Leon Griffith was born in Magee, Mississippi but raised in Monticello [Annotator's Note: Monticello, Mississippi] on a farm. During the Great Depression they had nothing. They were as poor as they got. He plowed with mules and picked cotton by hand growing up. They had cornbread and milk a lot. When he was 17 he went to the CCC camp [Annotator's Note: Civilian Conservation Corps] for a year. Army Reserve officers were in the program and it helped him when he went in the service. He planted trees as part of that work. He worked for the WPA [Annotator's Note: Works Progress Administration, later renamed Works Projects Administration] for a little while. On 25 January 1941, he was drafted into the Army and went to Camp Shelby, Mississippi and then to Camp Blanding, Florida to the 31st Infantry Division of the National Guard. They made a mistake and put him with the 156th Regiment [Annotator’s Note: 156th Infantry Regiment (Separate); Louisiana National Guard] from Lafayette, Louisiana and they could not speak English [Annotator's Note: at the time, were many Cajun French members of the unit]. He was there a week and then put in the 155th [Annotator's Note: 155th Infantry Regiment, 31st Infantry Division]. He got a weekend pass and went to Jacksonville, Florida. MPs [Annotator's Note: military police] sent him back to the camp telling him the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He loaded on trucks that night and went to Key Largo in the Florida Keys for three months guarding the bridges. They had a good time because the tourists treated them well. They shot fish. A German submarine was spotted not far from where they were. Griffith was assigned to a US Marshall.

[Annotator's Note: Leon Griffith was guarding the Florida Keys as a member of the 155th Infantry Regiment, 31st Infantry Division when he was sent to Louisiana.] Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas maneuvers were held, and he was in the Blue Army. It was rough sometimes, sleeping in the swamps with snakes. He got sick there and was sent to Camp Blanding [Annotator's Note: Camp Blanding, Florida] to a hospital for a couple of weeks. He then went to South Carolina for winter maneuvers. It was cold weather and they slept on the ground with only their overcoat and raincoat for cover. They were there for a couple of months before going back to Camp Blanding. They were then trucked to Camp Bowie, Texas for more training. They returned to Camp Shelby [Annotator's Note: Camp Shelby, Mississippi] and Griffith was transferred out to Fort Bragg [Annotator's Note: Fort Bragg, North Carolina] to the 9th Infantry Division which landed in Normandy [Annotator's Note: Normandy, France]. Griffith had a temperature [Annotator's Note: fever] and was not sent. He was glad. He was sent to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] to the 98th Field Artillery [Annotator's Note: 98th Field Artillery Battalion]. Because he was raised on a farm, they thought he would be good with a mule. They were then sent to New Guinea.

Leon Griffith was unloading mules [Annotator's Note: as part of the 98th Field Artillery Battalion] and the Japanese bombed them [Annotator's Note: Port Moresby, Papau, New Guinea]. They were not hit. The Japanese would come over every day about the same time and drop bombs. Over the radio, Tokyo Rose [Annotator's Note: nickname given by Allied servicemen to any English speaking female radio personality broadcasting Japanese propaganda in the Pacific Theater] would often tell them when they were coming. One night, a B-25 [Annotator's Note: North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber] lost power and crashed. Some of the crew were blown apart. They found an arm with a wristwatch still on it. He could smell burned flesh and could not eat his meal that night. Their mules were sent to India. He then had six months training in the hills, which was rough [Annotator’s Note: the 98th Field Artillery became the 6th Ranger Infantry Battalion]. They went on a mission to the Philippines. Griffith was on a destroyer and landed three days before the main force on Dinagat Island [Annotator's Note: Dinagat Island, Philippines]. About 150 yards from shore, the landing craft told them to get off. Griffith's friend from Mississippi was first in line, carrying a flamethrower. He went under and never came back up. They could not get to him. They got ashore and met just a few Japanese at a radar station which they knocked out. They went to another island he does not recall the name of, and there were a lot of Japanese on it. They went to Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines] and made a landing. The Japanese were dive bombing on the ships and committing suicide [Annotator's Note: Kamikazes]. His ship was not hit but they came close.

