Sterling Mace was born in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. He attended school there and played varsity baseball as a pitcher. He had aspirations to continue his ball career but World War 2 happened. Mace originally attempted to enlist in the Navy but failed the vision test. He memorized the eye test chart so that he could pass the test given by the Marine Corps. He succeeded on that test. After acceptance in the Marine Corps, Mace went to boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina. He spent nine weeks there then went to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina where he was put in a casual company which was a standby company. He played ball while there, but he tore a ligament in his arm. He tried to play, but it was too uncomfortable. He was then transferred to post troops for a month or so. Anxious to get into the fight, Mace went to the first sergeant to lodge a complaint about his assignment. His first sergeant transferred him to the Brooklyn Navy Yard where the Missouri [Annotator's Note: USS Missouri (BB-63)] and the Franklin [Annotator's Note: USS Franklin (CV-13) were located. Mace served guard duty there for six months. While at the Navy Yard, Mace became friends with a returnee from Guadalcanal. The veteran had not seen action but had contracted elephantiasis while on the island. Through the Guadalcanal veteran, Mace received a job in motor transport. In that position, he drove his lieutenant around to various posts at night. One of the posts was between the Franklin and the Missouri. Driving was not allowed between the ships. The lieutenant insisted that he be driven to the quay. After dropping the lieutenant off, Mace attempted to back his vehicle up but nearly stripped off the fender in doing so. After that, Mace was back at guard duty. He met Larry Mahan from Company L during the six months at the Yard. Mace was told that he was shipping out. He traveled by rail to Texas and then on to San Diego. It was a long trip, particularly through Texas. During the rail trip, a photograph was taken of Mace and other Marines having chow. That photograph eventually made its way into Leatherneck magazine. He saw the photograph while on Guadalcanal. After arriving in San Diego, Mace went to a small makeshift camp called Linda Vista prior to boarding an old transport ship. It was an old tub of a ship. It took 32 days to get to New Caledonia from San Diego.

Sterling Mace and the Marines that accompanied him from San Diego stayed in Camp Saint Louis on New Caledonia for five days. They then went to Pavuvu. There was nothing but straight lines of coconut trees. The former plantation had been abandoned for years so the ground was full of rotten coconuts and rats. On Pavuvu, the replacements were assigned to regiments. Mace was assigned to the 5th Marine Regiment. Following that, individuals were assigned to companies based on alphabetical listing of last names. Larry Mahan went into the company right after Mace because of their last names. Mace was in Company K [Annotator's Note: Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] and his buddy, Mahan, was in L Company. Another friend, George McNevin [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling], was also in Mace's company. When Mace told McNevin, a Guadalcanal veteran, that the weapons were going to be assigned to the men, McNevin suggested that Mace take the BAR [Annotator's Note: Browning Automatic Rifle] because he was left handed. Mace explains how much easier it was for him to operate the weapon. This was never explained to Mace during boot camp when he was forced to shoot right handed with considerable difficulty. Because of his effort, the DI [Annotator's Note: Drill Instructor] gave him his qualification even though his score did not quite make the threshold. No matter what was taught in boot camp, actual combat brought with it a whole new series of positions for firing weapons. It could be from the hip or the shoulder and rarely involved the learned positions from boot camp. Mace was assigned the BAR on Pavuvu. The men did forced marches and trained while on Pavuvu. Besides training on the island, there was basketball and volleyball plus work parties that usually involved coconut removals. On one work party, Mace and seven others were unloading trucks on the beach. After discovering a set of captain's bars, Mace pinned them on. He took six cases of peaches up to his Company K. When they arrived near the showers, they decided to store the peaches there until later. An individual named Garner Mott was on guard duty. Mott said he would watch over the peaches. Mace and the others on work detail returned to the beach, but after their work detail, they returned to the showers to find all the cases but one had been taken away. Mace assumed that the cases were taken after the guard had completed his watch. It would frustrate Mace afterward when he saw the empty peach cans in the trash. Mott was later killed on Okinawa, the same day his wife notified him that they had a new baby. Mott's death might have been on V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945]. Mott's son has attended reunions when Mace also attended. Card games were played at night on Pavuvu. Crap games were also played. Fruit was used to brew up Jungle Juice. A fellow from Missouri knew how to distill the liquor from the fermented fruit in five gallon cans for about a week. Mace could not drink the liquid. After straining the liquid through a tee shirt, it had the look of lemonade. There was a ration of either beer or Coke for the men. The men bartered back and forth for the ration they preferred. Mace preferred Coke over beer. The men received word that they would be shipping out. They boarded the USS LST-661 [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank]. The LST went to Guadalcanal for a practice landing. Mace had a machete and a 19 pound BAR plus a pack and other gear. After landing, he tossed the machete. After the practice assault, Mace had a Coke and saw the Leatherneck magazine. [Annotator's Note: It was in that magazine that Mace saw the photograph of his rail travel to San Diego.] The men relaxed for awhile and swam, but soon they had to return to the LST-661. On the deck was an LCI [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft, Infantry]. Mace's platoon slept under the LCI since it was somewhat raised off the deck on chocks. It was restrictive in height but Mace and his platoon were there for two weeks.

