John Wesley Tatum was born in 1919 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He worked in North Carolina at a pole mill in Leland before the war. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Tatum where he heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] He had come back home because the war clouds were heavy. He picked up the message on the radio. He enlisted in Tuscaloosa [Annotator's Note: Tuscaloosa, Alabama] in 1942. He went to Parris Island [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in Port Royal, South Carolina] and then to Camp LeJeune [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina] which was just beginning. They lived in tents as there were no buildings. It was all mud. The training was intense after which 13 train loads left for San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California]. He went aboard the P-13 ship [Annotator's Note: the USS George F. Elliott (AP-13) with Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division]. It stuck in their minds due to superstition about the number 13. They first went to New Zealand and set up camp [Annotator's Note: June 1942]. They did a little training but mostly loading and unloading ships. They left there and were going to land in the Fijis [Annotator's Note: Fiji Islands, Oceania] but could not do so at the selected island due to the coral reefs. In the meantime, the Navy got word from MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] that the Japanese had completed an airstrip on Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. They went right to the invasion [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal Campaign, 7 August 1942 to 9 February 1943, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands].

John Wesley Tatum was in Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division when they landed on Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal Campaign, 7 August 1942 to 9 February 1943, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. Tatum went in on the third wave. When they landed and went ashore, they were taking a circuitous route to Mount Austen. After three days they were called back to the beach. Everyone had eaten all of their rations. They got chow at the beach and moved up the coast across the Tenaru River where the 1st Regiment set up. The 5th [Annotator's Note: 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] set up across the airport and the 7th [Annotator's Note: 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] took Tulagi [Annotator's Note: Tulagi or Tulaghi Island, Solomon Islands]. The Navy took off and left them there. They had to eat bananas and coconuts. The Japanese were sinking nearly every ship that came in. They set up their gun emplacements facing the Tenaru and the airport, Henderson Field [Annotator's Note: Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. They [Annotator's Note: the Japanese] had snipers who climbed coconut trees and tied themselves in. The men set up their defense line and that is where Tatum was. The Japanese came on the night of 20 August [Annotator's Note: 20 August 1942]. Somebody had a dog on the front line, and it began barking. The machine gunners opened up and it was just hell fire and damnation [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Tenaru, also called Battle of the Ilu River or Battle of Alligator Creek, 21 August 1942, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. They had their mortars turned to protect the airport. They swiveled them around and started throwing shells across the Tenaru. Colonel Purvis [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify], the regimental commander, called for the mortars to be brought to him. They were in two sections. First section were all Yankees [Annotator's Note: slang for soldiers from the northern United States], and second section were all Southern boys. The number one gun could not fire because it was jammed with a sock while being cleaned and number two was missing its firing pin. A second section of mortars was called up. Purvis was with Tatum's gun and showed what he wanted covered. He stood right there while they began the barrage. They had no chance to check clearance. The mortars kept the Japanese from leaving and the machine gunners were cutting them down like mad. Al Schmid [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Sergeant Albert Andrew Schmid] had a water-cooled .30 [Annotator's Note: Browning M1917 .30 caliber water cooled heavy machine gun] that blew up in his face and blinded him. He became a celebrity back home selling war bonds [Annotator's Note: Bond Drive, a campaign to encourage Americans to buy United States Treasury bonds to finance World War 2]. The mortar fire pulled the Japanese into the Tenaru, and they tore it up. The Japanese came into the lines, but they held the breakthrough and did not let them get to the airport. In the Marine Corps book is a picture of the Alligator tank [Annotator's Note: Landing Vehicle, Tracked or LVT; also referred to as amtrack or alligator] that was in there and that is where Purvis stood and directed the mortar fire.

