Oral History Interview with Keifer Marshall, January 13, 2009 Page: 11
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store and just being overwhelmed at all the choices offood and you know, it's an embarrassment
of riches.
Mrs. Marshall: A different set of values.
Sure.
Keifer Marshall: Well, you never, you don't understand life until you've been shot at in anger.
I've told Sammy many times I think before a fellow ought to be President of the United States,
he should've been in combat somewhere for a while because I really do, there's nothing like that
and you can't explain to people that haven't been through it. I had a lot of friends who were in
high school all have been in the service. We all got back home. We started talking to 'em. Most
of 'em didn't have combat and back in World War II, they were doing something else. But they
don't, there's no way to relate to that unless somebody's trying to kill you or you're trying to kill
them, and it's a, and that thing over there was having to be involved with all those civilians was,
must've been tough, too.
Yeah, in your case, I guess you didn't see any Japanese civilians.
Keifer Marshall: No, not at all. The only place they ever saw that was on Saipan, then
Okinawa they had some civilians there. But there weren't any civilians around where we were.
Mrs. Marshall: - the Japanese Iwo Jima is I remember reading they had been on that island
for years.
Keifer Marshall: Then they got some feds built it up. That Kuribachi was some kind of a
general. They'd had time to build it, the defense of it. It could've been more perfect. He had it
completely so anywhere you were, they could hit you, you know. It's really something. General
Nimitz said it, said uncommon valor was a common trait, virtue, and it was true. These corps
men, unbelievable what they did, and stretcher bearers that'd have to go get those guys and take
'em back and see all that firing, and then at night, the Japanese were out active. They'd try to get
in a fox hole with you, you know, so there was lots of hand to hand stuff with them. And at the
end of the thing they were desperate. They didn't have any water, didn't have any food, but they
never quit fighting, never quit trying.
Did your men have the flame throwers?Keifer Marshall: Oh yeah, we never would take __. The tank flame throwers what really
helped us, you know.
But the ones on your back -
Keifer Marshall: Oh, we had those, too, yeah. They were great, particularly for the pill boxes,
but in those caves, they could take that tank and be back 75 yards and put that fire out before that
cave.
Then I guess you probably saw as well certain cases where they just had the bulldozers would
just have to close in the caves and seal 'em off11
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Marshall, Keifer. Oral History Interview with Keifer Marshall, January 13, 2009, text, January 13, 2009; Fredericksburg, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1606772/m1/11/?q=%22~1%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.