Just off of the ship that was bringing reinforcements to the military in Okinawa, Bill Venter was quickly initiated into the harsh reality of war. Overhead the Japanese were making a run for the distant airfield shooting at and bombing anything in the way. Running as swiftly as possible Bill made his way towards the tiered mounds of earth surrounding the airfield. He threw himself to the ground pressing his back up against the earth as the bombs exploded in the dirt above his head. Once the explosions stopped he ran back towards the beach and away from the attacks. He spent the rest of the night sitting atop a small hill waiting for dawn. Although scared, Bill was proud to be part of the 1st Marine Division that fought in the 11th wave at Okinawa.

Bill joined the Marines in 1943 at the young age of seventeen. After attending boot camp in Paris Island, South Carolina, he wanted to join the paratroopers. It was that time that they decided to do away with the Marine paratroopers. The loss of lives far outweighed any benefit that the paratroopers could have been. At the last jump two hundred left the plane and all of them were shot and killed before they made it to the ground. His choice was either the infantry or artillery. “Being a farm boy I knew what it was like to walk everywhere so I chose the artillery instead.”

During his artillery training they worked with live ammo. Bill remembers one particular incident very clearly. One day during their training someone had miscalculated and shot off a round of artillery and hit the outhouse. Just seconds before an officer had left the outhouse. Fortunately no one was hurt. Despite this one incident they were very highly regarded for their skill. It wasn’t long before he became a Corporal gunner on a 75 Houser. From there Bill was shipped to the island of Pavuvu, which is by Guadalcanal before going to Guadalcanal as part of the replacement troops. He remembers firing 100,000 rounds at the Japanese while he was there. Living conditions were terrible. “The temperature was 132 degrees average. You woke up soaked and you went to bed wet.” He was shipped back to Pavuvu before finally being sent to Okinawa.

Shortly after his initiation into Okinawa and being shot at, Bill decided to dig a foxhole. He was used to digging holes so he dug himself a real deep one. It was so deep in fact that a commanding officer walked by and told him ‘your fox hole is about two feet below desertion’. It wasn’t long after those words were out of his mouth that the enemy attacked again and everyone dove for the foxhole, even his commanding officer. It ended up with a stack of people three high, and Bill was on the bottom.

USS Yorktown WWII

At one point all the men had to eat for three days was salt rations (hard tack candy). Finally the Army brought in big boxes of rations. The men would take turns going to the air base where the trucks were being loaded and then they would ask for a ride back. When they got to their destination they would jump off the truck and take a couple of boxes of rations with them. Bill’s turn finally came. He was riding back in the truck along a coral road. The coral was white so it stood out very clearly even in the middle of the night making the truck an easy target. All of a sudden a zero opened up on them shooting all eight guns at once. Bill and the driver of the truck jumped out and landed safely on the side of the road in a ditch. About twenty feet away the plane was shot down on the road.

Another close encounter came when he was sent back to replenish the ammo. It was cold and rainy and by the time he reached the ammo dump it was dark. Knowing that he couldn’t load it until morning, Bill piled the ammo under the wing of an airplane and lay down on top of it. Because it was such a chilly night he made several trips across the dump to a heated tent to warm up. Every time he went back he heard a buzzing noise, he couldn’t figure out what it was. It sounded like bees buzzing around his head but he knew bees didn’t fly at night. After about the forth or fifth time he went back to the tent and asked someone ‘do bees fly at night’. When he was told no he bet him that they do. So they walked back across the ammo dump and heard the buzzing noise. Bill was about to say ‘I told you so’ when he was informed that it wasn’t bees buzzing around his head, there was a sniper shooting at him. Fortunately the sniper wasn’t a very good shot. “I didn’t get much sleep after that,” Bill laughed

Walter P. Kajut WWII

“I was the target about fifteen or sixteen times; I was lucky I wasn’t shot.” Although he wasn’t shot, Bill was injured during his time in the service. He had his ears fractured from listening to artillery fire for thirty-seven hours straight. “I couldn’t hear any more so I wrote on paper.” Even worse, Bill got coral poisoning from a small cut on his hand when he first got out of the boat. He got twenty-six ulcers that wouldn’t heal which landed him in the hospital for four months. During his time in the Guam hospital the doctors wanted to amputate both his legs. He fought this decision and after receiving massive quantities of penicillin and other treatments his legs healed. He was discharged from the service in 1945 from the hospital.

Although it has been many years since his military career the memories are as fresh as yesterday. He can recount story after story of his life those two years; and I could listen to him for hours. Even through all he went through Bill is still honored to have served his country. And for right now, Bill is enjoying home life in Markle.

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