[The following takes place during the Bougainville Campaign in the Pacific Theatre of World War II.]
A Marine named Dobie Fernandez remembered how terrible it was. The rain had been so heavy, he recalled, it had mutilated the corpses to the point of being unrecognizable. And there was that stench, that nearly unbearable stench.
Bill Faulkner remembered it, too. “when we reached the spot where they were, we found the Japs had driven wooden stakes through their arms, chests, and legs, pinning them to the ground. One of the Marines who came with us to get the bodies had a brother who was one of the dead. It’s tough seeing your brother like that.”
Ira Hayes fought to the end of the battle, quiet as ever, betraying his emotions to no one. But Ira had the screams of dying men in his head now; his hands had held that bayonet with a struggling, writhing human impaled on it. It’s not know if the dreams and memories that haunted him in later life began here. All he would reveal in a letter to his mother from Bougainville was: “I’m okay, thanks to my Lord.”
Source:
Bradley, James, and Ron Powers. “Call of Duty.” Flags of Our Fathers. Bantam Dell, a Division of Random House, Inc., 2006. 87. Print.
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