Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
4:47 | After the successful Marine assault on Roi-Namur, Owen Koch's unit prepared for further action but he missed the Iwo Jima assault because he came down with a rare medical condition which landed him in the hospital for months.
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Owen Koch and three friends all went to enlist together in 1943 with the idea of serving together. That proved impossible and the four friends wound up in four different services. It was the Marines for Koch and, after boot camp, he became a communications specialist.
One of Owen Koch's tasks was to carry and deploy big spools of wire for field telephones. Simple enough, but his partner was 6' 4' tall and that made for a comical sight as they tried to keep the spool level. The randomness of death in war was driven home when his friend Frank Reed was killed just inches away as they shared a foxhole.
Like all Marines serving in the Pacific, Owen Koch prepared for the coming assault on the Japanese homeland. He heard the tales of civilians fighting with pitchforks to the end, and was relieved when the invasion was not needed.
