Our Veterans, Our Stories Podcast

 Laurence “Sliv” Lauer, a United States Marine Corps veteran and one of the few remaining Iwo Jima survivors

0:00:00
(Speaker 3)
Welcome to the Our Veterans, Our Stories podcast with the Hancock County Veterans Service Office. This is where we give our local veterans an opportunity to share their stories with our community and beyond. There is a real brotherhood among all vets, and it would be great to help others to know their stories about serving our country. And it gives us an opportunity to introduce the community to our team at the Hancock County Veterans Service Office, so people can learn a little bit more about what we do and how we can help.

0:00:28
(Speaker 3)
Well, welcome to today’s podcast. Today we have the opportunity to interview Lawrence Lauer, also known as Sliv. It’s kind of an interesting story. Nicole and I were at the office last Friday and then walks this young man, Sliv, and he’s asking if we could help him retrieve some paperwork of his that he needs for some business he’s doing. We were able to help him there and in the process we got to talking to Sliv a little

0:00:57
(Speaker 3)
bit and found out that he’s quite the amazing veteran. So we’re taking this opportunity to hear his story today. How are you doing this morning Sliv?

0:01:06
(Speaker 1)
I’m doing pretty good.

0:01:09
(Speaker 3)
So I mentioned you’re a very accomplished veteran. Tell us a little bit about yourself, and then we’ll get into about your history with the military a little bit.

0:01:21
(Speaker 1)
Well, I was born and raised in Van Buren and grew up with six kids. And I graduated from high school. I played some sports. and then I was drafted in the Marine Corps and that’s about the start of that.

0:01:45
(Speaker 3)
I gotcha. Also with us today is Ron Ammons. Ron is very versed in the history of all types of veterans and veteran things. And he knows Sliv very well, so Ron will be a big help here in our interview with Sliv. So Ron, what do you think of Sliv?

0:02:03
(Speaker 2)
I think he’s a great man. He’s the citizen soldier you always hear about in World War II where you take a guy who steps out of high school and he wants to get a job in the community and he gets drafted and next thing you know he goes from the farm to the battlefield and comes back and becomes a citizen again,

0:02:25
(Speaker 2)
working for Collingwood Motors. And no one around town is a regular guy. But like a lot of those World War II veterans, he’s very humble about it. And his story has really only come out recently. So I’m glad that you, Ed, you and your crew

0:02:39
(Speaker 2)
invited Slib to come in here.

0:02:41
(Speaker 3)
That’s great. So Slib, what made you want to serve your country?

0:02:46
(Speaker 1)
Well, I had two brothers that was in, one in the Navy and then I had a brother that was in the Army. He got wounded over on the French or German border. He had a shell went off and he drove for a foxhole or, you know, Anyway, he got his head and his one arm in and it blasted him and took his leg and his one arm and a big chunk and it had two big gashes in his stomach. And he was taken to a hospital in Italy and they tried to save his leg and they went and

0:03:32
(Speaker 1)
put a cast on it and gangrenes set in so they had to take his leg off, quarter to hip. My mother had two in the service. That’s in fact the reason. I didn’t join. I wanted to join, but my mother said, well, I’ve got two children in here already. So anyway, that’s the way I waited until I was drafted. You were drafted and became a Marine. Yeah, yeah.

0:04:03
(Speaker 3)
Was there a choice?

0:04:04
(Speaker 1)
Why did you choose the Marine Corps? I went up to Toledo from the draft board here. Went up to Toledo, took us up the bus to the armory in Toledo for our physical, and they picked four of us out that they said was the most physically fit. And they put us on a train to Cleveland that night, and I thought I was going to come back home.

0:04:28
(Speaker 1)
And put up in a hotel there, and the next day I was somewhere in the Marine Corps, put in a train, and ended up in San Diego, California. Just like that. Yeah, yeah. And my folks didn’t even know where I was at. That was it, you know.

0:04:52
(Speaker 3)
Oh, wow. How long was it before you had a chance to contact your parents and let them know?

0:04:56
(Speaker 1)
I wrote them a letter afterwards, after I got to San Diego. Uh-huh. I see. Yeah, they didn’t know where I was at.

0:05:05
(Speaker 3)
Wow. So, Sliv, when you found out you were getting drafted and going into the Marine Corps, how old were you at that time?

0:05:13
(Speaker 1)
Eight, just ready to turn 19.

0:05:16
(Speaker 3)
Ready to turn 19. What kind of impact did that have on you, being 18 years old and such a heavyweight?

0:05:23
(Speaker 1)
Everybody knew at the time. When you got out of school, because everybody was going into the service, so you knew what your future was the first couple of years, you know, after you got out of school. Because, you know, anybody that had a warm body was almost drafted, you know. So, you know, I knew right when I was in high school, you know, because, see, I was a sophomore, I believe, when, you know, Pearl Harbor was hit, you know. And so, you know, and then they just started, you know, dressing, of course, you know, like I say, my two brothers, you know, was in and, you know, oh my gosh, you know, everybody, you know, any, every male almost, you know.

