Shawn Ryan Show - #348 Frank Wright - The Last Living Original Marine Raider From WW2

Episode Date: October 15, 2026

Sergeant Frank S. Wright is a World War II Marine veteran who enlisted at just 16 years old following the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served with the 4th Marine Raiders and fought in major Pacific campaigns including Guadalcanal, New Georgia, Guam, and Iwo Jima, where he was wounded in combat. He later served as a Marine Corps drill instructor and was promoted to Sergeant in 2025 in recognition of his lifelong service and commitment to the Marine Corps. Wright is also the author of Battles of the Pacific: World War II, My Personal War Causing PTSD and My 12 Days in Hell. Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: Privacy Isn't Paranoia. It's Protection. Download Glacier - https://theglacierapp.com One thing to pack, five ways to power! Head to https://Ridge.com/SRS for Ridge’s Friends & Family Sale, where you can buy two Ridge Power Banks and get a third FREE. Start learning a new language today with Babbel and save up to 60% at https://babbel.com/SRS Rules and restrictions may apply. The Terminal List Season 2 premieres all 8 episodes on October 21, 2026, exclusively on Prime Video. Upgrade your eyewear at https://roka.com and use code SRS for 20% off sitewide at checkout. Frank Wright Links: Purchase Battles in the Pacific - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WTR6X32 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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show it's an honor to have you here thank you very kind so i just found out before right before we sat down that you are the last living original marine raider that's correct that's why i understand now that is incredible i had a lot of friends i have a lot of friends that are marine raiders and uh i've a deep deep respect and i know they're going to love this interview we were a good group But good Lord says they wants them on pearly gates. They got them. That's right. Well, let me start you up with an introduction.

Mr. Frank Wright, you're a World War II Marine veteran who joined the Marine Corps at just age 16, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, later serving with the Fourth Marine Raider Battalion, one of the Marine Corps' earliest special operations units. You fought in some of the most pivotal campaigns of the Pacific War, including Guadacanal, New Georgia, Guam, and Iwo Jima, later serving with the 21st Marines. You were wounded multiple times in combat, including a devastating gunshot wound on Iwojima that tore your chest, lung, clavicle, and left arm, ultimately earning you the Purple Heart. Among your other citations, Purple Heart with one star, presidential unit citation with two stars, Navy unit accommodation, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal with three stars, Fleet Marine Force Combat Operations Exignia with four stars, Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal, Combat Action Ribbon with four stars, World War II Victory Medal, and the Navy and Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal, Corps Good Conduct Medal. After recovering from your combat wounds, you went on to serve as a Marine

Corps drill instructor training the next generation of Marines. After the war, you built a successful career and a family that now includes children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Later in life, you wrote Battles in the Pacific to preserve your firsthand memories of the war and ensure the names and stories of the men you served alongside were never forgotten. You were married for seven 24 years, you're 101 years old. Most importantly, you're a Christian. Once again, welcome to the show. And I'd like to start off by just saying thank you for your service. Thank you, so you, a kind, sir. So you joined right after December 7, 1941, when Pearl Harbor happened, correct? Yes. Can you talk a little bit about what it was like?

one Pearl Harbor happened? Well, first thing, I was sitting at the dining room table making airplanes out of Balsawood. In fact, it was a Falker D8, which what I was looking, I was working on. And I heard this news. First, I said, well, that's pretty. I said, well, that's pretty sneaky, you know, doing something like that. But I didn't know where Pearl Harbor was. It was something out in the Pacific is all I knew and really cared for.

But then later on, I found out what it actually meant when it was. when it was put on television. How old were you when you joined? 16 years old. Yes, and they wouldn't take me. Why wouldn't they take you? I was too young, and I didn't weigh much. So, but I took care of that by having my aunt, which was my mother.

his sister, fill out a belayed birth certificate out of, and it was never certified. So, but the sergeant didn't care. Recruing sergeant, he wanted me. That was it. So he didn't care about that. And then, of course, the weight was concerned. I had gone home and bought five pounds of bananas and stuffed them in my blouse.

And so I joined with five pounds of bananas in my blouse, really. How much did you weigh? Do you remember? No, I really don't. Do you remember? It was five pounds, did it. That made me high. me way enough to get in the service.

And I still think that the recruiting sergeant fudged a little bit on his papers on it. But then who was I to question his great authority he had? So, but anyway, that was one of the reasons that were. Why did you pick the Marine Corps? The Marine Corps has a heck of a lot prettier uniform, as you can see. And I thought that was a great, well, we called it a chick-getter. A chick-eater. A chick-getter.

A chick-getter. Yeah. In my day, the girls were chicks, and I needed help, all the help I could get. Don't we all? But it got me in a lot of trouble a couple of times or so. And I was stationed in Tongue, Oregon. We had a bar that we used to go to. and I was way too young to be drinking,

but the guys passed me brandy underneath the table and stuff and so. And doing so, a Navy guy, and I really hate to say this, but the Navy and the Marines did not get along very good in 1941. So we had problems on it, and why I don't know, but of course I was going to join right in with the reason why. But a sailor came by and knocked my cover off my head, and I reached down, and I picked it up, and came up with my right fist, and I ducked him.

