<Begin Segment 25>

TI: Okay, so now we're in the third hour of the interview, Grant. So we just, we just, we're now in the jungles of Burma, and we're talking about some of the experiences, and I wanted to go to one of the battles that, that Merrill's Marauders fought, and that was the battle of Nhpum Ga. Can you, can you talk about that and tell me what happened at Nhpum Ga?

GH: Well, after the Battle of Shaduzup, we were waiting for air drop. And then we heard that the 2nd Battalion was under siege, so we were placed on forced march to rescue the 2nd Battalion. During the march, of course, I was suffering from amoebic dysentery, and with the hives, I was not in the best shape. [Laughs] And the battalion surgeon, or medical officer, saw me struggling, so he gave me permission to put my pack on a horse. And, but the horse suffered shrapnel wounds, so it had to be destroyed. Then my pack was put on a mule, but the mule, while climbing a steep incline, the load shifted and had to, and had to be destroyed. So my pack was placed on the second mule, but during the ten-minute break, the mule collapsed and the mule skinner, he's the one that handles the mule, he pulled and he pulled with no response. But when the ten minutes' break was up, and when I looked and saw the last man disappear around the bend, my heart sank, because I knew it was almost impossible for me to unpack, carry the pack, and double-time to catch up with the unit. Just then, the mule skinner went through all the curse words in his vocabulary, and he made a desperate pull, and shouted, "Dammit, you volunteered, too." And with that, the mule got up. [Laughs] So thanks to the mule, I'm here today.

TI: Because if the mule didn't get up, then you would have been sort of stranded there on your own, kind of?

GH: I don't know. I guess I would have tried to catch up, but I would have to carry the pack, and I would have to double-time. And I don't know what would have happened.

TI: Do you have any sense of how much you weighed at this point? How much weight you lost?

GH: I lost quite a bit, yeah.

TI: So normally, going in, how much did you weight?

GH: Hundred and nineteen.

TI: And did you ever weigh yourself after this was all over to see how much you...

GH: No, I didn't, no.

TI: Do you have any guess what you might have been? It was probably under a hundred pounds, though.

GH: [Laughs] I don't know.

TI: Okay, so, so you're part of this forced march to help...

GH: Yes, and so like many other GIs, we all followed the mule very closely, and I for one, I know when the going got tough, you hang onto the mule's tail. And I still, to this day, I could recall the mule that would look back from time to time, as though to say, "Hey, give me a break." [Laughs]

TI: [Laughs] But that mule kind of saved you, because you were really weak, and you just needed the...

GH: Just hang on to the mule's tail, yeah.

TI: And he was carrying your pack, also.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.