[Annotator's Note: The interview opens with Thomas Francis Schicker already in conversation with the interviewer.] When he was in high school, the war was going on and he wanted to be a part of it. He quit high school to join the Marine Corps. Tarawa [Annotator's Note: Battle of Tarawa; 20 to 23 November 1943; Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands] happened around Thanksgiving 1943 and Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] decided to release the pictures of the Marines floating in the lagoon. Schicker went down to the recruiter. He had a bad tooth. The dentist extracted his tooth for a dollar. They were using the draft but there was not space for them. He got a call on 6 March [Annotator's Note: 6 March 1944] and was told to come down on 7 March. He and seven other guys from Saint Louis [Annotator's Note: Saint Louis, Missouri] took a train over three days to San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] to boot camp. They got on trucks and got there at one or two in the morning. The Marine Corps is psychological. They told them they could give their hearts to Jesus, but their asses belonged to the Marine Corps. They slept on the floor of a barracks. At 4:30 reveille [Annotator's Note: a signal sounded to wake personnel] blew. They got shots. Schicker was behind a guy who fainted when he got the shots. They got their clothing and two pairs of Boondockers [Annotator's Note: nickname for boots]. He was assigned to Platoon 242 in 1944. They had two DIs [Annotator's Note: Drill Instructors] which was a "good cop, bad cop" situation. They were put in Quonset huts [Annotator's Note: prefabricated metal building]. They went to the PX [Annotator's Note: post exchange] for the only time in boot camp. They were given a galvanized bucket with everything they needed. They were charged 25 dollars for this when they made 50 dollars a month. They did not know that until payday. They were told one pair of their Boondockers was for action and the other pair had to shine by the time they graduated. They also got the Marine Corps Guide [Annotator's Note: U.S. Marine Guidebook. Schicker gets up to show his Guide to the interviewer and the tape cuts]. The guide tells how to make movements, lists the weapons, and the general orders which have to be memorized. They were kept very busy with close order drill and lectures. The mail was censored. One guy was upset and wrote a letter to the president of the United States. He was court-martialed. Everything they did made sense in retrospect, because it saved lives.

One DI [Annotator's Note: drill instructor], a Corporal Carlin [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify], found the biggest guy in the platoon named Harper [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify]. Harper was a nice guy, but Carlin upset him on purpose. Carlin threw Harper over and he was down. It was all psychological. About the third day of drill, Thomas Francis Schicker had not shaved. Carlin saw he and another guy had not shaved. Carlin made the two shave each other's faces with rusty razors. Schicker was sunburned and the blood ran all over his face. He had been looking at the ships out in the bay. Carlin saw him looking out there and then had him stand for four hours at attention on the parade ground. It was to make him focus. As they developed into pretty good drillers, they thought they were really good. Carlin marched them to an area and gave them a smoking break. A Sea School [Annotator's Note: a course which trained Marines for duty aboard Naval vessels] unit marched out looking fantastic. They realized they were not really that good. Again, it was psychological. For punishment, they would have a person lean against the wall on their nose for hours. The pith helmet [Annotator's Note: lightweight sun helmet made from the dried pith of a tropical plant] had a Marine Corps emblem screwed on. The DIs would hit the helmet and the screw would cut the men's heads. They would wake the men up at night and march them in the sand with their seabags. They did an outstanding job. They had dummy grenades. Georgen [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify], their PFC [Annotator's Note: Private First Class] DI told the men to try and hit him with a grenade. Schicker did and hit him in the leg. Georgen called him a "shitbird," which is what everyone was called. They got their rifles. They were not blindfolded but they had to strip the rifles and know each piece. They studied every night about the M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand]. This was all about the first four weeks. Schicker did not feel they were really tough. Nobody really resented the DIs. One poor guy was 38 years old, and he had a tough time. One night they were taken over to the flag on the parade ground. A pet dog was a sergeant and had urinated on the flagpole. He was busted and had his stripes taken away. Anybody that screwed up were read off. Back then they had "Rocks and Shoals" [Annotator's Note: an informal reference to the Articles for the Government of the United States Navy] which went back to the beginning of the Corps. When a guy screwed up, a yellow "P" was put on the back of his uniform. He would be put on a platform in front of the other men and his offenses would be read. Nobody wanted to be humiliated and put in the brig [Annotator's Note: military prison aboard a Naval vessel or base; slang for jail] on bread and water.

Thomas Francis Schicker's boot camp training was excellent. After four weeks, they went to Camp Matthews [Annotator's Note: Camp Calvin B. Matthews or Marine Corps Rifle Range Camp Matthews; now part of the University of California, San Diego in San Diego, California] which was the rifle range and was entirely different from boot camp. The DIs [Annotator's Note: drill instructors] stayed their distance and tried to make everybody feel at ease. They spent a week and a half snapping in. That meant firing from four different positions. Firing from a sitting position was tough. They were taught to use the sling of the rifle. Nobody ever really used the sitting position, and it was hard to get into. Guys were paired from the platoon. One guy would have a towel and have the M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand]. You do not pull a trigger; you squeeze a trigger. They were told to "barely squeeze the trigger, like you would barely squeeze the nipple on the breast of a girl." The guy with the towel would hit the bolt with it so it would "reload" the rifle because they were shooting with no ammunition for a week or two. They went to the range. The rifle instructors were very good. They shot from 200 yards, 300 yards, and 500 yards. They also worked in revetments with targets. From the 500 yard line, they only fired from the prone [Annotator's Note: lying down] position. The day before they shot for record, they watched the rifle team fire from the 1,000 yard line with .03s [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber Model 1903, or M1903, Springfield bolt action rifle] which were a little more accurate. They returned to boot camp after firing for record. They spent their nights shining their shoes. He has never worn a pair of blues in his life. There was no liberty [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] in boot camp.

