Warren J. Haslauer served in several different units. He started off in 6th Marine Regiment [Annotator's Note: 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division], then most of his time was in 9th Marines, 2nd Division in M Company [Annotator's Note: Company M, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division] in a machine gun unit. He went from private to platoon sergeant in the 9th Marines as a machine gun expert. He got tangled up with the outfit that got Vella Lavella [Annotator's Note: Battle of Vella Lavella (land), 15 August to 6 October 1943 at Vella Lavella, Solomon Islands]. Two companies were gathered one night to go aboard a landing craft to go along with three LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] loaded with equipment to build a fighter plane field. This was for the invasion that would take place on Bougainville [Annotator's Note: Bougainville, Papua New Guinea] that had mountains on one side to the sea with a short space in there. The Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions] were going to scrape out a small landing field. This would allow the fighter planes to be in support of the ground troops. They went up The Slot [Annotator's Note: New Georgia Sound, Solomon Islands]. The next morning they pulled in Vel. At the opposite end was the Baa Baa Black Sheep [Annotator's Note: "Baa Baa Black Sheep", later "Black Sheep Squadron", American television series from 1976 to 1978] outfit [Annotator's Note: Marine Fighter Squadron 214 (VMA-214), nicknamed "Black Sheep Squadron"]. They were people who had poor personalities and could not get along with people. They turned out to be the best ever and shot down 96 planes. Haslauer and his outfit landed and set up a perimeter while the ships were unloaded. Not too long afterwards, a siren went off on one of the boats. They hit the deck and they started spraying the area and bombed the hell out of one of the LSTs. They just kept going, likely because of the Black Sheep. Haslauer went down to the ship, and it was the most god-awful smell and sight. The oil and gasoline was burning, and he could clearly see the bodies. It reminded him of turkeys with their limbs sticking up. The smell of burnt flesh is horrible. He walked up into the jungle and the smell stuck with him. He felt like it was on his clothes. He returned to the perimeter. The next day at almost the same time, planes came down and hit the next LST. The boats were not sunk because they were beached. The ships were tugged away later to Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. That left them with one LST. That next day, he went down to his men that were down there helping. He felt he was safe, and his men were in harm's way, and it bugged him. He went to the beach and got halfway, and the alarm went off. He ran through the sand which was hard when slugs started hitting the sand. He got behind the door of the LST and a rain of shells hit the doors. He went into another spot where other men were, and they all laid on the deck. Bombs started falling but were not hitting the boat. If he had run the other way, he would not be talking today. When he got out there, there were bodies blown up into the trees. The boat was intact, so it left. They picked up the bodies and buried them. Haslauer got the hell out of there. It really scared the hell out of him.

Warren J. Haslauer took one trip to where the Baa Baa Black Sheep [Annotator's Note: "Baa Baa Black Sheep", later "Black Sheep Squadron", American television series from 1976 to 1978] people [Annotator's Note: Marine Fighter Squadron 214 (VMA-214), nicknamed "Black Sheep Squadron"] were [Annotator's Note: at Vella Lavella, Solomon Islands]. Just as they [Annotator's Note: Haslauer and the rest of Company M, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division] got to the road leading to the dirt strip, an alarm sounded. He dove out of the jeep and into the bushes. They [Annotator's Note: the Japanese aircraft] were coming down too fast to be really effective strafing the planes. He got back in the jeep and got the hell out of there. Some days passed and they were preparing for the Bougainville invasion [Annotator's Note: Bougainville campaign, part of the Solomon Islands Campaign at Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, November 1943 to November 1944] to be followed by New Britain [Annotator's Note: New Britain campaign at New Britain, New Guinea, 15 December 1943 to 21 August 1945]. They got on an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank]. The invasion had already started, and as they got near the beach, fighter planes came after them. You do not look up when they are shooting at you. They landed on Puruata Island [Annotator's Note: Puruata Island autonomous region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea] which was tiny. Sixteen men had lost their lives taking that island already [Annotator's Note: Invasion of Puruata Island, 1 to 2 November 1943]. It had a big beach all the way around it and was pretty, but the island was blown to hell. They got onto the island and an excited lieutenant told him to get his men to start digging. He said that they were going to catch hell that night, so they hurried. The sergeant with him started trying to dig in the hard coral. Haslauer cut down coconut trees to try and make a hut of some type. They just hoped they did not get a direct hit. As soon as it got dark, the tide came in, and their hole filled with fiddler crabs. His sergeant was 56 years old and bald and was worried the crabs would bite his head. They had big searchlights on the mainland and the island had two big lights and two 90mm cannons [Annotator's Note: 90mm Gun M1/M2/M3]. One was about 100 feet away from Haslauer. When the alarm sounded, the lights clicked on and started searching the sky. The planes were flying high due to the guns. To run in that stinking hole, you had to have been really afraid. There were mosquitos in that stinking mess. The lights would move when the planes were caught by radar. They would cross and make an X with the light. They followed the X to know when to take cover. Bombs were dropped all over the place. Luckily the planes were high and in a hurry. It was deafening. He knew the planes were aiming on the wink of the guns. There is a lot phosphorous [Annotator's Note: bioluminescence] in the water there and the water would light up constantly from the waves. The planes looked for that outline of the beach. Supplies, like bombs and rockets, were stacked on the island. They had been using Higgins boats [Annotator's Note: LCVP; landing craft, vehicle, personnel] to take the stuff to the main island [Annotator's Note: Bougainville]. He found out after it was done, that somebody had not done proper reconnaissance. The LSTs could not land [Annotator's Note: at the mainland beach]. That is why the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] did not have a lot of troops there. That is why they used the island he was on for offloading the supplies from the LSTs. That slowed down the whole operation.

