Daniel Lawler

         My name is Daniel Lawler, and I was born in Glens Falls Hospital on August 23, 1925.  While in the hospital there was an accident in the nursery that left me cross-eyed.  I had to wear glasses; I went to St. Mary’s school and could not play sports because of my eyes. When I was 16 years old, on December 7, 1941, I went to the Paramount Theater on Ridge St. At about 4 P.M., the manager turned the lights on and announced that the Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor, the theater emptied out.  I ran home to tell my parents but they had already heard it on the radio.  No T.V. at that time.

     The government called up the National Guard immediately. (Company K) The state of New York formed a state guard and I signed up.  We went to camp for 2 weeks in July.

     When I became 17 years old I went to Albany and tried to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps.  The Sergeant looked at me and said because of my eyes I was turned down.  I then went to the Navy and got the same reply.  I tried the Army and was told when I became 18 years old I would be 4 F.  Not fit for military service because of my eyes.

     I went home disappointed.  My mother asked my how I made out, and I told her the story.  She suggested I have an operation to straighten the eye out, and maybe they would take me.  I had the operation and on November 8, 1943 I enlisted in the Marine Corps and went to Parris Island, South Carolina for basic training (boot camp) for 13 weeks.  The first thing they taught us was strict discipline.  This is the key to the Marine Corps.  It was sure hell, but all marines remember boot camp.  This is where you went from a boy to a man.  From here I went to Camp LeJeune, North Carolina for amphibious training.  I also went to machine gun school.  While I was there I met Jim Butterfield from Glens Falls, Harold Chapman from Gansevoort, and John Murray, from Hudson Falls.  We stayed together and went to Camp Pendleton, SanDiego, California.

     We shipped out on A.P.A. transport ship to New Caledonia.  Two days later we boarded another ship and went to Pavuzi Island in the Solomon Group and joined the 1^st Marine division.  A division consists of 20,000 men, a regiment had 5,000 men and a battalion had 1,500 men.  3 regiments in a division, and 3 battalions in a regiment.

     I was assigned to K-Company –3^rd battalions 5^th regiment.  John Murray was assigned to 6-company, 2^nd battalion, 2^nd regiment.  Jim Butterfield was assigned to 6-company, 2^nd battalion, 1^st regiment and Harold Chapman was assigned to the same as Butterfield.  The division boarded ship and sailed for he Battle of Peleliu.  This island was located 400 miles off the shore of the Philippines.  There was an airstrip we needed to invade the Philippines.  The island was 4 miles long and 2 miles wide. This battle was one of the 4 bloodies battles in the history of the Marine Corps.  The other 3 were Iwo Jima, Saipan, and Tarawa.  As we left for this island I boarded an L.S.T. (Landing Ship Tank) and assigned to amphibious tractor.  On this ship there wasn’t enough room in the mess hall for all of us so we ate our meals topside.  One afternoon while eating lunch, a friend of mine hollered to me if I was from New York and I said yes!  He then asked if I knew where Hudson Falls was.  I said I live 4 miles from there.  He then said this big machine that we are sitting on was made at the Sandy Hill Iron and Brass Co. there was a nameplate on the side.  It was a big wench.  My father helped make this machine.  I asked a sailor what it was used for, and he said, after the ship has unloaded, this wench (which was attached to the anchor), would pull the ship off the beach. 

     On September 15, 1944, at about 8 A.M.  We hit the beaches.  I was in the first assault wave.  It was hell.  Everyone was scared.  It was an awful feeling, as we disembarked, I looked up and down the beaches and all you could hear is screaming and men were falling and dying.  There was artillery, mortar, and machine gun fire constantly.  The noise was terrific.  I grabbed my ammunition and followed my machine gunner.  We moved in a few yards and were pinned down by enemy fire.  We kept moving in and paid dearly for it.  We fought all day and by evening we reached the airstrip about ½ mile from the beach.  We set up for the night along the sides of the airstrip. 

     There was a blown up Jap tank next to us, I looked inside and what I saw you couldn’t put on paper.  My sergeant sent me back to the beach for more ammunition.  When I got back I had no partner to share a fox hole with.  There were always two men in a foxhole.  You take turns sleeping.  I found a rifleman and we shared a foxhole.  I had a carbine and he had a rifle.  He put his bayonet on his rifle and stood it against the foxhole.  He took the first watch and I slept.  He shook me and said his rifle was missing.  The rest of the night we shared my carbine.  In the morning at daybreak the sergeant went by and said, “You two did a great job.”  We sat up and on his bayonet was in a Jap.  He must have tried to jump into the foxhole and landed on the bayonet.  

