Speaker 1: Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumba's. Our guest in
Speaker 1: this edition is Lewis Burgalt, a US Marine Corps veteran
Speaker 1: of World War II. He fought at Bogainville, Guam and
Speaker 1: Iwo Jima. Lewis Brigault was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in
Speaker 1: May of nineteen twenty five. He grew up in the
Speaker 1: heart of the Great Depression, with three generations under the
Speaker 1: same roof, and he quickly learned what it meant to sacrifice.
Speaker 2: I have an older brother and older sister, my mother
Speaker 2: and father. My grandmother lived with us, who was in
Speaker 2: the middle. I grew up in the depression. We're The
Speaker 2: most common phrase was use it up, word out, make
Speaker 2: it do, and do without.
Speaker 1: Burglt was sixteen years old when the Japanese attacked Pearl
Speaker 1: Harbor in December nineteen forty one. He remembers hearing the
Speaker 1: news like it was yesterday.
Speaker 2: December seventh, nineteen forty one is very clear in my memory.
Speaker 2: A friend of nine had borrowed his older brother's card,
Speaker 2: which by the way, was an almost brand new nineteen
Speaker 2: forty one Chrysler Windsor and new cars were very rare
Speaker 2: to young boys in those days, in fact, and hardly
Speaker 2: anybody had new cars. And the main thing was his
Speaker 2: brother let him take it on a Sunday afternoon, and
Speaker 2: he picked me up and we went for a drive
Speaker 2: out into small towns and around the country. It had
Speaker 2: a radio on it, which was quite unique even then.
Speaker 2: It had little push buttons on it and you push
Speaker 2: this button hard and the little arrow went over here
Speaker 2: in the new station. And we were riding the countryside
Speaker 2: playing with the radio, and a voice came on and said,
Speaker 2: all National Guard report to the armory. All National Guard
Speaker 2: report to the armory. All nash Guard reports of the armory.
Speaker 2: What the hell's going on? You know where we can ride?
Speaker 2: And it kept radio okay, getting this break in about
Speaker 2: the National Guard reporting the army. And in block twilight
Speaker 2: we came back into the city and in those days,
Speaker 2: newspapers put out extras and kids are on the street
Speaker 2: extra extra. Japs bomb Pearl Harbor. My remark was, what
Speaker 2: the hell is of Pearl Harbor? I had never heard
Speaker 2: of Pearl Harbor. I knew there was a place called
Speaker 2: Hawaii where pineapples came from. And that was my first
Speaker 2: knowledge of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Speaker 1: Burgalt again was only sixteen years old at the time
Speaker 1: of the attack on Pearl Harbor, too young to join
Speaker 1: the service immediately, but Burgalt didn't want to wait and
Speaker 1: hatched a plan to skirt the ade obstacle, but his
Speaker 1: father brought it to a screeching halt. Once Burglt was seventeen,
Speaker 1: his parents agreed to let him join the Marines.
Speaker 2: Well the draft had been implemented. I didn't even have
Speaker 2: to register for the draft till I turned eighteen, and
Speaker 2: I hadn't even turned seventeen, but the age for legal
Speaker 2: enlistment and the Marine Corps the Navy was seventeen years
Speaker 2: of age. But at that time a lot of the
Speaker 2: young men it was still things were still pretty tight
Speaker 2: around there, and a lot of the young guys were
Speaker 2: swept up in the euphoria of all the news coming
Speaker 2: from Europe, the commandos and the stalking and the masking,
Speaker 2: and the building and raids and this that and the
Speaker 2: other thing. And guys was my peers. Some of my
Speaker 2: were going in droves signing up in the Canadian Air
Speaker 2: Force and going on off to Canada. And I thought
Speaker 2: this was a thing to do, so I falsified my
Speaker 2: age on some papers and did a little alteration with
Speaker 2: him and took him home from my parents to sign.
Speaker 2: My dad took one looks at me at that he said,
Speaker 2: you come over here. We're going to have a little talk.
Speaker 2: So I had to wait till I was seven, and
Speaker 2: then my mother made the I said, when I'm seventeen,
Speaker 2: I got talking to the Marine Corps recruiting sergeant, and
Speaker 2: he says, when you're seventeen, going down. And so as
Speaker 2: I turned seventeen, went down and got the papers and
Speaker 2: put them in front my Paris and my mother said, well,
Speaker 2: you're never so happy at when you got a gun
Speaker 2: in your hands. You might as well go.