And the fight was on. The Navy and the Marines both started fighting and stuff. I was sitting down like that and somebody hit me on the shoulder. I turned around, and just as I turned around, the beer bottle had hit me right in the face. There was that satyr that I had knocked down. He got up and he took... a nice swing and hit me across. I still have a little scar on my barred or he hit me.

Knocked me out. The rest of the guys on the table pulled me over and put me behind the bar. And then they went on fighting and stuff. Shore Patrol came by and closed the place down, locked the door poor little old Frank was still behind the bar I stayed there and behind the bar out until about

two in the morning and I woke up no one was around I tried the door and the door was locked I couldn't get out that way so I called the base got a whole one of the guys there that had a

and they came over and picked me up, put a shoulder to the front door, got me up, put me in the car, and took me back to the base. I don't think much has changed between the Navy and Marine Corps since then. Oh, you don't think so. I don't think so. It's pretty much the same when I was at. We didn't get along very gross. So what did you join the Marine Corps to do?

Was there a specific job you had in mind that you wanted? wanted to do in the Marine Corps? Did you want to go to work? I wanted to be an airplane mechanic. An airplane mechanic? Of course, I was building airplanes and stuff and stuff, and I had a lot of experience in that. So I joined up and asked for to be in the Air Force on it.

The Marine Corps Air Force on it as a mechanic. it didn't work out. The closest I got to an airplane, but when they took me in to it, and I saw them fly over, and that was about it. Because they said, oh, yeah, we'll put you in the Air Force, Marine Air Force. So that was good enough of me.

Sergeant says that. That's true. But I never did get close to an airplane doing any work on them at all. really and I'm still not that burst in. I was a lot better of fighting than I was. How did you find out you were good at fighting? You wound up becoming a Marine Raider very early on.

How did they choose Marine Raiders? The guy that was a head of, his name was A.H. Allen. And he turned out to be my senior. drill instructor. He knew what I was and what I was capable of doing when he was training. So he put in his bid for me to be a raider. And I was the fourth one, I think, fourth one out of the whole company that was picked for a raider. the battalion and turned out that Jamie Roosevelt was my raider officer. The president's son? President's son.

He was good. And the one thing he said that kind of impressed me, we were trained in boot camp to listen to our superiors. Of course, Sergeant Allen was one of the, one of the reasons that I remember because he kind of impressed us with his training methods too. So, but when Roosevelt came and contact with the Fourth Marine Raiders, the first word he said to us, to us, we were all hunts down on our butts. And he says, kill.

That's what I want you to remember. Kill. We're not here to defend anything else, but kill. And says, and I'll train you to make sure that you do that, and you'll be able to do that. And he was true. Every time that he trained us in something, it was to kill them. It wasn't any, we didn't go for wounded or anything like that.

And we were taught to kill. And we did. And we used that method that he taught us. Do you remember the method? Very definitely so. What was it? Well, I could kill a guy with two blows. That's it.

That's all I needed. I was able to break his nose. I was able to break his thorax. And I use that method that he taught us all the time. He was, of course, you know, I'm only at that time, probably 16 or 17, you know, I go to church, thou shalt not kill, but not at the colonel. He was very adamant on it that that's what we were there for. And that's what kept me alive going on some of the,

things that I was doing on it and I had to do. So do you remember the first man you had to kill? Yes. Who was it? I was a Jap. Japanese, I guess what it is. I guess the Japs are a derogatory term. But here's a

There are still Jebts to me on them. There was the enemy. That's it. How did you do it? Crossed up in his throat. Use my hands. I killed him with the side of my hands, like that.

Cross the throat. It only takes two times to do it. You come pretty, get pretty good at it. It's impressive on it. When they say, you're gonna do that, and then you're gonna be able to, you know, kill a person, and what are you?

When you don't want to, but you're gonna do it. Self-preservation. Anyway, we. How old were you the first time you killed a man? I think I was 17. 17 years old. Yeah. And the other guy was young as well.

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New Georgia was New Georgia. First combat there, and I didn't kill anybody there on it. But boy, I sure learn a lot there though, please. Not only myself, but some of the other guys that had gone through a lot. They got ambushed a couple of times and I wasn't involved. in it, but that was on New Georgia there's

really jungle fighting and between tribes on different tribes of the natives against the natives and the pride of the native people

there on New Georgia. They had black hair on the lower part of their skull, and on the top of it is about an inch and a half, two inches of red hair that grows out. And so they were considered

between native groups to be the red head of the native were a lot better and I didn't go through there but I found out how they killed and what they did on it they cut their heads off

from the shoulders and place them on the statues inside of a smokehouse and these guys that went through the

smokehouse said, God, it stunk from the stuff. That's how the headhunters used the, as I said,

they were I'd be scared number one, number two, I couldn't see them cutting the heads off and all that. They were head hunters. What were you guys doing in New Georgia? I wanted a tattoo myself. I wanted on my upper right arm, and I wanted to get the ring emblem on it and they It was against the rules.

