James McEnery was born in Brooklyn, New York in September 1919. He grew up in Brooklyn in a rugged area. There was a saltwater creek 50 yards from his house. He never finished school and got a job in Manhattan after leaving school. The train was five cents in those days. McEnery was working in Manhattan when, on 3 September 1940, he and four of his friends decided that they were going to join the Army. They went down to the recruiting office in the customs house. They were not open that day so they then went to the Navy's recruitment center in Manhattan. They tried to sign up for the Marine Corps but McEnery was the only one who was accepted and he went over and was sworn into the Marine Corps. A dozen or so local guys got on a ship on the Hudson River and landed in Savannah, Georgia and from there they went on buses to Yemassee, South Carolina. They arrived there around lunch time and there was a sergeant waiting for them. From there they were bused to Parris Island. With no national emergency taking place it took some time for recruitment to fill up the platoons and McEnery wound up in Platoon 102. It took three days to fill the platoon. For those three days they stayed in civilian clothes. They went to chow and were told what would happen if they stepped out of line. It was clear to McEnery that they were just trying to scare him. He was impressed. One of the first things McEnery remembers seeing was a drill instructor forcing a trainee to stand on top of an upside down trash can. The drill sergeant would ask him where he was from and the trainee had to repeat a phrase the instructor had given him. When the trainee accidentally said his hometown the drill instructor knocked him to the ground. In boot camp McEnery had grits for the first time. Up north they only had cream of wheat. He was not fond of grits. They went through boot camp in the main station for about a month before going to the rifle range. The rules were more relaxed at the rifle range because they were trying to keep everybody loose. Their first day there the weather was so bad they could not get any shooting done. The majority of the platoon was not experienced shooting and out of 76 men only three made sharpshooter grades and only ten made marksmen, including McEnery. They did not have any shooting after that day. They managed to avoid the customary one week of mess duty that recruits usually got saddled with. After their training was complete they were assigned to their duties.

James McEnery was sent to a naval base in Norfolk, Virginia. While he was in Norfolk a national state of emergency was declared. McEnery had watch every day of the week from eight in the morning until noon and from eight in the evening until midnight. It eventually got to him so he put in for the Fleet Marine Force up in Quantico, Virginia in June 1941. He joined the 1st Division, 5th Marines [Annotator's Note: 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division]. They were sent on maneuvers to Charleston, South Carolina aboard the USS McCawley (APA-4). They went on maneuvers and landed at Onslow Beach, North Carolina. When they returned there was no room for them at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines went into the sea school's attic at Portsmouth, Virginia. Lord Louis Mountbatten was captaining the HMS Illustrious and gave a talk to the sea school about the difficulties of getting a ship from the Mediterranean to Portsmouth. From there they moved to New River, North Carolina where they started training again. They had to clean up a small town. Some foreign nationals were coming to observe their work. McEnery heard the rumor that even the Japanese would be coming to observe them. While cleaning up the town McEnery noticed that many of the graves in the town were for Marines. His sergeant caught him slacking off and he was put on restrictions. When he was restricted McEnery was stuck in camp while everyone else was on liberty. He and two others snuck out the back door and walked down the road to get some food. They went into a place that was run by a Marine sergeant who told them about the attack on Pearl Harbor. After finishing their meal they returned to the base. They got dressed in liberty clothes and went ashore. Nothing happened when they returned. There were a lot of supply issues in the early days after the attack. The 7th Marines [Annotator's Note: 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] got their new helmets first. The 1st Division was still using the 1903 Springfield rifle as its main weapon. Fresh recruits were joining rifle regiments right after joining up. The 7th Marines was then sent to American Samoa. McEnery's battalion was sent to New Zealand aboard the USS Wakefield (AP-21). When they arrived in Wellington, New Zealand there was a band to celebrate their arrival. From there they went to a camp where they were supposed to train for six months.

