Oral History Interview with Floyd R. Thomas, February 18, 2009 Page: 28
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gave me a (now I remember) lesson in explosives, detonation explosives for about a week. I
don't remember where it was or what it was for, but they gave me shaped charges and C2
composition and stuff like that and told me how to set it off and use it, but I had already had
quite a lot of experience in it because I used a lot of dynamite in California when we blasted
through roads. And I got where I could take a stick of dynamite, cut it off 3 inches long, take
the cap and put it on the fuse, take my tooth and dent it and put it in. So I had a lot of
experience in explosives, as far as anybody else was there. So anyway we started shape
charging all the tops of these cliffs not knowing if there was anybody there or not but we'd
blow a hole in it because all those pill boxes being down there in these cliffs and everything like
that, we hit it with explosives, pieces of cliff would drop off inside and the Japs would come if
they were in there, or the poor Koreans. Because what they'd do, the Japs would shove the
Koreans out first. Well, naturally they got killed. We didn't know who they were. And then
we'd throw in the grenades, Phosphorus grenades, in and as the rest of them would come out,
they were dead ducks. That went on for about 2, 3 weeks or a couple of weeks. I don't
remember the exact length of time. I know it was, hell, and they sent us a bunch of recruits in,
a bunch of new guys. And they sent those boys in and I remember one day we were sitting by
this big hunk of rock and this big chunk of crushed in stuff and Terwart and I was having rations,
K rations, and 2 new recruits sitting right beside us were having their rations and I got through
and tapped my empty can on top of this boot sticking out. One of the kids over there, one of
the guys said, "Hey, what's that boot doing sticking out there?" I said, "I don't know but it
belongs to somebody." Reached over and grabbed that boot and pulled it off and it was a
damn dead Jap's foot in it about half rotten. Well anyway both of those guys they threw up28
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Misenhimer, Richard & Thomas, Floyd R. Oral History Interview with Floyd R. Thomas, February 18, 2009, text, February 18, 2009; Fredericksburg, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth193889/m1/28/: accessed April 17, 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.