0:06:13
(Speaker 1)
In fact, I have a brother that was 19 years older than me, and he even had to sign up. You know, I mean, you know, they were signing, I mean, 45, 48 years old. They was, they was signing them up. In fact, I was in boot camp with a guy that was in his 40s, and the reason they took him was because he was a single guy, didn’t have no family, nobody to care for. So he had no excuse not to go in. It kind of looked funny to see this old guy in with us kids.

0:06:44
(Speaker 1)
I can imagine.

0:06:45
(Speaker 2)
I’ve heard that, maybe Slib, you remember, I’ve heard that in this area back in the 40s, if you were an able-bodied young man seen on the street and you weren’t in uniform, you were kind of looked down upon. I would imagine so. What were you avoiding? I would imagine so.

0:06:59
(Speaker 1)
I would imagine so, yeah. People say, you know, why isn’t he in? My son’s in. Right. Some people had to be deferred, obviously, for critical war jobs. Yeah, right.

0:07:16
(Speaker 3)
So you get in the Marine Corps, and I understand you ended up in a pretty important place in World War II. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?

0:07:25
(Speaker 1)
Well, I can kind of tell you the story through it if you want me to. Yes, that would be terrific. I mean, after I trained on, after my boot camp, I went down to Camp Pendleton and trained down there. And then we got on a ship to San Diego, and we was headed, after we got out from shore,

0:07:46
(Speaker 1)
they told us that we was headed for Guam, because, see, they were still fighting on Guam, so we were supposed to be what they called rear echelon, in other words, you know, Fort Phillies behind. And so, anyway, we got off of Hoya, some place off of Hoya,

0:08:02
(Speaker 1)
and they got radio communications that they didn’t need us. So they dumped us off on the big island there and we went up to a camp, it was a tent camp called Camp Tarawa and we trained up there and then, you know, boarded, got down, boarded ship and went over to Pearl Harbor and sat there until the whole convoy got together. So then we headed out. Of course, nobody told us where we was going because they didn’t tell them anything until we got out away from land. They took us down to the war room there

0:08:42
(Speaker 1)
and had a big old map of Iwo Jima.

0:08:56
(Speaker 3)
So how long was it before you realized the seriousness of where you were at and what

0:09:01
(Speaker 2)
was taking place?

0:09:02
(Speaker 3)
Right away.

0:09:03
(Speaker 11)
Right away? Okay. Yeah.

0:09:04
(Speaker 1)
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. All the ships came in and I can’t remember exactly, I was third, fourth wave, I don’t know, coming in. And already the beach was, you know, all kinds of destruction, you know, of Higgins boats, you know, and equipment, and dead. And the thing about it was, and we, some of the guys coming, Davy Cox from coming in with the Higgins boats, they didn’t want to get too close because they thought they’d get stuck, because they were firing like mad. The Japs, they had a sea road in.

0:09:51
(Speaker 1)
So anyway, but the Coxswain brought it right in on dry land. So we just stepped, they dropped the front of it, we just stepped right off of it. But the one thing, it went in, I suppose, about 25 yards and it went up like this for guys, I don’t know, higher in the ceiling. And, I mean, of course, all the equipment we had on us, you know, double-pack, shovel, with grenades, water canteen and everything. It was all like sand.

0:10:31
(Speaker 1)
You try to climb that. You take one up and slide down two. It took everybody maybe five, six, ten minutes to finally get up on top of that. That’s about 15 feet probably. Yeah, it was.

0:10:50
(Speaker 1)
I mean, everybody was kind of wore out by the time we got up here. Because, you know, to get up on top there. So you get over the cliff there.

0:11:03
(Speaker 3)
We’ll call it a cliff. And so your unit’s in action.

0:11:07
(Speaker 1)
And then there comes a time when there’s something about a flag raising? Yeah, yeah, the one group of Marines went to the north to get Mount Suribachi and we went in about probably a mile and then we turned south and of course we knew beforehand that as soon as they captured Mount Suribachi, which was supposed to have been the first day, that they would put a flag up so we would know that they’d captured it and it would stop that fire.

0:11:50
(Speaker 1)
We were getting fire from both ways. So we waited until the fourth day before it finally, I think it was the 23rd, we landed on the 19th, I think it was the 23rd. And finally we seen the flag go up, and so we were really relieved. And it wasn’t very long, it came back down. And we thought, uh-oh, the Japs has retaken Mount Suribachi.

0:12:24
(Speaker 1)
And so then a little later than the one that was the famous flag, you know, that they that

0:12:29
(Speaker 3)
when it went up, you know, yeah, the famous picture that Slit is talking about, the Iwo Jima picture, it’s it’s with the Marines raising the flag. It’s kind of become a Marine Corps icon. Yeah, very important. You know, and that that island was, if I believe I’m right, it’s like two and a half miles by five miles.

0:12:47
(Speaker 3)
Yeah, very small island. Right, right. And to be, you know, the earth is a big place and to be on that concentrated small place during such an important event, yeah, I mean

0:12:58
(Speaker 1)
that’s that’s really something. Yeah, I got after I got home, I was home for four years, as I was telling Ron, and well he’s seen my book, you know, and the Marine Corps sent me a, you know, it’s like a big geographer, you know, has the whole battle, has everybody that was in the 5th Marine Division, and then it has all the listed to kill and all the listed that was wounded on there. Speaking of wounded, I understand that you were wounded.