Ray Davidson [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify], and maybe Bender [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify], were in boot camp with Tyrone Power [Annotator's Note: Tyrone Edmund Power, III; American actor, United States Marine]. Thomas Francis Schicker says Power was a nice guy. The only time they were in Quonset huts [Annotator's Note: prefabricated metal building] was in the first three or four weeks. There was a factory there that built B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. Before he got there, one of the B-24s crashed into some of the huts. The men washed their clothes on wash racks with scrub brushes and naphtha [Annotator's Note: a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture] soap [Annotator's Note: Fels-Naptha, American brand of laundry soap]. There was mud there and the DIs [Annotator's Note: drill instructors] would grab the goof-offs and throw their clothes into the mud. Then they would make them rewash them. They washed their own clothes until they got to China where they found a laundry. Even going to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan], they only had two pairs of dungarees and they were on ship for 45 days. They would drag their clothes by rope in the ocean. They were sticky, but clean. They graduated from boot camp and had ten days leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. He took a train home and ran into a snowstorm. He reported back to Camp Pendleton [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California] which was fairly new. He reported to the head of Little Tokyo [Annotator's Note: unable to identify what is meant by Little Tokyo]. They got helmets and went to various ranges. It was not intense training. One guy picked up a dud rocket from a bazooka [Annotator's Note: man-portable recoilless anti-tank weapon] and put it in the galvanized bucket under his bunk. It blew up and killed eight guys. The men were organized and asked what they wanted to be. Nobody really knew. Mortars were intriguing so Schicker got in line for that. He was assigned to a platoon for training. They threw grenades. They also did extended order drill. They had just started fire teams which were four men to a team. They did compass training and the last of that was a night march. The whole platoon went on it. It was set up to go through a cactus patch and they all ended up with quills from the cacti. They trained with the 60mm [Annotator's Note: M2 60mm lightweight mortar] and 81mm mortar [Annotator's Note: M1 81mm mortar]. The 60 is all in one piece. The 81 is in three pieces.

Thomas Francis Schicker was sent to Mainside Area 13 [Annotator's Note: location on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California] and Tent Camp Two [Annotator's Note: unable to identify]. They had no mess hall or showers. They were in tents, and they had an outside head [Annotator's Note: naval slang for toilet or bathroom] with a roof over it. The chow line was outside. If it was raining, they sat in the rain. They bathed and shaved using their helmets. Tent Camp Two is now named after Basilone [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone] and is really nice. Then it was a rough place. The Raiders [Annotator's Note: Marine Raiders] were at Tent Camp Three. At Tent Camp Two, they were given liberty [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and went to L.A. [Annotator's Note: Los Angeles, California] three times. They had two days off. They would walk up a dusty road that was about a mile long. Their shoes would be dusty when they reached the highway, and the guard would tell them to clean them. They had to find a job when they went to town. Four of them ganged up together. They got on a streetcar and ran into a girl who invited them to her house. She attended UCLA [Annotator's Note: University of California, Los Angeles] in Westwood [Annotator's Note: neighborhood in Los Angeles]. They wanted to go to UCLA, so they met her. There were no servicemen there at all. A girl from New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana], asked if any of them were from the South. They struck up a friendship and had access to the sorority houses. They went to Long Beach [Annotator's Note: Long Beach, California] with them once. They did not have the money to stay in hotels. Some guys slept at the USO [Annotator's Note: United Services Organization]. Schicker and his friends went to the Pantages [Annotator's Note: Pantages Theater in Los Angeles] and slept during the show. They then found a job loading ships with 55 gallon drums. They made enough that they could stay in one room in a hotel. They would take a bus back. After Tent Camp Two, they were getting ready to go overseas. They had bayonet drill. They had a professional wrestler that taught them. They also had a jiu-jitsu [Annotator's Note: a form of martial arts] trainer. They did water-training in a pool with platforms at different levels. They learned combat swimming. They had to jump fully clothed from the level of a ship so they could learn to survive a sinking ship. One guy was strictly an "eight ball" [Annotator's Note: slang for poor soldier]. Sadly, there would be one or two people who should never have been in the Marine Corps. They had one. He should have been discharged. He would not jump from that top level. He was finally pushed off.

