Speaker 1: Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
Speaker 1: this edition is Charles Kram. He's a US Navy veteran
Speaker 1: of World War II. Mister Cram served as a Navy
Speaker 1: corman embedded with a company, first Battalion, twenty sixth Marines
Speaker 1: from the fifth Marine Division in the critical Battle of Ewojima.
Speaker 1: The battle began on February nineteenth, nineteen forty five. In
Speaker 1: the course of our conversation, mister Cram will tell us
Speaker 1: about training as a corman, coming ashore at Ewojima, the
Speaker 1: vicious fighting, and how he was ultimately wounded and evacuated.
Speaker 1: Charles Kram was born in March nineteen twenty six. He
Speaker 1: was fifteen years old when he learned about the Japanese
Speaker 1: attack on Pearl Harbor.
Speaker 2: I had just come from church and we arrived at
Speaker 2: our home in Glendale, California, and the news came over
Speaker 2: around noontime. I believe it was. At that time, I
Speaker 2: didn't know that much about it. I didn't realize that
Speaker 2: we might be in a conflict where we were going
Speaker 2: to be in a war.
Speaker 1: Cram was initially too young to join the service, but
Speaker 1: he still found ways to help the war effort, including
Speaker 1: working as a messenger boy, and it was in that
Speaker 1: role that he received word of enemy action along the
Speaker 1: California coast.
Speaker 2: That was I was a messenger for the air raid
Speaker 2: warden there in Berduga Woodlands, which was part of Glendale,
Speaker 2: and we went out and I remember the search lights
Speaker 2: were going on all over. We heard that the Japanese
Speaker 2: were attacking the southern California coast. We didn't ever see any,
Speaker 2: but apparently they came in around Fort MacArthur in near
Speaker 2: San Pedro, California.
Speaker 1: By nineteen forty three, Cram was only seventeen years old,
Speaker 1: but decided he was ready to join the fight. He
Speaker 1: explains why he made that decision at such a young
Speaker 1: age and why he chose the Navy.
Speaker 2: I was working, I was going to high school at
Speaker 2: the time and working after high school doing war work
Speaker 2: for a company called Gladdie mc bean. And one of
Speaker 2: the supervisors there was a Navy veteran. He had been
Speaker 2: discharged from the Navy a result of falling down the
Speaker 2: hatch of a submarine and he was out. But he
Speaker 2: talked about the merits of the Navy, about clean sheets
Speaker 2: and one thing or another. So John Newlan, my friend
Speaker 2: and buddy. We both thought this was great, so we
Speaker 2: signed up for the Navy in Burbank, California.
Speaker 1: From there it was off to basic training in Idaho.
Speaker 2: My original training was in Los Angeles to get the
Speaker 2: train station there and we were to go to Idaho.
Speaker 2: At that time, they had a naval facility called Camp Fellragut.
Speaker 2: It was in Cord Lane, Idaho, and that's where the
Speaker 2: train was going to take us to Spokekane, Washington. And
Speaker 2: then from Spokane we went over to Cordlane and that's
Speaker 2: where I went through my boot camp training for the Navy.
Speaker 1: After boot camp, the Navy decided to make Charles cram
Speaker 1: a Corman, a medic embedded with ground forces from the
Speaker 1: Marine Corps. He says that decision was based upon his
Speaker 1: family history.
Speaker 2: Apparently through the information when you sign up for going
Speaker 2: into the service, there's information about your parents in their
Speaker 2: livelihood and one thing or another, and it happened that
Speaker 2: my mother happened to be a nurse, and they looked
Speaker 2: at the situation and figured from my background, this was
Speaker 2: probably a good field to put Charles into. So that's
Speaker 2: why I ended up in the Navy as a cloud
Speaker 2: pharmacists mate or hospital apprentice.
Speaker 1: Next came Corman training and Cram explains what he and
Speaker 1: the other Cormen were equipped to treat on the battlefield.
Speaker 2: Any type of wound that you would get, a gunshot
Speaker 2: wound to the lung area or to the head, and
Speaker 2: administering morphine for patients who were able. They were suffering
Speaker 2: a lot of pain and you would mark identify these
Speaker 2: people with a thing on their forehead, so where they
Speaker 2: were moved back to a battalion aid station, they knew
Speaker 2: that they had had morphine injections for pain and one
Speaker 2: thing or another, and just the preliminary work that you
Speaker 2: could do in the field.
