Yes the tattooed tootsies of today with their pierced noses — well, they say tribal is trendy.
A good friend of mine, a Crocodile Dundee type, who was a contractor with the Aussie military, had a nasty scar down his back from a stone axe thrown at him from behind in the wilds of PNG. This happened to him in the 1980s. He said they could be friendly one minute, then turn on you without warning the next.
So many Americans are unaware of what went on during WWII in Southeast Asia. I imagine your Dad had fascinating stories to tell!
He told about going to the Brown Derby in LA and seeing Clark Gable and some other movie stars. Then being shipped out to Oahu. Training on Waikiki Beach. There were no hotels on the beach back in 1943/44.
He had pictures of cannons being pulled by horses.
Then when they got to New Guinea he said there was a Japanese destroyer sticking straight up in the air at a 90 degree angle at the north shore port town of Wee Wack. It had run around on a reef apparently trying to escape the US Navy.
They also found a Japanese ship way up a river in the jungle. Again, the Japs had driven it up there to use as a base because if it had stayed in the ocean it would have been sunk by our navy.
He told about how they made “jungle juice” by distilling local fruits and berries in a pot still they made. Then running the copper tubing through a mountain stream to condense it.
He was a diesel mechanic/heavy equipment operator in the US Army Air Corp. So, he was in charge of repairing runways and roads after we had bombed them. To make them usable by our air corp.
He had grown up on a dairy farm, so they made a lot of those guys into heavy equipment operators and diesel mechanics. He also told how he and another GI found a sunken Chris Craft cabin cruiser. They repaired the small hole and floated it and got it running. They had it for ONE DAY when MacArthur saw them driving it and took it for his own personal use.
He was also there when they invaded the Phillippeans. The invasion of Leyte Island. My father came in on the third day of the invasion. He said he had to walk on the bodies of US and Australian marines just to get up on the beach. They cleared the beach of bodies then MacArthur waded ashore and gave his famous speech “I have returned”.
FYI, the wading ashore was just for the cameras. There was a quay/pier just to the right of where he came ashore that everyone else came in on. Stepping off a landing craft and wading through the water onto the beach was just to be dramatic.
The rest of the invasion dad did not talk much about. Except when we asked him how he lost all his upper teeth. It was from the butt end of a Japanese rifle. He also was shot through his helmet. He assumed the round was a ricochet because it went through the helmet, penetrated his skin but not his skull. He was then shot in his lower abdomen. Where it became infected in the jungle environment. He returned from the South Pacific in a hospital ship. Spent six weeks in the hospital.
He told us he had two Samurai swords and several other souvenirs but they were all stolen by other GIs because they thought he was dead.
He was promoted in battle to a Captain one day. He said all the officers were either dead or injured. He was the senior Staff Sergeant at the time. Which was his top rank. He went in as a Private. Discharged as a Staff Sergeant.