Thomas Francis Schicker was told he was ready to go overseas. At Area 13 [Annotator's Note: location on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California], they were in barracks. They went on a hike one morning. Some guys had liberty [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] the night before and were hungover. They hiked 30 miles. It was dusty. If you were in the back, there was always somebody not going as fast as they should. They got back late that evening after constant walking. They could go on liberty if they wanted to, but Schicker did not. A few went out and the next morning they did another 30 mile hike. Nobody took liberty that night. They marched again the next day. After boot camp, about half the men he went through with were assigned to the 5th Marine Division and went to Iwo [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan]. The rest of them were sent to FMF [Annotator's Note: Fleet Marine Force] mostly. People were needed badly overseas. Schicker ended up as a replacement. Their seabags were coded and working parties would take them from Camp Pendleton to San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] to ships. They boarded the General Taylor [Annotator's Note: USS General Harry Taylor (AP-145)]. There was a band playing. This was September 1944. They crossed the equator and the International Date Line. They got the works [Annotator's Note: called Neptune Rex, or Pollywog Ceremony; initiation rite that commemorates a person's first crossing of the Equator] going across the equator, pollywogs [Annotator's Note: Navy sailor who has never crossed the equator] and shellbacks [Annotator's Note: an old or experienced sailor, especially one who has crossed the equator]. Schicker was put in a stock [Annotator's Note: wooden frame that holds a person so that others can punish them] and was hit with a wet sea fender. Some were tarred [Annotator's Note: covered with tar]. King Neptune [Annotator's Note: person pretending to be the Roman god of the sea] was sitting there. They were dumped into the water in a container. They literally beat the hell out of them.

Thomas Francis Schicker heard that they changed course four different times [Annotator's Note: aboard the USS General Harry Taylor (AP-145) in the Pacific] as they were trying to figure out if they were going to take them to Peleliu [Annotator's Note: Peleliu, Palau] as battle replacements. They were taken to Pavuvu [Annotator's Note: Pavuvu Island, Russell Islands, Solomon Islands] instead. The Taylor got to Skylark Channel at Ironbottom Sea [Annotator's Note: Ironbottom Sound or Ironbottom Bay, nickname for southern stretch of The Slot, or New Georgia Sound in the Solomon Islands] which is Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands] on one side and Tulagi [Annotator's Note: Tulagi or Tulaghi Island, Solomon Islands] on the other side. You go through part of The Slot into the Russell Islands. They tied up at a steel pier. The guys there were yellow from the atabrine they took so they would not get malaria [Annotator's Note: mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite]. They were given the tablet as they went into the mess line. They were taken to the 11th Marines Artillery Regiment [Annotator's Note: 11th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division]. Then they were put in the 3rd Battalion [Annotator's Note: 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] . They threw footballs. Half of them were assigned in alphabetical order to the 3rd Battalion and half to the 2nd Battalion [Annotator's Note: Schicker was assigned to Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division]. They were lumped together. They were put in tents. The guys came back from Peleliu [Annotator's Note: Peleliu, Palau]. They would have roll call every morning. For five days, the men would call out "here" when Trujillo [Annotator's Note: unable to positively identify] as called, but he was not there. Each night they watched a movie at night. Before the movie, they would play "Adios, Mariquita Linda" [Annotator's Note: song written by Marcos A. Jiménez and Ray Gilbert, 1925]. The men were pretty crude on Pavuvu and there were no women. Anytime a woman came onscreen they would yell licentious remarks. If they got mad, they would throw bottles at the screen. They did not have many USO [Annotator's Note: United Services Organization] shows. Schicker missed the Bob Hope [Annotator's Note: Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope KBE; British-American entertainer who was famous for entertaining American troops serving overseas during World War 2, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War] show. One USO show had an opera singer and the best violinist in the world. The fellows did not want to see a violinist. The movies were usually pretty old. Schicker went back to his tent and a guy named Trujillo walked with a galvanized bucket full of jungle juice [Annotator's Note: powerful or roughly prepared alcoholic liquor]. He asked Schicker to drink with him. Schicker was afraid of him. He was mean and erratic. He ended up on Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan] and then went to China. He was bad news and had killed a native. Schicker drank his jungle juice, and it was not very good.

The intelligence group was on Thomas Francis Schicker's outfit's [Annotator's Note: Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] street in a coconut grove that covered about ten percent of Pavuvu [Annotator's Note: Pavuvu Island, Russell Islands, Solomon Islands]. The rest was deep jungle. They never went in there, except for Joe [Annotator's Note: no last name given] who made his jungle juice [Annotator's Note: powerful or roughly prepared alcoholic liquor] there. They worked with the mortars and did gun drill. They could not fire on Pavuvu and had to take an LCVP [Annotator's Note: Higgins boat; landing craft, vehicle, personnel] to another island. Pavuvu had been picked by officers who flew over. It was gorgeous until you got ashore. There were rats that would bite them at night and land crabs that would get into their shoes. They had one shower for the battalion. The mess hall was on a low hill and the officers were on another hill. Chesty Puller [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Lieutenant General Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller] was the CO [Annotator's Note: commanding officer] of the 1st Regiment [Annotator's Note: 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division]. Russell Honsowetz [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Colonel Russell E. Honsowetz] was the battalion [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] commander and was later replaced by a flyboy, James Magee [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Lieutenant James Carre Magee]. Magee got the Legion of Merit [Annotator's Note: award given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements] for Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, 1 April to 22 June 1945, Okinawa, Japan] but was a lousy commander. They had an executive officer that was an American Indian and was really, really good. They went to Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands] twice. Once was in an LSI [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, infantry] for two weeks. They slept with mosquito netting. Schicker got malaria [Annotator's Note: mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite] twice and had a 106 degree fever. He had it until 1952. He got it twice on Okinawa. They had a sick bay that he did not go to. He stayed in his cot. Chesty did not believe in having pads on their cots like the other regiments. He was a hell of a man and very special. He did what they did. They had one parade ground on the bay. They had a battalion inspection. Puller dressed the same as the men were for that. Whatever he put you through, he did himself.

