Richard Keller grew up in Hahnville [Annotator's Note: Hahnville, Louisiana]. He started in the first grade the year they built a brand-new high school in 1924. He graduated in 1935 and went to LSU [Annotator's Note: Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana]. In those days if you were a Cadet, you were automatically assigned to ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] for the first two years. It was like a military school. You could apply for advanced ROTC and, if accepted, do that for two more years. Those final two years they were the NCOs [Annotator's Note: non-commissioned officers] of the Cadet Corps. They then could get a commission if they were 21 years old. They commissioned directly out of ROTC and became part of the reserve offices. Keller did that and trained more in 1939 right after the Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945] years. On February 21 [Annotator's Note: 21 February 1940] he got a letter ordering him to active duty. He boarded a bus down in New Orleans. There were a whole bunch of LSU grads and grads from other universities around who were living in this area. They were assigned to the 37th Division [Annotator's Note: 37th Infantry Division] at Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It was interesting to report to duty because at that time the officers were living in big pyramidal tents and there were about five or six of them in each of the tents. It was February and there was a stove and it looked like an upside-down funnel. They burned coal and soot came out of them. Soot is 100 percent carbon, and it does not wash out with soap. The tents were connected by ‘duckwalks' or boardwalks because it was all mud. The enlisted men lived in barracks. They would have to get dressed in the morning and go down the street to meet up for revelry and after the dismissal, they went to breakfast. The 37th Division had been on active duty since October the previous year [Annotator's Note: October 1939]. They had an officer's mess, and it was a real operation because these guys were longtime experienced Ohio National Guardsmen. They had served in Ohio for problems like flooding and had also worked when riots and strikes broke out. The entire division was from Ohio. Everybody knew everybody in the local unit. Later became a real problem when they went overseas because and began to have casualties because a lot of the guys came from the same little towns. Some of the guys Keller was with graduated from Mississippi or Alabama, South Carolina, and Georgia and now they were in this Ohio National Guard outfit. They were not welcomed because they had planned to promote some of the local guys who were corporals and sergeants and they hoped to eventually commission them. Training with them was not too tough because all of them were college graduates and the other guys were from high school. It was quite a transition for them to go to that unit. Right after that, they start talking about Louisiana Maneuvers [Annotator's Note: a series of major Army exercises held in 1941 in northern and west-central Louisiana]. They began to get recruits and inductees from all over the country. A lot of guys from the South and from Texas. It was a big transition for the division. They thought they were going to go off of active duty after one year and they kind of counted on it. The situation in Europe began to heat up and that is when they added them to the officer corps. That is when they began to get inductees from all over the country. Some guys asked about it and they were being released and sent home. The young single guys did not have many choices. The guys who had hardship cases and physical problems liked being in the guard because they made a few extra bucks. They had a sign 'O-H-I-O' meaning 'over the hill in October' because then the year would be up. Then they went through the Louisiana Maneuvers.

Richard Keller was at Camp Shelby [Annotator's Note: Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg, Mississippi with Company F, 148th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division] when he was shipped out to Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania [Annotator's Note: Fort Indiantown Gap in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania]. They moved into the area in the spring when the ground was just beginning to thaw. They moved into barracks that had just been vacated by another unit. They knew they were going to be moved from there to someplace overseas. They did not tell them anything. After a month or two, they were shipped to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California]. They camped in an area that was set aside to become a reservoir area. They would do drills in public. One lady would bring cups of lemonade out to them. Where they were living was primitive. For refrigeration, they dug a hole in the ground that was four feet square. They sunk a wooden box in it, and then put some insulation and another smaller box inside it. Then they put ice blocks inside it. Nobody did a lot of eating there because everyone that could get a pass [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] was gone every night. They only allowed a certain percentage out, but guys were going over the fence and under the fence. They were only there a couple weeks. Most of the division went to Fiji. Fijian natives lived in villages in homes built from bamboo and grass. If they needed the money to buy something they would only work until they had the money to buy it, then they bought it and did not go back to work. They grew bananas and other things. They did not have roads, clothes, or a grocery store. They would fish with what looked like a spear. They got to see a whole different way of life. They were worried about bombing. The Battle of Midway [Annotator's Note: Battle of Midway, 4 to 7 June 1942 at Midway Atoll] happened while they were there. If the Japanese had won, they probably would have had to find a new place to go. They did not get a lot of information. Keller was a second lieutenant at the time. Day by day he knew what was going on.

