[Interview Begins]

[Please note: Earl Fornaciari is responding to written questions posed by his son James Fornaciari. These questions were identified by James in 2022 and are written in as if he stated them for clarity purposes.]

JAMES FORNACIARI: When were you drafted? How was the morale of the nation, the public and the Chicago area?

EARL FORNACIARI: It was report card pick up day for the parents. So, we had to stay late. Had to be there until about quarter after six. So I am tired and just getting around to your letter and to your answers-to your questions. In looking over your title- Army vs. Marines, I don't find any questions about Marines on the darn questions. So, I'll try and incorporate something in there. Because you do have some questions relating to where the Marines were. In general questions one, two and three seemed to be somewhat alike. I will point to them first. You asked when was I drafted. I actually went into the Army July 2nd of 1943. How was the morale of the nation, the public and the Chicago area? The people at that time- had experienced a war of about a year and a half, and we had seen no accomplishments. However, the people were hopeful. Hopeful for the most part. More worrying about whether they were going to have ration stamps to buy enough meat butter. It was a question of who you know--so for the older population, there was a black market on the ration stamps in the United States and also in the Chicago area. People think of themselves first many times. So, you can't blame them. However, going back and looking at this era. You have to remember that the only way I could have gotten into the Army was by being drafted. About six months before / seven month before they had stopped all voluntary enlistments. Now my brother, who is three years older than myself-after many attempts to volunteer into the Airforce, he was never taken finally went into the Navy boot camp in December of 1942. He was not drafted and as I said he was three years older. In January, one month later they had a bill pass that all 18-year old had to register for the draft.  So, I registered for the draft-I think it was in January. Or perhaps it was in that December- December of 42. I registered for the draft, however, and one month later I was classified as 1A. However, I was still in high school I became 18 in September of 1942, so I was granted a defer of induction until graduation from high school, which would have meant June of 1983. Pardon me '43. God 40 years ago! 

JAMES FORNACIARI: When you became aware that you would serve, was there any specific branch that you wanted to serve in?

EARL FORNACIARI: Anyway. Looking at the third question when you became aware that you would serve, was there any specific branch that you wanted to serve in? Well, we have to go into something else in that. At that period of time no man would admit that he wouldn't or didn't want to go into service. He would have been labeled a coward. He would have been talked about in a neighborhood. All families that had relatives in the service sons/ daughters had the flag- service flag in their windows with stars depicting how many servicemen were from that family. So, the public, the young people, myself included, badly wanted to be in service to do some fighting or just be in service to be an aide to the country. The whole aspect of the young male was to be in service to contribute something. There are two segments that where I want to serve or how I would want to serve. Our family doctor had told my parents that the Army would not accept me. That the previous year I would even forbidden to bowl because I had a heart condition. So, going into service is one thing that I prayed to do. Perhaps the first thing I really prayed for. To be accepted into service. In the final year of high school, I took a course that would perhaps train me to become a pilot. However, thinking of what the doctor had told my parents, I knew right well that I could not become a pilot because a good doctor would find out the same thing that the family doctor did. My brother was in the Navy and I didn't like the way he came home and he was able to come home after his boot camp because he served at Navy Pier. He was going to aviation school so he would be able to come home every weekend and my mother would do his laundry and he would have to roll up his clothing in a certain fashion that I thought was terrible because I had to help him because we had a pull on the legs of the leggings or whatever you call them, pants that they had so that they would be extremely tight. And I thought that was a lot of nuisance and I think peculiar to me that he had to be so persnickety about every tuck, every roll. So, I didn't want the Navy and also to, I thought, --.to go into the Navy, that they had more stringent requirements as far as health was concerned. So, I looked then just to the Army and I would be very, very happy to merely make the Army. And also, during that last year of high school, the Navy and the Marines and the Army -the Army followed because so many young men were passing these tests and selecting the Navy and the Marines and the Air Corps as a mode for their branch of service. And as a consequence, the young men of ability or higher intelligence are going into those branches of service, and the test I took in high school were given by one the Air Force and in my graduating class I was only one of five who passed the written exam to go into the Air Force, and I received a letter welcoming me to welcome me to the Air Corps. Accepted if I passed the physical examination. Another test that I took was primarily was really the United States Navy's test. That was for a test to go into what they call the V-12 program to train officers for the future. And in this particular program that they called the V12 meant a college education condensed to two and a half years. And upon graduation from the school, a person would receive a regular college degree and also a commission into the Navy. Well, I took that test and I passed it, I think it was one of 12 that passed the test and I received a letter from the Navy again the same basis as the Air Corp. I received a letter from the Marines asking me to join the Marines, and they would have a program the same as the Navy's V-12. Essentially, the Marines were part of the Navy, and then I received the letter also from the Army, saying they would accept me into their program, which was called ASTP. I forgot what that name or those initials stand for, however, that is the branch I chose because--again, I thought it would be the easiest to get in physically. And as it would hold that when I went in for induction, it was just like going into like two high school. Because on the day that we graduated, we graduated from high school, we received our induction notices. There were twenty -three of us who in our/my graduating class in June 1943 who had had those delays of induction from our draft board. That particular day to walk through the draft board with just like a day to walk to school, one kid would call on another and- a family of three kids came alive, [phone rings] but I kept on going with that. I know. [Other person] Yeah. All of them. Hold it Jim. Oh, wrong number. Anyway-- I was the only one of this group to pick the Army, others that went into the Navy went into the Navy program and did finish their course of study. Did graduate with a degree- and by the time with the war, they graduated and the war was over. They only had to spend about two more months in service, and they were discharged with a bachelor's degree and also a commission. And also, as they put it, into reserve. 