Thomas Francis Schicker and Leo [Annotator's Note: no last name given; unable to identify] were given mess duty in February [Annotator's Note: February 1945] before going to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. They were the garbage men. The food was terrible. On the Marine Corps Birthday [Annotator's Note: annually on 10 November], they had fresh meat and maybe orange juice. Otherwise, they mostly prepared SPAM [Annotator's Note: canned cooked pork made by Hormel Foods Corporation] and SOS [Annotator's Note: abbreviation for "shit on a shingle", usually meat in a cream sauce on toast]. At Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands], they operated as a full regiment [Annotator's Note: Schicker was a member of Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] because they had space. They were there about two weeks. The Marine chow was awful. They slept in jungle hammocks with mosquito netting. It rained every day. They found a Seabee [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions] camp and they would go there for chow. Some guys went to the Army camp. They threw the Marines out. The Seabees ate well. They had cold stuff. The Marines had nothing cold. The Seabees fed them every night and every night the line got longer. When they were leaving, the last meal had a big sign that said the Marines needed automatic weapons and they could trade them for their rifles. The adjutant of the battalion, Hamburger [Annotator's Note: unable to identify], was a mean individual. A guy tried to write home and say where he was. He was made a prisoner and had two prison chasers. The prisoner picked up a coconut and threw at one of the chasers. The chaser shot and killed him. Schicker says Hamburger is responsible for that. They guy should have been put in a mental ward.

Thomas Francis Schicker and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] went back to Pavuvu [Annotator's Note: Pavuvu Island, Russell Islands, Solomon Islands] after training on Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. They had a rifle range of sorts on Pavuvu to zero their weapons in. Schicker had a carbine, and it was the worst weapon in the world at the time. Like a Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] rifle, you could not adjust it for windage [Annotator's Note: air resistance against a moving object] or elevation. He had to remember to use "Kentucky windage" [Annotator's Note: slang for an adjustment made by aiming differently rather than by adjusting the sights of a gun] to be able to hit a guy. Everybody got ringworm [Annotator's Note: highly contagious infection of the skin or scalp] and jungle rot [Annotator's Note: also called Tropical ulcer; a tropical, chronic, ulcerative skin lesion]. There was not much of a sick bay. They would go up there in the nude. One guy had ringworm all over. Schicker had jungle rot between his toes. The saltwater burned that dramatically. They had a purple ointment that was more of a paint. They had a dentist. He told Schicker the saltwater was getting to his teeth. They did not hurt him. You could buy a bottle of bourbon for 50 dollars from the Australians. They were issued three cans of warm beer periodically. Schicker gave his away. Robert Young [Annotator's Note: unable to identify] was in the second gun squad was probably 32. He got a Christmas bonus check and bought 232 cans of warm beer. They had taken down their tents and people were drinking the beer and getting sick. When they took the LCVP [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP; also known as the Higgins boat] to the ship, their canteens were full of beer. They left Pavuvu. There were people who committed suicide there. There was someone called "The Ghoul" there [Annotator's Note: described as the Mad Ghoul in "Pacific Nocturne 1944" by Don DeNevi, 1946]. People were really on guard. One guy hit his head against a coconut tree because he could not handle it. Some guys cracked up, but not a lot of them.

Thomas Francis Schicker went to Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands] and did maneuvers offshore. They [Annotator's Note: Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] then went to Mbanika [Annotator's Note: Mbanika, Solomon Islands] and then Ulithi [Annotator's Note: Ulithi Atoll, Caroline Islands] where they picked up a convoy. It took 45 days by ship to get to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. They were at Ulithi for three or four days. The Ben Franklin [Annotator's Note: the USS Franklin (CV-13)] came in and it was a mess. Schicker never slept in the troop compartments. It was hot down there, and they hung their rifles on the sides of the bunk. Their packs hung there too. Schicker would go topside and sleep in one of the gun tubs of the 20s [Annotator's Note: Oerlikon 20mm antiaircraft automatic cannon] and 40s [Annotator's Note: Bofors 40mm antiaircraft automatic cannon]. The night before they landed at Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, 1 April to 22 June 1945, Okinawa, Japan], he slept downstairs. On Pavuvu [Annotator's Note: Pavuvu Island, Russell Islands, Solomon Islands], Tokyo Rose [Annotator's Note: nickname for all female, English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda during World War Two] was on. She played beautiful music and she knew everything. She called the 1st Marines "the butchers of Guadalcanal." They had their seabags and for some reason, they had overcoats. They lived out of their seabags. They scrubbed their clothes at night and hope it did not rain. His whole squad lived in one tent. He thinks eight men were in each tent. In the middle of the tent, they had a mortar. The land crabs were always on it. They would sometimes kill the crabs with lighter fluid. They did some fishing with hand grenades.

