[Annotator's Note: Video pauses frequently throughout segment.] Whayland Harvel Greene was born in February 1925 in Haynesville, Louisiana. He has four brothers and 3 sisters. [Annotator's Note: Video break at 0:00:51.000.] In 1938, his family moved to Belcher, Louisiana where his father worked in the oil fields and his mother stayed home. He grew up without electricity and plumbing during the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. People did not have money, so they often bartered. The Greenes lived in a rural community, and everyone worked 12 months out of the year. They did not go on vacations. He attended school in Bossier City, Louisiana. He did not have time to play a lot of sports because he had to work when he was not at school. He was 16 years old when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Greene heard the news from others. Initially, he did not know how serious the event was and how it would affect him in the future. After he graduated from high school, at the age of 18, Greene went down to Barksdale Airfield [Annotator's Note: now Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana] to enlist into the Air Corps but was denied due to his draft papers. After passing his physical, he was sent to Camp Beauregard [Annotator's Note: in Pineville, Louisiana] for two weeks to receive his clothing and equipment and receive a general orientation. He took a train and was shipped to Camp Fannin in Tyler, Texas for basic training. After that, Greene was shipped to New Guinea to join the 32nd Infantry Division, 126th Infantry Regiment. The army trained him to kill and destroy the enemy, and that's what he did. He did not experience combat on New Guinea because by the time he arrived, the Americans had already secured the area.

Whayland Harvel Greene [Annotator's Note: assigned to the 126th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division] was sent to New Guinea as a replacement after most of the fighting was over. He participated in the Battle of Morotai [Annotator's Note: Battle of Morotai, 15 September 1944 to 4 October 1944 at Morotai, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia)]. He disembarked from a ship and waded all the way up to the beach. His company did not receive much resistance. He was wearing a lot of equipment which made it difficult to wade through the water. Previously in his advanced training, he received his inoculations and trained on how to use a rifle. He also took an infiltration course. The training lasted only two weeks, then he was shipped to New Guinea from San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California]. There were 3,000 army personnel on the Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship] and people were getting seasick. It took 21 days to get to their destination. Greene had never been out of Louisiana until he joined the military. After the campaign at New Guinea, Greene, and his regiment invaded Leyte [Annotator's Note: Battle of Leyte, 17 October to 26 December 1944 at Leyte, Philippines]. The weather was so rainy that some troops were developing jungle rot [Annotator's Note: also called Tropical ulcer; a tropical, chronic, ulcerative skin lesion]. Greene saw his first dead Americans on the beach. His regiment found a spot to dig in for the night. Greene saw a guy walking along in the woods, and quickly realized it was a Japanese soldier. Greene's sergeant killed him instantly. The event shook Greene up. The following morning, a few troops and the sergeant went out on patrol. Greene heard lots of rifle firing. When the patrol returned, he saw that his sergeant had been shot through the throat. Greene was then assigned next to go on patrol. He came under attack of some Japanese. He took cover and began firing back. The Japanese were well camouflaged, and they were hard to pick out. Greene and his group eventually overpowered them because of their fire power. Greene killed several Japanese soldiers as his squad moved through the terrain. For several days on the island, Greene had nightmares of a Japanese soldier on his hands and knees. The Americans had the advantage over the Japanese because they had more manpower and better weapons, clothing, equipment, and support.

Whayland Harvel Greene [Annotator's Note: assigned to the 126th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division] was slightly injured when he fought on Luzon [Annotator's Note: Luzon, Philippines]. His sergeant volunteered him to be a platoon runner. He was assigned to a new lieutenant from New York, named Coolie [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], as a platoon runner to take a hill. While trying to set up the walkie talkie [Annotator's Note: two-way radio] to give to a captain, a shell blew up and killed the captain immediately. Greene was wounded. He woke up and did not know where he was at first. He was given orders to pull back. They retreated with a machine gun firing in their direction. Many guys in his unit were wounded or killed. Greene later was ordered to return to the hill, and he received heavy friendly fire. Greene remained in the Philippines until the end of the war and was promoted to squad leader. Two days before the first atomic bomb dropped on Japan [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, 6 August 1945], his best man in his squad was severely wounded. He does not know what happened to him after the war. He knew that he lived in Hawaii and tried to contact possible family members. After the end of the war, Greene's unit was responsible for capturing the Japanese soldiers still fighting in the hills. The situations were always very intense. The Americans often gave out notes and candy bars as a peace offering so the Japanese would not try to attack them. The Japanese soldiers said they could not surrender until one of their commanders told them to. The Japanese in the hills eventually came down to surrender to Greene's unit. It took about two weeks for them all to surrender. The Americans had built a tent for the wounded Japanese to receive medical treatment. [Annotator's Note: Video break at 0:58:48.000.] Greene had severe hatred towards the Japanese during combat, but after the Japanese had surrendered, Greene had nice conversations with the prisoners. They were laughing and talking and he had no trouble with them.

Whayland Harvel Greene [Annotator's Note: assigned to the 126th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division] was assigned as a platoon leader during the occupation of Japan. He stayed there until he earned enough points to return home [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home]. A colonel asked Greene about any gripes among the men. Greene informed the colonel that all the men wanted was hot showers and to go home. Greene was on a troop ship when he arrived in Tacoma, Washington, but had to remain on the ship for two weeks. He was sent to Fort Sam Houston [Annotator's Note: now JBSA-Fort Sam Houston, part of Joint Base San Antonio in San Antonio, Texas] and was discharged in January 1946. Greene decided not to go to college. When he returned home from World War 2, he goofed around for a couple of weeks and then found some work. He got married six months after he returned home. His future wife had sent him cans of sardines while he was fighting in the Pacific. Greene likes to fish and volunteer today.

World War 2 made Whayland Harvel Greene appreciate food, water, and shelter. He had no food for five days during his combat experience in the Philippines because the Japanese had severed their supply line. A plane finally came over and dropped Hershey bars [Annotator's Note: Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar]. The next day another plane dropped rations. He believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana]. They should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations, so people understand that freedom is not free. He was part of a group that lobbied and established the Belcher Memorial [Annotator's Note: Belcher Veterans Memorial in Belcher, Louisiana] which honors war veterans. Greene is proud to have made some impact on others and is glad to be part of his hometown community.