<Begin Segment 23>

TI: Okay, so you're now in K Company.

FS: Uh-huh.

TI: And let's, let's go to Europe. And so you land in Naples.

FS: Yes, yeah.

TI: And so why don't you tell me what, describe what it was like coming into Naples?

FS: First of all, we were, we left Newport News, Virginia, in... God, that must have been May. So anyway, we're in the biggest convoy they had ever put together to go overseas. And the troop ships are always in the middle of the convoy, and then alongside those are the ammo ships, and then on the outside are the, are the cutters and the things to protect all of this. But in the daylight, you could see ships. All the way to the horizon in all four directions there were ships. It was just, it was quite a spectacle. Anyway, so then we, we went across the sea, and part of that convoy went up to England, and the rest of us went into, into the Mediterranean and landed at Naples. Naples, it was a bright, sunny day when we pulled into, pulled into Naples harbor. Naples is kind of a white city, things are whitewashed, and it looked absolutely beautiful, these white buildings and stuff. I thought, "This is a great-looking place." But of course, you get close, and those buildings were all bombed and blasted, and there was not much left of it.

And, and this first experience is that these poor urchin kids would, they want chocolate and they wanted cigarettes, and if they got a chance, they'd steal something from you. They were, they were a hell of a lot smarter than we do, 'cause these guys carried their cigarettes in their ammo pouches, and they'd run up beside you and flip that open and grab your cigarettes and run. And you just didn't have a chance, and you couldn't shoot the little waif, the waifs. But it was... and I just remember we marched into a, into a part of Naples... God, I can't remember the name of that area, but it was a bivouac area, places where we would, wherever you, they would keep you for, until you, until you moved out of there. We were allowed some, some freedom to move around and go into town, and you get propositioned by young men who were selling their sister or said they were selling their sister, an opportunity to sell your cigarettes, an opportunity to buy... what did they, what did they make? Oh, cameos. And you could buy some real crummy cameos for a lot of money. I remember, I remember I bought some...

TI: And what are cameos?

FS: Cameos is, is, they take the shell of a, of a clam of some kind, and it's, the backside, the backside is pink and when they carve it, the relief is white. And there are some really very expensive and beautiful cameos, but these, these things were mass produced for the, for the American soldiers. [Laughs] So it was not much, but anyway, they're, couple of bucks, and so I bought some and sent them home, as I recall. But we staged there, and I recall we did a lot of marching. Guys could go into town and get in trouble, and some of 'em managed to do that. [Laughs]

TI: Now, the guys that you would hang out with, how would you describe them? Were they the, were some of them sort of the types to get into trouble or how would you...

FS: No, I, you know, as I say, your, your platoon and your squad is your family. And they were neither hard drinkers nor did they shag around much, so I managed to stay out of trouble for most of the war. It, we went to, you know, went to Pompei after, I remember that, road... how did we get over there? I guess the service company would run trucks so you could go do sightseeing. I don't recall going into town, but I do, I do remember we had a, the guys from one company had a big fight with, with the haole in the town next, it was not Naples, it was a town near where we bivouacked. It was the Hawaiian kids again; somebody said something wrong to 'em, and they took, it was, it was the 517th Parachute Battalion, they were paratroopers, and they thought they were hotshots. And so, geez, it was, I was just on the sidelines watching this, and it was, it was vicious.

TI: So you actually observed this, this fight?

FS: Oh, yeah, I, I know, want you to know I was not involved in this, but I can remember seeing a paratrooper even pull a pistol, and somebody grabbed him and knocked him down, got the pistol away. It was not a good scene, and then the MPs came. [Laughs] It was over, but it was, it was, it just... it was just... oh, I got to tell you a real neat story, though. We were, we were at Newport News, Virginia, and I can't remember the name of the -- oh, Camp Kilborn? No, no, no. Anyway, we staged to go overseas.

TI: So this is before you left the States?

FS: Before we left, before we left Newport News. And there was a dance at, at the, you know, they have these rec. buildings, and there was a dance there, and it was for, it was for some air force people going overseas. And so our guys went down there expecting... and of course the first time, the first time some Hawaiian asked a haole girl to dance, she said, "No," and the air force guy intervened. It was a big riot. And God, the MPs rolled up and machine gun mounted half-tracks, it was really a spectacle, that these guys, these guys weren't going to take any guff from anybody. [Laughs] Again, I was an observer, since I was at the PX.

TI: Now, what did you think during this period? Because here you would see these members of the 442, the Hawaiians, get into these fights, and here you're, you're, you're being trained to go into battle eventually.

FS: Sure.

TI: Did that concern you, or did that make you feel safer, or how did you feel about the men you were going to fight with?

FS: Well, first of all, I thought, "Gee, boy, you guys get into trouble, and we're all in trouble, the unit's in trouble." So I... you know, that's not a wise move, because the MPs rolled up, nobody got arrested, but it, it kind of reflected on us all, I thought. I just, I didn't, didn't, I don't think I thought even about going into combat at that point, but I thought, geez... when I was a kid I used to get into fights a lot, but it was for very trivial things like, "Hey, your shoelace is untied," or something, but this, this was really serious stuff.

TI: So it made you, it sounds like it made you feel a little uneasy about some of these guys.

FS: Oh, yeah. Yeah, you think... but I don't, didn't associate the fights with going into combat. It was just, it was just a social occasion, I guess.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.