Speaker 1: Before shipping off to the Pacific theater, Cram and many
Speaker 1: other personnel took part in very realistic invasion training exercises
Speaker 1: in places like San Clemente, California, and one of those
Speaker 1: exercises involved a surprise visitor.
Speaker 2: Well, we had walked from Camp Pendleton down to Santa
Speaker 2: inefre Beach, which is in southern California on the coastline,
Speaker 2: and from there we practiced landings in vehicle LCVP landing
Speaker 2: craft vehicle personnel. We made landings on the southern California coast.
Speaker 2: But prior to that, we made landings on San Clemente Island,
Speaker 2: which was a naval station that was out on the
Speaker 2: Pacific col and off the southern California coast. And then
Speaker 2: from there we came back in and we had attacked
Speaker 2: southern California beaches, and at that time when we landed
Speaker 2: on the area of the beach, we were going through
Speaker 2: all sort of simulated gunfire and everything else. And after
Speaker 2: that quieted down a little bit, we looked up on
Speaker 2: the top of the hill there. They told us to
Speaker 2: look up there and lo and behold who was there?
Speaker 2: The President of the United States, who at that time
Speaker 2: was Franklin D. Roosevelt. And then from there we had
Speaker 2: the joyful word that you head back to your tent
Speaker 2: camp or the camp area at Camp Pendleton and start
Speaker 2: preparing for invasion and fighting the Japanese.
Speaker 1: From there it was off to Hawaii for more training
Speaker 1: and then to Saipan. Only after departing from there and
Speaker 1: heading farther west did they start to figure out where
Speaker 1: they would be fighting.
Speaker 2: And then at that time we realized we were going
Speaker 2: to go into combat. They didn't tell you where, but
Speaker 2: I think the word came out that where we were
Speaker 2: going to go was situated like a pork chop. If
Speaker 2: if you looked at a pork chop, this would be
Speaker 2: the outline of what Ewojima would look like.
Speaker 1: By mid February nineteen forty five, it was time for
Speaker 1: the invasion of Ewojima. Charles Kram walks us through his
Speaker 1: memory from the night before to the morning of the landing.
Speaker 2: Well, the night before the invasion, I slept on top deck.
Speaker 2: Below deck. You were in not bunks, but kind of
Speaker 2: like hammocks, and there are about seven deep in there,
Speaker 2: and it was hot, and I just couldn't sleep that well.
Speaker 2: But you could get out on the deck, and they
Speaker 2: wouldn't allow you to even wear a watch which had
Speaker 2: a fluorescent glow to it, for fear that maybe somebody
Speaker 2: would be able to see the thing and bomb the
Speaker 2: ship or something. But anyway, I stayed out on the
Speaker 2: what do you call it, till the early morning shp
Speaker 2: shelling started on eve Jima, and then from there went
Speaker 2: back down and I think I believe it was two
Speaker 2: o'clock in the morning. We had steak and eggs. That's
Speaker 2: a good combat breakfast, I guess They figured troops were
Speaker 2: going to need good food and healthy body. So that's
Speaker 2: what we had that morning, what do you call it?
Speaker 2: And then later the morning we knew all the shelling
Speaker 2: that was going on on the island and a naval
Speaker 2: gunfire that was going on and everything else. We knew
Speaker 2: we were going to go in there, and we didn't
Speaker 2: go in until around eleven or twelve in the morning,
Speaker 2: I guess it is what he called. We didn't go
Speaker 2: in on the track vehicles at that time. Some of
Speaker 2: the original people at the nine o'clock morning went in
Speaker 2: on track vehicles, amtraks and water buffaloes or things of
Speaker 2: that nature. But we went in what we called LCVPs
Speaker 2: landing craft vehicle personnel where the gate went down, the
Speaker 2: front door went down, and you went charging out of it.
Speaker 1: When it was time to go. Cram says he landed
Speaker 1: at a time the Japanese were no longer covering the
Speaker 1: beach with withering fire, but there was still plenty of
Speaker 1: chaos from all of the vessels disabled and destroyed along
Speaker 1: the shore. Cram explains what he saw and did from
Speaker 1: the landing until later that first day on Ewo Jima.
