John H. Cole was born in January 1922 in Greene County, Arkansas, in a little community named Epsby [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling, unable to identify] near Beech Grove. They moved from there to Hooker Switch then from there to Scatter Creek. Then, in 1930, they moved to Woods Chapel [Annotator's Note: Woods Chapel, Arkansas], south of Paragould [Annotator's Note: Paragould, Arkansas] and that is where he spent the most of his young life. He got married in early 1942, and about eight months later he was drafted. He went to Little Rock [Annotator's Note: Little Rock, Arkansas] to be sworn in, had a two week furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], then returned to be outfitted. He traveled by troop train to Portland, Oregon, then was bussed to Camp Adair, near Albany, Oregon. Oregon was rainy. They were all rookies, who did not know one command from another, when they started basic training. It was all about Army life, and where each man stands in the military. Cole was a buck private [Annotator's Note: the lowest rank in the military; E1]. The first thing he had to remember was his serial number. He will never forget it. He was good at close order drill and was soon issued a weapon and his pack. Basic training was rough, and it was physical. Combat training was mental. The recruits walked and ran everywhere. They practiced at the rifle range from sunup to sundown, and everybody had to qualify. Every evening, his rifle and shoes had to be cleaned. Toward the end, he participated in two 30 mile hikes. At the infiltration course, they crawled through mud on their bellies, under barbed wire with .30 caliber machine guns [Annotator's Note: Browning M1919 .30 caliber air cooled light machine gun] firing over their heads, for about 100 yards. He crawled along the course and spotted his battalion commander, a colonel, crawling right beside him. The commanding officers would not ask the recruits to do anything they would not do. They led you. They also did amphibious training when it was learned that they would be transferring from the European Theater to the Pacific Theater and would be making ship-to-shore landings.

John H. Cole was shipped to San Louis Obispo [Annotator's Note: San Louis Obispo, California] to continue training on LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank]. From there, he went to San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California]. The troops were loaded on their first ship, rode it out to sea for an overnight turnaround, and practiced beach landing. It was then they were told they would be leaving within two to three hours. They went to Los Angeles [Annotator's Note: Los Angeles, California] and Cole and a few buddies went into town. People cheered them. He was not a drinking man, but he had some liquor when he took the train to Camp Stoneman [Annotator's Note: in Pittsburg, California]. There was a sign over the dock that said, "Through these portals pass the best damned soldiers in the world." Cole has to agree with that. He soon boarded an old Norwegian pleasure boat, and although some of his shipmates got seasick, Cole did not. The boat made it to Honolulu [Annotator's Note: Honolulu, Hawaii]. While there, he was volunteered to go along on a trip to an Army junkyard to find a truck that would run and had brakes. They were hauling rations one day, and on the way back, he and some buddies stopped alongside a plantation to pick some pineapples. This was forbidden to the soldiers, but in spite of the armed guards, they got away with them. The men threw the carcasses of three sheep into the latrine because they didn't like lamb. They went off for a sea trial, and when they returned to base, they had to use the next company's bathroom because their own had such a bad odor. They spent a few weeks in Hawaii then loaded up and headed out.

About a day away from Hawaii, while John H. Cole was headed for Eniwetok [Annotator's Note: Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands], an announcement came over the ship's loudspeakers to say they were headed to the Philippine Islands instead. They crossed the Equator, and because it was Cole's first time, he went through an initiation and got a certificate [Annotator's Note: the Crossing the Line Ceremony is an initiation rite that commemorates a person's first crossing of the Equator]. The ship was on its way to meet some Australian and other American troops and entered a natural harbor. Suddenly, they started dropping ash cans [Annotator's Note: slang for depth charges, explosive charges used for attacking submarines] because it was rumored that a small Japanese submarine was trying to sneak in under the belly of an Army personnel ship. He did not last long. They landed on an island whose coconut trees had been denuded and looked like high-line poles. The only other thing on the island was a tavern full of beer and ice. The soldiers spent the day on the island. The ship went on to Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines], firing antiaircraft fire, but the Japanese air strikes didn't materialize. Cole's regiment [Annotator's Note: Cole was a member of Company M, 3rd Battalion, 381st Infantry Regiment, 96th Infantry Division] was put into Army reserve and kept on the ship. He was in the 381st Regiment of the 96th Division. The soldiers were sitting on the ship's deck, playing pinochle [Annotator's Note: a card game], and they spotted a Japanese fighter that came right at their ship, strafing as he went. The men scrambled belowdecks. The next day, everyone was ordered off the ship because Japanese naval forces were coming into the bay. Cole went down a cargo net to the landing craft below in full gear and carrying his M1 rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand]. When Cole looked up, the mail clerk was hanging from the net by one foot. Cole was assigned to help him get upright and down the ropes. That night, the regiment was bedded down amongst artillery that was firing at Japanese aircraft. That concussion could shake you up. There was a trouble spot up above their encampment, where there was a lot of growth and no roads. Cole's unit was sent up to see what was going on. They walked right into enemy fire. It was his first combat experience. Cole was carrying a radio on his back and dropped into a hole. Bullets were flying above him, but he made it. He called for tank. They came up and took the pressure off. It began raining, and the unit backed down to a level place and dug in. Foxholes soon filled with water, and the soldiers spent the night that way. The tanks had circled, and the infantry was inside the circle. The next night, Cole and a buddy got permission to stay in an outside compartment of one of the tanks to keep warm and out of the rain. When they got back down to camp and took off their boots, their feet looked like prunes.

After Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines] was secured [Annotator's Note: on 14 January 1945], John H. Cole went to Samar [Annotator's Note: Samar Island, Philippines] for two weeks. They camped in an old schoolhouse, with electric lights powered by a generator. One of the soldiers, a Kentuckian, collected the needed items and distilled rice liquor. Just when it was finished cooking, the division [Annotator's Note: 96th Infantry Division] was called up to return to Leyte. Despite dire warnings, some of the men drank from the not ready batch. One guy went crazy, and it took four men to hold him down. The company commander drank some and was deathly sick. The men loaded onto LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] and were underway when Cole noticed rooster tails coming out of the water. He learned they were caused by PT boats [Annotator's Note: patrol torpedo boats]. A couple of days after they arrived in Leyte, Cole found out he was going to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. He had an attack of stomach cramps and went to the medical unit to get it checked. The first doctor he saw was a psychiatrist. That doctor sent him on. Cole had hookworms [Annotator's Note: intestinal, blood-feeding, parasitic roundworms that cause infection]. By the time he got back to camp, the company [Annotator's Note: Company M, 3rd Battalion, 381st Infantry Regiment, 96th Infantry Division] had moved on. Cole stayed behind to clean up the island. He hired some locals to help collect the Army debris. He was sent on to Okinawa and had to walk from the beach to find his company. On the way, he was interviewed by a reporter who quoted him in an article which Cole has kept. When he reached his unit, it was stalled on one side of a hill, and the enemy was stalled on the other side of the crest. The mosquitos were bad, and it started raining. He pitched a tent, and about nine in the evening, the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] started dropping mortars. The Americans fired back, and things quietened down.

John H. Cole looked up and saw a bomb coming toward him [Annotator's Note: while on Okinawa, Japan]. It tumbled to the ground nearby. Fortunately it was a dud. The enemy began random fire, and the soldiers didn't know where to go. The Japanese were very good marksmen. A Cub [Annotator's Note: Piper J-3 Cub light observation aircraft] was patrolling and spied the muzzle of the offending cannon pull back into a rock bunker. He radioed the ground troops. The pilot said it was quite a sight to see that gun and all that ammunition blow up. The troops arrived at an escarpment and couldn't get over it. The Air Force came in with jelly bombs [Annotator's Note: the interviewer interjects that it was napalm, a mixture of a gelling agent and a petrochemical] and plastered the hillside. You would have thought the world was on fire. The troops started up the hill and were surprised to find the enemy still there. Next, the tanks came in with flamethrowers [Annotator's Note: ranged incendiary device that projects a controllable jet of fire], and the infantry followed them. They finally made it up onto the escarpment. They crested the hill and went just a few miles to the end of the road, then stopped. Several hundred of the enemy, including their ranking officers, had taken cover in a cave. Interpreters were brought in, and for two days they tried to talk them out. The captives were warned, but refused to surrender, so the Americans blew it up. They sealed off the entrance with a dozer [Annotator's Note: a bulldozer]. Cole thinks they might all still be in there. After a rest, Cole's company [Annotator's Note: Company M, 3rd Battalion, 381st Infantry Regiment, 96th Infantry Division] started back toward the north end of the island. Their instructions were if they saw a cave that is not sealed, seal it, if saw something that was not right, blow it up. Other Japanese individuals gave themselves up, and the islanders began attempting to return home. The Americans set tripwires [Annotator's Note: a wire or cord attached to an explosive], and once or twice a night one would go off. A Japanese soldier was hit and moaned and groaned all night. Nobody dared going out to get him. The next morning Cole and several others cautiously went out to find the Japanese laying there, looking up. The Japanese were known to blow themselves, and everything around them, up with a grenade, rather than be captured. The injured man mumbled, and someone gave him a cigarette, but he was in bad shape. Among the Americans, there was a hardhearted Polish fellow, who took his .45 [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber M191 semi-automatic pistol] and blew the cigarette out of his mouth. That was the end of the war for Cole, except for a period of R&R [Annotator's Note: rest and recuperation]. During the time he was in Okinawa, Colonel Easley [Annotator's Note: US Army Brigadier General Claudius Miller Easley] went up to the front lines and got a bullet right between the eyes. His replacement, who came from the lines, was not liked, and the men forced him to give up all authority.