JAMES FORNACIARI: Can you discuss the induction process?

EARL FORNACIARI: However I went, where I went for the physical examination going into that experience it was so much noise. It was like being in an arena. And if you can think of your gym at HF it was a larger room than that. It was much noisier than that the walls seemed to have the noise go by, so when the doctor said, "go on to the next patient", I was quite happy. So really, what I wanted to get into, depending upon the circumstances, perhaps I might have chosen another branch of service. Had my health and better. 

JAMES FORNACIARI: Can you discuss your initial experience with the US Army?

EARL FORNACIARI: Anyway, when I did go into active duty I had to go to a place called Camp Grant that was what was called a reception center. There they gave us more tests and all of the fellas that I had gone in with were sent every day about three or four days after we were there -they were sent out to different places, so within five or six days or perhaps a week--all the other fellas that I knew were sent away. And I was not being sent anywhere. One sidelight thing I can remember there was a baseball player by the name of Bob Kennedy, who had played third base for the White Sox at the time. He was drafted and made many of the new draftees quite angry because before they put an Army uniform on him, they put a baseball uniform on him and sent him out to the baseball field to play from Camp Grant. After the war Bob Kennedy didn't play at all. Now this is not the same Bob Kennedy, who had something to do with the Cubs later on--. Anyway, I had to be at Camp Grant for about a week or two before I was sent on a train ride that took about almost two weeks to Camp Roberts, California. The car that I was put on contained twenty- three men. It was a Pullman car private compartments, and they had two fellas to a compartment two perhaps some of them had three. But all together, the whole car load was only twenty- three men and we were in a long, long train caravan. How many cars and I couldn't say but the fellas were sitting in coaches--. just plain coaches like the IC going downtown. We had to sit and slouch in the chairs. 

JAMES FORNACIARI: Can you discuss your initial assignment and group at Camp Roberts? 

EARL FORNACIARI: And as I said it took weeks, we went down all the way down to El Paso, Texas, on the way. However, once we got to Camp Roberts, we were placed into a training battalion they called it. This training battalion was to be all trainees for this what was called ASTP program all to go to some kind of college. And while we were to be in the training program, we would have further screening tests. So, we waited and waited. I forgot how long we waited. But at that time, basic training in the Army infantry was 13 weeks. You know if you have a calendar you can look back. Our program, and basic training was to end the Saturday after Thanksgiving, something like the 27th of November. So, if you count the weeks back, you could tell when basic training actually started for us--As I said we waited and waited. In a training company they had four companies, and they didn't get enough men for the four companies. So, by the time we started there were only three companies and the fourth company that would have been, was to have been composed of fellas that were in the stockade. They were prisoners that had to take training along with us. 

Camp Roberts was interesting it was hot. Very hot during the summer. And. Very, very dry, the Salinas River next to it was there wasn't any water in it. It was called a river, the dry riverbed during the time I was there at this particular time. 

JAMES FORNACIARI: Can you discuss the group of your first basic training class? 

EARL FORNACIARI: Now we are going again to the fellas that I was with upon being drafted. Every one of them was 18 years old. The very oldest was twenty -two years of age. So, we all had a higher level of ability than the average soldier -mental ability that is. And also, it turned out to be physical ability. It seems that I recall and I do know that we set the post record at the time on the rifle range. We had the highest average scores. That's the highest score up until that time was scored by one of the fellas in this training group. We also set a camp record for the fastest march I forgot whether it was a nine -mile speed march or a twenty -five-mile march, but we set a speed mark on one of them. The noncoms and the officers were jealous of each of us for some reason. The reason? Well, for the noncoms, they thought we were too smart. That we acted too smart, that we could do better than what they could do and the training noncoms--. we're not up to our level in ability and probably not in intelligence, either. The officers seem to want to knock us down as much as they could for some reason. But during this basic training period as I said we had to take further tests, screening tests to go into different branches of schooling. Some fellas made out to go to language school, to learn foreign languages, to become the perhaps interpreters or better yet to translate important documents. Others were being selected to become engineers and such as, I choose to go upon graduation from this basic training unit to go to the University of Tacoma, Washington to study engineering. But all during his time at--. All during his time, at the time we were given these screening tests, we were told that if we didn't want to go into this program, we could go to Fort Benning, Georgia-to officer candidate school. Anybody that wanted to drop out could go to officer candidate school to become an officer, an infantry officer. Nobody elected to go to Fort Benning on that basis. However, out of the battalion nine fellas, I think it was failed the screening test -perhaps there were more, but at least nine had failed. The screening test did go to Fort Benning and did become officers. The rest of the group on graduation, for the most part, went to Tacoma Washington did put in one quarter (of course work). That school I think was on quarter system, and I think that the after completing at least the first term put it that way----Their college terms were terminated the Army had canceled/abolished this ASTP program. So, the fellas that I was with, from Tacoma Washington got sent over to the Battle of the Bulge. The fellas as I said that had flunked out of the program became officers, the fellas that made it and actually did go to school were privates going into the infantry in France. 