Richard Keller was at Camp Shelby [Annotator's Note: Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg, Mississippi] when he was asked to be the battalion headquarters battalion detachment officer. They had a lieutenant colonel that was in charge. Anyone that went to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] had to have a pass [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. The commanding officer's wife and daughter came down from Ohio. The daughter was looking for someone to date. Some of the guys had commitments and did not want to date her. One weekend, the sergeant was convinced to date her. Apparently, she was aggressive. Keller came back from a weekend seeing his parents. The word got out that the sergeant and the commander's daughter had gotten married. The commander asked Keller if he had given them permission, and he did not. They were married, and he had it annulled [Annotator's Note: Annulment is a legal procedure within secular and religious legal systems for declaring a marriage null and void]. After that he was transferred from Company F [Annotator's Note: Company F, 148th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division] to Company G [Annotator's Note: Company G, 148th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division]. He went overseas with Company G. He got to know them pretty well. When they left Fiji, their next assignment was Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. They were there for training because the division fighting was over. Every once in a while, they experienced Japanese raids. They would drop one or two bombs and then take off. They went into the jungles. Henderson Field [Annotator's Note: Henderson Field in Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands] was the main purpose of Guadalcanal. They needed an air base that they could launch air attacks against the Japanese. It was the first landing they made in the Pacific. When they were there, they knew they were going to go into combat. He was still with Company G. They got orders to pack up because they were going to go to New Georgia [Annotator's Note: New Georgia, Solomon Islands]. The commander came by and said the company commander in Company E was having some problems. The men told Keller he was yellow or scared, and he did not want to go into combat. The commander asked him if he wanted to be commander of Company E. The first lieutenant there had turned down the command and would be glad to be Keller's executive officer. Keller moved over to Company E [Annotator's Note: Company E, 148th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division]. In three days they loaded onto ships. They left all their baggage on Guadalcanal and then they went into combat. He knew all of the officers, but he did not know any of the NCOs [Annotator's Note: non-commissioned officers].

Richard Keller [Annotator's Note: Company E, 148th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division] was not promoted until after they were in combat. They went in to relieve another National Guard unit [Annotator's Note: New Georgia, Solomon Islands] who had been overrun by the Japanese. They were in the jungle. They wanted Keller and his company to be the headquarters of the 22nd Division [Annotator's Note: 22nd Infantry Division]. He was security for two days around the other outfit. They did not know what they were doing. They were out there, and the Japanese were landing. He was in combat for six to eight days. They were moving forward and digging foxholes. They got in there and then had to get out. They got cut off for a while. They had their casualties laying there and could not evacuate them. His unit was heading to the other side of the island where another division had landed. They Japanese landed and came up on his division from behind and they could not make it back to their landing area. They had to move across the island and clear it of the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese]. Then the PT boats [Annotator's Note: patrol torpedo boat] were able to keep the Japs from getting supplies and bringing in reinforcements. His job was to clear the island. The Japanese were landing on the other side at night. His men were cut off. They found out from the outfit behind them that the Japanese were between them. One guy had a bullet hole in his stomach, and they could not get him out. By the time they were able to get him out it was too late. A friend of his from Company G [Annotator's Note: Company G, 148th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division] had been hit in the arm by a hand grenade. He had to have the doctor take it off at the elbow with a saw. They were told about a new medicine, penicillin [Annotator's Note: an antibiotic]. They used it on the guys who had open wounds from shrapnel. The guys behind them were able to squeeze around them. There were not many Japs on the island. Once they were cut off, they could not get water or rations. They could not turn around and fight backwards because they already had a front to defend. They had to rely on the guys behind them to help defend. In the jungle they only knew the directions they were headed. The only trails were made by the Japanese. When they made it to the far side of the island the Japs that were still there just ran out into the ocean. Some guys shot at them. They never had much artillery. There was a bulldozer trying to push a road through. He was knocking down trees and the Japanese were trying to pick off the operator. The general told the guy to keep the bulldozer going and he would be promoted. It rained every night. Keller's job was to make sure the guys knew what they were doing. They had to set up a front line and man it. They did not have reserves they only had the people who ran communications. They did not have artillery unless it was from another island or the ships offshore. There was not much of a firefight. The Japs were backing off. The PT boats were keeping the Japanese from getting to the island. Their next big move was Bougainville [Annotator's Note: Bougainville, Solomon Islands].

