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LS: Well the bronze star I got after the Company Commander was hit and I stepped in to what I think
was the last firefight in Okinawa. I got it for that. Because I exposed myself a little bit to hostile fire and
so forth. I didn't do anything - I thought if I got a medal for this I should of got it a lot more for some
other stuff! <laughing>. Anyway, that's the way things go. But the best reward I got was the good Lord
getting me through that mess. That was really the award I got. So then after I got back I stayed in the
active reserve. I had the sea bag packed several times along the way. I was not called back for any
operations after WWII, primarily because I had a little bit too much rank then. By the time Korea came
along I was up for Major. They didn't need Field Grade Officers. They needed Company Commanders
and Platoon Leaders. Had I been commissioned two weeks later than I was, I'd have been back in Korea.
Involuntarily. Two weeks would have held me back. I volunteered to go back to Korea but I couldn't be
assured of - I only wanted to go back if I could be integrated into the regular Corps. I didn't want to go
back and forth between civilian life and active duty. So I would have gone back if I'd have been able to
be assured of being able to integrate into the regular Corps. They couldn't give me that assurance at
that time. But I did this thing in the active reserve.
JL: Any humorous things happen to you that you'd like to share with us?
LS: Yeah, I was thinking of Peleliu and we were talking about how wonderful those kids were. I
remember that we were under severe fire. Forest fire, water fire, artillery, so on and so forth. And you
couldn't dig a hole there. It was just solid rock. So I had two of my troopers and these kids are in the
prone position, trying to get just as flat on that ground as they could. So one kid says to the other one,
"Do you have a fingernail file on you?" They're head down, flat down on the ground. The kid reaches in
his back pocket as says, "Wait a minute. Yeah I got one back here." So I'm thinking, "Why in the world
would he want a fingernail file? And how in the world would this kid...would he want to carry a
fingernail file with him?" So under the circumstances with all this going on I thought it was pretty funny
in retrospect. He wanted a fingernail file and the other kid had it! And of course I remember little
things like, this kid comes to me and we're aboard ship and they needed their mess kit when they went
to the chow line. He said, "I don't have a mess kit". I said, "Well why don't you have a mess kit? You
were issued a mess kit." He said, "I got so sick," he said, "I didn't think I'd ever be able to eat again!" He
said, "I threw it overboard!" You know, little things like that. I guess there were a lot of other things
that I have forgotten. But that good old fingernail file. There's another little innocent conversation
between a couple of them when we were in combat. The stuff was hitting the fan as they say. And one
kid says to the other, he wanted a cigarette. Did he have any cigarettes? So the other kid drew up a
coffin nail and he said, "Yeah sure." There were several little incidents like that. I had Ernie Pyle came
over from Europe. You know he did most of his work in Europe, practically all of it. But he wanted to
make an operation with the Marines. So he came with us, with the First Marine Division at Okinawa.
And, in fact, he was on the same ship that I was and I used to see this guy in the war room all the time
drinking coffee. He never had anything to say to anybody. He's kind of a loner. And as it happened he
spent most of his time with my company. And the last story that he ever filed was a story about my
Company Clerk. And he didn't bother with any of the officers at all. The only conversations he had, that
is, at least while I was exposed to the man, his only conversations were with enlisted people. So my
Company Clerk was a detective, boy. His name was Marvin Clayton. His nickname was "Bird-dog". Bird-
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