Regulations, we were not. And they say, we repeat, not to have any tattoos on our body at all. Because the Japanese favorite thing was to skin that tattoo off of your arm, shoulder, or wherever it was on it, and skin it and use them for lamp. shades. They would cut off the tattoos. I didn't want my skin on one of those shades. So I adhered to the bruise of no tattoos and so I never did get a tattoo. Did you take fire coming ashore?

No. No, not on New Georgia. Uh-uh. Now, like we came in freeing clear. none, no fire at all. There's a few elements in our room. I was one of the guys that didn't, and one of the reason I didn't get any fire at that time, I think, was because we were kind of protected in a way. For the first time that they had the boys,

anna aircraft and the aircraft and that is that the aircraft tanks yes boys rifle rifle rifle on it 55 caliber

you laid down a covering fire for those in front of and we didn't have any at bow at all coming in because we were they wanted it they being the Marine Corps wanted to know more about the anti-tech rifle we were the first ones to put the anatoic rifle and they wanted to see what we could do and we had five guys in my squad on

myself and four more. So I'm one of the first Marines that had an anti-tank rifle. Wow. It's 55 caliber. And as I say, it was very good, but it was real heavy. And it took two other guys to carry the ammunition for it. I had the opportunity to fire, fired any combat, but I didn't hit anything because there were no, we had no tanks there. Could you see what you were firing at in the jungle?

Yeah. You could see that. You could see that. And we knew what it was, and we knew the vulnerable places to fire. What were you firing at? We were firing at the first track. And he hit that track and then knock it off the, what it's called? The tank.

I was the tank. All right. What were you doing at Guadacanau? Guadacanac. We were first on the way to Guadalcanal. we were instructed to that we were there for safety to the troops that were that were fighting there so they didn't have any they didn't have to stand guard or anything like that after they were attacked or after they attacked

the hemis and field and I I think our orders read, the stand guard on Henryson Field. Do you remember clearing enemy positions in hunting holdouts with Major James Roosevelt? Well, there was one there, but it held out for a long time. A couple of years, I said it was, but anyway,

we had some that were, in coconut trees. And then we got a Japanese caught two squads of Marines going through the coconut grove and they didn't have a good scout. Scouts missed the ones that were in the They were in coconut trees and they ran into a good number of kids that would kill on that.

They all started Barley at one time and our chaplain would come over there and he wanted to give those guys that were caught in this trapped, I guess, that the Japanese had set on there. Anyway, I heard all of this commotion, so I told my squad that was still there on landing. So hang in there and stay there and fire when you need you and whatever you need. I'm going to see what all that firing is. So I went down the road a little bit further, and I came in contact with some Marines that had gotten and really running away from that particular trap that the Jeffs had set up.

And the chaplain got a hold of me, and he said, turn these guys over. over and so I can read the rights, barrel rights or whatever they call it on it. So I, what I did. I turned several of them over and see their faces. Anyway, we, one of the guys I recognized, and turned him over and he was dead. And that shook me up quite a lot. But the chaplain Redman, I think, was called.

He turned, he read the rights to them. And I couldn't take any more of that. That was too close to home. I stopped and of course he stopped he had been in the right. I guess there's something in their creed that they can't but you have to see their face

to give them the rights I don't know but anyway we that's what that happened there and the next day we went out in our group

from Guadal and we got caught in the same position, same thing. We had two guys that were killed out of the out of

our 21st Marines and that was a that was a hard to take and that's really the first time I'd seen

dead guys that was. that I knew on them. They were your friends? Yes. Well, not close friends, but they were known to. We were friends. We played cards, stuff like that together.

But he's, they are good at Tamiflodge. The Japanese are excellent in that particular field. field. In fact, the commander of all four raiders made that recommendation to the warlords or whoever it is, that one of the things that we had that the Marines had to be taught and boot camp on how to chemist lodge yourself better. And then kind of think of it, you know, I don't think I ever got any kind of a training on the chemical lodge. It was always something physical that we had to do ourselves on it.

But they were good at it, real good at it. Let's go back to Guam. Do you remember, do you want to talk about the first time he landed on the beach in Guam? Yes. What was that like? I was scared. Why were you scared? I was scared on it because we had, they were shooting at us on it.

And I didn't get wounded there on it. was next day after that first landing on it. But I was scared, really. Because when you look at those people that, and then you start thinking, you know, this is what they are released from, all that tyranny that they've had before on it. Later on, they had a lot of caves up against the area that we landed, and the Navy was firing at those caves that were in there.

