thedrifter
02-01-06, 02:28 PM
At 83, Jack Hicks keeps on going
By John Barnhart
It takes a lot to stop a tough guy.
Nothing so far has stopped Jack Hicks. He's just slowed down a bit. Hicks, who is 83, retired at the end of last month as the janitor at the Bedford Post Office.
"I'm the head janitor," he said, "and the reason I'm the head janitor is because I'm the only one."
But as the former Marine's life has always proved, retirement doesn't mean he's going to stop working.
Hicks graduated from High School in 1941 and went to work at the Glenn L. Martin plant in Maryland. One of this plant's projects was the Mars flying boat, a four-engined aircraft with a 200-foot wingspan, for the Navy.
He was drafted in 1944 and sent to the Marine Corps and went through boot camp at Paris Island.
"It was all right," he commented. " It was rough. All Marines that have been there know what it is. ...It was good training."
After boot camp, Hicks was sent to Camp Le Jeune and, from there to Camp Pendleton in California. Then he was shipped to Guam aboard a Dutch passenger liner that had been converted into a troop ship.
"I like to starved to death on it," he recalled.
The availability of food wasn't the problem. Hicks was simply too seasick to eat.
They stopped in Hawaii for two weeks, but didn't really see the place. The men weren't allowed to leave the ship.
The island of Guam had been retaken, earlier, and was mostly secured when Hicks got there. There were some minor mop-up operations going on, but Hicks was there for training. He was assigned to an anti-tank unit and trained as the gunner on an anti-tank gun.
Then, the same ship that took him to Guam took him to Iwo Jima. The Japanese Army still owned it. On the way there, Hicks, a Marine private, was tapped for mess cook duty, serving in the officers' wardroom.
"We had to serve the officers, then we would eat", he recalled.
Once they had ice cream, something the enlisted men hadn't seen since leaving California, to serve. One buddy said to him, "You let me serve this ice cream and we'll have plenty to eat."
Hicks said that the man scooped up the ice cream in a way that it formed hollow balls.
"We had plenty of ice cream," said Hicks, who thinks that they got more than the officers did.
Hicks' unit was not part of the initial assault at Iwo Jima.
"I was in the 3rd Marine Division," he said. "We were in support. We didn't go in the first day."
His unit went in on D+2. Every amphibious assault has a D-day, the day when the first troops go ashore. Subsequent events in the assault are dated from that day.
The troop ship was anchored out, but Hicks said he couldn't see a whole lot from his perspective. During the pre-assault Naval bombardment, he could hear the sound and see the explosions of heavy shells from the battleships. Later, he could hear the sound of combat, small arms fire and rockets going off from the island.
Was he scared?
"I wasn't scared then," he said. "I was sitting up on a ship."
At that time, he didn't think his unit would actually go in.
The heavy losses that the Marines suffered on Iwo Jima changed that and his unit debarked into landing craft to go ashore. Hicks climbed down a rope ladder, hung over the ship's side and into one of the landing craft, which took him in.
Hicks said the island's terrain was rough, too rough for the small towed anti-tank guns that they had. Hicks said he doesn't think that the guns were even unloaded.
They did have bazookas, however.
Hicks went ashore armed with an M1 Carbine. The carbines were issued to gun crews because the much longer M1 Garand would be in their way, and their primary duty was to operate the guns, rather than fight as infantry.
This anti-tank unit, however, was going to fight as infantry and Hicks discarded his carbine for a Garand as soon as he got ashore. The Garand, with its longer barrel, had a longer effective range than the shorter barreled carbine, something that Hicks' training told him he would need on the island.
"We went in and one of my buddies was ahead of me," Hicks recalled. "He was up on a little ridge and he called for a bazooka."
Hicks passed the bazooka to him and as soon as his buddy raised up to fire, he was shot through the head.
The Marines suffered heavy losses on Iwo Jima; 7,000 were killed and 19,000 were wounded. Hicks recalls a great deal of trouble when they got ashore.
"We were just so confused and disorganized," he said.
