[Paul Jackson] We were clearing
and there was a Jap officer laying face
down with his hand out and a Luger.
Looked like a German Luger,
beautiful thing, up there by his hand.
His hand was here.
I stopped right quick because he wasn't discolored,
he wasn't bleeding or anything.
He's (inaudible) minute ago he's going to nail me.
I put it a round through his temple.
His head bounced, and he bled. He was alive.
[Virginia Roberts] He was waiting for you.
[Paul Jackson] You don't take a chance.
I learned that don't take a chance.
I tried to put one round
right through the temple and his head bounced,
and he was bleeding, so I continued on.
I don't remember how many days
had gone on but the Japs with
their mortar with so much stuff
and it was pretty hard.
There's three Marines in a foxhole they had dug that's
about 18 feet high and they all back on this,
and they thought they could see better.
A shell exploded and this Marine
screams and says, I'm hit.
He comes falling down
over this little ledge
where the Japs had used for a roof.
I saw that he was bleeding bad,
his left leg,
he was spurting blood.
I ran out there and I grabbed him,
and he threw me like a ping-pong ball.
I was wondering, all I got
something more than I can handle here.
So I bear hugged and I was telling him,
"Hold down, slow down.
Let me have you, come one."
I finally dragged him back to my foxhole.
His leg, about four inches above his knee,
a shrapnel had cut that leg clear to the bone,
all those tendons and ligaments.
I grabbed him and took his belt off,
wrapped it around and made a tourniquet,
pulled it as tight as I could get it.
I didn't have a watch.
Every 15 minutes you want to let it bleed.
I had let him sleep
wherever he finally got to where he is okay,
and I stopped the bleeding.
I had more blood on me than he had on
him (laughing) (inaudible) lay all over it.
No way to wash.
All I had was about that much water in my canteen.
What had happened, during the day,
we had made a drive and the officers decided it wasn't
really good to spend the night there so we
withdrew back to our original line that morning.
I found a little can of pineapple that had been open.
Boy, it looked good.
So I tasted it.
It tasted pretty good.
So I reached in and got me a ring,
ate about three of them.
I was so hungry. We didn't have any food.
That night I was upchucking so bad.
I had one arm around this guy's neck to hold him down,
a poncho over his head,
having to worry about is it time to re-loosen it.
I scraped me out a hole and upchuck, (inaudible).
That's how I spent that night.
[Virginia Roberts] Something you got in that pineapple?
[Paul Jackson] Yeah, that pineapple. I was sick.
I couldn't eat pineapple when I got back from it.
But anyway, I tell him.
I think his name was Don, I don't know.
I said, "Don, just saying, in the morning,
they're going to send some bearers
out here, and they are going to carry you."
I said, "By nightfall,
you'll be aboard ship and you could be back
in Saipan or Hawaii if they fly you back."
I'm trying to get more ways to keep him calm.
I'm just glad that they didn't
jump off at eight o'clock that morning. They held it.
We were down to I think it was 25
men covering that (inaudible) probably 30,
40 feet between us, including me.
They brought in 80 replacements.
That night we had five left.
But they weren't all killed, they were wounded.
That was the most horrible experience I had.
I was trying to sit there and hold one arm
around his neck and I think I'd hurt him too.
I really clamped down to hold him.
Because if he took out there,
I didn't know how many more episodes I could
go through with it.
[Virginia Roberts] Did he live?
[Paul Jackson] Well, they came and got him
and carried him home.
But I didn't know his last name.
He did crawl back up there to
see his buddies and both of those were dead.
He went into cracking up again.
Here I am out there getting beat up, trying to hold him.
But anyway, two of his lieutenant saw.
Major told me to tell that tank,
we had a tank up here.
One of them was just really
point blank putting in there,
graded up the exhaustive fumes to fire again.
He's just tell that tank to turn its head
and boulder off.
I said, "You serious?" He looked
at me and he said to me, "I told you an order."
I crawled up behind the tank.
On the left side there you got
a metal box that had a telephone in there.
It was blown to pieces.
I went back and I told him, I said,
"Sir, the telephone broke."
He says, "Go around in front
and tell them to turn it on."
I'm crawling on my hands and knees.
Machine gun bullets are going everywhere.
I get out there. When I got out and stood up.
Both the 30 and the 50 caliber
are pointed right at me and I'm like
this and they shook their periscope no.
[Virginia Roberts] Good.
[Paul Jackson] Okay. I turn around,
I came back and by this time,
the Major had picked up
my radio and I was walking
off to where he could hear on the radio.
I told him, I said, "Sir, I'll stay right over here.
If you want me, call me, I'll be there."
So after that one other episode
I did this for several days.
He would pull the rounds out of the machine gun belt,
put them in a magazine.