[Annotator's Note: James McEnery served in the USMC as a rifleman in Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.] Shortly after arriving there [Annotator's Note: at the camp in New Zealand where they planned to train], General Vandegrift [Annotator's Note: USMC General Alexander Vandgrift], the commander of the 1st Marine Division, received orders to attack Tulagi in June 1942. Tulagi had a better harbor than Guadalcanal. Vandegrift got a week's delay so the attack came on 7 August. Their maps were terrible. They went aboard ship on 2 July in Wellington. The 1st Marines were getting transported from city to city. They were not equipped yet. Their ship, the Fuller [Annotator's Note: USS Fuller (APA-7)] was not combat loaded. They had to unload and reload the equipment and supplies for the 1st Marines. When they left Wellington they went to general quarters. One soldier could not figure out how to unload his Thompson submachine gun. They went to a staging area in the Fiji islands. At the time, the 7th Marines was still in American Samoa. Most people were afraid of fighting the Japanese. The 2nd Marines also joined the attack as well as the 1st Raider Battalion and the 1st Parachute Battalion. McEnery thought the staging area was a mess. Every day they had different problems. When they left the Fiji Islands they left in two divisions. One group attacked opposite sides of Savo Island. One group went to Tulagi and the other went to Guadalcanal. After the ships started shelling the shore the Marines went over the sides on the nets and got into the Higgins boats [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Personnel, Large or LCP(L)]. These Higgins boats did not have a ramp. They landed around nine in the morning on 7 August without much difficulty. As they set up a beachhead the 1st Marines captured the airfield and named it Henderson in honor of a Marine major who was killed at Midway. On the night of 8 August the Japanese sent a task force down and McEnery could see the naval battle taking place just off shore. The Marines thought the Allies were winning the naval battle but the Allies lost four heavy cruisers during the Battle of Savo Island. The channel between the islands is also called Iron Bottom Sound because of all the ships sunk there. McEnery does not understand why the Japanese called off the attack because they had already crippled the American's ability to defend their transports but the Japanese did not press the attack. McEnery and the rest of his battalion went on patrols along the beach and one time when they were walking through a coconut grove he saw a Zero fly overhead. The pilot must not have seen their battalion because they were completely exposed but he never fired on them. Another time a Japanese submarine came up right off shore and started shelling Henderson field.

[Annotator's Note: James McEnery served in the USMC as a rifleman in Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.] When they got to the west end of the island they stood on defense there. In early August [Annotator's Note: August 1942] the division sent a patrol to the Matanikau village on the west bank. There was supposed to be a Japanese officer there offering to surrender. The Goettge patrol went there and the Japanese slaughtered them [Annotator's Note: The patrol was led by Lieutenant Colonel Frank Goettge and was named after him]. Only three guys escaped the massacre. McEnery's company was sent down to the river to salvage an instrument from a crashed F4F Wildcat. When they were crossing the river, McEnery spotted various severed limbs and other body parts floating in the river. The Japanese were probably watching but they never opened fire. On combat patrols they would sometimes take a new tract of land. The Japanese continually shelled the Marines. When the Japanese would shell the airfield one destroyer would head to the beach and unload its men then it would return to the shelling and another destroyer would leave to offload its passengers. When the shelling began they had to abandon their advance spot to defend the airfield. Once during a Japanese attack, a 16 year old Marine named Gibson told McEnery that he used to be afraid of the dead but now it is the only way he liked to see them [Annotator's Note: the Japanese]. McEnery was amazed by how dark this kid's world view had become in so short a time. Another young guy was shot in the armpit and McEnery had to carry him back to safety. McEnery had previously fractured his tailbone but he managed to drag him to a stretcher. Eventually artillery came in and the Japanese retreated. McEnery never even saw any Japanese during this attack and the only time he fired was at an airplane. Bloody Nose Ridge was to their east and the Japanese attacked the ridge in large numbers but were repelled by the Raiders. When McEnery's battalion built a bridge across the Matanikau they ran into a group of Japanese on the opposite side of the river. The Raiders were called in and the Japanese on the riverfront were taken out. McEnery could not eat when there were dead Marines around. Any other dead things did not bother him.