0:13:28
(Speaker 1)
Yeah. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that? And, I mean, see, there wasn’t a building on the island. And, you know, I mean, see, they bombed that. You know, the B-29s bombed that, they said, for a month beforehand. Of course, you know, they knocked all the jacks that were, you know, they wouldn’t, you know,

0:13:53
(Speaker 1)
Mount Suribachi, they said, was just nothing but caves and, you know, elevators in it, you know, and, of course, caves all, you know, all through the island. And we would stoop over to get ahead, and then we’d crawl on our bellies, you know, because it was all out in the open, both of them. And of course, they had all the pillboxes, especially where that cliff was. I mean, they had that thing just loaded with pillboxes.

0:14:22
(Speaker 1)
But anyway, so we crossed. There were three airports on the island, and that was the idea of the reason they wanted that island was because the B-29s and the B-24s that was coming from Saipan and Guam, from Henderson Field, that was bombing Japan, a lot of them, the gas tanks were shot or an engine was shot or whatever, and they couldn’t get back. They just landed in the ocean. And so being there was two completed airports, well, they

0:14:53
(Speaker 1)
were just runways, you know, they were, you know, nothing fancy, that’s for sure. But anyway, that was so that they could land, you know, come in and at least have a safe I went across the airports and, like I was saying, we got down to where I could see the ocean. We had them kind of pinned down in the corner. And what they was doing, they was, as, you know, as they pinched in, well, they would

0:15:30
(Speaker 1)
relieve a company. And so the one company that was beside me, I was the end guy, and the company beside me went and pulled back too soon. So we had a gap in the line. So the sergeant said, he said, you know, we’ve got to make contact with that other outfit over there.

0:15:52
(Speaker 1)
And I could see them away in the distance. And so I told the guys, well, there was some recruits that had come off the ship as backup, you know, that, you know, just, you know, scared to death, you know, well, of course, I was too, but, you know, and so I told them, you know, where I was going, you know, and I said, you know, if I don’t come back, you know, notify the sergeant, you know, so, you know, they can come looking for me.

0:16:20
(Speaker 1)
And so I went across the, towards them, and I seen two guys in a ravine there. And so I went and started up that ravine and I got hit. And luckily of course the corpsman was with the Marines, the Navy Corpsman. And I fell right in the Navy Corpsman’s lap almost. And so I just turned around

0:16:48
(Speaker 1)
and here come another Marine that was probably their outfit, that had a mortar holder in his hand. And I turned around with a tripod, and I turned around, and I said, you just got hit there, and wham, his mortar dropped. And he got hit in the arm here and dropped the mortar. So, yeah, so I laid there and of course that corpsman, you know, he tore my pants down,

0:17:18
(Speaker 1)
you know, and you carry a patch, you know, your own kit with you, you know. And so they got that patch and put the sulfide or whatever it is on the wound and then put that patch on. after dark. And when they come up and there was four guys that come up after me in the stretcher, but there was only three got there. And the one, I don’t know what happened, but there was something that he had to go back to, you know. And so they loaded me up and

0:17:53
(Speaker 1)
battalion aid station, it was just a big tent. And of course, see, they lit that island at night, you know, flares, you know, they’d try to die down before another batch went up. And so that’s when they’d run with me, you know, and when them flares were gone, they’d drop me. So anyway, that’s, yeah.

0:18:18
(Speaker 1)
Ron, you had mentioned that Sliv brought a few things with him today. Yeah, this.25 caliber Japanese sniper bullet that hit him had to pass through a couple

0:18:28
(Speaker 2)
of items to get to Sliv. And he brought a little address book. The bullet went through that, the bullet went through his canteen, and a wad of money. Sliv’s got an interesting story. There’s the address book. You want to hold that up?

0:18:42
(Speaker 1)
You can see right where the bullet went through that book. I’ll let you hold that up.

0:18:46
(Speaker 2)
You can see right where the bullet passed through that book.

0:18:49
(Speaker 3)
That was an address book, huh?

0:18:51
(Speaker 1)
That was an address book. It was.

0:18:53
(Speaker 2)
With money wrapped around it.

0:18:55
(Speaker 3)
It went through the money too.

0:18:58
(Speaker 1)
And my canteen, and then I threw a bunch of that stuff in my canteen. In my head. I’ve got five pieces of it now. So you’ve still got part of the canteen. Yeah, I’ve got five pieces. He’s got a U.S. issue in his body. A little funny story on that.

0:19:23
(Speaker 1)
A couple years ago, my back still kills me. So my boy said, Dad, you ought to go to the chiropractor. So I said, okay. So I went to Kirk. He knew him real well. And he said, I’m going to call him,

0:19:42
(Speaker 1)
and I want him to work on you. So anyway, I went, and Jim went with me. And so they took x-rays of my hip. And so when he got them made, he put them on his iPad or whatever it was. And he said, what’s that?

0:20:03
(Speaker 1)
And so I said, well, I can tell you what it is. And that about blew my son’s mind. And Kirk said he was telling every patient after that about that.