A short time later we could hear Jap tanks coming across the airstrip.  5 of our tanks went out to meet them; they had a hell of a battle.  Four of our tanks came back, they had knocked out 35 Jap tanks, the Jap tanks were like paper compared to ours.  All Jap equipment was inferior to ours.  The temperature was 100 degrees.  At about 1p.m. we started across the airstrip.  Half way across an artillery shell landed near me.  I went down- I was hit in the back and broke 3 fingers- a corps man lifted me up and I went back to the beach and was transported to a hospital ship and after the ship was full we went to Guadalcanal Hospital.  After I was patched up, I went back to Pavuzi Island and rejoined the 1^st Marine Division.  It took the division and a back-up Army unit 28 days to secure the island.  The casualties were as follows:  1,252 killed and 5,275 wounded.  The army had 208 killed and 1,185 wounded, the navy had 158 killed and 505 wounded, total American casualties were 1,618 killed and 6,965 wounded, the japs lost 13,000, 300 prisoners.  An awful price to pay for such a small island- 4 miles long and 2 miles wide.

     John Murray was shot in the knee and was sent back to the states.  We trained on Pavuzi island and on March 21^st,1945 we set sail for Okinawa.  I was again assigned to an L.S.T. and another amphibious tractor.  I was again in the first assault wave.  On April 1 (April fools day. and it was also Easter Sunday) we hit the beaches.  2 Marine Divisions and about 4 Army Divisions all landed safely.  The Marines swung north and the Army swung south.  We walked across the airfield and still had no resistance North- when the Army went south, they hit a stonewall; the Japs stopped them in their tracks. 

     On April 8- the two division of Marines went south to join the army.  These were the last of the Japanese troops and we had one hell of a time moving them back.  My regiment went into a place called Shuri Castle.  It was on a mountain.  We took it and lost and lost it four times until we finally secured it.  The hardest part of this battle was the civilians that got killed.

     I can remember the small children would come up to us carefully and just stand there; they did not put their hands out for food.  We offered them food but they would refuse to eat it until we ate some first.  We found out later that the Japanese told them the Americans would kill them if they asked for anything.  The Okinawa people were Japanese but they hated the Japs from the mainland.  The mainlanders would take all their food and animals. While on Shuri Castle we could see the City of Na Ha.  This was a large city.  The 6^th Marine Division tried to take it but it was too fortified.  They finally pulled the Marines back and shelled it with 16- inch guns form 3 or 4 battleships.  About ½ hour later there was no Na ha city.  They completely leveled it on July 2.  We finally secured the Island of Okinawa which as 60 miles long and 6-8 miles wide.  The causalities on Okinawa were as follows:  Marines lost 3,430 killed, 15,723 wounded, all American casualties were 7,374 killed and 31,807 wounded, 239 missing.  The navy casualties were 36 ships sunk and 368 damaged, 763 aircraft last and 4,907 seamen killed and 4,824.  I do not know the Army casualties. 

     The Jap casualties were 7,830 planes missing, 16 combat ships sunk, 107,539 soldiers killed, 23,768 sealed in caves, and 10,755 taken prisoner.  There were one million people on the island and 300,000 of them were killed. 

     Jim Butterfield lost both eyes in May and Harold Chapman was killed in May.  The four of us from this area were all casualties.  John Murray died last April. 

     I also had a brother who was also in the Marine Corps before I joined and was discharged with a bad heart.  While I was on Okinawa, my brother died.  President Roosevelt died, and the famous war correspondent Ernie Pile was killed in action.  The army general Buckner was killed on the front lines.

     The war in Europe was over (V.E. Day) we dropped the atomic bomb, Japan surrendered and the Pacific war was over (V.J. Day).  On October 5 we set sail for China.  On October 17 we arrived at Tan Koo harbor.  We boarded a train and went to Peking.  We rounded up the Japanese and sent them home.  But it wasn’t over yet.  The Chinese Communist attacked us.  Their equipment was worse than the Japs.  They made one attack at us, and with our planes, artillery, and ground warfare it didn’t last long.  We estimated we killed 2 or 3 thousand of them.

     I also saw the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City.  After 4 months in China I was shipped home and received my discharge on February 14, 1946 from Bainbridge, Maryland.  I was very proud to have been a Marine.  I feel we did a good job.  The Army and Navy also did a good job.  We all had a job to do and we did it well.  I believe no service was better than the other.  This land of ours is surely something to fight for.  I would do it again if I had to.  What we have here no one else has it- believe me.  We don’t know how lucky we all are.