Richard Keller's outfit [Annotator's Note: Company E, 148th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division] went back to Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands] after the fight on New Georgia [Annotator's Note: New Georgia, Solomon Islands]. In an infantry there are three rifle platoons and one weapon platoon. There is an officer for each platoon, and an executive officer. Each squad in the platoons was down to three. He was down to two officers. His executive officer was killed. After they got back from New Georgia, they walked down the slippery roads with all the dead Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] laying there. When Keller got back to Guadalcanal, he was given five new officers and was promoted. They received reinforcements to fill up the company. The troops can tell if the officer knows what he is doing. They had a guy digging a foxhole, he had a machete, and someone said there was a Jap out there. He jumped in the foxhole and the machete cut his jugular [Annotator's Note: any of several large veins in the neck, carrying blood from the head and face]. Someone stuck their thumb in there and held it until the doctor came. He came back to them about five or six weeks later when they were on Bougainville [Annotator's Note: Bougainville, Solomon Islands]. The first person he ever had killed in his outfit was in Fiji. They were doing security around the airfield. Machine gun posts were around the field. Two guys were picking up a machine gun. One of them picked up the barrel, and the other picked up the handle. They left the tripod, and they took out the ammunition belt. They did not clear the chamber first. When the one grabbed the handle, he touched the trigger and shot the other one straight through the stomach. He died.

Richard Keller [Annotator's Note: with Company E, 148th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division] was at Indiantown Gap [Annotator's Note: Fort Indiantown Gap in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania]. He had a friend from the 148th Infantry that came to visit him. The guy was backing out onto the road and a truck with coal in it was coming down the road and could not stop. It hit him and he was killed. They made Keller a summary court officer. He had to go investigate it. He had to reclaim the guy's uniform and it was blood soaked. He had to see if there was anything that was valuable to give to his wife who ended up in the hospital. He had to make sure he did not have any debt within the company. They rebuilt the company and got replacements for all the equipment. They got trainees from the States [Annotator's Note: United States]. One trainee had graduated from high school eight weeks prior to arriving. He had six weeks of training and shipped out. They got people from all over the United States. That guy made it alright, but the guy next to him got shot by a sniper. They were on Bougainville [Annotator's Note: Bougainville, Solomon Islands]. They sent his company the night before. The responsibility for the 37th Division was to join with another division and set up security around the airfield. The main purpose of the assault was to establish a beachhead and build an airfield. The Army troops around it were to protect it. They were told there were 30 thousand Japanese on the island. The Marines led the assault on the beach [Annotator's Note: Bougainville campaign, part of the Solomon Islands Campaign at Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, November 1943 to November 1944]. They moved in and the Army went in behind them. Once they set up the beachhead the engineers went in and built the airfield. The Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] were then trapped on the island. They had the rest of the island. Right after they landed the colonel told him they were being sent up in front of the front lines. They were building barbed wire barricades. They were putting a minefield in front of the line. They wanted him to go along the river and install listening posts. They could give warning if the Japanese tried to attack from there. There were Marines there and he was supposed to relieve them. They went up the river in boats. When they got there the Marines were climbing in before they could get out. He told his men to get as much information from them. They found the river and it was wide, but not too deep. They set up a listening post. They went up as far as they could go with the troops he had. They were given rations. They were told to retreat if they got into trouble. They were there for about two or three weeks. The outfit that came in brought their kitchen and their cooks and all of their food. They went back into camp and got to get cleaned up. They did not get established before being sent out. They found dead Marines and had to bury them. The Japs were getting restless. There was no kitchen out there. They had to be careful because the Japs looked like they were going to start something. The Japanese went around the other side to get to the airfield and that is where they attacked 700 [Annotator's Note: Hill 700 on Bougainville] from. Keller and his men lived on C rations [Annotator's Note: prepared and canned wet combat food]. They got six cans. Three cans were corn beef hash, meat and vegetable stew and canned beans. The other three cans were three hard biscuits, some sugar, powdered cocoa, instant coffee, and lemonade. They would bring a few cases and pass them out to the troops. It was all cold. They could heat them up in the can or their mess kit, but then they would have to wash the mess kit. They did not have any soap or water.

