John Walsh
Kelly O’Hara
Mr. Thomas
U.S. History Period 5
9 May 2006
Personal Interview: John Walsh
Intro: I interviewed my grandfather, John Walsh, who was involved in WWII as a navigator on a plane. He delivered supplies and equipment to different Pacific Islands during the years of 1943-1945. He was eighteen years old when he was drafted into war.
Q: What years were you in World War II?
A: I was eighteen in the years 1943 through 1945, but only part of 1945.
Q: What was your job in WWII?
A: Well in 1943 I started in San Diego in Marine Corps boot camp and in the same year, I was sent to Norman, Oklahoma for further training. In January of 1944 I went overseas to the South Pacific Islands such as New Caledonia, New Heberides, Bougainville, Munda, and Guadalcanal. I went overseas for 18 months on a Marine Corps transport squadron, flying men, supplies, and equipment to various islands where it was needed. The R4D5 was the type of plane we flew on, which was a two engine cargo plane.
Q: How did you feel when the atom bomb was dropped?
A: Delighted, I was home then, May of 1945 and I was most delighted. I remember the exact spot I was in when it was dropped; I was in a marine air station in Cherry Point in North Carolina.
Q: Were you upset about the draft and having to go to war?
A: I was very pleased because everyone else was going even though I had to leave college. I picked the Marine Corps and other fellows I knew did too.
Q: How did it feel to finally come home and what did you do when you returned home?
A: I came home the first of May 1945 from overseas for a 30 day ferule. One of my best friends was home too. I was delighted to come home. At the beginning of June, we were preparing B25 bombs to be dropped on Japan if war hadn’t ended. We would fly to different states for navigational purposes, preparing to go back overseas. They determined who got out of war first by credits such as credits for going overseas or by how many battle stars you had. I went overseas and had two battle stars, I got out in November. I earned one star for campaign in Solomon Islands and another for flying over Japanese territory.
Q: What did you do on the plane?
A: We had a crew of a pilot, co-pilot, radio man, crew chief of chief mechanic, and navigator. Five of us would normally go, we were a squadron.
Q: Describe what it was like overseas?
A: It was very hot, and it rained hard for fifty minutes during the evening and then it got hot again. I would spend four to five months on an island. We slept on cots below the deck on the ship, near the bottom of the ship. So men would go and sleep underneath the plane’s wings on the flight deck. But it would rain at two in the morning every morning so we went back to the cots. I remember doing that quite frequently. When we got to the Solomon Islands it was ruined, nothing was there. Sometimes we would have days off and we would play cards. It was either in Bougainville or Guadalcanal where we had Bob Hope come over and entertain us. One time we had a movie for entertainment. The food was usually not very good, but it depended on the cook. We didn’t have any fresh water. We had a Listerine bag and that was the kind of water you would drink, and it was terrible. The biggest thing over there was malaria. We would have to take a pill daily and eventually we would turn yellow. I turned yellow. There were guys that did not take their pills and did catch malaria. Also, I remember there being lots of lizards.