Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
2:17 | Marine Gilbert Jensen recalls when a Japanese force of 500 men landed on Guadalcanal and was beaten. Then they landed 900 with the same result. What happened when they upped the ante to 1500?
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The tool and die factory looked dark and bleak so Gilbert Jensen wanted to enlist and join the war effort. It took a family meeting to convince his mother to let him become a Marine. Boot camp in San Diego featured an erratic drill instructor and a surprise swimming coach.
Gilbert Jensen thought Guadalcanal was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. The only danger the first night was from local sea creatures but soon he was face to face with the determined Japanese occupiers.
Gilbert Jensen had a best friend named Billy Ricketts. The war caught up with their friendship on a three man patrol in the jungle of Guadalcanal. Other combat memories from this time include a night attack on a Japanese camp and nighttime Japanese banzai attacks.
You were always close to the enemy in the jungle on Guadalcanal, according to Gilbert Jensen. And he had the stains on his shirt to prove it. You could see strange things as well, like the time the Kansas farmer of the unit thought he saw the Japanese climbing coconut trees with lit cigars.
In the daytime, it was Japanese artillery. At night, they brought their naval guns to bear on the Marines in the jungle. If that wasn't bad enough, Gilbert Jensen couldn't cross a river without checking for their hygiene conscious troops, who would bathe anytime they got near a body of water.
Years after his duty on Guadalcanal, Marine Gilbert Jensen saw his unit's exploits turned into a Hollywood movie, Battle Cry. He says it was pretty accurate, but they did change the commander's nickname to something a little more flattering,
He can laugh, now, about the t-shirts the chaplain gave the native girls, and about the fruitcake his sister sent that he still has. But Gilbert Jensen doesn't laugh about contracting four tropical diseases at the same time.