JAMES FORNACIARI: What caused you to miss finishing basic training with this group?

EARL FORNACIARI: Unfortunately-a week before or two weeks before this graduation exercise, the last day of basic training -13-week basic training--. In trying to run, jump over a 10 -foot wall with a full field back etc. rifle-canteen that they want to do everything laid out. I was stupid in trying to climb the wall- I didn't make it-I hung and tried to get up. And in the process of trying that, I broke open my abdominal wall where I had an appendix operation as a kid. And therefore, and unfortunately, the Monday before the last day in a medical examination, the doctors found this and called it a hernia. So, the day before Thanksgiving, I was sent to the hospital in Camp Roberts. On Saturday, they had a training, the outfit had a training film and a Battle in China in what they call graduation. I wasn't with them. 

JAMES FORNACIARI: Can you describe the hospitalization and rehab process? 

EARL FORNACIARI: Anyway, I was sent to the hospital. And the hospital said that the operation was too difficult for the surgeons there--so they sent me to another hospital in Santa Barbara, California, and that was called Hoff General Hospital. And before they operated, they asked me if I wanted the operation or do I want a discharge, and I said, "well I want the operation". And so, I did have the operation. And I was in that hospital five months in bed three weeks. While I was in bed one day there will be a great noise from the next ward. You know, there were these two wards were all patients that had the same ailment, that is hernias of one sort or another. And a lot of hooting and hollering and cheering. And we inquired of the orderlies what's going on--what is going on? And one of them said well, that is Alan Ladd you know that movie star he is getting a discharge he wouldn't get operated on. So, of the people in the two wards, and I think there were about 30 in each ward. He is one of 60 that refused to be operated on. Now all the other fellas had been found, perhaps had finished basic training were injured some way or another and had been in the Army for some time. But they all elected to stay in the Army and chose be operated on be repaired and be part of the military force--. So, I'm saying this -that most of the time if soldiers had anything to do-they would gripe they would complain about conditions. Conditions were never good--and here were sixty some fellas that I knew of that had aliments --they could have gotten discharges and they all refused- all but one guy. And of course, when Alan Ladd got discharged, he made all those war movies where he's a big hero. So, this is part of attitude. Anyway, so it was while I was in the hospital that the ASTP program collapsed/ discontinued. And I got sent after five months of rehabilitation, the Army had taken over a school building in Santa Barbara and I had a furlough home for about three weeks, and I had to take mild exercises in order to go back to service active, really active duty. 

JAMES FORNACIARI: Can you describe your return to active duty at Camp Roberts?

EARL FORNACIARI: So when I was sent back, that was sent back for what they called "light duty" and went back to Santa Barbara, and I was told that now instead of a 13- week basic training basic training it had been extended to 17 weeks. And the only thing I missed from basic training was to sit and watch the battle film called the Battle with China- training film it was. And I had to join an outfit that was the furthest advanced that didn't see the Battle of China. So as a consequence, I had to take 10 weeks of basic training all over again. And while I was in that second group, the second group was a group composed more of older men than younger men. There were few my own age which was 19 I guess. Anyway- they were different they were slower. They had less ability. There were more cranks. But they would probably be an average sort of a group of people that you would find. Anyway, during that time, the second course and basic training I did approach the headquarters and mentioned that I had been offered the chance to go to OCS. Officers Candidate School at Fort Benning, and they said, well, "there's no chance now". Times have changed. "You notice what we have here in these other companies?" There are men taking basic training along with our group that were noncoms and also officers from the Air Force and the Air Force at that time was part of the Army. So, the Air Force people were being retrained to become infantrymen, they had a surplus of officers and noncoms in the Air Force. So, they had greater need for the infantry. 

JAMES FORNACIARI: So where did you go from Camp Roberts?

