Jimmie F. Dyer was born and raised on a farm in Castro County, Texas in April 1926. His dad was a farmer and there were seven children. In the Depression, there were a lot of dirt storms that kind of blew away their farm. Dyer says that if a tumbleweed got caught on a fence, the dirt would be caught, and build-up, on that tumbleweed. The dirt storms were so strong that after one night, a cow would be able to walk over a fence. If you slept with your hand on chest, when you woke up in the morning there would be a print of your and in dirt there. In 1937 they drilled an irrigation well that solved the problem. Dyer started school in a brick school house. The first three grades were in one class together and it was crowded. After the dust storms had died off, he went to school in Dimmit, Texas. Two of Dyers' sisters were in the WACS [Annotator's Note: Women's Army Corps; women's branch of the U.S. Army, 1942 to 1978], one in Paris, France and one in the Philippines. His older brother worked in an aircraft factory in California. His sister in the Philippines was on an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] that she called "cute" and said they had tea. Dyer went from Guadalcanal to Okinawa, Japan on one and he did not think it was all that cute. Dyer and four others had gone to Amarillo, Texas to spend the night. He does not recall what he was doing there. On the way back home, the car was not getting gasoline so one person would have to ride on the fender and pour gas in using a Coke bottle. They heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and one person said that the war was started over a woman named Pearl. He had no idea then of the impact this would have on his life.

Jimmie Dyer entered the service in March 1944 after making a deal with his mother to finish high school. He was sworn in and then went back to high school. Nine days after finishing he was called to California. On 9 June 1944 he went on active duty. The war was on and Dyers' friend Billy and he decided to join the Army Air Corps. There were a lot of people in line, so they went to the Navy which had a long line too. The Marine Corps had the shortest line so that's where he signed up. He did not want to be drafted. The day the two were to report to get their physicals, Dyers' friend threw his own .22 caliber rifle on his bed and it went off, hitting him in the shoulder. He did not go with Dyer then. A few times when Dyer was on Okinawa, he thought that his friend had left him to go out there by himself. He enlisted because he wanted off of the family farm. Dyer went to boot camp in San Diego. As an 18 year old boy off the farm, learning to drill was tough. He did not mind the food, but he did mind having to run everywhere they went. One morning he did not shave so the drill instructor made him shave with a dull blade. Marine Corps punishment was called "up and on shoulders." They had to take an M1 howitzer [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 rifle, also referred to as the M1 Garand], which weighed about nine pounds, would have to be lifted up and taken behind your head and back. Dyer says he was in the best physical shape in his life there. He had shot guns before the service like shotguns and .22 special rifle. He won his group at the rifle range. The men in his boot camp were from all over the country. He had never heard someone use "Jesus Christ" as a cussword until then. It was a shock to him. New Yorkers thought that New York was the only place in the world.

Jimmie Dyer went through infantry training at Camp Pendleton, California. When he landed at Guadalcanal, where the 6th Marine Division was formed, he was assigned an artillery job [Annotator's Note: Dyer served as a loader on a 105mm howitzer in Battery C, 1st Battalion, 15th Marine Regiment, 6th Marine Division]. They were more or less assigned by where they were standing in line alphabetically, so almost everyone he was assigned with had last names starting with E. He had attended basic training in San Diego, California and then received a ten-day furlough and went home to Texas. His parents were scared to death for him. Every time they heard a song called Born to Lose [Annotator's Note: 1940s hit by Ted Daffan that has been recorded by 120 artists over time] come on, it would make his mother cry. He had been kind of a rascal. His father had not served in World War 1 due to his age. In infantry school, he was used to help fight fires in California. They also trained in amphibious landings, swimming with a full pack, walking with live ammunition on a course with Japanese soldier targets. He spent weekends in Los Angeles with his brother and his wife. He was awed by the city. He left Camp Pendleton around November 1944 for Guadalcanal. The 6th Marine Division was formed there with men from the 5th and 3rd Marines on Saipan, who all thought they were going home. In the first month Dyer was on Okinawa, there was at least one suicide every night. He says today's suicide rate for the military is not new. Those kids had jungle rot [Annotator's Note: also called Tropical ulcer; chronic ulcerative skin lesion common in tropical climates] on their feet and all kinds of other stuff going on and they found out they were not going home. He says that evidently the people in the United States did not know the tropics were wet and hot.

