| Title: |
WW2 Interview with Melvin Jacob #3 |
Description:
Tape Number WCWW2-069
19:00:41;05 19:00:58;26 [00:00:17:21] WCWW2-069
:keywords:
Melvin Jacob - Interview
Continued
Interview conducted on September 13, 2002
Marine
USS Indianapolis
salt water ulcers
reunions
why did we survive and others didn't
19:00:58;26 19:01:52;20 [00:00:53:22] WCWW2-069
:SINKING THE DEAD:
MJ - We had a, either a Navy corpsman or something, in our group. 'Cause I was holding on to one sailor and the corpsman come around and he said, "You don't have to hold him anymore, he's gone." And he took him away and sank him. So the sharks wouldn't get him. Yeah. That was ... 'cause a lot of 'em, you know they, we'd put our arms around each other and sort of help support us, you know, and especially at night. It's slowly coming back, but it's ... it's all up here, but it's a matter of recall.
Q-Were you able to sleep when you held each other?
I don't remember sleeping.
Q - Were you able to sleep when you held each other?
MJ - I don't even remember sleeping.
19:01:52;20 19:03:34;14 [00:01:41:20] WCWW2-069
:SALT WATER ULCERS:
Q - And you say they did switch and you did get into the raft?
MJ - I got into a raft for a while, and ... but it's hot. I felt more comfortable in the water. Unfortunately I did have some salt water ulcers. They were from the salt water. On my thighs, on my hip about the size of a tea cup.
Q - What is a salt water ulcer?
MJ - I don't know, it's like a, what would you say, an overgrown pimple. Yeah. No, it's... Lot of us had salt water ulcers. From the water, from the salt water, the salt in the water. Yeah.
Q - After you were picked up and went back to Guam, then this photo was taken on the carrier? Do you remember when that photo was taken? Do you remember posing for that?
MJ - Yes, that was on the Hollandale. That was after we left Guam. Yeah, because we were supposed to be flown back to the States and they gave us this old, what they call an escort carrier. I mean, that hardly moved. I don't know how many days it took us to get to San Diego, which is the long way around, but we used to kid the crew, "Hey, here comes the sailboat to help tow you in." You know, different things.
19:03:34;14 19:05:16;29 [00:01:42:11] WCWW2-069
:LOOKING OUT FOR SAN DIEGO:
MJ - But we had the whole hangar deck. They had cots, the whole hangar deck was cots, and we slept on these cots. In different groups, we would go to eat during the day and then the rest of the time we spent, we'd go up on the hangar deck ... snoop around the other airplanes and stuff. Sometimes just lay up there in the front on our stomachs. Just look for San Diego. Play games and stuff.
Q - Were you all pretty recovered by then, physically?
MJ - Yeah, pretty much so. Weak. Then we got in the hospital in San Diego then. Was pretty good then, it was just more or less watch ya.
Q - Who were the people in that photo?
MJ - The 9 Marines? Yeah, they're just the 9 marines from, that survived out of the 39 Marines. We lost our officers, we lost Captain Park, who was one of the heroes of the group. 'Cause he went around and did an awful lot of, from what I hear, I wasn't in his group, to help the sailors. Keep 'em together and more or less in charge. 'Cause that's what they needed, somebody in charge. Somebody they could look up to.
19:05:16;29 19:06:59;21 [00:01:42:20] WCWW2-069
:SILENT FOR 30 YEARS:
MJ - Unfortunately, Lieutenant Stoffard, I don't know if anybody ever see him after that. Anyway ... Jacob Greenwald came out to the Hyde, he was a Sergeant in the Marine Corps. Question, what do you do with 9 marines? Put 'em in the Navy.
Q - You didn't talk much about it for 30 years or so?
MJ - No, what's there to talk about, you know. 'Course when the reunions came out, then we got a little bit different. Ran into like Earl Riggin and some of the other Marine survivors. Gave us something to talk about. We used to sit in a room and drink beer and wine and ... sort of let things go.
Q - Just about everybody we talk to that... I mean, some people didn't have a hard time of it in the war. Some of the Navy people and some of the Air Force people. But anybody who was in combat or who had bad experiences, we hear that a lot, that for 30 years or more, they never said anything about it. Was it just that it was too painful to let it out, or there was nobody there who could even really understand what....