EARL FORNACIARI: So where did you go from Camp Roberts? Next, we went up to a place called Fort Ord. Fort Ord California was a beautiful place. And to some degree we were all fine there. But while we were there, we still have to go through the same things as basic training except we didn't have a rifle to carry around. So that part lasted again, I think, for five months that I was there. From there, I got sent to a camp called Fort Lawton Washington where we were to go on shipboard. And I was on what was called the advanced party. I went on the ship early in the daytime and we were the fellas in that were called the advanced party. We had to be stationed at gangways and landings at bulkheads and doorways to lead and show the other arriving troops and passengers where to go. So, the ship loaded up at night in the dark. And as soon as all the men came aboard me left and in the process of going to the ship and throwing my barracks bag up on my shoulder--The thing landed on my thumb and I dislocated it. I didn't know whether it was dislocated or hurt. It's just one of those things -it hurts you are not going to complain about. Who knows who to complain to. Nobody. So, after we were out at sea for the second day, the thing really bothered me-- one-- and two they started looking for a fellas to go do KP duty, and I didn't want to do KP duty-- So, I could go on sick call -and the Navy doctor that looked at it, said he couldn't tell whether it was broken or dislocated. So, he put it in a splint taped it up and said, "don't do anything" so I got out of doing KP duty for the 10-day boat ride and that was what we called the maiden voyage of that ship. And it was an Army ship- called the General Sturgis. Very quiet uneventful trip. When I got to land in Hawaii and went on sick call--I wanted this thing X-rayed to find out whether it was broken or not. And the doctor, that treated me looked at it and said, "What's wrong with it? Who put that splint on? Who bandaged it up?" So, I said, "Well a Navy doctor did, the ships doctor." He said, "those Navy doctors don't know anything and it looks alright to me. Forget about it." I said well "the thing hurts." He said, "It does not make any difference there is nothing wrong with it." --It hurt. So anyway, the second day I was in Hawaii, I got transferred to another place. On the island and decided by a God I am going to the hospital to have this thing X-rayed. I was standing waiting along a highway -what would be a highway along the dirt road, around the outside, along the shore and in waiting and just waiting for something to come by some truck to take me to the next hospital Army hospital. I felt and I pulled the thing and it snap back into position. So, turned out really, I had a dislocated thumb. 

JAMES FORNACIARI: Please discuss the concept of fear during your training.

EARL FORNACIARI: And that brings up you brings something up about fear. Later on, when I was at that particular place, it was called jungle training. It turned out that I had to be one of the trainers to give exhibitions on jungle training. And sometimes we have to do is make demonstrations for high ranking officers when they had some girlfriends. How? And one Sunday morning, a group of officers and Red Cross ladies- were sitting watching us do some things-- Like cross a stream with a rope - a rope bridge that is three ropes. We walk on one and hold on to the other two ropes as we would cross the darn thing. The darn thing would be swinging also, because the men at each side would walk in a different place. The ropes were swinging over the distance, but the rope bridge was over a pond like body in which they had sticks of TNT submerged and somebody along the shore, would detonate them and they would detonate when a man with just over where one of these things sticks of TNT would be. And unfortunately, they enjoyed doing that, blowing us off the rope bridge. Unfortunately, on this particular day an accident happened, where they blew somebody off actually a couple fellas off and unfortunately in landing in the water, one of the wires- got caught around a man's leg and of course a stick of dynamite attached to the wire and that fella sent off the detonation. So, when the TNT exploded, it blew off one of his legs. That was one thing that went sour that particular day, a second thing that happened was that they would have us climb what would be called the cliff by rope. As we would climb up the rope machine guns would shoot at our feet or just below our feet and a couple of guys got shot in the legs that particular Sunday. I was amazed- and then afraid of doing these particular exercises. 

JAMES FORNACIARI: Can you describe any additional items/experiences from training?

EARL FORNACIARI: Well, let me think, OK, now describe the training at Camp Roberts. It was two different styles.  The first group that I was with--As I said, we're between the ages of 18 and 22. Everybody had a lot of energy. We went very fast and doing everything that we did when we would come back after the days of training. We would take off our uniforms which were soaked in sweat and we would hang them on the line to dry. When they dried the fatigues were soaked with salt, uniforms, underwear our pack was soaked. They were completely white from salt --. the straps that held our packs on made marks and there also were lines of white salt. So, we perspired a terrific amount--. The second part of the second time I took basic training it wasn't as bad; the officers were good. There seemed to be no antagonism between the officers and the training noncoms and the men. Training was hard in both places--people--we were tired at the end of the day. And we couldn't get out of camp anyway, so it didn't make any difference about going to town. We went to town rarely, actually there weren't any good towns to go to anyway. We would have to go a couple of hundred miles, 300 miles to Los Angeles, for example or San Francisco. Camp Roberts is in the middle.  

EARL FORNACIARI: Camp Roberts probably did have the largest parade ground in the world at that time. I don't know whether it is still in existence. But that property was owned by a family, called the Hurst family. Hurst newspaper was a large chain of newspapers throughout the country, and they were renting this plan to the government for $1 a year. And while we were on training out in the hills we would see civilians riding on horseback -taking a vacation, you just doing it they would be part of this Hurst family or their friends and they owned a terrific amount of property. Not just there at what was called Camp Roberts but a couple other camps whose names leave me--Further north in California--one of the Hurst family at one time had a Castle built, which was then famous thing. And in fact, it was on television here about a month ago. I can't recall the name of that castle.  The castle was a replica or something that was made or perhaps transported from Europe here. Something would be very nice to see, and I never did see it--it was not far from our artillery range at that time. 

JAMES FORNACIARI: Did you think much about what was ahead of you?

