John Mikus, Jr. was born in Meadow Lands, Pennsylvania in October 1921. His father was a coal miner. Mikus had seven sisters and was the only boy. Things were slow. There was no work. They scratched out a living and had a big garden. They had plenty to eat but Christmas came without toys. Having enough to eat was good. His parents had the hard part. Growing up for the kids, they had a lot of fun. Mikus had a paper route. Back then, if one person had a job it was enough. That is not true today. There was no such thing as welfare. There were no refrigerators. They ate fruit when it was in season. They always said it was the land of milk and honey after World War 2, and it turned out to be that way. Mikus was a carpenter in Pennsylvania and things were slow. A cousin worked for Lincoln Electric [Annotator's Note: Lincoln Electric Holdings, Inc.] and got him a job, so he moved [Annotator's Note: to Cleveland, Ohio]. Back then, when people say they built their house, they did do that. Mikus did a lot with Little League Baseball and his kids had a field behind their house and a swimming pool. Mikus got out of high school in 1940. He was the first one in his family to go to high school. He went to the CCC [Annotator's Note: Civilian Conservation Corps] for a year. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Mikus if he remembers where he was or what he was doing when heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] Mikus was working in a coal mine, the second shift that day. A guy came in and told him. He wondered how a place only as big as California was bombing the United States. He worked six months and he enlisted in the Marine Corps in July 1942 with some friends.

When John Mikus, Jr. enlisted in the Marine Corps, war was different than it is today. The whole country went to war. The guys who did not go in the military were classified as 4F [Annotator's Note: Selective Service classification for individuals who are not fit for service in the Armed Forces]. Girls would give the single guys who were not at war a negative look. After he came back from the service, he found out he would not have gotten drafted since he was a coal miner. He would not have liked that. He wanted to be a pilot but was not smart enough to pass the test. So, he and his friends joined the Marine Corps and went to boot camp together. Mikus is glad he went. He had never heard such language as he did in boot camp. Guys told them they would be sorry, and they were. They were tough. He went to boot camp at Parris Island [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in Port Royal, South Carolina]. Looking back at in now, it was funny. You never called your rifle a gun. One guy kept calling his rifle a gun. They tied him naked and tied sign on his stinger [Annotator's Note: slang for penis] that said, "this is my gun." It was not funny then, but it is now. Mikus found out about the paratroopers the hard way. When he left boot camp, he was put in the 24th Marines, 4th Marine Division [Annotator's Note: 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division]. He met some people from near his hometown. He was a mortar man. His sergeant said he was only going to do that. The parachute school was nearby at Hadnot Point [Annotator's Note: part of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina]. Guys would go over and be back after a few days because they could not take it. Mikus teased them. His sergeant had told him he would not send him over. The sergeant went on liberty [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] one weekend and Mikus got sent over. He could not come back because he had to make it. He thought boot camp was tough, but these guys were strict. There was no abuse, but they worked them. Mikus made it. The women Marines took over their barracks after that.

In paratrooper training, John Mikus, Jr. was trained as infantry. They had special weapons. In boot camp, they used the 03 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber Model 1903, or M1903, Springfield bolt action rifle]. In the last week, they introduced the M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand]. In the paratroopers, they got the Johnson rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1941 Johnson semi-automatic rifle] and the Johnson light [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1941 Johnson Light Machine Gun]. He thinks it was far superior to the BAR [Annotator's Note: M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle; also known as the BAR]. After Bougainville [Annotator's Note: Bougainville Campaign, Papua New Guinea, November 1943 to November 1944], they did not use them anymore as the paratroopers were broken up. They could carry the rifle in a sack with them. There were machine gun and mortar sections, but his company was a rifle company. The three battalions overseas were the 1st [Annotator's Note: 1st Marine Parachute Battalion], 2nd [Annotator's Note: 2nd Marine Parachute Battalion] and 3rd Battalions [Annotator's Note: 3rd Marine Parachute Battalion]. Mikus was in the 1st in A Company [Annotator's Note: Company A, 1st Marine Parachute Battalion]. [Annotator's Note: Mikus asks the interviewer if he knows of Fagan, Major Richard Fagan.] Everybody in the paratroopers knew Fagan. Mikus just found out that he got the Congressional Medal of Honor [Annotator's Note: the Medal of Honor is the highest award a United States service member can receive who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor] in Korea [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953]. He was 52 when Mikus knew him. He was a character, a "first class bastard but when the shooting started, he was calm as cucumber." He remembers especially on Bougainville. They were supposed to surprise them [Annotator's Note: the Japanese] but they knew they were coming, and they only made it a couple hundred yards in. They wore green dungarees and camouflaged helmets. In paratrooper training, they had to make six jumps and pack their own chutes to qualify. They always opened. Mikus did not like to ride in the plane and was glad to get out on his first jump. He turned a flipflop. He never had much luck hitting the ground the way they said he should. Every time he landed it was the same way. Fagan was their company commander in New Caledonia [Annotator's Note: New Caledonia, Oceania]. Once Mikus' helmet flew off and Fagan saw that. Fagan lined up all the men and told Mikus there had better be a malfunction in that helmet. They found the helmet and the strap had broken. He was excused. The Army just stepped out of the plane; the Marines dove out.

