06.) Iwo Jima II

It is believed that only ten men survived the battle of Cushman's Pocket, Iwo Jima. We talk to one of them, Jim Earl, who was part of William Langston's Fox Company on the day he officially died.

Episode Transcript

(00:09):
This is Chris de Rose, authorof The Fighting Bunch and host of the
Phantom Marine podcast. This is episodesix Iwashima, Part two. In this
episode, we'll talk to Jim Earle. Jim is a national treasure. He
served in the Marines during World WarTwo, and most importantly for our purposes,

(00:33):
he was there an Iwashima at theBattle of Cushman's Pocket where William Willard
Langston officially lost his life. Earland Langston were both members of Fox Company.
Fox Company, along with Easy Company, made up the second Battalion of
the ninth Marines. He's ninety fiveyears old and until recently he and his

(00:56):
wife were caring for his hundred andfive year old brother in law. As
you can hear, he's still verysharp and his recollections of that horrible day
March seventh, nineteen forty five arevery clear. As we listened to Jim
talk describing his reaction to Pearl Harbor, his decision to join the Marine Corps,
his journey across the country by trainand arrival at the Marine Corps boot

(01:21):
camp in San Diego, and histravels from there to Hawaii and to Guam
and finally to Iwajima. And theengagement at Cushman's pocket. This is the
same path traveled by William Langston.Well, it was a Sunday morning,
I remember, December the sevenths.My mother and I were in church and

(01:42):
during the pastor's sermon, why oneof the elder's hands to hit pastor note
and he read it off that PearlHarbor was attacked. And I was only
about fourteen years old then, Iguess, and not hardly any of us
ever heard of Pearl Harbor. Wedidn't know where it was, and a

(02:06):
lot of them didn't even know whereHawaii was. But anyways, he announced
the American and Pearl Americans the PearlHarbor were attacked by the Japanese, and
that was it. And then afterchurch way we walked home, my mother
and I, and that's how weheard about the World War two. Then

(02:32):
the next day why President Roosevelt,I guess it was making announcements that where
would be declared and against the Japanesethat they had attacked us in Pearl Harbor,
and that's all we knew. Wedidn't have any radios back then ourselves
that we could get news like theydo today. But of course there's no

(02:57):
television back there at all of themever heard of television. And this way
back in nineteen forty one, inthe January ninth of forty four, way
I decided to join the Marine Corps. And yeah, my buddy and I
we budded around back in my hometownand we decided would be nice to get

(03:21):
into the military and see what it'sall about. We were all, I
would say, gung ho at thetime. I mean, we were yet
young and athletic, and we thoughtwe were really something and we thought it
would be a little exciting experience forus. So we went down to the
post office this one morning. Iremember that in the little hometown of Altoona,

(03:46):
Pennsylvania. We were going down tothe Coast Guard. But we were
both going to go into the CoastGuard, as we like to see those
Coastguard cutters, you know, picturesof them, and we thought that would
be real exciting. We get downto the post office. I out in
the hallway, well, they hadthe Army Navy Marine Corps a force,

(04:08):
all recruiting officers lined up there.We walked up to the Coast Guard office
and looking in through the windows,the coast Guards have been sitting and you
were waiting for somebody to come in. And so right next door was the
Marine Corps recruiting station and out infront so they had a manneakin of a

(04:31):
marine dressed in dressed blues. Andboy, I thought that was really really
exciting to be able to dress uplike that. I been in the Marine
Corps office and came came. Iwas some papers that I had to have
my mother's sign, and after thatwe waited until we got our orders.