0:20:18
(Speaker 2)
What about that money that you had, Slub? You had some of your own money, didn’t you?

0:20:23
(Speaker 1)
Yeah, I had money wrapped around it and I was telling Ron, I said, that’s the one thing I wish that I’d done was kept that. But back then, I mean, a dollar was a dollar, you know, and I had a buddy that was over there. And like I say, I mean, for some reason, the billfolds were just, you know, disintegrating over there. I don’t know whether that was from the sulfur or what, you know. But anyway, so he handed me, he said,

0:20:53
(Speaker 1)
here, Sliv, take this and wrap it around your address book. And he said, with your money. And he said, if you get killed, I’ll take it, and if I get killed, you can have it. So anyway, when I came back, and see, when you was paid over there in Hawaii,

0:21:17
(Speaker 1)
all your money had Hawaii written on it. In light sweatshirt had Hawaii, you know, it was printed in Hawaii. And so, I had that on that. Well, I’ve got the address book. I mean, it’s a memento.

0:21:32
(Speaker 1)
And so I decided, you know, I’d go up to bank and cash that in. And I did. And I wished I hadn’t of now, but I did.

0:21:43
(Speaker 10)
He’s got his dog tags there.

0:21:44
(Speaker 1)
Oh yeah, there’s my dog tags.

0:21:46
(Speaker 5)
Look at that.

0:21:47
(Speaker 1)
951-892.

0:21:49
(Speaker 3)
Oh, look at that. That’s something.

0:21:53
(Speaker 2)
80 years ago on Iwo Jima, there they were.

0:21:56
(Speaker 9)
Wow.

0:21:57
(Speaker 2)
On a 19-year-old GI Marine.

0:22:01
(Speaker 1)
And I said something to them, you know, what that, you know, what that, what them. Upside down, yep. Yeah. There we go, yeah.

0:22:13
(Speaker 3)
You know what that is?

0:22:14
(Speaker 1)
Explain to me what that is. Okay. You know, when we got discharged, you know, the MPs and the shore police, the Navy shore police, they would be in bus stations and train stations, and if you didn’t have your papers on you, you know, I mean, you know, they, you know, I mean, they, you know, take you away, you know, and I mean, it got to be such a hassle that they decided, you know, that especially,

0:22:38
(Speaker 1)
see, everybody was coming home at the same time. See, the trains were just full of, you know, of, you know, military personnel and so it was too much of a hassle for them, you know, to check everybody out. So the government just went and issued these and you just put it on your uniform. And once they seen that, they knew you had your papers and you were on your way home. The ruptured duck, right?

0:23:03
(Speaker 1)
The ruptured duck.

0:23:04
(Speaker 3)
That’s what that’s called?

0:23:05
(Speaker 1)
Yup, ruptured duck. That’s what they call it, the ruptured duck.

0:23:08
(Speaker 3)
Okay, so speaking of coming back through Hawaii and coming back home, then what kind of turns to your life?

0:23:16
(Speaker 1)
Well, after I was wounded, I went and the next day, they put me on a C-47, just an open hull, and they had bars out, and they were just hooking stretchers on that. And they threw me back to Henderson Air Force Base in Guam and I went into what they thought. I said I didn’t know even though the Army was around there but an Army hospital. It was a big long Army tent, you know, just a canvas flooring. And so I was there and I think for maybe a month or so and my wounds, the reason it took so long, they wouldn’t close it because there was so much crap in there.

0:24:04
(Speaker 1)
And about once a week, I’d have to go down and they’d have a long swab with cotton on it and they would dip it in blood plasma. And they’d go in there and they’d work some of that stuff out of there. And so then I went on a troop ship then from Guam back to IE Heights overlooking Pearl Harbor. And they put us in officer’s quarters and made them get down there with the peons, you know.

0:24:39
(Speaker 1)
And they didn’t like that very well. But anyway, so then I was in the hospital in IE Heights overlooking Ford Island and Pearl Harbor. And then I went back to, went another ship back to San Diego, or San Francisco. And I was in San Francisco in a hospital there

0:24:59
(Speaker 1)
just long enough, I think it was five, six days, that they got a hospital train together and we had to own porters and everything. And we went crew across on train to Portsmouth, Virginia. And I think it took us, I think, four days, because we pulled off on the siding,

0:25:21
(Speaker 1)
because the war was still on, you know. And we pulled off on the siding to lead every freight train as it was to go by, you know, because they were hauling war material. And so we got back there and went into a Confederate hospital that still had Lee’s picture and a bunch of generals,

0:25:42
(Speaker 1)
you know generals all in the walls. So yeah, so then I was there and so then I mean I was I was pretty much healed then you know and I think they didn’t know what to do with me so you know I come home on what they called an overseas leave of 30 days. Well first I come home on what they call convalescent leave, and then went back, and then I come home on an overseas leave, so that was 60 days. And then I went back to the Navy Yard in Philadelphia, and I think it was a short three days,

0:26:16
(Speaker 1)
and they took us downtown and rode us up for our discharge. So then I come home.

0:26:21
(Speaker 3)
I see. So you get back home, and do you immediately end up back in Finley?

0:26:27
(Speaker 1)
Yeah, yeah.