John Mikus, Jr. took a ship zig-zagging [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] across [Annotator's Note: the Pacific Ocean]. They went by some islands where they saw bombing and landed in Noumea, New Caledonia. They slept seven high and could go on deck any time. You did not want to be the guy on the bottom. You only had water for so many minutes. They could shower with salt water but had to use a different kind of soap. He spent most of his time in the chow [Annotator's Note: food] line. He did not love corn bread. They had corn bread and beans for breakfast on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They were at New Caledonia for a long time. Major Fagan [Annotator's Note: later US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Richard Fagan] had officers' quarters there and they had a bar. Some of the older guys raided the bar one time. Fagan made a call to arms and they thought it was an invasion. He was going around smelling everybody's breath. Mikus found out later who had stolen it. They put the bottles in the river to hide them. The island was mountainous and a lot of wooded area. They trained there. He does not remember much about it there. They lived in tents. Captain Torgerson [Annotator's Note: later US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Harry Lawrence “Torge” Torgerson] had two Johnsons [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1941 Johnson semi-automatic rifle]. There was a rumor that he was gay. He would get beer somehow for the men. The guys [Annotator's Note: Marines] on Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal Campaign, 7 August 1942 to 9 February 1943; Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands] went to New Zealand or Australia to hospitals. Mikus and his group were replacements for them. They joined them at Guadalcanal, but the Army had already taken over. They then took LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] to Vella Lavella [Annotator's Note: Battle of Vella Lavella, 15 August to 6 October 1943; Vella Lavella, Solomon Islands]. Kennedy [Annotator's Note: John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the United States] was there in PT-Boats [Annotator's Note: patrol torpedo boat]. They were their radar. When they started their motors up, it was time to get out of there.

John Mikus, Jr. was with the old paratroopers on Vella Lavella [Annotator's Note: Battle of Vella Lavella, 15 August to 6 October 1943; Vella Lavella, Solomon Islands] in LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank]. He could not understand running the boat right up on shore. They were told to unload as fast as they could because they had to get the LSTs off the beach. When the sirens started blowing and the planes started coming, men were running past him to get off the LST. Mikus jumped into the first hole he saw and there were two men already in it. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer talks about some boats getting bombed there.] Mikus' boat got out alright, but it was stuck. A guy with a truck was trying to push it. He slammed it loose, but the truck was shot. They went on patrols a few times and it was the first time he saw a Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese]. The Jap was next to a big tree and they had surprised him. He took off running and the Gunnery Sergeant [Annotator's Note: senior staff non-commissioned officer in the US Marine Corps equivalent to a Sergeant First Class in the Army; E-7] shot him. He was running away so Mikus wondered why he should shoot him. They got a good lecture about what they were there for after that. He was Japanese Navy personnel. They never had stiff opposition there. They had some snipers. You would try to find out where they were. They were tied in the trees.

