October 15, 2025 • 33 mins
Joe "Peppy" Sciarra was drafted into the U.S. Army the day after he graduated from high school. All four boys in his family served during World War II. After basic training, Sciarra was assigned to the Army's 25th Infantry Division, known as "Tropic Lightning." He was then ordered to be part of a heavy weapons platoon operating 81 millimeter mortars. The weapon would be critical to the U.S. driving the Japanese off of 47 separate ridges on the island of Luzon in the Philippines over five months in 1945.
In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Sciarra explains how the 81 millimeter guns were operated and why he sees them as the decisive weapon at Luzon. He also tells us about a suprisingly easy landing at Luzon, but there would nothing easy after that. He details the Japanese weapons that took a significant toll on American forces, what it was like fighting uphill all the time, how the Japanese ambushed our soldiers, and how he ended up with with a promotion he didn't want.
Sciarra also takes us into the personal side of war, losing friends, and honoring the remains of the fallen. He also tells us about his harrowing journey to Japan for occupational duty and the serious illness he faced at the end of the war. But more than anything, Sciarra wants all Americans to appreciate the courage and sacrifice of the U.S. Army infantry in World War II and beyond.
In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Sciarra explains how the 81 millimeter guns were operated and why he sees them as the decisive weapon at Luzon. He also tells us about a suprisingly easy landing at Luzon, but there would nothing easy after that. He details the Japanese weapons that took a significant toll on American forces, what it was like fighting uphill all the time, how the Japanese ambushed our soldiers, and how he ended up with with a promotion he didn't want.
Sciarra also takes us into the personal side of war, losing friends, and honoring the remains of the fallen. He also tells us about his harrowing journey to Japan for occupational duty and the serious illness he faced at the end of the war. But more than anything, Sciarra wants all Americans to appreciate the courage and sacrifice of the U.S. Army infantry in World War II and beyond.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Joe Pepi Shara. He's a US Army
veteran of World War Two, serving in a heavy weapons
platoon in the twenty fifth Infantry Division. He and his
team operated eighty one millimeter mortars and he spent five
months fighting the Japanese on Luzan in the Philippines in
(00:32):
nineteen forty five. Pepi Shara was born in Los Angeles
in late nineteen twenty four. He was almost seventeen when
the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen forty one.
Shara would be in the military soon enough, but his
very first reaction to Pearl Harbor was anger, and it
was directed at the White House.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I was very upset with our Prisioner Roosevelt at the
time because Hitler was taking over all the little countries
in Europe and we were not builliing our military up
and I couldn't figure that out. Harre was thirteen years
old thinking in those areas, and you know, and I
was very upset. Then when I was sixteen years old,
(01:15):
Pearl Harbor was bombed, and that really.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Upset me more so because we lost thirty.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Five hundred men there and then never should have been
because we still were not billion our military at the time.
It was after that Pearl Harbor deal happening when they
started to build our military. So it took us quite
a while to get her upset up and start realizing
that we are in World War two.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Charatte was drafted in nineteen forty three, just one day
after graduating from high school, and he says the notice
at that time did not come as a surprise.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Not really. I was ready whatever it was. Being my
other brother volunteered, I want to be part of it too.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
He says. Eventually, all four Shara boys joined the military
and served the US with honor.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I was actually out of the four brothers.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I yet my.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Invitation from President Roosevelt when I was seventeen years old,
and so when I got to my and a brother
who was a little older than I was very upset
and he fell hurt. He went and he volunteered and
he left before me. But all four of us were
in the military, all my brothers.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Shara did his basic training at Camp Roberts in California,
but it wasn't until he was shipped far into the
Pacific that he learned his new unit.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
After that training and we were shipped, we were shipped
out and I didn't know until we were sent to
this island of New Caledonia, and that's when I realized
I was a part of the twenty fifth of pre Division.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
After being a sign into the Lightning Division, Shara then
received a more specialized assignment. He would be working with
heavy weapons.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, when we landed in New Caledonia, I was then
now I knew where I was going to assign me
to the Heavy Weapon Company and they had that's worth.
They had the eighty one million media mortars and the
fifty caliber machine guns, and I was I was part
of the platoon of the eighty one millimeter mortars.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Shara explains the three main components of the eighty one
millimeter mortars and how the teams operated it.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
That weapon is three pieces.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
You get the base plate, you had the tube, and
you have the tripod. So you're trained in all different
different areas.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
That weapon no. Is about one.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Hundred and fifty pounds, and so I got most of
my trading with the tube. The tube is probably four
foot and lengthen about about four six inches in diameter,
and you throw in a eleven pound shell in that
and I was We had training in all parts of
(04:07):
that unit at eighty.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
One million morning.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
But ever theent I was tied up with the with
the tube where I threw in the shell. Each piece
weigh forty five pounds, So so I carried the two
young man would carry the base, the other one to
carry the tripod. The tripod man would be the one
number one man. He would be the one that sort
of figure out the length of the shell when I
(04:32):
went through it, in how far it would go. So
I was very good with the tube. But we all
learned a little bit about each eye. We were all
able to operate each piece. We were trained to train
the whole thing, so that that that was quite a weapon.
And wherever they sent me, I I did as well
as anybody else, even though I was the youngest, not
(04:54):
shaven yet, looking like a kid. But I was right
in there fighting just as good as they are. So
I'm really proud of myself.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Shara also described the personnel assigned to these weapons that
would be critical for the big battle to come at Luzon.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
We were six squads to a patuon they're Sish guns
and each squad were six men, So the three of
them were the operating of the eighty one mail or motors,
and the other three were carrying the ammunition. The ammunition
now ammunition weighed eleven pounds each towards three shells per
(05:32):
per container, so three of them would carry the ammunition
and the other three would be the operating of the of.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
The In January nineteen forty five, the twenty fifth Division
came ashore at Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines.
