The Wilmington morning star., 1945-04-11
BY ERNIE PYLE

OKINAWA- (by Navy radio) -
Never before had I seen an inva-
sion beach like Okinawa.
There wasn't a dead or wounded
man in our sector of it. Medical
corpsmen were sitting among their
sacks of bandages and plasma and
stretchers, with nothing to do.
There wasn't a single burning
vehicle. Nor single boat lying
wrecked on the reef or shoreline.
The carnage that is almost inavi-
table on an invasion was wonder
fully and beautifully not there.
There was hardly anybody at all
on the beach when we landed. The
few assault waves ahead of us had
pushed on inland. And all that vast
weller of people and machines that
make beach hum with work were
still many waves behind us.
| The bulldozers and the j'eeps had
not yet arrived. There was no ac-
tivity and hardly any sound. 1t
was almost as though we were the
original explorers.
Our little party, which was the
regimental staff, moved to the foot
of a bluff about 100 yards back of
the beach. 1t was full of caves and
our naval gunfire had made a rub
BILE TAT the foot of the bluff. But sew
eraE cave mouths still capped open.
We decided to set up there until
the colonel could get the picture
in Ibis mind, through information
brought by runners, of just what
was going on.
There were about a hundred men
with. us in addition to the officers.
The men were under First Sergt.
Andy Anderson, from Washington
State. The first thing Andy had
thern do was to make sure there
we're no Japs hiding in the caves
to smipe on us, for the first waves
had gone through too fast to clean
everybody out-if anybody had
been there.
So they would sneak up on "a
hole. with rifles ready. Then Andy
would take out a hand grenade and
throw i. into the hole. But the
first one hit the edge of the hole
and rolled down outside.
Andy threw himself on the sand
and all the rest of us lay fiat. The
grenade went off with a bang, but
nobody got hurt From then on we
kidcsed Andy about the fine dis
play of marine craftsmanship he
had given us.
In addition to being great fight
ers, I believe the marines are the
friendliest bunch I've ever been
with I've never had any trouble
with. people being unfriendly, but
these marines seem to have it bred
into them to be pleasant and tc
make you feel at home.
Nothing like Okinawa had ever
happened to than before. They're
accustomed to butchery on the
beaches. They'd kept saying to me,
'If you could just have been with
us before we'd have shown you
some excitement.
And I would reply. Brother,
I've had all the excitement 1 need
| for lifetime. This KIND OF lnVa-
sion suits me fine"
1 started wandering up and down
the beach. One boy was carrying
a little vase in his hand, saying
"He,re's the first souvenir of Oki-
NAVAL
He, was James Cosby, pharma-
cist first class, Of Cereal Spring,
III. GAIL medical corpsmen with
the marines are actually in the
Navy you know.) He had found
the vase lying outside one Of the
burieH vaults. It had blue japanese
characters on it.
Them / noticed a tall and heavily
laden marine, carrying a big roll
of telephone wire on his shoulders
and heading a white nanny goat,
tied 10 a string. stopped him and
said, .'Would you like to have you
and your goat in the newspapers?"
He .grinned and said, "Sure, Why
not?''
He wa. PFC Ben Glover Of Baird,