Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
5:30 | Merrill Burroughs had a Captain who was a real good officer because he had a feel for people and how to relate to them and manage accordingly. The flip side of that was the other Captain on Saipan who informed him that he and his crew would be working on for another eight hour shift building a new command post. No way, came the reply.
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They were an Army unit in the midst of a lot of Marines trying to take Saipan. It was an anti-aircraft outfit and Merrill Burroughs was the de facto man in charge, though only a Sergeant. As many Americans learned after landing on Pacific islands, he found out the softening up bombardment had not really done the job.
Tinian was a little easier time than Saipan and Iwo Jima, says Merrill Burroughs, who was with an Anti-Aircraft battery. He still had close calls when Japanese planes strafed the island. On the way in, he managed to hide a case of pork and beans, which was a precious thing.
To draftee Merrill Burroughs, the toughest part of basic training was not knowing when you would be rousted and put to a task, and then not being told what the task was or where you were. He was made a training cadre and offered the option of staying stateside, but after forming a bond with the men he'd trained, he went with them overseas. He met Paul Blair, who's niece became his wife.
Just like with Saipan, the men getting ready to storm ashore at Iwo Jima were told the island had been softened up by bombing and shelling. It turned out to be deadly for Marines. Merrill Burroughs headed up an Army Anti-Aircraft unit attached to the Marines and he remembers that Japanese soldiers were everywhere. He still can't believe he wasn't hit when the bullets were "like rain."
Merrill Burroughs recalls his friend Paul Blair and how he told him to stay behind one time when the rest of the unit advanced. He did it because he could and he he was worried about him. He also remembers the exciting trip into Saipan with all of the might of the Navy shelling the island.
