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ended. You would wake up in a real happy state and still the thing was going on. We just couldn't believe it when they announced over the PA system that the war had ended and they had dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. That was really something. When we came home, we came home on the tail of a hurricane. Man alive that ship bounced and almost turned over on its side, side swiped and so forth. The main thing that I liked when I got home was the fresh vegetables, the lettuce, the tomatoes, the cucumbers, oh man that was good. And ice cream. We had ice cream overseas but it just didn't taste as good. Mr. Misenhimer I've heard people say that they liked fresh milk when they got home. Mr. Finley Oh yes, milk, you bet your life; I liked that milk, cold and smooth. It was really nice. I wanted to tell you in addition to what I've told almost all that I can remember, probably there are lots of other things; I spent a little time on this; I want to tell you a little about who I call an unsung hero. His name was Richard Aguinaldo. He and his wife, Em, were Presbyterian missionaries to the Philippines before the war broke out. When the war broke out he knew that he should get his wife out of there. So he put her aboard a ship which he claimed and she claimed was the last ship to leave Manila Harbor. He stayed behind and he wanted to go down and volunteer. He went down to the recruiting office
and I'll be doggone if the Japs came over, strafed and dropped bombs so they closed the place up. He never did get back because then the Japs came in and invaded. He ended up doing several things of noteworthiness. One time when the Japs were coming into Manila he was a good swimmer so he swam the river twelve times. Each time he had a little child on his back; sometimes he had two. He saved a lot of lives. Then when the Japanese
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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