Leon Griffith was on Dinagat Island [Annotator's Note: Dinagat Island, Philippines] and the Japanese sent a barge of troops over. American ships in the gulf spotted them and sank them. A lot of the Japanese managed to swim near shore. The Filipinos did not like the Japanese. They paddled their canoes out and beheaded the Japanese with machetes. The sand was red with their blood. The Japanese treated the Filipinos badly. Griffith went to Homonhan or Suluan [Annotator's Note: Islands in the Philippines] where there were not a lot of Japanese. On Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines], there were quite a few but they hid in the hills. MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] and the main force were coming in. He remembers MacArthur wading ashore. Griffith would guard MacArthur's quarters when not on patrol. When on patrol, they had orders not to fire because they were to get information. Once, they met a large bunch and they had to fire. His sergeant was killed, and another man was shot three times. They looked for him the next day and found him alive. He had played dead when the Japanese came back.

Leon Griffith had a Tommy gun [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun] on Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines]. Once while there, he was assigned to a .50 caliber machine gun [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun] on a tripod to guard the beach from Japanese planes. The Japanese Zeros [Annotator's Note: Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter aircraft, referred to as the Zeke or Zero] would come in and drop a few bombs. One came right towards him and turned to go down the beach. Griffith filled him with bullets, and he crashed. The pilot swam to shore and was taken prisoner. He had a folded American flag inside his helmet. Griffith did patrols behind enemy lines. The Calvary Division was sending men in who did not come back. There were a lot of Japanese and Griffith's patrol could not get out. They were trapped a good while and finally got artillery to shell them. They did not find the missing men. The Japanese had a prison camp and there was information that they were going to kill all of the prisoners [Annotator's Note: operation known as the Raid at Cabanatuan, 30 January 1945]. They were taken by truck as far as they could and then marched another 30 miles. They had to cross a field with no protection. He crawled about a mile. There was a highway where the Japanese were moving troops and tanks. It was scary. Colonel Mucci [Annotator's Note: US Army Colonel Henry Andrews Mucci] stayed 100 yards back and Griffith was with him. They killed all of the Japanese guards in the towers and they then fired on the Japanese barracks. Griffith used a bazooka. They got the prisoners out. They did not want to leave at first. A lot of the prisoners were so weak they had to be carried. The Filipinos met them with carts. There were communist outfits there [Annotator's Note: Hukbalahap, or Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon] and they had to go through their territory but the communists did not fire on them.

[Annotator's Note: Leon Griffith was a member of Company A, 6th Ranger Battalion and took part in the Raid at Cabanatuan, Philippines on 30 January 1945, liberating prisoners of war.] Griffith passed through some Filipino towns. Once the Filipinos came out and gave them rice balls to eat. Cabanatuan City was not far from the prison camp. There were a lot of Japanese there, but the Filipinos had blown the bridge. The Japanese would not stop coming at them. Griffith and the team had to cross a major highway, but the Japanese did not come down it. Radio contact was hard to get but they got in touch with the Division who met them in trucks and got the prisoners to the base camp. Captain Prince [Annotator's Note: later US Army Major Robert Prince] and some others went home to the United States and went on a Bond [Annotator's Note: War Bond] tour. Griffith was not lucky enough to go but had enough points to go home. He was on a ship home when he heard the war was over. Japanese submarines were still working though. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer backs up to ask more stories about the Cabanatuan Raid.] They had about a day to prepare for the mission. Griffith was praying the mission would be successful. Captain Prince was a good leader and only 25 years old. Griffith was in Company A when he volunteered to go on the raid. His specific role was to help open the front gate and try to convince the prisoners to come out. Some would not at first. Prince went back in and found one he had to carry out because he was so weak. The Japanese were taken by surprise. The next day Tokyo Rose [Annotator's Note: nickname given by Allied servicemen to any English speaking female radio personality broadcasting Japanese propaganda in the Pacific Theater] said how awful it was that the guards had been killed. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks if all the guards were Japanese, but Griffith does not know.]

One night, Leon Griffith was on patrol. The sergeant said they should all lay down and go to sleep. The moon came up and it was lighter. Everyone was asleep but Griffith when he saw something coming down the trail. He could tell he had a helmet and woke up his sergeant. They shot at nearly the same time, but Griffith shot first. The sergeant told the captain that he, not Griffith, had shot the Japanese. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him if he shot any Japanese when he took part in the Raid at Cabanatuan, Philippines on 30 January 1945 to liberate American prisoners of war.] Griffith only shot into the barracks during the raid. He went into the prisoner barracks and it was awful. He talked to a lot of the men. A lot of them were crying. They only had rice and boiled fish heads to eat. They were in bad condition. They had been on the death march [Annotator's Note: Bataan Death March, April 1942]. Griffith always wondered why in the world the United States let those poor soldiers get captured. Griffith was in the Army at the time and he could have tried. MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] got himself and his friends out and went to Australia. He left General King [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General Edward Postell King, Jr.] there and told him not to surrender. But King knew best and surrendered. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer backs up to the Cabanatuan Raid and asks if Griffith remembers seeing a Northrop P-61 Black Widow night fighter aircraft try to divert the attention of the Japanese.] He says he does. They did not stay long at the camp, 15 or 20 minutes. Some of the prisoners did not want to leave thinking it was a trick, but some officers convinced them. The Army had changed uniforms and they did not recognize them. About three weeks later, Griffith got to go home. He was put on a ship home with some of the freed prisoners. Tokyo Rose [Annotator's Note: nickname given by Allied servicemen to any English speaking female radio personality broadcasting Japanese propaganda in the Pacific Theater] said they were going to sink that ship. The war was over, but Japanese submarines were still out there. It took a long time to reach San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California].