Thomas Francis Schicker had his 19th birthday at Ulithi. He became friends with Leo Schmidtkin [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] there. They opened letters from their mothers asking if they knew each other. Their aunts sang in the same church choir. The friendship lasted a long time, and they were extremely close. They went to reunions together. They went to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, 1 April to 22 June 1945, Okinawa, Japan] as the reserve regiment [Annotator's Note: Schicker was a member of Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] for the landing. Every battalion has four companies. Two companies are on the line and the other two are in reserve, ready to go in. The night before they landed, the ship picked up Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan] and they were broadcasting propaganda. It was a man speaking good English. He said that when they landed, one of ten of them would live and the rest would die. They had a seawall that the battleships had blasted holes in. They then had to go up a hill. If they [Annotator's Note: the Japanese] had defended that beach, there is no way they [Annotator's Note: the invading American forces] would have been able to land. To this day, Schicker does not know why the Japanese did not put a regiment at the beach. They never would have made it up the hill. Schicker and the men went in in LCMs [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft, Mechanized]. The battleships were firing their guns. They were to meet amtracks [Annotator's Note: Landing Vehicle, Tracked or LVT; also referred to as amtrack or alligator] halfway in, but they did not show. They got ashore and heard there was no resistance. They could not understand it. There were a couple of snipers and a couple of mortar shells landed. They went in as far as they could and then waded in almost a half-mile. They went up the hill and onto the airport that the 6th Marine Division had taken. The 7th Marines [Annotator's Note: 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] were at the end of the airport. A Japanese airplane tried to land late in the day. They thought they were going to be strafed and hid. He tried to land, and he was shot. Schicker saw the first baka bomb [Annotator's Note: Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka human-guided kamikaze attack aircraft; Allied name "Baka"] there. The intelligence guys were interested that and took it out to examine it. Schicker had lost his mosquito netting for his face. They dug foxholes. The next morning he could not open his eyes due to the mosquito bites. Once they saw they were unopposed, they decided to go across the island as fast as they could. Each one of his squad carried a piece of the mortar. The base was hard to carry. They also carried their own weapons and full cartridges, canteens, packs, and food. It was heavy. [Annotator's Note: The tape breaks mid-sentence.]

Aboard ship, the head [Annotator's Note: naval slang for toilet or bathroom] was full. Nobody showed any fear whatsoever, but their bowels were moving for sure. Thomas Francis Schicker and the men [Annotator's Note: Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] were confused when they landed [Annotator's Note: for the Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, 1 April to 22 June 1945, Okinawa, Japan]. Nobody knew what was happening or were the Japanese were. Lieutenant Jaffey [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] constantly talked about the hill at a table with a mock-up of what the beach would be. They were scared to death of it, but it did not happen. They did not know for two or three days or longer what was happening. His battalion moved out and went as fast as they could. They ate up their K rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals]. The second day they were out of water and had no halazone tablets [Annotator's Note: also called Pantocide; chemical tablet used to disinfect drinking water]. The Japanese snipers started shooting at them. Some fire teams got the snipers. At the bottom of a road was a creek where they filled their canteens. They thought the water tasted terrible. Then they saw a bloated dead Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] in the water. They would go past little houses. Every house they went into, they saw schoolbooks in English. It took them four days to get to the other side of the island. They had no food except what was in the fields. They set up camp. They went into different caves and found some hay-type stuff they took to sleep on. It was full of fleas. They were assigned to G Company [Annotator's Note: Company G, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] for a period of time and went on patrols. They saw one Jap and shot him. They went through a rice paddy and halfway across a Japanese airplane came down and turned to strafe them. They got away before he could do anything. They picked up quite a few prisoners in that area. The 5th [Annotator's Note: 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] and 7th Marine [Annotator's Note: 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] units mistook each other for Japanese and had a battle. Schicker and his outfit were moved back to Kadena airport [Annotator's Note: now Kadena Air Base, Kadena and Chatan, Okinawa, Japan] and set up a perimeter defense. Every night the Japanese strafed and bombed them. They were up high and at night could see the kamikazes coming in. He could actually see the shells of 14 inchers [Annotator's Note: 14 inch 45 caliber naval gun] and 16 inchers [Annotator's Note: 16 inch 50 caliber naval gun] coming through the air. The Army had run into resistance, but the Marines did not know about it for two and a half weeks. They were eating well there because they started getting Army rations. They only rations they had previously were Australian and they were really old. The Army had all new stuff and about ten different selections. They also had 10-in-1 rations [Annotator's Note: 10-in-1 food parcel, intended to provide one meal for ten men]. The guys would get garlic from the fields and cook meals.