During the day [Annotator's Note: during Bougainville campaign, part of the Solomon Islands Campaign at Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, November 1943 to November 1944], they [Annotator's Note: Japanese artillery] would not shoot constantly. They were not good shots, but they were shooting from very far away. Warren J. Haslauer and his men [Annotator's Note: in Company M, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division offshore on Puruata Island, Bougainville] were supposed to ignore it. They never were able to drop shells into the munitions or gasoline [Annotator's Note: stored on the island]. They might have been shooting from the other side of the mountain range. The first night was not bad except they did not get a lot of sleep. Each night they kept coming. The ack-acks [Annotator's Note: anti-aircraft artillery] were effective in keeping them high [Annotator's Note: the attacking Japanese bombers] which made them inaccurate. The noise was unbelievable, and the island shook from the firing. It was so miserable to get in his foxhole that he would take his poncho and lay under it. His sergeant, Josh [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify], would tell him to get in there but he said no. One night he heard a "swish-swish" and got scared because he was told that meant the bomb was right over you. He dove to the hole but did not make it. The bomb hit a coconut tree, cracked it, and then hit. Haslauer hit some coral, breaking the bones in his nose, and giving him a scar. He kept waiting for the bomb to hit the stick [Annotator's Note: slang for the line of bombs that follow for the first one]. The stick went the other direction, and he could hear the men screaming from it. It was hell. That kept up and one night, and then they hit the gasoline dump. It was the damnedest noise he ever heard. The bombs themselves were glowing red [Annotator's Note: in the stacks in the ammunition dump]. They did not go off though. It got so bad that Haslauer thought it must be what hell looked like. The whole island was red. Haslauer heard the colonel yelling at them to get out of the holes and go save the supplies. Haslauer does not know how many did not get out of their goddamn holes and he does not blame anybody who did not. He and his platoon sergeant and many others did. The colonel was yelling for them to get in a line. They would have to watch the gas drums because the lids would blow off and the gas would incinerate you instantly. The fire was setting off the small arms ammunition nearby. They were running to get the drums and push them to the water. Even the officers took their turns. They saved a lot of the stuff. That went on for days. He knows what shell shock [Annotator's Note: psychological disturbance caused by prolonged exposure to active warfare, especially bombardment] from World War 1 [Annotator's Note: global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918] means. The Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] were holding back and saving everything for New Britain [Annotator's Note: New Britain, Papua New Guinea] where their main base was. This went on for at least four or five days. It is something he will not forget.