[Annotator's Note: James McEnery served in the USMC as a rifleman in Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.] They set up a trip line near their position. McEnery was a reconnaissance sergeant at the company command post and one thing that helped him with that was the early patrols on Guadalcanal where they did not run into any real Japanese resistance. The recon sergeant was at the head of the patrol along with the platoon commander. When they came to a hill and as they crossed over the hill they found Japanese soldiers on the other side. McEnery opened fire on the Japanese before the commander and the reconnaissance sergeant could get their guns out. He was essentially a runner for the CP [Annotator's Note: command post]. Once he was running to a squad in the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines. The Japanese started firing on them and several men were hit. McEnery was not particularly impressed with the Japanese. The Japanese tried crossing the Matanikau with about ten tanks. The Americans had a half track dug in on the opposite side of the river and the half track started knocking out the tanks. None of them made it through. McEnery spent a long time on the island. Later they had a regimental mission to cross the Matanikau. During the attack, the 1st Battalion was stopped and the 3rd Battalion made a line behind the 1st Battalion. A lieutenant from Company I came to McEnery's company CP and asked who would help him knock out a Japanese gun. They all charged the gun position twice and they had to hit the ground when the Japanese opened up with machine gun fire. McEnery remembers saying the Lord's Prayer many times while the bullets were whizzing over his head. After the charge McEnery went back to the CP to tell his company commander where the front line was. When he returned the company commander told him to rejoin the rest of the company at the front. When he arrived back at the front he found the company engaged in yet another bayonet assault. When he charged with the company McEnery remembers seeing Japanese soldiers running away scared from their positions. McEnery went after the Japanese who had fled and tricked them into revealing their positions. After the third charge he returned to the company CP again. After this battle they were essentially removed from frontline duty. McEnery contracted malaria around this time and was assigned to a medical company. He spent some time in the hospital there. While he was in the hospital the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal was fought but McEnery did not have a very clear idea of what was happening. From there McEnery boarded the USS President Jackson (APA-18) and traveled to Brisbane, Australia. The ship was filthy. While in Brisbane, McEnery had a recurrence of malaria. Replacements started coming down with it as well. The doctors discovered the presence of anopheles mosquitoes in the camp. They were sent to eastern Australia. Each of the states in eastern Australia had a different gauge railroad so moving the sick to a temperate zone was an issue. Admiral Halsey [Annotator's Note: US Navy Admiral William Halsey] had told General Vandegrift [Annotator's Note: USMC Lieutenant General Alexander Vandegrift] that if he ever needed a favor he needed only to ask. When alerted to the situation Halsey sent the USS West Point (AP-23). The West Point was the largest troop transport in the area. The men's morale was pretty low at the time. They were loaded onto liberty ships because the West Point could not fit in the harbor. After boarding the ship they were taken to Wellington, New Zealand. They pulled into the harbor but one guy died in transit from blackwater fever. Eventually they were sent to Camp Balcombe, Australia near Melbourne.

James McEnery is a Catholic, Irish-American from Brooklyn. He considers anyone from his background who is not democratic to be treasonous. When he came out of the Marine Corps his mother lived in Brooklyn and he went down to a school near her house to register. He registered independent and he stayed independent until a friend ran for office in the assembly and McEnery became a democrat so he could vote for his friend in the primaries. He reverted back to independent shortly after voting in the primary. He became a republican to vote for another candidate years down the road for the same reason and he plans to register as an independent again soon. When he tricked the Japanese soldiers by calling his Georgian friend and listening to their response that was much more northeastern in dialect he did not open fire on them. He realizes now that he could have lobbed a few grenades at their position then run away in the chaos but at the time he was too scared and just left them alone. McEnery knows that he's no hero but he met a lot of them on Guadalcanal. The fighter pilots came to Guadalcanal ten days after they landed. McEnery found some of the pilots on the beach looking for souvenirs. Later on he found some of the same pilots on Peleliu doing the same thing and he asked them if they had made it home yet. They had and they sympathized with McEnery about how rough the riflemen get treated as he had yet to return to the United States. British Spitfires also took part in attacks in the Pacific but they did not last very long. Others, including Major Joe Foss, tried to instruct the British pilots on how to combat the Zeros but they did not listen and a lot of good pilots got shot down. When President Kennedy [Annotator's Note: President John F. Kennedy] was killed the NFL played its games on Sunday as it always did. The AFL, of which Joe Foss was the commissioner, postponed all of its games for a week. When McEnery was in Australia for liberty he went to an Australian unarmed combat school. They had an excellent obstacle course and each day they would practice one hold. A brigadier came to inspect them and that was why they only practiced one hold, so that when the brigadier arrived they could impress him. McEnery received three medals for swimming while in Australia but he had to pay for them. When that training ended they returned to the tropics. They went through the Great Barrier Reef unescorted.