As the Japanese aircraft came in, they [Annotator's Note: the Navy] would fire antiaircraft at them [Annotator's Note: during the Battle of Okinawa, 1 April to 22 June 1945, Okinawa, Japan]. The shrapnel would rain down on Thomas Francis Schicker and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division]. Some guys played with little Okinawa horses. It was too much trouble for Schicker. They heard about the south and heard they were heading there. Then they were told the Army 27th Division [Annotator's Note: 27th Infantry Division] had lost 27 of their 30 tanks. Buckner [Annotator's Note: US Army General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr.] went to del Valle [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Lieutenant General Pedro Augusto del Valle], the Division [Annotator's Note: 1st Marine Division] commander, and Geiger [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps General Roy Stanley Geiger], the 3rd Amphib Corps [Annotator's Note: III Amphibious Corps] commander and said they needed tanks. They would not let them have them because they did not have infantry support. Schicker finally went south in trucks for one of the few times they did not walk. The 1st Regiment [Annotator's Note: 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] was in reserve. The other regiments told them the 27th had lost their colors [Annotator's Note: term that refers to a unit's flags being taken by an enemy in battle] at many places. The 27th was the New York National Guard and had a bad, bad reputation. They were in the area that looked like the surface of the moon. It was all shot up and there were caves all over the place. They slept in a cave for a couple of nights. They saw scouts go across the valley to a cave where there were Japanese wounded. Japanese came from the back of the cave and started shooting. Schicker and his outfit were watching it from the other side of the valley. A flamethrower [Annotator's Note: ranged incendiary device that projects a controllable jet of fire] came up and the cave exploded. They ran into snipers. The Japanese hated Okinawans and killed them whenever they could. The Americans did everything they could for them. They went down to Moshinawa airstrip [Annotator's Note: Moshinawa Airfield, also called Makinato, Matinato, or Nachinato, Okinawa, Japan]. There were no airplanes there. They marched along the China Sea and dug foxholes at the end of the airport. There was a ledge there they dug into. The first night there, around two o'clock in the morning, Schicker was on watch. He heard machine guns. They had two gun squads with two sergeants in charge. Their sergeant was a hard, but good guy. A Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] jumped into a hole that was two holes away from Schicker. He hit his grenade on his helmet, and it blew off his head. He yelled, "condition red" right before he did it. Other Japs started appearing. The Navy found out that the Japanese had landed and there was a big offensive to try and break through. The Japanese 32nd Army landed troops. Armored amtracks [Annotator's Note: Landing Vehicle, Tracked or LVT; also referred to as amtrack or alligator] came down and the Navy started shooting at the Japanese who were between the Marines and the Navy. When daylight came, there were dead Japs around Schicker and his men. Schicker does not recall having any casualties. They killed 600 Japanese.

Thomas Francis Schicker and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] were by Moshinawa airstrip [Annotator's Note: Moshinawa Airfield, also called Makinato, Matinato, or Nachinato, Okinawa, Japan] for a couple of days. They did some patrols. They heard that they were being squeezed to the middle. They moved into a hill around 6 May [Annotator's Note: 6 May 1945]. They were foxholes already there. They got in and were shelled pretty heavily. The inside of the hill was full of Japanese. They could hear them talking but could not get to them. V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945] came they wanted to fire a salute. All of the guns and the ships fired a few rounds. They could care less about V-E Day as it meant nothing to them. Schicker got malaria on 9 May [Annotator's Note: 9 May 1945] and was sent to the aid station. His temperature was 106 and he was sent to a field hospital. He left it and went back to his group. Joe Sowell [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] was in their observation post and was shot. He had Army fatigues when he got back. He got shot again. It is hard to describe what happened there. They were on the Shuri Line [Annotator's Note: defensive positions in southern Okinawa, Japan] and were squeezed into the Wana Draw area [Annotator's Note: a draw is a terrain feature formed by two parallel ridges]. There was water every place. Schicker was so tired, he slept an hour in a foxhole with only his head out of the water. It stunk from dead Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] above them. They moved farther into the valley. [Annotator's Note: Schicker asks the interviewer if he can go back to something he forgot.]

Thomas Francis Schicker and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] went across the island and set up camp [Annotator's Note: during the Battle of Okinawa, 1 April to 22 June 1945, Okinawa, Japan]. They were having lunch and a Japanese guy came up. He told them they thought they killed all the Japanese on Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands], but he was one they did not get. They took him to their platoon leader for interrogation and he said then that he could not speak English. He took off running and Jaffey [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] told them to shoot him and not to bring him back. Schicker got his carbine [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine] out, kneeled, and fired five rounds. The carbine slug will not knock you down. He hit him but he had not thought about the Kentucky windage [Annotator's Note: slang for an adjustment made by aiming differently rather than by adjusting the sights of a gun]. They followed his blood trail into a house. Some men went into the house and found him. Schicker had hit him five times in the ass. They killed the Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese]. After that, Schciker threw away his carbine and picked up a Tommy gun [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun]. He had a Tommy gun when he was in the valley. The monsoon was awful [Annotator's Note: 21 May 1945]. They could not get supplies. The rifle companies were going into Wana Ridge and Wana Draw [Annotator's Note: a draw is a terrain feature formed by two parallel ridges], and they could not make headway in the mud. Tanks could not move. For a week they were fed and given ammunition by airdrop from SBDs [Annotator's Note: Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber]. About 30 percent of that was gotten by the Japanese. They lived on two meals a day. K rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals] are just a little box, and the food is very small. They got two dog biscuits [Annotator's Note: slang for hard tack biscuits, simple biscuits made from flour and water] and two cigarettes. They were very hungry and were getting shelled almost all the time. The battleships were firing star shells [Annotator's Note: artillery used to illuminate the battlefield] at night. At times, he was put in G Company [Annotator's Note: Company G, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division]. Jaffey, their platoon leader, who had been to Peleliu [Annotator's Note: Battle of Peleliu, September to November 1944; Peleliu, Palau] and was Harvard [Annotator's Note: Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts] educated, commandeered a jeep and trailer. He sent four guys down to where the Army was keeping their food guarded. Schicker cannot begin to say how different the Army supplies were from theirs. It was always like that. The men were caught and Jaffey was cashiered [Annotator's Note: sometimes called a degradation ceremony; ritual dismissal of an individual for a breach of discipline]. Jaffey eventually got the Silver Star [Annotator's Note: the Silver Star Medal is the third-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy]. Schicker did not like his replacement. They had no leadership with Russo [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify]. Russo got a Silver Star and Schicker cannot believe it was earned. Wherever they were, Russo would find a tomb that he would occupy.