EARL FORNACIARI: The men didn't really do too much thinking about what was to come, except, well, we always that some veterans the noncoms that were in the training units they had been veterans with overseas experience, we would ask them what it was like, what we needed. And one. Many of would say all the fellas in the infantry would say bring a good knife, that the Army knives weren't really good, reliable and got out and buy a good knife, I wrote that to your Uncle Jack and he did make. 

[End of Segment 1]
[Beginning of Segment 2]

JAMES FORNACIARI: Did you think much about what was ahead of you?

EARL FORNACIARI: So the men really didn't do too much thinking we were wondering where we'd go and things like that, but not too much. There wasn't any worry or really concern. 

EARL FORNACIARI: After that we went, I left that Camp Roberts and as I said we went to Fort Ord and had places to go Carmel, California and Carmel "By the Sea" they called it. Supposed to be very beautiful and a town called Monterey. Monterey had been written up in some of John Steinbeck's books. And it was near San Francisco and I did go up to San Francisco. But not too much. 

JAMES FORNACIARI: When were you told you would be invading Okinawa?

EARL FORNACIARI: Ok, you asked about when we were told we were going to Okinawa. What did they tell you about it? The landing? What kind of resistance to expect? If I can backtrack a bit while I was in Hawaii I had several assignments. One was giving a demonstration at what was called jungle training. That was one long wrong assignment. I think I was there five months altogether on the island. But for most of the time, I was in this particular unit and then I was sent back to what was called Schofield Barracks-and it was like CCC Camp. Tar paper shacks -it was not part of the main facility. And I got put in charge of 55 other replacement soldiers such as I was. I had to give them close order drill every morning, and I had to be acting like a platoon sergeant. Accounting for all the men. I had to give men duties and duty assignments, latrine duty, go to PX duty, warehouse duty things like that. And also, I had to give out passes. I awarded the passes to whoever I thought deemed them-should have them. And that would be part of my particular job there. I learned the first thing about promises. You don't say "well I will give you a pass whenever you want one" because you have to be fair to everybody. But there was one particular Indian - American Indian who never took a pass. He would say, "When I want a pass will you give me a pass?" I said "yes-yes chief you will get a pass. Let me know early enough so I don't give him out before to somebody else." Well, one night he came to me and said. "I want a pass to go to town". I said, "Chief you can't have a pass. I already said who was going to town. He said, "But you promised. You promised. You promised." I said, "Yes. I promised. I promised. But you did not let me know soon enough. I said by six o'clock and this is 10 o'clock." He responded, "I know-- it makes no difference. You promised to give me a pass." So, I finally did get extra passes for him. And he went to town--when he came back from town he was so drunk he and his other Indian American Indian friends woke us all up. They tipped over all the cots and we had to do quite a bit of restraining on these fellas. But it did teach me a lesson. Be careful how you ever promise something. 

EARL FORNACIARI: From there, we left Hawaii and went down and joined all the twenty Seventh Infantry Division. Originally, I forgot to mention the purpose of my being sent or all of our being sent over to Hawaii at that particular time from Fort Ord in the long run was to join- I believe it was in 96th Division, some division that was to invade the Philippines. And the second day that we were there, some fellas were actually placed on ships of this particular division. And the commanding officer of this particular division said, no, he didn't want them, he wanted them off the ship, that he wasn't going to take replacements-raw replacements on the invasion because too many of them, in his opinion, would be killed right away. And we were told that he cited what happened to the 27th Division in the invasion of Saipan that the majority of the wounded and killed of the 27th Division were new replacements to the organization within a couple of weeks before the actual invasion of it. So, this commanding officer actually got the replacements that had been already on board this ship taken off and sent back to us. And this fleet took off for the invasion of the Philippines. So that was one reason why my extended stay was so long there in Hawaii. 

JAMES FORNACIARI: Can you discuss final training and preparation for Okinawa? 