Sterling Mace had various individuals in his platoon for the assault on Peleliu. There was Jim McEnery, the platoon guide, and Van Trump the fire team leader over the four man fire team. Donald Swanse was the scout. Mace was the BAR [Annotator's Note: Browning Automatic Rifle] man with Charlie Almann as his assistant BAR man. William Bower Schmidt was the lieutenant. Sergeant Speech was the platoon sergeant. [Annotator's Note: None of these names were specifically spelled out by Mace.] Mace did not name his squad leader. That individual could not handle the action on the beach. He arrived on one tractor and soon after left on another. He may have received five years of incarceration as a result. While aboard USS LST-661 [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank], the vessel's deck was swamped one night. The water nearly washed the platoon's gear overboard. It was a mess. It was hot during the voyage. The men made a makeshift Battleship game board and played many games to consume their time. Finally, the ship's engines stopped and the men assumed that they had reached their destination. They could see the flames from the Navy vessels bombarding the shoreline. Mace's 3rd Platoon [Annotator's Note: 3rd Platoon, Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] was called below deck to have the typical pre-invasion meal of steak and eggs. Afterward, they returned topside to await the word to go ashore. The platoon again watched the shoreline bombardment. This time aircraft as well as Navy vessels hit the enemy on the beach. When one of the American Hellcats [Annotator's Note: Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter aircraft] was shot down, it changed the way the Marines were thinking about the events to come. When 3rd Platoon was called below deck again, it was to man the invasion vehicles that would carry them ashore. The interior of LST-661 was like a huge steel garage with multiple Amtraks [Annotator's Note: Landing Vehicle, Tracked or LVT] revving up their engines in anticipation of the assault. The fumes from the Amtraks' diesel engines in the enclosed area were heavy. The platoon crowded into the Amtrak which also had a 37mm artillery piece loaded in it. The vehicle lurched as it took off out of the LST. The Marines looked up and saw sailors with their coffee looking down at them and waving. Mace thought at that point that he was in the wrong outfit. Nevertheless, the Amtraks circled around for a long time to muster the full first wave before heading to the beach. The battleships were firing on the beach, but it seemed that it took a long time for the big guns to reload. When they fired those large guns, it was spectacular. All the while, the Marines were looking on each side of them to be assured that someone else was going to the beach with them. Mace and his platoon were concerned that they were too far advanced compared to the other Amtraks. They told their driver to slow down so as not to get too far ahead. As they progressed further toward the beach, the Marines saw what looked like an LCI [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft, Infantry] firing rockets at the beach. A thousand rockets struck the beach right before the first wave of Marines landed on the beach. The assault beach was smoky black. The water with the breakers was white. It provided a contrast between the beach and water.

