Robert Marich was born in January 1923 in Chicago, Illinois. At the age of 16, his family moved to Beloit, Wisconsin. A few days after he turned 18, Marich enlisted in the service. He saw that the United States was on the path towards joining the war and thought that by signing up early he would put himself in a better position. He wanted to avoid being put into the infantry. The Army sent him to Scott Field, Illinois to be in the US Army Air Corps. The Army trained Marich as a DI [Annotator's Note: drill instructor] and then sent him to Miami Beach, Florida to teach at an Officer Candidate School for top executives who were given commissioned positions in the military. He grew bored with the position and put in for three different transfers: glider pilot, gunner on a bomber, or in the paratroops. A few weeks after he requested these transfers, he was put into the paratroops and sent to Fort Benning [Annotator's Note: Fort Benning, Georgia]. Upon arriving at Fort Benning and watching the training, Marich almost turned around and went the other way. In paratrooper training, he did five practice jumps total. The first one he has no memory of. On the second he had to be thrown out of the plane, the final three happened without incident. He managed to complete all of his practice jumps without injury, an uncommon occurrence. The Army assigned him to the 82nd Airborne Division, but he was not there even a week before he was moved to the 11th Airborne Division [Annotator's Note: Company B, 1st Battalion, 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division] which was being formed in Toccoa, Georgia [Annotator's Note: Camp Toccoa]. At the time he was a buck sergeant [Annotator's Note: the lowest rank of sergeant in the military] so he was sent as cadre [Annotator's Note: group of officers and enlisted necessary to establish and train a new unit] to the newly formed 11th Airborne. From Toccoa they went to Camp Mackall, North Carolina [Annotator's Note: in Hoke, Richmond, and Scotland Counties, North Carolina] for heavy training. During training, there was a mock battle for maneuvers, with the 11th Airborne versus the 82nd Airborne. Their C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft] blew an engine, so Marich and the rest of the paratroopers had to jump prematurely to lighten the plane's load. He jumped into complete darkness, landing in the yard of a family watching the exercises. Marich landed completely fine, while his friend landed into the family's chicken coop, destroying it and sending chickens running everywhere. After Marich explained what happened, the family invited them into their house for food. The next day, because the military had no idea where Marich and his friend landed, they made their way to Charlotte [Annotator's Note: Charlotte, North Carolina] and went to some bars for drinks. They eventually met back up with their unit two days later. From Camp Mackall they traveled to Camp Stoneman, California [Annotator's Note: in Pittsburg, California, 23 April 1944] to depart for the Pacific.

Robert Marich traveled on a Liberty Ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship], with the entire division [Annotator's Note: Marich was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division] packed in the vessel. The soldiers rotated sleeping quarters below and above deck every 24 hours. Marich constantly fell out of the hammocks used to sleep below deck. They were at sea for three weeks, and worried about possible submarine attacks the whole time. The men did their laundry by tying their clothes to ropes and throwing it overboard. Many soldiers experienced sea sickness. They landed at Lae, New Guinea [Annotator's Note: on 11 June 1944] after weeks at sea, where the 32nd [Annotator's Note: 32nd Infantry Division] and 41st Infantry Divisions had just finished a hard-fought campaign for Lae [Annotator's Note: Salamaua-Lae campaign, 22 April until 16 September 1943]. There were two generals in the Pacific at the time, Eichelberger [Annotator's Note: US Army General Robert L. Eichelberger] the general of the Eight Army, and Krueger [Annotator's Note: US Army General Walter Krueger] general of the Sixth Army. Marich met soldiers upon arriving in the Pacific who told him that they named an area Eichelberger Square. It was a cemetery and they referred to it as such because of losses under Eichelberger's command. The jungles in New Guinea were the worst he had ever seen. The only way to truly make your way through the jungle was