John Wesley Tatum used a Tommy gun [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun; while serving in Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] but was carrying a pistol because he loaned the Tommy gun to another man who was going to be on the front [Annotator's Note: during the Guadalcanal Campaign, 7 August 1942 to 9 February 1943, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. He fired his pistol and a rifle. The next morning, they walked up the beach looking at the dead that washed ashore. One of them was all exposed. Tatum shot him and he flinched. Then Tatum shoved the bayonet through his temple. He grabbed the bayonet, but it killed him. There were plenty of them still alive. They looked like coconuts floating on the water. The men were shooting the ones who were trying to swim away. There were plenty that never came within shooting distance and were circling around Mount Austen [Annotator's Note: a terrain feature on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. They were going to come in at the river on the other side of the airport. They [Annotator's Note: the Japanese] were landing troops on the far end of Guadalcanal, and they came in droves. They went up into a hilly area they called "Little Burma." The battle of the Matanikau [Annotator's Note: Matanikau River, Guadalcanal] was bigger than the battle at Tenaru [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Tenaru, also called Battle of the Ilu River or Battle of Alligator Creek, 21 August 1942, Tenaru River, Guadalcanal]. After the Army came in and took their place on the Matanikau [Annotator's Note: on 9 December 1942], they were pulled off and went to an island below Guadalcanal. He thinks it was Fiji [Annotator's Note: Fiji, Oceania]. [Annotator's Note: Tatum gets up to get closer to the interviewer so he can hear him.] Tatum saw a woman and a man that had mumu [Annotator's Note: Samoan word for filariasis, or lymphatic filariasis, a parasitic disease caused by microscopic worms] and had a wheelbarrow that he laid his testicles in. They were in a French cocoa orchard. There was a papaya tree. Tatum went all through there and into the hills. He met a gook [Annotator's Note: nickname for various indigenous peoples inhabiting the Pacific islands; now considered offensive] who showed him things and spoke pidgin English [Annotator's Note: grammatically simplified form of language]. One day the man suddenly slapped Tatum. Tatum grabbed his bayonet, but the man showed him his hand with a bloody mosquito on it and called him friend.

John Wesley Tatum left Fiji [Annotator's Note: Fiji, Oceania] to go to Goodenough Island [Annotator's Note: Goodenough Island, Papua New Guinea with Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division]. They were training to go in and support the Army on New Guinea. The Japanese were building an airfield in two different places. Rabaul [Annotator's Note: Rabaul, Papua New Guinea] was on the end of the island and was their big base. He landed at Efate [Annotator's Note: Efate, Vanuatu] to stop the retreat of the Japanese where the rest of the Marines had landed. Only his battalion landed there [Annotator's Note: Battle of Cape Gloucester, New Britain, New Guinea, 26 December 1943 to 16 January 1944]. The Japanese broke through them. It was every man for himself. He had loaned his BAR [Annotator's Note: M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle] to someone on the front line, and he only had his pistol. Everything was in disorder. He only killed one Japanese that he knows of. He used his aiming sight to kill him. There were plenty killed all around the gun pit. They killed the men in the hospital. Two or three days later, Higgins boats [Annotator's Note: LCVP; landing craft, vehicle, personnel] were sent as they were walking up the coastline. They were picked up and taken to Gloucester to rejoin the division.

John Wesley Tatum went to Peleliu [Annotator's Note: Battle of Peleliu, codenamed Operation Stalemate II, September to November 1944, Peleliu, Palau] last. Tatum was in the fourth wave [Annotator's Note: with Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division]. Nearly every wave had been wiped out. He raised his head to look and saw what was happening on the beach. The Japanese artillery was lined up on the beach. He told the men it was going to be a hot landing. They went ashore beside a rock promontory that had a Japanese beach gun in it. They were pinned down for a long time. They dug their mortars in behind the promontory. It was hell itself. They were coming at them from all angles. Men fought like mad dogs and used anything they could get their hands on to kill a man. They came to a standstill and their tanks [Annotator's Note: Japanese tanks] started coming across the airport. The bazooka [Annotator's Note: man-portable recoilless 2.36 inch anti-tank rocket launcher weapon] men took care of a few but a lot broke through the line. One stopped right on top of his foxhole. They were absolutely fighting like mad dogs in one wave after another. The 5th Marines [Annotator's Note: 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] were set up nearby and came to their support. Puller [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Lieutenant General Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller] brought in part of the Army and declared that the 1st Marine Regiment was unable to continue. They were taken back to an island. The Army was fighters. Tatum sweated out that tank being on his foxhole. There were Japanese alongside the tanks and riding on the back. Tatum was nervous but did not have time to be scared. Tatum was in charge of the four mortars. All of those men were his buddies. He had one man, Belat [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify], from up north [Annotator's Note: from the northern United States]. He was standing beside a Japanese mine that had sprigs sticking out of it. Somebody told him to get away, but a Japanese shell hit it and he was dust. A Jewish boy that was with the gun crew was missing. Tatum found him and grabbed him. He started taking him to the rest of the crew. Tatum slapped him on his back end and his hand was bloody. A Japanese had run him through his backside and left him lying there to die. He did survive. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Tatum if he recalls anymore incidences like that and Tatum begins to cry.] The 1st Regiment [Annotator's Note: 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] was wiped out. The mortar platoons were the only thing left. Rupertus [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Major General William Henry Rupertus] came in and said the 1st Marines were relieved. Tatum was blessed to have gotten out. He was not wounded badly.