Speaker 2: Well, it was kind of hairy because we didn't know
Speaker 2: what to expect it, and some of the beaches had
Speaker 2: been so cluttered up with equipment not being able to
Speaker 2: get in there, and with the volcanic sand and ash
Speaker 2: that they had from the volcanoes on that island, it
Speaker 2: made it rather difficult. So some of the original plans
Speaker 2: didn't go as they were supposed to. But we eventually
Speaker 2: landed down on the beach there and I remember digging
Speaker 2: into a fox hole in the granite and the volcanic
Speaker 2: ash there. I had a little book that I had.
Speaker 2: It was a Catholic missionary book, and I opened it
Speaker 2: up and it just opened up to a page called
Speaker 2: the Active Resignation, and I said, oh, my Lord, maybe
Speaker 2: this is the end of things. So anyway, I read
Speaker 2: that and tried to get formulated with with the company
Speaker 2: that we had and try to take care of some
Speaker 2: of the fellows. As we moved off the beach, we
Speaker 2: moved over to the one end of the island. We
Speaker 2: were down where the a big volcano was, where Mount
Speaker 2: Serabacci was, where the Japanese were pretty well dug in,
Speaker 2: and that's we moved from there and camped at the
Speaker 2: base of Mount Serabacci that night. In fact, the area
Speaker 2: that we dug into, well, you didn't really have to
Speaker 2: dug there were a lot of artillery holes and mortor
Speaker 2: shell holes, and you had a place where we could
Speaker 2: dig in, but some of that volcanic sand would come
Speaker 2: in on you. And the area that we dug into
Speaker 2: was an old bayonet course, so it was kind of
Speaker 2: spooky that night. Who we didn't know whether the Japanese
Speaker 2: were coming in on unswer what was going on that
Speaker 2: way because of the statues and things that they used
Speaker 2: for bayonnet course.
Speaker 1: Training's first thoughts were looking out for the Marines and
Speaker 1: his company, and that included the specialized troops that were
Speaker 1: with them.
Speaker 2: My direct influence in the situation was with Company A,
Speaker 2: first Vettack twenty six Marines was as a first platoon,
Speaker 2: which also I took care of the assault squad, which
Speaker 2: was the flamethrowers and var and the demolition people as
Speaker 2: well as the regular mortar people and the infantry people
Speaker 2: in Company A. In the Infantry division there was a
Speaker 2: machine gun squad and the rest of those. So I
Speaker 2: was pretty well worked up with what I was doing.
Speaker 1: That's Charles Cram a US Navy veteran of World War
Speaker 1: Two who served as a corman for a company of
Speaker 1: Marines on Iwo Jima. Still to come, the flag raising
Speaker 1: at Mount Surabaci, fighting an invisible enemy and how he
Speaker 1: was wounded. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans' chronicles.
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Speaker 1: This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbas. Our guest in
Speaker 1: this addition is Charles Cram, a US Navy veteran of
Speaker 1: World War Two. After pressing on from the landing beaches
Speaker 1: and surviving the night in the eerie bayonet training fields,
Speaker 1: combat against the Japanese forces proved difficult. In the early
Speaker 1: days were full of encouraging advances and disappointing retreats.
Speaker 2: Well, we moved back, and I can't remember the exact date,
Speaker 2: but after we had moved back and kind of got
Speaker 2: organized a little bit more, we went up the side
Speaker 2: of the island and we got there, and then we
Speaker 2: had to retreat back again. The Japanese had put in
Speaker 2: a freshure. Honestly, we had to retreat back a little bit,
Speaker 2: and then we stayed there, and then the next day
Speaker 2: we started moving ahead again. So it was kind of
Speaker 2: up and down, and we did the best we could
Speaker 2: at the time.
Speaker 1: Like the other Navy coreman serving along side the Marines.
Speaker 1: Charles Kram was right in the middle of it.
