thedrifter
01-22-08, 10:48 AM
01/22/2008
A SALUTE TO OUR TROOPS - Shull didn't use 'free pass', served in Iwo Jima
TESS GRUBER NELSON , Staff Writer
John Shull had a free pass out of fighting in World War II, but the Riverton farmer had his own idea when he signed up for the Marine Corp in the fall of 1942.
"I was farming right out of high school with my mom. Dad had passed away when I was 13. All the guys that had graduated with me had gone into the service. I wanted to go, but I knew better than to enlist. Every time my name would come up in front of the draft board they would give me a farm deferment."
Shull said he had things figured out on how he could be in the service. Once the crops were out of the fields; he went to work at the Round House at the railroad in Omaha.
"And 30 days later I got my notice for the draft board. I couldn't be a farm deferment anymore."
Shull said he was asked the branch of service he wanted to enlist in and he gladly chose the Marines.
"It took me five minutes to join. If you were warm, you were in."
Shull said he had driven the family car to Omaha to report. At noon, he was told to come back at 2 p.m. in order to take the train to Des Moines and then to San Diego.
"I had to call my mom and my brother had to come get the car. They wouldn't let me return the car. I was government property now."
Shull got to San Diego in the middle of the night.
"That was as far away as I'd been before. It's amazing how you can change a farm boy overnight."
Shull said for the next eight weeks of boot camp, his soul was theirs.
"I weighed 195 pounds when I entered boot camp. The only way I remember that was when I got out of boot camp, the last two numbers were switched around. There was a bit of fat on me nowhere when they got done with me. There's no way to describe boot camp."
Shull said he and the other recruits were taken down to the beach, with a rifle held above their heads, and ran up and down the wet sand for an hour at a time.
"And you say you can't do that for an hour, well, you can."
Shull also said each recruit had to qualify as a sharp shooter on four different outfits, a pistol, rifle, VAR and a sub Thompson. To complete boot camp, each platoon had to complete a 40-mile forced march.
"We had to make eight miles an hour and everybody in our platoon had to make it or we'd have to do it again."
Shull said because he was used to driving a tractor, the Marines felt he would be best utilized in the tank corp.
"So I went for another 10 weeks of training northeast of San Diego. We ran around mountains in tanks that entire time to learn how to drive them. They'd lost at least one tank a day with all that training out there; somebody would drive off the side of the mountain. Sure they'd get cut up and bruised but most of them didn't get killed and the tank was fine and ready to go the next day."
Shull said when tank corp had been completed, they were sent as a replacement battalion at Camp Pendleton in California.
"Not long after we'd gotten there they took us down to Oceanside to board a boat for transport. I'd never been on a ship or even a rowboat before. It was forty-five days from the moment we boarded until we got off the ship at Anawetok."
Shull said the tiny island of Anawetok was in the middle of nowhere, entirely made of coral and only a quarter of a mile wide and half a mile long.
"We were supposed to go into Guam and couldn't so we stopped there, us and a whole bunch of other ships."
Shull and the other soldiers were given permission to get off the ship and swim to the island.
"It was about 120 degrees on the boat, so we jumped off ship and swam to the island, but you couldn't stay on the island for very long. It was so hot you'd just blister."
Shull said orders were finally received for their invasion of Guam. His whole attachment would replace an infantry unit on the hillside.
"We dug into the side of the mountain and it was 10 days before we were finally sent to the tank outfit."
Shull said by the time he reached Guam in June 1944, most of the island was secure, however, a majority of the soldiers were suffering from malaria and elephantitus.
"With malaria, they'd go into convulsions. A lot of them couldn't even fight. It wasn't until we went to Iwo Jima when I really got into the heat of the whole thing."
Shull said flamethrowers on tanks were used to attempt to get the Japanese out of the caves they were hiding in.
"It is unbelievable how you'd done it. If we couldn't get them to come out of the caves we'd close the cave up with a shell or shot a flame torch in there which was worse yet."
Shull fought at Iwo Jima for 31 days, which he said they were unprepared for.
"We went in with a light marching pack, change of socks and underclothes, about 12 pounds and a canteen of water because it was only an eight hour operation but instead they bombed us for 30 days."
Shull said bullets were constantly pinging off the tanks but he never received a knick.
"I don't know how I was so lucky, there were others who weren't."
Shull also said they were on the island for 17 days before they were given the opportunity to shave and shower.
"All we had for 17 days was canteen water. Then they came and dozed an area in the sand near the beach where we could get cleaned up and they also issued us new clothes."
Shull said they weren't issued new clothes again until the island had been secured and they were back in Guam.
"For about 30 days of so we trained in Guam getting ready to go to Okinawa but the fourth division was assigned there instead and soon the war was over."
But because Shull hadn't accumulated enough points during the war to be dismissed, he was sent to China.
"We were to be on guard duty for the United Relief that was going to Chang Kai Check. That was before the communists took over China in 1945."
Shull said they stood watch from January until mid-April when they received orders to evacuate.
"We had to use the tanks to escort us down to the docks in order to get on the ships because the communists were coming in and we had to fight them to get to the boat."
But Shull said without the Marines he wouldn't have ever been to China, Guam, Iwo Jima or even on a boat.
"As far as combat goes and that sort of thing, you either got shot up or tore up. You know you're going to get shot, there's so much flying there's no way you aren't going to get hit."