The US had been forced to surrender it in nineteen
forty two, but by early nineteen forty five the momentum
was clearly on the side of the Allies. Shara says
he was significantly weighed down as he had the beach.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
We had raffle, we had our weapon, we had our ambunition,
we had we had our mails.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
We can this ration, you know. So there was a
lot of weight.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
But contrary to other brutal, amphibious landings, the twenty fifth
did not meet serious resistance when landing on Luzan.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
There was not much resistance at all.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
We had somewhere there are some of the planes that
bombed us, and one or two artillery deals, but that
was it. That's for a lot of them left and
fortified all those islands. But they had the one hundred thousands
of those around us. That was a passageway a southern
part of the Philippines was very important and a pasta
(06:45):
they called Belletti pass and so they protected those all
those rages and everything. So they were well fortified up there.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
But it wasn't long after moving off the beaches that
Shara and others in the twenty fifth Division suffered through
the first of many Japanese ambushes.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Well, we were ambushed a lot the beginning of our operation.
Before we hit the we were caught in two ambushes.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
That was a scary thing.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
That my first one I I just did what I
have to do. And then when we were just being shelled.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
You know, the F.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Word we used a lot, but the F word saved
a lot of men's life the year. So we said,
get the f out of there. I mean, someone ever
that wafwards telling you and when they hear that word,
you better listen to it and you respond to it immediately.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Okay, it's very very important.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Uh So the two ambushes that we survived. We lost
the first one, we lost three men and three of
our gunners in the first one. And the second one
we didn't lose, and we were able to get out
of it immediately. I mean, when these ambushes appear, you're
sort of helpless, you know, because they got you surrounded.
(08:03):
And I got a lot. I don't know why I'm
here telling you about it. I mean, I see all
a lot of my men blown away and everything, and
I and here, I am close to one hundred years old,
and I'm telling you a story.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Were the other men that make it?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
And I did, and I and I think about them
all the time.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Once Sharah and his men were free from the ambushes,
he says, it didn't take long to see the devastating
impact of those eighty one millimeter mortars on Japanese positions.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Well, actually, we have six guns go and so so,
and we have to wait for the observer to give
his directions. So because all of those shells that we
can transfer, we can transfer one shell that the unit
to one way or the other where we don't have
to go one direction, so we can cover a big area.
(08:59):
So that so we can have we can have shift
guns going there for said anything big and sometimes only
two of the weapons to be sufficient because they have
we have faced different directions, uh to protect the riflemen
and the front there. So but we got that the
(09:21):
our our unit got hit many at times, uh, because
that's the only weapon that they were concerned about. That
the enemy that we can cause a lot of trouble.
The riflemens that go there, they they their job.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Is not easy either.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
It's it's a it's a tough one because they would
be more in contact with the enemy that we would be.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
But the Japanese presented plenty of problems too. Shara says.
The enemy had its own big guns and other threats
that led to mounting American casualties.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Ours was an eighty one weapon and there's where they
had a sixty bilometer weapon that's very aquid. They can
carry it everyth they wanted should. They were pretty good
at that. And snipers. The snipers were good. The snipers
was a big thing. They had no artillery, no, but
they in the position they had enough weapons that.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Whatever they had to.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Look down at us, you know, and knew knew where
we're at, you know, And so we had our weapons
our our eighty one million menu motors.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
We always had.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
To get an area where it was sort of a
bare land because in order for us to get these weapons,
these shells out, we had to make sure the trees
were all of the way where we had our shelves out.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
So our our positions were bombed a lot.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
They with us for some odd reason, they find it,
locate us, and we were shelled a lot by those
little sixty caliper motors. You know, we lost a lot
of men in that way too, And so our weapon
was a frightening thing for the Japanese because we once
(11:08):
we know where they're at, we can shoot all chihy
guns and cover a big area.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
But we were shout a lot.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
That's Joe Pepi Shara. He is a US Army veteran
of World War Two serving on an eighty one millimeter
mortar team in the twenty fifth Infantry Division. Coming up,
Shara explains how he got a promotion he never wanted.
Andy speaks very plainly about the cost of war. I'm
Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
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Speaker 1 (12:38):
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest today
is Joe Peppi Shara. He's a US Army veteran of
World War Two and fought in the vicious Battle of
Luzon as part of an eighty one millimeter mortar team.
Those mortars were one of the biggest advantages the Army
had on Luzan. As Shara explains, the US was not
(12:59):
in a position to airpower in this fight, so the
eighty ones did a lot of heavy lifting.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
All three of.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Us can put that thing within minutes, put it together
and ready to go. And so the shell is either
the distance of the shell would be operated by one person.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
He'd be eighty one millimerated.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
There was support of the riflement in front of us.
We couldn't use the artillery. We couldn't do airpower because
the jungles they will never know where the enemy is
or where we're at. So our weapon is very very
important in the jungles, you know. And so we had
an observer up with the young rafflemen and then he
(13:41):
would direct our shell where, how far to go in
one direction to go, and so it was quite an operation.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
It was not you had to have training to do
all the things you did.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
We had six weapons and in three or four minutes
we can have one hundred shells up in the air.
Before the first one ind I mean, when you call
for fire, you just we all get together and make
sure things happened so we can protect the riflemen in
front of us.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
The daunting job assigned to Shara and his fellow soldiers
was to force the Japanese off of forty seven different
ridges on Luzan, some as high as six thousand feet.
That means they were constantly fighting uphill. The casualties did
not take long to mount, and Shara found himself with
a job he didn't want.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
We took a lot of casualties and a lot of
the officers. That's why I was made a patuned sergeant
when all our other officers were.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
But I don'where no emblem at all.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
I mean, when I become a patuone sergeant as a
twenty year old, is scared to hell out of me
because you know, that was a big responsibility. I was
only a private. From a private to a six shripe sergeant,
you know, it was a big blow to me.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
So what I did as a platoon sergeant, I worked
together with all.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I mean I got his all together, and I says
like we're gonna work together and we make decisions together.
I'm not going to be the one to tell you
what to do. We got to make sure we get
the right right thing going and think the same way.
And it worked out beautiful and I didn't lose a man.
Once I become a platoon surgeon, I didn't lose one man.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
We had casualties. Yes.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Shara says he was willing to do just about anything
that was asked of him, but one order really angered him.