to chop ahead of yourself with a machete. The jungles and their thick undergrowth produced a terrible smell, and it was constantly raining. It was rare to see the sun or even just the sky itself because of the dense foliage and trees. Snakes hung from the trees and rats that were as big cats ran underfoot. The Women's Army Corps or WACs [Annotator's Note: Women's Army Corps; women's branch of the United States Army, 1942 to 1978] arrived soon after under the command of Hobby [Annotator's Note: US Army Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby]. The soldiers all went to the beach to watch the WACs arrive but were not allowed within several hundred feet of them. The WACs were given their own camp. They did not consider the ingenuity of the American GI [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier]. Many soldiers did anything they could to make it into the women's only camp. Dances were held on Saturday nights but to be admitted a WAC needed to submit a male soldier's name. Because soldiers were not allowed into the WAC camp, they would give entire lists of names to the women inside the camp whenever one of them finally managed to sneak in. While the men and women were not allowed to socialize outside of supervision, they would often fraternize on the beach while the WAC commanding officers looked the other way. From New Guinea they moved on to Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines] for the Invasion of Leyte [Annotator's Note: Battle of Leyte, 17 October to 26 December 1944]. They arrived on Leyte soon enough to see MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] make his entrance. Marich and his company laid on the beach that night and the next day watched Ira Bong [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Major Richard Ira Bong, American flying ace] in his P-38 [Annotator's Note: Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft] engage in a dogfight overhead. The next day Marich's orders were to clear the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] out of the mountains and to cut their supply lines. Company B and the 1st Cavalry Division, located on the opposite side of the island, were supposed to cross and meet in the middle. Up to this point, Marich and the rest of B Company still had not experienced combat. After a day of traversing the jungle, B Company found a suitable position to set up camp. As the sun was going down, two soldiers from C Company [Annotator's Note: Company C, 1st Battalion, 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division] stumbled into camp drenched in water. They took a different route and the Japanese ambushed them, practically wiping them out. Battalion commander Colonel Laflamme [Annotator's Note: US Army Colonel Ernest Hertel Laflamme] was with B Company, and Regimental commander Orin Haugen [Annotator's Note: US Army Colonel Orin Doughty Haugen] gave the direct order for B Company to go to the rescue of C Company. Laflamme respectfully declined this order due to a combination of the darkness and unfamiliarity of the terrain. Laflamme was immediately moved to another division for refusing the order. B Company ran into a pair of mountains, one of which the Japanese were defending. They took the mountain and cut the Japanese supply line. They secured the mountain, then moved on to the neighboring mountain. The Japanese retook the first position and cutting the supply line for the combined force of A Company [Annotator's Note: Company A, 1st Battalion, 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division], B Company, and what was left of C Company. Marich sat at the second mountain for five days with no food or ammunition, there was no shortage of water due to the amount of rain in the Philippines. They tried several times to dislodge the Japanese. Companies A and C both tried to take the mountain to no avail. B Company coordinated its attack with E Company [Annotator's Note: Company E, 1st Battalion, 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division] hitting the opposite side allowing for them to finally break the Japanese position. There were several hundred Japanese dead. By this point Marich had become completely desensitized to death. Leaving the mountain, they transported the wounded by holding them in ponchos supported by four men. At the bottom of the mountain, they cleared jungle to make a small landing strip so planes could come pick up the wounded, one person at a time [Annotator's Note: in January 1945].

