of three squads each. Each squad was made up of 12 men. The reconnaissance troop had about 60 people in it as well as eight tanks. They used tanks, scout cars and jeeps. They were very mobile. They could not use the vehicles in the jungle but used them a lot later on in the Philippines. They carried different weapons for different occasions. Gulotta primarily carried an M1. Later he carried a carbine. He also carried a Thompson submachine gun. Gulotta does not recall exactly where his first patrols were but knows they were near two rivers. In Gulotta's platoon they had two tanks, a scout car and jeeps carrying machine guns and mortars. Gulotta rode in a tank. He acted as the loader and commander on the tank. He also had a gunner, driver and assistant driver. The tank was a light tank that could go about 45 miles per hour. It saved his life the day he was decorated. The tanks started with a 37 millimeter gun then they went up to a 70 millimeter gun to give it more range. Gulotta was not on Guadalcanal that long. It was mostly a training process. They learned reconnaissance techniques and learned to use reconnaissance equipment. They were not on Guadalcanal very long before leaving and heading to Bougainville.

After Guadalcanal, James Gulotta went to Bougainville. They did a lot of heavy fighting on Bougainville. The Marines had landed on Bougainville but the Army also played a big part in the fighting. Gulotta did a lot of effective reconnaissance on Bougainville. They would patrol eight to ten miles behind enemy lines. They would come across Japanese encampments. Bougainville is not a big island and the Navy had ships standing off of both sides of it. The air force also had units standing by. They would call in the position of the enemy as well as their own position then the Navy would hit the enemy. It was usually the Navy providing support. Corsairs [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter aircraft] would fly over and bomb the enemy troops. There was a lot of jungle fighting and river crossings on Bougainville. They were wet most of the time they were on patrols. They would usually return with leeches on them. There was more opposition when they landed on Bougainville. There was no opposition when they landed on Guadalcanal. From a scouting perspective, Bougainville offered more opposition. There were a lot of enemy troops on Bougainville when they got there. That is where Gulotta did some of his heaviest reconnaissance. It rained every day on Bougainville. Gulotta does not know why they were even on Bougainville. He was wet, scared and did what he was told to do. During scouting missions, if they encountered a large group of Japanese troops they would usually get within a half a block to a block. They got very close. On one occasion, Gulotta sent one of his men up a tree to see if he could spot any Japanese. The man said that he could see a large patrol of Japanese heading right toward them on the same trail they were on. The Japanese patrol was carrying heavy weapons which Gulotta's patrol did not have. Gulotta had his men hide in the bushes on side the trail and prayed that no one would cough or sneeze or that the Japanese would not stop to take a break there. There were about 125 to 130 Japanese soldiers on the patrol Gulotta had about ten or 12 men with him. The Japanese went on by and never knew Gulotta's men were there. They hid there for about 20 to 25 minutes before taking off. Gulotta had other close calls. One day they were going through a village and they could smell the Japanese. A Japanese soldier jumped up in front of Gulotta and pointed his rifle at him, about ten yards away. The Japanese soldier called out in English for Gulotta to drop his weapon. Gulotta was carrying an M1 at his hip. Gulotta fired and when he did, the enemy soldier fired at the same time. The Japanese soldier missed but Gulotta hit his target. The enemy soldier hit the ground and called into the jungle. Gulotta had to kill the guy because the enemy soldier may have had hand grenades that he could use to kill other troops. Gulotta was moving into the area where the man was when he heard a tap, indicating that the Japanese soldier had indeed just armed a grenade. Gulotta thought the guy was throwing the grenade at him so he hit the ground. The grenade went off near Gulotta but did not hurt him. When he found the Japanese soldier he saw that the man had blown himself up with the grenade. One time they were far behind enemy lines and dug in alongside a river. Gulotta's men told him to take it easy and get some rest. He took off his helmet and put it on what he thought was a log and went to sleep. The following morning one of his guys woke him up and told him not to move. He had been sleeping on a crocodile. They could not shoot the crocodile because if they did the enemy would know that they were there. Bougainville was a very tough and mean atmosphere and there were a lot of well trained Japanese troops there. When they went on patrol they usually only had ten or 12 men. When they were on the line they had a lot more men. One night they were on the line. Gulotta was in a foxhole manning a machine gun. They fighting was very heavy and there were a lot of deaths on both sides. When the Japanese pulled back the Americans got out of their foxholes and followed after them.

