Robert Erskine Hendrick was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1920. He had one younger sister. His father served 30 years in the Marine Corps, and his mother worked as a yeomanette [Annotator’s Note: a woman serving as a yeoman in the U.S. naval reserve force] during World War I, and during World War 2 she was responsible for Admiral Nimitz’s [Annotator's Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Sr., Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet] private files in Pearl Harbor. She was present there when it was bombed [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. His father, a Master Gunnery Sergeant, contracted TB [Annotator’s Note: tuberculosis] while stationed on Johnston Island, Hawaii. Hendrick’s mother was working in Pearl Harbor from 1941 until 1943. She was home during the Pearl Harbor attack, heard a lot of noise but did not know what it was. Nimitz was a good leader, considerate of his employees. During his childhood, Hendrick grew up in Quantico [Annotator’s Note: Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia] for many years. He played sports in school and later studied forestry and big game management at Iowa State, in Ames, Iowa in 1939. He knew things were escalating, that war was inevitable, and decided around Christmastime to enlist to get training over with before things really started. He spent two years aboard the USS Idaho [Annotator’s Note: USS Idaho (BB-42)].

After one year of study at Iowa State [Annotator's Note: Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa], Robert Erskine Hendrick decided to enlist in the United States Marine Corps. He was inducted 13 January 1939. He went to Parris Island [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in Port Royal, South Carolina] for boot camp. He was a sharpshooter using an .03 rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber Model 1903, or M1903, Springfield bolt action rifle]. He and most of his group were sent to sea school in Norfolk [Annotator's Note: Norfolk, Virginia] for about three weeks, where he learned naval terminology and weaponry. He was eventually transferred to Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] with the fleet [Annotator's Note: assigned to the USS Idaho (BB-42)]. Training was mostly on guns, including the five-inch, 51 gun [Annotator's Note: five-inch, .58 caliber naval gun]. Hendrick was eventually assigned to the 6th Defense Battalion [Annotator's Note: 6th Marine Defense Battalion]. The gun crew consisted of a pointer, trainer, a tray-man who opens the breech, and a powder-man. Hendrick was a trainer who controlled the horizontal movement of the gun, while the pointer managed vertical movement. Aboard the Idaho, Hendrick's crew manned six guns - three on each side of the ship. There were also three 14-inch guns [Annotator's Note: 14-inch, .45-caliber naval gun] manned by the Navy. The Marines and Navy sailors aboard ship mostly got along.

Robert Erskine Hendrick [Annotator's Note: a US Marine aboard the USS Idaho (BB-42)] was sent to the Pacific [Annotator's Note: in 1940], departing from Norfolk [Annotator's Note: Norfolk, Virginia] and going through the canal [Annotator's Note: the Panama Canal]. The Yorktown carrier [Annotator's Note: USS Yorktown (CV-5)] was also part of the convoy. The Marine Corps detachment on the Idaho was about 80 men, including three officers. They watched movies every night on deck. The food on ship was not very good. After two years on the Idaho, Hendrick was assigned to the 6th Marine Defense Battalion [Annotator's Note: Battery B, 6th Marine Defense Battalion]. In 1942, he served for several months as a PX [Annotator's Note: post exchange] steward on Eastern Island in Midway [Annotator's Note: Midway Islands, United States possession]. In April 1941, Hendrick was on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and was assigned to the 6th Marine Defense Battalion when he returned. It was just forming at that time. They trained in San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] for a few months and were transferred to Pearl [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. Their equipment was sent to Wake [Annotator's Note: Wake Island, United States possession], but the battalion was sent to Midway to relieve the 3rd Defense Battalion [Annotator's Note: 3rd Marine Defense Battalion] in September 1941. They arrived on Hendrick's 21st birthday. There were only about 680 men on the island at the time. They did not see very much action, besides being shelled a few times by Japanese submarines. On December 7th [Annotator's Note: 1941], he was part of a team that hit a Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] destroyer. On Eastern Island, they lived four men to a tent. The weather was nice. On the Sunday of the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], Hendrick returned from a walk around the island to find camp was deserted, as everyone had been called to position. At the time, they had no dugouts for shelter, but later the Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions] arrived and built shelters. They were rationed two cans of beer per day, and candy was a bestseller at the post exchange, sold by the box.