Speaker 1: Just after his seventeenth birthday, Burgalt headed to Marine Corps
Speaker 1: boot camp at Paris Island, South Carolina. The culture shock
Speaker 1: was immediate in terms of the climate and dealing with
Speaker 1: the drill sergeants.
Speaker 2: I went to boot camp at Paras Island. I was
Speaker 2: sworn in on June first, nineteen forty two. That maybe
Speaker 2: seventeen years and three weeks of age. Paras Island in
Speaker 2: June and July, for those that have been here, got
Speaker 2: to realize it's kind of warm down there. Then we
Speaker 2: had a little sand. We used to quote something like this,
Speaker 2: here's the Paras Island, the land that God forgot, where
Speaker 2: the sand is ten inches deep and the sun is
Speaker 2: scorching hot. It was though in those days the drill
Speaker 2: instructors could literally hit you, I mean kicking in the ass,
Speaker 2: smash your rifle in your face, do all kinds of
Speaker 2: humiliating punishment. There was no limit to what they could
Speaker 2: do as long as they didn't put you in hospital.
Speaker 1: Training was difficult and grueling, but it got the new
Speaker 1: Marines ready for war. Burgalt explains the many different methods
Speaker 1: of training and what the Marines were trying hardest to
Speaker 1: achieve through that ordeal.
Speaker 2: Well, we had a very thorough training. First of all,
Speaker 2: we had to learn to march. We had to learn
Speaker 2: on left foot from my right foot, and we got
Speaker 2: pretty up. My platoon got pretty good at it. By
Speaker 2: the way. I was in the platoon four h six
Speaker 2: second Recruit Battalion at Paras Island, and my drill instructor's
Speaker 2: name was Corporal Ilmoy. He was a senior drill instructor.
Speaker 2: He was a tough little nut. We had two PFC assistants.
Speaker 2: We learned the Marching Manual of Arms. We learned to march,
Speaker 2: We learned to do this, that and the other thing,
Speaker 2: and mainly we learned to follow orders. Then we went
Speaker 2: to the rifle range, and at that time the rifle
Speaker 2: was the United States Caliber rifle and nineteen oh three
Speaker 2: a bolt operating clip fed shoulder weapon, and we fired,
Speaker 2: went out the rifle range. We fired. We had to
Speaker 2: get up early in the morning and do our firing
Speaker 2: because if you waited till later on in the morning,
Speaker 2: the heat waves shimmering off the marshes wouldn't let you
Speaker 2: see your target. We had to perform on the bay
Speaker 2: in that course. We had to We had dummy baytis.
Speaker 2: We had to run the course in a certain amount
Speaker 2: of time. We were taught the profit way to throw
Speaker 2: a hand grenade. We had familiarization firing with the forty
Speaker 2: five pistol, and then we then we had two weeks
Speaker 2: mess duty, which all the guys had to do pay
Speaker 2: back for all those meals. You sat down and ate
Speaker 2: and the chowhan didn't have to do any work. And
Speaker 2: it was in a casual company that was sent up
Speaker 2: to campus ureing the former's twenty first Greens.
Speaker 1: With basic training behind him, Burgalt so soon picked up
Speaker 1: an additional job once his superiors discovered his additional talents.
Speaker 2: I sent to the company and the first sergeant gave
Speaker 2: me some little work to do when he found out
Speaker 2: I could remember a message or some remember something I
Speaker 2: was told to do with him writing it down and
Speaker 2: drawing me a picture. So he kind of took me
Speaker 2: under his wing, and I became sort of like the
Speaker 2: company and runner, and I was a smart little kid
Speaker 2: with a smart little mouse, and I got in trouble
Speaker 2: a few times, and he threatened more than once to
Speaker 2: kick my ass and put me in a put me down.
Speaker 2: The weapons platoon let me carry him more. The bass
Speaker 2: played around, and he also knew that the gunnery sidant
Speaker 2: didn't like me.
Speaker 1: After some more training, it was time to begin the
Speaker 1: journey to the Pacific, which started with a cross country
Speaker 1: track to San Diego.
Speaker 2: Well, well, we went from Campusur, which by the way,
Speaker 2: was not Campusur, and then it was the Marine Corps
Speaker 2: based in River, North Carolina. We went to Camp Elliot
Speaker 2: in the fall in November or into October November, and
Speaker 2: we did some souping and pooping in the woods around
Speaker 2: Camp Elliott, which is now part of Miramar Air Station.