They [Annotator's Note: Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] were put ashore on New Guinea and James McEnery was given a campaign ribbon for the New Guinea campaign even though he was not involved in the fighting at that point. From New Guinea they went to Cape Gloucester where they were made subordinate to the US Army. General Walter Krueger commanded them at Cape Gloucester. The 5th Air Force was also involved in the battle of Cape Gloucester. McEnery's unit's LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] got stuck in the sand in New Guinea and they arrived a day late. McEnery's unit was on the right side of the line near Suicide Creek. A lot of the guys wanted to see John Wayne fight the war as opposed to just making movies. McEnery sent the guys up the hill one at a time and they would return with wounds in various places. There was a big firefight there. The first platoon set up a line but the machine gun outfit got gunned down by the Japanese before they could reach the line of defense. The Japanese started sneaking up towards the American line. The Japanese stood up and started charging and one machine gunner took out most of the attacking Japanese. After the Japanese began their attack a platoon lieutenant ordered the men to fix bayonets and charge but by the time they were ready there were no Japanese left. They stayed on the line overnight. One buddy of McEnery's who was shot on Guadalcanal got shot again on Cape Gloucester. That night McEnery had to sleep with his leg out of the foxhole because he hurt his leg slipping on rocks by the river. His commander sent him to EMED [Annotator's Note: Emergency medicine]. Then the platoon got another leader and went into the battle of Hill 660. McEnery was lucky to have been in EMED at the time because during the battle a short round struck the company command post and killed the men who worked there. When he returned to the front lines the battle of Hill 660 was over. McEnery reported to the new leader, Lieutenant McMann. After that battle there was not much else to do. The Japanese were broken after Hill 660. They crossed Borgen Bay and went to the other side of New Britain. One night over there they were deep in the jungle and it was the most frightened that McEnery had ever been. They went on patrols on the north side of New Britain. They started chasing the Japanese. They had an army dog with them that was very good at sniffing out the Japanese. Every time they found a trail they would find Japanese shooting at them. One time a guy dropped his rifle but managed to get to safety. He found the guy with his pants around his ankles being humiliated by his own comrades. They found the rifle trapped with mines and grenades and the company commander ordered it to be left alone. They had a lieutenant that had spent time with Jimmy Roosevelt's Raider Battalion. Another lieutenant, named Lynch, tried to get McEnery to go right up to the line with him to spot the Japanese. McEnery refused and Lynch was shot and killed shortly thereafter. After Lynch was killed they got another lieutenant who was codenamed Zero. When they took over a village Zero sent McEnery to investigate up a trail. The trail was lined with foxholes but the Japanese had already pulled out. Before they met any Japanese they would set up a defensive perimeter. One night when some soldiers went to go get some water the Japanese opened fire on them from the river bank. When they reached the MacArthur Line they stopped. From there they went back to Cape Gloucester and from there to Pavuvu. Pavuvu was a rest area for the 1st Division [Annotator's Note: 1st Marine Divsion]. They trained on Pavuvu for their landing on Peleliu.