EARL FORNACIARI: OK, so we went to the New Hebrides islands, which is south of the equator, very hot. And we were given all kinds of training. And unfortunately, in being so close to the equator, there's a lot of strange illnesses strangle little microorganisms that thrive. And one thing that, uh, did thrive down there and the ocean water created an infection and I got from the water ocean water, a fungal infection in my ears, and that led to a terrific pain. And as part of my assignments since I was a replacement down there, I was one of the two youngest, certainly in this organization. The two youngest, the other fella was named Schultz. We called him Dutch Schultz, he was the same age as I was. And we were initially designated as lead scouts. Dutch Schultz and myself, and which meant, unfortunately for us that we were doing what would be called the "point". My regiment was to be according to their battle plans for the division in any battle that we would be involved in my regiment would be the lead regiment. Of my regiment my battalion was to be the lead battalion. Of the companies my company, was to be the lead company. Of the lead company my platoon was to be the lead platoon and my squad would have been the lead squad. Dutch and myself were to be the scouts.  So that meant under the plan of organization or any kind of invasion or attack that Dutch and myself were to be the first. So, they gave us a sniper rifle, sniper rifle with a rifle powered scope. And it was a bolt action, and neither one of us had ever seen a bolt action before. This was just two weeks before leaving the New Hebrides. But they did give us the chance to try them out--. Also, about two weeks before--I am mixing up a little bit of time-- When I had this fungus infection in my ear, I had to go to a hospital every day and get in a truck, and they took us to a hospital. And nurses would scrape my eardrum with a wire. Scrape the eardrum and put some oil in it, and I would have to go back and just lay in my cot. They told me to put a canteen on my head it was like a hot water bottle- I had to keep on my head. So that lasted for a week or 10 days. And finally, when I was dismissed from that, every once in a while, the infection comes back I get some pain. It could be a major problem-- that lasted two or three days--when the company commander came up to me and said, "What's going on?  Do you hear anything? Do you hear anything?" I responded "No, I don't. I don't hear anything."  And there were fellas pretending to be enemy soldiers out there that were supposed to make some noise- noises that I didn't hear. And then at one point he said "don't you hear that?" I said no "I don't hear anything". He said "I haven't seen you around where you have been for the last week or so". So, I said I was going up to the hospital and have my eardrums scraped. He says, "Well, if you can't hear that, then you are not going to be scout anymore". So, they gave me a bazooka and the other fella that was to be my partner with the bazooka had been a noncom in some other outfit. He had gotten into trouble somehow. He never told me how, so he was stripped of his stripes and placed in my company. His name was Gute and we would together quite well. So, for the last week of being down there in the New Hebrides I spent the time there shooting the bazooka at old tanks and trucks. 

EARL FORNACIARI: And with respect to cowardness the day that we were to go on to the boats-You were called out and lined up with our duffel bags and our weapons, and we hadn't any ammunition and one fella -there was only one fella with a Thompson submachine gun in the company--and he placed that submachine gun on his foot. He pulled the trigger-there was a one round in the thing. It was not supposed to have any ammunition. Nobody ever found out how this had happened. Anyway, the guy put a bullet right through his foot. Well, they took him to the hospital alright. The hospital on board a ship that were going on -he was in "sick bay". That guy went all the way with us in "sick bay". And that bullet 45 shell was almost a half an inch. And believe it or not it went passed through all his all bones--the soft bones on the instep are limber -they bent easily so instead of the bullet tearing apart anything, any bones that pushed the bones aside rather than shattering them. So, the fella only had a wound-strait wound through skin /flesh. So, by the time we got to Okinawa they put him them to work, helping unload the ship and later came to join us as a flame thrower man. And the first time he got the chance to put a flame thrower on to shoot flames into a cave. The Company commander told him, and he yelled it out, "you go up there" and you called him some names. He said, "if you turn around fella and try to get away, all of us will be shooting you". So, the fella did do his job and he did it well. He knew right away that if you turned tail and try to run, I'm sure the rest of us would have shot them. We had no sympathy for him. 

EARL FORNACIARI: You know, you have a lot of things here about what we were told about Okinawa. On the way up to Okinawa from the New Hebrides I think the trip took about three weeks. And somewhere along the line, we were briefed by our officers and the officers themselves didn't know what was going on. But all of a sudden, the first part of the voyage they were in meetings and meetings and meetings. And it came on down to the rest of us the privates finally heard about it. We were briefed and we were shown maps of the island of Okinawa and all of the other surrounding islands. And it turned out that my battalion's assignment--battalion or regiments I forgot which was to take over two or three islands to direct east of Okinawa, not Okinawa itself. So that was to be our assignment, but we were not to do it at the same time as what would take place at the same time as Okinawa itself. It was going to be few days later and as things transpired our orders had been changed. Changed the timetable that had been set back. And I think it was about the 10th day after the initial landing that we did go into Okinawa itself. And what had happened was that the initial invasion of Okinawa was that there was no resistance whatsoever on land. The only resistance was by air. The Japanese Air Force made terrific toll of our Navy. Our Navy, our troops ships, our supply ships. And that was one thing. 

EARL FORNACIARI: The island of Okinawa was long and skinny is probably about six to eight times longer than it was wide. And I think perhaps the narrowest point, it might have been only about three miles wide and an initial invading force landed about in the middle of the island, met no resistance, fanned out so that the advancing party would be going south and they crossed the island completely dividing it in half -again with no resistance. No resistance until they came upon a ridge. There was a valley in between this ridge. And that's what it looked like was like numerous apartment buildings. If you can think of looking across the valley and what you see instead of the side of the cliffs that you see apartment windows. This is what I saw along when I finally saw it.  And that is what it looks like -there were thick caves there were in caves -the Japanese were in caves. And what happened was that the 96th Division that was in part of the initial landing force turned south and they had no resistance. And then all of a sudden on a place called Kakazu Ridge they did hit resistance. There were tanks on the reverse side of Kakazu Ridge. There were also caves and they had their guns big cannons, artillery pieces located in the caves. So as our tanks came up and went around this particular Kakazu Ridge, they were being shot at by cannon from the front from this large apartment type complex of caves. In the front that didn't have much effect on them. But when they got in front of the caves on the reverse side of this Kakazu Ridge, the Japanese shot them, the tanks from the rear. Now a tank is a little less-much less protection on its rear that it does on its front. So, they lost almost all the tank that they had probably of all of them. 