[Annotator's Note: Leon Griffith was a rifleman in Company A, 6th Ranger Battalion and took part in the Raid at Cabanatuan, Philippines on 30 January 1945 to liberate American prisoners of war.] The men had been told there were more Japanese there than there actually were. That was good luck. They had Filipino guerillas with them. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer goes back to when Griffith's unit was changed to a Ranger unit.] Nobody volunteered. They just trained them. A few were transferred out because they could not take the training. The war changed Griffith. Nobody greeted him coming home. He was just home. At first, he could not stand to sleep inside a building on a bed. He was always thinking about getting his M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand] and going hunting for some Japanese. He was what was called shell-shocked [Annotator's Note: post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD]. He received a 60 percent disability. He could try for 100 percent, but he hates to go to the VA [Annotator's Note: Department of Veteran's Affairs] in Houston [Annotator's Note: Houston, Texas] because it is awful. He says the war was bad. The war seemed to change the country. It was a good while before things started changing. There were not any jobs when he got out of the Army. During the war, the country came together and helped each other. Everything was rationed. He thinks it changed the rest of the world except for the Middle East. The United States moved Israel in, put the Jews back into Israel. We had to go to war after Pearl Harbor was bombed [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. England was already fighting the Germans. He cannot figure out how the people in Hawaii were not on alert. He was in the service and was being told every day that the Japanese were going to attack somewhere. Griffith thinks The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana is a good thing. The younger people do not know anything about the war. He would like to see it himself. He sold his M1 Garand, but wishes he had not.

Leon Griffith was in the Philippines and was hunting Japanese who were on a mountain and firing artillery shells at them. He was dug in and could hear and see the shells coming. Luckily, they were going over their heads. It is an awful sound. [Annotator's Note: They finish the interview and then start back up again. The interviewer asks him his impressions of US Army Colonel Henry Mucci, US Army Rangers.] Griffith liked Mucci, he was a good guy. He interacted a lot with the troops. Captain Prince [Annotator's Note: later US Army Major Robert Prince] was good too. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer goes back to the Raid at Cabanatuan, Philippines on 30 January 1945 to liberate American prisoners of war.] The signal to begin the raid was a rifle shot. They killed a lot of Japanese in their barracks. Tokyo Rose [Annotator's Note: nickname given by Allied servicemen to any English speaking female radio personality broadcasting Japanese propaganda in the Pacific Theater] said it was a lot of their good people. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks about the two Americans killed in the raid.] One of the soldiers that was killed was by friendly fire. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks about patrol activities.] Griffith was on patrol and a Japanese came up to surrender. The soldier with Griffith stabbed the Japanese in the back, saying it was because Japanese had killed his brother. Their officers did not do anything about it. The killing of the Japanese soldier was close to San Fernando, Philippines. They were just mopping up the stragglers there. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks about New Guinea.] Griffith trained with his mules [Annotator's Note: as part of the 98th Field Artillery Battalion] in the Owen Stanley mountains. There was a volcano at the top and it would erupt every couple of months. The ash in the air would be thick. On the mountain, they found a crashed American bomber. The body was still in it. He had a lot of experience with the Navy Hellcat [Annotator's Note: Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter aircraft]. It was the best plane they had. The Hellcats tore up the Japanese at Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines]. A Zero [Annotator's Note: Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter aircraft, referred to as the Zeke or Zero] was coming right towards him and a Hellcat came down and shot him up. That was a sight to see. During the Lingayen Gulf [Annotator's Note: Lingayen Gulf, Philippines] naval battle, Griffith was up on a hill guarding a radar station at night and could see the fight. It was a sight to see.