Thomas J. Smith, Junior was born in June 1924 in Schenectady, New York. He was a senior in high school and had just gotten back from the movies with his girlfriend [Annotator's Note: on Sunday, 7 December 1941]. His mother was making them dinner and they were listening to the radio. There was an announcement that Pearl Harbor had been bombed [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. They wondered where Pearl Harbor was. He had a scholarship to Notre Dame [Annotator's Note: University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana] to play football that coming Fall. He said to heck with football, he wanted to get even with the Japanese. He went to enlist in the Marines, but they would not take him because his eyes were bad. He tried a few times. He visited the high school one day, saw the eye chart and memorized it. He was accepted [Annotator's Note: 28 November 1942]. He went for training at Parris Island [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in Port Royal, South Carolina], and he was upset. Everybody but he and about 19 others, got a two-weeks' leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. He and the others were sent to New River [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Air Station New River in Jacksonville, North Carolina]. They had been assigned to Carlson's Raiders [Annotator's Note: 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, nicknamed for then Lieutenant Colonel Evans Fordyce Carlson]. It was February [Annotator's Note: February 1943] and cold. After finishing, they were to go to California, but the Raiders were broken up and he was put in the 4th Marine Division [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division]. Colonel Carlson himself was sent to the 4th. Smith was assigned to the special weapons unit with a Browning machine gun. He went to Camp Pendleton [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California] for a couple of months and then went to the Marshall Islands. They were the first to land [Annotator's Note: Marshall Islands Campaign was two separate invasions of the Kwajalein and Eniwetok Atoll groups, 31 January to 22 February 1944]. He was sent to cover the flank advancing against a huge building. The building blew up and half the company's men were wounded and killed. The next morning they got off the island and joined the infantry. Smith had been hit with a piece of shrapnel in the back but it didn't cut him. They advanced and came across an enemy machine gun. He was with Tom Cottick [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Corporal Thomas W. Cottick], an original Marine from before the war. They went different ways around the machine gun. Smith took out three riflemen and got shot in the thigh. They made it to the machine gun and took it out with grenades. They were then sent to Maui, Hawaii, got replacements, and started training for Saipan, Mariana Islands [Annotator's Note: Battle of Saipan, 15 June to 9 July 1944, Mariana Islands]. The thinking was to go straight across the Pacific.

Thomas J. Smith, Junior headed out to Saipan [Annotator's Note: Battle of Saipan, 15 June to 9 July 1944, Saipan, Mariana Islands with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division]. The landed and some of the troops got inland, but they were stuck on the beach due to artillery. They took a beating. They found out there was a sugar factory there with a big tower with a spy directing traffic. They spent the next 26 days there with the 27th Army [Annotator's Note: 27th Infantry Division]. He was made a scout and had his own group. He would be on the front lines during the day fighting. At night, he would take his group out between the lines to set up and listen to them [Annotator's Note: to the Japanese]. The first time he took his group out, there was a 37mm [Annotator's Note: M3 37mm anti-tank gun] there and he told them they were going out. They changed the password a little by adding Schenectady [Annotator's Note: the name of his hometown in New York] because the Japanese could not say that. One of his guys said someone was following him. They got back to the line and to their foxholes and the 37mm started shooting. The next morning, there were ten dead Japanese on each side of the road. They were coming in to get at the tanks. About 20 of them were killed. Smith had to do a lot of running around. Fighting in the town of Garapan [Annotator's Note: Garapan, Saipan], was building to building. They could not find many of the Japanese they had killed. One fellow went to a well to get some water and it was filled with Japanese. They had been playing psychological war with them. Smith was sent to contact the 27th. Mount Tapochau [Annotator's Note: terrain feature on Saipan, Mariana Islands] was above them. It smelled awful due to so many dead Japanese. The mountain started being shelled. Smith reported back what he had found and spent another day scouting. There was a big banzai attack [Annotator's Note: Banzai charge; Japanese human wave attacks] that went straight through the 27th before the artillery stopped them. After that, it was easy for them the rest of the way. They got to the end of the island where the Japanese and civilians were jumping off cliffs. They were there about two weeks and prepared for Tinian [Annotator's Note: Battle of Tinian, 24 July to 1 August 1944, Tinian, Mariana Islands].

