<Begin Segment 24>

TI: How about the other men, the men in your squad, now there's -- what did they say to you when you'd come out to fight?

FM: Oh, they were glad to see us back there. Because Kash was a leader, he's a leader. He's a good fighter, he got good fighting brains. He's not afraid of anything. In fact, a lot of time, before we go into actual combat, all the squad leaders get together with the Lieutenant Kubota, and we go through our plan of attack. Then we go back to our squad and tell our squad what we gonna do, how we gonna attack this position, and all that. And Kash would always say, "C'mon, Fred, let's go get 'em." I say, "Hey, slow down Kash. We have to stay together. We can't let just our squad go up ahead, and like that, and come back there. And we just go altogether as a group." Say, "Ah, c'mon, let's go, let's go." He's got so much guts, I'm telling you.

BK: He's going to drag just you guys into the combat, and forget the rest of 'em?

FM: Oh, no, no, no. No.

TI: Or not forget about them, but be out there in front of everyone.

FM: In front, yeah. Yeah. He wants to go right now. I say, "Hey, slow down man, slow down. We'll get 'em, but we go step by step."

TI: So it sounds like the two of you made a pretty good team because...

FM: We did.

TI: ...where Shiro would want to go forward, and you would say, "Well, yeah, but we have go step by step."

FM: Yeah, right. Yeah.

TI: So it was a good combination.

FM: Yeah.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.