There would be holes in the line where there were not enough men [Annotator's Note: during the Battle of Okinawa, 1 April to 22 June 1945; Okinawa, Japan]. Thomas Francis Schicker would go up as a rifleman with G Company [Annotator's Note: Company G, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] to man those holes. With 81 mortars [Annotator's Note: M1 81mm mortar], they put out aiming stakes. They were in what they called the mud hole for a long time. The aiming stakes were set for the Japanese aid station, and one for the CP [Annotator's Note: command post]. At night they would fire rounds from area to area where Marines were not. Everybody had diarrhea. They were in the same clothes all the time. One night there was a tremendous storm. Schicker had found himself in water up to his neck for one night. They set up the foxholes with ammo boxes in the bottom to keep them somewhat dry. Lightning was hitting the ammo boxes that were outside. It hit one of their ammo boxes and blinded them for about two minutes while Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] were shelling them. One night he was with Earl G. Anderson [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A shell landed and he said he was hit. They had put a poncho over the foxhole and one of the buttons from the poncho was blown into his ass. At Wana Draw [Annotator's Note: a draw is a terrain feature formed by two parallel ridges], they took drums of napalm [Annotator's Note: incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical], dumped them into the valley and then set them on fire. Those caves would be four, five, and six stories high. They could see the beaches from the one at Shuri [Annotator's Note: Shuri, Naha, Okinawa]. The Japanese could see everything that was going on. The cave was open on either end. Some of them had lights, artillery, and doors. The Japanese were very good with their 47s [Annotator's Note: 47mm Type 1 anti-tank gun]. When it started to dry out [Annotator's Note: from the monsoons], they went to some of the villages. They got into one at the Shuri Line [Annotator's Note: defensive positions in southern Okinawa, Japan]. There was a ridge full of Japanese with 47s. Schicker went scouting to an abandoned village. A guy on the ridge saw them and started shooting. He chased them over the top of the ridge.

Thomas Francis Schicker says the Japanese would put cut off heads, penises, testicles and put them on shafts. They would put the penises in the mouths of the heads. He came across a Marine whose head had been cut off [Annotator's Note: during the Battle of Okinawa, 1 April to 22 June 1945; Okinawa, Japan]. Schicker often thinks about him because when they cut off his head, his dog tags went and so his parents never knew what happened to him. Schicker still says a prayer for him every night. They were all over the place but this one stood out to him because from his feet to his shoulders, he was ready for action. It touched him and always will. After they [Annotator's Note: Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] took Wana Draw [Annotator's Note: a draw is a terrain feature formed by two parallel ridges], they were relieved and taken back. They washed and got dungarees. Leo [Annotator's Note: no last name given; unable to identify] thinks Corsairs [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter aircraft] came over, but Schicker thinks they were torpedo-bombers. He found out that that squadron commander got back to the carrier and found out he had hit Marines. Schicker heard he committed suicide but that might not have happened. After two or three days' rest, they went back to the lines. They went up to attack. Their corpsman was a good corpsman but did not stay with them when they trained. He stood on top of the hill and was hit. He had only been shot through his canteen. When a Marine says to stay off the skyline, that is what he means. They passed through some Army guys and said "hi". They heard that after they passed that they were strafed, bombed, and rocketed by Army planes. There were none left. After Wana [Annotator's Note: combat at Wana Ridge, Okinawa] and after Shuri [Annotator's Note: combat at Shuri, Naha, Okinawa], the Japanese had an early retreat of their main body. They got to Shuri Castle [Annotator's Note: castle in Shuri that was Japanese headquarters] which was a pile of rubble and some of the Japanese rear guard were there. They retreated in the fog. Some Navy planes happened to see them and by then the 32nd Army [Annotator's Note: Japanese 32nd Army] was pretty well gone. They left Shuri and went to Kunishi [Annotator's Note: Kunishi Ridge]. There were Japanese on the road that had all committed suicide together. Some would shoot themselves, but others would use a grenade. The road was full of them. There had to be 150 to 200 or more of them there.