On December 7th [Annotator's Note: 7 December 1941], Robert Erskine Hendricks [Annotator's Note: with Battery B, 6th Marine Defense Battalion stationed on Eastern Island, Midway Islands] had taken his position as trainer on a gun when he learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He did not believe they were really at war until a Japanese destroyer opened fire and hit the main building at Midway, causing a fire. Then they knew World War 2 had started. Hendrick's gun crew fired on one of the Japanese ships. They later realized that the gun was being loaded with some of its shipping components still attached, causing excess pressure and making the gun rock back. Battery B was credited with a few hits on the Japanese ships. For a week or two after the attack, things got pretty strict but loosened up again and they were able to have swimming and beer parties. While Hendrick was assigned to the PX [Annotator's Note: post exchange], some of the other men set up barbed wire and concertinas [Annotator's Note: a type of barbed wire or razor wire]. Japanese submarines only fired on them only once or twice while Hendrick was there. There had been no air wing on the island until after the attacks, but once planes arrived on the island the submarines were less likely to fire on them. The aircraft included US Air Force P-40s [Annotator's Note: Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter aircraft], and B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] coming and going.

Robert Erskine Hendrick [Annotator's Note: with Battery B, 6th Marine Defense Battalion on Eastern Island, Midway Islands] was present when Nimitz [Annotator's Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Sr., Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet] visited Midway about a month before the Battle of Midway [Annotator's Note: Battle of Midway, 4 to 7 June 1942 at Midway Atoll]. Nimitz promised that help would be sent to Midway, and indeed many troops later arrived. Seven-inch guns [Annotator's Note: either the 7-inch, x44 caliber gun Mark 1 or the 7-inch, .45 caliber gun Mark 2] were added on Eastern Island [Annotator's Note: Eastern Island, Midway Islands, US possession] and Sand Island [Annotator's Note: Sand Island, Midway Islands, US possession], the largest guns on the atoll. More barbed wire was added in case of an attempt to land on the beaches. Manpower was tripled. Hendrick was manning the PX [Annotator's Note: post exchange] at this time. He was called into position before the Japanese came and bombed the atoll. The PX was destroyed. A machine gun group said that they were bombarded with hot cans of beer and soda from the bombing of the post exchange [Annotator's Note: Hendrick laughs]. On 4 June, [Annotators Note: 4 June 1942] troops on the islands went into their slit trenches [Annotator's Note: a narrow, shallow trench dug during combat for protection]. Hendrick could see a group of Japanese planes coming in from the north. 90-in AA [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft] guns [Annotator's Note: 90mm gun M1/M2/M3] began firing at them and hit the first plane. The remaining planes would spiral down and bomb everything in sight. Once that phase was through, they did not experience more bombing, as the US naval fleet in the area took care of them. They did not have many casualties on the island. One man was killed by shrapnel in the mess hall. They only learned about the surrounding air and naval battles much later and remained on high alert. The men would sometimes swim out to the reefs and catch fish which they would eat. The military killed thousands of gooney birds [Annotator's Note: a type of albatross] because they caused trouble with plane engines and propellors.