I take one loaded belt and one was just an ammo.
Threw my rifle on my shoulder and run up and down
the line and delivering this ammo to the people.
I'll tell you, there was two spots
there where you had clear spots to run across.
That's where I got most of the action,
when I'd run across.
(laughing) I took more than two steps. (noise)
[Virginia Roberts] Went down.
[Paul Jackson] But that was the way we supplied.
I told them.
I said, "Keep your clips,
make your shots good.
See you later." I'd run all the way down there.
The machine gun,
the time I get there,
sometime they'd be out of ammunition.
I had to just throw a magazine,
and they hook it up and then business again.
There was times that he and I would crawl out beyond
the front lines so he could see he would
call in and give the coordinates.
I remember one in particular.
We're (inaudible) it was 175 sugar Southwest.
We had just one round fire for target.
On the mortar, we lost one in that ship.
I mean, (inaudible) it was
sunk so we only had three mortars.
I set one round fire for a target,
and they come back with splash.
I'd holler, "Splash" and everybody lays
down because sometimes those rounds are sharp.
There had been (inaudible) killed with it.
They had hit 1, 2 and 3.
Then I'd call back number 1 out 50 right 75,
number 2 up 100 right 25.
Getting them in nine rounds
AC live fire for effect and he'd come back splash.
Twenty seven rounds (inaudible).
Every time they'd fire,
they'd click their site just a little
bit more in pattern.
You'd see these troops
down there crawling around
and all of a sudden is this explosion.
It looked beautiful. We got pretty good.
We had to be a pretty good team.(crosstalk)
[Virginia Roberts] How much longer were you on (inaudible)?
[Paul Jackson] I was with the first going
and one of the last one off.
I think it was six weeks in total.
[Virginia Roberts] Six weeks.
[Paul Jackson] I spent four weeks on the line
with (inaudible).
Then they sent us to Japan,
that's another story.
[Virginia Roberts] By the time you finished your six weeks,
was Iwo Jima taken?
[Paul Jackson] Iwo Jima was taken after four weeks,
and I said it was taken while
are we up here dying on the front lines.
As they do in all politics.
The north end of the island
we was firing and is sloping down.
The Japs are on this side and our shells
were almost impervious to them.
They brought in some p51 and for
three or four days they tailed in on flights
of Wildcats and Hellcats,
(inaudible) , and they didn't fire a shot.
Yet they were in there and their goal
wasn't following us,
and we were, "what's going on?"
Then one day they showed up,
and they were no longer tailing along
behind the Wildcats and
Hellcats and I called a mission on a position there.
These 51s went out over the north and
came down in a dive, skip bomb,
dropped a bomb, and it hit a 500 pound and
go (noise) and he
would come up and this is the way he be coming,
right straight at me.
I mean, looking at this thing.
And that thing is, I'm saying,
"I hope it gets down" and
I've never seen such a beautiful bunch
of skip bombing in my life.
I've got a friend that was in there,
and he says, ''Yeah, those guys were
good. But that was beautiful.
But they came in and was hitting
a jet from this side where we couldn't hit them.
Our shelves were going over.
We'd lay out white markers
for our front lines so that
they don't get on their side, over.
[Virginia Roberts] Paul, for younger people
who may be doing research in the future.
Explain how you eventually got food and water.
[Paul Jackson] I'm sorry.
[Virginia Roberts] How did you get food
and water eventually?
[Paul Jackson] To this day,
I don't remember how we got food.
I remember one time on the north end,
where the iron was so hot it
is (inaudible) action. You could dig it.
When we do that foxhole,
we laid on top and when they shot at as we
roll down in it because it was too hot to be on it.
I could take a sea ration and dig
a hole and bury that sea
ration and in about 15 minutes
it'd be hot enough to eat.
And it smoke when you dig and you remember that?
[Speaker 1] I do. When we shut down, I'll tell you stories.
[Paul Jackson] It was something and I remember
digging a trench long enough because I am tall,
and I'd lay on top.
And when they'd open fire on me,
I just roll over in there and (laughing) it burn you.
[Virginia Roberts] I've never heard that before.
[Paul Jackson] It was on the north end of the island,
one on the south end.
How we got water and how we got food.
I just don't remember.
It's strange because I know when I ate that pineapple,
I didn't have anything.
[Virginia Roberts] Maybe that's why you threw up.
[Paul Jackson] When we got back from war,
the first thing they met us in
(inaudible) and gave me a glass of pineapple juice.
I just took it, (inaudible) .
[Virginia Roberts] Tell us about your departure
from Iwo Jima.
[Paul Jackson] Well, when they finally
pulled us back off of the line,
That's the first time I joined and
rejoined my outfit in a month.
They gave me time to go down and walk into the cemetery.
I was surprised that they had to think that way.