Speaker 2: That was right on the front line. You couldn't get
Speaker 2: any farther I had than where we were at, and
Speaker 2: Company A did what they could. I mean, we would
Speaker 2: be on frontline two or three days and hopefully try
Speaker 2: to move ahead. We move ahead a little bit and
Speaker 2: then have to be moved back again because we couldn't
Speaker 2: get into the cliff area where some of these implanted Japanese,
Speaker 2: where they had firepower that they could shoot us.
Speaker 1: One of the biggest challenges for Cram was gauging when
Speaker 1: it was safe enough to emerge and care effectively for
Speaker 1: a wounded marine. He says he had no commanders giving
Speaker 1: him orders, and deciding when to act was entirely upon
Speaker 1: his eighteen year old shoulders.
Speaker 2: You didn't have a company commander or somebody like that,
Speaker 2: an order of seniority that says, hey, cram out there
Speaker 2: and do which you could. You were trained to take
Speaker 2: care of the troops that you were connected with, the
Speaker 2: infantry troops or the assault squad troops that were injured.
Speaker 2: If somebody yelled Corman, we'd entertained the idea where the
Speaker 2: thing was in an area like Iwajima. Because of the
Speaker 2: closeness of everything, everything was with somebody within five or
Speaker 2: ten feet of where you were. The front lines were
Speaker 2: twenty yards or so away from where your lines were.
Speaker 2: It would end up with some of the troops. I
Speaker 2: was never involved with hand to hand combat, but I
Speaker 2: knew part of our company when the Japanese were trying
Speaker 2: to infiltrate our lines, got involved not only with hand
Speaker 2: grenades to kill them as they were coming in, but
Speaker 2: actually got involved with hand to hand combat with the Japanese.
Speaker 1: And Cram says the injuries he was seeing were not
Speaker 1: for the faint of heart.
Speaker 2: They were mostly wounds that were pretty pretty ghastly. As
Speaker 2: far as the damage was concerned, it wasn't so much
Speaker 2: from just rifle shots or anything. It was more from
Speaker 2: artillery or mortar shellings and things of that nature.
Speaker 1: Cram says it could be a complicated process to treat, stabilize,
Speaker 1: and evacuate the wounded, especially with a huge battle playing
Speaker 1: out on a very small island.
Speaker 2: Well, initially there was a big problem because you had
Speaker 2: the stretcher bearers and the other people who went out
Speaker 2: to get these troops that were there. It was a
Speaker 2: lot of commotion in the initial landings on I Regima
Speaker 2: on the first day, there was a lot of chaotic situations.
Speaker 2: You just couldn't depend You did what you could, and
Speaker 2: that was the best of it until he organized a
Speaker 2: little bit more the second and third day.
Speaker 1: Cram and his company of marines also got a good
Speaker 1: view of the most iconic moment of the week's long battle,
Speaker 1: the raising of the American flag atop Mount Surabaci.
Speaker 2: From the vision where we were at the base of
Speaker 2: Mount Sarabacci, where we're being called off the front line
Speaker 2: back to the rear area, we could look up there.
Speaker 2: We could see that we didn't know what was going on.
Speaker 2: People would try to tell us what was going on,
Speaker 2: and then we would see the flag go up on
Speaker 2: the Mount Serabacci. Because Sera Bacci had apparently was five
Speaker 2: seven hundred feet up in the air there was an
Speaker 2: ex volcano.
Speaker 1: Cram says the sight of Old Glory being raised was
Speaker 1: a great morale boost and a misleading indication of how
Speaker 1: long the fight on Iwo Jima would last.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, we thought that was going to be the
Speaker 2: end of the war. We were attacking what it calls
Speaker 2: an American flag going up on the top of Mount
Speaker 2: Sera Bacci. We thought this is going to be what
Speaker 2: do you call it? But it wasn't there. It was
Speaker 2: just a preliminary invasion. Because most of the Japanese forces
Speaker 2: were being directed from the northern part of the island,
Speaker 2: and through their communication system they developed from the south,
Speaker 2: they lied infiltration. They would get troops at night to
Speaker 2: try to get through our lines or try to cause
Speaker 2: problems with us.