He says he was asked to do a very dangerous
job for which he had absolutely no training.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
For some reason, there's a anyone platoon, but we're trained
to handle our weapons and everything. But they chose three
of us to go out to like scouts the chicken
see if we can track any attention to where the
enemies were at. Well, that's a dead order, you know.
(16:00):
Chances over you did find the enemy, you would be dead.
So when I got back the lieutenant that the senna's
out there, I really got on his butt.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Told him what I thought. I don't care you.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
You can go ahead and do what you want with
me after I tell you, I think it's a very
lousy decision to make for three menu and never had
the training in that where any one millimeter or heavy
weapon company not you know.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
And so I was reading and I.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Thought, for sure, you do it. But he's the guy
that made me a petwo searcheon being good friends.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
In addition to the Japanese having the high ground, there
were other dangers. One was the frequent nighttime bonds I
charges as the enemy ran shrieking to attack Americans and
their foxholes. He says. Another problem was the elaborate cave
system of the Japanese.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Well sometimes it's pretty close.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
In fact, the matter, the Japanese liked to attact us
at night, and so we had to be very much
alert at nighttime. And so they were right by our foxholes.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
You know that they were close.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
And I'll tell you about this one when I the
shells were hitting and I I hit the ground and
I destroyed my forefront teeth.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
I was able to be picked up and send it
at the back and get those straightened out.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
So when I got back, uh, this jeep let me
off of this ridge, which is not where my my
men were at, you know. And I had to get
to my company before night, because anything at night is
walking around to be shot from this one ridge, I
had to go down this ridge and up another ridge
to get to my uh my platoon. I got there
(17:44):
just in time before it got dark, you know. But
that night we were attacked by the Japanese. But we
had we had uh stringe stuff around our our caping
area with out of empty cans. So if we know anything,
and now do we start shooting, we don't waste any time.
So the next morning we went down trying to figure
(18:07):
out who I a little gully, you know. So we
all went down and checked around, and here those guys
were all in caves. Every time we throw grenades in
there or framethrowers and didn't they didn't bother them. So
we had these bangler torpedoes that we set on the
top and caved it in. But that's not the point.
(18:28):
When I came down that one ridge and up the
other ridge, all those caves were underneath my walkway while
I was walking alone to my place and went and
I didn't know it till the next day, you know.
And I had no weapons at all, you know, to
get to my place. But I didn't know that till
the next day. These guys were all under me.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
That's Joe Peppy Shara. He's a US Army veteran of
World War Two and the Battle of Luzan. In a moment,
Shara describes losing a very good friend, the toll of
jungle warfare, and much more. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this
is Veterans' Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus.
(19:11):
Our guest today is Joe Peppi Shara. He's a US
Army veteran who served on an eighty one millimeter mortar
team in the twenty fifth Infantry Division. He saw five
months of action during the brutal Battle of Luzan in
the Philippines from early to mid nineteen forty five. Shara
says he often thinks of the men he served with,
(19:32):
particularly the ones who never came home, and there were
so many. One name that stands out to him is
fred Arcangelo, who lost his life just seconds after Shara
ducked down into his foxhole.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
So I got to set up and my friend, his
name is fred Archangelo. We were both standing, you know,
and then waiting for our orders you all. So Freda
for shim odd reasons, I jumped at my foxhole and
start working on my eight it one May morning, and
sure enough, one of our own shelves landed short right
(20:08):
there in front of me.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
His head was completely blown off.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I mean, these are the kind of things that I
went through as a youngster then and still today.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
You know, I think of this young man and he's telling.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
About his family that he was divorced with his wife
and he had a kid. In holidays, he and he
go by the house where his kids that just walk by,
and she had her own family there. You telling me
all about there was a blow.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
These soldiers had trained extensively together and fought shoulder to
shoulder with each other every day for weeks and months.
Shara says, amazingly close bonds get forged through those experiences.
And there's only one word to describe how close they were.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Even though city three years ago. And I think of
the young men that I shared Foxholtz with and we
were like a family, and we had every race there was.
I mean, we're all like a family. We all work together.
And one thing I've been saying to you know, like Israel,
you know the people are hating the Jewish people. You know,
(21:14):
I had two young men they're Jewish, and I fought
next to them and we worked together as a family.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
They were just as.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Good as anyone else, and why they should do this
to the israel people when they actually a lot of
them were in our wartime World War two and the
other words.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
You know, they were all involved.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Shara says. The fact is that in a battle that long,
where the enemy constantly has the high ground, makes for
a recipe for many US losses.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
We got to remember as jungle fighting. So a lot
of times we be we're always at a disadvantage climbing
going up the hills.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
We lost a lot of men. It was very dangerous.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
A lot of my men around me, Some are caught
because we're hurting set back, and none of them were dead.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
As has long been the ethos of the US military,
the soldiers were careful to secure and protect the bodies
of their fallen service members. But while they rendered that respect,
Shara says, there was no time to get emotional about
losing friends.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
When our men were killed.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
You know, right, there's your guys you share foxhols with, right,
And so what we had to do we wrapped them
up in ponchos or whatever they had because we had
to be on a move a lot. You know, you
had no time to shed tears, and so we did
that because we had to leave those bodies there for
(22:42):
a day or two before they were picked up. And
if we left them where and then the animals there
would get to them, you know. So we made sure
they were well taken care of and wrapped up properly
so they'd be their body would be protected.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
And we did that slowly, but surely the Americans pushed
the Japanese off ridge after ridge forty seven times. They
did that over five months, and Shara says, there's no
question the eighty one millimeter mortars were a decisive factor.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Or eighty one mile motors. Said, you know, well we shelled.
They're in a high ground.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
There was thirty three divisions or so working three to
four divisions, so we had no trouble. We had a
lot of care. But we got as ridged by rage,
were able to destroy those ridges, and as we did
for five and a half months from ridge to ridge.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
And got them mountain, they were killed.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
We didn't you couldn't take any surrendering to anybody, either
killed or be killed.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
But fighting for months in the jungle takes its toll.