0:26:28
(Speaker 7)
You’re right back in Finley?

0:26:29
(Speaker 8)
Yeah, uh-huh.

0:26:30
(Speaker 1)
And just take off where you left off. Yeah, I just took off. Got a girlfriend, got married, and had a couple kids. Went to work at Seal Deffield Motor Company, and I worked there 34 years.

0:26:45
(Speaker 3)
As a mechanic, right?

0:26:46
(Speaker 1)
As a mechanic. And worked on Chrysler’s. And then in 1981, he was retiring, so he sold the place. So I went out to where Chrysler is now, although Mack Clevenger had it then.

0:27:04
(Speaker 1)
And I worked for Mack for, I don’t know, two or three years until I retired. So that’s about the life of my story. He was an avid golfer up until very recently. Yeah. Very happy as a golfer.

0:27:19
(Speaker 3)
Yeah. What was your best club or what was your putt in the best?

0:27:22
(Speaker 1)
Driving, what was the best part of your game? I was just an average duffer, you know. There was four guys we played for years together, the same four guys, and I got to be 96 years old. I rode the cart the last three years. I walked all before that. I rode the cart the last three years.

0:27:46
(Speaker 1)
About the last couple of months, I think I was playing terrible. Normally, these guys were about 21, 22 years younger than I was. I could keep up with them, but they beat me a couple, three strokes. And so anyway, I got decided, you know, I’m done. So I never said anything to them. And it was September 15th, and I was 96.

0:28:14
(Speaker 1)
And I went and we got off at number 9 Green, and I said, Well, fellas, that’s it. And they said, What do you mean? And I said, I’m done. Oh, hell, you’ll be back. I said, No, I’m done.

0:28:26
(Speaker 1)
And I was. That was it.

0:28:28
(Speaker 3)
That was it. Yeah. So you mentioned you were 96 then. You’re 98 now. 98. So going back to the story of how we met, you coming into the office, you know, and I seen you, you were talking and you had introduced yourself and said, I’m 98 and I’m looking for some help retrieving some of my paperwork. And first of all I thought, well you’re in great shape, you look wonderful for 98, getting around real well. So had you ever been to our office prior to that? No, I never had been. You never had been. No. Yeah, so Nicole was able to help you out that day with what you needed.

0:29:04
(Speaker 3)
I hope she was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we were wondering, had you thought about all of those years that since you came back and started your civilian life as a mechanic, had you ever considered visiting the Hancock County Veterans Service Office?

0:29:20
(Speaker 1)
No.

0:29:21
(Speaker 3)
Because there’s so many things out there and we’d like to get you back in there to let you know a lot of things that you’ve earned and that you’re eligible for. Well, if nothing else, we’d like to get in there and talk with you. We enjoy talking with you and hearing your stories. Every discussion I’m sure will lead to more things. Yeah.

0:29:42
(Speaker 2)
Did we miss anything, Ron? I don’t know. The members of the greatest generation, that’s the way they are. You have to pry them into telling you what they need in a lot of cases. That’s what I’ve found anyway. Sliv is certainly a member that holds up his end of that generation.

0:29:58
(Speaker 2)
Yep. I appreciate Ron.

0:30:01
(Speaker 1)
He’s a great guy.

0:30:03
(Speaker 2)
My dad was exactly the same age as him.

0:30:05
(Speaker 1)
Yeah, and I couldn’t believe his dad’s story. I knew that he was, you know, through France and all, you know, and what Ron had been through and all. But when he was telling me here yesterday, I mean, my gosh, he said his dad was in the front lines the longest of any, what, 272 days. 272 days he was in action.

0:30:29
(Speaker 1)
That’s a lot. Ended up all through France and through Germany and what, then ended up in Czechoslovakia. Ended up in Czechoslovakia. And then I saw the memoir, and it included your… So you can imagine, I mean, what he’d done compared to what little bit I’d done, you know. Oh boy.

0:30:44
(Speaker 3)
Oh, wow.

0:30:45
(Speaker 2)
You took the bullet, though, Slib.

0:30:46
(Speaker 1)
Mm-hmm.

0:30:47
(Speaker 2)
I did want to say something to you, if it’s okay, Ed. Nicole gave me that memoir that has your uncle Glenn Ball in there.

0:30:54
(Speaker 3)
Oh, my grandpa.

0:30:55
(Speaker 2)
Your grandfather, I’m sorry.

0:30:56
(Speaker 1)
Yeah, yeah. And I told you before here that I recognize the names of all those towns that Glenn was

0:31:03
(Speaker 2)
in in that small period of time, and same experiences. And your grandfather was killed

0:31:11
(Speaker 3)
in France.

0:31:12
(Speaker 2)
He was taken POW and a number of days later he was strafed by our own planes.

0:31:19
(Speaker 1)
Yeah, if there’s anything you ever want to know about anybody that was in service for Manhattan County, this guy knows everybody. We was talking yesterday and I was telling him about a kid, a buddy that I went through school with, we were good friends, Corps and he got shot down going bombing Germany. And so Ron, he knew all about it. I mean, he knew who everybody was. I have to appreciate your history.