(04:53):
And but we were we were stillyoung and inexp very instant. We didn't
know what was going on in thisworld. We thought it would be a
lot of excitement to get into theservice. We've never I've never been really
out of my hometown in the firsteighteen years of my life. We didn't

(05:14):
have automobiles, then, no meanstransportation. If we want to go anywhere,
we walked on the foot and toget over there and get on that
train in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, wehad drove for a day or two.
I remember we were asking the conductoron the train where we were. He

(05:41):
said, well, you're in Texasnow, and then we went on and
on in this train that didn't haveany bunks in it, no place to
sleep, that wooden seats. Itwas like an old cattle car, you
know, would wouldn't seats in it. No quisitions or anything. Oh,

(06:02):
it was a horrible trip. Soafter a long time, next day or
so, we asked the conductible,where are we now, And well,
you're still in Texas. It justtook a long long time. If we
get across Texas. Then I rememberwe got out to Santa Fe, New
Mexico, and they left us offof the train for about an hour.

(06:25):
But we arrived out in San Diegoand that was a new experience. And
seeing the ocean it was awesome.We never saw anything other than a little
mountain lake when we were growing up, but seeing that vast ocean always to
always blue water, and it waskind of experience. Then when we dig

(06:47):
it into San Diego, all downtownwas all camouflaged. All the buildings were
painted and had camouflaged coverings over theroofs, and as a little eerie site
and something that we never experienced before, dreamed of. And the train we

(07:10):
were on drove into the base andthat we got off the train and they
walked us over to a building andoutside the building by some guy came up
and met us, and he wasa in a marine uniform and he was

(07:31):
like a giant to the rest ofus, and a great, big husky
fellow, muscular, and he introducedhimself and he said he was going to
be our totuning sergeant and take asue boot camp, and they told us

(07:51):
what we were, which is nothing, and that he was going to be
the boss. He was going tobe our mother, father and everybody else,
and we all after that got tohate the guy. He's a big,
gruesome looking thing and somebody just didn'twant to be around, and it

(08:18):
mean and nasty, and the thingshe made us go through, you know,
it was just horrible because we weren'tused to anything like that and being
told, you know, we werenothing, and we couldn't do this,
couldn't do that. And if youdid anything wrong, why they let you
know about it real quick, andyou got on a work detail you didn't

(08:39):
like. But after twelve or thirteenweeks, I forget what it was in
boot camp. Why they got usout with us one morning and got us
in our dressed greens and got usout in the parade. And the sergeant

(09:00):
said you're still you're still not amarine. You're still not a marine.
You're not going to be a marineuntil we say so. So they got
us out on the parade field andthey had their usual graduations at ceremonies or
the recruit depot in San Diego,and they gave us our little global anchors

(09:24):
and end them on our callers,and he said, now you're a marine.
Then after the ceremonies all over theway, we were more free to
do what we wanted to do.For a couple of days after we went
in San Diego downtown. There's nothingto do there. He couldn't get into

(09:45):
the bars or nightclubs or anything.We were too young, and we just
got up one side of the streetand down the other side a couple of
times, and nothing else to do. So we went back to the base
and went to the base movie theaterand saw a movie. But it wasn't

(10:05):
a very pleasant experience in boot camp, and we never dreamed that we would
have to get through that kind oftraining, and it was more than some
of us could handle. There area few of them didn't make it,
and they just couldn't hold up,you know, under all that pressure and
all that strenuous work, but mostof us got through it okay. And

(10:30):
then from there, why we wentto Camp Pendleton for advanced training and everything
down the line was a real experienceto something we never had never experienced before.
But we found out that when wewere young, growing up, you
know, we were all full ofthe spirited. We were just something else.