Richard Keller [Annotator's Note: with Company E, 148th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division] did not get to see too much of Hill 700 [Annotator's Note: Battle of Hill 700 on Bougainville during the Bougainville campaign, part of the Solomon Islands Campaign at Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, November 1943 to November 1944]. There was a guy from another company who wrote about it - Sid Goodkin [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling]. E Company went up the first day by themselves. The 145th [Annotator's Note: 145th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division] had the ridgeline and Hill 700. The ridge was steep from the road up and the road down. They climbed up on 11 March [Annotator's Note: 11 March 1944]. Keller was out at the listening post. They heard the Japs had broken through the 145th. His company had to go up and restore the line with a counterattack. They got up there in the afternoon. He took his company up the hill. They were getting picked off by snipers. They did not have supporting fire or artillery. The Japanese attacked from a field that came out like a nose by the hill. The 145th Infantry had occupied the hill and had dug in some pillboxes [Annotator's Note: type of blockhouse, or concrete, reinforced, dug-in guard post, normally equipped with slits for firing guns] and trenches for protection. If the attack came from the front, they wanted to be looking down at them. They went up the hill and experienced some fire. They were told to come back once it was dark. That was as far as they got that night. They held their position. While they were there, they had two or three guys get picked off by snipers. There were banyan trees there. They were up on a high point so they could shoot down. They did this around the airport as well. The Japs had broken through and got to an artillery position. There was only about eight of them. The people down there were getting out of the way. They had to figure out how to attack them. The Japanese attacked on 8 March [Annotator's Note: 8 March 1944]. Keller's men went up on 11 March [Annotator's Note: 11 March 1944] and a kid next to him got taken out by a sniper. There were 700 Japs in the trenches. When the smoke started in the morning they headed out for their attack. Keller was going along with them. They had more men and more fire power. The Japs could not come up and meet them because they were trying to defend where they were. They were fighting back. They were overpowering them. The Japanese in the field were exposed. In the middle of the fight Keller was told the colonel wanted him on the radio. He went back to the radio and then he got shot by a sniper that had shot quite a few of his men through the throat or the forehead. Keller was shot through the neck. It just missed his spinal cord. It knocked him down, but the attack was moving right along. He had a good executive officer who kept the attack going. They picked Keller up, put him on jeep and hauled him back to a hospital.

Richard Keller [Annotator's Note: with Company E, 148th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division] remembers John Broussard [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling]. He was a leader. He occupied one of the pillboxes [Annotator's Note: type of blockhouse, or concrete, reinforced, dug-in guard post, normally equipped with slits for firing guns] at the top of the hill [Annotator's Note: [Annotator's Note: Battle of Hill 700 on Bougainville during the Bougainville campaign, part of the Solomon Islands Campaign at Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, November 1943 to November 1944]. A sniper picked him off. He was a good guy. He pushed through the barbed wire. There were a few hundred Japanese. It was a firefight. They wanted to clear the area and then get back to the airfield. Henderson Field at Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands] was very important. They did not have ground base air support. Once they moved up the planes did not have to go as far. The idea of fighting was not to drive the Japs out it was to move from one airfield to the next. They had to try and go back and recapture some of the stuff. A lot of guys were lost for one small thing. His brother-in-law had been sent to Guadalcanal right after graduating high school. He was in the Marines. He was there when they first went in. The Japanese counter attacked. Some of the cruisers were lost. It was later called Iron Bottom Bay. He was there when they ran out of supplies. Then he went to Tarawa [Annotator's Note: Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands], followed by Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Mariana Islands] where he got a shrapnel wound. He met Keller's brother when he was on Tarawa. He later met his sister through that friendship. His brother went to the museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] when there was a program on Tarawa. Keller's outfit had 30 men in a platoon. There were about 150 guys. He took over E Company and they went straight into New Georgia [Annotator's Note: New Georgia, Solomon Islands]. When they got back, they got 40 percent replacements and then they went into Bougainville [Annotator's Note: Bougainville, Solomon Islands]. He did not have time to get to know every man.

Richard Keller [Annotator's Note: with Company E, 148th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division] got evacuated after he got hit [Annotator's Note: during the Bougainville campaign, part of the Solomon Islands Campaign at Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, November 1943 to November 1944]. He was put in a field hospital. They thought he was hit by shrapnel, but it was actually a bullet. They did surgery on him. His lung had collapsed. Then he got evacuated from Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands] to another island. The hospital there was overcrowded. Then he was evacuated to a general hospital. He was there with a lot of friends of his. He asked if he was going back to his unit or if he would get a week of R&R [Annotator's Note: rest and recuperation]. He wanted to go to Australia for a week or two before he went back. They told him they were going to send him back to the United States. He came back on a boat with some Marines on it. Some were wounded, some had battle fatigue [Annotator's Note: military term for an acute reaction to the stress of combat]. Most of the food was canned stuff. It was the same thing they got in C rations [Annotator's Note: prepared and canned wet combat food] only bigger cans for their three meals. There was little medical support on the ship. They got back around the 4th of July [Annotator's Note: 4 July 1944]. He had to have tests to see if he was physically fit. They gave him a 30-day pass Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] to go home. Then he went back to another hospital in Tennessee. Then he got two weeks of R&R in Miami, Florida. Some recruiters came up and said they needed people for a special mission. The guys who volunteered ended up going to the CBI [Annotator's Note: China-Burma-India theatre of operations]. A thousand miles they marched against the Japanese. Keller was asked if he wanted to go to commanding general staff school in Leavenworth, Kansas. It was a 10-week program and he decided to go. He went through the course. He was then asked to be an instructor there. He put in his training and got the assignment. He was there for two or three tours of students. The war in Europe was coming to an end. He got there in 1945. All during World War 2 the Army had the Air Corps. After the war in Europe came to an end all the pilots, bombardiers, and navigators came in. It was a large officer pool. In the Army there were more enlisted men than officers. Then the Air Force was created. They started it at the Maxwell Airbase [Annotator's Note: now Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama]. While at Leavenworth, Keller was put in charge of the library. The war in Europe was over, and the war with Japan was coming to an end. He stayed there for a couple years. He had to decide if he wanted to stay in or get out. He was an instructor because they were looking for people who had combat experience in other parts of the world. If he had stayed with his general, he probably would not be alive today. In Vietnam [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War] or Korea [Annotator's Note: Korean War] the general was captured.