And Shara describes what those conditions were like, day after day.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
You're in a rain here in your fox on his
raining or win a month and it's stuff there that
is and you gotta do it, go along whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
I mean, that was your job they're doing.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
I didn't recommend that to anybody, but we were told
that's what we had to do it, and that's what
we did, and we did a good job of it.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Shara does point out that he and the others in
his unit did not fight NonStop for five months. He
says the army was sure to bring in fresh troops
and give others a much needed break.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
We're up there probably a week and a half at
one time. We could never be there on a steady basis.
We had to get relieved because after a week and
a half, I mean we were in a rain and
mud and we needed a r and arm. We r
and our every week and a half. So we had
(24:40):
another thirty thousand young men to replace the divisions we
had because we were sixty eight thousand men landed in
the Philippine, so only thirty thousand was at one time
we fighting the Japanese and we get relieved by thirty thousand.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
So what happened over those days behind the front, Shara
says they spent a lot of time getting c and
feeling normal for a bit before re entering the fight.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
When we got done down the base, they made us
take all our clothes off because we were all full
of lice. We were in lousy shaped mud all over
us and filth, the dirty and uh so they give
it new clothing and we go back and for about
a few days and get showered up and clean to
get a halfway meal and get our mail.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
The conditions in the jungle left the soldier is so
filthy that they also took the opportunity to take a
quick bath in the streams when it appeared safe to
do so. But Shara says there were other dangers of
rinsing off in the creek, besides the risk of a
Japanese sniper.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Get one or two guys go in there and clean up,
and the other asure watches, you know. So and one
time I took my clothes off and I jumped in
the street and I had a pot of desks what
they call it a nest of leeches, And I had
a nest of those, and my whole body was full
(26:02):
of them, you know. And these guys were sitting there
laughing at me, you know, so I had a hard.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Time taking them all. But that was that was quite
an experience.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
And when the Battle of Luzan was finally over, it
was time to prepare for the invasion of Japan. But
before leaving the Philippines, Shara says he and many other
soldiers went for a walk in infamous walk that reminded
them of how much Americans had suffered and sacrificed earlier
in the war.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
After we are getting trained to get the Japan we
had to hold a company more than one the whole
regiment walked to the Baton to show, you know where
the dish was, that where all these guys were thrown in,
And so we walked that, not the fool lady Miles,
(26:51):
but we walked a portion of it to show what
these guys had to go through when the Japanese took
these guys and march them down Baton.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
March and whoever died died.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
But then but before they killed them all, and then
the little ditch is still there on the side of
the road we were walking.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
And of course the training continued for the invasion that
thankfully would never come. Shara explains what that training was
like and how he finally heard the war was over.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
We knew nothing about the war being over and like that.
But because we didn't in the islands, you don't there's
no news to know what's going on, and so we
didn't know the war was over after four days, you know.
So we were getting ready, We're being trained, we're training
for the invasion of Japan, and we're getting all new
(27:40):
recruits in, you know, and I had to train them again.
I'm ready for the invasion and train them with our
weapons and train them out to go up and down
the side of the ship, you know, and nandy crafts.
And we were doing all that ready for the invasion
of Japan.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Then we got the news the war was over, you know.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
So instead of invade Japan, Shara and others in the
twenty fifth Division were among those who were assigned as
part of the occupational force. But getting to Japan proved
to be far more harrowing and life threatening than anyone
could have imagined.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Our company were being shipped to Japan to occupy Jepanes.
So we were about thirty forty ships, you know, on
the way to Japan, and we hit the high typhoon
in exists China Sea and several ships are ready to
spit in two and then the swells of the water
(28:35):
was higher than the ships and it took his set
of four days.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
It took us thirty days to get to Japan.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Shara made it to Japan, but while serving there, he
started feeling sick. He ignored it for a while, but
once he returned to the US, the illness got much worse.
In fact, Shara says he still feels the effects of
his bout with malaria.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
It's true, I might be all right now, but it
took lot from me. I could have been a lot stronger.
All my all my brothers were husky, had been that
very healthy, but I didn't have the strength that they had.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
It took something away from you.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
That malaria attacks here. I mean, they're miserable. I just
don't wish that on anybody. And those who have had it,
who can tell you what I'm telling you. When I
went for compensation, the veterans will not do nothing for me.
They said, you know that they didn't feed that it
was that was algible for any compensation or anything like that.
(29:33):
But anyway, I am a disabled veteran.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
But I don't. I don't get nothing from my malaria.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
But I got post traumatic stress disorder fifty and I
lost all my pigmentation. I have no pigmentation. I can't
take the sun and I can't. I can't take the
cool area. I can, but I manage. I couldn't keep
a job. So I learned to meet business from my brother.
(29:59):
Now help me in little shops for my wife. And
I did that for thirty six years.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
We made a nice living, you know, and I was
happy with that.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Shara is now more than one hundred years old. He's
still active in his church, and he's very proud to
have served in the US military. He shared an experience
a few years ago where he was asked to honor
the US flag at a local city council meeting. He
says he took the opportunity to point out to a
packed room why every American should honor the US flag.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
I was invited to a council meeting. They gave the
flag salute, but.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
When I went there, they were honoring young men the
baseball season, you know, and they had their parents with them.
So there was around two hundred people there at the
council meeting. So then when they asked me to give
the flag salute, I got up and I was not
(30:56):
looking at the kids that were looking at the council meeting,
you know, and have this guy, and I says, I
just want you to know that I'm a combat veteran.
We lost six hundred and fifty thousand men in World
War Two, And I says, and I says, now do
you know why we lost those men. We lost their
men because for the love of our country, constitution and
(31:23):
that beautiful flag. Now put your hand over your heart
and repeat after me. And when I was done, I
had a standing ovation. But I mean not for a
minute or two. They're just going on.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
And Shara also wants to be sure that the US
Army Infantry gets the credit it deserves for helping to
win World War Two. He says sometimes the other branches,
which he fully respects, are treated as more glamorous, perhaps
due to fancier uniforms. But he says, like those other branches,
the US Army Infantry always got the job done.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
The infrymns are very important. I think we did heck
up a job. We were thirty thousand, five one hundred
thousand Japanese. It took us five and a half months,
and these thirty thousand infantrymen with a lot of losses
and everything. Because the Japanese had the high ground.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
There was forty seven ridges.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Some of those ridges were as high as six thousand feet,
and so these thirty thousand infectmen in five and a
half months, we were able to take all the forty
seven rages and there was no Japanese left there.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
They were gone.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
That's Joe Peppy Shara. He's a US Army veteran of
World War Two and the Battle of Luzan and the Philippines.