0:31:50
(Speaker 2)
I know you’re interviewing two Marines after this. And I was reminded that General Vandegrift at Ibojima said, the flag raising ensures that we will have a Marine Corps for the next 500 years. Absolutely. That is an awesome statement. But the number of people remaining alive that saw that flag raising has to be minimal.

0:32:11
(Speaker 2)
Very minimal.

0:32:12
(Speaker 1)
Minimal number.

0:32:13
(Speaker 2)
So he is a piece of living history. Sliv is.

0:32:15
(Speaker 3)
Absolutely. It’s definitely an honor to interact and speak with you and hear your story.

0:32:23
(Speaker 1)
Just an average Joe.

0:32:25
(Speaker 3)
I would say you’re a little bit better than an average Joe. You’re above average Joe. So Sliv, what advice would you give to young Marines today or even young people that are considering wanting to join the service in general?

0:32:38
(Speaker 1)
Well, I would just think of the United States democracy, you know, and try to bring it back where it used to be.

0:32:50
(Speaker 3)
I see, yeah.

0:32:51
(Speaker 1)
I mean, you know, we’re tearing ourselves apart. And I’m just afraid that one of these days we’re going to be an authoritarian. I mean, we’re not going to have democracy the way people’s thinking is now. I mean, I just hope the young people will realize what is going on and try to do something about it.

0:33:21
(Speaker 1)
Thank you for that advice.

0:33:23
(Speaker 3)
So Sliv, the day of the flag raising there on Iwo Jima that you were there, do you remember about how many troops were on ground at that time during the flag raising?

0:33:34
(Speaker 1)
You mean over the whole island?

0:33:36
(Speaker 3)
Yeah, I would say, or even in the vicinity.

0:33:39
(Speaker 1)
Well, I mean, I think I put, I was looking at my paper this morning in my book, and it said unit strength was 23,141, and there was total casualties was 8,770. That was killed and wounded. Gotcha. So it was around, some place around 40 percent, you know, which was the casualty rate.

0:34:09
(Speaker 3)
Do you have any insight on this?

0:34:11
(Speaker 2)
This is on a four mile square island.

0:34:14
(Speaker 1)
All these deaths. Two and a half miles of narrow spartan, five miles. That was one of the highest death rates I think the Marine Corps had had in one area. It was so concentrated. You know, and Sliv, this is interesting, he said he went in in the third or fourth wave or General Kurobayashi the Japanese general was allowing us to land. Yeah, so they would bunch up right and it was exactly his plan, right?

0:34:36
(Speaker 1)
Yeah. Oh, yeah Quiet as to be you know this to be is you know after they started landing and all of a sudden all hell broke loose You know, I mean, yeah Our guys were bunched up some terrible. Yeah, I think he committed carry, harry, carry at the other end of the island. Him and a bunch of them.

0:34:56
(Speaker 2)
You would have been in on that slip if you hadn’t been hit.

0:34:58
(Speaker 7)
Yeah, yeah.

0:34:59
(Speaker 1)
You know, I mean, they was down, you know, they would put it on a string on a rock and put it down in a hole. Or if there was a piece of tree that still had been blown apart, they would take a rope and tie the necks down, the two necks apart, and would hang it over that. As they were retreating, And I think that’s sometimes, you know, they like to fight at night, you know. And you could hear them coming at night, you know. And I think they get all buzzed up, you know, and that was the idea of it.

0:35:46
(Speaker 1)
Sure.

0:35:47
(Speaker 2)
And I think there were almost 20,000 Japanese defenders, and we captured 200 of them. The rest were all killed. Which is incredible. And three of the guys held out for another… There were three Japanese on that island for 10 years. Yeah, I know.

0:36:02
(Speaker 1)
Hiding.

0:36:02
(Speaker 2)
Yeah.

0:36:03
(Speaker 1)
And the same thing on Guam. I think Guam, I think it was about 13 years later before the last one gave up. Amazing. That’s dedication. That’s the enemy we were up against.

0:36:12
(Speaker 2)
They were diehards. Oh, yeah. But our Marines were just a little better than they were, as always.

0:36:19
(Speaker 1)
Good experience.

0:36:20
(Speaker 2)
And I’m glad I done it, but I wouldn’t want to do it again. Yeah, the number of World War II veterans is down to like, out of the 13 million that served, it’s down to about, well you would know, it’s probably one and a half percent. Is that right? So to find a World War II veteran now is hard to do. That’s when you’ve got to soak them for information, because that first hand information is about

0:36:48
(Speaker 2)
gone. And wouldn’t you say Sliv has a pretty sharp memory? I mean, this guy is as sharp as anybody my age. Better looking, too.

0:36:56
(Speaker 1)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s one thing. I go out there, I’m taking chemotherapy now, and one gal gives a blood test every time I go out there, and she’ll say, you know, are you today? And I said, I’m pretty good. I said, No, I’m good, but I’m not pretty.

0:37:18
(Speaker 2)
Ron, tell me about this hat you got on General Patton’s Third Army. Let me say this. My dad was the same age Sliv was graduated the same year 1943. But my dad ended up on the other side of the planet in Europe with General Patton. And people love to say their father fought with General Patton. Well, Patton, essentially, by the end of World War II, had led probably 400,000 men into battle.