Tinian was only about nine days [Annotator's Note: Battle of Tinian, 24 July to 1 August 1944, Tinian, Mariana Islands] and was sort of an easy operation. Thomas J. Smith, Junior was called in by his commander. Back in training, his unit [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division] was gathered, and an officer was grilling them. Smith walked up and gave them hell for giving out information. He did not know it was their company commander, Frank Garretson [Annotator's Note: later US Marine Corps Brigadier General Frank Edmund Garretson]. He became his big brother. On Tinian, Garretson told him to go ahead of them to see if he could spot any enemy. Tinian was a beautiful island. On the way back, Smith saw man in a Navy uniform looking out to see with glasses. Smith was getting ready to kill him, but the man wanted to surrender. He spoke English. He was Vice Commander Kakuta [Annotator's Note: possibly Admiral Kakuji Kakuta, Imperial Japanese Navy. See clip titled "Kakuji Kakuta" of this interview for more]. Smith told him to tell his men to come out. Kokokuto said they would die for the emperor. Smith told him to lie on the ground and not move. The Marines then battled with the men in the cave. Everyone then was gathering souvenirs and there were suitcases there. They were Kakuta's. They were full of Japanese Yen. Smith turned it all in. Smith has been trying to find out what happened to him after all this time. Smith had a foul-up with some of his records. There were all kinds of papers in his records. He was writing his memoirs and found all of that. [Annotator's Note: Smith says he will pick this story up later.]

Thomas J. Smith, Junior was sent back to Maui [Annotator's Note: Maui, Hawaii] which was their [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division] advance base. They trained for Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945, Iwo Jima, Japan]. Iwo was hell. He landed with 229 men and came out with 25. He cannot describe everything that took place. An engineer [Annotator's Note: Japanese engineer] was in charge of the island, and he let them land. Then they could not get off the beach. They had 400 pillboxes [Annotator's Note: type of blockhouse, or concrete, reinforced, dug-in guard post, normally equipped with slits for firing guns] off the beach at the first of two airfields. They did not see any Japanese during the day. They came out at night. They had tunnels that went four or five miles under the island. They had a hospital with 400 beds. Some 20,000 Japanese lived underground. When they got to the top of the island, Mount Suribachi [Annotator's Note: a terrain feature on Iwo Jima, Japan] was to the left and to the right was all greenery. Laying on the beach the first night, the foxholes kept caving in. Smith was a runner at the time and ran all over the island. He was sent to find Company E [Annotator's Company E, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division]. He found a Marine and asked him where Company E was. The Marine sat down, started crying, and said he was Company E. Everybody else had been wounded or killed. The Japanese had them zeroed in. The battles were mostly at night. They had knife fighting and they were batting them with their empty rifles. They finally captured it [Annotator's Note: the island of Iwo Jima] and were sent back to Hawaii. When he was on Tinian earlier, he had been out all night. There was a banzai attack that night. He fell asleep in his foxhole. He woke up the next morning and there were dead Japanese all over the place. He asked why they did not wake him up. They said they thought he was dead. On another time, Smith had been out all night. General Cates [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps General Clifton Bledsoe Cates] came up and asked to join him. They started talking and Smith asked Cates if he liked his jeep. Cates said yes and asked why. Smith told him to look out in the field. Shells were walking their way up to the lines. Cates turned to the jeep driver and asked him if he did he not know any better and the guy left. Cates explained to Smith what a napalm bomb was. They were there for about 20 minutes then Cates left. After Iwo, Cates joined them and said they would never see combat again. They went to the main island of Hawaii. He was assigned to Pearl City [Annotator's Note: Pearl City, Hawaii] where the aircraft carriers came in. He and what was left of his unit were in charge of the area. They had a unit of Navy women there. They had been there about a month. He was talking with the company commander when shells were going off. Smith kidded that the Japanese were coming back. The commander got on the phone and then told him the war was over.

