Major William Jones

Tribute to a Soldier

I’d like to tell you a soldier’s story…

There was this guy a long time ago who was sent to war. Didn’t like the thought of it very much, never thought in 1939 he’d ever have to kill someone or in 1943 wind up at a place no one, not even he, knew of its existence. But he did have to kill people to defend an idea and to protect our freedoms. And he did go to a place that all who have been there in winter, past or present, refer to it as a living hell! He wasn’t given even the bare essentials to endure the bitter winds and freezing temperatures. He lacked proper food, proper clothing, proper bedding, supplies always got to him too late and there never seemed to be a medic around when he needed one.

Sometime at the beginning of the battle, near 14 may 43, he was nicked in the arm by sniper fire. But, being so cold, he never realized it until later that day.

On 19 May 43, a piece of shrapnel hit him in the mouth knocking out a couple of his teeth exposing the roots to the extreme cold causing nearly unbearable pain. It tore a hole in his jaw you could stick a quarter in. He got through this though, on his own and still kept fighting!
Sometime on the afternoon of 27 May 43, he took a bullet in his lower leg.. There was no one around to help him so he painfully crawled or limped for over a mile, in fog so thick you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face, to a medical clearing station at Engineer Hill where his wounds were looked after by Army Medics. (By the time he got here his leg had swollen to twice its size and dry frozen blood covered the wound.)

Then, on the last day of all of this, 29 May 43, around 0400, he awoke to blood curdling screams coming from outside the tent where he lay helpless and wounded. “You Die – We Die, We Die-You Die” over and over again! For you see, nearly 1,000 Japanese soldiers made one last attempt to gain victory in a bonzai attack.

Was he scared? You bet, so damn scared he almost shit his pants! Bullets were coming through the tent shell from every direction!
But what scared him the most is he had no idea what was going on outside.. At Some point shortly after this started, he saw one of the medics drag a dead American soldier’s body into the tent and placed it at the tent’s entrance. This lone act saved his life and the others inside because it tricked the enemy into believing they had already been killed, like all those that were slaughtered in two other medical tents, so he and the others were saved from further harm.

The place was the Island of Attu, Alaska and I’d like to introduce you to S/Sgt Bill Jones, Company G 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, United States Army

More about this man:

* Received the Purple Heart w/5 Oak Leaf Clusters (meaning six times total) for wounds received in battle on Attu, Lahti (Ikusa Islands), Kwajalein and Okinawa

* Awarded the Bronze Star Medal — with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters

* Awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for meritorious service in ground combat, Asiatic Pacific and American Theaters of Operation

An American patriot and hero in the truest sense of the word, and now… he’s old, nearly 86 and ill, Emphysema to the stage he’s now on oxygen. A couple of bones in his spine have deteriorated to the point, in effect, his back is now broken. And when the old start breaking bones, it is usually the sign of the “beginning of the end”.

Jack Kennedy once said that not only was it our right to correct government mistakes, it was our responsibility as well.
So many times I’ve heard people say “I don’t like it, but what can I do, I’m just one person”, pretty sad, huh.

John (Jack) Jonas, TSgt, USAF (Ret)

Footnote:

*A Banzai charge (or Banzai attack) was a name applied during World War II to human wave-style attacks mounted by infantry forces of the Imperial Japanese Army. These attacks were usually launched as a suicide attack to avoid surrender and perceived dishonor or as a final attempt at maximizing the odds of success in the face of usually numerically superior Allied forces. [Wikipedia]

(Of the nearly 1,000 Japanese soldiers, only 28 survived the attack. Most all the rest committed suicide by blowing themselves into pieces with grenades.)