Speaker 2: And then we went on a ship in Harbor, San
Speaker 2: Diego self transport. In fact, I can even remember the
Speaker 2: name of it was the USS Franklin Bell. And we
Speaker 2: did out and did some maneuvers on where that beach
Speaker 2: the sea the seals used now at Carnado, and we
Speaker 2: did a landing at San Clementi and they took us
Speaker 2: off of San Clementi and brought us song the ocean
Speaker 2: side another practice landing and put us into Camp Pendleton.
Speaker 2: Were the first ones to occupy the brand new barracks
Speaker 2: at pim Pendleton. They just turned just got the electricity
Speaker 2: turned on, and we enjoyed a couple about a month
Speaker 2: and a half in those nach new barracks.
Speaker 1: From San Diego, it was off to New Zealand and
Speaker 1: eventual engagement in the Pacific Theater. Mister Burgalf remembers leaving
Speaker 1: San Diego and the moment shortly after embarking when he
Speaker 1: grasped the full reality of what was happening.
Speaker 2: I remember when we left San Diego Harbor, we pulled
Speaker 2: away from the pier, when the tugs cut loose, we
Speaker 2: went out the end. They put pulled the anti submarine
Speaker 2: net back and the destroyer went out ahead of us,
Speaker 2: and it was just a twilight and we got well
Speaker 2: clear of the submarine net and the entrance and the destroyer,
Speaker 2: remember the bleakal light, and destroyer went like this or
Speaker 2: something that our ship and he made a turn. He
Speaker 2: started back in and they put the hammer down on
Speaker 2: the lower line and we started out all alone and lowly,
Speaker 2: and it was very lonely feel and see that destroyer
Speaker 2: leave us. We went straight Auckland, New Zealand.
Speaker 1: From New Zealand, Burgalt and his fellow marines were soon
Speaker 1: on their way to Guaddal Canal. The long fierce battle
Speaker 1: there was over, and the island was now being used
Speaker 1: by US forces to bring supplies to the region, and
Speaker 1: Burgalt was in the middle of that massive operation.
Speaker 2: What we were doing most every other day when you
Speaker 2: went to someone working party on load and supplies or
Speaker 2: equipment or something, because there, you know, there were no
Speaker 2: port facilities on Guader Canal. Everything was lowered over the
Speaker 2: cargo net into a landing craft and put up on
Speaker 2: the beach and manhandled into a truck and then put
Speaker 2: on a supply dump. So and we did a lot
Speaker 2: of snoop and poop, and we did malaria control out
Speaker 2: at the edge of the jungle using machete, cutting down
Speaker 2: anything with harbor mosquitoes. We chomped through the the rivers
Speaker 2: up in the hills, in the foothills of the mountains
Speaker 2: here in Guadalcanal, and that was pretty much it.
Speaker 1: That's Lewis Burgalt. He's a US Marine Corps veteran of
Speaker 1: the Pacific Theater in World War Two. When we come back,
Speaker 1: mister Burgalt's first taste of hostilities while still on Guadalcanal
Speaker 1: and then the battle for Bogainville and eventually Guam and
Speaker 1: ewo Jima. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is Veterans Chronicles.
Speaker 1: This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
Speaker 1: this edition is Louis Burgalt, a US Marine Corps veteran
Speaker 1: of World War II. He served in the Pacific Theater
Speaker 1: and saw combat at Bogainville, Guam, and Ewojima. Before the break.
Speaker 1: Burgalt was remembering his arrival in the Pacific and being
Speaker 1: assigned to load and unload ships at Guadalcanal. As mentioned,
Speaker 1: by that time the island was in American control, but
Speaker 1: the Japanese still wanted it back, and it was on
Speaker 1: Guadalcanal that Burgalt got his first taste of hostilities in
Speaker 1: World War Two.
Speaker 2: Well, I had a taste of war before I was
Speaker 2: actually in combat. All Quarter Canal was secured, washing seed.
Speaker 2: Charlie was over about every night. A few bombs. We
Speaker 2: were unloading ships and we were on a work detail.