Jimmie Dyer went overseas on a ship that was designed as a tanker. It was a sorry piece of machinery. It was a tough voyage and almost everybody got seasick. The ship stopped in Hawaii and an American submarine surfaced near them. It was the first one he had seen. When they arrived on Guadalcanal, he was assigned guard duty immediately. There were huge lizards that were scary looking. There were still people [Annotator's Note: Japanese soldiers] coming out of the woods on Guadalcanal then. The American soldiers were expected to account for their ammunition. The first month there, Dyer lived off of coconuts. The chow hall was out in the open under the trees and it would be hit by coconuts. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks about the suicide rate of American servicemen.] Dyer says nothing was done to deal with the high number of suicides on Okinawa. The Navy corpsman assigned to Dyer's unit [Annotator's Note: Battery C, 1st Battalion, 15th Marine Regiment, 6th Marine Division] took poison and killed himself the night before they landed on Okinawa. The corpsman did not tell anyone the reason for doing so. On Guadalcanal, they loaded an entire battalion on one LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] including four 105 howitzers [Annotator's Note: 105mm M2A1 howitzer]. Their gasoline was all in 55 gallon barrels. When they tried to leave, the ship was grounded due to being too heavy, and had to wait for a tug to come in from Hawaii. It took them three weeks to get to Okinawa after they got pulled free. Dyer was assigned to the 6th Marine Division, 15th Regiment, C Battery, in November 1944. He loaded the artillery shells. He had been trained as an infantryman, but was assigned to an artillery unit. After the gun fired, the shell casings had to be gotten rid of. They went to China [Annotator's Note: to Tsingtao, China on 11 October 1945] after the Sixth Marine Division was disbanded [Annotator's Note: on 1 April 1946] and they became the 1st Marine Brigade [Annotator's Note: 1st Provisional Marine Brigade]. They took their artillery with them to China and trained new lieutenants on them.

Jimmie Dyer went from Guadalcanal to Okinawa. All of their equipment was on the deck of the ship and it rained the entire time. They put tarps between the trucks and slept in hammocks. They would get their food inside but could only eat outside. Nobody slept. One thing about war is that nobody sleeps. The kamikaze pilots were not very good. They missed more than they hit and often they did not disable the ones they did hit. The Navy had bombarded the island [Annotator's Note: Okinawa] well before they went ashore. The first night Dyer was in a foxhole with two other men. They went to the north end of the island in the battle. Each day they would pass the infantry with the artillery. Each night the infantry would pass them again. A Japanese pilot landed his airplane and the Americans killed him when he got out of it. The artillery traveled in six-by-six trucks [Annotator's Note: two and a half ton truck, also known as deuce and a half]. When they set up for the night, they would have to bury the dead Japanese. There were a lot of civilians on Okinawa and some were killed because they were not told to not do anything at night and made noise. Dyer says all of the farming was done by hand. They would have R&R [Annotator's Note: rest and recuperation] on the north end of the island. There were more civilians on the southern end. Dyer could not really tell the civilians from the Japanese soldiers. Dyer himself never killed anyone personally.

Jimmie Dyer and the 6th Marine Division was sent to replace the Army's 27th Infantry Division in the south of Okinawa. The Japanese landed one night and C Battery, 15th Regiment [Annotator's Note: Battery C, 1st Battalion, 15th Marine Regiment, 6th Marine Division] artillery was firing the 105mm howitzers [Annotator’s Note: 105mm M2A1 howitzer] straight down at them on the beach. They fired so many rounds that the barrel turned red. They poured water down it to cool it off. They were firing almost point blank. They were north of Naha. They had come ashore on the east side on 1 April 1945. They could not physically see the Japanese coming ashore. Artillery fires to a quadrant that is ordered. Dyer was not part of the Battle of Sugar Loaf Hill. [Annotator's Note: The Sugar Loaf Hill Complex consisted of three hills that formed the western anchor of the Shuri Line, the Japanese defense line across the southern coastline.] He was told the Americans were rolling gasoline barrels down into the caves and lighting them with a flamethrower. There was not much left of Naha when they came through. Dyer never had direct contact with the local population. Dyer and his unit left Okinawa and went to Guam, which is where they were when the war ended. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Dyer why they were sent to Guam. Dyer laughs and asks if it is a real question.] Dyer says there is one thing you learn in boot camp and that is privates do not ask questions.] Dyer was on Guam twice. They did go to Japan to disarm the Naval bases there but never landed.