Eventually, Bougainville was taken [Annotator's Note: Bougainville campaign, part of the Solomon Islands Campaign at Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, November 1943 to November 1944], and things got normal. Warren J. Haslauer and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company M, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division] were stuck in a situation. They were combat troops and getting the shit plastered out of them [Annotator's Note: on Puruata Island, Bougainville]. They started griping about it. The officers told them they would do what they were told, and they did not give a damn about it. They had to just stay there in a quandary. They were not those kinds of troopers. Haslauer had a miserable feeling for the Japanese all along. He had seen a lot of nasty stuff. People talk about our [Annotator's Note: American] people taking their [Annotator's Note: the Japanese soldiers'] gold teeth, and Haslauer had a few. They [Annotator's Note: the Japanese] had little sticks with Marine emblems [Annotator's Note: tattoos] that they had taken off of Marines' arms, dried, and rolled up on the stick. They were nasty from the beginning. They caught a medical outfit on Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands] and did some miserable things to them. On Peleliu [Annotator's Note: Peleliu, Palau], they took a wounded guy and chopped his legs off. They heard these things everywhere. A ship came from Guadalcanal and told them some bad stuff. They had samurai swords [Annotator's Note: Katana, Japanese sword with a curved, single blade] aboard ship that they had taken. They gave a lot of them to the officers. Haslauer took one and it was taken from him later. It was decided to take Saipan in the Mariana Islands. They stood off Saipan with a bunch of troopships [Annotator's Note: Battle of Saipan, 15 June to 9 July 1944 at Saipan, Mariana Islands]. They were only going to be used if needed. The Army had a group in there. Howling Mad Smith [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps General Holland McTyeire "Howlin' Mad" Smith] did not like how the Army was operating. He pulled the Marines out of there. Before they had a chance to do anything, the Marianas Turkey Shoot occurred [Annotator's Note: Great Marianas Turkey Shoot; nickname for the aerial battle part of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, 19 to 20 June 1944]. The ships started heading out towards Kwajalein [Annotator's Note: Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands]. The Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] came out in force with almost everything they had left. Other ships came from other areas to get in on the battle. The pilots said old people and kids were flying the planes and were no match. We [Annotator's Note: the United States forces] had better planes too, although the Zero [Annotator's Note: Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter aircraft, referred to as the Zeke or Zero] had been the best plane in the world before. The Japs got beaten badly and fled to the Philippines. The Navy was delighted. Haslauer was taken directly to Guam [Annotator's Note: Second Battle of Guam, 21 July to 10 August 1944 at Guam, Mariana Islands]. The evening before, the chaplain came around to have them write letters that he guaranteed he would mail to their families. He did not know what to think writing it. He had an earache and was not feeling well. The islands were loaded with diseases like jungle rot [Annotator's Note: also called Tropical ulcer; a tropical, chronic, ulcerative skin lesion], malaria [Annotator's Note: mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite], dengue fever [Annotator's Note: mosquito-borne tropical disease], and dysentery [Annotator's Note: infection of the intestines]. A white man has no business being in the jungle that long. The lieutenant said to make the men do calisthenics. He started and the abscess in his ear ruptured. He saw a corpsman [Annotator's Note: enlisted medical specialist in the US Navy who may also serve in the US Marine Corps] who told him he had to see the doctor. Haslauer would not do that before an invasion because of how it would look to his men. He took a handful of aspirin, put cotton in his ear and forgot about it. All hell broke loose the next morning.

Warren J. Haslauer [Annotator's Note: with Company M, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division] was looking out at a battleship [Annotator's Note: for the Second Battle of Guam, 21 July to 10 August 1944 at Guam, Mariana Islands]. They went into Higgins boats [Annotator's Note: LCVP; landing craft, vehicle, personnel] and started running around in circles. An invasion is not as nicely organized as you are made to believe. Whoever makes least mistakes in battle, wins. As they were circling, two alligators [Annotator's Note: Landing Vehicle, Tracked or LVT; also referred to as amtrack or alligator] came up. His lieutenant told him to take one half of the platoon into one of them, and he took the other half into the other. That big ship he had seen started unloading. They [Annotator's Note: the naval ships] were shooting low to hit just above the beach. The shells humming over them sounded like freight trains. He hoped to God that the guy setting those guns knew his math. A bunch of guys were in the first wave. He was in the second. He noticed a bunch of alligators that were on fire with men floating in the water and hanging off them. You were not allowed to go help them. Things were in such a pattern that you could see that it was angle that meant there was a big gun up in there. Haslauer started yelling at the driver that they were going to get blown out of the water. He slapped his .45 [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber M1911 semi-automatic pistol] when they started arguing with him. They listened and moved over. They landed and ran into the boondocks [Annotator's Note: slang for countryside]. The first group had bombed the hell out of the place, but some guns had survived it. Haslauer went to look for his lieutenant to get his group together. A guy came back and said to come quick as there was somebody shooting out of a pillbox [Annotator's Note: type of blockhouse, or concrete, reinforced, dug-in guard post, normally equipped with slits for firing guns] that they had passed by. Haslauer ran up and there were steps going down into the pillbox. They had not been given grenades and he wanted one. He made up his mind that he could not leave there if somebody was in there still alive. He had no alternative other than to go inside. He took a gamble and asked for a fast-shooting gun. You could alter a carbine to make it fire like a machine gun. Nobody had one or would admit having one. Somebody had a Tommy [Annotator's Note: .45-caliber Thompson submachine gun] and gave it to him. He had them shoot through the window but not when he went in. Haslauer ran in shooting, and he was shooting into the pile of Japanese lying there. When he came out, his men asked if they were all dead. He replied that they were now as he had emptied his machine gun.