John Mikus, Jr. left from Vella Lavella [Annotator's Note: Vella Lavella, Solomon Islands] on Higgins boats [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP; also known as the Higgins boat] for Bougainville [Annotator's Note: Bougainville campaign, Papua New Guinea, November 1943 to November 1944]. They got there in the dark and started to move in. There was not supposed to be anybody there. Mikus saw medical supply boxes stacked up and told his buddy he was sure somebody was watching them. They got in a couple of hundred yards and all hell broke loose. They took a lot of casualties and everybody started digging holes. Fortunately, the 155s [Annotator's Note: M1 155mm howitzer; nicknamed "Long Tom"] were front of them and fired all day long. The word was passed. When they heard "take a powder," they were supposed to head to the beach. Mikus has a friend who was wounded three times. He was shot in boot camp and on Bougainville he was laying on the beach when all of the guys came running out. He thought they were being overrun. Fagan [Annotator's Note: later US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Richard Fagan] told them to go back. They had to shoot their way back in. They were shooting in the dark not knowing what they were hitting. They were told again to take a powder and it was a mad rush. His was one of the last boats to leave the beach. The destroyers started covering the area. They were waiting for them. That day they had their chutes [Annotator's Note: parachutes] packed to jump. They would never had hit the ground, so they were sent in on the beach. Mikus never had any trouble with gun jams. On Iwo [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945; Iwo Jima, Japan], he could not get his M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand] to fire. He had his pistol which was a good thing. After they withdrew, they went to straight to the United States. This was around the time they shot down a big Japanese general. They decided to bypass Rabaul [Annotator's Note: Rabaul, Papua New Guinea] and just bomb it. They went all the way to the United States to reorganize. We [Annotator's Note: the Allies] had control of the Pacific then.

John Mikus, Jr. almost got shot when he got back to the United States. He wanted to call home. The women Marines had come in and were patrolling the barracks. Mikus saw a telephone sign and went into the barracks. It was a women's barracks and they started screaming. The MPs [Annotator's Note: military police] came after him. He ran and had no idea where he was. He hid and then finally found his barracks. He thinks they would have shot him. He did not make his phone call. The paratroopers and the Raiders were broken up on the boat over. He was assigned to the 5th Marine Division [Annotator's Note: Company E, 2nd Battalion, 26th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division]. They got leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and went home. He came back. His lieutenant was named Barber [Annotator's Note: later US Marine Corps Colonel William Earl Barber]. He came out of the barracks. He had been an instructor in parachute school and was now a second lieutenant. Mikus was invited to their barracks which he was not supposed to do. He had had an incident with Barber in a craps game [Annotator's Note: betting game using dice]. They recognized each other now. Barber asked Mikus where his ribbons were. They had an exchange. Mikus told him, "you went to school, and we went to war." Things did not go well. Captain Higgins [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] was in charge and told him to do what Barber told him. Barber and Mikus left Iwo [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan] the same day. Barber went to Korea [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] and got the Medal of Honor [Annotator's Note: the Medal of Honor is the highest award a United States service member can receive who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor]. Mikus went swimming with a woman where he lives, whose father served with Barber in Korea. She gave him a book on it. They had straightened out their differences and saw each other at reunions. War was war. Barber wanted Mikus to take over the squad when they went to Iwo [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945, Iwo Jima, Japan]. Barber told him he thought he would shoot him if he had the chance. Mikus told him he would not because he wanted him to live and suffer with the rest of them. Mikus slept with his pistol.

John Mikus, Jr. was in E Company, 26th Marines [Annotator's Note: Company E, 2nd Battalion, 26th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division] as a rifleman. They had quite a bit more training than the other Marines but all training together. It was not mentioned. The mail in the service was censored. Mikus and a guy named Stoval [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] would always read Spitz's [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] mail to his girlfriend. Spitz said he was going to put a bullet right between Mikus' eyes one day. [Annotator's Note: Mikus laughs.] A shell landed in the hole that Spitz was in and he got a lot of shrapnel in his hind end. Spitz always told Mikus he looked at them as if to say he was no good anymore and left them. Mikus attended Spitz's wedding. Mikus landed on D-Day [Annotator's Note: the day on which an operation or invasion takes effect] on Iwo [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945; Iwo Jima, Japan]. They were supposed to be in the reserve, but they were losing so many men, they went in on the 13th wave. Mikus was looking over the boat to see what was going on. They were being told the causalities were light and he was seeing boats blown out of the water. They did not have a hard time hitting the beach and moved across the whole island. They did not fire a shot across the whole island. Suribachi [Annotator's Note: Mount Suribachi] was to their left. The Japanese were all underground. It was different coming back because the Japanese were behind them now. This was wide open with nowhere to hide. There were bomb craters but no vegetation. You only saw things jetting around. Sometimes you did not know who it was. The enemy fire was coming from Suribachi. They went up Suribachi and were just holding the area. Mikus was there six days. He was getting ready to pull out on his seventh day. He was by a building and a shell landed short. The next shell went long. Mikus told his buddy he knew where the next one would land, and they dove in a hole. It hit the building. Mikus had his back towards it and shrapnel hit him in the back. His friend's ears were bleeding from the noise. Mikus got sent back and put on a boat. He felt alright and tried to get off the boat, but they would not let him. He thinks he got off easy.