[Annotator's Note: James McEnery served in the USMC as a rifleman in Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.] The 5th Marines were in the center on Peleliu. The 1st Marines got the roughest welcome. When they landed, McEnery was operating a radio but it was worthless because everyone was trying to use the radio at the same time. The first thing McEnery saw on the island was a dog shaking his tail. They had good maps on Peleliu. On the other side of the island they ran into a pillbox that was firing onto the beach. One night the Japanese came down with two battleships to shell their position. When the Japanese landed their ships on the other side of the island American torpedo planes flew right over McEnery's head on the way to bomb the ships. McEnery was able to watch a dogfight ensue from the ground. At Purple Beach on Peleliu, supply was an issue and McEnery's unit lacked for a lot of things. When the 1st Marines were relieved they saw the 5th Marines' lines and were shocked by the state of it. Later they moved north across the island. They could hear artillery firing over their heads when they were crossing over the hills near Bloody Nose Ridge. The 3rd Battalion used army amphibious vehicles to cross over to Ngesebus. McEnery got on a .50 caliber machine gun and started firing at a Zero. When they landed they found a pillbox and McEnery tried to throw a grenade into the opening but came up well short. The first night on Ngesebus McEnery had nothing to do. The next day they started moving out. When taking a cave they made the Japanese stay put by firing into the cave. They would fire a bazooka into the cave and then they would fire a flamethrower into it. They would use explosives and would place guards around the hole to get anyone who managed to crawl out of there. McEnery recalls one time a platoon of Japanese soldiers came crawling out of a hole and started jumping on a tank. McEnery remembers it being like shooting fish in a barrel. McEnery ran out of ammunition and started directing the fire of the other men. McEnery saw a Japanese soldier firing a knee mortar and was able to dodge it. He had to duck and cover once when a mortar exploded near him. Later they went halfway up the ridge and got attacked by Japanese grenades. One guy caught shrapnel in the mouth. As they got closer to the top of the ridge the foliage got denser. They ran into a gun shooting at Company I but the tank knocked out the gun. At one reunion a man from Company I came up to McEnery and thanked Company K for saving them on Peleliu. One of the group leaders atop the hill was struck in the face and was being carried away but his men were not alerted about their commander's wounds.

After securing Ngesebus they went back across to Peleliu. It was James McEnery's birthday the day they made their crossing. McEnery's unit [Annotator's Note: Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] was sent to the line and aviation personnel were being sent to McEnery. He was told not to put them on the line but ignored that order. They stayed on the beach for a while and then went to take another ridge. They got to the Five Sisters [Annotator's Note: a terrain feature on Peleliu]. Boulders and pillboxes held up their advance. About 15 yards away there was a cave and a tank started firing at it. A Japanese soldier came out and ran for it and managed to escape. The Japanese started attacking out of one of the caves that the Marines thought they had cleared. A Japanese soldier threw four or five grenades at McEnery. That night stretcher bearers and mortars arrived. The Japanese soldier started attacking with grenades again and McEnery could not shoot him because he was between McEnery and the mortars. The next day McEnery had to stay with the Army. When Haldane [Annotator's Note: USMC Captain Andrew Haldane, commanding officer of Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment] was killed McEnery became acting company commander because he was the senior man on the line. McEnery's platoon went to take over an Army pillbox and McEnery made another New York guy his runner. They only had two officers left in the company, the company XO [Annotator's Note: executive officer] and the mortar lieutenant. The XO told McEnery to take an injured Japanese soldier to the sick bay but McEnery refused. When they were leaving Guadalcanal and heading for Australia a mortar man made sergeant. The man went into the company CP and had his warrant edited to predate McEnery's promotion. After leaving Peleliu they returned to Pavuvu. A man came to McEnery and asked what the landing was like. McEnery does not remember what he told the guy but the guy later returned to Pavuvu as a prisoner at large. McEnery remembers feeling sorry for him. Back on Guadalcanal, before the bayonet charges near the Matanikau, McEnery was in the company CP [Annotator's Note: command post] and had to take a guy back to the boat. McEnery tried to kill some time before returning. When returning, a Japanese sniper opened fire and narrowly missed McEnery as he was warned to hit the deck by some other soldiers. A runner was shot and killed later by that same sniper. Back on Peleliu they were off the line but they would still go on patrol. McEnery would get three groups and go out patrolling. McEnery remembers finding a hill that had been guarded by Marines. The top of the hill was about eight feet across and there were dead Marines facing each direction. McEnery cut their dog tags off and turned them over to graves registration. Every time he went on patrol he tried to take new men with him. They left Peleliu and went to Pavuvu.