During the Invasion of Leyte [Annotator's Note: Battle of Leyte, 17 October to 26 December 1944], Robert Marich and his unit [Annotator's Note: Company B, 1st Battalion, 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division] were fortified in a foxhole on the side of a hill. The Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] attacked them that night with a banzai attack [Annotator's Note: Banzai charge; Japanese human wave attack]. The Japanese troops would begin a chant, and drink as much sake [Annotator's Note: alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice] as they wanted. The chant would get louder and louder until they screamed "banzai" and ran up the hill using only close-range weapons such as swords or bayonets. The charge was repulsed. The next morning they were wary of leaving the foxhole in case of an ambush. Outside there were numerous bodies on the ground. They encountered an enemy with a wounded leg, and shot him dead, which Marich regrets. He had a hard time believing in the rules of war when he knew of the atrocities committed by the Japanese against American prisoners of war such as on the Bataan Death March [Annotator's Note: Bataan Death March, the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000 to 80,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war, 9 April 1942]. The Japanese regular Army was extremely disciplined, the conscripts not nearly so. The regular Japanese soldier was a real fighter, and willing to sacrifice his life in battle. The Japanese were much more well-versed in fighting in the jungle than the Americans were. They set out booby traps and utilized the terrain to their utmost advantage. Japanese soldiers often lay in wait in the top of coconut trees. Any time the Americans came into a clearing with a lot of trees, they would fire indiscriminately at the tops of the trees. Multiple Japanese soldiers would be hit and fall, hanging by their safety ropes. Marich witnessed a doctor perform brain surgery in the field [Annotator's Note: Marich gets emotional] in a rainstorm by candlelight. An Army physician named Nester [Annotator's Note: no last name given] knelt in the mud attempting to save the man's life. B Company left the mountains 25 December 1944 and was allowed rest until 3 February 1945 when they were sent to invade the island of Luzon [Annotator's Note: Battle of Luzon, 9 January to 15 August 1945, Luzon, Philippines]. They were dropped on the south side of the island while the 1st Cavalry Division and others invaded the north. A parachute division consisted of three regiments. One regiment was made up of paratroopers, the other two were for troops using gliders. A parachute company is only 120 men, and typically did not have heavy weaponry with them. The heaviest things they had were their .30 caliber machine gun [Annotator's Note: Browning M1919 .30 caliber air cooled light machine gun] and a 60mm mortar [Annotator's Note: M2 60mm mortar]. The regular infantry had more men and heavier equipment. The jump resulted in the paratroopers missing the drop zone, landing seemingly at random.

Robert Marich's unit [Annotator's Note: Company B, 1st Battalion, 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division] met up with the other two parts of their regiment and marched on Manila [Annotator's Note: Battle of Manila, 3 February to 3 March 1945; Manila, Luzon, Philippines]. The Japanese heavily fortified Manila, and the fighting to take the city became extreme as soon as B Company reached the city. The Japanese had defenses organized which were called the Genko Line, one of the most heavily fortified positions in the Pacific. This marked the first time that Marich saw tanks used in the Philippines. After breaking the line and entering the city there was fighting house to house. The Japanese killed every person in the city: soldiers, civilians, women, and children. Every building was burned to the ground as the Japanese lost the city. The Japanese hanged people from telephone poles and houses. They killed babies with bayonets. Japanese General Yamashita [Annotator's Note: Imperial Japanese Army Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita; known as The Tiger of Malaya] was responsible for this behavior in Manila. The Allies drove the Japanese out and into the mountains north of Manila. They then took Nichols Field [Annotator's Note: Nichols Field, Pasay, Luzon, Philippines]. Their next objective was to recapture Fort McKinley [Annotator's Note: Fort William McKinley, now Fort Andres Bonifacio, Manila, Philippines]. It was held by Japanese Marines who added naval guns and ack-ack guns [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery] to use at the fort for artillery. The ensuing artillery barrage devastated B Company, hitting the man next to Marich. Marich tried to help him, but the platoon sergeant took over and told him to move on. [Annotator's Note: Marich wipes his eye.] B Company pulled back to their base camp near Fort McKinley. They were shown a sand table that detailed the prison camp Los Baños [Annotator's Note: Los Banos Internment Camp, Los Banos, Philippines], 25 miles behind Japanese