<Begin Segment 15>

PM: Larry, I wanted to get back to -- before we get too far -- I wanted to get back to your recovering from your injuries in Italy. After you got wounded saving Lieutenant Kreskowsky's life, you were in the hospital for how long?

LK: Six weeks.

PM: Six weeks. So tell me about your recovery. So after...

LK: So that's what I don't remember. See, now, I mean, I remembered a general hospital in Rome, but nothing in the Evac. See, that's where I'm lost, and that's where everything happened, in the Fifth Evac. Not the main hospital, but the field hospital. I don't remember nothing.

PM: You were unconscious from July 7th --

LK: Yeah, that's why, that's why I don't remember anything. And that's why I keep thinking, "How come you're not scared of nothing?" I said, "I don't know, even got wounded, I don't know nothing."

PM: I'm glad you brought that up, that was my next question. You mentioned you were never scared in combat?

LK: No, never did.

PM: Never.

LK: No.

PM: Why is...

LK: That is, that is I forgot everything. Maybe I knew before the war, maybe I was scared, but I don't know nothing. But thinking about it, I lived through that and I said, "Nothing's gonna kill me. I mean, nothing's gonna kill me." And that's what happened, now. I could be dead so many times, but I'm not. Amazingly, nothing bothers me. Even now. You know, when I first came out from the service and when they used to play firecrackers and something, oh, I used to jump sky-high. Then all of a sudden, I don't remember nothing. Those firecrackers don't bother me. And that's how I find out that, gee, I don't, I'm not afraid of anything. I said, if I can live through this, nothing gonna kill me. And that's what my feeling is all my life after the war. Nothing gonna kill me. See, now, when we went to Snoqualmie Falls, now there was eight accident up on the hill, Snoqualmie Falls. And it happened that, you know, the oil spill on the highway, all the cars skidded on that oil. And then I hit the railing now, railing, went 75 feet out now, and I didn't go. I bounced back on the highway, and eight of us carried the car back, and then facing Snoqualmie Falls. So I went to the hotel down there, and then they called a tow truck, and they sent us home. Yeah, my daughter got a neck injury, and my wife got a, oh, yeah, she got stuck on the gear. So now my car can go backwards, but never front. [Laughs] So now, I don't know.

PM: So after you got, you recovered from all your injuries in the service, you were assigned non-combat duty.

LK: Yeah, so now, after Fifth Evac., we went to Rome, they called it Sixth General Hospital in Rome, and that was overlooking the St. Peter's cathedral. Anyway, captain, all of us that got wounded, we were in the hospital. Only that person wasn't in there was Kreskowsky, because he was so bad that him and Kash, they sent 'em to England. Not to United States hospital, but England. So Kash, too, went to England. But what Kash did, they claimed that he, he not supposed to go back in the front again. But Kash said, "No, nothing wrong with me," so he went back to France. Not Italy, but France. So that's where he got wounded, so he... so when... you heard of that resting detail? Well, now, he was so mad at the colonel, and that all happened when the... what do you call, case came out with the MP, yeah, MP. Anyway, the colonel was picking on him. According to the MP, they should forget all about that, what happened, but not the colonel because he was so mad at Kash, and Kash was so mad at him. Because that's when eight of them died now, and he's taking responsible that because he's the one picked the resting detail. And only thing left was Inada. Out of the bunch, only Inada is alive from K Company, and amazingly, Kash was one of the one was left, didn't die.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.