Speaker 1: That's Charles Kram, a US Navy veteran of World War
Speaker 1: Two and the Battle of Ewojima. When we come back,
Speaker 1: Cram tells us what he saw in the Japanese caves
Speaker 1: and tells us how he was wounded. I'm Greg Corumbus,
Speaker 1: and this is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm
Speaker 1: Greg Corumbas. Our guest in this edition is Charles Kram.
Speaker 1: He's a US Navy veteran of World War Two and
Speaker 1: served as a corman with a company of marines during
Speaker 1: the first several days of the Battle of Ewojima in
Speaker 1: February nineteen forty five. As Kram explained earlier, the fight
Speaker 1: against the Japanese ebbed and flowed and the biggest challenge
Speaker 1: for the Marines is that the enemy was largely invisible.
Speaker 2: You couldn't see the enemy and you didn't know where
Speaker 2: they were, but you knew they were trying to get
Speaker 2: in filtright through your lines to go through there, and
Speaker 2: it was became very stressful at that time. I couldn't
Speaker 2: go out at that time and treat any anybody. I mean,
Speaker 2: you stayed in your fox hole and you're ready for
Speaker 2: Japanese if they jumped into the foxhole with you.
Speaker 1: Undaunted, the Marines made their way to higher ground and
Speaker 1: were finally able to confront the caves from which the
Speaker 1: Japanese were launching their attacks.
Speaker 2: Well, that had been after we had been on the
Speaker 2: front line. We'd been on frontline for four days, and
Speaker 2: they would bring some of the chow or food that
Speaker 2: we would have. We had mostly rations. There's breakfast, dinners,
Speaker 2: and suppers they called it. That was for about four
Speaker 2: days we were doing that, and we were pulled back
Speaker 2: to area where we could see what was going on,
Speaker 2: and that was I'm trying to remember on a daily
Speaker 2: basis whether it was the fourth or fifth day that
Speaker 2: the flag went up on the top of Mount Sarabachi.
Speaker 2: That's where I could see. We were down at the bottom.
Speaker 2: We could see commotion going on up there, and the
Speaker 2: twenty eighth Marines had made me we knew they were
Speaker 2: on that part of the island, and they'd gone up
Speaker 2: and made the flag racing there. And then from there
Speaker 2: on I went snooping around with part of the assault squad.
Speaker 2: We got into some of the caves and one thing
Speaker 2: or another that had been shelled, and one thing or another,
Speaker 2: and there were a lot of Japanese soldiers that we
Speaker 2: were dead there. And I had picked up piece of equipment.
Speaker 2: I thought it was a good good thing to take
Speaker 2: back as a souvenir, but it wasn't. It was some
Speaker 2: part of an artillery piece. But I think the important
Speaker 2: thing was that I had found a Japanese soldier and
Speaker 2: I had taken the flag. They wrapped it around their
Speaker 2: waist and I had taken it off of him, and
Speaker 2: I have that as a souvenir of I Regima.
Speaker 1: At that time, the Japanese were famous for turning the
Speaker 1: islands they held into fortresses because of their ability to
Speaker 1: hide in caves and tunnels and even build living quarters,
Speaker 1: medical facilities and more. Underground. It's also how they were
Speaker 1: able to withstand the relentless Allied bombardments prior to our
Speaker 1: amphibious landings throughout the Pacific. But when Cram got a
Speaker 1: peek inside the caves, he just saw how they were
Speaker 1: used to attack his fellow Americans.
Speaker 2: They were mostly battle conditions where they put snipers and
Speaker 2: other people who had a clear avenue of sight of
Speaker 2: troops coming in on them, where they could shoot at
Speaker 2: them and one thing or another. So that was my knowledge,
Speaker 2: and I remember getting into some of those caves and
Speaker 2: there were Japanese that had been killed as a result
Speaker 2: of either bombings and maybe their bodies had been brought
Speaker 2: back in Again.
Speaker 1: Cramp says it's hard to remember the day to day
Speaker 1: developments in the battle, pointing out that the longer the
Speaker 1: fight went and he and the Marines hardly got any sleep,
Speaker 1: it became almost impossible to tell one day from another.
Speaker 2: No, everything seemed to run together. I mean, you didn't
Speaker 2: really have time. You worried about your own safety and
Speaker 2: the safety of the men that you were treating or
Speaker 2: going to treat. Felt as that you'd been in field
Speaker 2: training back in Hawaii or back here in the state plan.