lines. MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] had received word that the Japanese were going to execute the 2,500 people interned at Los Banos, so they needed to plan a rescue mission to save them. MacArthur assigned the mission to the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The Regimental Commander assigned it to the 1st Battalion commander, who then picked B Company for the mission. Their old regimental commander Colonel Haugen [Annotator's Note: US Army Colonel Orin Doughty Haugen] had been killed. B Company received more men to reinforce their ranks for the operation. They were to cross Lake Taal [Annotator's Note: Taal Lake, Luzon, Philippines], bring in amtracks [Annotator's Note: Landing Vehicle, Tracked or LVT; also referred to as amtrack or alligator], move into the camp, and pick up the internees who could not walk. B Company decided to parachute in at seven in the morning, as the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] did their morning exercises and were unarmed. They slept beneath the wings of their plane that night to ensure they left as soon as possible in the morning. They wrote "Rescue" on the bottom of the nine C-47s [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport aircraft] they used. Marich had to jump in at no more than 500 feet. His unit suffered no casualties during this operation. Filipino guerillas surrounded the camp and picked off the enemies in the guard posts. The rest were killed by paratroopers. The Filipino prisoners came out of their huts, falling over and hugging the soldiers that came to save them. They needed to hurry them onto the amtracks as they had maybe 30 minutes to get out before Japanese reinforcements arrived. The Allies preoccupied this force with a feint, hoping that they did not realize that Los Baños was being liberated during this time. B Company protected the rear. They were able to escape. The Japanese arrived as soon as B Company retreated. Marich is unhappy with a recreation of the Raid [Annotator's Note: liberation of the Los Banos Internment Camp on 23 February 1945; Los Banos, Luzon, Philippines] that was featured on television [Annotator's Note: unable to identify which one].

After the Raid [Annotator's Note: the liberation of the Los Banos Internment Camp on 23 February 1945; Los Banos, Luzon, Philippines] Robert Marich and his unit [Annotator's Note: Company B, 1st Battalion, 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division] turned south, fought some more, and then entered a rest camp. There were still around 25,000 Japanese in northern Luzon [Annotator's Note: Luzon, Philippines], and Marich's unit was ordered to join up with the 37th Infantry Division. They were dropped in and pushed the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] into the mountains. They did not pursue the Japanese but instead opted to let them starve in the mountains as they had no way of receiving supplies. The commanding general of the 37th Infantry was named Beightler [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General Robert Sprague Beightler], and B Company also had a platoon leader named Beightler [Annotator's Note: US Army First Lieutenant Robert Sprague Beightler, Jr.], despite both fighting in the Philippines it was the first time the father and son had seen each other in years. From there, Marich went to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan] and began preparing for the Invasion of Japan. They were originally going to jump on Hokkaido [Annotator's Note: Hokkaido, Japan]. They were still training up until the United States used the bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. Marich's unit was chosen as the honor guard for MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] entering Japan. They arrived at Yokohama [Annotator's Note: Yokohama, Japan] on a C-54 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport aircraft]. MacArthur was worried that there would be some sort of unrest or resistance, so the Allies came in heavily armed. When they arrived, there was a group of Japanese policemen and a group of Homeguard [Annotator's Note: Boeitai, reserve military] with their backs turned to the Allies because they were there to protect the Allies from the Japanese civilians in case they rioted. No such riots or attacks on Allies occurred. They were pleasant and nice to the Allied soldiers. Driving through the streets, the Japanese all faced away from the Allies, because they felt shamed by their loss in the war. B Company was assigned to the city of Ichinoseki [Annotator's Note: Ichinoseki, Japan], a town of a 100,000 population. Marich was discharged 16 November 1945, spending two months on occupation duty. Japan was very clean, and the people there were very nice to the American soldiers. Ichinoseki was not damaged much during the war, if at all. In comparison, Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan] and Yokohama were absolutely destroyed. Despite how the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] made people feel, patriotism was the last thing that crossed their mind when in battle. It was about staying alive and protecting yourself and your friends.

