The Wrangell sentinel., 1943-10-22
Tells Of He'll AtQuadalCanal

After more than a year and a half service as a Pharmacists Mate, 1st Class, and seeing plenty of action in the battle of the South Pacific, Jerry Kuenster arrived in Wrangell recently to visit his mother and step-father, MT. and Mrs. Charles Randrup.
 In the Navy, Kuenster was att tached to a Marine unit. Each company of ground troops has number of Pharmacists attached to it which cares for the wounded in battle. Kuenster was with the Marines when they went in to take Henderson Field on Guadal- canal. He saw many Japs, living, dead and dying, and when asked about prisoners said, i've didn't take many prisoners there"
 Talking with young Kuenster it is hard to realize that such a young, slight young man has been through such horror and suffering as the savage hand-to-hand fight ing which took place on Guadal- canal When asked if continual sight of so many dead and wound ed did not "get" one after a while, young Kuenster laughed and shrug- ged. You get used to 1t and don't pay any attention to it. When mess time comes around you grab your chow and ca it off stack of dead bodies if there's nothing else handy"
 In speaking about prisoners, however, Kuenster said the com mon Japanese soldier was docile and polite. When given food they bow and murmur Sank you. Sank you, and are generally quiet and we'll behaved. It is a different matter, however, with the more intelligent Japanese. Air pilots and officers are surly and antagonistic.
 Kuenster went through the famed Battle of Bloody Knoll, last point captured by the Americans before taking Henderson Field.
 was scared" Kuenster said, q shook for half an hour after it was over. We were upon the hill and the Japs were charging up the hill one wave after another and We just moved them down. To show the fanatical Jap attitude, it is customary for Japs to remove their shoes before entering a house, temple or, of course, their ver- sion of heaven. These Japs, know ing they were going to walk right shoes and threw them in the air yell ling, "Banzai, Banzai," and then charged up the hill into our fire. We just moved them down."
 Kuenster and four of his com panions spent a record time in the front lines under continual fire. Sixty-three days at a stretch. He said it was hard to describe the confusion and noise of battle.,,
 You don't hear one certain shell or bomb. It's just a continual roar or bomb. It's just a continual roar. of exploding shells and cannon fire. The earth seems to lift feet nder you, heaving and shaking all the time." Kuenster was aboard an Ameri- can destroyer which was torpedoed by the Japs during the battle. Force of the explosion threw him into the water and he swan to shore. The entire fan-taiI of the de- stroyer was blown off and a sea rudder was rigged by which the destroyer finally made a Pacific U S. port for repairs. A vivid account of it was published in the Saturday Evening Post few weeks ago al an epic of American heroism ant ingenuity by our naval men.
 After being stricken with nal aria, Kuenster was invalided home and spent two months in a hospita in New York. He also suffered ; ishrapnel wound in the leg. He in tends to remain in Wrangeii fo
 a time but says after so long in tn
 tropics he feels Alaska's nippy fal
 weather.
 l MT. Randrup has a son who
 on furlough in California afte : after many months as a bomber pi lot in Africa. He took part in tn . bombing of Sicily and Italy and ez a poets to return to the front whe
 his through ia np~