Warren J. Haslauer and his men [Annotator's Note: Company M, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division] had landed on the right side of Orote Peninsula [Annotator's Note: in Guam for the Second Battle of Guam, 21 July to 10 August 1944 at Guam, Mariana Islands]. They needed the airstrip there. The town there was blown away. On the opposite side, a force had landed and ran into trouble on a bluff. The Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] had the high ground. They closed in and blocked off the place. At dark, they [Annotator's Note: the Japanese] started shooting at random. The incoming shells were glowing, and everybody thought it was gas. They had thrown away their gas masks. Going through, they passed where the bodies were being dumped in piles. It was an awful thing to see. When they finished in Guam, the island was covered with bodies that were bloating and bursting in the sun. The flies were horrendous and were getting in their coffee. It was so miserable. The flies would get down into anything made of wool, so everything was full of maggots. They were flying over spraying everything and everybody with DDT [Annotator's Note: Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane; developed as an insecticide]. Haslauer later told the doctor in the VA [Annotator's Note: United States Department of Veterans Affairs; also referred to as the Veterans Administration] about it. The threats of DDT were overblown. They had to go on details to bury the Japanese. They used brush hooks to throw them in. They would only get down so far in the coral and muck. They would then chop off the limbs that were sticking up out of the ground. Haslauer told them not to do that and they stopped. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer notes that Haslauer had disdain for the Japanese, but still had enough humanity left to not let that happen.] Haslauer had dengue fever [Annotator's Note: mosquito-borne tropical disease]. He was sleeping in a tent. There were hammocks stretched in the banana trees where other men were sleeping. He was drowsy with fever. He laid his gun in his lap, cocked it, and fell asleep. A guard came around and started pulling on Haslauer's leg. He grabbed his gun and was within a second of killing him, when he realized it was not a Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese]. A Jap was walking around the area and Haslauer to shoot him. The guard did not want to hit the other sleeping men. Haslauer then got up with his rifle and flashlight. The Jap was apparently thinking they could not see him. Haslauer threw the light on him, and he had something in his hand. He did not stop to think the soldier might just have been looking for food. He fired quickly and they all started shooting. He felt terrible after that, because it seemed that if the guy had had a grenade, he would have used it. Obviously, the guy would have gone away if Haslauer had just yelled at him instead of shooting him, but that is the kind of thing that goes on.

Warren J. Haslauer [Annotator's Note: with Company M, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division] was going along [Annotator's Note: during the Second Battle of Guam, 21 July to 10 August 1944 at Guam, Mariana Islands] and there was a big lieutenant laying down. He had a little tiny hole going through him and he was dead. Haslauer asked himself why. This was a big man who could have fought his way through tigers, and he was killed by a little tiny bullet. It must have been a sniper's bullet and it must have hit his heart. Guns equalize everybody. He got up to a place with a big hill going up from it. There was a kitchen out in the open. Every now and then, one of the cooks would fall. He asked what was happening and was told they were being shot from the ridge. Haslauer had bought a .38 [Annotator's Note: Smith & Wesson Model 10, also called Smith & Wesson Victory Model; six-shot, .38 Special, double-action revolver] from someone because he did not like the heavy .45s [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber M1911 semi-automatic pistol]. He went up the hill and had some guys follow him. About halfway up, they [Annotator's Note: the Japanese] opened up on him. He fired some shots at them and then put the pistol way to move fast. He shot back with his carbine [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine]. He could see them but was outgunned. He started running down the hill and dropped his pistol. He bets it is still up there rusting on the hill. He told them to move the kitchen because they would need a bigger force to take the ridge. Back near the Orote Peninsula [Annotator's Note: in Guam] they had a small firefight. He did not find Guam anywhere near as dangerous as the situation on the little island [Annotator's Note: Haslauer describes this in the clips titled " Invasion of Bougainville" and "Constant Bombardment" of this interview]. [Annotator's Note: Haslauer mentions a book about the situation there.] They lost 16 guys taking that island. If they had calculated correctly, that would not have happened. Now they were adding to those numbers every day. The guy who wrote the book lays out how little chance one had of surviving if they landed on that island. It was almost a suicide.