Speaker 2: I lived with these Marines as a Navy veteran. I
Speaker 2: was in the Navy, but I spent most of my
Speaker 2: time with the Marine Corps. And you learn the habits
Speaker 2: of how marines were treated and how you lived is
Speaker 2: what he called the staff nco officer, and how you
Speaker 2: ate with these people, they were your life.
Speaker 1: The action at night brought an added dimension of danger
Speaker 1: as the Japanese used the cover of darkness to emerge
Speaker 1: and tried to infiltrate enemy lines. In those dire moments,
Speaker 1: Cramp found himself lobbing grenades towards the enemy alongside the Marines.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that we had been been moved up from the
Speaker 2: first or second day. We moved up on the front
Speaker 2: lines there and we were infiltrated because the Japanese at
Speaker 2: that time apparently were trying to move some of their
Speaker 2: troops from the southern island, the southern portion of the
Speaker 2: island where Sarabachi was, and get them back to the
Speaker 2: northern end of the island. So they had what they
Speaker 2: called the Bonzai attack. They would come in the middle
Speaker 2: of the night and tried to get through the lines.
Speaker 2: And at that time I remember with the group that
Speaker 2: I was with Sergeant Kelleherne and Billy Graham in the
Speaker 2: fox hole there. We were throwing fox hand grenades out
Speaker 2: about as fast as we could because the Japanese were
Speaker 2: coming through there.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't just the grenades. Cram also recounts firing
Speaker 1: his car being at the enemy on Ewo Jima.
Speaker 2: Well, at that time, when we had moved back, we
Speaker 2: could see ahead of us some of the Japanese running
Speaker 2: from one cave to another, and we could see them.
Speaker 2: And at that time I remember I had a weapon.
Speaker 2: I had a forty five, but I'd also had a
Speaker 2: carbing weapon, and so I tried shooting that thing that
Speaker 2: the Japanese who were we could see moving ahead of us.
Speaker 2: But I don't recall everly hitting anybody with what do
Speaker 2: you call it? The distance was something else, and you
Speaker 2: couldn't tell whether you had hit or subdued Japanese soldier
Speaker 2: or anything.
Speaker 1: Cram seventh day in combat on Ewo Jima would also
Speaker 1: be his last. He was injured while tending to a
Speaker 1: wounded marine in the midst of combat.
Speaker 2: I had been told that Sergeant Angelus and part of
Speaker 2: the first squad of Company, a part of the Infantry
Speaker 2: Section he was corfil. Angelus was out in the front
Speaker 2: lines there, a little bit ahead of where I was
Speaker 2: dug in, and so I got up and I was
Speaker 2: able to move. It was daylight at that time, so
Speaker 2: I was able to get up, and I moved ahead,
Speaker 2: and I found Angelus laying on the ground there, and
Speaker 2: I laid down beside him, and as I remember, I
Speaker 2: lifted his helmet a little bit to the side and
Speaker 2: I tried to speak to him, and then I realized
Speaker 2: that he was at that time, and so as I
Speaker 2: started to get up, I was laying down. I started
Speaker 2: to get up. All of a sudden, I felt something
Speaker 2: go through my leg hit me, and what it was
Speaker 2: was apparently a Japanese sniper was trained in on that
Speaker 2: area and he shot me at that time. So at
Speaker 2: that time it was kind of ironic. As I look
Speaker 2: back that I realized that I was going to get
Speaker 2: off that island. I was going to get taken back
Speaker 2: to a battalion aid station or something. I wouldn't be
Speaker 2: fighting anymore. I didn't like the idea we were fighting
Speaker 2: the Japanese that way, that there were too many casualties,
Speaker 2: and I figured I was going to be a complete casualty.
Speaker 2: So I was able to manage myself to get back.