John Mikus, Jr. was never attacked from the air [Annotator's Note: during the Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945; Iwo Jima, Japan]. They heard them [Annotator's Note: the Japanese troops] at night. After Mikus was wounded, he stayed in the area for three or four days. The ones in bad shape went to a hospital ship. They set out for the United States but went to Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] to a hospital for a while. He came home with the Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions]. What a bunch. They were older guys, and the food was fantastic. It was not uncommon to see men in their 50s and 60s. Mikus had Army dog tags because he had lost his earlier. He was in line and a cook came over and said they do not feed the Army. He was then sorry he had insulted a Marine and took him to the front of the line. [Annotator's Note: Mikus tells some colorful jokes.] In New Caledonia, Mikus and a guy named Vance [Annotator's Note: no given name provided; unable to identify] were hitchhiking. People were passing them up. It was 15 miles to the USO [Annotator's Note: United Services Organization, inc.] and getting dark, so they started using colorful language. A jeep stopped and it was Fagan [Annotator's Note: later US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Richard Fagan] with his two pistols. He ordered them to the brig [Annotator's Note: military prison aboard a Naval vessel or base; slang for jail] which was a tent with chicken fence around it. He told them they were on bread and water. The new guards told them to get their mess kits. Fagan saw them and sent them back to the brig. They were court-martialed and got office hours. Fagan came in hollering. Mikus' extra duty was to chauffeur Fagan around. Mikus did not have a license and got out of it. When it came to war, he [Annotator's Note: Fagan] was calm as a cucumber. Mikus stopped at Guam after being evacuated. He felt bad leaving the men. He tried to get back but could not. The casualties were terrible.

John Mikus, Jr.'s rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand] did not fire when he was moving up the beach on Iwo [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945, Iwo Jima, Japan]. He never had to use it and had his .45 [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber M1911 semi-automatic pistol]. He cleaned the rifle and it was okay. A guy got hit in the back and you could put an egg in the hole. Mikus gave him morphine. He saw that he would live, and they got him back. They were carrying him and the poncho ripped. After some days with nothing to eat, they were weak. Mikus told him that they were coming and if he wanted to live, he would have to get up. The dust was flying around them and he got up and ran. The weather was damp and rainy. It was warm. The soil was warm on Iwo. It could warm up their rations. They did not get rations for three days. They only had D-bars [Annotator's Note: Army Field Ration D; chocolate bar intended as snack food] they landed with. When you are hungry, everything is good. Mikus got discharged in November 1945. There was a guy by the door trying to get men to stay in. Mikus wishes he had had a camera and voice recorder to capture some of the answers he got. Mikus wanted out. Mikus knew of one of the Navajo Code talkers [Annotator's Note: also called Diné code talkers, one group of many Native American groups of code talkers which are people employed by the military to use a little-known language as a means of secret communication] but did not have anything to do with them. Mikus has seen them at reunions. Mikus was in Hawaii when the war ended. They were preparing for the invasion of Japan. After it ended, they went to where they would have invaded. They landed in Sasebo, Japan where they dropped the second atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, 9 August 1945]. They were walking all around the rubble. No one told them about radiation. In Hawaii, Mikus saw the Marines kind of rebelled against the military for the first time. They were preparing to go into Japan, even though they had enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] to get out. Some of the officers were getting out who did not have the points. Some of the guys were starting to throw garbage cans at the officers as they left. They had signed up for duration plus six months. They did not want to go to Japan. The Japanese had prepared to die if the bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945] had not gone off. He was not there long. Mikus was not anxious about going. They had a new lieutenant. They were marching along a road and there were about 60 people there. There were no young men there so that concerned them. His lieutenant asked what they should do. Mikus said to load up [Annotator's Note: their weapons with ammunition]. When the Japanese saw this, the people scattered. Mikus will not buy a Japanese product if he can help it. Had they landed troops on Hawaii, we would have been in trouble. Most of them are gone now. You cannot buy anything if you do not buy something Japanese. Mikus could have gone to Iwo but he does not particularly care to see that anymore. Pick out the funny parts and laugh it. Mikus probably would have ended up a coal miner if he had stayed in Pennsylvania but instead, he used the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] to get into the carpenter's trade. [Annotator's Note: The interview ends abruptly.]