[Annotator's Note: James McEnery served in the USMC as a rifleman in Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.] From Pavuvu they went back to the United States and landed in San Diego. Then they went to San Francisco. They were sent home and given new equipment then had a 30 day furlough. After the furlough they were ordered to report to Parris Island. While at Parris Island, McEnery worked as a drill instructor. He had passed his platoon sergeant test on Pavuvu but was never promoted. McEnery was in a beer joint on the way to Savannah once and he crapped out and was thrown into the brig. He had to go and explain what happened and the judge banned any military personnel from going to that place again as he thought the place was fishy. McEnery was not punished. McEnery left the Marine Corps after six years, two months, and 23 days. When they were heading to Peleliu his time expired but they could not release him yet and the Marines wanted him to wait until he was back in the United States before he reenlisted. McEnery took the discharge when it was offered. The Marines landed on Peleliu in an amtrack [Annotator's Note: Landing Vehicle, Tracked, or LVT, is an amphibious tracked vehicle]. While on the LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] on the way to Guadalcanal another soldier started singing country music. McEnery thinks the quiet moments in the jungles on New Britain were scarier than the firefights on Peleliu because he thinks that once the firing begins adrenaline takes over and fear is pushed aside. The bravest thing McEnery has ever heard of was while on Hill 660, a guy nicknamed Railroad Kelly was wounded and another soldier named Tescovich creeped over to where Kelly laid and had Kelly put his arms around him. On the way out Kelly was shot again but he survived.

James McEnery thinks it is important to study all wars as he thinks each one has something to teach people. McEnery thinks that the Marines of today can learn from what they did in World War 2. McEnery thinks that Truman [Annotator's Note: President Harry S. Truman] was the best president of his lifetime. McEnery read recently that Truman did not lose a night's sleep for using the atomic bombs on Japan. The 3rd Battalion [Annotator's Note: 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] had a reunion in Kansas City, Missouri and McEnery and some others went to the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri. Somebody put a 1st Marine Division patch on an artillery gun at the Truman Museum. McEnery thinks it is important that museums exist to help people to remember what the men of World War 2 did for them. McEnery lost a lot of close friends and his perception of death is different from a lot of other people. McEnery has already lived longer than everyone in his family. He had to take a stress test and was afraid he was going to die. McEnery tries to avoid the VA [Annotator's Note: Veterans Administration] hospital because there are good doctors there but also a lot of bad ones.

James McEnery liked having the Dobermans around. McEnery remembers a shipment of dogs being delivered to them at the western end of New Guinea. A C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft] landed and the trainers unloaded the dogs and set one dog down in the middle and the other dogs arrayed around him. Another dog walked around the dog in the middle and every time the dog got close they would start fighting. The trainer beat them in order to separate them. McEnery questioned why he was beating the dogs and the guy responded that they had been fighting the whole trip and that it was the first time he ever saw a dog fight happen inside an airplane. Later on he saw the dog trainer pulling out gold teeth from dead Japanese soldiers while on patrol and was surprised that someone who was not a rookie would be doing that. McEnery wants everybody to think that he served his country honorably. He believes that the best friend a Marine can have is a hospital corpsman. McEnery once saved a corpsman's life on New Britain but thinks that it was a drop in the bucket when weighed against the thousands of Marines that the corpsmen saved. On New Britain the Marines burned out everything to create a field of fire to allow armor to pass more easily. The Japanese focused on creating fire lanes instead. They waited until their enemies crossed their lane to open up on them. The same concept was in place on Guadalcanal. On New Britain, a Marine was shot while crossing a lane and when a corpsman went to help the wounded Marine McEnery pulled him to safety because he knew that if the corpsman stopped to help, the Japanese soldier at the other end of the lane would shoot him too. McEnery thinks he had nightmares shortly after the war but has not for a very long time. He still thinks about the war every day. McEnery served with a lot of great men during his time in the Marines.