John H. Cole was on his way to Japan for the invasion when the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945] were dropped. The medics brought out the alcohol, and the cooks brought out the grapefruit juice to make drinks, but Cole didn't like the taste. He thought they were going to sink the ship. The mental part of combat was rough, and the training paid off. He spent a week in the snow in the mountains of California. Their mission was to find their food. While he and a buddy were wandering around, they found some dried white pine chunks that they used to build a fire and keep warm. Cole learned about the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] from an announcement on a car radio. He knew it was coming, just not when. One of his brothers was already in service, another stayed home with his family and helped his father on the farm. On Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines], Cole did not spend much time on the front line. But once, when he was on guard duty up on the grassy hills, someone looked up and saw paratroopers coming through the sky. It was like a turkey shoot, until the battalion commander stopped their fire. He told them to wait until the enemy landed and shoot them if they took out a grenade or fired their weapons, otherwise take them prisoner. The Army wanted to interrogate them. It was spooky for a few minutes but didn't last long. The battalion [Annotator's Note: Cole was a member of Company M, 3rd Battalion, 381st Infantry Regiment, 96th Infantry Division] was on Leyte for three or four weeks before the airstrip was built. Once it was ready, they brought in a squadron of P-38s [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft]. Cole watched a P-38 chase a Japanese Betty Bomber [Annotator's Note: Mitsubishi G4M medium bomber, known as the Betty]. It was no contest at all. Three American planes coordinated their attack to send an enemy fighter into the sea. Cole saw a pilot bail out of a P-38 and survive the landing. Once he was in his bunk and heard someone yell "water!" A nearby stream had overflowed. The soldiers sat up, pulled everything they had onto their bunks and waited until the deluge subsided. Cole had no close calls on Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan], nor did he ever shoot at anyone while he was there. Water was scarce. He didn't have a shower until he was on R&R [Annotator's Note: rest and recuperation]. They couldn't carry extra clothes, because they had enough stuff to carry without that. On one occasion, he was facing a buddy while talking, when suddenly his buddy's lip started bleeding. He had been hit by sniper fire. He was fired upon by American mortars once, having been mistaken for an enemy radioman.

John H. Cole was in Company M, 3rd Battalion, 381st Heavy Weapons [Annotator's Note: Company M, 3rd Battalion, 381st Infantry Regiment, 96th Infantry Division]. He started out on the M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand], and even carried an '03 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber Model 1903, or M1903, Springfield bolt action rifle], a rifle he called the best rifle ever made and the most accurate. He finally wound up with a carbine [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine] and a .45 [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber M1911 semi-automatic pistol]. Cole was a communications person, a position rarely filled by anyone higher than a PFC [Annotator's Note: private first class], but he was promoted to sergeant in the field. Once in training, Cole and a buddy went by the base prison and were mocked by the inmates for having to work while the prisoners had nothing to do but eat and lay around. Cole's buddy threatened the lot of them with the loaded .45 he always carried and made it clear to the man in charge that he would not tolerate the ridicule anymore. Whenever they passed the place again, it was quiet. Some men got into sports to get extra time off from working. A doctor got tired of the same guy coming in every Monday for sick call and threatened the patient with a dishonorable discharge. The man never returned. One man shot himself in the foot. He had been anxious to get into combat, but once he got there, he wanted to return seaside. That was when Cole found out that it was a court martial offense to disable oneself in any way to get out of the Army. Cole's duties were supposed to include supervision of the jeep driver, but that guy knew his job. Money was scarce, but the things he needed were free, and there was nothing to buy. He traded Army goods for anything he wanted from the Gooks [Annotator's Note: derogatory term for people of Asian descent]. The Philippine people considered the Americans rich. They saw very few civilians on Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. The first time a guy got shot in the back, the Army decided there would be no more buildings left standing. The Marines did not do the same when they moved south to meet the Army in the middle of the island. So when the Marines tried to return to the north tip of the island, the Japanese came out of their holes and caves. The Army had to come in and reinforced their ranks.

When John H. Cole got home, he returned to the farm and realized it was not the way he would make his living. He tried to return to Saint Louis [Annotator's Note: Saint Louis, Missouri] and his old job at Majestic Stove Company, but they were on strike. He eventually went to Peoria [Annotator's Note: Peoria, Illinois] and worked for Caterpillar [Annotator's Note: Caterpillar Incorporated] for five years, then took a job with his neighbor at Interactive Paper. Cole's four sons have had successful work careers. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Cole if he thinks it is important to teach the younger generations about World War 2.] You better believe it, so that when the veterans are dead, the world can know what really happened over there. Cole feels that they paid their dues. He laments the suffering of the soldiers who were taken prisoners of war. His combat division [Annotator's Note: Cole was a member of Company M, 3rd Battalion, 381st Infantry Regiment, 96th Infantry Division] was one of the best trained in history. And he believes his generation was one of the greatest. He believes it important to have museums like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] to record the history. Personally, he never talked about the war, and compares his reticence to that of his daughter, who worked with computers until she retired, but will not own a computer today. When he first talked about his experiences, many people didn't want to believe what he told them about the war. He found it hard to face the boys who ran home to daddy and the farm and got deferments. Cole appreciates being asked to tell his story, and hopes his interview strikes home.