Moving off the beach at Peleliu [Annotator's Note: Battle of Peleliu, codenamed Operation Stalemate II, September to November 1944, Peleliu, Palau], John Wesley Tatum never got up into the tall caves [Annotator's Note: with Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division]. They were off from that because he was in mortars. There were caves everywhere. One of them had a tracked gun. When the Army came in, they took care of that. Tatum was not there in the cleanup of Peleliu. The 1st Marines [Annotator's Note: 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] were no more as far as being useable. When they landed, they only got to a pile of rocks and set up on the seaside. They never got far from the beach. The whole island is not five miles long. There were bunkers when they moved off the beach at the far end of the airport. That is where he saw his first spigot mortar [Annotator's Note: Japanese Type 98 320mm mortar]. They never used it. They were almost useless in the hills. The Japanese wanted to move the women and children off the island. They were going to let them through. As they started, they began to see pant legs dropping down from under the skirts. They let loose on them and wiped them out. He thinks that was at Peleliu. The mortar crew was as big as the outfit that was left. Puller [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Lieutenant General Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller] came in and declared the 1st Marines were not capable of going on further. Over half of the men were gone. Tatum was a Platoon Sergeant. They left Peleliu to an island they had been on. There was a rest camp there. He thinks it was in the Fijis [Annotator's Note: Fiji Islands, Oceania]. They stayed there, hoping they would go back to Australia. This was Pavuvu [Annotator's Note: Pavuvu Island, Russell Islands, Solomon Islands] and they stayed on until they were fully replaced and then left to return to the United States. He must have 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 go home in 1945.

There were plenty of men with shell shock [Annotator's Note: psychological disturbance caused by prolonged exposure to active warfare, especially bombardment]. You cannot go through bombardments without getting shell shocked. John Wesley Tatum did not suffer but knew several who "cracked up" [Annotator's Note: slang for becoming mentally ill]. One of two were on Peleliu [Annotator's Note: Battle of Peleliu, codenamed Operation Stalemate II, September to November 1944, Peleliu, Palau] and one or two on Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal Campaign, 7 August 1942 to 9 February 1943, Solomon Islands]. He does not recall anyone dying from friendly fire but is sure it happened. The medical care was very effective. Tatum remembers Rupertus [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Major General William Henry Rupertus] and Howling Mad Smith [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps General Holland McTyeire "Howlin' Mad" Smith] but does not remember his direct officer. He respected the Japanese as fighters. They [Annotator's Note: the Americans] were well equipped for those days. The Japanese had no mind of their own and were obedient up until the last one. They would keep coming. You have to respect them for their durability and capability.

John Wesley Tatum was never on the front lines [Annotator's Note: while serving in a mortar section in Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division]. If they were not in combat, they would lay around and read or have a gabfest [Annotator's Note: slang for talking informally]. His unit had 81 mortars [Annotator's Note: M1 81mm mortar]. Four mortars make up a platoon, but they would run six when they could. He was never discharged. [Annotator's Note: Tatum changes his mind, gets up and checks his wallet.] He went back in for the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953] but did not go over. That made him mad. He was put in charge of B Range [Annotator's Note: weapons training range B] at Parris Island [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in Port Royal, South Carolina]. He was in charge of the pistol and mortar range. He oversaw what was going on. He was a Master Gunnery Sergeant there. When he was called back in, he was a Gunnery Sergeant. He was promoted after 90 days. He had been in the Reserves after World War 2. He was too old to go to Korea [Annotator's Note: and fight] but he wanted to. They shot there at 100 yards, 200 yards, and 500 yards. They had the M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand] still. He says "Semper Fi" [Annotator's Note: short for Semper Fidelis, the motto of the United States Marine Corps] and that there will always be a Marine Corps.