My father was in the first landing wave on Okinawa, in an amphib tank.
He lasted 45 days of combat before being injured seriously in the hand, to require evac. to Honolulu.
They saved all of his fingers. He recovered to first light duty, then awaiting return to full duty, but the war ended.
Had the war not ended, he was among troops expecting to land in Japan.
USMC 2 yrs, active duty, discharged before 20th birthday.
Dad was a corporal in the 3rd Amphibious Corps, Signal Battalion. He was suited up to go in the first day, but there were no casualties on the beach; it was a huge traffic jam. He had to stand down and wait till the second day.
Because of Okinawa, after VJ Day, he had enough combat points to go home three times over, but the Marine Corps declared him “essential” and sent him to Tientsin to help build a million watt radio transmitter.
When he finally got back to South Carolina all the pretty girls had been scooped up by the men who had beat him home, so he was a bachelor for another year. Then one day, he and a friend saw some pretty Winthrop College freshmen girls walking along Oakland Ave. and stopped to offer them a ride to town. One of them was to become my mom. He let them off on Main St. and of course managed to be ready just at the time they needed to ride back. On the way back, the girls in the back seat were speaking in French and mom said that they thought these guys were cute.
They let them off at the school and driving away in the ‘39 Ford Coupe he said to his friend,
“Did you get what they were saying? They liked us, said we were cute.”
“WHAT!? Well where are ya goin’? Let’s go back and ask ‘em to go to dinner with us!”
“OK, but I’m tellin’ ya, that brunette is MINE!”