Robert Marich first entered the service in February 1941. In April 1941, at Camp Mackall, North Carolina [Annotator's Note: in Hoke, Richmond, and Scotland Counties, North Carolina], he was playing basketball when his brother walked into the gym. His brother was in a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, an organization started by Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] to put young men to work [Annotator's Note: during the Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945]. His brother showed him the barracks where he was staying, where they both realized they had the bunk next to each other. Here he first heard of the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Marich did not choose the Army over the other branches of service for any particular reason. He wanted to be a pilot, but only had a grade school education and knew that goal was impossible. Marich fully believed in the training he received. The training was so hard that people constantly left. Accidents with parachutes resulting in injury further motivated people to leave. When they decided to leave, the Army took their boots and had the soldier removed from the camp within half an hour. On the plane during training, the jump master had to physically push some soldiers out of the plane because they would freeze. Others would be unable to get up from their seats. They would also be removed from paratrooper school. During his tour of duty, Marich carried the M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand] and thought highly of it as a weapon. Marich was returning to his company [Annotator's Note: Company B, 1st Battalion, 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division] after being hospitalized for malaria [Annotator's Note: mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite] and dengue fever [Annotator's Note: mosquito-borne tropical disease]. As he would not make it back to his company in time, he pulled off in the middle of the night. That night, the Japanese attacked and he suffered minor injuries from shrapnel and a spent bullet hit him, barely breaking the skin. Upon reaching his company, he was ordered to look for Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] and to take one alive, if possible, which he thought was crazy. The next night the Japanese attacked again, and Marich was with someone he did not know in a foxhole. Once their flares began illuminating the jungle, they could see the Japanese. During the course of the fight Marich and the other man ran out of ammo at the same time a figure began approaching through the bushes. They both reloaded at the same time and shot the figure. The next morning, they found a dead Japanese soldier armed only with a fountain pen, a tribute to the fanatical devotion of the Japanese soldiers. Marich was awestruck by a soldier who would engage the enemy, weapon or not, in the face of certain death. He found the most useful weapon they had for fighting in the jungle to be the submachine gun [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun]. Marich says there were various violations of the Geneva Conventions [Annotator's Note: standards for humanitarian treatment in war] committed against Japanese soldiers, alive and dead.

After the war, Robert Marich worked in television. A show he produced featured couples who had been married a long time. One of the couples on the show were interned at Los Banos [Annotator's Note: Los Banos Internment Camp, Los Banos, Philippines]. Marich does not remember many good times during his time in the Philippines. Those memories are drowned out by the hardships he faced. There were two soldiers who were best friends throughout their entire time in his unit [Annotator's Note: Company B, 1st Battalion, 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division] and were basically inseparable. When someone returned to camp saying that DuBay [Annotator's Note: Army Private Lawrence Edmond DuBay] was in trouble, the other went after him, with no regard for his own safety. The Japanese killed both of them. A lot of that occurred during the war, as your friends were all you had. The soldiers were always dirty and tired. The only thing they could do with their situation was to find humor in it. He has the utmost respect for his fellow soldiers in his unit and in the other divisions he met up with. The only beautiful thing about the war was the camaraderie. The food was terrible, and they rarely were given hot meals. If given the opportunity to speak to the people he served with, he hopes that they're happy, that they are at peace. Marich agrees with MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area], that war is not an answer but an outdated way to settle disputes. Unless people learn to get along and stop fighting, and stop destroying the planet, there will be nothing left. The war made him more respectful with people he met in his postwar life. He suffers from bad dreams about his time in the war. He still has three friends from those days that he speaks regularly with on the phone. He believes that it is very important that young people see The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana], how politicians created World War 2, and the sacrifices made in it. It might help them determine who they vote for in elections and how they think about things politically. Marich understands why the Japanese expanded. The Americans trying to stop them from leaving their mountainous islands with no resources were in no position to tell them they could not create an empire. After all, the United States stole a whole country from the Indians [Annotator's Note: Native Americans]. He also thinks it was necessary for the United States to enter World War 2, to stop Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] from controlling all of Europe and potentially Africa and Asia. The war economy helped lift the United States out of the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945].