It was one of the things that on my second trip to Guam, I was able to go over there and see. And up close, where the Navy had really felted the landing area where we had landed. That was good. on it. We stood in, I was able to, on my second trip there, I was able to go in there and and actually see the entrance of those particular caves on it. We had a lot of, a lot of Japs, there. When the tanks, Japanese tanks, came to. down the hill from Aton. And

just as the tank battalion was landing, and so they were not able to, our troops were, our tanks were not able to get up there fast enough because

the Japs were coming down and the Japs were following the tanks right behind them. And And just as they got down toward where we were bivouacked, they jumped out from behind the tanks and came and attacked us just where we were bivac on it. Some of them ran past us, went on further down to the headquarters company and tanks that were coming in. And then some of them stayed there and fight us guys.

me had just gotten out of the box holes. And I started fighting them as it came down. There was 400 of them plus. Yes, a lot of. And I got one who was a little feisty on a guy and got a hold of him. And I'd boy, I wish I hadn't. Anyway, he started charging me

and then I jumped out of the way of his charge the first time and the second time on it, then I wouldn't fast enough, and I stepped backwards. So when we dug our box holes on it, we dug them and pile the dirt up around and outside of it like a berm on it. And as I was going backwards of a lot of trips,

I fell, just as I fell, I stepped, lunged, and he stuck me on the stomach with his bayonet. And I fell around backwards on it. And my neighbor next to me on it, I don't know, he either shot him or whatever. And the jet fell down on top of me. Well, I was in the box hole. And he fell down on top of me.

As he fell down, my hand, as I fell down, my hand went out, and I hit my gung-ho knife that was, that I had been using to dig into the dirt and recognized it and I pulled it. My hand sat, I pulled it out, and I saw up, and then I cut his head, his throat, and he started bleeding all over me and all over the place on it.

And he was, He was a little heavy. I couldn't move him. So I had this hole in my stomach, and that was beginning to get sore. Where did the hole in your stomach come from? Did he stab you? Yes, he got stabbed me with his baynet.

And you kept fighting. He kept in the top part of my stomach like that. And as he went down, I turned evidently, And it turned, the blade turned, and it went in on the slant, and it hurt. So he just stayed there on there. I think that, of course, died. He laid on top of me. We got, and I guess the guy that shot him,

yelled something out, out, I don't know. what it was. It must have been, I got him for your right or something like that. He saved you. Yeah. Yeah, he did. He really did. He either shot him or stabbed him or something.

I don't know how it was. But it was, but I cut his head off. And I didn't cut it off. I just swiped it across and, but anyway, it was enough to blame. So he bled, lead on it. And then that evening, that night, whatever it was, I kept the day. Next morning, they tried to count all the people that were wounded and things like me. They saw me then and I was yelling and hollering and get that bastard off of my stomach and they pulled him off and he was dead.

Then he got me out and saw what it was on it like that. It really wasn't that deep on it because it was, as I said, I turned just as it, I fell on it. And he, but it was, it was, I was more scared than, than, then I was hurt. They called me, they pulled me out, and of course I had all kinds of blood on me, from my blood and his blood. So I went up there and I yelled over there for the corpsmen come up. The corpsman came over and he cleaned me up to see that it wasn't a real deep cut. And so he put a big piece of tape on it and pulled it together.

That's how I stayed and that's why I didn't go in any further than that aid station there. There were guys a lot worse than me. Frank, let's take a quick break. If you've ever been in another country and couldn't communicate the way you wanted to, you know how frustrating that can be. You can know where you're trying to go, know what you want to order, and still feel stuck because you don't have the words. That language barrier changes the whole experience.

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That's Babel, B-A-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-E-L-L-S-R-R-S-RS for up to 60% off. Rules and restrictions may apply. All right, Frank. We're getting into, you wanted to talk about your second trip to Guam. Yes, the governor of Guam had invited me. to come to them on a reunion that they had. They wanted me to be the grand marshal of the parade that they were having. And I was able to see some of the people that were in that we released from prison.

This is after the war. This is afterwards. This is way afterwards. How did it feel being back there? Oh, it was good, really good on it. I was able to retrace the landing area, retraced the steps that I had taken on Guam the first time on it. And it meant a lot to me.

Later that evening, I was able to go to a colonel's house for snacks and stuff. And we walked out to the edge of the hill that we had climbed the first time on. We walked up and I was able to look over the hill at the hill that we climbed up on it. And we dug our first boxhole there. I was able to stand on the same spot that I was able to. It looked the same? Did it look the same? No.

Looks different now. had more green to it and stuff, you know, and stuff. But it was there. And it was just so real on the ceiling, those areas that we came in on it. Then when we got up there before, this is before, and we released the, prisoners on it and the prisoners would come out on that and shake our hands and

now if you want to see what freedom looks like you look into the eyes of those who survived it they were treated so horribly but to look in their eyes on it when they hug and go away from your look down into the especially on the little fellows and you see their eyes and it reflects oh freedom from tyranny and everything they had furnished us I hope I hotel on Hilton Hilton Hotel on the 12th floor. And Marvin and our photographer was there. They came over to our room and they woke me up and said,

Frank, I want you to see this. So Marvin pulled me out on the on the patio deck out there and see the sunrise. See the sunrise on there just out of this world on it. And it started making me talk and say what was in my heart. in my heart. So I gave a little speech there.