(10:52):
You know, we could do thisand that, would go hunting and
camping and do all these things outto work, working on the farm and
with horses and things. And butwhen you got down to San Diego recruit
depot, everything ended there and youweren't what you thought you were and the
effects you were nothing. As longas we were in boot camp, we

(11:15):
were nothing. But after that theysaid we became a man. Now you're
a man, you're a marine,and uh, stick with the Marine Corps
now and we'll take care of you. But we didn't know what was in
store for us after that. Wehad no idea and we just went along
with whatever they told us, andwe couldn't get out they We got no

(11:41):
liberty there or no leave. Rather, from the time we arrived at boot
camp and we didn't get to goback home. We were just shipped right
out from Sandy boot Camp to Pendletonand then onto the ships, and we
didn't know where we were going onwhat we were going to do, but
we took about the five days Iguess it were the ship. And that

(12:07):
was an experience because we were neveron on a ship, and we never
saw that so much blue water allaround us. You look out from the
deck of the ship and all aroundyour three hundred and sixty degrees, it's
just all water, all blue water. And that was a real experience for

(12:30):
us. And we weren't used toanything like I've never seen anything like that.
But we landed in Hawaii and itwas real nice down there. Everything
was nice and green, and wegot to get some of this tropical drinks
and coconut milk and things like that. And we've got to see the palm

(12:50):
trees and oh that was new beck. In Pennsylvania, they didn't have palm
trees and can at somethings. Whowhat you could buy in the store.
It was just a different world wewere in and it was kind of exciting.
But and later on in the MarineCorps, why things weren't quite so

(13:15):
exciting. Things happened, you knowthat weren't very pleasant. But other than
that way in the Pacific, andwe would talk amongst ourselves, you know,
under where we were going to gofrom there. We had no idea,
nothing has been an advance where wewere going. They just told us

(13:35):
to pack up, you're moving out, and we've bordered a ship there in
Pearl Harbor, they didn't have anyAmerican ships, transport ships to transport us.
So somewhere along the line they gotan old Dutch ship called the slaughter
Dike. I don't even know howto spell it, but I can remember

(13:58):
the name. It was a big, old wooden ship and that housed I
guess the whole regiment of men,a lot of marines on that ship.
It was manned by a Dutch crew. And that's where we sailed from Pearl
Harbor until we hit Guam. Butin Pearl Harbor, like to say,

(14:18):
we really didn't know much about whatwas going on in the war, and
we just had to take things thatthey came we come to us. And
when the commander came out and sayback up, we're moving out, we
didn't know where too, but wejust went along with the tide, so

(14:39):
to speak, and we were floatingaround in the Pacific for all a long
long time, a couple of months, I guess, waiting to hit Saipan
and Tinian and they didn't need us, so we went on up to Guam
and I spent a few months onbefore going to you with Jama. February

(15:05):
the nineteenth was when I guess thefirst Marines landed unsure, and we stayed
on ship out there the fourth andfifth divisions they had landed and they took
Mount sarah Bachi and we were stillat a board ship. Did not Joe
wait and see if they needed us. They didn't think they would until after

(15:26):
they took Sarabochi and they saw whetherthey were not going to be able to
take the rest of the island,so they called us in and we went
in around I thought it was thetwenty fourth when my outfit went in landed,
but I remember right before we boardedthose little landing craft, the commanding

(15:52):
officer got us all up on deckand took us up with our full comb
gear on. But we knew wewere going to land, but we still
had no idea what it was goingto be like. And then they called
the chaplain ship's chaplain, and hegave us a little talk and set a

(16:15):
prayer for all of us, andhe told the marines that some of them
might not make it back off theisland. He was going to pray for
all the marines are going ashore.And I remember there was one of our

(16:36):
marines that I don't know what happenedto him, but he just lost it
and he just lost control of himself. He was complete dessert. So I
don't think they left him off theship. They probably sent him back to
a hospital somewhere take care of him. But he was just out of it.
And the rest of us we hadno idea what was going to happen.

