Oral History Interview with Jim Humphries, February 18, 2005 Page: 3

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jim Humphries. He joined the Army Air Corps as a reserve cadet at 17, but was discharged a year later for less than 20/20 vision and a heart murmur. He enlisted in the Navy in Louisiana in June, 1944. He went to Basic Training at Camp Wallace, Texas. After training he boarded USS LSM-140 at San Diego and served in the Amphibious Forces as a fireman 2nd class in the engine room. Humphries continued training in Hawaii with the LSM and a Marine Pioneer battalion. Prior to heading for Iwo Jima, the LSM took aboard the Marines and a load of airfield construction equipment: a bulldozer, a cherry-picker, a crane, a big 6x6 truck (all of which proved useless beacuse it all sank in the sand on the beach). Humphries describes making suppply runs back and forth from cargo ships offshore to the Marines on the beach. He describes bringing them food, ammunition, clothing, etc. as well as recieving incoming enemy fire that wounded and killed several sailors. He lauds the weasel - a small tracked vehicle that made running supplies over the beaches at Iwo Jima a less difficult job. He witnessed both flag raisings on Mt. Suribachi. After the invasion, LST-140 was shipped back to California for repairs - the facilities in Guam and Pearl Harbor were too full repairing other ships. When the war ended, he was discharged and returned to Louisiana.