I was standing in my shorts. They were still filming me. I looked over the side, and there's two dogs down on the bottom of the... They were just standing there, just sitting there on their haunches and looking up toward me.

and I was talking. And I could see this beautiful since sunrise and a flock of butterflies came here from underneath the balcony where I was standing and it started coming up as a flock right in front of me. What do you think that was?

just like they were standing in listening to them. I said, you can't photograph that feeling, but it was so real. And seeing those butterflies as a group. They flew up right in front of us, and they got it on film, I think. And they just dissipated. and it was down below those two dogs to howl and I just I just got carried away.

It was emotional. Yeah, oh God, it was... Then later on, we're in the parade. That was the leading parade and the governor came down to the parade and she stopped the parade came over and shook hands with me and thanked me for coming over and all that

and the thank of butterflies flew right in front of me and her and she flew there and then they disappeared

and she said her She presented me with a t-shirt that she's called me Liberator Frank. And it shook hands with me and went off. We're going to have another meeting later on. But to go back into the past and seeing all those people that had been in prison, and the nicest of these that the Gramegians showed, especially the shamarros, the great people.

The shamaros used to get over us, and they'd bring a war canoe over and take a squad of us back in the back jungle, way back there. And that's when we saw those places where they had head hunters and stuff. And then we'd get a little bit further on deeper and deeper. And we'd come across places that they could smell the food that the Japs were building. They weren't building.

Jep's had going back and further back on it. And they just pulled it in, put the guys out. We all went out in there looking for those people that were, that were, the chefs that were cooking that meat or whatever it was that they were cooking on it. Chamorrhoes could smell it more so than we. You weren't looking for them? Yeah, we were really looking for those holdouts that were back there in the back. And we could hear them more so when they would yell at each other to that we were coming or something.

Did you find them? We found a lot of Japanese that had committed Harry Carey. What is Harry Carey? What do they call it? Self-destruct, they could call it on it? With the sword? And they have a ritual that they go through to stick a dog in your stomach and they can't face it. They can't face defeat.

and face what we were doing it's uh have you seen them yes do it no no not as not see him i didn't see the but the results was we saw it afterwards yeah because but when we come through there on it we see a lot of a lot of the especially the officers on it their hands would be still clutch to their sword. And that's, if some officer hadn't gone by there first and taken the dagger out and used it for a souvenir, and they usually, the officers usually got the better part of it. But I wanted to, I wanted to let the audience know that

freedom is something other than plain words you look at their eyes and you see it then you know what freedom is

and what it looks like have you ever heard the the saying freedom those who fought for it as a flavor the protective will never know. That's a good saying. I've never heard it before, but that's a good saying.

Do you remember Iwo Jima? Yeah. We trained, I think it was eight months from the time that we were through with Guam. First, it was, we got a little flack and stuff and bombs and took a different kind of ammunition thrown at us at our landing that we had not been forced with before and we didn't face it. Now this is entirely different.

The landing was different. Everything was different. The ground cover was, you couldn't walk on it hardly because it was full of the, more like little rocks, small rocks. And we headed for a place that we could stand and hide and out of sight from the guys that were on lookouts. This little building up on the right had a lot of cans and stuff like that. And I told the new recruits, I had two new recruits with me. One was a B.A.R.man, Young was a scout. And they joined my group.

I told the guys, I said, when you get off, I said, get off on the left side. you're that building up there is a spotter and it's got a gun on there and he can shoot you use the LST or the Hagan's boat whichever one you're wrong used it as a protection get it off on the other side

and two of the guys they got scared the first thing they did they jumped up on the right hand inside and they got shot. Both of them and both of them got shot in the legs. Thank goodness we had our medical people. They were able to get them? They would jump off also and bandage them up at that time

until them their way here and get undercover. So they stay. there and evidently they did survive because I didn't see them anymore but they did survive. We were there and we started moving all those rocks and boulders really and where did you go after you landed on the beach. We got in there and had a good spot for it. I got hit in the head with something. I don't know if it was a shell or what,

but I got knocked out. I heard a lot of yelling and hollering and hooping and stuff like that. And that woke me up, came out of my stupor, I guess. And that was on the 23rd of February. That's when they raised the flag up on the regime. I got up in time to see it. The second flag, I didn't see the first flag. The second flag, they were able to see it.

We thought that the war was over. We won. The flag went up. We won, all that. The Jets did the same thing. They thought that they had one. And they were whooping in Harlem because that was their troops up there on the hill. On the 28th Marines had, were up on a hill.

They're the ones that actually did the racing, the 28th of the 5th and the 3rd. 5th Marine. And then we got ready to go as we were going, then further on up up the ridge there. Well then the Japs realized that it was

our troops up on the hill that were raising the flag. Not them. And so they all started running back into their caves and to their places that they were hiding before. And they, of course, followed as much as we could. There were several people going off on their own with a flamethrower.