After finishing up in Guam [Annotator's Note: Second Battle of Guam, 21 July to 10 August 1944 at Guam, Mariana Islands], Warren J. Haslauer and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company M, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division] stayed. The war was kind of winding down. If he had not gone there, he would have gotten stuck on Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945 at Iwo Jima, Japan]. It was maddening to him to know he missed what they called the soft spot. They told him that there was nothing but dust rings of volcanic ash all around the island and it would be easy, but they lost a horrible amount of people there. He had a buddy that was there. He told Haslauer that the battle was terrible. They started using rockets. When the tanks were around, the guys usually liked to be on or around them. It was not that way there. The rockets were taking the tanks out and guys were running away if a tank got near them. They lost 7,000 guys for that stupid little island. That was a big mistake, and it was covered up easily. If they would have taken the word of the Australians on the islands. Palmolive had groves there and wanted to charge the government for knocking down the coconut trees. The Australians [Annotator's Note: Coastwatchers were Australians who worked with indigenous peoples on islands in the South Pacific to locate and report on Japanese forces] were on those islands and would contact the Americans. They waited a long time after everyone else had left and they were the first ones there. He eventually got on the Bon Homme Richard [Annotator's Note: the USS Bon Homme Richard (CV-31)] to go home. Instead of going straight home, they went up around Japan and picked up a large unit of ships. They picked up another around Anchorage, Alaska. The ships that came home were a couple of miles long. They came under the Golden Gate [Annotator's Note: Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California] and there were whistles blowing. They almost filled the whole bay. Ships were coming in for hours. It was really good, and the bridge was full of people. They went ashore after a couple of days and went back to Oceanside [Annotator's Note: Oceanside, California]. He had heard about the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] and heard that you would never have to work again because the thing would supply energy. It all sounded really good [Annotator's Note: the idea of nuclear energy]. When he got home, he saw it was not going to make a utopia.

Warren J. Haslauer [Annotator's Note: with the 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division] was sitting in the mess hall with some guys [Annotator's Note: before the war]. Not many men were there. Fires always break out in the hills and the Marines are grabbed to fight them. He heard a bugle sounding the call to arms. They did not know what the hell that meant. They turned the radio on, and they heard about the bombing [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. They went outside. Right across from the mess hall where tin sheds locked tight. A major sped up, jumped out, and was all fixed up go riding. He had shiny boots and was all dolled up. He asked where the machine guns are. The guy with key was not there and he said to break the locks. They got them open and got the machine guns out. The machine guns were on carts and strapped down. The carts were full of ammunition and were heavy. They had their wooden machine guns with them as there were not enough guns to go around [Annotator's Note: for training]. The whole mess was an invitation to invade. The Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] could have walked in with nothing to stop them. The major was commandeering everything and everybody. They got in trucks and went out along the beach at a cliff. He could see guys screwing the iron [Annotator's Note: iron posts] into the ground and running barbed wire. They were setting up obstacles along the beach. They set up the machine guns. They thought the Japanese were coming in. They were not fed well for two days there. Haslauer hates to say something politically incorrect. There were Japanese [Annotator's Note: Japanese-American] vegetable gardens all along those beaches. Rumor had it that the people that ran them were Japanese Naval officers and was believed by everybody out there. It was also rumored that the people had seen them doing their ritual of bowing to the sun. They were alarmed by the threat of a Japanese fleet coming into where there were no ships. If they had, there was nothing to stop them. They put ack-ack [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft] guns on buildings up in Los Angeles [Annotator's Note: Los Angeles, California]. They could see some shooting from Los Angeles, and they called it jokingly, "The Battle of Los Angeles." The only thing that did happen was off of Santa Barbara [Annotator's Note: 23 February 1943 at Ellwood near Santa Barbara, California] where the oil tanks were. A submarine threw shells at it. There did not necessarily be somebody there directing the fire. They did not do a lot of damage. No Jap planes ever came in there. Anybody who had to defend the country knew how ill-prepared they were. They could have wreaked havoc as they knew where everything was [Annotator's Note: the Japanese Americans who lived along the coast]. He could not believe that the people who chose to move them out of there [Annotator's Note: Internment of Japanese Americans in American concentration camps, 19 February 1942 to 20 March 1946] were vilified. They had no alternative. Nobody out there thought anything but to move those people off the coast.