He served as part of an eighty one millimeter mortar team.
I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi, this
(32:58):
is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,
a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information,
please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow
the American Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter. We're
at AVC update. Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube
(33:19):
channel for full oral histories and special features, and of course,
please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles Podcast wherever you get
your podcasts. Thanks again for listening, and please join us
next time for Veterans Chronicles
Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Joe Pepi Shara. He's a US Army
veteran of World War Two, serving in a heavy weapons
platoon in the twenty fifth Infantry Division. He and his
team operated eighty one millimeter mortars and he spent five
months fighting the Japanese on Luzan in the Philippines in
(00:32):
nineteen forty five. Pepi Shara was born in Los Angeles
in late nineteen twenty four. He was almost seventeen when
the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen forty one.
Shara would be in the military soon enough, but his
very first reaction to Pearl Harbor was anger, and it
was directed at the White House.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I was very upset with our Prisioner Roosevelt at the
time because Hitler was taking over all the little countries
in Europe and we were not builliing our military up
and I couldn't figure that out. Harre was thirteen years
old thinking in those areas, and you know, and I
was very upset. Then when I was sixteen years old,
(01:15):
Pearl Harbor was bombed, and that really.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Upset me more so because we lost thirty.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Five hundred men there and then never should have been
because we still were not billion our military at the time.
It was after that Pearl Harbor deal happening when they
started to build our military. So it took us quite
a while to get her upset up and start realizing
that we are in World War two.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Charatte was drafted in nineteen forty three, just one day
after graduating from high school, and he says the notice
at that time did not come as a surprise.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Not really. I was ready whatever it was. Being my
other brother volunteered, I want to be part of it too.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
He says. Eventually, all four Shara boys joined the military
and served the US with honor.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I was actually out of the four brothers.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I yet my.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Invitation from President Roosevelt when I was seventeen years old,
and so when I got to my and a brother
who was a little older than I was very upset
and he fell hurt. He went and he volunteered and
he left before me. But all four of us were
in the military, all my brothers.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Shara did his basic training at Camp Roberts in California,
but it wasn't until he was shipped far into the
Pacific that he learned his new unit.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
After that training and we were shipped, we were shipped
out and I didn't know until we were sent to
this island of New Caledonia, and that's when I realized
I was a part of the twenty fifth of pre Division.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
After being a sign into the Lightning Division, Shara then
received a more specialized assignment. He would be working with
heavy weapons.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, when we landed in New Caledonia, I was then
now I knew where I was going to assign me
to the Heavy Weapon Company and they had that's worth.
They had the eighty one million media mortars and the
fifty caliber machine guns, and I was I was part
of the platoon of the eighty one millimeter mortars.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Shara explains the three main components of the eighty one
millimeter mortars and how the teams operated it.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
That weapon is three pieces.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
You get the base plate, you had the tube, and
you have the tripod. So you're trained in all different
different areas.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
That weapon no. Is about one.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Hundred and fifty pounds, and so I got most of
my trading with the tube. The tube is probably four
foot and lengthen about about four six inches in diameter,
and you throw in a eleven pound shell in that
and I was We had training in all parts of
(04:07):
that unit at eighty.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
One million morning.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
But ever theent I was tied up with the with
the tube where I threw in the shell. Each piece
weigh forty five pounds, So so I carried the two
young man would carry the base, the other one to
carry the tripod. The tripod man would be the one
number one man. He would be the one that sort
of figure out the length of the shell when I
(04:32):
went through it, in how far it would go. So
I was very good with the tube. But we all
learned a little bit about each eye. We were all
able to operate each piece. We were trained to train
the whole thing, so that that that was quite a weapon.
And wherever they sent me, I I did as well
as anybody else, even though I was the youngest, not
(04:54):
shaven yet, looking like a kid. But I was right
in there fighting just as good as they are. So
I'm really proud of myself.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Shara also described the personnel assigned to these weapons that
would be critical for the big battle to come at Luzon.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
We were six squads to a patuon they're Sish guns
and each squad were six men, So the three of
them were the operating of the eighty one mail or motors,
and the other three were carrying the ammunition. The ammunition
now ammunition weighed eleven pounds each towards three shells per
(05:32):
per container, so three of them would carry the ammunition
and the other three would be the operating of the of.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
The In January nineteen forty five, the twenty fifth Division
came ashore at Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines.
The US had been forced to surrender it in nineteen
forty two, but by early nineteen forty five the momentum
was clearly on the side of the Allies. Shara says
he was significantly weighed down as he had the beach.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
We had raffle, we had our weapon, we had our ambunition,
we had we had our mails.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
We can this ration, you know. So there was a
lot of weight.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
But contrary to other brutal, amphibious landings, the twenty fifth
did not meet serious resistance when landing on Luzan.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
There was not much resistance at all.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
We had somewhere there are some of the planes that
bombed us, and one or two artillery deals, but that
was it. That's for a lot of them left and
fortified all those islands. But they had the one hundred thousands
of those around us. That was a passageway a southern
part of the Philippines was very important and a pasta
(06:45):
they called Belletti pass and so they protected those all
those rages and everything. So they were well fortified up there.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
But it wasn't long after moving off the beaches that
Shara and others in the twenty fifth Division suffered through
the first of many Japanese ambushes.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Well, we were ambushed a lot the beginning of our operation.