MJ - Understand it. Yeah.
19:06:59;21 19:08:57;24 [00:01:57:29] WCWW2-069
:BOOK AND MOVIE:
MJ - It'd be just like somebody from World War I, you know, come up and talking about his experience. 'Course we'd have something in common. But for a civilian, maybe not. You know, his experience in World War I... But one thing that, I mentioned about that before, but ... the memorials and stuff. Now if they ever come out with this movie, what were they gonna call the movie? I forgot. I know they wanted Mel Gibson to play the part of the Captain, McVay. And whether they come out with this movie, I really don't know. But Universal did buy the rights to the book. And it's interesting too, with that book, you know, being on the best seller list for 12 weeks, they invited me to a book signing up in Minocqua, I belive you pronounce it, just north of Milwaukee?
Q - Mequon. Minocqua is up....
MJ - Yeah, farther up there. Anyway, so my wife and I, we went. To be honest with you, I expect maybe 4 or 5 people there for the book signing. You know there were 75 to 80 people there. To get this book signed by Doug Stanton, the guy who wrote the book. It was very interesting how some of these people, there was wives, sweethearts, and you know, people that had some kind of interest in the Navy, to get him to sign their book.
19:08:57;24 19:10:20;22 [00:01:22:26] WCWW2-069
:LOTS OF PEOPLE:
Q - How many survivors were there?
MJ - Just myself. But then at some of the other book signings there was more. Oh, one thing I was going to mention too, when we had this memorial service, in Indianapolis, well in the last one there was 82 survivors, but there was over 1,000 people. Wives, sweethearts, grandpas, you know, or grand children who came to the memorial service. I thought that was touching. Yeah, close to 1,000 people. That banquet room, which holds, was a little bit overcrowed, and that holds about 1,000 people, at one of the banquets we had. And it was so interesting on some of the other reunions when somebody would come up, "Hey, did you know my father?" Or, "Did you know my grandfather?" "Would you sign my book?" 'Cause each had different type of badges on. I thought that was rather touching that there were still some people who cared, you know, about their ... grandfathers and so forth.
19:10:20;22 19:12:12;07 [00:01:51:11] WCWW2-069
:NICE REUNION:
Q - Well, I think anybody who knows about that incident cares about the people. Can't help but empathize. Can never begin to imagine what it was like, but can certainly understand that it was a difficult thing.
MJ - And then there's beautiful memorial services though. It's hard to explain it but ... the memorial, it's 3 days. We had banquets, meetings and stuff. Even a parade. They had what they call the antique convertable something. We all piled in convertables and had a tour of the town. The city of Indianapolis really treated us nice. In fact, at one of the banquets, there was a speaker, he's the owner of the Indianapolis Colts. He was so touched by our reunion, he wrote a check out for $83,000. $1,000 for each survivor. And on top of that, gave us each a sweatshirt with our name on the back. It all came later. But I just thought for him to do that for us, I thought that was a little over and beyond.
19:12:12;07 19:13:57;07 [00:01:44:28] WCWW2-069
:SOME YOUNG, SOME OLDER:
Q - How old were you when you were in the water?
MJ - Just about 18.
Q - Everybody was about the same age?
MJ - There was a lot of 'em that were a lot older. Unfortunately, there were a lot of married men and stuff like that. And they, like I said, that was the worst part. And sometimes I think about when I survived, why me? Why not them? Why not Al Lupek? Or Howard Rose? Or some of the other ones that were, you know... I recall Mullins, he didn't survive. Some of the older ones. Who can say, you know? Why we survived and they didn't. Well, in any kind of encounter with the enemy or something like that, plane crash. Some people walk away, some people don't. Yeah. Who can say?
Q - It's beyond us.
MJ - Yeah, it is.
Q - Well I'm glad you did. Thank you so much. |
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| Subject Authority Used: |
International Press Telecommunications Council |
| FormatIdentifierSource: |
Wisconsin Public Television |
| Identifier: |
http://wptmedialibrary.wisc.edu//SPT--FullRecord.php?ResourceId=566 |
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