0:37:47
(Speaker 2)
The Seventh Army in the Mediterranean and the Third Army in Europe. My dad fought in Europe for 11 months. But I’m proud to say that Dad served. This was my dad’s first boss, was General Patton. Dad saw Patton a couple times in battle, just running by asking. One time he stopped and asked one of Dad’s buddies for directions.

0:38:07
(Speaker 2)
He was always racing up front with his Jeep. But that’s why I brought up about your grandpa, Glenn, because here’s Slib fighting in the Pacific, and we have a number of guys still in Europe, even in 1945. And there were more casualties in 1945 than any other year of the war. I still can’t believe that. We lost a number of men from this county in 1945 and Sliv could have been one of them, but he wasn’t. But that’s the story behind this hat. I just wanted to promote the Third Army a little bit. General Patton.

0:38:39
(Speaker 2)
Yeah, but my gosh, for your dad to go all through France and Germany and into Czechoslovakia and and not get hit. I mean you told me what his original company, 161 men, something like that, there’s only two that wouldn’t get hit. Only two guys out of my dad’s original company didn’t get at least hit. You know, 20% fatality and the rest were hit some two times, some three times. One guy was hit four times. His lieutenant, when they were carrying him back, he said, they can take this foreign stick and I’ve had it. You’ll never see me up here again. So what did he do? He joined the army for another 30 years. I would have

0:39:17
(Speaker 2)
loved to have met that guy. That’s my kind of G.I.

0:39:22
(Speaker 3)
Well Ron, you mentioned your dad’s experience in service. So you have an interest in the World War II and Korean eras. Can you tell me a bit about that?

0:39:32
(Speaker 2)
The reason being, I’m 66 years old. Baby boomers, you know, all the people born after World War II through the mid-60s, it seems like everybody I knew, their father had either served in World War II or Korea. Everybody’s father. Some of them others, too. And I just, my dad was a history teacher, I was interested in that, and as it got into the 90s, realizing that these veterans were aging, I decided to start interviewing them

0:39:56
(Speaker 2)
and capturing their stories. So I interviewed about 60 World War II veterans. It took me 10 years to get all these stories written. And I took them down to the museum, and they printed those, and they can be purchased at the museum. I didn’t do it as a money-making enterprise.

0:40:11
(Speaker 2)
I just wanted to save the history. And then they did a second volume. So there are probably 100 World War II stories that are preserved of local guys at the local museum. And then they had the idea of interviewing Korean vets. So that’s the next generation.

0:40:26
(Speaker 2)
Those guys were a little bit younger. All of a sudden, the youngest Korean vets are 90.

0:40:29
(Speaker 1)
Yeah.

0:40:30
(Speaker 2)
So we interviewed about 40 of those Korean War veterans,

0:40:33
(Speaker 1)
and their stories are really amazing, too. Oh, well, yeah, they had a tough time, I’ll tell you.

0:40:37
(Speaker 2)
That’s a tough time.

0:40:38
(Speaker 1)
Weather, as much as anything. Yep, absolutely.

0:40:41
(Speaker 2)
The name of that book is Ice and Fire.

0:40:43
(Speaker 1)
Yeah.

0:40:44
(Speaker 2)
The Heat of the Winter, the Freezing Cold. And we tried to highlight that. You’ve got two Marines that you’re going to interview after this, and they face their own hell. Every war, there’s nothing pretty anywhere, and nothing clean, and nothing that makes sense.

0:40:59
(Speaker 2)
When a guy like Sliv comes back, or my dad comes back and tries to make sense of real life again, that’s what I found from these veterans. You’re a veteran also. I mean, when you’re back in the world, you’ve got a different set of eyes, don’t you?

0:41:13
(Speaker 3)
Absolutely. And we’re so glad you interviewed all those World War II vets and Korean vets. And I’m going to go check some of those out.

0:41:22
(Speaker 6)
Yeah.

0:41:22
(Speaker 2)
That would be great.

0:41:23
(Speaker 3)
Especially since we’ve got our story walk coming up. We’re doing four signs this year. Next year, our next four are beginning with the Vietnam War. So we’re going to put some firsthand accounts. And I think maybe some of those interviews that you have

0:41:37
(Speaker 2)
could play into that. Absolutely.

0:41:38
(Speaker 3)
Yeah, so. But yeah, thank you for people like you that go that extra mile to interview the veterans and get their stories out there.

0:41:46
(Speaker 2)
They’re intriguing. And you get the other stories off of them. You get the Van Buren basketball and football stories. You got a guy that’s 6 foot 2, 140 pounds, is playing defensive end on the football team. I’m like, what world was that, Slev?

0:42:00
(Speaker 2)
He’s got some great sports stories and some stories from the community, too. Obviously, here I am, a non-veteran who admires veterans, sitting with two veterans. And Ed, you told us a little bit about your story, training drill instructors.

0:42:12
(Speaker 2)
I would love to hear something more about that.