And when we finally decided to get aboard,
LSTs, they had a beast.
We just walked to shore.
[Virginia Roberts] No fire?
[Paul Jackson] No.
[Virginia Roberts] No, firing?
[Paul Jackson] No, it was calm then.
In the first six weeks and
I remember them telling us we're through.
That interests him. When we walk
by they still had pockets in there.
I know (inaudible)
two other guys and
me got trapped one time on that pocket.
As before I went to Iwo and joined them,
and we crawled on our stomachs for several 100 yard
before we get to where we felt we
could get out and crawl on our knees.
One guy was a sergeant,
and he ran off and left us,
he had the only BAR.
I won't say his name.
[Virginia Roberts] So then where did
you go from there? Where did they take you?
[Paul Jackson] Well, when we got on LSTs,
I'm not sure whether we went back to
the Saipan or (inaudible) at the end,
we got aboard ship.
We went right back in, and then
we joined their big ship.
It took us back to Hawaii.
[Virginia Roberts] How long were you in Hawaii?
[Paul Jackson] 13 months I think,
I was moving back there,
and then we left thinking we were going to the States,
instead we went to Japan.
I landed in Japan on the 25th of September 1945.
[Virginia Roberts] Let's back up. You mentioned
you thought you were going home?
[Paul Jackson] Yeah, that's when we
had closed our seat belt assuming to home.
They gave us three days liberty in
Hawaii (inaudible) and when we left,
instead of going east we went west.
I spent six months (inaudible) .
[Virginia Roberts] And you found out
how that you weren't
going the right way?
[Paul Jackson] The way I found out was,
I'm working in (inaudible).
I said, ''are we going in the wrong direction?"
[Speaker 1] Look at the sun.
[Paul Jackson] And nobody said anything
and several hours later,
after (inaudible) completely out of sight,
then he came on the speaker and then announced that
we were fortunate and
we were on our way to Sasebo Kyushu, Japan.
Kyushu's in the south-most island.
Sasebo is a big city,
which the pictures are in here.
And being a radio man,
I got a chance to go on a lot of places in Japan.
I spent a lot of time in (inaudible) ,
that was the Palm Beach of Japan.
And I slept under sheets.
(laughing) It wasn't really that rough in Japan.
But I was sure homesick (laughing).
[Virginia Roberts] Now, when you finished
your service in Japan,
you had been away from home how long?
[Paul Jackson] Well, it was August 20th of '43
until February of something,
I left Japan,
and then I got home.
[Virginia Roberts] You left Japan in '45?
[Paul Jackson] In '46.
[Virginia Roberts] '46?
[Paul Jackson] I was landed there in September of '45
and six months.
And then they came around every day.
Offered me a bonus,
another stripe, 90 day vacation if I'd sign it.
[Virginia Roberts] Where did you go back to in the States?
[Paul Jackson] San Diego.
[Virginia Roberts] San Diego.
[Paul Jackson] San Diego.
[Virginia Roberts] Did you have leave after that to go home,
or what did you?
[Paul Jackson] I don't think I had leave.
I think I stayed in there just getting the physicals.
[Virginia Roberts] What was your rank when you got back?
[Paul Jackson] (inaudible) , PFC. (laughing)
Know what had happened.
I tried to mourn death.
I said, "You people are going
to be ashamed of yourself."
I've gone to see the radio schools,
(inaudible) of Iwo Jima, Japan
and I'm still at PFC.
They gave me a Corporal stripe.
I said, I'm not going to wear it.
I said (inaudible) a penny for
my Corporal stripe, so I'm not going to wear it.
He told me, he says,
"You are not going to get off this base,
to San Diego unless you are in proper uniform."
I had all the Ruptured Duck,
remember, ruptured duck it's a little white bird,
and didn't know how to change this shirt, and my head,
my Corporal stripe and my insignia and everything.
I was (inaudible) a dress uniform in my greens.
(noise) I took the Corporal stripe
and I pinned them with straight pins.
I walked through and they gave me
an inspection right there to make sure,
if you are not uniform you don't go.
I walked up and I got my suitcase,
stepped out on the bus
and waiting for the La Jolla bus
to come by and pick me up.
I turned around and Marine guards down
and I said, "Hey."
He tried to alert them and I pull this pin,
my Corporal stripe fell off, and he said, "Get out."
(laughing) He didn't know how to handle this.
[Virginia Roberts] You didn't sign up for more so.
(crosstalk)
[Paul Jackson] What was funny was even the doctor
who came up and he'd take me by my shoulders,
he greeted that guy,
"Son if you take this discharge,
if you don't up now,
if you take this discharge with that right eye you got,
you'll never get back to this man's Marine Corp".
I'm looking at him and and I said,
"Sir give me the Ruptured Duck."