Before we hit the we were caught in two ambushes.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
That was a scary thing.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
That my first one I I just did what I
have to do. And then when we were just being shelled.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
You know, the F.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Word we used a lot, but the F word saved
a lot of men's life the year. So we said,
get the f out of there. I mean, someone ever
that wafwards telling you and when they hear that word,
you better listen to it and you respond to it immediately.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Okay, it's very very important.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Uh So the two ambushes that we survived. We lost
the first one, we lost three men and three of
our gunners in the first one. And the second one
we didn't lose, and we were able to get out
of it immediately. I mean, when these ambushes appear, you're
sort of helpless, you know, because they got you surrounded.
(08:03):
And I got a lot. I don't know why I'm
here telling you about it. I mean, I see all
a lot of my men blown away and everything, and
I and here, I am close to one hundred years old,
and I'm telling you a story.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Were the other men that make it?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
And I did, and I and I think about them
all the time.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Once Sharah and his men were free from the ambushes,
he says, it didn't take long to see the devastating
impact of those eighty one millimeter mortars on Japanese positions.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Well, actually, we have six guns go and so so,
and we have to wait for the observer to give
his directions. So because all of those shells that we
can transfer, we can transfer one shell that the unit
to one way or the other where we don't have
to go one direction, so we can cover a big area.
(08:59):
So that so we can have we can have shift
guns going there for said anything big and sometimes only
two of the weapons to be sufficient because they have
we have faced different directions, uh to protect the riflemen
and the front there. So but we got that the
(09:21):
our our unit got hit many at times, uh, because
that's the only weapon that they were concerned about. That
the enemy that we can cause a lot of trouble.
The riflemens that go there, they they their job.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Is not easy either.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
It's it's a it's a tough one because they would
be more in contact with the enemy that we would be.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
But the Japanese presented plenty of problems too. Shara says.
The enemy had its own big guns and other threats
that led to mounting American casualties.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Ours was an eighty one weapon and there's where they
had a sixty bilometer weapon that's very aquid. They can
carry it everyth they wanted should. They were pretty good
at that. And snipers. The snipers were good. The snipers
was a big thing. They had no artillery, no, but
they in the position they had enough weapons that.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Whatever they had to.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Look down at us, you know, and knew knew where
we're at, you know, And so we had our weapons
our our eighty one million menu motors.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
We always had.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
To get an area where it was sort of a
bare land because in order for us to get these weapons,
these shells out, we had to make sure the trees
were all of the way where we had our shelves out.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
So our our positions were bombed a lot.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
They with us for some odd reason, they find it,
locate us, and we were shelled a lot by those
little sixty caliper motors. You know, we lost a lot
of men in that way too, And so our weapon
was a frightening thing for the Japanese because we once
(11:08):
we know where they're at, we can shoot all chihy
guns and cover a big area.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
But we were shout a lot.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
That's Joe Pepi Shara. He is a US Army veteran
of World War Two serving on an eighty one millimeter
mortar team in the twenty fifth Infantry Division. Coming up,
Shara explains how he got a promotion he never wanted.
Andy speaks very plainly about the cost of war. I'm
Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
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Speaker 4 (11:39):
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(12:15):
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Speaker 1 (12:38):
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest today
is Joe Peppi Shara. He's a US Army veteran of
World War Two and fought in the vicious Battle of
Luzon as part of an eighty one millimeter mortar team.
Those mortars were one of the biggest advantages the Army
had on Luzan. As Shara explains, the US was not
(12:59):
in a position to airpower in this fight, so the
eighty ones did a lot of heavy lifting.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
All three of.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Us can put that thing within minutes, put it together
and ready to go. And so the shell is either
the distance of the shell would be operated by one person.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
He'd be eighty one millimerated.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
There was support of the riflement in front of us.
We couldn't use the artillery. We couldn't do airpower because
the jungles they will never know where the enemy is
or where we're at. So our weapon is very very
important in the jungles, you know. And so we had
an observer up with the young rafflemen and then he
(13:41):
would direct our shell where, how far to go in
one direction to go, and so it was quite an operation.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
It was not you had to have training to do
all the things you did.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
We had six weapons and in three or four minutes
we can have one hundred shells up in the air.
Before the first one ind I mean, when you call
for fire, you just we all get together and make
sure things happened so we can protect the riflemen in
front of us.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
The daunting job assigned to Shara and his fellow soldiers
was to force the Japanese off of forty seven different
ridges on Luzan, some as high as six thousand feet.
That means they were constantly fighting uphill. The casualties did
not take long to mount, and Shara found himself with
a job he didn't want.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
We took a lot of casualties and a lot of
the officers. That's why I was made a patuned sergeant
when all our other officers were.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
But I don'where no emblem at all.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
I mean, when I become a patuone sergeant as a
twenty year old, is scared to hell out of me
because you know, that was a big responsibility. I was
only a private. From a private to a six shripe sergeant,
you know, it was a big blow to me.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
So what I did as a platoon sergeant, I worked
together with all.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I mean I got his all together, and I says
like we're gonna work together and we make decisions together.
I'm not going to be the one to tell you
what to do. We got to make sure we get
the right right thing going and think the same way.
And it worked out beautiful and I didn't lose a man.
Once I become a platoon surgeon, I didn't lose one man.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
We had casualties. Yes.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Shara says he was willing to do just about anything
that was asked of him, but one order really angered him.
He says he was asked to do a very dangerous
job for which he had absolutely no training.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
For some reason, there's a anyone platoon, but we're trained
to handle our weapons and everything. But they chose three
of us to go out to like scouts the chicken
see if we can track any attention to where the
enemies were at. Well, that's a dead order, you know.
(16:00):
Chances over you did find the enemy, you would be dead.
