Oral History Interview with William Sloman Page: 94
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And it might take you 30 minutes to eat one hardtack. As I
say, they are hard. They brought out these cases and the
men scattered them, so that they were loaded according to
what line they were under, under the brush. We had these
little can openers that were only about so big, to tear
open your C-ration. We'd eat the pork and beans and the
salmon right out of the can. At night, they gave everybody
a warm meal, at least one hot meal a day, but I don't think
that those of us on Wilkes ever got a hot meal. We might
have gotten one meal once or twice. Sometimes it got over
to us.
FEMALE: Did you ever have any (inaudible)?
WS: I don't recall any.
MC: Was there any shortage of fresh water?
WS: No, it was -- well, the um, standard.
MC: Yeah. I just wondered though, if the --
WS: We didn't have water daily; there wasn't any drinking water
over there. As far as bathing, you would have to do it out
on the beach mostly, in the lagoon. Now, you can't do muchscrubbing in that salt water, you can't get soap to lather
very much.94
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Oral History Interview with William Sloman (Sound)
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with William Sloman. Sloman joined the Marine Corps in October of 1939. Beginning early in 1940, he served in the 1st Defense Battalion, D Battery. In February of 1941, he deployed to Hawaii. In December, Sloman participated in the Battle of Wake Island. He was captured by the Japanese, survived transport aboard the hell ship Asama Maru and imprisonment in Zentsuji POW Camp in Japan. He was liberated in 1945, and discharged in early 1946.
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Sloman, William. Oral History Interview with William Sloman, text, Date Unknown; Fredericksburg, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1606153/m1/94/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation.