<Begin Segment 19>

SI: I think I remember reading, soon after the war, Robert Roark an article about nostalgia for war in which he said, "There's a certain degree of liberty that one can take in the war. There's a certain amount of destruction and even killing that is not only tolerated, but is the object of your efforts." And I think in many of us this feeling, not of animosity, but this feeling of having to let go with a certain amount or degree of -- again, I think violence is not the correct word, but behavior that is not accepted in normal, ordinary society, that one gets out of his system by letting yourself go. For instance, I was shooting -- after the rescue of the Lost Battalion, I was on a little clearing in the woods near St. Die. We were maybe 1,000, 1,500 feet high looking down into a valley with roads. It was German occupied. And we had some primitive aerial photos of this area, and there was a crossroad I could see, and we had telephone contact with our guns. And you look at one crossroad, the map shows just a plain crossroad. The photo showed that the crossroad had trees and bushes. I say that's strange. So I put my glasses, very strong, we had 20 power. Field glasses are only 7 or 8 power and you look, and I was looking at this area and pretty soon there are two Germans with machine guns in this camouflaged machine gun nest at the crossroad aiming down the road so that if anybody tried to advance, they could shoot at them.

So I telephone back to fire direction. I said, "Well there's a machine gun nest with a couple of Germans there. What do you want to do?" So they says, "Well let's see if we can knock them out." And so we took only one gun. I forgot from what battery it was, and we were shooting what's called high angle. High angle is above 45 degrees for closer targets and at 45 for maximum range. The normal angle of fire is 45 is maximum, and below that is for shorter range. You put less powder in and the shell would go closer. Well, we're shooting high angles because it was mountainous area and a lot of trees so high angle fire is not accurate. The atmospheric conditions, the wind, the weather and so forth, deflects each round differently so that you ask for the same round twice in the same spot and it might vary considerably. So while watching these guys I asked for fire, and you get a long and you get a short... what you try to do in artillery is you bracket the target. If you get a long shot that you think is 300 yards too far and your target is 300 yards. Well, you say it's 600 over so you make it the next. 600 back and if it's 200 yards this way, you say 400. So you go 600 long and 400 right. So the next shot should come down way on this side and to the left. And if you're sitting at the target, you see a shell come there and then you see another shell come on the other side of you, you dig like hell or start running. [Laughs] That's bracketing the target. And I must say that this is a rule I keep with doing all my science and other work. In other words, if you do an experiment and you think a certain dose -- these are not human subjects -- so if you think a dose is too high or too low, you double it in the other direction. So you bracket your target and you're much more apt to get into the correct range. Even anesthesia, right, one animal, you double it. If it's too much, you half it or go even lower. So it plays out in life in general to bracket your target to the get the most...

Well, this German... you feel, you don't know the guy, but with good binoculars you could see him clearly, and they come out and walk around once in a while. And with no feeling of reservation, your aim is God damn it, I want to get a shell right in this machine gun nest and blown him to smithereens. Well, I shot and shot and shot, got a close shot, but never did really -- but I did hurt the guy because he came out with his wounded partner, arm around the shoulder, and they slowly walked down the road to the rear. And I don't remember shooting at them after this, but I guess in a way I felt glad that I really didn't hit him or kill him, but at least I accomplished the mission of them abandoning the machine gun. So then years later you think, how could I think that? How could I want... it's not face-to-face and you're somewhat removed because you're not firing a cannon or the artillery, but in your mind you want, I suppose, ultimately to kill the guys, right? And don't feel bad about it. This is my mission. This is what I'm supposed to do. So this is magnified in scale many ways and that's the whole war, right, but this one small incident. And I had a couple of fellows with me, the radio man and the carrier and the telephone wire man and so forth, and none of them felt bad about this. They said, "Well, let's get those guys."

SF: Is it like you're a professional soldier and so this is your job.

SI: That's right.

SF: And if you don't accomplish the mission, then you failed in what you were supposed to be doing.

SI: Right.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.