Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
4:42 | As a boy learning to hunt in the delta swamps of Louisiana, Bill Braddock developed the animal sense that he credits with his survival in the war to come. When he saw two Marines in dress blues, he knew that was the outfit for him. Serving at Pearl Harbor, he was in heaven with the girls, the music and the surfing. What could mess up such a great thing?
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Like many others at Pearl Harbor, Marine Bill Braddock was having some breakfast when the tables and dishes start shaking. He describes in vivid detail the chaos of that day, the unbelievable sight of a sky filled with Japanese planes and the desperation of men shooting at the bombers with their .45's.
After witnessing the Pearl Harbor attack, Bill Braddock volunteered for the Marine paratroopers and spent time untangling himself from the Wait-A-Minute vines of Bougainville. But he soon found himself back in San Diego, training for a new assault force and handling a new machine gun.
The water was rough that day, recalls Bill Braddock. The LST was pitching up and down as the Marines loaded up for the assault on Iwo Jima as planes, bombs and smoke swirled around them. The first enemy troops he saw disappeared into a hole and the last one he saw that day crawled right up to him in the dark.
Marine Bill Braddock made it ashore in the first wave at Iwo Jima, but as he fought to establish a line across the island, he could hear trucks and tanks from the second wave getting bogged down on the beach. As he came up the back side of Mt. Suribachi, he saw the first flag raised. Then on Hill 362, he turned down a Purple Heart because, "I did it myself."
They looked like they were turkey hunting, just waiting with rifles raised, remembers Bill Braddock. Taking a look got his friend shot right between the eyes. The defenders of Iwo Jima could also pop up behind you from their elaborate complex of tunnels and caves. Before it was over, cooks and bakers were taking shifts in foxholes.
Bill Braddock saw many Marines head for home after the Japanese surrender but it was off to Japan for him as part of the occupation force. They got the glory but he got to supervise the Geisha houses. How was that assignment? "Heaven." Less pleasurable were the faces of hungry children and the scenes of devastation from the atomic bomb.
