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Navy Corpsman couldn't carry them all out to get them to the ships. I started up there and I don't know what happened, the pilot turned back. That was about as close as I got. Mr. Misenhimer You were on a plane heading there? Mr. Finley Yes. We took off on this plane and got up there somewhere. Why he came back I don't know but he turned back. I guess he got a radio message or something. The only way I can explain having picked up all of these Battle Stars and stuff of that nature was because I was always in a headquarters company in the 4 h Marines and there were Marine Air Groups, they called them MAG's. They went up through 22 or something. I was in about four or five different ones. I was attached to them. When they went out they would get credit for this battle and I would get credit for the battle. But I never knew anything about this until I got back and got ready to go to work at Camp El Centro to finish up my career. The Sergeant pulled out my little black book and he said, "God almighty Finley, you went through hell over there. Look at all those battles." I didn't say anything to him because I wanted to get a good job. I finally ended up tending bar at the NCO Club. That's why I never really formed any friends in the Marines because some of these guys would come back pretty well shot up. They would take them off to the hospital and they
would die; you would never see them again. Some never came back. They were going out on strafing and bombing expeditions and reconnaissance. They were always getting knocked out of the sky. Mr. Misenhimer Did you work on any kinds of planes besides Corsairs?
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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