Robert Erskine Hendrick's [Annotator's Note: with Battery B, 6th Marine Defense Battalion] father [Annotator's Note: also an active-duty Marine] was still stationed on Johnston Island [Annotator's Note: Johnston Island, Hawaii] at this time [Annotator's Note: Battle of Midway, 4 to 7 June 1942 at Midway Atoll]. They were not in communication, but Hendrick's mother sent him a victrola [Annotator's Note: generic name for wind-up record player] and records, and sometimes food. Hendrick asked to go to the field artillery ordnance school and was transferred stateside. He spent his furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] with relatives in New England, then reported to North Carolina and finally Quantico [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia] for school, which lasted about three months. He then went to Camp Lejeune [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina] and was assigned to Casual Company [Annotator's Note: a holding unit of Marines awaiting discharge, training, or deployment to a unit] until being sent to Camp Pendleton Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California] where he became part of the newly activated 5th Marine Division. He underwent rigorous training at Camp Tarawa, Hawaii for five or six months, until shipped out to Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan] in February [Annotator's Note: February 1945]. They passed through Kwajalein [Annotator's Note: Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands] and Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] to pick up troops before continuing north to Iwo Jima. Hendrick's group was supposed to go in on d-day-plus-3 [Annotator's Note: meaning three days after d-day, or the expected day of landing of the Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945 at Iwo Jima, Japan] but did not go in that day, because while unloading, Japanese ships fired on them, and the naval element went back out to sea. At this time Hendrick was with the 13th Marines [Annotator's Note: 13th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division] as ordnance chief, checking with batteries daily to see if they needed anything and to make sure the guns were in good shape. The artillery units were further back so did not experience the heavy fighting that the infantry did, but they fired a lot of rounds. They were about 50 yards from the airport, where they had set up several machine gun emplacements. One day, a fellow soldier said he saw someone who he did not think belonged there, and it was a Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] who had been there for a week by himself [Annotator's Note: Hendrick laughs]. He was then taken prisoner. There were such heavy casualties at Iwo Jima that his artillery unit was drained of men to be sent to the frontlines. At this point, Hendrick was a platoon sergeant, carrying a carbine [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine]. The spotters carried 03 rifles [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber Model 1903, or M1903, Springfield bolt action rifle] for sniping. They remained on Iwo Jima for about a month and a half. It was not until "Howlin' Mad" Smith [Annotator's Note: General Holland McTyeire "Howlin' Mad" Smith] declared the island secure that the US Army was allowed to go in. There was still fighting going on then. It was a bloodbath. One of the artillery's forward observers, who went in with the infantry to direct ordnance, told Hendrick there were so many bodies that they were stacking them. They were later buried there on the island but have since been exhumed and returned to the States. Iwo Jima could have been done without; the cost of lives was terrible. Blockading Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan] so they could not get food and fuel in would have been sufficient. Had US forces landed in Japan [Annotator's Note: Operation Downfall; proposed Allied plan for the invasion of Japan], it probably would not exist today, everyone would have been killed. The 5th Marine Division would have been one of the first to land and did not know what to expect. The orders were to go inland as far as you could until stopped. Hendrick would later do occupation duty for almost a year, and never had any problems with the Japanese civilians.

After Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945 at Iwo Jima, Japan], Robert Erskine Hendrick [Annotator's Note: with 13th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division] was sent back to Camp Tarawa on the Big Island [Annotator's Note: Hawaii] to train for the invasion of Japan [Annotator's Note: Operation Downfall; proposed Allied plan for the invasion of Japan], when they learned about VJ Day [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945]. The island was very dusty. Hendrick was transferred from H&S [Annotator's Note: Headquarters and Service] Battery to B Battery [Annotator's Note: Battery B, 13th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division]. They had been training to invade Japan, but instead occupied it. They went into Sasebo [Annotator's Note: Sasebo, Japan] and worked down the coast until finally arriving in Nagasaki [Annotator's Note: Nagasaki, Japan]. The 5th Division was sent back to California, and Hendrick was transferred into the 2nd Division [Annotator's Note: 2nd Marine Division] remaining in Japan. At Nagasaki, he saw devastation. The only things that remained were chimneys and smokestacks. He remained there for about a year. They had patrols go out to collect weapons and the Japanese cooperated. He still has a sword he collected while there. He spent about four months in an ammunition depot where they burned power with the help of Japanese workers. He went pheasant hunting and fishing. Hendrick left Japan in July 1946, going through the Canal [Annotator's Note: the Panama Canal] up to Camp Lejeune [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina] where he was discharged, despite being promised a recommendation for Warrant Officer. He was tired of war and had not seen his parents in a long time.

Robert Erskine Hendrick did not find it too difficult to readjust to civilian life. He worked in the circulation department of Riverside Press [Annotator's Note: now the Press-Enterprise newspaper in Riverside, California], and later got a similar job in Madera [Annotator's Note: Madera, California] where he worked for two years. He married and moved to Anchorage, Alaska where he worked at Anchorage Daily News, eventually moving to The Sacramento Bee. He had two sons born in Anchorage. Both had passed away by the time of this interview. Hendrick did not speak much about the war afterwards, even with fellow veterans. He does not dwell on it and liked the friendships he made with other service members. He worked the bar at reunions, and later worked putting them together. Hendrick had been at Midway [Annotator's Note: Midway Atoll, Midway Islands, US possession] for 18 months, and was one of the last to come back, around April 1943. Hendrick remembers Midway fondly, after completing his duties he could swim, and the setting and weather were beautiful. He knew some men who were taken prisoner on Wake [Annotator's Note: Wake Island, US possession]. The Japanese were not easy to deal with. The island battles, such as Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal Campaign, 7 August 1942 to 9 February 1943 at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands] and Kwajalein [Annotator's Note: Battle of Kwajalein, 31 January to 3 February 1944 at Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands], resulted in very heavy losses for the Americans. Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: during the Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945 at Iwo Jima, Japan] was filled with tunnels, which they would bomb shut.