Commented Stories.

Ira Gilliand recalls his night on the ridge.

It's tough to talk about this stuff. It's been fifty-eight years. For Ira it probably doesn't seem like fifty-eight years, he remembers it like it was yesterday. -Nathan Chambers 2/24/10 10:32 AM It gives me the chills thinking about it.

The Japanese were trying to outflank us and looked like they were going to overrun our position. I remember their screams.Being there with all the screaming must have been eerie. I would not have liked being there.. I would have remembered the screams too.. that's not something that you easily. -mary write 2/24/10 10:57 AM They screamed a lot, especially when they were charging. It made you alert in a hurry even after being up for two days and you're ready to fall asleep.

They kept charging, but that's where the grenades came in. We threw grenades all night long.I would throw them all night and all day. -Nathan Chambers 2/24/10 10:41 AM I remember rolling the grenades down. We were up on the hill and they were below us. They kept feeding us boxes of grenades. I remember the sound of Plante's BAR. He kept it going all night long. A lot of guys spent a terrible night out there. How did the gun not overheat? -Nathan Chambers 2/24/10 10:35 AM

The 1st Parachute Battalion was with us. I remember one of the paratroopers got shot. The corpsman came over because of his cry for help, and he [the corpsman] got shot right through the heart. His name was Smith, so when I saw Smith go down, I grabbed him and carried him down the hill How did Ira not get shot when he went and grabbed Smith? -mary write 2/24/10 10:53 AM . I didn't think he was going to die. When I got him down to the first aid station, I saw one of our doctors cry.Did seeing the doctors cry not happen often? Was this something that he's surprised to see? -mary write 2/24/10 10:55 AM [chokes up] Old Smitty was my friend, a real nice guy, and I broke down also.


The Marines on Guadalcanal
JAMES SMITH, 1st Raider Battalion
Converted for the Web from "Into The Rising Sun: In Their Own Words, World War II's Pacific Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat" by Patrick K. O'Donnell

On September 27, the 1st Raider Battalion would help launch an attack near the mouth of the Matanikau River. Poor intelligence greatly underestimated the strength of the Japanese defenses facing them, turning the operation into a disaster. The Japanese halted the Raiders and 5th Marines' advance at the mouth of the river and nearly wiped out the amphibious landings by another Marine battalion at Point Cruz. Jim "Horse Collar" Smith recalls the battle.

We were on this narrow trail along the east side of the Matanikau River, a steep cliff on the other side. As we snaked up the side of the trail, a guy named Ed Mertz had a kidney stone.How does he climb a moutian if you have a kidney stone? wouldn't it hurt to do anything? -Jen Robbins 2/26/10 8:58 AM And here we are plastered alongside the trail with Japs on the other side of the river and this guy Mertz goes down screaming, clutching his gut. I remember thinking, "Oh, God, we are going to get it."Worst possible event that could happen, happened. -Nathan Chambers 2/26/10 9:22 AM It was just a little farther along there that C Company was just a little ahead of us. Ken Bailey [the battalion executive officer and Medal of Honor recipient for his actions on Bloody Ridge], with his runner right behind him, was dashing across a log footbridge, caught a Nambu [machine gun] between the eyes and went down.

A little later in the day -- I guess we were still heading south He didn't know which way he was going?-Jen Robbins 2/26/10 8:53 AM -- Sam Griffith got shot in the shoulder at about 300 meters. That left us with a bunch of young 1st lieutenants (who had just made 1st lieutenant), and there was actually a discussion at the CP as to who was the senior officer. Edson was in a state of shock after Bailey was killed. It affected [Bailey's runner] more than anything else. He had been Major Bob Brown's runner until the ridge, and Brown was killed coming off the ridge. Someone said to him, "You must be a jinx, because this was the second major you lost." The poor kid became unglued. It was a terrible thing to say.That is mean. Don't need to say that at that time. -Nathan Chambers 2/26/10 9:24 AM

I remember when we pulled Bailey into the aid station in a poncho. Aid station [sigh] -- a couple of guys sitting on logs and doctors treating them. There was a kid by the name of Dobson who had been shot right in the groin. His face was absolutely dead white, you couldn't believe it. He just sat there and held his stomach. Everybody knew he was going to die, and he knew he was going to die. Not a murmur out of him; talk about stoicism. He died shortly after that. He just slid off the log and was dead. A man next to him had a flesh wound and was crying like a baby. Talk about a contrast. I like how he said "talk about contrast". This whole thing showed the difference between some people. One gets shot in the groin and not a sound.. but one guy gets a flesh wound and cries and cries.. that IS a contrast. - Jen Robbins 2/26/10 8:56 AM

Eventually they pulled us out of there because the Japs were well entrenched on the other side of the footbridge.Should have blown them all up. -Nathan Chambers 2/26/10 9:26 AM

The Fear in America.

If you were a U.S. citizen back then you had to be wondering what day would be your last. There was so many things going on at that time. It was almost like the countries didn't care about the people in them, it was just to show who had the most power. It was right after World War II so people knew to prepare for the worst. A lot of people probably got together with there families more not knowing what was coming next. At that point in time I could see the people thinking that maybe their leaders were not caring about them.