When finally dismissed from the Marines, Shull returned home and began farming again. He married his wife of almost 60 years, Susie. The couple has three children, Cathy, Dan and Peggy; six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Ellie
A SALUTE TO OUR TROOPS - Shull didn't use 'free pass', served in Iwo Jima
TESS GRUBER NELSON , Staff Writer
John Shull had a free pass out of fighting in World War II, but the Riverton farmer had his own idea when he signed up for the Marine Corp in the fall of 1942.
"I was farming right out of high school with my mom. Dad had passed away when I was 13. All the guys that had graduated with me had gone into the service. I wanted to go, but I knew better than to enlist. Every time my name would come up in front of the draft board they would give me a farm deferment."
Shull said he had things figured out on how he could be in the service. Once the crops were out of the fields; he went to work at the Round House at the railroad in Omaha.
"And 30 days later I got my notice for the draft board. I couldn't be a farm deferment anymore."
Shull said he was asked the branch of service he wanted to enlist in and he gladly chose the Marines.
"It took me five minutes to join. If you were warm, you were in."
Shull said he had driven the family car to Omaha to report. At noon, he was told to come back at 2 p.m. in order to take the train to Des Moines and then to San Diego.
"I had to call my mom and my brother had to come get the car. They wouldn't let me return the car. I was government property now."
Shull got to San Diego in the middle of the night.
"That was as far away as I'd been before. It's amazing how you can change a farm boy overnight."
Shull said for the next eight weeks of boot camp, his soul was theirs.
"I weighed 195 pounds when I entered boot camp. The only way I remember that was when I got out of boot camp, the last two numbers were switched around. There was a bit of fat on me nowhere when they got done with me. There's no way to describe boot camp."
Shull said he and the other recruits were taken down to the beach, with a rifle held above their heads, and ran up and down the wet sand for an hour at a time.
"And you say you can't do that for an hour, well, you can."
Shull also said each recruit had to qualify as a sharp shooter on four different outfits, a pistol, rifle, VAR and a sub Thompson. To complete boot camp, each platoon had to complete a 40-mile forced march.
"We had to make eight miles an hour and everybody in our platoon had to make it or we'd have to do it again."
Shull said because he was used to driving a tractor, the Marines felt he would be best utilized in the tank corp.
"So I went for another 10 weeks of training northeast of San Diego. We ran around mountains in tanks that entire time to learn how to drive them. They'd lost at least one tank a day with all that training out there; somebody would drive off the side of the mountain. Sure they'd get cut up and bruised but most of them didn't get killed and the tank was fine and ready to go the next day."
Shull said when tank corp had been completed, they were sent as a replacement battalion at Camp Pendleton in California.
"Not long after we'd gotten there they took us down to Oceanside to board a boat for transport. I'd never been on a ship or even a rowboat before. It was forty-five days from the moment we boarded until we got off the ship at Anawetok."
Shull said the tiny island of Anawetok was in the middle of nowhere, entirely made of coral and only a quarter of a mile wide and half a mile long.
"We were supposed to go into Guam and couldn't so we stopped there, us and a whole bunch of other ships."
Shull and the other soldiers were given permission to get off the ship and swim to the island.
"It was about 120 degrees on the boat, so we jumped off ship and swam to the island, but you couldn't stay on the island for very long. It was so hot you'd just blister."
Shull said orders were finally received for their invasion of Guam. His whole attachment would replace an infantry unit on the hillside.
"We dug into the side of the mountain and it was 10 days before we were finally sent to the tank outfit."
Shull said by the time he reached Guam in June 1944, most of the island was secure, however, a majority of the soldiers were suffering from malaria and elephantitus.
"With malaria, they'd go into convulsions. A lot of them couldn't even fight. It wasn't until we went to Iwo Jima when I really got into the heat of the whole thing."
Shull said flamethrowers on tanks were used to attempt to get the Japanese out of the caves they were hiding in.
"It is unbelievable how you'd done it. If we couldn't get them to come out of the caves we'd close the cave up with a shell or shot a flame torch in there which was worse yet."
Shull fought at Iwo Jima for 31 days, which he said they were unprepared for.
"We went in with a light marching pack, change of socks and underclothes, about 12 pounds and a canteen of water because it was only an eight hour operation but instead they bombed us for 30 days."
Shull said bullets were constantly pinging off the tanks but he never received a knick.
"I don't know how I was so lucky, there were others who weren't."
Shull also said they were on the island for 17 days before they were given the opportunity to shave and shower.
"All we had for 17 days was canteen water. Then they came and dozed an area in the sand near the beach where we could get cleaned up and they also issued us new clothes."
Shull said they weren't issued new clothes again until the island had been secured and they were back in Guam.
"For about 30 days of so we trained in Guam getting ready to go to Okinawa but the fourth division was assigned there instead and soon the war was over."
But because Shull hadn't accumulated enough points during the war to be dismissed, he was sent to China.
"We were to be on guard duty for the United Relief that was going to Chang Kai Check. That was before the communists took over China in 1945."
Shull said they stood watch from January until mid-April when they received orders to evacuate.
"We had to use the tanks to escort us down to the docks in order to get on the ships because the communists were coming in and we had to fight them to get to the boat."
But Shull said without the Marines he wouldn't have ever been to China, Guam, Iwo Jima or even on a boat.
"As far as combat goes and that sort of thing, you either got shot up or tore up. You know you're going to get shot, there's so much flying there's no way you aren't going to get hit."
When finally dismissed from the Marines, Shull returned home and began farming again. He married his wife of almost 60 years, Susie. The couple has three children, Cathy, Dan and Peggy; six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Ellie