Speaker 2: We should have been down in the in the hold
Speaker 2: of a ship. This other fellow and I said to
Speaker 2: the cocks and the SELCVP, don't you need somebody down
Speaker 2: here to help, you know with Nancy said yeah, So
Speaker 2: he sold to the sergeant charges, I need these two
Speaker 2: guys to stay with me. So the rest of the
Speaker 2: guys went up up the cargo nets into the hold
Speaker 2: of the ship where they carried the stuff and put
Speaker 2: it in the cargo nets. And we took one load
Speaker 2: and we went to show up, put it up on
Speaker 2: the beach and held it out and I think it
Speaker 2: was half sixty millimeter and more ammunition in the clusters
Speaker 2: and some stuffered crazy back pulled up under the fantail
Speaker 2: the ship for our orders to the way to pull
Speaker 2: up next, and the boy shelled down conditioned red stand
Speaker 2: clear and I remember the prop turned on. We were
Speaker 2: right next to turbulence of the water with a ship
Speaker 2: turned and the Coxon spun that boat around and took
Speaker 2: off and just then whammed the ship right next to ours,
Speaker 2: about one hundred and fifty yards away, took a torpedo
Speaker 2: and blew up, and a hall hell broke loose thirty
Speaker 2: caliber fifty caliber forty milimere twenty traces, boom, boom. Their
Speaker 2: wet torpedo planes were flying low. And then we were
Speaker 2: in that boat and he was heading out away from there,
Speaker 2: and I thought we were going to hit by some
Speaker 2: unfriendly friendly fire. By the time conditioned Green was declared
Speaker 2: the shooting stopped, we were halfway over to Tilagi, and
Speaker 2: that was along quite a while getting back, and we
Speaker 2: go back to the beach. All the other guys had
Speaker 2: been in work party had been put ashore and put
Speaker 2: on a truck and taken back to the camp, and
Speaker 2: me the other fellow, we had to walk and and
Speaker 2: finally got a truck going our ways, and by that
Speaker 2: it was three o'clock in the morning. We pulled into
Speaker 2: the camp. At first Sun said, how where you are?
Speaker 2: I was just getting ready to put you down as Mia,
Speaker 2: so I learned then that the game was for keeps.
Speaker 1: The US approach to the Pacific theater became known as
Speaker 1: island hopping. It involved attacking strategic Japanese positions on countless
Speaker 1: little islands throughout the Pacific, building many of them into
Speaker 1: air bases, or using them to shorten supply lines. An
Speaker 1: island by island, the Americans and our allies inched closer
Speaker 1: to mainland Japan, but the early hops were very far
Speaker 1: from the ultimate target. After serving on Guadalcanal, it was
Speaker 1: time for Brigal and his fellow Marines to formally enter
Speaker 1: the fighting and relay critical messages just a little bit
Speaker 1: farther north in the Solomon Islands at a place called Bogainville.
Speaker 2: My first taste of battle was just off just offshore
Speaker 2: of Bougainville. We were on an APD, which is an
Speaker 2: auxiliary personnel destroyers the world will one destroyer where they're
Speaker 2: taking two stacks out and they would carry about a
Speaker 2: company of marines. The convoy was started being harassed US
Speaker 2: about midnight, and we passed handled ammunition twenty minute reels
Speaker 2: of ammunition from storage to the gun tubs and forty
Speaker 2: milliman ammunition, and the destroyer beside us, about five hundred
Speaker 2: yards of our stern took a torpedo, and by then
Speaker 2: then it was daylight, and we put on the boats
Speaker 2: and went ashore. The first wave had already been ashore
Speaker 2: and they already cleaned out the very light resistance where
Speaker 2: we went in at Cape Turaquina, and we hung around
Speaker 2: there and ineffectively fired us some planes that were with
Speaker 2: our rifles. That planes were trying to dive bomb the
Speaker 2: LST's on the beach. By the way, something I hear
Speaker 2: nobody to talk about anymore. What kept those planes from
Speaker 2: getting too close to the LSTs with barage balloons. There
Speaker 2: was huge balloons of the cable they put up with
Speaker 2: those cables. They had cables dropped from them kept the
Speaker 2: planes from diving in too close. And when they pull
Speaker 2: out of their dive, they came right around past where
Speaker 2: we were hidding in the bushes at the edge of
Speaker 2: the beach, and we were firing at japped planes with
Speaker 2: our ones. I fired one m one so it got
Speaker 2: the damn hot that the barre band charge made the
Speaker 2: wood on the upper hand hold made black. But that
Speaker 2: was kind of fun. But then it was after then
Speaker 2: we moved on up. Then we were not engaged directly
Speaker 2: with the enemy. We did patrols. We set up a
Speaker 2: primitive defense. We relieved the people in front of us.
