52fb7ba7-fa7c-4a7a-9447-7375f83d8293

O'Brien, Cyril_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Video.mp4

Cyril J. O’Brien was born January 30, 1919 in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. His father was a fisherman. Cyril tells some stories about his father. They moved to Massachusetts when he was seven and then to New Jersey in 1930, where Cy went through school. After the war, he went to the American University, where he got a master’s degree in journalism. Cy was always interesting in journalism and at 14 wrote to the paper in Newfoundland, the Telegram and asked them if he could write feature stories. Then he went to work on The Courier Post in Camden, as a copy boy and then a cover reporter. Cy joined Marine Corps while in college when a portable recruiting group came over for officers. They then told him he was too short to be in the Marine Corps. So Cy enlisted anyway. He went to Parris Island and a runner from the headquarters came to him and said, if you have a college degree, you should be in officer’s school. Meanwhile he was training and sent to San Diego. Finally they asked him to go to OCS, but by then his division was going overseas so he turned them down and went overseas with the men he had been training with. In Guadalcanal, Cy met combat correspondent Bill Burnett, who worked formally for The Baltimore Sun. Bill said to Cy, we are going into Guam, we need a combat correspondent. So Cy went back to the Marines and said, forget officer’s school, I would rather be a correspondent. Cy talks a lot about other correspondents. He also discusses the process of writing the story and how it was edited, by editors in the press tent at Division. From there, sent to the Office of the Marine Corps at the Marine Corps annex in Arlington, where they decided it should go. The stories would go to AP, UPI and sometimes a specialist story would go to Mechanic Magazine. Some of the material went to radio networks. Cy would usually join a reconnaissance patrol with maybe 15 men, 20 men, to get a story of what was going on. Some of them were a little risky, but Cy recalls always feeling safe while with the Marine Corps. Cy tells in great detail, the story of what happened on Chonito Ridge when he found the entire Company that he used to be with, before becoming a correspondent, dead on the slopes heading to the ridge. Landing on Guam, Cy was with the 3rd wave, with the assault troops. They cam in on an amtrack, which Cy says was a luxury compared to these fellows who came in with Higgins Boats. He jumped out and ran for shore and jumped in a big shell hole. He, like the other correspondents, had a double pack. He had a typewriter in the bottom pack and his goods in the front. Afterwards, he went up and moved in on the side of the hill and instead of digging down, he dug in partially sideways. Cy said, “remember now, we as correspondents weren’t heroes, we were there looking for heroes.” He remembers the attacks on Chonito Ridge. Able Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, under the command of Major Aplington of Warner, New Hampshire. Cy and his photographer, Herb Ball, followed them and a line company up to get the story. However, the battle got so bad, that they made a run for it. He tells a story of at one point, running into a little gully where the Japanese were setting up land mines. He started to cross and one of the Marines, Hennessey, from Georgia, shouted, Obie, don’t come across there! That’s a fire lane! So he ran back and jumped as two shots were fired at him. He wanted to write a story of the landing with his little Hermes typewriter, and he put it on his knees, with the guys firing around him, to write the story. The Japs at the time decided to throw in mortars. He borrowed a foxhole to get his story finished. Cy recalls at one point wanting to get to the front, where everyone had moved to. He came to an open field and decided to cross that rather than go all the way around. A sniper shot at him and he drop down. To get out he had to run for a cliff and tumble down, zig zagging all the way. He never took another short cut. Cy tells how he heard all the noises from the banzai attack, but was lucky enough to not have to participate. One night Cy decided to give himself a nice break, so he went back and picked a nice level, beautiful, green field. He dug a nice little foxhole near running water. However, they moved artillery at dusk. They moved 155s and 105s right down in the field with him and they kept firing. The big guns were firing and the ground was shaking. Cy felt that the Japanese soldiers were beyond brave. These were patriotic men in good condition who were fighting for their country. And their life was thrown away. He recalls one soldier who they took prisoner, who was from Tokyo and just wanted the war to be over. He remembers reading that before those banzai attacks, you could hear the Japanese laughing and joking and drinking. And many of them realizing that they were going to their deaths uselessly. They tore up the pictures of their families and then cried. Cy talks about being in the 3rd Division and being there under a very kindly man, General Alan H. Turnage from Pitt County, North Carolina. He also told more stories where he was nearly killed. He then discusses the correspondents that he knew and worked with, including Ted Link, Ray Henry, Al Josphey, Jim Lucas, Joe Rosenthal and Ernie Pyle. There is some discussion about the differences in the war in Europe and the war in the Pacific. As Cy put it, in Europe, in Bastogne and Normandy and Saint-Lo, they were fighting against soldiers like themselves. But the Japanese, they were a lot crueler. Cy gives an example of how in Guadalcanal, a Marine would go up and see a poor Japanese dying in pain and out of humanity, would want to help him. He would reach down to help him and the Jap would kill you, blow you up with a grenade. Cy reminisces about Iwo Jima and the flag raising on Mt. Suribachi. He observed it from his ship at sea. At the end of his interview, Cy lists many of publications that carried his stories and the books he wrote. He tells of interviewing a couple Japanese men through letters to get their side of the war. Cy doesn’t think you should shield people from the gruesome facts of war, that the bitterness of it and the casualties should be known, because if you can do anything to make people feel that there shouldn’t be war, he thinks that message should be known. He still at the same time felt there should be a message of patriotism.

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

This digital asset is in the public domain. This digital version was made possible through the National Park Service by a grant from the National Park Foundation through generous support from the Mellon Foundation. When using this asset for any purpose, including online, credit 'Courtesy U.S. National Parks'.

Public domain

Video

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

Saturday, April 5, 2025 12:01:54 AM

Saturday, April 5, 2025 12:01:54 AM

O'Brien, Cyril_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Video.mp4

mp4

781.9 MB

Historic

NPGallery Main Search