0:42:14
(Speaker 3)
Well, training with, initially I started out as a mechanic, then a driver, was in Iraq for 03, 04, 05, 06 as a fuel hauler, jet fuel. And when I came back from that, I got into the training realm, and I was attached to what they call the dirt trainers in the Army. We work at mob sites for any reservists and people that are mobbing up to go to war zones,

0:42:39
(Speaker 3)
and we’d train them for about three months, get them proficient in all their tasks and sign off that this group’s ready to go to a war zone. So I got to meet and train some very important people. And then after that, I got into a drill sergeant company in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and I was their training NCO. So, I trained with the drill sergeants and set up a lot of the training,

0:43:03
(Speaker 3)
the ranges, the logistics, some things like that, some of the courses that they were taking. I would put normal sergeants, staff sergeants, sergeant first class, get them into the Drill Sergeant Academy and back. And yeah, I would coordinate the training at Fort Sill, Fort Knox, some at Fort Hood, some here locally in Indiana and Ohio. But yeah, it was an honor to be able to train troops and ensure that they were efficient and proficient enough to go to war zones around the world.

0:43:34
(Speaker 2)
So, yeah. So you really had an impact with these guys who are going off to their fields of their their theaters of war and training their troops and yeah you always meet those people and you wonder you always wonder because you sometimes they mow they mow back through your your station or not you always wonder wonder how that group did you know this or that sure yeah I’m sure they did well Ed I’m sure they did well in the short time

0:43:56
(Speaker 2)
that I’ve heard that your grandfather, Glenn Ball, was in the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which was, you know, everybody’s seen the Band of Brothers and know about the paratroopers, so what about Glenn?

0:44:19
(Speaker 3)
Yeah, he was in the thick of all that. He was on Chalk 31, and his jump number was 13, so he was 31-13, right? My mother, growing up her whole life, she had thought that, she had been told that her dad never hit the ground, was killed on his way down. In 2004 or 2005, I can’t remember exactly, she was at home and the phone rang and she picked it up and the guy on the other end said, is this Glenda? And she says, yes it is.

0:44:49
(Speaker 3)
And the guy says, I’ve been looking for you for 60 years. Well, I started all that out because that guy on the other end of the line was with my grandpa in the same company and everything, and he was in the middle of writing a book. And so my mom got to meet him, and then they went down to Fort Benning for the 507th reunion and met a lot of other guys that were with grandpa and got to learn the whole story. And it’s just amazing how reaching out and kind of like you do,

0:45:15
(Speaker 3)
Ron, getting the veterans’ stories and sharing them, making other families aware of what exactly happened to their veterans or loved ones. Yeah, it’s really important.

0:45:27
(Speaker 2)
I’m glad to hear you know the details. I am big on if you have a relative who was in the military, know what branch they were in. Know what unit they were in. Know what their rank was. Don’t just, well, yeah, I think he was Navy,

0:45:40
(Speaker 2)
I think he was Army. No specifics, it’s important. Don’t you think Ed? Absolutely. I always thought of it, my grandpa passed away when he was 19 and I joined, I signed up when I was 19, so I always

0:45:53
(Speaker 1)
figured it as I’m continuing on. Yeah, you’re just continuation. Yeah, yeah, sounds good. I like that.

0:46:00
(Speaker 2)
Well Sled, we’ve heard from Ed, and we have a couple of young Marines here. What else would you have to say to the younger generations trailing? You spoke earlier about addressing other Marines. What about young people in general, or thinking about military careers, or being in the military part of their life?

0:46:17
(Speaker 1)
Well, I mean, it’ll make a man out of everybody. I mean, it gets into the service. I mean, you know, it’ll make or break you. I would highly recommend them. In fact, everybody ought to have a little bit of discipline and training, and that would be a heck of a good way to do it.

0:46:43
(Speaker 1)
And I can imagine. And when you come out, it makes a better person out of you. That’s the main thing. I mean, you know, when you went through, you know, some of this, then you realize, you know, I mean, you know, what life’s all about, you know, and what your role in it is. Yeah.

0:47:01
(Speaker 2)
That’s great. You know, my wife’s uncle was in the Army, and his wife was a Marine officer. That was an organized house. Mother’s a Marine officer.

0:47:13
(Speaker 6)
Oh, absolutely.

0:47:14
(Speaker 1)
I’ll bet you.

0:47:15
(Speaker 5)
Dad was a grunt.

0:47:15
(Speaker 1)
Yeah.

0:47:16
(Speaker 2)
So she outranked him, for one thing. Both World War II veterans. And they were on it in that house.

0:47:23
(Speaker 3)
Well, OK. Again, Ron, thank you very much for all you do. And thank you for sitting on this podcast and sharing some of your stories and information. And it’s much appreciated, not only here today, but within the veteran community and the Hancock County

0:47:37
(Speaker 3)
community. And we all appreciate what you do.

0:47:39
(Speaker 2)
Well thank you for your service Ed.

0:47:41
(Speaker 3)
Yep. And Sliv, thank you very much from the bottom of our heart here and as American people.

0:47:48
(Speaker 1)
Okay, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

0:47:52
(Speaker 3)
Appreciate it. Well thank you for visiting us today and for more stories just like this, please visit our podcast series, Our Veterans, Our Stories. our podcast series, Our Veterans, Our Stories.