Speaker 2: We set up as a mean objective was to seebees
Speaker 2: build an airfield down so they could run planes up
Speaker 2: to Boham truck.
Speaker 1: That's Lewis Burgalt, a US Marine Corps veteran of World
Speaker 1: War II, describing his service in combat and in carrying
Speaker 1: messages on the island of Bogainville in the Solomon Islands.
Speaker 1: In a moment, we'll hear about his actions at the
Speaker 1: critical Battle of iwo Jima, and here his memories of
Speaker 1: the flag racing on Mount Suribachi and the end of
Speaker 1: the war. But before that we'll hear how Brigalt and
Speaker 1: the Marines confronted two difficult adversaries on Bogainville. That's next.
Speaker 1: I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. This is
Speaker 1: Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbas. Our guest in this edition
Speaker 1: is Louis Burgalt, a US Marine Corps veteran of the
Speaker 1: Pacific theater in World War Two. He saw action at Bougainville,
Speaker 1: Guam and Ewojima. In just a few moments, we'll hear
Speaker 1: Burgalt's very vivid memories from Ewojima. But first mister Burgald
Speaker 1: picks up his story on Bogainville, where he not only
Speaker 1: fought against a fierce Japanese enemy, but the island itself.
Speaker 2: Big problems On Bougainville. I got malaria. I a dysenterry.
Speaker 2: I got jungle rod. I was covered with jungle rod
Speaker 2: from my knees up to my shoulders. That was a miserable, scratchy,
Speaker 2: itchy thing. I was in the division hospital there at
Speaker 2: the beach for three days, one hundred and three hundred
Speaker 2: and four degree fever. It was mud, it was wet,
Speaker 2: it was dreary. We did a lot of time just
Speaker 2: manning a Periminiza. I was not engaged in any combat
Speaker 2: with the enemy. I did shoot a straggler what do
Speaker 2: you call it? Was left behind as a sniper. I
Speaker 2: guess they Japs had a habit of leaving wounded and
Speaker 2: sick behind to take out a couple of us before
Speaker 2: they went. And one time I made a decision to
Speaker 2: go this way around a little when you call it
Speaker 2: an island, in the trail of what do you want
Speaker 2: to call it instead of going this way? And he
Speaker 2: was facing that way, and I got him. He didn't
Speaker 2: see me. He heard me, but he didn't see me.
Speaker 2: I saw him. And that was my only really combat there.
Speaker 2: The rest of the time I was running from the company,
Speaker 2: had boys back to battalion head bars and back up
Speaker 2: again and doing this and doing that, hauling this, haul
Speaker 2: in that, or something or other.
Speaker 1: After Boginville, Bergalt and his fellow Marines were soon on
Speaker 1: their way to take part in the invasion and liberation
Speaker 1: of Guam, which took place in July and August of
Speaker 1: nineteen forty four. After mopping up on Guam, as Brigalt
Speaker 1: puts it, it was time for rest and planning the
Speaker 1: next big invasion, Ewojima. Burgalt and the other Marines left
Speaker 1: Guam for Ewojima in January nineteen forty five. It's not
Speaker 1: a short journey, but Burgalt says the time was put
Speaker 1: to good use well.
Speaker 2: On the way up, they finally it was all those preparations.
Speaker 2: I remember. It was a tent set up with actually
Speaker 2: arm sent fish placed around it, and only certain offices
Speaker 2: were allowed in there that went on those big rooms
Speaker 2: about we never even heard the name e Regim. So
Speaker 2: we run a ship on the way up there, and
Speaker 2: then they had mock ups and they got us in
Speaker 2: groups on the deck and show us aerial photos and
Speaker 2: there's nothing, just bear laying well the problem. They say,
Speaker 2: this is probably a pill box, and this is probably
Speaker 2: a pill box with a low level of pictures and
Speaker 2: nothing did and get the name.
Speaker 1: When D day finally arrived at Ebo Jima Bergalt was
Speaker 1: not slated to land in the early waves. He says,
Speaker 1: after some very encouraging reports earlier in the day, his
Speaker 1: efforts to get ashore on day one were ultimately unsuccessful.
Speaker 2: And on D day when we went, we were up
Speaker 2: on the deck waiting over the side when on shoreboard
Speaker 2: barbaric was going on. We were watching that. It was terrific,
Speaker 2: terrific display. And the first wave. The captain came on
Speaker 2: the ship and said, the first wave has hit the beach.
Speaker 2: There was no opposition, and oh yeah, it's gonna be
Speaker 2: a piece of cake. And we went over the side
Speaker 2: and got into the landing craft and we headed for
Speaker 2: the beach, and then we started circling and then we
Speaker 2: headed for the beach. Then we started circling and we
Speaker 2: did that all damn day alone, and there was we
Speaker 2: found a lady. There was no room on the beach
Speaker 2: for ust. The beach was just a disaster. We went
Speaker 2: back to the ship. We had to jump from the
Speaker 2: landing craft to a little platform, a little landing, and
Speaker 2: climb up this little bows and ladder back to the
Speaker 2: ship again. And the sea was kind of rough. The
Speaker 2: big ship was going like this and the little one
Speaker 2: was going like this, and we had to jump from
Speaker 2: here to there and up, and we were loaded. You
Speaker 2: had a helmet, gas masks, you packed two canteens of water,
Speaker 2: a couple of units of fire, your legging. If you'd
Speaker 2: never slipped and missed, you had gone to the bottom
Speaker 2: like a lead balloon to gone right straight down. And
Speaker 2: that scared the living hell out of me. And we
Speaker 2: didn't go a short till the next day.
Speaker 1: The next day, the Marines faced a few challenges in
Speaker 1: making the landing on the beach at Iwo Jima, but
Speaker 1: Burgalt clearly remembers what he saw on that beach and
Speaker 1: where he had it.
Speaker 2: After that, well, it was sort of uneventful. Who we
Speaker 2: got to the beach, the carnage and the wreckage and
Speaker 2: the debris on the beach was the reason they put
Speaker 2: us ashore. Right then they needed manpower to get the
Speaker 2: crap off the beach and move it and every assembly lines.
Speaker 2: There's a big picture of guys taking supplies in our
Speaker 2: lst and some of the magazines. But we did that.
Speaker 2: We moved, We moved supplies off the beach for the
Speaker 2: for the tide got him. There were a few rounds
Speaker 2: came over ahead, but there was no shelling on us.
Speaker 2: And we slept that night up there in the shelves
Speaker 2: right there, just over the over the second riseland that night,
Speaker 2: but we were there, and then the next morning we
Speaker 2: were told to we were we were moving up to
Speaker 2: relieve a company. So we went all along the island
Speaker 2: around side along the way airfield and across the airfield
Speaker 2: in that rough ground on the other side. We got
Speaker 2: shot at a little bit going across the airfield, which
Speaker 2: is they were still up in Sabachi and they were
Speaker 2: still on the high ground the other end.
Speaker 1: Lewis Burg would not be an action long on Ewo Jima,
Speaker 1: but two things stand out. Dealing with a fellow marine
Speaker 1: in agony on a stretcher and getting knocked out himself
Speaker 1: due to enemy shelling.
Speaker 2: There was a guy on the stretchers, one of the
Speaker 2: units that we were leaving. I guess had been doped
Speaker 2: up with morphine because he started moaning. He was coming
Speaker 2: out and he started moaning at the first start. He said, you, you, you,
Speaker 2: and you grabbed that Get that guy the hell out
Speaker 2: of here. So the four of us grabbed a stretcher
Speaker 2: and went back across the airfield, which wasn't a very
Speaker 2: we went. It's probably the fastest stretcher movement there ever was.
Speaker 2: It wasn't pleasant. This stuff was cracking around our heads
Speaker 2: and singing and banging. We went down the embankment and
Speaker 2: we met a stretcher party coming up from the beach
Speaker 2: and turning it over to hurt the eye over them.
Speaker 2: And then we started back and a hell of a
Speaker 2: big mortar barage came down and walking closer to us.
Speaker 2: It was the big stuff. It wasn't little stuff. And
Speaker 2: the last thing I remember was jumping on a big crater.