(16:59):
When captain the ship the commander gotthrough with his speech, whey and
maybe a chaplain where they let usgo overboard, and we got down the
rope ladders from the top deck ofthe ship down under the into the landing
craft. And then we sat outthere for several hours after we were all

(17:26):
lined up and before we went ashore. But the night before the day before,
I guess, we were sitting outthere in the water watching what was
going on, what we could see, and I nursed us so many ships
of every description lined up along thatisland and they were faring or big guns

(17:53):
they had on the ship. There'sbig five hundred pounders and everything else and
rockets and see all that's going inthe bombing that island. And some aircraft
came in they bombed, the bombedthe part of the island, and it
was quite an awesome sight see andall that activity and all those navy ships

(18:18):
better than the Fourth of July fireworks, and all these ships are broadside at
the island. They're firing their bigweapons. The first thing when and maybe
landing boat when they dropped their rampoff on the sandy beach, and before

(18:38):
we could get off, the tidestarted taking that landing boat back out to
sea, and we went off intothe water up to our waist and we
were just soaking wet up to ourwaist. When we did go ashore,
it was sort of like an inclinethere. We had to climb up to

(19:00):
a high a little higher elevation,and it was all sandy and the whole
area around it was just like ajunkyard with blown up landing craft and other
vehicles and just debris everywhere, justlook like like a junkyard and then we

(19:23):
finally were able to get up fromthe beach up on this higher level.
Then started to dry up, butit was wet and really messy on the
heck of a mess or on thebeach, and we got up on the
dry land, but we were stillour bottom parts of our body still wet,

(19:45):
and then dragging ourselves through all thatsand. We stuck to our clothes
and a terrible, terrible miss.When we went assure, they had already
raised the flag on Evo and wedidn't get to witness sad. But we

(20:07):
got in and we didn't get upon Dribachi. We were at the base
of it. And then we wentup to the center of the Iden's third
division, and ninth Marines and thefifth Marines were on our left blank and
the fourth Marine outfit was on ourright blank. When we moved up to

(20:30):
the Tabaci the other end of theisland, my first assignment was the Fox
Company, the second Battalion, ninthMarines, and then after he Regima went
back to Guam and it was justa whole new outfit, my original cartoon.

(20:52):
The people that I knew and mycompany got back to Guam from Ewo
and we didn't I didn't know anybodythere. A lot of replacements came in,
but I didn't know any of themat all my original platoon. I
did never saw any of them againafter that. This is interesting. Marines

(21:17):
like Jim Earle and William Langston weretaken off the ships and placed into units
where they didn't know anybody. Theywere replacements in companies that had already suffered
heavy casualties in the fighting on IRegima, and as you heard Jim say,
he never saw any of these menever again. Battalion commander was a
Colonel Cushman, and our company commanderfirst lieutenant named we'll See O'Bannon. Robert

(21:44):
Cushman, who at this time wasa colonel over Easy Company and Fox Company
of the second Battalion, rose tobecome a four star Marine Corps General in
charge of all Marine Forces in Vietnamin nineteen sixty seven and became Deputy Director
of the CIA. Will See O'Bannon, who was lieutenant over Fox Company,
which included Jim Earl and William Langston, is a legendary marine. He won

(22:08):
the Navy Cross for his actions atCushman's Pocket and was only one of two
officers to survive the battle, onlyto go on and die at Okinawa.
They were assigned to take a strategicpiece of land in the pre dawn hours
of March seventh. The Marines werenot known as nighttime fighters during World War
two, and this movement came asa complete surprise to the Japanese. Tragically,

(22:30):
the marine companies that were meant tosecure their flank were unable to do
so, leaving Easy Company and FoxCompany trapped in what became known as Cushman's
Pocket, surrounded by the Japanese.It is thought that only ten men in
total survived. I'll let you hearthe rest from one of them. They
sent some mortar shells on the yearstrip and Lieutenant Eddie got a very bad

(22:56):
injury. And I remember there's nono corman up there where we were.
They were all back get taking careof the wounded that were brought back to
them, so there were no Cormanup where we were or anybody else.
I didn't see any photographers or correspondenceor anybody up there, just our immediate

(23:18):
outspit. But Lieutenant Eddie I hit, and our first company sergeant yelled for
me and another guy, ben AmoHallway, who was a company runner to
get the lieutenant out of there andget them maid for him. And we
dragged him out of the hole andcarried him back a little way though fifty