[Speaker 1] (laughing) Go ahead and shut that off. Are we done?
[Virginia Roberts] No. I've got to get him back home.
(crosstalk) Then when you got on the bus,
they took you to
the train and that's how you got back to Texas?
[Paul Jackson] No. I won't say yeah.
I got on a city bus,
and I rode through the city,
catch cross country bus. We went by bus.
[Virginia Roberts] You came back to Texas on a bus?
[Paul Jackson] Yeah. He gave us a tour
to Albuquerque (inaudible)
(laughing) Up and around there. (laughing)
[Virginia Roberts] You got the milk run. (laughing)
[Paul Jackson] The Lord is still over here.
[Virginia Roberts] You got back home
and have it just to (inaudible) . (crosstalk)
[Paul Jackson] I got back home and I took six months
leave of absence.
I have been sending all but $10 of
my pay every month to
my mother and I told
her and said, "I want you to use it."
She put every penny in the bank.
When I came home,
she was, "Here's your money."
(laughing) That has has been 20 months overseas.
[Virginia Roberts] That's incredible. Then after that,
you got back into business world.
[Paul Jackson] Yeah. I went back to work for consolidated.
I worked there before it went into the Marine Corps.
I went to read NYA school.
They paid me $0.25 an hour (laughing)
and I was rich and after that they
hired me and they consolidated (inaudible)
that built B24.
I show up, (inaudible)
I told them when I was going to quit,
I said, "I want out."
Then he says,
"You can't quit. There's a war."
I said, "I'm 16 years old,
you think you can make me work?"
The guy let me go.
He said, "Well, bring me a paper saying,
you've enlisted now, give it to me."
I said, the Marine Corp won't let me join.
I hadn't tell him until about 17.
That's the way (inaudible)
[Virginia Roberts] Something you would back to that.
[Paul Jackson] After I got all the service,
I went back and every
year they changed my classification,
gave me a raise and laid me off.
Then they called me back 30 days later,
(laughing) three years after and I said,
"Well, I'm not going to come back anymore.
We were building on B36.
But it was a good validation.
[Virginia Roberts] Did you stay in Texas after that?
[Paul Jackson] I stayed there.
[Virginia Roberts] Good decision.
[Paul Jackson] I ran into most dealers,
little brown eyes, blond,
(crosstalk) and then really rolled over
her eyes and convinced her to marry me on
28th of March in '48.
[Virginia Roberts] Wow. Did you have children?
[Paul Jackson] Pardon?
[Virginia Roberts] You have children?
[Paul Jackson] No. One.
[Virginia Roberts] One daughter.
[Paul Jackson] One daughter.
[Virginia Roberts] Now she's become a lawyer?
[Paul Jackson] No, she works for
the First Evangelical Free Church.
She been with them I think 35 years now.
We play over there, quite a pianist.
[Virginia Roberts] Where is she?
[Paul Jackson] In Fullerton, California,
is where she works.
[Virginia Roberts] I was thinking that
she was in California.
One of the last questions we asked Paul,
is there anything you can think of during
your training or service on
Iwo Jima that you
feel people researching in
the future would really be interested in?
Or have we pretty much covered what you have done?
[Paul Jackson] I think we've pretty well covered
I think so.
Every day when you woke up,
you wondering, is this going to be it?
Because you see so many people go.
There has been times I thought this was going to be it.
For some reason the Lord took me through.
I mentioned earlier the minefield,
on about the eighth day,
they pulled us off the front lines and took us
back almost in the same spot where I shot
those two on the first day
and that night they hit our (inaudible) gun,
and the smoke was bellowing.
The guy on the PA system down on the shore says,
"Gas, gas, do you smell?"
I said, "What did you say, gas?"
He says, "If you don't have a gas masks,
come down to this ship, so on and so."
I got up and ran over to get
my gas mask but somebody had stolen it.
You know how the gas mask,
its canister screws on the side.
I looked around and I think whoever stole it,
left me (inaudible) and had
the canister down here and hold going down.
I got up, I put it on.
I couldn't breathe. (noise) I had the clip on.
This guy says, "Come down to
the ship and we'll give you one.
I told them, I said, "Watch
my radio, it wasn't working."
This guy just say,
"Don't let anybody steal it."
I ran through those two minefields again and I came back.
I was up, back,
up, three, four, five times.
I went to through that and the Lord protected me from
stepping to it. (laughing)
[Virginia Roberts] Charmed life.
[Paul Jackson] Now that I remember.
[Virginia Roberts] Yeah. Well, Paul,
thank you so much for sharing your story
with some our future.
We have had a lot of
researchers go to the archives
for information, for stories,
and I'm sure your experience at Iwo Jima
will be very interesting to teach (inaudible) .