Speaker 2: My next recollection, I was on the beach and they
Speaker 2: were pinning a tag on me, and some guy lit
Speaker 2: a cigarette in his face and stuck it in my mouth.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I have no recollection going over that
Speaker 2: into that hole where their stuff was busting all around us,
Speaker 2: and they put me on a transport to be converted
Speaker 2: into a hospital ship for I guess because all the
Speaker 2: guys who were might walking wounded with arms or something
Speaker 2: like that, people like me and no visible wounds and stuff.
Speaker 2: And that was the end of my sojournal I Regima.
Speaker 1: The most indelible image from the Battle for Iwo Jima
Speaker 1: is the flag raising a top Mount Serabachi. This was
Speaker 1: actually rather early in the battle and the fighting would
Speaker 1: rage on for weeks to come. Joseph Rosenthal's photograph would
Speaker 1: become one of the most iconic images in American history,
Speaker 1: even though he had already been evacuated from the island
Speaker 1: after being knocked out in that enemy shelling. Lewis Bergalt
Speaker 1: remembers the flag raising quite well. In fact, it's one
Speaker 1: of the last things he remembers happening before being sent
Speaker 1: back to Guam.
Speaker 2: I was on the ship, but the captain came on
Speaker 2: the PA and announced, and some of the ships blew
Speaker 2: their whistles and stuff. That the guy mentioned us today
Speaker 2: that they were cheering under the down There was woo whistles.
Speaker 2: We did have we did have to make smoke at night.
Speaker 2: Came into the compartments. One night, twenty millimeter guns on
Speaker 2: the deck a twenty millimeter gun anchored to the steel
Speaker 2: deck of an empty steel ship were reverberate through the
Speaker 2: damn ship you think was there. You would get really murdered.
Speaker 2: But I don't remember much after that about the trip
Speaker 2: back to Guama. I remember getting in the hospital at Guam.
Speaker 2: That's all I remember about it.
Speaker 1: The first order of business once Burgalt got to Guam
Speaker 1: was to recover from whatever actually happened to him on
Speaker 1: Iwo Jima. Soon after that, Burgalt got the news that
Speaker 1: every marine wanted to hear, and the news that shocked
Speaker 1: the nation. In mid April nineteen forty five.
Speaker 2: We're in the hospital for about four weeks, and then
Speaker 2: by then four or five we send the division. We
Speaker 2: were coming. They came back to Guaham, and then the
Speaker 2: doctor came out and talked to all of us. Said,
Speaker 2: you guys are looking to go home, he said, but
Speaker 2: we're going to send you back to duty because you're
Speaker 2: going to get home faster going back to duty, because
Speaker 2: all you old time hasn't been out here for thirty months.
Speaker 2: Are going back. If we go through medical, it's going
Speaker 2: to be four or five months before you get there.
Speaker 2: So they sent us back to a casual company and
Speaker 2: back to our company. And when we get back to
Speaker 2: the company, first I said, oh ya are you old guys. Now,
Speaker 2: get your sea bags back to keep them back, and
Speaker 2: don't leave this area without checking in every hour. Don't
Speaker 2: go visit your friends over to tidy head boards running.
Speaker 2: You stick around because you're going to go home. And
Speaker 2: the strangest thing was, I'll never forget it. We got
Speaker 2: the news that Franklin Roosevelt had died and was in
Speaker 2: half an hour there at the first side and said,
Speaker 2: you guys, get your sea bags out on the road.
Speaker 2: The truck's on the way. So I always connect that.
Speaker 2: I always know what day it was that I got
Speaker 2: to come home. And they put us on a took
Speaker 2: us down to Apra Harbor there on Goam put us
Speaker 2: on a jeep carrier that was going back to the States.
Speaker 2: They had no aircrew and stuff on boards, so they
Speaker 2: had a lot of extra bunk space. Then we stopped
Speaker 2: at Ford Island on the way back. They didn't miss
Speaker 2: off the ship and we were San Diego.
Speaker 1: One other anecdote that makes Burgault laugh to this very
Speaker 1: day was the intense warning to returning service members as
Speaker 1: they came into port here in the UAS. But it
Speaker 1: was a warning with absolutely zero enforcement.
Speaker 2: We were warned not to buy any cigarettes on the
Speaker 2: ship where they were fifty cents a car and they
Speaker 2: were taxed on shore. Uh, don't bring any souvenirs you
Speaker 2: got any, don't take anything. We were told that it
Speaker 2: don't bring any broken down carbines and pistols, the hand grenades,
Speaker 2: don't bring because they're going and go through your customs
Speaker 2: and you'd get locked up in your car. We pulled
Speaker 2: in San Diego Harbor. We put our seat bags on
Speaker 2: the shore. We walked down the ramp going on a
Speaker 2: busted over recruit. People nobody even looked at us.