After the war ended, Thomas J. Smith, Junior and his unit [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division] were called back to Maui [Annotator's Note: Maui, Hawaii]. They were the first unit to leave the United States to go directly into battle, they were the first unit to go out of the Pacific, and the first back to San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California]. They loaded onto trains. He went to Bainbridge, Maryland where he was discharged. They were out of the Pacific so fast; they did not have the materials for them. About a month later, he got a packet of materials. He got married. He went down to Florida. He had a scholarship to play football at Notre Dame [Annotator's Note: University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana] before the war, but it was an all-men's school. They were not taking married men. Miami University [Annotator's Note: University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida] accepted him, and he made the football team. He hurt his back in a scrimmage. The doctors told him that when the shell had hit him in the back [Annotator's Note: in the Marshall Islands] it had crushed some vertebrae. He graduated in 20 months. The Dean of the University Education School called him in and asked him about his religion. The University was mostly Baptists and Smith is a Catholic. They were hiring at the time and about 80 percent were servicemen. Smith was hired and eventually had 58 schools under him. Superintendents were elected in those days. He would go to Tallahassee [Annotator's Note: Tallahassee, Florida] to raise funds for the school system. He got a phone call from a Black [Annotator's Note: African-American] guy who was the new superintendent. He invited him to his room and the guy asked him why he did not vote for him. The guy hired him and made him the Director of Schools. They got a directive to integrate the school system. Smith was at his cabin in New York and was out on the water fishing. They heard a State Trooper talking on the beach looking for Smith. He was told to come back to Miami immediately. They were the first in the South to integrate. The people who issued the order were all Catholic. State law in Florida said that you must attend the school closest to where you lived. After 42 years, he retired to New York.

When they bombed Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], there was a different attitude in those days. They had gone through the Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. Where Thomas J. Smith, Junior lived [Annotator's Note: in Schenectady, New York], there was the American Locomotive Company making steam engines. When the war came along, they converted to making tanks. His father was in charge of that. Smith was encouraged not to go to college at that time. His coach was a pro football player. Smith felt the Marines were having trouble. Most of the boys in high school all joined up. He wanted to fight and get even with the enemy. He went to Parris Island [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in Port Royal, South Carolina]. They lived in tents. It was pretty rugged training, and it was great. He was young and scared but did the job. If someone made a mistake like dropping a rifle, they would all have to sleep with their rifles that night. He was sent up to Camp Lejeune [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina] and went through the same thing. They devised crazy things to keep them on their toes. On 28 November [Annotator's Note: 28 November 1942] he went to New River [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Air Station New River in Jacksonville, North Carolina] in February [Annotator's Note: February 1943]. They did a lot of training. From there they were gathered to join Carlson's Raiders [Annotator's Note: 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, nicknamed for then US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Evans Fordyce Carlson], but then the Raiders were disbanded, and they got sent to Camp Pendleton [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California] to form the 4th Division [Annotator's Note: 4th Marine Division]. He was put in a special weapons unit [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division] as a machine gunner. Captain Garretson [Annotator's Note: later US Marine Corps Brigadier General Frank Edmund Garretson] would take them on marches. He wanted them to break a record and go 28 miles. They did knife fighting. Colonel Biddle [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Colonel Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Senior] came by and gave them a course in Jiu-Jitsu [Annotator's Note: Jujutsu, also called jiu-jitsu or ju-jitsu, Japanese martial art system of close combat]. They would get the weekends off. He was in Los Angeles [Annotator's Note: Los Angeles, California] with two buddies, and they could not get back. They thumbed and were about three hours late. They were brought before Garretson. He made them clean the grounds. He was quite a man. He went through Saipan [Annotator's Note: Battle of Saipan, 15 June to 9 July 1944, Mariana Islands], Tinian [Annotator's Note: Battle of Tinian, 24 July to 1 August 1944, Tinian, Mariana Islands], Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945, Iwo Jima, Japan], and Korea [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953]. He had different jobs. When Smith wrote his memoirs, he sent Garretson a copy to proofread for him. Garretson told him to send his book to Quantico, Virginia to the museum [Annotator's Note: National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia]. When Smith wrote that he had turned Kakuta [Annotator's Note: possibly Admiral Kakuji Kakuta, Imperial Japanese Navy. Smith claims to have accepted Kakuta's surrender during the Battle of Tinian, 24 July to 1 August 1944, Tinian, Mariana Islands] in, Garretson knew it was true but could not say so. Garretson told Smith that he probably had more front-line duty than any other Marine. He concurred with Smith's story, but in a way that did not hurt his career. In combat, they had a job to do. Smith became a scout by himself and a runner on Iwo [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan]. When they got to the top on Iwo, he was sent back to Garretson with a message. It was getting dark, and Garretson told him to get in a foxhole. On Saipan, Smith saw four men were in a field who looked dead. He brought one man back. A couple of hours later, a corpsman told him he had picked up Colonel Carlson [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Evans Fordyce Carlson]. On the way to Iwo, they stopped on Saipan. Smith's uncle was a World War 1 veteran. He tried to enlist but they would not let him, so he joined the Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions]. Smith's mom told him his uncle was on Saipan. They would not let anybody off the ship. He got a promotion to recreation officer and a mail clerk. They took the mail ashore. Smith asked if they knew Ed Miller. They told them where to go. He went to the mess hall. His uncle gave him a bag of food to take back to the ship.

Thomas J. Smith, Junior was at Camp Pendleton [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California] training when they were putting together the 4th Division [Annotator's Note: 4th Marine Division]. He went to San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California]. They had a football team, and he knew a team was coming that had Ed Baner [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify]. He went to the hotel where they stayed. He got to sit on the bench with them. He heard they were playing San Diego and watched the game. They had coffee and Smith went back to Pendleton. They [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division] worked hard training Monday through Friday. He would also go to Oceanside [Annotator's Note: Oceanside, California] with a buddy on his gun crew. Beer was a nickel and cigarettes were a dime a pack at the PX [Annotator's Note: post exchange]. They had an outdoor theater. He was in the PX one night and a guy got everyone a free beer. Those things made life pleasant. While in Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] training, they got hand-to-hand combat. They went to Maui [Annotator's Note: Maui, Hawaii] for more training and the guys were griping because they had just come out of battle. Smith talked to the captain, and he made them do it. On Saipan [Annotator's Note: Battle of Saipan, 15 June to 9 July 1944, Mariana Islands], when they hit the beach, the division cut Saipan within 90 minutes. There were over 400 pillboxes [Annotator's Note: type of blockhouse, or concrete, reinforced, dug-in guard post, normally equipped with slits for firing guns] that they had to get through. Then they had the mountains. They did not see the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] during the day. At night they came out by the hundreds. Most of that was hand-to-hand combat. Smith was there 26 days. It was kill the enemy or he was going to kill you.