Sterling Mace and his platoon rode to the assault beach at Peleliu in an Amtrak [Annotator's Note: Landing Vehicle, Tracked or LVT]. The vehicle was hung up on coral initially, but, after backing up, found its way to the beach. Mace was flush up against the ramp at the back of the amphibious vehicle. When the ramp dropped, the Marines came out immediately. When Mace and his buddy exited the Amtrak, they saw a dog walking around. The sight of the dog surprised them with all the shooting going on around them. As soon as the Marines turned the corner around the Amtrak, they heard a machine gun. Mace got hung up on branches on the beach and started shedding some of his equipment. Someone shouted that the enemy wore khaki uniforms with leggings and hobnail shoes. That was how they first were able to identify the enemy. The next word was that the Japanese were shooting low. It was dangerous if you stood or crawled. Mace started hearing calls from the Marine wounded for medical assistance from corpsmen. He then heard a call from a Lieutenant Colonel Austin Shofner for the men to follow him. Shofner's nickname was "Shifty." Shofner called to the Marines that there were no Japanese alive on the island. Shortly thereafter, Shofner was hit and wounded. Mace wondered who shot him if it not a Japanese soldier. Shofner was evacuated. The first day at Peleliu was a mass of confusion. The 1st Platoon hit the beach and their Amtrak driver lurched forward as the ramp fell. All the Marines in the LVT tumbled out of the vehicle. The first day was confusion with Marines being hit left and right. Mace was ordered with his fire team to take out a machine gun position. That was his first assignment, but he was reluctant to go through the jungle and try to find the position. Just then, someone yelled out that it was a friendly machine gun position. Mace was glad to hear that. This all occurred within 40 yards off their initial landing position. The Marines moved faster than predicted. They made it to the airstrip quickly by bypassing various enemy positions. By the time Mace and his platoon reached the airstrip, they were lost. Units were out of position. A company runner advanced on Mace's platoon [Annotator's Note: Mace was a member of 3rd Platoon, Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division]. Things were so confusing that when the Captain's runner came up, the company runner asked who it was. He had to make sure it was not an enemy soldier. At this point, night was coming on. Mace and the platoon were relocated and told to dig in. The ground surface was so hard it was like trying to dig into pavement. Digging in the coral was so difficult that the best they could do was to scrape out just a shallow hole and lay in that. In the middle of the night, an individual could be heard trying to dig deeper. When the men woke up in the middle of the night, there was a misty haze hanging over the ground. It made it even more eerie when shadowy figures emerged from the dark in the mist. The call for "corpsman" was also unnerving. By this time, the Marines were running low on water. There was no fresh drinking water on the island itself. Someone spotted a shell hole with gray water at the bottom. It looked like cement water. The men began to drink that water by clenching their teeth together to filter the particles from the dirty water. The supply of water that was brought forward for the Marines tasted like gasoline because of an error made at Pavuvu. There, the flushing out of gasoline drums was only partially completed before they were filled with fresh water. As a result, the water provided to the Marines on Peleliu looked orange and tasted bad. Mace felt he was better off drinking the water from the shell hole. Good water came after awhile. It was very hot and the water was needed. Men dropped out from heat exhaustion. Their faces were red and shriveled with their eyes being very pronounced. Combat fatigue started coming on in the later stages of the battle. Tanks were used to knock out enemy artillery. Mace and his men would follow behind the tanks to approach the enemy before engaging. During these operations, Mace began to see more and more dead. He adopted the philosophy that if there were no flies on the enemy dead, they were faking it in order to ambush the Marines. One of his buddies named Levy got the word and was shooting at a body that had no head. Mace reminded him that shooting that body was needless. Later, Levy would get it. [Annotator's Note: Mace does not give a first name or the proper spelling for his friend's name. He also does not say when his friend was hit or how serious the wound was.]

Sterling Mace and his platoon [Annotator's Note: 3rd Platoon, Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] advanced on the Peleliu airstrip on the second day or third day after the landing. They came across the Hellcat [Annotator's Note: Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter aircraft] that his platoon had observed being shot down during the early stages of the assault. The dead American pilot had hand grenades strapped to him by the enemy. Even though the grenades served as booby traps, Van Trump [Annotator's Note: unsure fo spelling] took the pilot's pistol out of its holster. Though the handles were burned off, the pistol was still workable. Van Trump kept the pistol in his pack and would polish it every chance he got so as to try to make it serviceable. When the men approached the airstrip, they saw the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment]. They were strung out with their rifles and fixed bayonets charging ahead. Mace's battalion edged toward the right which seemed to be their typical direction of advance during the battle. After the airstrip, there was jungle and undergrowth. Mace's friend, Levy, was hit by a Japanese grenade or a booby trap. Levy was evacuated. From the airstrip, Mace's platoon was placed in a swamp. A Marine had to get up on the base of a tree to avoid standing in two inches of water. The platoon stayed in the swamp for two days with a Marine artillery unit firing over their heads. The muzzle blast was awful. It could knock a person's eardrums out. Levy returned at this time with a large white bandage on his chin. Levy said he wanted to return to the unit, but when he hit the beach with its smell, he wanted to go back out again. When the platoon went to Purple Beach to set up a beach defense against possible Japanese counterattack, Mace saw a minesweeper blowing up mines with sailors firing rifles to do so. Purple Beach was a scenic environment that looked like a picnic spot. It had a blue lagoon. One of the Marines was loaded down with Japanese souvenirs, including a Victrola [Annotator's Note: a record player]. The Japanese recordings played on the Victrola drove the Marines crazy. The word came down that the men were headed to the north. They swung around and a lieutenant said to hop on the passing American tanks in order to avoid walking. Looking back at the combat in the swamp, some Marines in other sections went overboard with their reactions but not Mace's unit. As the tanks passed, Mace and others jumped up on one. A shot rang out and the round passed through several individuals. The Marines hopped off the tank. They were headed through a sniper alley where the Americans were vulnerable. Many Marines were hit on that road because it had a hill overlooking it. When Mace and his fellow Marines got into their next position, they were able to dig foxholes. After digging in, nightly parachute flares were fired to make the enemy infiltrators more visible. The flares burned in a swaying motion. The motion helped mask enemy movements against the seemingly moving trees. The Marines each had a buddy in the foxhole with them with the idea that one man slept while the other stood watch. Sometimes both men would inadvertently fall asleep. One night, Mace was woken up by a fight nearby. A Japanese soldier had made his way into the hole next to Mace and a spirited fight ensued. The enemy infiltrator was eventually killed and his body tossed outside the hole. Mace felt Levy had drawn the infiltrator because it seemed that he always drew fire wherever he went. The next morning before daylight, Mace decided he would take a chance and get a souvenir off the dead soldier. He was too late. The enemy had been stripped of everything. There were no remaining souvenirs to be obtained from that dead enemy soldier.