Speaker 1: Burgalt was assigned to guarding prisoners, American prisoners actually, and
Speaker 1: that's where he was when the word came down that
Speaker 1: the Japanese had surrendered and World War two was officially over.
Speaker 2: It was in August. I was I was on duty
Speaker 2: at the prison. When we call fire and riot squad.
Speaker 2: We had an extra as well as the primitive guards
Speaker 2: and to sell block guards and the annexed cards. We
Speaker 2: had an extra squad stamlea cans ranging around the p
Speaker 2: X and drink coffee and stuff like that. But I
Speaker 2: was on a fire and riot squad when the news
Speaker 2: came in. The prisoners started. There were of course, they
Speaker 2: were all our guys, so there were general court martiall prisoners.
Speaker 2: They started rioting and turning up their bed turning to
Speaker 2: their beds and throwing blankets and stuff out. So order
Speaker 2: had to be re established back in the cell block,
Speaker 2: and we went up there and we spent three or
Speaker 2: four hours getting think straight and around up there. Again,
Speaker 2: I don't blame for celebrating, but we didn't. The U
Speaker 2: normality did not sink into us till the next day
Speaker 2: we knew that the Japs had dropped the Big boom
Speaker 2: and we heard the big bomban this is the second
Speaker 2: when the Japs had quit. When that was when the
Speaker 2: rioting actually started. And then I had nine months to
Speaker 2: do in my enlistment, and watched all the reserves that
Speaker 2: had only been in about a year all getting his
Speaker 2: discharge and going home, and I had to sit there
Speaker 2: and finish out my enlistment.
Speaker 1: And reflecting upon his service eight decades later, Lewis Burgalt
Speaker 1: knows he is fortunate to be here, and that's slightly different.
Speaker 1: Decisions by him or the enemy could have resulted in
Speaker 1: a very different outcome.
Speaker 2: Well, look, even any other thing, some little, some big,
Speaker 2: it changes your whole life. How do I know where
Speaker 2: I would have been? Where? It is some little thing
Speaker 2: that happened to me instant on Bogaville. If I had
Speaker 2: gone this way, that jack would have got me in
Speaker 2: the back. And by the way, I took the round
Speaker 2: the chamber of his rifle, and I had the cbe
Speaker 2: build drol hole and lit the powder out, and I'd
Speaker 2: kept it in my pocket. I've still got it at home.
Speaker 2: I figured if that would have my name on it,
Speaker 2: and if I keep it in my pocket, never keep me.
Speaker 1: As you might gather from how he tells his story,
Speaker 1: Lewis Brigald is in high demand as a speaker to
Speaker 1: school students and other organizations. He's always eager to do it,
Speaker 1: not only out of respect for those who want to
Speaker 1: hear about his service, but because, he says, our nation
Speaker 1: has become far more appreciative of his generation and other
Speaker 1: service members over the past past couple of decades.
Speaker 2: Fifteen twenty years ago. If I told somebody that I
Speaker 2: was a World War Two veteran, the destructed this and said,
Speaker 2: what so what? What the hell? You know? Now people
Speaker 2: walk across the street, they see me and they come
Speaker 2: over and shake my hands. They thank you for your service.
Speaker 2: People will buy my meal in a restaurant, warning, well,
Speaker 2: re recognized. I just can't believe it. All like just
Speaker 2: all going here. Go to Pearl Harvard. Everybody's coming up
Speaker 2: with be a nice thing. I go to the base
Speaker 2: campus and the change of command ceremony, the outgoing the
Speaker 2: base commander has me stand up in his partying remarks.
Speaker 2: He recognizes me and tells the people about I can't
Speaker 2: get over it. I'm amazed. I'm overwhelmed. I went to
Speaker 2: Pearl Harbor two months ago, all this attention, you know,
Speaker 2: I meeting it up.
Speaker 1: That's Lewis Bergalt. He is a US Marine Corps veteran
Speaker 1: of World War Two serving in the Pacific Theater, Guam
Speaker 1: and Ewo Jima. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi,
Speaker 1: this is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,
Speaker 1: a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information,
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