Jimmie Dyer and the 6th US Marine Division turned loose the kids who were training to be kamikaze pilots. Dyer later met one in the United States. They were close to Yokosuka [Annotator's Note: Yokosuka, Japan]. Tokyo had been shattered. They stayed on the Japanese Naval Base at Yokosuka. By the time Dyer and his unit [Annotator's Note: Battery C, 1st Battalion, 15th Marine Regiment, 6th Marine Division] landed, the Japanese were out of ammunition. Dyer had no feelings about going ashore in Japan. His unit was not told that Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt] had died. He was on Guam when the war ended, and then he and the unit went straight to Japan. Dyer says he was on the Missouri [Annotator's Note: USS Missouri (BB-63)] standing guard over the Japanese Generals on the ship. Dyer was unloading a ship of hardwood on Guam when he heard the war was over. There were some pies the cook had put out to cool, and they stole the pies to celebrate. He only spent three weeks in Japan, picking up small arms. All he really saw were old men and women. They then returned to Guam where the 6th Marine Division was dissolved. They formed the 1st Marine Brigade and sent them to China in December. [Annotator's Note: They arrived in Tsingtao, China on 11 October 1945.] They nearly froze there.

Jimmie Dyer does not recall having any feelings one way or the other against the Japanese at the time, although he feels he did. The Japanese his unit [Annotator's Note: 1st Provisional Marine Brigade] relieved in China did not believe the pictures of the destruction Tokyo and knew very little about the war. Dyer does not recall the unit he was assigned to in the 1st Marine Brigade. Dyer had contact with Chinese through the black market. There were no Communists in Tsingtao, China. He lived in a Japanese house with a houseboy who did chores. The duty was not bad. The Chinese army was nothing. They could take a rifle from them with no problem. They were not getting paid and had no ammunition. The American chow hall had been a horse stable of the German Army. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer tells stories of Chinese attacking the Japanese troops. Dyer did not see any of that.] Dyer returned to the United States in July 1946. He had been in China since December 1945 [Annotator's Note: actually, since 11 October 1945].

Jimmie Dyer returned to the United States in July 1946. He wanted to surprise his family. His uncle was the undertaker in Hereford, Texas. He asked his uncle to drive him close to his family's farm to let him surprise them. All of the family who had served were out now and gathered there. Dyer was discharged in San Diego, California 8 August 1946. He was promoted to corporal on that day. He had not given any thought to staying in. Later when jobs got scarce, he thought maybe he should have. He was assigned to the inactive reserve. He was not called up for the Korean War. He did not take advantage of the G.I. Bill. He did go to college but not until he was 29 years old and it had elapsed. He did get some training paid by the government. He had some problems with alcohol and had trouble transitioning to being a civilian. He does not blame the war stress though. He really enjoyed being on Guadalcanal, in the jungle.

Jimmie Dyer enlisted to fight in World War 2 because he thought that the country needed to fight. He never questioned the morality of it despite thinking war is an awful thing to do. The war changed his life later on because of the people he met afterwards. It was all very serious. His service means a lot to him because he feels that nobody really cares for the underdog. He always felt like he had something to offer. He has five grown children now. There was nothing romantic about his service. Movies now tend to glorify the war and that it is not the way it is. He read the book, "The Greatest Generation" [Annotator's Note: 1988 book by journalist Tom Brokaw that popularized the term], and he got angrier the more he read it. As far as he knows, the author did not talk to anybody who was on the level Dyer was in the war.