Sterling Mace and Company K, along with Companies L and I, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment were told to withdraw from their positions on Peleliu and prepare to attack an island about 1,400 yards across a causeway, Ngesebus [Annotator's Note: Ngesebus was a small island adjacent to Peleliu and contained an enemy airstrip]. Amtraks lined up to take the Marines to the assault beach. [Annotator's Note: Landing Vehicle, Tracked or LVT]. While traveling across to Ngesebus, the Marines encouraged the .50 caliber machine gunner to sweep his fire at targets in the direction of their destination. American cruisers and Marine Corps Corsairs [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter aircraft] were bombarding and strafing the enemy beaches. The invasion troops felt that there could not have been any remaining opposition. They were wrong. It was a perfect landing with Marine Corsairs coming in at tree top level strafing the enemy positions. The Marines knew to get off the beach quickly and move in. Mace passed a destroyed pillbox and fired a volley into it with his BAR [Annotator's Note: Browning Automatic Rifle]. After he crossed the airstrip, he grabbed the barrel of his weapon. The barrel was still hot enough to burn him. That was after firing only five or six rounds. Mace's squad had responsibility for the left side of the island, bounded by a 15 to 20 foot high ridge. Mace's squad had from the top of the ridge to the beach. On the opposite side of the ridge, there was flat land. Companies K and L advanced behind tanks. The Japanese would attack American tanks and attempt to drop hand grenades into them. The Marines of Companies L and I had a turkey shoot picking off the enemy attackers. With the majority of the troops on the flat side of Ngesebus, the surviving seven members of Mace's 12 man squad were under Van Trump [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling]. They advanced on the ridge and caves. They experienced difficulty in communicating with the lieutenant in charge of the bulk of the troops on the opposite side of the ridge. The squad and the lieutenant's command progressed in tandem through the day. As the squad moved forward, there was a rustling of bushes ahead. A burst was fired toward the noise. It turned out to be Levy. [Annotator's Note: Mace makes the point repeatedly in the interview that Levy always seemed to be drawing fire while they were in combat together.] One of the individuals with Mace was a good man but restless. While others would be resting before advancing again, this Marine, named Baxter, would be looking for the enemy. A recessed cave with fancy drapes was spotted. Baxter turned around and fired his weapon. It turned out that the cave was a ploy to distract the Marines so that the enemy could fire on them from behind. Baxter spotted the enemy and the distraction failed. Mace climbed to the top of the ridge and looked over it. He spotted three enemy soldiers on the opposite side and fired on them with his BAR. He lobbed two grenades down on them. A bazooka and a flame thrower would be brought up to fire on the enemy. A demolition man would finish closing the cave. Four or five of the enemy were killed outside the cave and an unknown number were eliminated inside. The squad advanced further until they were only 60 yards to the point or edge of the island. A mortar barrage came in on the squad and hit the trees. A Marine lying next to Mace was hit in the back by eight pieces of shrapnel. The mortars were friendly fire. The men were ordered to dig in even though the surface was coral and hard to dig. Instead the men braced themselves against a tree to sleep. In the middle of the night, a ship goes by and Mace reminds himself that the sailors seemingly have better duty than the Marines. The next morning, the Marines attempted to test fire their BARs, but they found that each of the three weapons were jammed. They immediately took the time to use old toothbrushes to clean them of the interfering debris. Had they not tried to test fire those weapons, they would have been in trouble when they engaged in combat and those critical weapons misfired. Mace and a buddy reconnoitered for the squad, moving up in small increments toward the end of the island. Finding a recessed spot that was high, they stopped and held that position. They heard noises and felt that something was wrong. They held their position but then there was no further noise. Hearing no noises behind them, they left the area. The squad was nowhere to be seen. They spotted a poncho with blood and good pistol rounds on it. They fled the area until they reached a better point of view toward the remainder of the island. They spotted the whole battalion there. Mace and his buddy questioned why no one had attempted to get them from their advanced position. They spotted Van Trump being carried out on a stretcher. He had been wounded in the jaw by an enemy soldier who had tricked him by speaking English. Van Trump was deceived into revealing his position. Van Trump received a bad facial wound as a result. Van Trump could not tell anyone that Mace and his companion were out reconnoitering in a different position. With successive surgeries, Van Trump's facial injuries were largely corrected. Part of the Army's 81st Infantry Division was given the responsibility to finish the Ngesebus campaign. The 81st started from an advanced position and overcame the enemy including those previously bottled down by the Marines.