EARL FORNACIARI: Apparently, the Japanese made night attacks against them and the 96th Division almost got completely annihilated -so that's why the 27th Division got called in. Instead of invading those islands to the east, to Okinawa, we had to land and then subsequently take over for the 96th. So, the second and the first day that they're regrouping, yes. We dug holes. And the Japanese --let's see we were stationed near one of the Japanese airfields. That first day, the first night and the second night we were there, we moved up and we replaced the 96th. The Japanese at dusk laid down a barrage of artillery shells. And the Japanese laid those shells almost exactly along the line of holes that we had. And quite accurate. However, they didn't do much damage to at that time to ourselves. And I can recall, I had been a very good sleeper-nothing could wake me up. And I was asleep. And the group my foxhole partner had to shake me to wake me up--he said "Earl we have to be on the lookout we are being shelled and they might advance as soon as they stop shooting. Well during the process that first night of bombardment, that's my first exposure to enemy fire of some sort. And that was it. The ground shook and I can recall when something hitting me a piece of mud piece metal something hit me hard in the back. And my partner asked, "are you hit" and said I said, "Yes" --"are you bleeding?"--. "I don't know. I'm too afraid to find out. You feel for me". What I got hit with hit me alright but it didn't cut. A few minutes later I shell hit one of our ammunition trucks.  And it seemed for an awful long time, that various types of ammunition were being shut off. The sky looked like the Fourth of July, only much better. Shell after shell what was going on course with the Japanese artillery landing and as each shell would land and of course the ground would shake and we were in our holes, and we were getting shaken up. The next morning when we looked at the land in the hole where the shells had landed the place had a design the same design as our trenches or our foxholes/trenches. So, they had us very well planted and their accuracy was quite good. Again, I didn't see a Jap. So, I forget we had to be there two more days before we will replace the 96th. It was some birthday I think it was the same day that 2nd day when we got the bombardment. The intelligence said that the Japs were probably try a counter attack that night to celebrate this birthday. Whether it was Hirohito's of Tojo's or somebodies I forgot. Anyway, we survived that. 

EARL FORNACIARI: When we moved up, we had a long line to relieve the 96th. They said now the battle had perhaps had been two weeks old. We were passing members of the 96th Division, and some of them were quite pathetic looking.  Tired -shaken some guys were actually crying. Crying that they were getting relieved and getting away from what they had experienced. They did perhaps suffer more losses because they thought that everything was safe- to an extent that there wasn't any resistance. Any action at all from the Japanese that when they finally hit it, they were probably overexposed to enemy fire and suffered more as a consequence. So, the positions that they left we filled. They left their machine guns intact; the light machine guns the heavy machine guns on top of this ridge where I was called Kakazu Ridge. And- for a few days, we had to exist there, and I was given a job of being armed with a machine gun-light machine gun. For night duty along with another fella from what was called the weapons platoon, or weapons company that is heavier machine guns and mortars. But the second night-- maybe it was the first night I forgot--they did try to attack us--very slowly and quietly. You hear things, you see things and things. Sometimes -looking back, you wonder. And I wondered in the morning whether what I saw whether what I heard were real. You wonder-do I really see it--ls that really something? Did I hear that? I think that night we did kill some Japanese we had a nice display of fire really--in the nights sky to tracer bullets going from three or four different positions on to one. It looked kind of nice really. Impressive.

The guy I was with on the machine gun had a carbine and he dropped it. It landed on the butt straight up and we were standing side by side. He tried to catch and as he tried to catch it the carbine hit the soil and the gun discharged and shot off his finger tip. The medics took care of him. But there was a big investigation about that. "Did that guy really get hurt accidently or did he mean to get hurt?" I had to give an accounting for this guy. I don't even know his name. That was a complete accident. The only one that could be determined as being not legitimate was that fella that I mentioned before back in the New Hebrides. He tried to get out of the invasion. 

One of the things that they mentioned was snakes. There was some kind of or a couple of varieties of snakes that they called "habu" that there was no serum for. We were supposed to if we have saw a snake to capture it--.so they could get the venom so they could make an anti-toxin for that particular strain.  I was not anxious to do that but later on it came about where I wished there had been a lot of it around. 

JAMES FORNACIARI: Can you describe landing day on Okinawa?

Really there was not much about landing day. We landed by way of an LST pulling us to the troop ship. We unloaded onto the LST by going down a landing. We got up to the shoreline and got into some flat bottom tug boat things--barges-- and onto the soil. So, there was nothing that the constant movement-constant movement of people, men, soldiers. Trucks, equipment being moved. Oh, one thing I should have mentioned going into Okinawa itself and going on to what we could see, we could see a great many burning American ships. Ships being towed away and you can see the damage and the smoke all of them were smoking. I would say at least half the ships or more than half the ships- American ships were damaged were smoking. Airplanes were flying high in the sky. And a there was a shooting you could hear the shooting up there where the Japanese were perhaps going to attack or trying to attack our convoy. There wasn't any immediate danger that I could detect, but I was very impressed with was the smoke and constant smoke coming out of these ships. 

