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Davenport, Clifford_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_transcript.pdf

Clifford was born at Oquawka, Illinois, October 5th, 1922, where he was raised by his father, Emmett, the Oquawka Sheriff and his mother, Maude. When Pearl Harbor was attacked Clifford was home listening to the radio in his home, the Sheriff’s quarters in Oquawka. He joined the Marine Corps on December 9th, 1942 at age 20 with a couple of his friends. Basic training was three months long. Afterward, Clifford was sent to San Diego to train in telephone school and from there went to Los Angeles to Army signal school where he lived in Boyle Heights. From there, he went to Camp Pendleton where he was in the Field Signal Battalion there. Afterwards, Clifford was transferred to the Telephone Communication Center at Camp Pendleton and since he had worked for the Illinois Bell before the service, he was put in charge of a line crew to set poles and string wire. They also provided communications for the films “Guadalcanal Diary” and “Fighting Seabees”. After a year, Clifford was transferred to 2nd Joint Assault Signal Company at the Boat Basin, across the highway from Camp Pendleton. As soon as they were trained, they were sent to Hawaii to the Parker Ranch “Camp Tarawa” and joined the 2nd Marine Division there. Heading to Saipan, Clifford was on an APA for 57 days. Arriving at Saipan, they landed at Charan Konoa on D-Day, on June 15th, 1945 and after about eight or nine days, they broke up the 2nd Joint Assault Signal Company and went with the 8th Marines regime headquarters and communication. Clifford was then transferred to the 10th Marines, which was artillery and he had a communication section and B Battery of the 1st Battalion 10th Marines. He had 27 guys with radio men and telephone men. Clifford describes his responsibilities on Saipan as having to set up the switchboard, string wire, working with radio Jeeps, and telephone communications. At Charan Kanoa, they were the closest 2nd Marine Division to the boat dock at the sugar mill and the 4th Division was just on the other side, Clifford had to run the telephone service between their switchboard and the 4th Division. The snipers would shoot from the sugar mill, until it was blown down by naval gunfire so that the snipers couldn’t hide up there. Clifford recalls being so scared that he started smoking the cigarettes out of the K-rations. The C-rations came with hash that was so greasy, they would try to build a fire so that they could boil the grease out of it. When Clifford was with the 8th Marines, they were sent to the top of Mount Tapochau to repair a forward observer’s phone. They were almost shot by a Marine who wasn’t expecting them – when they arrived at the top, Clifford only had to stick a wire back in to complete the circuit. Passwords were changed with the radio guys once a week and often they would choose words with “L’s” because Japanese could not pronounce L’s. From Saipan, Clifford’s next stop was Okinawa on Easter Sunday. He recalls the first USO show in the 2nd Marine Division, was Eddie Peabody , then a little later, Betty Hutton. They then returned to Saipan and stayed until they dropped the A bomb on Nagasaki. Afterwards, they headed to Nagasaki on a zig zag course on a “darkened ship”. When they pulled into the harbor they saw the big guns with white flags flying on them. They were taken to Ashiya Japan, to an airfield for a week and a half, while they made the B Battery into an MP outfit and moved back to Japanese barracks in Nagasaki and cleaned up a building Nagasaki for the MP headquarters. Clifford had sergeant of the guard every other 24 hours. They never had issues with the Japanese there. Clifford was there until December of ’45 when the 2nd Division was replaced by the 5th Division. They took a train to Sasebo and left from there to San Diego by ship, arriving on December 24th . The following day they were taking to Camp Pendleton for Christmas dinner. Clifford was discharged on January 4th, 1946. Clifford was looking forward to returning after 60 years. He was glad the atomic bomb was dropped to end the war.

U.S. National Park Service, War in the Pacific National Historical Park

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War in the Pacific National Historical Park, Code: WAPA

Guam , Guam
War in the Pacific National Historical Park, Guam , Guam
Latitude: 13.3905000686646, Longitude: 144.654006958008

ICMS (Interior Collection Managment System) : WAPA-00246
NPS Museum Number Catalog : WAPA 4170

War in the Pacific Oral Histories

2025/03/07

T. Stell Newman Visitor Center, Collections room, Safe and Shelf SLF D-01

Public Can View

Rose Manibusan, Jennifer Craig

Organization: American Memorial Park
Role: Chief Interpretation
Address: Micro Beach Road, Garapan, Mp 96950
Email: wapa_interpretation@nps.gov

Sunday, April 6, 2025 1:12:47 AM

Sunday, April 6, 2025 1:12:47 AM

Davenport, Clifford_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_transcript.pdf

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