Sterling Mace and the Marines on Ngesebus Island were told that they were headed back to Pavuvu. They were allowed to rest in a tent similar to those used in a rest area. His buddy Levy was reading "Gunga Din" and the 23rd Psalm. He was good. Instead of going to rest in Pavuvu, the Marines were shipped back to the front on Peleliu. They were told that they only had to stay low during the day, but be on watch for night assaults by the Japanese from their higher ground. Mace went back through the valley where the Japanese snipers had fired on them earlier. The platoon joined the 7th Marines [Annotator's Note: 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division]. There was toilet paper and other residue plus dead Japanese all over the place. The smell was bad. Mace and his platoon [Annotator's Note: 3rd Platoon, Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] got into position and spread out. Mace asked his buddy Levy to hold his cigarettes because there was no room in his pack. After settling in, there was the crack of gunfire. No one shouted for a medic. Later when Mace went to Levy to get his cigarettes, he found out that Levy had been shot in the head. Levy had said he was tired of all this and raised his head out of the foxhole just enough for an enemy sniper to see him and fire. The wound in the head ended the Marine's life. Levy was removed from the position. Mace lobbed grenades over the ridge to make sure that no enemy was approaching him. The next day word came that they were coming off the hill and headed to Pavuvu. After pulling off the line, they returned to a tent to rest. The men were told that they had one more mission before going to Pavuvu. It turned out to be the worst of the campaign. It was a 60 foot high ridge that overlooked an airstrip. They fought their way up the ridge and knocked out any of the enemy that were spotted looking out of the caves or firing on the Marines. The Marines used tanks to assist, but when tanks were not available, grenades would be thrown into the caves to blow the enemy out. One Marine who initially went right up to the cave entrances and tossed in grenades would eventually be blown away by the enemy. Flamethrowers were also used against the cave defenders. At times, the enemy died at the entrances of the caves with a sizzling sound after the flamethrowers ignited them. The Marines continued eliminating the enemy hidden in caves until they reached the Five Sisters [Annotator's Note: a terrain feature on Peleliu].

Sterling Mace and his platoon [Annotator's Note: 3rd Platoon, Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] reached the Five Sisters on Peleliu. [Annotator's Note: The Five Sisters was a nickname given to a terrain feature on Peleliu.] The Five Sisters were a series of hills with a draw in the middle. The lieutenant and Lyman Rice were both hit on the ridge. The lieutenant thought the rounds came from the Americans. Mace was resting beside a tank eating a can of apple butter when he spotted Japanese troops wearing Marine uniforms. The tank tried to fire a shot but the enemy was gone. Mace with his squad were pulled off the Five Sisters. They made a fort from some timber and corrugated metal. Mace thought he would be sleeping in comfort that night. He removed his shoes and his feet were white from the sweat. The metal was making noise so it had to go so Mace's position would not be given away. That night, a grenade went off when an enemy soldier approached the American lines. The enemy rushed the Americans at night with grenades. They would come out of their bypassed caves at dark and toss grenades. There would be three or four of them at a time. Mace got up on his knee and with a star shell providing light; he could see five figures running at a distance. Mace emptied his 20 round BAR [Annotator's Note: Browning Automatic Rifle] magazine on them. His buddy asked what he was shooting at. Mace said he would show him in the morning. The Marines used their illuminated watches to manage their guard time. The problem was that they would push the hour hand forward as they grew sleepy so they could pass the watch to the next Marine. The next morning, Mace saw that several of the Marines near him had been wounded. Mace told his buddy that a Japanese soldier was close by. When the discarded corrugated metal rattled, Mace emptied his BAR on the prone enemy soldier near it. The rounds from the BAR nearly cut the enemy in half. There were two hand grenades in the hands of the dead soldier. A number of Marines were killed in the Five Sisters area. What was left of the platoon and the company were told they were to be removed from Peleliu. As the men were headed back and nearly to safety, a lucky final mortar round by the Japanese killed a number of the Marines with Mace. The remaining survivors reached White Beach and were made ready for departure. Before leaving, Mace and a buddy hitchhiked to the Marine cemetery to visit Levy and others. They tried to get Levy a Star of David but were not successful. They proceeded to Purple Beach. Mace found a jeep and took it for their use. He eventually turned it over to others. They enjoyed the joy ride in that jeep which had been assigned to a lieutenant before they grabbed it.

