The Ypsilanti daily press., 1945-07-12

The Edssl B. Ford Post 37s. OF
the American Legion will conduct
ceremonies Sunday afternoon. at 3
o'clock, at which, for the first time.
a married couple. both former mem
bers OF the armed forces In World
War IL. will be initiated into the
American Legion. The couple, Mr..
and Mrs. Paul Justice. have receiv-
ed their discharges from the Ma
rines and the WAVES. and are now
residing at Is Oxford st.
Mrs. Justice, daughter OF Mr.
and Mrs. Ted Bloomer. II Steven
son Place, lonia, Mich, attended
Ionia High School. and joined the
WAVES with a friend on August
II, 19i3. She received her train
ing at Hunter College, Bronx. N,
Y, and was later sent to Washing
ton, d. c.
Mr.. Justice, who is the. son OF
Mr.. and Mrs. o. II. Justice, Have
lock. N. c., attended Cary High
School and entered the Marines on
January Z, 1912. After receiving
his training at Paris Island. S. c..
he was sent overseas on April 10,
1912. with the 1st Marine Division.
Then a pfc, he participated in
the landing on Guadalcanal, August
7. 1912, and the action which fol-
lowed.
On one occasion. while souvenier
hunting with group OF buddies,
Pfc. Justice had rather close call
which he said made him awful
scared for the time being. And
it's no wonder. He ventured be-
hind a large tree, behind which, un-
known to him. three Japs were hid
ing. He had stopped over to search
a dead Jap when rattle Of machine
gun fire caused him to look back
at his buddies. just in time to dis
cover that his buddy had shot the
three Japs, one OF which had his
gun raised to shoot Pfc. Justice.
However. the Marines buddy had
beaten the Jap to the draw, and
took down the remaining two Japs
as good measure.
Pfc. Justice served on various
other islands also. Among them
were American Samoa, Wallace
Island, British Samoa, New Gale
donla, New Hebrides, and Austria
liza. While serving on Wallace
Island, he had another rather inter
esting experience with the enemy,
Pfc. Justice was on the IL m. to 4
a. m. watch, and the jungle OF
Wallace Island was mighty dark,
Suddenly he heard the noise OF
something moving. He challenged,
but nothing except the continuation
OF the noise answered him. He
shot into the darkness toward the
direction In which the noise came,
II was later discovered that the
intruder was a COW, which Pfc,
Justice shot, sQuarely between the
eyes.
During the battle OF Guadalcanal
the loss OF gunners for the planes
was so great that 1t was necessary
to use eight Marines TO man the
radio-gunner positions on the Dou
glas dive bombers which were par
ticipating in the battle. Pfc. Jus
tice was one of those eight Ma
rines. II was during one OF II
missions that Pfc. Justices plane
"got it,. They had just complet
ed a run over Jap gun positions
when, while still over the target
Jap "dud" anti-aircraft shell
caught the starboard wing, cutting
it of next to the fuselage. Pfc
Justice and the pilot OF the plane
bailed out at 5000 feet Although
the pilot landed about 300 yards out
in the Pacific, and was soon rescu
ed, Pfc. Justice found himself in a
cocoanut tree. When he hit the
tree, his right hip was shattered
His parachute carried him over the
enemy territory. so he landed be
hind the American lines.
After spending three weeks in
hospital on Guadalcanal, he wal
flown to an advance hospital or
New Hebrides. He was returned
to Guadalcanal where he conva
lesced, and was later shipped on L
Australia. Pfc. Justice said thu
Australians treated American sol
diers very we'll and that Melbourne
was practically ours. He wal
sent back to the United StateI
in August, 1914, to a hospital a
San Diego, and the convalescen
hospital at Sun Valley. Idaho.