Thomas J. Smith, Junior was looking forward to seeing the enemy. The Marines were under the Navy. After training, they headed out to Kwajalein Atoll where Roi-Namur is [Annotator's Note: Roi-Namur, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands]. When they got to the Marshall Islands [Annotator's Note: Marshall Islands Campaign was two separate invasions of the Kwajalein and Eniwetok Atoll groups, 31 January to 22 February 1944], they got on an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank]. They then transferred to amtracks [Annotator's Note: Landing Vehicle, Tracked or LVT; also referred to as amtrack or alligator] and were the first to land. Roi had the airfield and Namur had all of the personnel. On the way in, Smith was scared. Once they hit the beach, that changed. He was looking for the enemy and never thought of anything else. He was carrying his machine gun. The lieutenant told him to cover the flank. He went ahead of the group. He was killing a lot of Japanese. They got to the front door of a building when the building blew up. It got dark and all night long, Japanese tried infiltrate. He took care of them. At least a third of his guys were killed and the rest were wounded. The next morning, the General said to get off the island. A reporter was flying over, and his plane was blown apart. It was a mess. Smith went over to the infantry, and they took a machine gun out. It was a quick operation. When it was over, the book was closed, and he did not think about it anymore. They had a good time when they could, trained again, and started over. Once he was out there, his fear disappeared. On Saipan [Annotator's Note: Battle of Saipan, 15 June to 9 July 1944, Mariana Islands], they could not get off the beach and got the hell beat out of them. Once the artillery was taken out, they could move. They were in the flatlands mostly. Saipan was 26 days. One time, he got to his foxhole. He saw his machine gun group and walked over to see them. He was talking to them and a shell from a tank dropped right in the middle of them killing all three and striking him. The fellows that saw it said it looked funny to see him reach up for his helmet. Smith got mad and ran to a ridge. He threw grenades at the tank and the tank turned and took off. There were two banzai attacks [Annotator's Note: Banzai charge; Japanese human wave attacks] there. They are scary. When they came through, they had civilians in front including women and children. They had to shoot them. Saipan was the biggest one and they went through the 27th Army [Annotator's Note: 27th Infantry Division]. They made it back to the artillery where they were stopped.

During the war there are individual units with individuals doing their jobs. On Tinian [Annotator's Note: Battle of Tinian, 24 July to 1 August 1944, Tinian, Mariana Islands], Thomas J. Smith, Junior captured a Vice-Admiral Kakuji Kakuta [Annotator's Note: possibly Admiral Kakuji Kakuta, Imperial Japanese Navy] and turned him into his battalion commander. Kakuta disappeared after that. Smith has a friend, Al Kruger [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify]. He has good people where he lives who like to take care of veterans. Smith wrote to Saint Louis [Annotator's Note: National Personnel Records Center in Saint Louis, Missouri; an agency of the National Archives and Records Administration] to get his records with no satisfaction. He got in touch with Tonko [Annotator's Note: Paul Tonko, American politician], Schumer [Annotator's Note: Charles Ellis "Chuck" Schumer, American politician], and Gillibrand [Annotator's Note: Kirsten Elizabeth Gillibrand, American politician]. They got involved. He got a pack with everything in it. There was no such stuff in the file. Things were stamped "caution" and "secret". Smith was watching television and saw Schumer saying that what Smith said was true and that he did capture Kakuta. The unit sent a letter saying there is no record of this taking place. They then salted his records with other stuff. A man named Matson [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] writes a newsletter once a month out of Washington. He did some research and wrote about it in his newsletter. A group called Kuenta [Annotator's Note: spelled as Smith related; unable to identify] is out in the Pacific finding American bodies. They went to Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Mariana Islands] looking for bodies. They wrote Smith to let him know they found some bodies. Smith's group, the Leatherstocking Group [Annotator's Note: unable to identify] in Schenectady [Annotator's Note: Schenectady, New York], takes the bodies and buries them with a ceremony. They had 200 motorcycles take a friend to Washington [Annotator's Note: Washington, D.C.] for a program. Smith got to put a wreath on the unknown soldier's tomb [Annotator's Note: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia]. They are still trying to find out what they can about the Vice-Admiral. They do not know if they put him away or killed him and took the money. It is a big mystery. Kuenta visited him once. Smith has a lot of things he picked up. He has an overlay of Mount Tapochau [Annotator's Note: a terrain feature on Saipan, Mariana Islands] on Saipan. When he was there, he started up the mountain and there were over 600 dead Japanese on the mountain. The Kuenta group had the same overlay. War is not fun and is a serious business. Each person has to have it in their own way. Some could not handle it. They were taught how to fight. He had a small unit, but the brotherhood was there.