Thomas Francis Schicker and the men [Annotator's Note: of Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] went through and set up on Kunishi [Annotator's Note: Kunishi Ridge] in reserve behind a hill [Annotator's Note: during the Battle of Okinawa, 1 April to 22 June 1945; Okinawa, Japan]. The Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] started shelling them. One night he was in a foxhole with Andy Anderson [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify]. Russo [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] and Ryan [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] were in a nice, secure tomb. The shells were hitting the trees and the shrapnel was coming down. They also fired air bursts. Russo said for them to stay in their holes. Schicker said there was no way he was staying in his hole and told Andy to follow him and hug the hill, but Andy said no. There were about 11 of them that went to the hill. Seven guys were hit. Schicker got back to his hole and Anderson had been hit badly twice and was whimpering. Russo and Ryan never came out once. They could not find the aid station. The corpsman did not do anything for Anderson. They heard some voices that were not Japanese or English. It was Navajo Code-Talkers [Annotator's Note: also called Diné code talkers; one group of many Native American groups of code talkers which are people employed by the military to use a little-known language as a means of secret communication] in the 7th Regiment [Annotator's Note: 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] CP [Annotator's Note: command post]. They got him to their aid station. Schicker went and got back Bassler [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] who had his heel blown off. They took a third one back too. Carrying those stretchers is not an easy job. Russo told him to come into the tomb. Schicker told him he was supposed to be a leader. Russo told him to relax, go back to his hole, and sleep. He was like that all the way through. Schicker feels he should not be saying it, but it was true. Russo's son went back to Peleliu [Annotator's Note: Peleliu, Palau] asking if anyone knew anything about Russo. Some fellows had a better opinion of him than Schicker had. Kunishi was just a long hill. [Annotator's Note: Schicker asks the interviewer if he has seen the picture of PFC Paul E. Ison of the 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division running across that ridge, 10 May 1945.] Ison was a demolitions man. He ran across Death Valley and had to run back across to get his demolitions to blow up a cave. The Japanese were different people. He never saw a banzai [Annotator's Note: Banzai charge; Japanese human wave attacks]. He did not see a lot of them [Annotator's Note: the Japanese] other than dead ones or ones they were shooting at. They had these prepared caves that were almost unsurmountable. They only way to get them was with flamethrowers and satchel charges. If Buckner [Annotator's Note: US Army General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr.] had done what Nimitz [Annotator's Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Sr., Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet] told him. Of course, after what Smith [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps General Holland McTyeire "Howlin' Mad" Smith] had done at Saipan [Annotator's Note: Battle of Saipan, 15 June to 9 July 1944, Mariana Islands] that was the end of that. The Commandant Vandegrift [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps General Alexander Archer Vandegrift, commander 1st Marine Division] begged him to bring the 2nd Marine Division from Saipan to land at Montago Beach [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify]. They were completely equipped and could have drawn the Japanese away from the Shuri-Naha-Yanbaru Line [Annotator's Note: defensive positions in southern Okinawa, Japan] and saved ships. The Marines think about the Navy. They are people and ships. The Marines want to get the campaigns over so the ships can be turned loose. The Japanese would push Okinawan women and children in front of them. Schicker and the men would have to shoot them to get to the Japanese. There were several times that they would find Okinawan people with their intestines hanging out. They would try to end their agony. A Japanese baby was hit, and the Navy doctor ordered Benny Anderson [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] to shoot the baby. Benny shot it reluctantly with his .45 [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber M1911 semi-automatic pistol]. The doctor should have done it. Benny lived with that for the rest of his life. The 8th Marines [Annotator's Note: 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division] came in from the 2nd Division for about the last week. The 7th Marines [Annotator's Note: 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division] took Kunishsi and his battalion and regiment were on adjoining hills that had to fire at Kunishi. The Japanese could fire from one hill to another from any position. A lot of people were killed there. The 7th Marines took it at three o'clock in the morning. They killed a lot of people with their mortars. Two Navy guys walked toward them on the front lines. One was shot and badly wounded. They asked what they were doing there. They were looking for souvenirs.

Thomas Francis Schicker knows there is a lot he has forgotten to tell. They took Kunishi [Annotator's Note: Kunishi Ridge] and it was kind of the last stand [Annotator's Note: for the Japanese during the Battle of Okinawa, 1 April to 22 June 1945; Okinawa, Japan]. They ended up at Itoman [Annotator's Note: Itoman, Japan]. There was a well close by where they could get water. The 8th Marines [Annotator's Note: 8th Marines Regiment, 2nd Marine Division] and some of the 6th Division [Annotator's Note: 6th Marine Division] were there at the end. The Army took the position where the heads of the 32nd Army [Annotator's Note: Japanese 32nd Army] committed Harakiri [Annotator's Note: also called Seppuku, Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment]. Schicker got malaria [Annotator's Note: mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite] and went to a hospital. He had a high fever and the chills and then the reverse. You go out of your head sometimes. The corpsman took him to the battalion aid station where the dead and wounded were gathered. One of his friends was there. He had cracked up [Annotator's Note: become mentally ill] and did not know him. He was sent back to the lines. Schicker was in the hospital about two and a half days. He did not wait for release; he just walked out and found his unit [Annotator's Note: Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division]. It was pretty horrible to see the guys lined up with ponchos over them. The ponchos are not long enough to cover the feet. They got a lot of help from the Navy with the 16 inch shells [Annotator's Note: 16 inch 50 caliber naval gun], the cruisers and the old battlewagons [Annotator's Note: slang for battleships]. The Marine air cover was fantastic. They were attacking a hill once, and a Corsair [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter aircraft] was right on the deck. The sound of the rockets firing from the Corsairs was loud. He strafed where the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] were and hit an artillery shell. The airplane was a ball of fire. Schicker saw a lot of Japanese planes shot down at Kadena [Annotator's Note: now Kadena Air Base, Kadena and Chatan, Okinawa, Japan] every night. They came in low level. Schicker says he there is more that he missed. He joined in 1943 and was called in 1944.