Sterling Mace and his company [Annotator's Note: Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] received a hero's welcome from the new replacements at Pavuvu when Company K returned there. Some of the Marines that had gone into combat in the earlier months of the war in 1942 only had to serve 24 months in action before they could return home. They experienced Guadalcanal, then time in Australia to recover before the New Britain action. Afterward, those troops were allowed to rotate home. Those who entered later had as much as 36 months overseas which included combat on Peleliu. Some even died on Peleliu after fighting on Guadalcanal. It was an injustice for at least ten Guadalcanal Marines who had to go through Peleliu also. It was terrible on Pavuvu to watch the departing Marines going out on the boat for home. It was bad for Mace's sergeant, Jimmy McEnery, returning home. Mace liked McEnery since they both were from New York. They took care of each other. They had strictly a military friendship even though they would talk in combat. On Ngesebus, Mace yelled at McEnery for test firing his Thompson submachine gun. He was angered when McEnery shouted at him at night looking for a response that may have cost Mace his life. If the Japanese had heard Mace, they may have tossed a grenade toward the sound of his voice. After returning home, Mace saw his Company K sergeant friend and had a good reunion with him and his wife. They have been thick ever since. They live a few hours from each other and stay in touch. Company K saw big changes when they returned to Pavuvu after Peleliu. There was a new ball field and Red Cross facilities. Mace was captain of the softball team. He would pitch underhand for the team. While on Pavuvu, there was a guy going around killing fellow Marines. He was known as Jack the Ripper. Even though guards were posted to attempt to capture the killer, the killer was never found. One night, one of Mace's softballs rolled out of his tent. A fellow Marine tossed it back into Mace's tent. When it hit his stomach, Mace yelled. One of Mace's tent mates jumped up with his .45 pistol, and, when the circumstances became clear, they had a laugh from it. Jack the Ripper must have rotated back to the United States because after awhile, the killing stopped, and the tension subsided. There was anxiety in Officer Country even though there was a bar and other good facilities located there. There were several officer suicides. On occasion, there would be a shot fired at night and the troops knew that the stress of Dear John letters had gotten to another officer. [Annotator's Note: A "Dear John" letter was sometimes received by fighting men when their wife or girlfriend notified them that they could no longer wait for the serviceman to return home. The notice that a loved one had found another mate often produced severe trauma in the serviceman far away from home.] The men would get a day off whenever an officer suicide occurred. An article was written by Mace's friend about life on Pavuvu. Another buddy, Bill Leyden [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps PFC William J. Leyden], wrote an article about an incident on Okinawa when two grenades accidently exploded in a buddy's pack and killed him and wounded other Marines. Mace points out that on Okinawa, the days after the invasion started were numbered using "L plus." Unlike other invasions, there was not a "D-Day" but "Love-Day." The individual with the live grenade in his pack tried to flee the area so no one else would be injured but he didn't get far. The article by Leyden was sent to his friend Mace to critique. Mace critically commented on the article. He did not receive a reply from Layton for several weeks. While on Pavuvu, Mace made corporal and became the fire team leader. He carried an M1 instead of the BAR [Annotator's Note: Browning Automatic Rifle] he carried before. He had a series of replacements but some of the men in his team did not last long. One man had ringworms and could not carry his pack. He left the team. Another replacement got a letter from home that caused him great anxiety. He would leave and not be seen again after talking with the corpsman. Of the two men remaining in his fire team, one of them was very young and so green that he did not know the difference between an M1 and a BAR. The boy was so homesick; it frustrated Mace to listen to him while they were in the foxhole together.