(23:41):
yards or one hundred yards company fiveyards, whether it was, got him
some aid. We didn't know whathappened to him after that, but I
would have liked to found out whathappened to my immediate outfit. One day
you were there talking to them andtried to reach them a little while later,

(24:02):
and you got no response. Younever saw them again, so you
don't know what happened. It wasso messed up over there that I mean,
you couldn't see did you see anythingother than rocks and just a mess,
mess, mess everywhere. Box Company, my whole company. We were

(24:22):
all up there, you know,And then we started to lose our men
growing up, so there weren't toomany of us left up there. And
I remember we tried different things inthe day and daytime and nighttime. You
couldn't move, you couldn't sleep duringthe day, and you couldn't sleep during

(24:44):
the night, and everybody was justtotally exhausted physically, and you couldn't get
supplies. You couldn't get anybody toreach you. You were sort of trapped
in a place up there. AndI remember we were in an area there

(25:04):
that we couldn't get out of.The Jeff Scott in behind us somehow.
They of course, they had cavesall over that island. It's all under
mind. They could get from theMounts or Blotchy cler to the other end
of the island underground. You neversee them. And they had tunnels under

(25:26):
there, and them saying they hada hospital underneath the second air strip.
I never saw it myself, butthey said it was under there, and
they slept underground. And any ofthese caves and your hard ever saw any
of them. And just where allthe shooting was coming from. They'd shoot

(25:49):
a fer births or buy ore etchesand they go hide in the rocks,
and you never know where ever camefrom. That's why we lost so many
of our casual as. You couldn'tsee them, but they could look down
and see us. But other thanthat, some of us were fortunate enough
to make it back and some others, many others were not so fortunate to

(26:12):
them. That was life life inthe Marine Corps. It was so many
different different things were happening and wewere just in a little outfit of our
own. There was just a littlesquad and a little four men fire teams,

(26:34):
and we didn't know what was goingon twenty five yards away from us.
And we all had our own attirementswhen they stay move out while we
try to move out, and sometimeswe couldn't move. We were stuck and
just couldn't get out of the place. And sometimes we were lying there for
a couple of days and couldn't moveanywhere. And they try to get tanks

(26:59):
to come up and try to helpsome of us out, but they couldn't
get the tanks up there. Itwas so rocky and the terrain is such
that they couldn't get the tanks in. So some of the thos were fortunate
enough a little bit further back theywere, I guess, being able to
pull up through the hatches of thetanks emergency hatches and got them back to

(27:22):
safety. The rest of the guyshad to just stay up there as long
as they get could until they couldget out and ort to hide in her
hole. Just try to dig inthe in the sand and you'd dig down
about a foot and about two feetof sand would come back in and fill

(27:44):
up the hole and it was hot, the sand, the ground was hot,
and the smell or the smell theywere just horrible. That they had
a lot of sulfur mines on theisland. Stenchers just but we can go
in and as something else I don'twant to smell over There was this horrible

(28:07):
and the sights you saw around youor this company, you never want anybody
to experience. In the chaos surroundingCushman's Pocket, where two companies of men
entered and only around ten men survived. I asked Jim about the possibility that
a body could have been misidentified.It could happen. They could make a

(28:29):
lot of mistakes, and there werejust so much going on, and even
the corman that were up there,I mean they were so busy and doing
their thing, and some of themmaybe not too experienced, you know,
and they could make mistakes. Theycould get the dog tags from one and

(28:51):
drop it and take it up andthink it was somebody else. I mean,
anything could happen. You just don'tknow. They didn't want us to
have any letters or anything in ourpockets in case we work anybody was captured.
Why Japanese could take all that informationand use it against us and find