He said that at one point, his unit made an advance early in the morning before sunrise. Then, they found themselves surrounded. After dark they managed to break out, but Hicks got separated from the rest. He recalled finding his way back by following field telephone lines that had been laid. By that time, he was scared.
Hicks never saw a Japanese soldier, at least none who were alive. The Japanese force had dug a network of 11 miles of tunnels and used those, along with natural caves, to operate against the Marines.
He did see a lot of dead bodies and he said that it was often difficult to tell which were American and which were Japanese. There was a constant stench, a the smell of decaying corpses adding to the sulfurous fumes that naturally emanate from the island.
He went into one of the caves, after much of the island was secured. It wasn't an assignment, he was just curious. What sticks in his mind, nearly 62 years later, was the terrible smell.
In spite of it all, he got through it with nothing worse than what he described as a good scratch. A piece of shrapnel grazed him across the foot. Hicks didn't consider it serious enough to turn in for a Purple Heart.
After Iwo Jima, Hicks was sent back to Guam and was there when the war ended. As a result, he ended up in Tientsin, China.
According to the Marine Corps' Historical Branch, the III Amphibious Corps (IIIAC) had just begun a period of intensive training for a planned invasion of the Tokyo Plain. With the war's end, the IIIAC was deployed to North China to accept the surrender of Japanese troops and supervise the repatriation of these troops, along with Japanese civilians. The 3rd Marine Division was one of two divisions designated as area reserve for the operation.
As part of his duty on an anti-tank gun crew, Hicks had been trained as a truck driver. This was noted and he was assigned as the driver for the company commander.
"It was the best duty I had while I was in there," he said.
Back in civilian life, along with farming, he worked at Forest Farm Supply for five years. He said that this business had a grain elevator and sold cattle feed to dairy farms. Then, he bought Thomas Mills, which he ran while continuing to farm.
"We were primarily in the feed grain business," he said.
This business also supplied cattle feed to dairy farmers.
Today, Hicks still continues to raise beef cattle on his farm, located a few miles north of Bedford.
"I figure, as long as I can keep going and doing something, I'm better off," said Hicks who noted that he has seen too many people who sit down, don't do anything and soon pass away.
Ellie
By John Barnhart
It takes a lot to stop a tough guy.
Nothing so far has stopped Jack Hicks. He's just slowed down a bit. Hicks, who is 83, retired at the end of last month as the janitor at the Bedford Post Office.
"I'm the head janitor," he said, "and the reason I'm the head janitor is because I'm the only one."
But as the former Marine's life has always proved, retirement doesn't mean he's going to stop working.
Hicks graduated from High School in 1941 and went to work at the Glenn L. Martin plant in Maryland. One of this plant's projects was the Mars flying boat, a four-engined aircraft with a 200-foot wingspan, for the Navy.
He was drafted in 1944 and sent to the Marine Corps and went through boot camp at Paris Island.
"It was all right," he commented. " It was rough. All Marines that have been there know what it is. ...It was good training."
After boot camp, Hicks was sent to Camp Le Jeune and, from there to Camp Pendleton in California. Then he was shipped to Guam aboard a Dutch passenger liner that had been converted into a troop ship.
"I like to starved to death on it," he recalled.
The availability of food wasn't the problem. Hicks was simply too seasick to eat.
They stopped in Hawaii for two weeks, but didn't really see the place. The men weren't allowed to leave the ship.
The island of Guam had been retaken, earlier, and was mostly secured when Hicks got there. There were some minor mop-up operations going on, but Hicks was there for training. He was assigned to an anti-tank unit and trained as the gunner on an anti-tank gun.
Then, the same ship that took him to Guam took him to Iwo Jima. The Japanese Army still owned it. On the way there, Hicks, a Marine private, was tapped for mess cook duty, serving in the officers' wardroom.
"We had to serve the officers, then we would eat", he recalled.
Once they had ice cream, something the enlisted men hadn't seen since leaving California, to serve. One buddy said to him, "You let me serve this ice cream and we'll have plenty to eat."
Hicks said that the man scooped up the ice cream in a way that it formed hollow balls.
"We had plenty of ice cream," said Hicks, who thinks that they got more than the officers did.