Sterling Mace did not like Okinawa. He could never see the enemy. They were so far away that it seemed to him that it was similar to Europe. Okinawa was different than Peleliu where the action was up close. Up north on Okinawa, Company K [Annotator's Note: Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] rode horses on guard duty. Mace was corporal of the guard for two weeks after being assigned that duty by his company commander. Mace had a run-in with the officer on Pavuvu. The captain was "Stumpy" Stanley [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Captain Thomas J. "Stumpy" Stanley] who was not well thought of by Mace. The officer would send Mace on patrol with multiple platoons and not just his own. Another officer remembered by Mace was Major Paul Douglas. That officer was 50 years old while on Okinawa. Douglas has been lauded as a great officer. Douglas liked Company K at both Peleliu and Okinawa. The officer wanted to accompany them on a patrol to find the Japanese who were cutting American communication wire. Stanley told Mace to take his fire team and Major Douglas out on patrol. While on patrol, the officer and the team came across a cave. Douglas fired a few shots into the cave using his .45 pistol. Afterward, he told Mace to go into the cave. Mace told him in the strongest language that he would enter the cave only after a couple of grenades had been thrown into it. As the patrol proceeded, they found out that the communication wires were not cut by the Japanese, but the wires were wearing out on the rocks. Douglas returned to the Americana lines with Mace's fire team. The next time Mace saw Douglas was when the officer was walking up to the front with body guards. Two of the body guards were hit by enemy machine gun fire. Douglas called out for the rest of his guards to follow him. Mace was nearby in a foxhole. The enemy machine gun had pierced a hole in Mace's poncho. The guards told the Major that they could not join him because they were pinned down. Douglas left them because he was out of the field of fire for the Japanese machine gunner. This was the second incident that Mace had with Douglas. The third incident happened when Company K had been pulled back for relief. Artillery rounds began to fall all around them. Mace saw Major Douglas with a mirror on a tree as he shaved while the artillery exploded around them. Mace felt the man had a problem. Douglas was wounded in the arm on Okinawa. Mace heard that Douglas had tried to round up wounded troops on the hospital ship to return to the action on Okinawa. Douglas would end up in Bethesda, Maryland [Annotator's Note: at the naval hospital]. Mace was frustrated with the memory of Douglas. By contrast, Mace's regimental commander was a fine officer. Mace admired Bucky Harris [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Colonel Harry "Bucky" Harris was the regimental commander of the 5th Marines on Peleliu and Okinawa].

When Sterling Mace experienced a mortar barrage and machine gun fire on Okinawa, he noticed an unoccupied jeep. He took the jeep and loaded up wounded to return to the Battalion Aid Station. The lieutenant at the Aid Station asked where Mace found the jeep. When Mace responded where he had obtained the vehicle, the lieutenant promptly told him that it did not belong to him and that he had to release the jeep to him. The reaction from the lieutenant aggravated Mace since he had to walk back to the line. Bill Sloan is writing a book about Okinawa and is including the story of the jeep in it. Sloan verified with others the veracity of the story. Another buddy named Hanson also writes stories about the war but embellishes them. Hanson included himself in an incident involving Mace and a different buddy who were left behind while on reconnaissance patrol. Hanson was definitely not on the patrol even though he remembered himself as being a part of it. Hanson also saw himself in wartime photographs where he did not participate in the specific action depicted. When Mace came off Ngesebus, there was an individual taking moving pictures while his unit [Annotator's Note: Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] passed. Levy and Mace stepped out of the crowd and danced. He has never seen that film but it may exist in the archives. Sloan says in his book that the two GIs were filmed doing their dance routine. Mace has not seen any of the men that he recognized in war documentaries, except he did see one of the lieutenants from Company L on the documentary called Victory at Sea.

While Sterling Mace was positioned north on Okinawa, he would look south and see what appeared to be, and sounded like, storms. It was enemy artillery fire. They knew the Army was getting hit hard down south. Mace knew that eventually he would be headed there. When Mace and his platoon [Annotator's Note: 2nd Platoon, Company K, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] headed south the terrain looked like No Man's Land. Mace had experienced beautiful rolling hills with green grass and trees while he spent a month in the north. Mace took over the 96th's [Annotator's Note: US Army's 96th Infantry Division] position and jumped into their foxholes. Once in the foxhole, Mace used Composition C putty explosives in very small quantities to heat coffee that had been left by the 96th. Previously in the north, his squad had used the Composition C to burn shacks in villages that they would leave blazing away. Mace thought he may have been feeling the stress of the circumstances in doing that destruction. The Army had not moved from this position in three weeks, but now the Marines were expected to advance on the enemy. Mace and his squad were told to run over the ridge toward the enemy the next morning and keep running until everyone stops. That was all the instructions they received. After the shelling stopped the next morning, Mace and the others went over the top of the hill. They ran across a dried rice paddy where machine gun bullets were dancing in front of them. The whole company went over the ridge and across the 60 yards. The Japanese opened up on the Marines and the two company lieutenants were hit. One of the officers killed was named Westbrook. He was from Baton Rouge. The order came that the men should withdraw a few men at a time. They followed an embankment for cover. On the route back was a gulley and one small man had difficulty crossing and cut his face with his helmet. In the Old Breed book by MacMillan, there is a picture of Company K on two pages in the book. It portrays the spot showing this action. There is a man throwing a grenade and stretcher bearers in the view with the embankment in the background. The second day, the 1st Platoon went in first and was hammered by the Japanese before Mace's 2nd Platoon could enter the action. Mace's platoon members were told to each get a partner and a poncho and help extricate the 1st Platoon wounded. One of the injured men that Mace helped was a sergeant named Hebe. The sergeant later died from the fatal wound. This is the time that Mace found the jeep, or perhaps it was the next day. [Annotator's Note: Mace previously told the account of finding a jeep to move wounded to an Battalion Aid Station.] It was rough taking the shelling. Okinawa was series of mounds that were like mesas with trees. Behind one was Stumpy Stanley [Annotator's Note: Thomas J. “Stumpy” Stanley] and company headquarters. The Japanese must have spotted them because they began to fire eight inch artillery rounds at the Marines. Many of the enemy rounds were duds. [Annotator's Note: Mace makes the sound of the rounds traveling through the air and of duds hitting the ground.] Stanley told Mace not to come over to his position because they might draw fire from the Japanese. Although Stanley has passed, he was the one of the originators of the Company K reunions. Those reunions still occur. They take the form of a large reunion and a series of smaller gatherings. Some veterans prefer the smaller gatherings to the larger more formal reunion. There was another patrol where Mace was a member when it was not as frightening. When they went out on the patrol, they would be in a skirmish line, but on return, the men would be in a column of fives. The platoon of 36 men headed out on patrol strung out with Mace's BAR [Annotator's Note: Browning Automatic Rifle] man, Wilbanks, being the last man. Wilbanks spotted four Japanese sitting down in the woods on an embankment and relaxing. Neither the Marine platoon nor the Japanese had noticed each other, but Wilbanks saw the enemy first. By the time Mace reached Wilbanks, he had cut all four of the Japanese down. The Publicity Department for the Marines came and took a picture of the enemy dead. They also took a picture of Henry Risner which went into the Detroit Times. The next day Riser was killed on Ngesebus. After reading of Risner's death, his mother wanted to know if he died while killing the enemy. Another individual who just learned that he was a new father was named Garner Martin. Mace suspects that the mortar round that hit him was a short round. [Annotator's Note: A short round is one fired by a friendly artillery unit that falls onto friendly troops short of its enemy target.] When opposing forces are close into one another, targeting is difficult. Mortar rounds can be spotted when they exit the tube but not while in flight. There were three different occasions when Mace thought friendly rounds fell on them by accident. Mace saw a duel between enemy and friendly artillery where the flash of the light, the whistle of the round flying through the air, and the sound of the cannon were distinctive. He would have debates with a machine gunner he called Mr. Coffee about the color of rounds that emanated from the opposing sides. Mace did not buy the idea that Mr. Coffee proposed about the color of the rounds. Mr. Coffee received his nickname because he would drink coffee no matter how hot it was. Cigarettes were also used heavily by the troops. [Annotator's Note: There are names mentioned by Mace that are included here without validation of the actual spelling.]

Before the war, Sterling Mace played baseball and had aspirations to pitch. He pitched for the Philip Morris cigarette company. Mace would play ball every day. He loved to pitch but he never had proper coaching to help him. When he went into the Marines, he threw out his arm while warming up. After that, he could not pitch because of the pain. After the war, he could not pitch so he tried outfield but could not hit very well. His baseball career was over. Mace returned home after the war on 10 June 1945. He went to the Washington Navy Yard and then to Bainbridge, Maryland [Annotator's Note: Naval Training Center, Bainbridge in Port Deposit, Maryland]. He was discharged about 25 October 1945. His friend Jimmy became a Drill Instructor at Parris Island. [Annotator's Note: Mace's sergeant on Peleliu was Jim McEnery. McEnery had also served on Guadalcanal. Mace quips about McEnery and another friend named Levy. Being from New York, they bonded and would tease each other.]