James Gulotta landed in the Philippines on Leyte on the Ormoc Peninsula. This is where he did most of his fighting. There was some fighting around Manila. He did not make the invasion. When he got there the Japanese were being run out of Manila but there were so many islands in the Philippines that the Japanese would just go to them. Many of them went from Luzon to the island of Cebu without the American noticing. Before Gulotta's unit got there the intelligence situation was terrible. The Japanese reorganized their army on Cebu. The Americal Division was selected to conduct an invasion of Cebu. They expected the fighting to be heavy but not what they actually encountered. They had a lot of naval support which was to support the landings. They were to hit the beach and cut the island in half by noon. Then they would reorganize. From there, one half of the division would move south and push the Japanese into the sea and the other half of the division would do the same to the north. The fighting was very heavy. There was not much press given to that battle. Gulotta's responsibility was to conduct reconnaissance in front of the American troops moving north. They fought on Cebu for weeks, maybe a month.

[Annotator's Note: James Gulotta served in the Army as an intelligence and reconnaissance team leader in the 21st Reconnaissance Troop, Americal Division.] A large American contingent tried to get through the Japanese lines. There was one main road on Cebu that ran north to south. The Japanese set up their bivouac right on that road so they knew who was coming up the road. The Americans had to get past that blockade which was covered by heavy artillery. An American battalion was sent to attack the position. Gulotta's group hit it first and discovered that it was so heavily fortified that they could not get through it. The decision was made to send a 40 man patrol around the side of the Japanese position. The Japanese let the patrol get in then destroyed it. About 1,000 American soldiers tried to get through the blockade but were repulsed. Gulotta got a call from colonel who told him to take a patrol to find out where the enemy gun emplacements were located. They decided to send four tanks and eight to ten men to feign an attack from the front in an attempt to locate where the enemy armament was located. The Americans had four 105mm artillery pieces that were to fire on the enemy positions until a certain time then the patrol would go forward. It was a suicide mission. Gulotta volunteered to lead the patrol. Gulotta started his group down the road. He planned to wait about 45 minutes to allow the artillery to give then enemy a good pasting. After only 20 or 30 minutes the cannon fire stopped. The Japanese had gotten behind Gulotta's group and had killed the artillery men. His group was then surrounded. He decided to continue on his original mission. They advanced alongside the tanks. Everyone was firing their weapon. Gulotta was carrying a Thompson submachine gun at the time. The battle lasted an hour or two. During the fight, the colonel who had sent Gulotta's group in kept yelling to him over the radio to get his men out of there but Gulotta could not. His weapon got so hot from firing it that when he loaded a new magazine into it, the gun would start firing without him even pulling the trigger. Gulotta saw every position the Japanese had. He had accomplished his mission and knew they could get through the enemy position with that intelligence. The problem at that point was getting out. They always took their dead and wounded with them but on this occasion Gulotta told his men that if they got hit there was nothing that could be done for them. He suggested that his guys lie down on the tanks and let the tanks bust right through the lines. Every weapon the men were carrying as well as the weapons on the tanks were firing. They busted right through the Japanese line. After passing through the line the tanks turned their guns around and fired back at the enemy positions. Not one of Gulotta's men was hit. When he got back to the American lines he went to the headquarters and reported what he saw. The following day the American forces were able to bust through the Japanese position. When Gulotta reported in the colonel was as white as a ghost. The colonel asked if they could get through and Gulotta said that they could. Gulotta was awarded the Silver Star Medal for that action. He did not know he was going to receive it until a month later.

[Annotator's Note: James Gulotta served in the Army as an intelligence and reconnaissance team leader in the 21st Reconnaissance Troop, Americal Division.] After the battalion broke through, Japanese resistance was nonexistent. That was where the Japanese planned to make their final stand on the north side of Cebu. Gulotta did not know anything about the Silver Star until a captain told him that he was being considered for a decoration. The eight men with him on the patrol were also being considered for decoration. Later, a ceremony was held and Gulotta was awarded the Silver Star. The decoration was presented to Gulotta by the commanding general of the Americal Division. Once Cebu was secured, the Philippines were secured for the most part. The fighting on Cebu and Luzon had wiped the Japanese out. Gulotta was sent to the island of Bohol with his platoon. He was angry about being sent there. He was in his tent when an officer entered and told him that he had to take his platoon and make a landing on Bohol. They hit the beach with tanks, scout cars, machine guns and mortars. They were greeted by civilians, some of who could speak English. Gulotta asked the civilians where the Japanese were and was told that there were no Japanese on the island. Gulotta took his men to bivouac at a hospital run by nuns. He and his platoon took a week off. They slept on sheets. Every morning a light plane would bring their mail to them. Every morning he would send a jeep around the island to make sure no Japanese had landed. Gulotta would send messages back to headquarters with the airplane every day. One morning, Gulotta went to meet the plane and a colonel got off of it. The colonel went to the hospital and called for the rest of his company to be sent to the island. Instead of being court martialed, Gulotta got another week off.