Hicks' unit was not part of the initial assault at Iwo Jima.
"I was in the 3rd Marine Division," he said. "We were in support. We didn't go in the first day."
His unit went in on D+2. Every amphibious assault has a D-day, the day when the first troops go ashore. Subsequent events in the assault are dated from that day.
The troop ship was anchored out, but Hicks said he couldn't see a whole lot from his perspective. During the pre-assault Naval bombardment, he could hear the sound and see the explosions of heavy shells from the battleships. Later, he could hear the sound of combat, small arms fire and rockets going off from the island.
Was he scared?
"I wasn't scared then," he said. "I was sitting up on a ship."
At that time, he didn't think his unit would actually go in.
The heavy losses that the Marines suffered on Iwo Jima changed that and his unit debarked into landing craft to go ashore. Hicks climbed down a rope ladder, hung over the ship's side and into one of the landing craft, which took him in.
Hicks said the island's terrain was rough, too rough for the small towed anti-tank guns that they had. Hicks said he doesn't think that the guns were even unloaded.
They did have bazookas, however.
Hicks went ashore armed with an M1 Carbine. The carbines were issued to gun crews because the much longer M1 Garand would be in their way, and their primary duty was to operate the guns, rather than fight as infantry.
This anti-tank unit, however, was going to fight as infantry and Hicks discarded his carbine for a Garand as soon as he got ashore. The Garand, with its longer barrel, had a longer effective range than the shorter barreled carbine, something that Hicks' training told him he would need on the island.
"We went in and one of my buddies was ahead of me," Hicks recalled. "He was up on a little ridge and he called for a bazooka."
Hicks passed the bazooka to him and as soon as his buddy raised up to fire, he was shot through the head.
The Marines suffered heavy losses on Iwo Jima; 7,000 were killed and 19,000 were wounded. Hicks recalls a great deal of trouble when they got ashore.
"We were just so confused and disorganized," he said.
He said that at one point, his unit made an advance early in the morning before sunrise. Then, they found themselves surrounded. After dark they managed to break out, but Hicks got separated from the rest. He recalled finding his way back by following field telephone lines that had been laid. By that time, he was scared.
Hicks never saw a Japanese soldier, at least none who were alive. The Japanese force had dug a network of 11 miles of tunnels and used those, along with natural caves, to operate against the Marines.
He did see a lot of dead bodies and he said that it was often difficult to tell which were American and which were Japanese. There was a constant stench, a the smell of decaying corpses adding to the sulfurous fumes that naturally emanate from the island.
He went into one of the caves, after much of the island was secured. It wasn't an assignment, he was just curious. What sticks in his mind, nearly 62 years later, was the terrible smell.
In spite of it all, he got through it with nothing worse than what he described as a good scratch. A piece of shrapnel grazed him across the foot. Hicks didn't consider it serious enough to turn in for a Purple Heart.
After Iwo Jima, Hicks was sent back to Guam and was there when the war ended. As a result, he ended up in Tientsin, China.
According to the Marine Corps' Historical Branch, the III Amphibious Corps (IIIAC) had just begun a period of intensive training for a planned invasion of the Tokyo Plain. With the war's end, the IIIAC was deployed to North China to accept the surrender of Japanese troops and supervise the repatriation of these troops, along with Japanese civilians. The 3rd Marine Division was one of two divisions designated as area reserve for the operation.
As part of his duty on an anti-tank gun crew, Hicks had been trained as a truck driver. This was noted and he was assigned as the driver for the company commander.
"It was the best duty I had while I was in there," he said.
Back in civilian life, along with farming, he worked at Forest Farm Supply for five years. He said that this business had a grain elevator and sold cattle feed to dairy farms. Then, he bought Thomas Mills, which he ran while continuing to farm.
"We were primarily in the feed grain business," he said.
This business also supplied cattle feed to dairy farmers.
Today, Hicks still continues to raise beef cattle on his farm, located a few miles north of Bedford.
"I figure, as long as I can keep going and doing something, I'm better off," said Hicks who noted that he has seen too many people who sit down, don't do anything and soon pass away.
Ellie