The Howard Hansen Story of WW2

colonel. The doctor was just a major, which is high enough if you're a doctor. So

we took the water up there and they moved us back down by the airport to get us

well again. Of course we had atropine then. We didn't have quinine; they gave us

atropine for malaria.

We went back up to the hills to the jungle. Picked out a spot. In fact, I was a

private in charge of the squad and I had 2 PFC's under me, can you imagine that?

And our corporal squad leader, his name was Wyatt, he was scared to get in combat

of any kind, and he always had ulcers. When we'd get ready to get on the front line,

he'd get ulcers, so the lieutenant, he joined us before we hit. We didn't know him

before; name was Logi. He put me in charge of the squad. Well, we had a front line

along the edge of the hill - grass, jungle below that - and they put my squad down

off that, from the Company C front line. C. P. about 100 yards down that hillside

and that's where another Cossack post was, in case the Japs hit, we'd fire on them

and let the rest know what was going on. We get down there, the darned ground

is rocky and hard, course, there were no Japs hitting us during the day, but I heard

a 'pooom' away off; blasted a big gun, sounded like a light 'pooom'. I said, "Hey,

Fellas, better start digging fox holes." "What do you mean?" I said, "Got one coming

this way", and you know, 'schwoo-schwoo-schwoo-schwoo' right over us about a 100

yards, one of the big shells. We were digging down - hard digging - we had it about

a foot deep and a corporal by the name of Mulany, he was down there just visiting

a bit from Co. C. "Hansen", he said, "Another one comes and I'm going to jump in

your fox hole." So he starts digging, too. All at once I hear that 'pooom'. I said,

"Here comes another one." We got down a little deeper by the time that one came

and he jumped down in my fox hole first! I jumped down on top of him and it didn't

leave me much cover, but a little. And I hear that 'schwoo-schwoo-schwoo-schwoo'

slowed down as it came, and I said, "My God, Mulaney, that sucker is going to land

right in here with us!" He was just a praying, "Oh, my God! Hansen, don't say that!

Don't say that!" I said, "You'd better hang tight." [Laughter] But you know, that

thing lit about thirty feet up above us. I had a poncho in case it rains and that. It's

a flat deal and you stick your head through the center of it. They call it ponchos.

I had it flattened out on the grass to dry it out from the night before: dew at night,

or it might have rained - can't remember - it was wet. Anyway, some guy said "Boy!

That was close!" I said, "You bet it was close. That's getting too close!" and he said,

"What if we get a concussion?" I said, "Look at my poncho", it was full of holes,

"That's hard concussion." I was lucky I wasn't in that poncho. They fired several of

them and didn't hit nobody and then my good buddy, Picklesimer, he lived in Grande

Ronde, he and I were real good buddies, he was from Oregon. He had another real

good buddy. His name was Bishazer; short, husky Frenchman. He was a real good

boxer. Bishazer came around giving the pass word that night and he came down and

talked to me quite a while. I said, "Larry, get your butt up there to the other two

platoons and give them that pass word. It's just about dark; you'd better get your

butt up to company C. P." "Oh, yeah, I'm not worried." I said, "You'd better be.

You don't walk around after dark." You know, he went to the other two platoons

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and gave them the pass word, then right above us 100 yards or so, I heard a guy

say, "What's the pass word?" BAM! We had a corporal, he was in the company C. P.

He did barbering in the rest areas. He was a barber, but he was a marine. He got

paid for doing that on the side. He was so scared -- he seen Bishazer, "What's the

pass word?" and he shot him right through the liver and killed him. Boy, I'll tell you

they got that guy out of there cause some of the guys would have killed him.

One guy in our outfit named Strayhand, he was a little fellow, and he shirked any

kind of patrol. I volunteered for every patrol and the head of the line. The guys

that knew me would always volunteer with me. Like when Bishazer got killed, they

wanted somebody - a squad to go down to the jungle and scout it out around. There

was a lot of jungle out there, so I volunteered. They wanted five or six more; I got

enough. We get down in there, boy! I mean that jungle was bad! Viney in these

places you could hardly get through. We had to make a lot of noise. We got down

to a creek bed, of course, it was dry then (there was no water unless it rained awful

hard which it does at times). There was no water in it. There was one Jap down

there; he had malaria and one of the guys shot him - came upon him and shot him

to kill. You don't say "surrender"; they don't speak English. They absolutely

wouldn't surrender anyway. No more problems, but one of the guys said, "How

come, Swede, (they called me Swede) you volunteer for the patrols?" I said, "Well,

use your head. The Japs are out there as you know; we've just seen one and there's

others. They're sneaking around. They're not going to shoot us cause they'd give

their position away. If they shoot even one round, they'll have all our artillery

coming like flocks of geese through the air. They know that. The safest place is

right here scouting them out." Well, they argued with me, I guess because they

would not volunteer. This one, Strayhand, he was never going to volunteer for a

patrol, and on the last patrol on Guadalcanal, we had a company patrol. The whole

company went--string of files going over the hill and he was the last one in that

whole company. 180 men, or whatever it was. Of course, there wasn't that many

left; well over a hundred, and he was the last one down at the end. He thought it

would be the safest place, and a sniper got him. Shot him right in the heart. Like

I always told him, "Don't shirk your duty. You gotta do your duty." We're going to

have to get off Guadalcanal pretty quick, now. I'm tired of that island.

M: You were on there how long?

H: Seven months.

M: And you had malaria for most of that?

H: No. Not most. Two or three times while I was there. The drug healed it up. One

time on Guadalcanal, when 60% of the company had it, and they took us back to a

rest area (bunch of tents) the Army was in there. They had a sick bay. I really had

a high fever; was in this sick bay tent and I had to get up to go to the latrine. I got