Did you ever go off on your own? No. No. No. No, I always followed my scout. My scout's job was to locate them first. And so I gave him a person a job, then he did it. And I knew that he would have done it. So I didn't, my B.A. R.man was the same way on it.

I gave him a job to do. He did it and it did it right. He was the best B.A.R. I think in the 21st Marine. My opinion. When you were knocked unconscious when you got knocked out. Yes. Did you take another helmet?

That was something. I don't know what it was if it was around or if it was a piece of rock boulder or something like that because they were throwing different type of ammo at us at that time, whom we were all in a big hole, big, kind of hole, I guess you were, could be called. And... Did you lose your helmet? Yes. You did.

Yeah, knocked the helmet off, naturally. But that was, I got a helmet and I had... Did you get a new helmet? Hmm? Yeah, from the... Oh, there's equipment all over the place. Dead guys and stuff. So I don't know who had... know what it was or whose as it was or anything.

You just picked one up? Yeah, I just picked it up and fit. That's where it stayed. I didn't need it at any other time on it, too. But I fought with my hands a lot. You fought with your hands? Yeah. In Iwo Jima specifically?

Yeah, same thing. It was that close? It's really a habit. You get into the point to, it's just a habit to do. Some guys get lead with your left, whatever, you know. It's a habit to getting into, when you're doing something that works the first time you try to get in. Well, I didn't get a chance to do that on evil.

How close were you? close were you? Well, we were the fifth, I think, the fifth time to take that hill. Five times. Yeah. I think there was a fifth time going up there and we'd go up there and we'd fight and then the order would be to retreat. So we'd retreat, go back down there and that would be on the, and that would be on the

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Where? I got machine gun crossed my chest. The guy that shot me, he ran back into his hillbox. Got a hold of the Nambu

25, 25th caliber. And just as I was coming over the hill, I had two corpsmen behind me, and we were carrying ammo, extra ammo for the B.A.R.man. And just as I came over the hill, then the guy that ran into the mailbox, he grabbed it and opened fire. He fired the first round across by chest. The first two rounds went together on it and went through my upper right-hand side.

Just went through, cracked my papar, cross my lungs. It came out on my left side on it, left a big hole in my left side on it, left a big hole in my left side on it, as the rounds went through on it. And as it came out, I had raised my arm up to fire. And this is I did. Then the rounds went, both rounds went through the muscle of my left arm and took all the muscle out of my left arm and went some glades.

And then I went down, and as I went down, the two corpsmen behind me had grabbed the whole of my pack straps, and they pulled me back, and then one of them pulled me down into a shell hole right below where I had just come from. I was there for, oh, not too long, but then about that time, well then, Here comes McCoy, who was my B.A.R.man. And he had a hangarneed that had gone off in his back, toward his back. And the hangarneed threw out a lot of shells on it. and a riprooted off of his back end.

And he had, I don't know, hundred or so maybe from all these missiles that came from that hand grenade into his back. The shrapnel. He was shrapnel, hauntled. And he came, and. And so they told him and guided him down into the shellhole where I was. And while we were in there, the Japs were up on top of the hill dropping off hand grenades

and stuff like that into the shell hole on him. About that time he was coming down. Finally he said, he said, right, you know this is, guy could get a guy. get hurt down here. Can you walk? I said, yes, I can walk, but I have to have someone hold on to me. And he said, but let's walk.

So we'll go back to the aid station on it because I've got a whole bunch of holes in my back. So I grabbed hold over one of his arms and we started back, walking back everywhere. Going back to the aid. the 3rd Division Aid Station, which was just on the other side of the airfield number two.

We saw, at that time, we saw an airplane coming down over there, right above us. And boy, that thing is big. It didn't land, but it was big. And so it went on to another field, which was number one field. We had passed number two already. We did that on a story across the field number, airfield number two. I led, me and my squad led the 21st Marines across airfield number two until we came to the sulfur pits the sulfur pits of it

on the wayside of the airfield number two and we were that's where we got into little trouble with a lot of pillboxes there just on the other side because we had been chasing them all across the airfield. Finally caught up with them in the air. We had one hell of a big fight there. Finally, we cleaned them out. How did you clean them out? All them out.

They cleaned all of the Japs out of the air, out of the, uh, self-for kits. Uh, the Japs had, uh, the Japs had, had kidnapped from different islands that they had been there. And they had kidnapped a lot of younger boys, younger men, who gave yourself a pitch on it, because that was Ewa Gima's main surprise. of sulfur to the Tokyo, and we chased them out and they went on those that we didn't

kill. They went to, went over to Hill 227, which was the Monoyama called Motoyama Village. chased them over to there and they were using the Moldoyama Airfield 2 27 as a spotter

for the radio station which was Iwo Jima's radio station which was shown 228 if it was and the radio station would be broadcasting what was going on

that they had been chased over there. They were spotters for the other caves that were on the island. So this general that had compensated us and told us to follow him, and his orders, the Major General's orders, were to clear kill. That meant everything, everything, every living thing would be due. In our language, were to be killed.

