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fifth." I said, "I'm not interested." One souvenir that I got from Iwo, they issued 17 jewel Hamilton watches when they went in to invade. They had to have these people synchronized so they would get there at the same time and not get shot or bombed by somebody else. The guy had this watch and he said, "What will you give me for the watch?" I said, "Where did you get that?" He told me. He said, "Look, it doesn't have a number on the back." It didn't have a number on the back so they couldn't trace it anyway. He said, "I'll give that to you for a couple of necklaces." So I jumped at the chance. Then my friend Gibson got busy and he would make watch bands and arm bands and wrist bands. So he made me a nice one. I've still got the watch with a wrist band that he made. That was quite a deal. Gibson used to even take the plastic liners from the gas tanks that the Corsairs carried their gas in and he would make those up into wallets and we would sell those. We had a lot of stuff for sale. We made quite a little bit of money on this stuff. When I got sent home I was just in the mood to buy a jeep so we could cover more territory faster, but that never did materialize. Mr. Misenhimer Tell me about working on the radar on the Corsairs. Where was that? Mr. Finley That was just the doggone screen might get shot up and you would go in and install a new
screen so they could pick up that signal. Then if a piece of the gear maybe, some of the electronic gear would get blown. If it was so damaged that you couldn't repair it they would authorize you to just take it and install a whole new unit. It was sort of complicated. That's why they sent us to school I guess.
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Albert Finley. Finley joined the Marine Corps around December of 1943. He provides vivid details of his boot camp experiences. He served with Headquarters Company, 4th Marines, as a radar mechanic on Corsairs, repairing radio and radar gear. Beginning in September of 1944 they traveled to Guam, Kwajalein, Pearl Harbor and Majuro in the Marshall Islands. Finley shares a number of anecdotal stories, including working with POWs. He was discharged in the fall of 1946.
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