You asked about the fortifications of the island and the terrain. The terrain was very rugged, very rugged, in front of this what was called Kakazu Ridge my first battlefield so to speak -the ridge was a rugged ridge and the Okinawans had made terraces. These terraces might only be three feet wide. And on these terraces, they had planted-plants. They farmed- it cultivated it.  The only thing I knew that they grew were vegetables. But at the same time this was spring I think it was April, so it wasn't too much. Fellas were able to pick garlic and it was a welcome treat to put in some garlic and with our C rations. Down below, at the lower level of ground, there were flooded rice paddies. Rice paddies that had a lot of water and of course there between these segments rice paddies were flooded sections of land where they had planted rice and there were little walkways and maybe these little walkways or ridges where only about two feet wide perhaps three feet wide, but essentially a place to walk and be between them. There was only about a foot and a half wide, and a person could walk on it.  So, nobody could really hide in the rice paddy effectively. You could look from this ridge to another ridge that I mentioned that looked like an apartment building. So, there was a vast distance between these two ridges. That was the middle of the island in the northern part of the island where he set up their Battle of the Clouds. That was a mountainous type area where the clouds were so low that the ridges were submerged in the clouds. These ridges were overgrown with trees and bamboo. Well, bamboo and wild bamboo was fairly young, and the Japanese made use of it. By cutting the bamboo at an angle close to the ground so that when they would shoot and have us duck for cover, it might actually stab ourselves slip into the bamboo. So many fellas got killed/hurt by going into by falling and taking cover and actually landing on a bamboo spike and that was up into the air. So, I'll have to take this to work tomorrow, and I hope I can find time to say, Hi, to James T. and I hope you have a nice night. Because mom has the television on and I have to go. Good night.

EARL FORNACIARI: Back to play by play the next stage Jim. The last segment did talk about the terrain in the northern part of the island. I will have to come back to that. The 27 Division will be division that broke the main line of defense. That row of apartment type ridge that we faced, which it had been about a little over mile away from Kakazu Ridge. And what we did the 27th Division was the spearhead of this attack. It was the only division that was in the attack, the 106th infantry, which my company was part was to be the lead regiment. Of the lead regiment--our battalion was the lead battalion-- of our battalion our company was the lead company-- of our company my platoon was the lead the platoon. And what transpired in the night before the attack against the main line of defense. At that point, we left our position during the night marched backwards. Perhaps a mile, mile and a half made a wide circle around so the Japanese would not see us would not hear us perhaps. And we went up the very shoreline of the island. Some other men in a demolition crew actually preceded most of us. They were trying to locate with their mine detectors booby traps/devices. But by dawn of the next day, we were in position to attack the Japanese defenses. Our initial attack was very successful. The attack lasted up this ridge-all day long. Near nightfall now, nightfall at that time, I think the sun was setting about five o'clock in the afternoon so perhaps about four o'clock. We stopped and we dug in. Along the base of a ridge, there were some tanks that came up after later in this operation. They did not support us directly.

EARL FORNACIARI: Yes, we thought about me anyway. 

EARL FORNACIARI: When the last of the tanks that I actually saw, they were shooting their machine guns and a small cannon at a machine gun emplacement that the Japanese had along a railroad embankment. Actually, at that point the Japanese did have a small gauge, narrow gauge railway that went the length of the island. I had forgotten that. And we used part of it as our entry into their defenses. Anyway, this particular tank while shooting at the emplacement and of course, the emplacement was shooting back at that tank. 

JAMES FORNACIARI: Can you describe the tactics used to remove the Japanese from their caves? [damaged audio]

EARL FORNACIARI: There were several ways we would eliminate the Japs that were in the caves. A fellow would crawl next to a cave entrance while the rest of us would provide supportive fire in order to keep the enemy down and out of view. The G.I that would sneak up to the cave would heave a satchel of dynamite into the cave. We also made use of phosphorus grenades. We threw them into the caves as well, if a person got it on their skin it would burn completely through, extremely painful.

JAMES FORNACIARI: Can you discuss your feelings about your enemy? [damaged audio]

I could only have respect for the Japanese soldier. They had poor equipment and in the long run less equipment. We had as much ammunition as we wanted. The Japanese did not have an inexhaustible supply of ammunition. Every time they shot their rifles they intended to hit their mark. Our soldiers would fire and if they missed they had another round to fire and if they missed yet another. The Japanese soldier had to exist under many more hardships than we. In examining the bodies of the Japanese dead, we found they had very little to carry. They had no raincoats, no ponchos, no cigarettes and only small packets of rice and that was about it.

JAMES FORNACIARI: Can you offer a final thought on your time in service? [damaged audio]

It is something you cannot forget, will not forget and will be proud of. I am glad I was there, even though it took three years out of my life I do not regret it one bit.

[Interview Ends]