James Gulotta was training to hit Tokyo when the war ended. His unit was to land near Yokohama but the war ended before that could happen. Gulotta was with the first American ground forces to go into Japan. Paratroopers had gone in first to secure some of the dangerous spots then Gulotta's unit [Annotator's Note: 21st Reconnaissance Troop, Americal Division] landed with ground troops and tanks. Gulotta stayed in Japan for two or three months. The Japanese civilians were very docile. There was only one group that was planning a counterattack. The house they were in was loaded with munitions and bombs. Gulotta's group was sent to scout out the house. One of Gulotta's men walked up and knocked on the door. When the door opened someone punched the man in the head. Gulotta and his men all started shooting into the house. The Japanese inside escaped out of the windows. Gulotta assumes that they were rounded up later. They went inside and confiscated all of the weapons and munitions. That was the only incident Gulotta experienced. The Japanese were a defeated people. Everything in Japan was destroyed. They saw very few people. Gulotta was coming back from a patrol when he got a radio message that the war was over. He asked what happened and the reply stated that atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombings were followed by peace talks and the surrender. He was ordered to return to camp. Back in camp Gulotta was resting up. There were some Australian troops nearby who would give Gulotta and his men food. An officer entered Gulotta's tent and told him that the general wanted to see him. The general told him that they wanted him to be part of the contingent that the Japanese would surrender to. They were set to surrender the following day. Gulotta was selected because he was the highest decorated soldier in the division. They had four or six jeeps with machine guns on them. Gulotta was expecting four or five Japanese to show up. Instead there were thousands of them. Gulotta stood next to the colonel who took the surrender. They spent the night with the Japanese in the field. The Army was supposed to send trucks to pick up the Japanese but there were not enough trucks to get them all. There were ten Americans and thousands of Japanese. They stayed in radio contact with headquarters throughout the night. Gulotta and the colonel were with the Japanese admiral and two photographers. It was an uneasy night for Gulotta. He decided to post a guard. When the Japanese admiral heard him telling one of his men to stand guard the admiral told him that it would do not good. It would be one man against thousands. The Japanese admiral posted a guard along with Gulotta's man.

James Gulotta got back home in January 1946. He wanted to pick up his studies so after about a two week rest he went back to school at Tulane. He got his bachelor's and a law degrees. He had strong family support. He did not talk about the war when he got home. Gulotta has had nightmares about the war. His animosity toward the Japanese was very strong for 20 years after the war. It has only been in the years prior to this interview that his feelings have relaxed. When Gulotta was on the bench, the Justice Department in Washington would call him and ask him to show various visiting dignitaries around New Orleans. One day he got a call that the chief justice from the Japanese Supreme Court was coming to the United States. Gulotta would not show him around. Gulotta has terrible memories of combat which keep him from wanting to tour The National WWII Museum. He does not have any animosity anymore. He is too old for animosity. Gulotta was very disciplined in his work. He practiced law for 12 years then became a family court trial judge for ten years. After that he was elected to the court of appeal and became the chief judge of that court. He found that work enjoyable and liked the people he worked with. Gulotta does not think that he suffered because of the war but does not want to be reminded of his experiences. Museums like The National WWII Museum are very important. The current and future generations need to be able to appreciate the horrors of the war. Gulotta hopes that other countries also have museums to demonstrate the horrors of the war to their people as well. Gulotta sees The National WWII Museum as a tremendous asset to this nation.

James Gulotta did not have any friends to keep up with after the war. They were all either killed or maimed. His unit [Annotator's Note: 21st Reconnaissance Troop, Americal Division] was replaced three times. Two people contacted him after the war. One of them told Gulotta's wife that they always felt safe when they went out on patrol with him. They knew he would take care of them. One of Gulotta's best friends was killed in the Philippines. They were moving from one location to another with a tank formation. Gulotta was in the first tank. They were on a road going around a mountain. They came across a stranded bus. There was enough room to go around the bus without falling off the mountain if they were careful. Gulotta put up his hand to stop the column and told the lieutenant that the area was a prime location for a mine field. Gulotta said that he would go sweep for mines but his friend decided that he would go. Moments later a mine went off and his friend was killed.