So when I got back the lieutenant that the senna's
out there, I really got on his butt.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Told him what I thought. I don't care you.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
You can go ahead and do what you want with
me after I tell you, I think it's a very
lousy decision to make for three menu and never had
the training in that where any one millimeter or heavy
weapon company not you know.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
And so I was reading and I.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Thought, for sure, you do it. But he's the guy
that made me a petwo searcheon being good friends.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
In addition to the Japanese having the high ground, there
were other dangers. One was the frequent nighttime bonds I
charges as the enemy ran shrieking to attack Americans and
their foxholes. He says. Another problem was the elaborate cave
system of the Japanese.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Well sometimes it's pretty close.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
In fact, the matter, the Japanese liked to attact us
at night, and so we had to be very much
alert at nighttime. And so they were right by our foxholes.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
You know that they were close.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
And I'll tell you about this one when I the
shells were hitting and I I hit the ground and
I destroyed my forefront teeth.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
I was able to be picked up and send it
at the back and get those straightened out.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
So when I got back, uh, this jeep let me
off of this ridge, which is not where my my
men were at, you know. And I had to get
to my company before night, because anything at night is
walking around to be shot from this one ridge, I
had to go down this ridge and up another ridge
to get to my uh my platoon. I got there
(17:44):
just in time before it got dark, you know. But
that night we were attacked by the Japanese. But we
had we had uh stringe stuff around our our caping
area with out of empty cans. So if we know anything,
and now do we start shooting, we don't waste any time.
So the next morning we went down trying to figure
(18:07):
out who I a little gully, you know. So we
all went down and checked around, and here those guys
were all in caves. Every time we throw grenades in
there or framethrowers and didn't they didn't bother them. So
we had these bangler torpedoes that we set on the
top and caved it in. But that's not the point.
(18:28):
When I came down that one ridge and up the
other ridge, all those caves were underneath my walkway while
I was walking alone to my place and went and
I didn't know it till the next day, you know.
And I had no weapons at all, you know, to
get to my place. But I didn't know that till
the next day. These guys were all under me.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
That's Joe Peppy Shara. He's a US Army veteran of
World War Two and the Battle of Luzan. In a moment,
Shara describes losing a very good friend, the toll of
jungle warfare, and much more. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this
is Veterans' Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus.
(19:11):
Our guest today is Joe Peppi Shara. He's a US
Army veteran who served on an eighty one millimeter mortar
team in the twenty fifth Infantry Division. He saw five
months of action during the brutal Battle of Luzan in
the Philippines from early to mid nineteen forty five. Shara
says he often thinks of the men he served with,
(19:32):
particularly the ones who never came home, and there were
so many. One name that stands out to him is
fred Arcangelo, who lost his life just seconds after Shara
ducked down into his foxhole.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
So I got to set up and my friend, his
name is fred Archangelo. We were both standing, you know,
and then waiting for our orders you all. So Freda
for shim odd reasons, I jumped at my foxhole and
start working on my eight it one May morning, and
sure enough, one of our own shelves landed short right
(20:08):
there in front of me.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
His head was completely blown off.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I mean, these are the kind of things that I
went through as a youngster then and still today.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
You know, I think of this young man and he's telling.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
About his family that he was divorced with his wife
and he had a kid. In holidays, he and he
go by the house where his kids that just walk by,
and she had her own family there. You telling me
all about there was a blow.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
These soldiers had trained extensively together and fought shoulder to
shoulder with each other every day for weeks and months.
Shara says, amazingly close bonds get forged through those experiences.
And there's only one word to describe how close they were.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Even though city three years ago. And I think of
the young men that I shared Foxholtz with and we
were like a family, and we had every race there was.
I mean, we're all like a family. We all work together.
And one thing I've been saying to you know, like Israel,
you know the people are hating the Jewish people. You know,
(21:14):
I had two young men they're Jewish, and I fought
next to them and we worked together as a family.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
They were just as.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Good as anyone else, and why they should do this
to the israel people when they actually a lot of
them were in our wartime World War two and the
other words.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
You know, they were all involved.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Shara says. The fact is that in a battle that long,
where the enemy constantly has the high ground, makes for
a recipe for many US losses.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
We got to remember as jungle fighting. So a lot
of times we be we're always at a disadvantage climbing
going up the hills.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
We lost a lot of men. It was very dangerous.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
A lot of my men around me, Some are caught
because we're hurting set back, and none of them were dead.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
As has long been the ethos of the US military,
the soldiers were careful to secure and protect the bodies
of their fallen service members. But while they rendered that respect,
Shara says, there was no time to get emotional about
losing friends.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
When our men were killed.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
You know, right, there's your guys you share foxhols with, right,
And so what we had to do we wrapped them
up in ponchos or whatever they had because we had
to be on a move a lot. You know, you
had no time to shed tears, and so we did
that because we had to leave those bodies there for
(22:42):
a day or two before they were picked up. And
if we left them where and then the animals there
would get to them, you know. So we made sure
they were well taken care of and wrapped up properly
so they'd be their body would be protected.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
And we did that slowly, but surely the Americans pushed
the Japanese off ridge after ridge forty seven times. They
did that over five months, and Shara says, there's no
question the eighty one millimeter mortars were a decisive factor.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Or eighty one mile motors. Said, you know, well we shelled.
They're in a high ground.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
There was thirty three divisions or so working three to
four divisions, so we had no trouble. We had a
lot of care. But we got as ridged by rage,
were able to destroy those ridges, and as we did
for five and a half months from ridge to ridge.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
And got them mountain, they were killed.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
We didn't you couldn't take any surrendering to anybody, either
killed or be killed.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
But fighting for months in the jungle takes its toll.
And Shara describes what those conditions were like, day after day.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
You're in a rain here in your fox on his
raining or win a month and it's stuff there that
is and you gotta do it, go along whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
I mean, that was your job they're doing.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
I didn't recommend that to anybody, but we were told
that's what we had to do it, and that's what
we did, and we did a good job of it.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Shara does point out that he and the others in
his unit did not fight NonStop for five months. He
says the army was sure to bring in fresh troops
and give others a much needed break.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
We're up there probably a week and a half at
one time. We could never be there on a steady basis.
