Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
4:02 | They were packed in like cattle on the troop ship. When they docked at Pearl Harbor, Lofton Hill watched the flag raised every morning on the wreckage of the USS Arizona. He was soon in the Philippines, fending off banzai attacks and enjoying the canned tangerines he found in the Japanese camps.
Keywords : Lofton Hill troop ship Philippines Pearl Harbor USS Arizona (BB-39) Manila 37 mm gun M3 anti-tank Batangas Luzon Japanese banzai attacks Lipa
While in the CCC, Lofton Hill helped build the Fort Benning jump field. Two years later, he was training there as a paratrooper. After training, his unit was sent to the west coast, so he figured he was bound for the Pacific.
Lofton Hill saw a buddy take a near direct hit from a mortar shell. He caught some shrapnel himself but his bandolier deflected it. It wasn't long after they secured their area in Luzon that the war ended.
After the Japanese surrender, Lofton Hill was certain the enemy troops in the hills in Luzon did not know about it. Soon, his unit was in Japan, freeing and sending home American POW's, who had received harsh treatment from their captors. He was put on MP detail, where he couldn't make much sense of what he was hearing from the civilians.