Richard Keller [Annotator's Note: with Company E, 148th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division] got the DSC [Annotator's Note: the Distinguished Service Cross is the second-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy]. He was in the hospital recuperating and killing time by playing cards. One day there was going to be formation for the patients. Someone was going to receive a medal. They got dressed, went outside and lined up. He thought he was going to get a Purple Heart [Annotator's Note: the Purple Heart Medal is an award bestowed upon a United States service member who has been wounded as a result of combat actions against an armed enemy]. One guy got a Bronze Star [Annotator's Note: the Bronze Star Medal is the fourth-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy], and another got a Purple Heart, and one got a Silver Star [Annotator's Note: the Silver Star Medal is the third-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy]. Then they were talking about a DSC. They called his name and he said there was no way he got a DSC. They told him it was his name. He tried to never attract any attention, so he does not know who decided he got that award. He thinks they should have given it to someone else who made a greater sacrifice. When combat was going on he was just doing his job. He just kept his cool and kept things moving. He was pulled off the front line and then the next morning he was going to lead a counterattack [Annotator's Note: during the Bougainville campaign, part of the Solomon Islands Campaign at Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, November 1943 to November 1944]. The Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] had broken through and he needed to go up and chase them out. He did not have a lot to go on. He blindly pushed his guys up there. The first day they pushed as far as they could go. They were not prepared for the attack. He was glad they got support on the side. He does not know why he got the DSC. Someone wrote it up nice and made him look like a hero. He had been in firefights. He was not in major combat. He was in the jungle fighting. Every day is survival. People get hit and you want to get them out of there. If they ran out of food, they just had to wait until they got more. He was so busy he forgot to eat. He was thinking about other people. He had to think a lot more than the man with the rifle. They had to know the objective and to survive. They did not change clothes or bathe for about six weeks. He never had to dig a hole because he had his two runners. They had a phone, but no one wanted that because the Japanese might find the wire.

Richard Keller took part in the Louisiana Maneuvers [Annotator's Note: a series of major Army exercises held in 1941 in northern and west-central Louisiana] in the middle of summer. They were not living in tents because they were out training. Being in the infantry they walked everywhere. They used trucks to get them from Camp Shelby [Annotator's Note: Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg, Mississippi] to the Louisiana Maneuvers. It was an experience for the men from the Northwest. They slept on the ground. It rained a lot and there was some flooding. One guy disassembled his rifle and then it rained. He had to go find all the parts afterward. One general did not believe in deodorants he thought if you had to act like a soldier then you had to smell like a soldier. That made the newspaper headlines. The generals were learning what they had to expect to train with large numbers of soldiers. They were in Camp Shelby when 7 December [Annotator's Note: 7 December 1941] came around. Some guy came running over to Keller and said the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] were attacking Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. That was how they got the word that World War 2 was going to begin. Keller was assigned to Company F of the 148th Infantry [Annotator's Note: Company F, 148th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division]. He had never been on active duty responsible for a platoon. He needed to know the names of all the guys he was responsible for. He learned who all the sergeants and the corporals were. They were the ones in charge of safety when they got into tight spots. Now he was dealing with people from a different part of the world and was dealing with superior officers. They were college-trained with not a lot of field experience. He went to a reunion for the 148th Infantry [Annotator's Note: after the war]. Keller had an orderly who looked out for him out in the field while they were in Fiji, and he ran into him at the reunion. He got to spend some time with him before he died. The other Lieutenants and officers came from other Southern states. One of his good friends was from Alabama. They were in a room with bunks stacked against the wall. They played dice in a helmet. He made some close friendships that stuck with him for a long time.