We had to get relieved because after a week and
a half, I mean we were in a rain and
mud and we needed a r and arm. We r
and our every week and a half. So we had
(24:40):
another thirty thousand young men to replace the divisions we
had because we were sixty eight thousand men landed in
the Philippine, so only thirty thousand was at one time
we fighting the Japanese and we get relieved by thirty thousand.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
So what happened over those days behind the front, Shara
says they spent a lot of time getting c and
feeling normal for a bit before re entering the fight.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
When we got done down the base, they made us
take all our clothes off because we were all full
of lice. We were in lousy shaped mud all over
us and filth, the dirty and uh so they give
it new clothing and we go back and for about
a few days and get showered up and clean to
get a halfway meal and get our mail.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
The conditions in the jungle left the soldier is so
filthy that they also took the opportunity to take a
quick bath in the streams when it appeared safe to
do so. But Shara says there were other dangers of
rinsing off in the creek, besides the risk of a
Japanese sniper.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Get one or two guys go in there and clean up,
and the other asure watches, you know. So and one
time I took my clothes off and I jumped in
the street and I had a pot of desks what
they call it a nest of leeches, And I had
a nest of those, and my whole body was full
(26:02):
of them, you know. And these guys were sitting there
laughing at me, you know, so I had a hard.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Time taking them all. But that was that was quite
an experience.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
And when the Battle of Luzan was finally over, it
was time to prepare for the invasion of Japan. But
before leaving the Philippines, Shara says he and many other
soldiers went for a walk in infamous walk that reminded
them of how much Americans had suffered and sacrificed earlier
in the war.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
After we are getting trained to get the Japan we
had to hold a company more than one the whole
regiment walked to the Baton to show, you know where
the dish was, that where all these guys were thrown in,
And so we walked that, not the fool lady Miles,
(26:51):
but we walked a portion of it to show what
these guys had to go through when the Japanese took
these guys and march them down Baton.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
March and whoever died died.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
But then but before they killed them all, and then
the little ditch is still there on the side of
the road we were walking.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
And of course the training continued for the invasion that
thankfully would never come. Shara explains what that training was
like and how he finally heard the war was over.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
We knew nothing about the war being over and like that.
But because we didn't in the islands, you don't there's
no news to know what's going on, and so we
didn't know the war was over after four days, you know.
So we were getting ready, We're being trained, we're training
for the invasion of Japan, and we're getting all new
(27:40):
recruits in, you know, and I had to train them again.
I'm ready for the invasion and train them with our
weapons and train them out to go up and down
the side of the ship, you know, and nandy crafts.
And we were doing all that ready for the invasion
of Japan.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Then we got the news the war was over, you know.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
So instead of invade Japan, Shara and others in the
twenty fifth Division were among those who were assigned as
part of the occupational force. But getting to Japan proved
to be far more harrowing and life threatening than anyone
could have imagined.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Our company were being shipped to Japan to occupy Jepanes.
So we were about thirty forty ships, you know, on
the way to Japan, and we hit the high typhoon
in exists China Sea and several ships are ready to
spit in two and then the swells of the water
(28:35):
was higher than the ships and it took his set
of four days.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
It took us thirty days to get to Japan.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Shara made it to Japan, but while serving there, he
started feeling sick. He ignored it for a while, but
once he returned to the US, the illness got much worse.
In fact, Shara says he still feels the effects of
his bout with malaria.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
It's true, I might be all right now, but it
took lot from me. I could have been a lot stronger.
All my all my brothers were husky, had been that
very healthy, but I didn't have the strength that they had.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
It took something away from you.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
That malaria attacks here. I mean, they're miserable. I just
don't wish that on anybody. And those who have had it,
who can tell you what I'm telling you. When I
went for compensation, the veterans will not do nothing for me.
They said, you know that they didn't feed that it
was that was algible for any compensation or anything like that.
(29:33):
But anyway, I am a disabled veteran.
Speaker 3 (29:36):
But I don't. I don't get nothing from my malaria.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
But I got post traumatic stress disorder fifty and I
lost all my pigmentation. I have no pigmentation. I can't
take the sun and I can't. I can't take the
cool area. I can, but I manage. I couldn't keep
a job. So I learned to meet business from my brother.
(29:59):
Now help me in little shops for my wife. And
I did that for thirty six years.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
We made a nice living, you know, and I was
happy with that.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Shara is now more than one hundred years old. He's
still active in his church, and he's very proud to
have served in the US military. He shared an experience
a few years ago where he was asked to honor
the US flag at a local city council meeting. He
says he took the opportunity to point out to a
packed room why every American should honor the US flag.
Speaker 3 (30:31):
I was invited to a council meeting. They gave the
flag salute, but.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
When I went there, they were honoring young men the
baseball season, you know, and they had their parents with them.
So there was around two hundred people there at the
council meeting. So then when they asked me to give
the flag salute, I got up and I was not
(30:56):
looking at the kids that were looking at the council meeting,
you know, and have this guy, and I says, I
just want you to know that I'm a combat veteran.
We lost six hundred and fifty thousand men in World
War Two, And I says, and I says, now do
you know why we lost those men. We lost their
men because for the love of our country, constitution and
(31:23):
that beautiful flag. Now put your hand over your heart
and repeat after me. And when I was done, I
had a standing ovation. But I mean not for a
minute or two. They're just going on.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
And Shara also wants to be sure that the US
Army Infantry gets the credit it deserves for helping to
win World War Two. He says sometimes the other branches,
which he fully respects, are treated as more glamorous, perhaps
due to fancier uniforms. But he says, like those other branches,
the US Army Infantry always got the job done.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
The infrymns are very important. I think we did heck
up a job. We were thirty thousand, five one hundred
thousand Japanese. It took us five and a half months,
and these thirty thousand infantrymen with a lot of losses
and everything. Because the Japanese had the high ground.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
There was forty seven ridges.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Some of those ridges were as high as six thousand feet,
and so these thirty thousand infectmen in five and a
half months, we were able to take all the forty
seven rages and there was no Japanese left there.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
They were gone.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
That's Joe Peppy Shara. He's a US Army veteran of
World War Two and the Battle of Luzan and the Philippines.
He served as part of an eighty one millimeter mortar team.
I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi, this
(32:58):
is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,
a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information,
please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow
the American Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter. We're
at AVC update. Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube
(33:19):
channel for full oral histories and special features, and of course,
please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles Podcast wherever you get
your podcasts. Thanks again for listening, and please join us
next time for Veterans Chronicles
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