Thomas J. Smith, Junior was out scouting [Annotator's Note: as part of Company F, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division] and got to the end of the island [Annotator's Note: Marpi Point Field, Saipan] before the main body of Marines did [Annotator's Note: in the Battle of Saipan, 15 June to 9 July 1944, Mariana Islands]. There were a lot of Japanese military there with civilians in front of them. Smith circled around and he saw the soldiers throwing the civilians over the cliffs. The units came up and then the soldiers jumped and committed suicide. After that, they went back and got ready for Tinian [Annotator's Note: Battle of Tinian, 24 July to 1 August 1944, Tinian, Mariana Islands]. Smith's unit was the first to land in the Marshall Islands [Annotator's Note: Marshall Islands Campaign was two separate invasions of the Kwajalein and Eniwetok Atoll groups, 31 January to 22 February 1944] and Tinian, but at Iwo [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945, Iwo Jima, Japan] they were in reserve. The first wave landed. They landed and then they [Annotator's Note: the Japanese] gave them everything they had. His objective was a location opposite the airfield. On the left was Suribachi [Annotator's Note: Mount Suribachi; a terrain feature on Iwo Jima, Japan] and it was all gravel. On the right was solid granite. Company G [Annotator's Note: Company G, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division] was given that. Smith hit the beach and was pinned down. Their foxholes would cave in. The sand was hot, and they would lay a poncho down in it. The artillery was coming down on top of them all day. The next morning they got together and charged up the hill to the airport. They now had to get through the intertwined block houses. He got through somehow. Once that was done it was a battle uphill. They lost most of the men the first or second day. It was night fighting after that. They would charge in by the hundreds. They had quite an operation. There were 20,000 Japanese there. Smith was a runner carrying messages. Captain Ridlin [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] was right up there on the front line. Garretson [Annotator's Note: later US Marine Corps Brigadier General Frank Edmund Garretson] would give him messages to scout. He did 26 days of that.

Each regiment had a book with pictures in it. When the war was over, Thomas J. Smith, Junior felt like a curtain came down. He did his job at Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] and was sent back. On the train back to Bainbridge [Annotator's Note: Bainbridge, Maryland] he never thought about the war. He went home and went to work. In 1999, he wrote his memoirs for his dad who wanted to know what happened. Smith did not want to talk about it though. He moved to Schenectady [Annotator's Note: Schenectady, New York] to retire. He was in Walmart and a fellow walked by with a 4th Marines [Annotator's Note: 4th Marine Division] cap on. He started needling him. He was named Sal Famularo [Annotator's Note: Salvatore Famularo; Famularo's oral history is also available on this Digital Collections website]. They compared notes and became close friends. He helped him a lot when Smith's wife died. Famularo is a bartender, and he was one in Florida. Thinking back, they knew each other. They live in Glennville [Annotator's Note: Glennville, New York], and they have coffee together. There is restaurant with World War 2 memorabilia. The area there bonds together. When he goes there, some of it comes back. He likes seeing people open up and talk about their service. Westbrook [Annotator's Note: James Westbrook; Westbrook's oral history is also available on this Digital Collections website] was president of the 4th Marine Division Association. He was their bugler. He got wounded on Saipan [Annotator's Note: Battle of Saipan, 15 June to 9 July 1944, Mariana Islands]. Early on, he would have a meeting [Annotator's Note: of the Association] in places like New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. That went on for many years and then they disbanded. They had a nice week at Camp Lejeune [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina]. They then decided to have a social in Branson, Missouri. A guy came from Virginia who said the commandant asked them to start it up again. He does not know why they dissolved. Smith had no trouble adjusting to civilian life. He picked up his life right away and he got married. He went right to college, and it was if he was never in the service. He had everything in a box. He now has two cardboard boxes and a den full of stuff. It has been a good life. The Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] is something else. The people who got him there are great people.