So that's what we did. There's only one way of doing it, the clear-cut, as we called it, was to go down the path along where the Japanese had made a path all the way down from top to bottom. It was to run down and throw hand grenades into the windows and kill everything that was in there. And that's what we did. Boys, girls, women, they all went. That was terrible. We cleared them all out of there.

We went back up to the, up through the area that we had just tossed our hand grenades into and see what we had done. And if there was any live ones in there yet, if they were where we'd shoot them. And we got it in there. It was bad. So the women were in there.

They killed them. Boys, they were killed. But it was a clear cut. That was our orders. Get rid of it. So we did. And we got up to the top on it like that. Then they had the 228.

They knew the same. knew the same thing to over just kind of like a neighbor area. And we had to take them the same way. My B.R. went inside with his B.A.R. And he liberated, he liquidated everything that was alive. And then got rid of all the radios that were on the shelves and stuff, which was a lot on it. They were using low-powered radios to broadcast what those kids and women had seen on the airfield and stuff. How did you leave the Ojima?

It was terrible. Anyway, we cleaned those out. And we cleaned the just as we were going off of the off of the hill before we got into the

382, 382, I think it was was when I got shot. Anyway, we went through that. same way and all the women that are killed and stuff and I think

my own opinion on it Japanese used women as they called them comfort girls and I think after we took two of those

hills I think our officers, head officers, took them as comfort girls to. That's the reason that, that's one of the reasons, put it that way, that we had into what they call clear-cut. They were dim-dead as well. That's not, and that wasn't a good thing. But later on in life, which is the Japanese have apologized for kidnapping all the guys.

And stuff, they've apologized for getting all those boys and stuff, kidnapping them and the women. but they have not, I repeat, they have not apologized for kidnapping the women to use as comfort girls. That's still on the docket. They've apologized now for just the boys and the men that they used for, spies or reports or what we want to call it plus the other things. So, but I think that's one of the reasons it were ordered to kill them all, clear-cut. On one of them, we found a, as we was going through, that I, my B.A.R.man found one of the guys, somebody was trying to crawl out of the,

one of the caves on the bottom of the caves. And so he just shot off about four or five rounds. And finally found out that that was a guy and his girlfriend were digging themselves out of the bottom of one of those caves. And he shot him. You know, that happens all of time. And I'm very opposed to her. Very opposed to her. And I was quieted down once.

I was given an interview for a paper. for a paper on Go-Aham happenings. No, probably the next one. A. Ouija's happening when one of the things that we were asked to do, when we went back to A.u Jima, we were asked to describe a.wama. describe who we had then. And at the time, it was still, I was still emotional tied to that second period of time, that time when I was, and I broke down and started crying.

And it, uh, and I told that asshole, I'm not person. But he said, well, I want to know how are you shot? I said, well, hell, man. I said, how is anybody shot? I want to tell you how I got shot while. And he wouldn't let me. And he kept buzzing me on it and buzzing me on it. I just couldn't take it in long.

I said, I stopped in tears and crying. Marvin was a, he was away, but he was close by. He started to come over and get me, just pulled me away from that newspaper guy. And I don't know, I just, I couldn't help it. So he was, he was good, he couldn't, he got, finally got a hold of him. They pulled me away and wouldn't let me talk anymore. They wouldn't let me explain why. I'm picky with eyewear because I wear it every day.

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That's roca.com code SRS. What was it like when you came home? After I got shot, they pulled me over to, he and I, he and my P.A. and walked back to the aid station. We got back to the aid station like that, and I went, he and I were together, and we stayed together and said, they were looking for all the ambulatory,

which he was ambulatory on it, and I was too, but of course that, but I couldn't do it without help. So he took off and he went back on board a hospital ship. And I went back on a hospital ship on it. And I got on, they laid, they put me on a gurney and put me over to the hospital ship. I got laid down on a hospital ship. I kept waiting for my time to go into the surgery room. And there's two doctors in the surgery room.

When I got in, they looked at my arm. And that was really the only thing that was showing too much was my harm because it had all the muscle were gone. It was all shot out. And so the one doctor said, well, we're going to have to take it off and she can use it better with the artificial arm. And that woke me up.