(29:15):
out where you're from or what Ifit you were with. There were so
many people killed them there, andthere were a lot of bodies lying around.
That's things I don't like to talkabout. Couldn't even tell they were
they were human beings in an armhere, a leg there, and another
body of just all blown to bitsand horrible mess and a lot of the

(29:41):
people they probably couldn't identify at all. They all had their dog tags,
and I know when the corman cameup why they first thing they would do
they get the dog tags off thearounds from around the neck of the east
person and try to identify the body, and then they would put a tag

(30:06):
on your toes at their feet ifthey had any legs left to identifying.
I don't know, there's so muchgoing on, anything could happen. They
could misidentify some of the people,get the wrong person, and things could
getting mixed up, mistaken and claimit was somebody else, and you think

(30:30):
you're getting the right person and itis and somebody else. And then there
were a lot of left on theisland buried there, so you don't know
who came back and who stayed there. I just don't know. I was
on here about five weeks, andI don't know the exact date. It

(30:51):
was sometimes the latter part of March. But I do remember though that on
the fourteenth of March, it wasmy birthday, my nineteenth birthday, and
I was up in h well someplaceclose the Cushion's block. Wherever it was
up there, I don't know,but I was in power Rocks, sitting

(31:14):
in there on my nineteenth birthday,and no birthday cake or any soul brush
or anything like that. But Iknow I was up there in nineteenth and
fourteenth of March, and I knowI was there a week or so after
that. But how I got downfrom there. Our bodies, most of

(31:36):
us up there, were so wewere so exhausted. We had no physical
strength because you couldn't sleep in thedaytime, you couldn't sleep at night.
You know, on edge. Everyminute you were on edge because you never
know one second to the next whatwas going to happen in front of you

(31:56):
or behind you. But I knowmost of the guys were so exhausted that
the boy some of them collapsed.But I don't remember the last thing that
I remember, the last thing onEwo as I saw one of our fellows

(32:16):
that I recognized was bleeding badly andhe was running from the rear or try
to get some medical attention, buthe was wounded up in his left shoulder.
I recognized him, and I sawhim running past me. And then

(32:37):
I heard our first sergeant major ofour company, heat is off in the
distance, and he earl get outof there, get out of there.
I don't know where I went fromthere. I don't remember of leaving that
spot up there when the sargeant yieldto me. I don't remember anything after

(32:57):
that because our bodies, because theywere just so exhausted, we were out
of it. How woh get offthat item? How I got aboard ship
and got back to Guam For thisday, I'm trying to remember it,
but I don't remember a thing.Finally, I asked Jim if he remembered
William Langston. Unsurprisingly, he didnot. These marines were taken from the

(33:20):
ships, plugged into units that alreadyexisted. They fought among strangers in complete
chaos and confusion, and when thefighting was finished, they separated. This
interview has been helpful in numerous ways. I wondered when William Langston made front
page headlines across the country in Januarynineteen forty six. Where were the men

(33:40):
in his unit speaking out to thepress, talking to their local reporters,
contacting Linda and Michigan. We nowknow the answer. William fought among strangers,
nearly all of whom were killed.I wish I had an answer for
yet, some way to go abouttrying to treat check this guy down,

(34:00):
see what had really happened. Itdoes seem like some movie on TV,
whether detectives are trying to track downthis and that and to do these things,
and at the very interesting. Butdo hope that you can get your
answer and get this resolved and clearyour mind. Thank you for listening.

(34:23):
If you've been enjoying this podcast,please check out my new book, The
Fighting Bunch, a story of WorldWar Two veterans who fought one last battle,
this time in their hometown, fortheir right to vote. Connect with
me at Chris de Rose books dotcom and with the Phantom Marine community at
Facebook dot com slash Phantom Marine SpecialThanks to Dean law Back of Core Connections,

(34:50):
who introduced me to Jim Earle,and of course to Jim Earle a
national treasure, an American hero,and one of the last to remain to
tell the story. I'm yours forthe truth. Chris Arose