War Story

The Wrestling Match
by Charles Leonard Capron

I would like to call it a wrestling match, but it really wasn’t. It was at Camp Pendleton near Oceanside California, where I was in U.S. Marine Raider training. There was a young man named Jim Eagleton. In 1941 or 1942, he was the Oklahoma State wrestling champion.

I graduated from Greeley High School in 1941 and my senior year, I had done some wrestling. How the match came about, I can’t remember. I knew Jim could deck me, but I thought I could at least last for a minute or two. The match started. Jim would feint like he was going for your head, neck or shoulders, then he would quickly reach down and grab one of your legs. I was decked in 15 seconds, so it wasn’t much of a wrestling match. I held no animosity toward Jim. I recognized him as an expert. We were together on New Caledonia, Guadalcanal, Emirau, Guam and Okinawa.

On Okinawa, our company commander’s name was Captain Thad Dodd. He was a very fine man but the enlisted men called him “Little Jesus”. On one of the mountainsides, I was digging a foxhole for the night; Captain Dodd came to inspect my foxhole. A Japanese sniper shot him. The bullet went under the front of the steel helmet and over the helmet liner. Then the bullet went straight down his backbone. When he hit the ground, he was dead. I know the sniper could have shot me.

Near where I was digging, a Japanese officer had been shot and a grass fire had reached him. I never thought a human body would burn so readily, but his was. I was surprised.

Then on April 15th, 1945, while up on the Motobu Peninsula of Okinawa, I was shot. Corpsman finally got to me and gave me first aid. Then I had to be carried off the Motobu Peninsula. Yes, it was Jim Eagleton and another man who carried me off the mountain and down to an aid station. (Now Jim Eagleton is a lawyer in Tulsa, Oklahoma.)

From the aid station, I was placed on a litter bearing jeep. I think there was two litters on each side and maybe one in the middle. Then there was the driver and his helper.

I was being taken to the hospital ship, the USS Samaritan. On the way the Japanese pulled a night bombing raid in Okinawa. The driver and his helper stopped the jeep and headed for the burrow ditch. We were left alone in the jeep. We felt so utterly helpless. We had no weapons now for defense. We were thankful when the raid was over.

I finally got on the hospital ship. I think at first they tried to place me in K-ward. The K-ward was for crazy people. I don’t know why this happened.

I was assigned a bunk bed but I needed more blood. A corpsman came and tried to find my vein. Maybe I had lost too much blood. He kept jabbing and jabbing. He saw that I was getting very nervous, so he said, “I’ll go and get “Never Miss” Kelly." Pretty soon, here came “Never Miss Kelly” He made one stab and hit it right. I was very glad.

I was taken to an Army hospital (369 Station) in Saipan from April 21 to the 30th. I can’t remember how long I was there. { Jeanie’s note: I’m guessing the trip there took from the 12th –30th } Soon I was to be flown out to the Aiea Heights Navy Hospital above Pearl Harbor.

I had really been down thinking about how I had been wounded. They placed me on the C-54 (four-motor propeller plane). Down at my feet was placed a Navy man and in the bunk above him was placed another Navy man. Both were burn cases as a result of the Kamikaze attacks on their ship. They were bad burn cases. I quit feeling bad for myself and really thought that I was pretty well off.

We made another landing on Johnson Island. My head was by a port-hole so I could look out. I thought the pilot was ditching the plane into the ocean. We were about six feet over the water before we hit the runway on Johnson Island. That is really about all Johnson Island is--- a landing strip. From there we went to Hawaii.

Then I went from Hawaii to a U.S. Naval Hospital in Oakland. Then, I went to a U.S. Navy Hospital in San Diego and from there to a U.S. Navy Hospital in Long Beach. Then to the U.S. Naval Special Hospital at Arrowhead Springs near San Bernardino for convalescence. From there, I was sent to the Marine Barracks at the U.S. Naval Base, Terminal Island, San Pedro, California.

December 20, 1945, I was discharged from Terminal Island. I was honorably discharged from the United States Marine Corps Reserves, January, 11, 1946.

I was in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves two years, seven months and 18 days. Eighteen months of my duty was overseas. I had spent 138 days on the water of the Pacific Ocean.

After nine months in the hospitals, I was able to walk very well. I can still stand up better than I can sit down.

From Jeanie: I have been in contact with James Eagleton, Jr., via email. He is sharing this story with his father, James, Sr., and other family. His dad is 84, does not have good memory and has never talked much about the war.