Speaker 2: And I remember the first group of guys that I
Speaker 2: got back was a fella from Salt Lake City, roof
Speaker 2: Egbert was his name, Big Fellow. He was with a
Speaker 2: machine gun squad and with the first platoon, and he
Speaker 2: had gone that night or that morning and jumped into
Speaker 2: a fox hole. But at that time, one of the
Speaker 2: Marines who was in there, he had a bayonet on
Speaker 2: the end of his one figure maybe they're going to
Speaker 2: be hand to hand combat and he was going to
Speaker 2: have to use that. When Egbert jumped into the fox hole,
Speaker 2: he caught it on his foot and the thing was
Speaker 2: bleeding quite heavily. And I treated him there and bandaged
Speaker 2: him up at that time, and I waited to see
Speaker 2: if I could get back to the battalion aid station
Speaker 2: and where I was going to be taken care of.
Speaker 1: Despite his wounds, Charles Kram stayed true to his mission
Speaker 1: and kept administering aid to the Marines. For his devotion
Speaker 1: to duty, Cram would later be awarded the Silver Star.
Speaker 1: He humbly says he'd just tried to do as much
Speaker 1: as he could.
Speaker 2: I guess it was whether it's human nature or whether
Speaker 2: it was the training that we had gone through through
Speaker 2: Field medical school where we were taught how to administer
Speaker 2: first aid to wounded troops in one thing or another.
Speaker 2: And I just tried to do the best that I
Speaker 2: could under the situations that I was confronted with.
Speaker 1: But before long Cram needed to be evacuated and for him,
Speaker 1: the Battle of iwo Jima was over. He explains what
Speaker 1: happened after he was moved away from the battlefield.
Speaker 2: After I was evacuated, they got me back onto the
Speaker 2: beach area and they put me on a an LCVP
Speaker 2: I believe it was, and took me out to the
Speaker 2: HMS Reaper. There was a British aircraft carrier and it
Speaker 2: had come from Australia, and from there they took me
Speaker 2: back to Guam, the island of Guam. They had a
Speaker 2: base eighteen hospital at Guam, and I was stationed, not stationed,
Speaker 2: but taken back medically to Guam. From Guam, I was
Speaker 2: taken back to Pearl Harbor. I was not going to
Speaker 2: do any more fighting or anything else. I guess my
Speaker 2: wound was healing through my leg and one thing or another,
Speaker 2: so there wasn't any situation where I was going to
Speaker 2: be put back into this to the war again. I
Speaker 2: was being brought back to Rui for more medical treatment.
Speaker 1: Cram would not see combat for the remainder of the war,
Speaker 1: but he didn't know that at the time. Before long,
Speaker 1: he was back in Hawaii preparing for a massive invasion
Speaker 1: of Japan that would thankfully never come.
Speaker 2: We're going to have to go to Japan, and so
Speaker 2: they organized us. And I've been back in Hawaii at
Speaker 2: Camp Tarawa again after I'd been treated at Pearl Harbor,
Speaker 2: and we went back into training because we were going
Speaker 2: to go into training to go into the Japanese homeland.
Speaker 2: We were going to land in Japan, and I guess
Speaker 2: the nearness of the war was getting to the point.
Speaker 2: The B twenty nine's from Saipan and Tinian we could
Speaker 2: hear they were they were going to do more bombing
Speaker 2: in Japan, and one thing or another and the next thing,
Speaker 2: and we knew we were loaded for trips who were
Speaker 2: going to go fight into Japan.
Speaker 1: Of the two hundred and fifty marines Cram landed with,
Speaker 1: only twenty five walked off the island at the end
Speaker 1: of the battle. A ninety percent casualty rate. In all,
Speaker 1: the battle resulted in twenty six thousand American casualties and
Speaker 1: a critical victory in the Pacific Theater. Looking back at
Speaker 1: his service with his customary humility, Cram says he was
Speaker 1: just trying to do the best he could.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I think because I was pretty young
Speaker 2: figure seventeen to go into the service. It was a
Speaker 2: kind of a good feeling at that time because I
Speaker 2: did the best that I could. That was all I
Speaker 2: could ask for.
Speaker 1: Charles Kram is a US Navy veteran of World War Two.
Speaker 1: He served as a corman embedded with a company, first Battalion,
Speaker 1: twenty sixth Marines from the fifth Marine Division in the
Speaker 1: critical Battle of Ewo Jima. He was awarded a Silver Star,
Speaker 1: Bronze Star, and a purple heart. I'm Greg Corumbus and
Speaker 1: this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi, this is Greg Corumbus, and
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