Warren J. Haslauer's lasting memory of World War 2 is how damned unnecessary the whole thing was. It was a colossal blunder from beginning to end with regard to not being prepared for the whole thing. So many people had to die to get all of those little islands. They talk about Europe and the big invasion and the pillboxes [Annotator's Note: type of blockhouse, or concrete, reinforced, dug-in guard post, normally equipped with slits for firing guns]. Whether they are made of coconut or concrete, it does not make too damn much difference when you come running in. He heard so much garbage putting down [Annotator's Note: criticizing] MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area]. If it had not been for MacArthur, and they had to listened to the Navy, an awful lot of them would be around. They would have to have taken every little island because the Navy says not to leave anything behind you. MacArthur laughed at that. If you had a stronger base that you knocked out ahead like Truk [Annotator's Note: Truk Atoll, now Chuuk Lagoon, Federated States of Micronesia], which had the living hell blown out of it. There were a lot of islands just as strongly fortified as Truk and he said to leave it alone. If he had not had as much power as he did, he did not carry a gun even when being shot at, there would have been a lot more people dead. A lot is owed to that man. He screwed up in the beginning in the Philippines, but who did not? The ill-preparedness and the people who had to die because of it are his lasting thoughts. He sees the same thing going on right now [Annotator's Note: at the time of this interview].

It is important to study and learn about World War 2 as well as World War 1 [Annotator's Note: global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918]. Warren J. Haslauer thinks isolation will not work either. Just think what would have happened. The British were so close to falling. They had about 30,000 to 35,000 Marines on Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. They thought was that it was going to fall. The write up that was going to come out to the public had already been written that the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] were going to take it over. They were sure the Marines were going to fail. Haslauer talked to some of the guys after that. The Japs would get full of sake [Annotator's Note: also spelled saké, Japanese alcoholic beverage] and run through the lines in Banzai charges [Annotator's Note: Japanese human wave attacks]. The Marines just killed them all. When the war started, it was not like it is now where you have to beat guys with a stick to get them to enlist. Back then everybody was getting ready. He lived near Audubon Park [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] and Jap ships were pulling in like crazy when he was a kid. He would go out on the wharfs and fish. He went aboard those Japs ships, and they were nice. They would feed the kids as this was during the Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. They were loading scrap iron. They threw it all right back at us [Annotator's Note: the United States] later. America gave them the wherewithal to attack. It is almost identical to today.

A great number of the troops that were mustered were from the South. Warren J. Haslauer believes the Southern people, for all sorts of reasons, support the country and want to protect it. He does not believe the people in the South are stupid. A draft is not the way to go now. The volunteers will fight better. Nobody wants to die but you always think it is going to be the other guy. You do not get afraid until something almost hits you. They better start making the correct political decisions to put people in. If they show the slightest inkling of destroying the military, do not put them in. Make them dog catchers instead. These things are cyclical in time. If you were down to two people, they would fight each other even if they had everything else. Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] said that. The Marine Corps and the Army except for Patton, have different ideas about fighting. The Army wants to attack slowly and keep everybody from getting hit. The Marines force the people in. Patton operated on that basis. People hated his guts. That is natural. The Marine Corps has a thought that if they had 20,000 people and it would take x-number of troops to overcome the defenders. If the defenders defeated that number, you truly have lost. If you have an outfit that keeps ridiculous amounts of reserves and keeps sending them in, you cannot defeat that. The Marine Corps goes in with the idea that getting it over quickly you save more lives than you lose. Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945 at Iwo Jima, Japan] is a case in point. They lost 7,000 guys to take an island that was not worth it.