So he started grabbing for the saw to cut my arm off. About that time I woke up real good and I gave him a right cut to him through his throat. I was going to kill him. And he jumped back and I hit him and knocked him across. knocked them across the room, knocked over the surgical tray. About that time, two guards came in, and they got a hold of me on both sides, and they started, and I kept yelling,

you're not going to cut it, you're not going to cut it. So, finally, he said, that's ours. Sergeant and Corporal, or whatever it was at that time, and he says, we won't cut your arm all. And so that just saw calm me down a little bit. And so

I thought it was pretty good that way. They managed the rest of my chest up. And I had still had my clavicle that was

still bleeding, I guess. Anyway, put me back on the on the journey and put me back out with the guy so I figured that's take scare of that. About that time, I looked at my tag, say, whenever you get wounded or something like that, and a a Corman takes care of you

he puts down what he did you know you gave a shot of morphine or two or whatever it was and bandaged it up and all that and then that way

the next person that sees you they know they can just look at that and see what what it is and what's happened and what they did so you don't get over-medicated. So I looked at it and medicated. I looked at my tag,

and I thought I was going to see GSWs, gunshot, blowing the right chest and left chest. But all it said was combat fatigue. That was it. I said, well, hell, that shouldn't be, you know. Anyway, four other doctors, four other hospitals. They put me back on a hospital ship, and I went back over to Saipan,

and I went to another place, and then finally went over to Honolulu, an Army doctor. But they had to, All they would do would take me off my gurney and put me on the deck, and then they'd look at my card. They'd try, let's this, kind that fatigue. Well, move him over there with the other nets.

And it picked me up, put me over there with them. And there were four different, four other different, hospitals that didn't ask me or anything. They just look at the card and that's what it said. Combat fatigue. So they put me in the wrong reward. I got them to award, the Lord, the wrong, the wrong Lord,

long word on four or five times on and finally

they gave me into the to the to the net board they called it and

the night the light went on because it was getting dark for that time and

I thought I thought it had been and had peed in bed or something because I was getting out and laying there. It was getting kind of warm and liquid. So I yelled for the night nurse. She came over and pulled the covers back

and then saw what was going on, and she put the covers back on top of me, and went in there and got a doctor and came back. And he had said previously that he was going to perform a tap because he could, with a stethoscope, he could hear the water or whatever in my chest. So he wanted to perform a tap. The tap meant that he had to stick after I asked one of the nurses of what it was. And he said, he stick a needle in your back or your front, he'd run in your chest, and drain all the liquid out of your chest.

So I said, well, that would be pretty good on it off that, but it would hurt like that. Anyway, they came over and they pulled the covers off on me, and I was laying there in blood. I wasn't laying in water or urine. My chest had reined out and on the... And I was laying there in blood from this shot in the check in my clavicle or whatever it was, lungs or whatever. And they put something in there, he cleaned it off, cleaned it out. He said, well, we won't perform a tap on it.

So he didn't. But no one has checked to my chest since I left the regime. I have fluid. I have blood, I should say, in my stool. And I keep trying to tell me, tongue, that ain't anything but blood. Check it. No one would listen to me.

They still haven't listened to me. I was in two weeks ago, and they all, they say, oh, you have blood in your stool. I said, damn it, look at my chest. Well, that's another department. So I'm still sitting there with, I have to wear a diaper because of that on it. I still got blood in my stool.

I said, why don't they check my chest? So that's where I'm sitting there. I still got horses and, of course, that's the breakdown I had in the, and before I went in for the final one, there's another thing too. Frank, want a drink? Thank you. Just take a drink.

Cherison. Do you have a message for young Marines today? The last time I talked to young Marines, I was with the, Well, one time out. Do you... I was in the airfield office. And waiting to go aboard plane.

And there's a lot of young kids that came over. And we were all standing in the line. And their commander was taking them to the place. And I told them, I said, One thing remember, always do what your D.I. or your trainer is doing for you. They've been there. They've done that. Don't put that aside. But remember, remember what your D.I. says on it. I did that for one reason because I was a drill instructor for six months on my four-year tour. And I wanted to know that that's what I told my kids.

That's what their D.I. usually tells them. Remember what they said on it. They train you. They've been there. They know how to handle themselves. Listen to them. Tell that to all of, everyone that I've seen so far. What message do you have for Marines that are seeking help?

That are what? Looking for help. Well, I'll tell you. There again, listen to the patient. patient knows his body. I knew something was wrong, but of course I can't tablet that. And it's hard when you're trying to keep your cool and tell the doctor or officer,

he's wrong. You just don't do that in the Marine Corps. quote here from you. It says, if you need help, seek it out. Oh, yeah. God's here. Don't take it yourself, son.

Seek help, ask someone. Make a difference who it is, but tell someone and let them know what you feel and how you feel. They can tell. Some of them can tell. Well, but tell somebody. Don't do it yourself.

God gave you a good body, and he's going to keep it for you. Frank, I just want to say it was an honor to interview you, and thank you for your service. Seriously, it was my honor. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you for your service. Thank you.

You've got to raise your handshake. God bless. No matter where you're watching the Sean Ryan show from, if you get anything out of this at all, anything, please like, comment, and subscribe. And most importantly, share this everywhere you possibly can. And if you're feeling extra generous, head to Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review.

I was an Avenger, but I'm not a hero anymore. The Vision returns for the final chapter of the groundbreaking trilogy. That family wasn't real. You sure about that? I had a father called Vision. How is this possible? Don't miss the two-episode premiere of Marvel Television's Vision Quest. Nothing bonds a family together quite like Mortal Jeopardy.

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