06-20-2019, 06:32 PM
** 20-Jun-2019 World View: World War II anecdote
I received the following e-mail message from a reader in response to
my announcement of my book. It contains some interesting anecdotes
about World War II.
Mr. Xenakis:
Thank you for letting me know about the publishing of your book on
China. I will be ordering it and a couple of more copies for friends
and family. Especially for my brother in-law, whose father was in the
7th Marines with Colonel Chesty Puller at Guadalcanal and Peleliu and
miraculously lived to return home at the end of the war. I have
reached the age where all of the relatives that fought in either WWII
or Korea have long since passed on.
An interesting anecdote about my father-in-law and his serving under
Colonel Puller: at the battle for Guadalcanal, the Japanese navy had
sunk many of the US Navy support ships intended to keep the marines
ashore supplied. The Marines there ran low on ammunition, food
rations, uniforms, everything. It was weeks before they were
resupplied. Prior to the siege of Guadalcanal, my father-in-law had
written home to his folks in Georgia and requested a hair clipper set
(manual, not electric). While at Guadalcanal, with the extreme
shortage of supplies, the Marines there had gotten quite straggly in
appearance. When packages from home finally reach the men on
Guadalcanal, my father-in-law cleaned up his haircut and his fellow
Marines started asking him to cut their hair. Chesty Puller and his
aides came walking by, saw what was going on, and Colonel Puller, who
could have gone to the front of the line, instead got in line behind
the enlisted men already in line. He did however give a command to my
father-in-law while he moved to get in line. My father-in-law was
using a white t-shirt to drape over the shoulders of the men as he was
cutting their hair. Colonel Puller said "Old man (that was apparently
Puller's way of addressing those under his command and rank), best to
use a olive drab shirt than a white shirt. We don't need to give the
Jap snipers an easier target". After Colonel Puller's turn he tried to
pay my father-in-law for cutting his hair, but my father-in-law
declined and said he wasn't charging anybody, he was just trying to
help. I thought that was just an amazing story. He never talked about
the combat however. He was a machine gunner and you know he must have
witnessed some truly horrific things. None of the veterans I met would
talk about it. My guess their experiences were so horrific that they
did not want to talk about it because it would bring up those horrible
memories and their way of dealing with it was to keep it shoved up in
a deep recess of their minds and ignored, as a way of coping. Those
that survived came back home after the war and got on with their
lives. I myself cannot imagine how hard that must have been. Maybe it
was because they were just grateful to be alive, and maybe even had
some survivor's guilt.
I read you book on Iran and learned insights about it that I had not
known or heard about. I look forward to reading your book on China.
Again, thank you for contacting me in regard to it. I hope the sales
will be very good and hope that you benefit from it financially. I
know you must have put your heart and soul into it.
Best wishes, ...
I received the following e-mail message from a reader in response to
my announcement of my book. It contains some interesting anecdotes
about World War II.
Mr. Xenakis:
Thank you for letting me know about the publishing of your book on
China. I will be ordering it and a couple of more copies for friends
and family. Especially for my brother in-law, whose father was in the
7th Marines with Colonel Chesty Puller at Guadalcanal and Peleliu and
miraculously lived to return home at the end of the war. I have
reached the age where all of the relatives that fought in either WWII
or Korea have long since passed on.
An interesting anecdote about my father-in-law and his serving under
Colonel Puller: at the battle for Guadalcanal, the Japanese navy had
sunk many of the US Navy support ships intended to keep the marines
ashore supplied. The Marines there ran low on ammunition, food
rations, uniforms, everything. It was weeks before they were
resupplied. Prior to the siege of Guadalcanal, my father-in-law had
written home to his folks in Georgia and requested a hair clipper set
(manual, not electric). While at Guadalcanal, with the extreme
shortage of supplies, the Marines there had gotten quite straggly in
appearance. When packages from home finally reach the men on
Guadalcanal, my father-in-law cleaned up his haircut and his fellow
Marines started asking him to cut their hair. Chesty Puller and his
aides came walking by, saw what was going on, and Colonel Puller, who
could have gone to the front of the line, instead got in line behind
the enlisted men already in line. He did however give a command to my
father-in-law while he moved to get in line. My father-in-law was
using a white t-shirt to drape over the shoulders of the men as he was
cutting their hair. Colonel Puller said "Old man (that was apparently
Puller's way of addressing those under his command and rank), best to
use a olive drab shirt than a white shirt. We don't need to give the
Jap snipers an easier target". After Colonel Puller's turn he tried to
pay my father-in-law for cutting his hair, but my father-in-law
declined and said he wasn't charging anybody, he was just trying to
help. I thought that was just an amazing story. He never talked about
the combat however. He was a machine gunner and you know he must have
witnessed some truly horrific things. None of the veterans I met would
talk about it. My guess their experiences were so horrific that they
did not want to talk about it because it would bring up those horrible
memories and their way of dealing with it was to keep it shoved up in
a deep recess of their minds and ignored, as a way of coping. Those
that survived came back home after the war and got on with their
lives. I myself cannot imagine how hard that must have been. Maybe it
was because they were just grateful to be alive, and maybe even had
some survivor's guilt.
I read you book on Iran and learned insights about it that I had not
known or heard about. I look forward to reading your book on China.
Again, thank you for contacting me in regard to it. I hope the sales
will be very good and hope that you benefit from it financially. I
know you must have put your heart and soul into it.
Best wishes, ...