<Begin Segment 12>

PM: I want to go back to Hill 140, Larry. I wanted, could you tell me about how you saved the life of Lieutenant Kreskowsky?

LK: Oh, didn't you read the article?

PM: Yeah, Kreskowsky. Could you tell me --

LK: So then, that's what Captain Byrne saw, so he's the one that wrote the article about the bravery, because I didn't know nothing about the bravery. To me, I didn't do anything bravery, but Captain Byrne did. To him...

PM: So, what happened? What happened?

LK: Well, that's why, now, when Captain, I mean, Byrne, I mean, Kreskowsky, amazingly, this, that's not bone in here now. That's skin. [Gesturing to arm] And what it wrote was one-inch skin. That's what Captain Byrne wrote, that Kreskowsky had only one-inch skin left in it. So they amputated that to save his life, and I'm glad that I did something. Now, I remember that I saved his life, and so that's what [inaudible], that Captain Byrne wrote that article about the Bronze Star. I didn't know nothing about the Bronze Star.

PM: So you were, you were wounded already when Kreskowsky was wounded?

LK: Yeah, I was wounded already, to start with.

PM: Right.

LK: All of us was wounded already. Kreskowsky and I was wounded already, but I didn't know that. So what I did was what I saw, so I figured I had to do something, so I did.

PM: What did you do?

LK: So I give first aid to Kreskowsky, and all the time I didn't know I was saving somebody's life. I was just doing my job, and that's how it came out. Then, "Larry saved somebody." I said, "I didn't save somebody."

PM: And then you were wounded, you were wounded again.

LK: But Captain Byrne saw something that I didn't, and so he wrote it down in the Bronze Star. And only, see, only officer can write that, not anybody else but officer. And that's what happened, Byrne was right there next to me, so he saw everything what's going on.

PM: So what happened after you gave Kreskowsky first aid?

LK: Well, we was, oh, the medic came and picked me up, and we was leaving the place and according to the article, that Kreskowsky walked. First aid didn't pick him up, he walked. Anyway, so when he got to the aid station, see, you have to go aid station before you go to the 5th Evac. See, I went to the 5th Evac, that's what they called the field hospital. Then a... what do you call... a major, woman major, operated on me.

PM: Where were you, where were your wounds?

LK: All the hairs and stuff. So when they operated here -- [gestures to jaw] -- all the hairs went in there, too. So now you got pus, and it got infected. So now they have to re-operate it again, and take all the hairs out, you know. And then now, there was a shrapnel here embedded above my teeth. Now, the doctor said, "If you take that out, they're gonna cut your disability." I said, "Oh, no, you don't do that." I said, "Leave it in there." So they left it in there, so when I took all my teeth out, that thing fell out. See, but I didn't tell nobody that my teeth fell out. But you know, this, what they call that fifth nerve, now, the fifth nerve was shattered, so every winter, it got numb. I mean numb, you can't see with my right eye. Oh, it hurts, it hurts. Anyway, so now, that's what happened to all my disability. I couldn't claim it, because nothing on my record. There's no record that I'm wounded on my cheek or broken jaw, or my head. None, now, now. So when I applied for higher disability, I couldn't get it, because there's no record said that I was wounded.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.