b62e710d-3c31-4585-8b28-cefab30fc7a9

Kerrins, Jack_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Video.mp4

John “Jack” Kerins, was born and raised in Terre Haute, Indiana. He tells of going to college at Indiana State University after the war and meeting his wife, Pat. Jack started a half hour outdoor television show, which he did for 21 years. When he was done with that show, he wrote the book The Last Banzai, which started with notes he wrote down while in the hospital recouping from a coronary and lots of storytelling at reunions with his old buddies from the war. Jack recorded these stories and included them in the book. Jack was with the Regimental Headquarters of the 12th Marines. He went to a radio school in San Diego with a bunch of guys and they all ended up in the 12th Marines. These guys were together from the time the unit was formed down in Camp Dunlap, until the end of the war. They went to New Zealand for training and then went to Guadalcanal for more advanced training. When they arrived at Guadalcanal, the island was declared secure, but they were receiving Japanese air raids every night, coming down from Rabaul, up around New Britain. They were bombed every night. On November 1st, 1943, they hit Bougainville, a real rough campaign due to the terrain and the living conditions there. Afterwards, they came back to Guadalcanal, rested and went into training for another campaign scheduled to go into Kavieng on New Ireland and they called that campaign off. They became at that point a floating reserve for the 2nd and 4th Marine Division when they hit the beach at Saipan. They were 58 days aboard ship from the time they left Guadalcanal until they set foot on Guam. The ship was the USS Dupage. Jack was a private first class and served as a radioman out of Regimental Headquarters, 12th Marines, working with forward observer teams, directing artillery fire. Jack had little forward observer notebooks that had radio frequencies and call signs and shackle codes. Jack saved those books as well as a diary that he had kept at the time. Jack discusses how the banzai attack on Guam was what really inspired him to write the book with his own memories and those of his friends and people who wrote him letters. He explains that the very last banzai actually took place on Guam. The Japanese learned their lesson and their generals passed the orders that they were to stay in their very elaborate and very strong defense positions. Jack talks about after Guam was secure, they had to go into training for Iwo Jima, but since there were still some Japanese hiding in the jungles, they were still having some battles going on. After going to Iwo Jima and then returning to Guam, their camp was located in Iliac Bay. It was a beautiful place to recoup from all the battles. The men were tired and wondering if they would ever get home. Jack describes a USO show with Betty Hutton, who, after the show, told them all that they would be going home. At this point in the interview, Jack starts talking about the differences from what Guam looked like 50 years prior to what it looks like now and how he has tried to find the areas that he remembers. He peppers that with quick stories of what happened in those areas. Jack then talks about how he wishes children learned more in school about Guam and Guadalcanal and Bougainville, most kids have never heard of these places. He thinks they should learn what happened so that they can learn from it and try to help prevent it from happening again. Jack tells of their commanding general of the 3rd Marine Division, Graves B. Erskine. The commanding general of the 3rd Marine Division when they landed at Guam was Alan Turnage. His commanding officer of 12th Marines was John Bushrod Wilson. Regimental Operations Officer was William T. Fermer [sp?]. Jack jumps back to leaving Guam and being the second group of men to leave. The ships picked them up from Apra Harbor. He took the USS Samuel Chase. Two days out of Pearl Harbor, they got word that President, Roosevelt had died. Arriving in San Diego, the Marine band met them there at the dock. After they returned to the States, they were given 30 day delay and orders and shipped to new destinations. Jack was shipped to Philadelphia Navy Yard with all the radiomen from their units and put in special combat radio school where they were learning to take and receive code at high speeds and under combat conditions. While there, he got the news of the end of the war. At this point, the interview jumps all the way back to Jack enlisting. He recalls hiking with a friend and coming home to hear about Pearl Harbor. He and his friend decided to join the Marines. His friend was turned down for being color blind. Jack recalls getting to boot camp in San Diego and being told by the guys already there, “You’ll be sorry!” He feels that the training that he got in boot camp is what helped him survive in all the awful situations, including the banzai attack in Guam. Jack describes the different radios they used - a TBY that they Navy used when they would run a small boat, a TBX, a three man operation that came with a trans-receiver unit and a battery pack, two heavy boxes, steel boxes, and one fit on top of the other and a generator. He gives a long description of how it all worked. TBY was what was used in Guadalcanal and Bougainville; they didn’t work well in the jungle though. Jack describes Bougainville as one of the worst rainforests in the world. The radiomen used what they called “air spot” back on Munda, on New Georgia Island in the center – they would send up an SBD, the old Scout Douglas Scout Dive-bomber. They sent some of their forward observers back to Munda and they would ride the backseat in there and the plane would come up and fly over and try to spot jungle trails or gun emplacements or something like that and radio them. He would give fire directions and they would pass them by telephone to the fire direction center, they would pass it by combat telephone wire to the firing batteries and they would start firing, laying the shells in, and then the changes in range and deflection were given to them by the spotter up in the SBD. Jack goes on to describe in detail how they used this system “sound ranging” in a place called Torokina Point. Jack jumps to the landing at Guam. He was in a recon party from the 12th Marines, whose main purpose was to move in to where they had originally plotted on the map, where they would set up our first command post and get as close to it as they could and if they couldn’t make that, then pick another one, and radio back to where it was and so they could bring the command units in there. When it was time for the landing on the beach, they had to climb down over the cargo nets to get into the Higgins Boat. They circled until they got the command to go in to a certain line. When it was time to go in, they got up to the edge of the reef and had some amphibious tractors that came up along side and they piled out of the landing boats, into the amph tractors to take them across the coral reef. Jack jumped out with his SCR-300 radio on his back and ran across a coral road, as he ran across that road, a machine gun opened up on him so he just jumped in the river, into a ravine. Jack at this point describes where all of the regiments landed on the beach and what happened to each one. He then gets back to the story of wading in the ravine and what happened to him while there. Jack’s last story is about the banzai attack on Guam. He was told by his regimental commander, John Letcher to go up with some other men to get the snipers. He was joined by John Wiley, Bob Wolf, AH Rogers and Harry Bailey. The Japanese were actually trapped between them and Marines down below and they were getting fire from down below and from behind too. John Wiley was hit in three different places. They dragged Wiley back up the hillside a little ways and they could hear the Japs firing again. AH Rogers, got up over the hill and went down and got a corpsman and they brought a stretcher up the top. And the corpsman and PFC Rogers carried him on down to the aid station. Jack never thought he would ever return to Guam again. There were about 960 who came back. They got off the airplane and saw the reception that was waiting for them, and just couldn’t believe it. They appreciate everything that the people of Guam have done for them. Jack spends some time talking about the outdoor magazines he writes for and also the book he wrote about his wife’s tie pin collection.

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 2:50:34 PM

Saturday, April 5, 2025 2:50:34 PM

Kerrins, Jack_WAPA-246_WAPA 4170_OralHist_Video.mp4

mp4

2220.3 MB

Historic

NPGallery Main Search