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An Oral History Of The Final Marines In WWII From Scott Davis · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

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  Speaker 1: It's a podcast network Aero dot net a R r
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  Speaker 1: o e dot net. Every day you sit in that car,
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  Speaker 1: I want you to have the power of choice, and
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  Speaker 1: one of those choices could be missed opportunity. I speak
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  Speaker 1: with thousands of people year after year. Not all of
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  Speaker 1: them make it to a podcast. Why because it became
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  Speaker 1: a missed opportunity. So what I do is is that
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  Speaker 1: I ask the questions hoping somebody will locate it and
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  Speaker 1: answer them. It's happened four different times. Missed opportunity only
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  Speaker 1: on ero dot net a R r oe dot net.
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  Speaker 1: Enjoy your exploration, Scott. I'm very proud of you for
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  Speaker 1: doing this. My father, who fought in World War Two
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  Speaker 1: would just be ecstatic right now because this is this
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  Speaker 1: is quickly becoming the forgotten War, and we need books
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  Speaker 1: like this because there's a lot of things that we
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  Speaker 1: don't know that's not making it to the History channel.
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  Speaker 1: And then you give us the last of the Old Breed.
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  Speaker 1: My God, I hope you that you really got something
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  Speaker 1: out of this. Personally.
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it was an incredible experience talking to all
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  Speaker 2: these men and women. They lived such incredible lives that
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  Speaker 2: it was a really fulfilling experience for me.
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  Speaker 1: How did you even dive into this project, because it
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  Speaker 1: seems like World War two, or even World War One,
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  Speaker 1: which my grandfather fought in, and that is one of
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  Speaker 1: those things that it's like we're tripping across and it's
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  Speaker 1: not something that's part of our everyday language.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a funny thing. I've always been interested in
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  Speaker 2: World War Two, even as a kid. I mean, my
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  Speaker 2: mom remembers trying to find books on World War Two
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  Speaker 2: that were appropriate for me when I was in the
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  Speaker 2: first grade. It's almost had like an inherent interest in
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  Speaker 2: the subject. And as I was getting older, going through
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  Speaker 2: high school and college, I ended getting a history degree.
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  Speaker 2: I realized that these guys were fading away, and I thought,
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  Speaker 2: we need to preserve these stories. So I started interviewing
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  Speaker 2: them and the war in the Pacific really captured my imagination.
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  Speaker 2: For whatever reason, that might not be the correct term,
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  Speaker 2: but it was such a compelling story. I mean, we
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  Speaker 2: took a group of young men from different backgrounds, different socioeconomics, standies,
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  Speaker 2: different religions, train them and send them off to these
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  Speaker 2: little islands that nobody had ever heard of to find
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  Speaker 2: an enemy that would rather die than surrender. And these
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  Speaker 2: were spectacularly violent battles and it really just captivated me,
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  Speaker 2: and I thought, I need to record these stories, and
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  Speaker 2: I need to talk to these men. And like you said,
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  Speaker 2: the pacifics one of those ones where it's becoming a
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  Speaker 2: forgotten theater award, it's becoming a forgotten event. So I
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  Speaker 2: felt it was important to record these and tell these
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  Speaker 2: stories while we could.
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  Speaker 1: I totally understand this because it was Colonel Oliver North
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  Speaker 1: that sat with me and said, you are not a
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  Speaker 1: broadcaster until you start sharing their stories. And and so
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  Speaker 1: when you when you talk like that, it's like I understand,
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  Speaker 1: because somewhere along the line, your mother somebody else had
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  Speaker 1: to have said, if you do not record these stories,
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  Speaker 1: they're lost forever. And and and I love the way
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  Speaker 1: that you call it the War of the Pacific, because
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  Speaker 1: I had never heard of that, but now I want
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  Speaker 1: to use it. It's like here in the South, where we
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  Speaker 1: call it the the the not not the Civil War.
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  Speaker 1: It's we call it other things. It's because it's just
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  Speaker 1: something that we don't do down here.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly exactly. It really puts a point on it too,
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  Speaker 2: that there were separate theaters war and the War in
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  Speaker 2: Europe looked a lot different than a war and the
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  Speaker 2: specific in the way we fought it and how we
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  Speaker 2: treated the enemy.
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  Speaker 1: So yep, yep. And when you say that you're recording them,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, what do you do with the history? Then?
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  Speaker 1: Do you meet up with somebody at a historic library
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  Speaker 1: or a museum, because I mean, I mean, I realized
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  Speaker 1: that it's that it's in the book, but we're humans.
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  Speaker 1: We want something that's tangible. We want to touch it.
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  Speaker 1: We want to go to a boat. We want to
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  Speaker 1: step on that boat and take a trip. You know
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  Speaker 1: what I mean by that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, Well the oral histories right now, they're sitting
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  Speaker 2: just on my drive. I need to get them to
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  Speaker 2: a organization that will use them because I would love
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  Speaker 2: to see I have video recorded a lot of these guys.
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  Speaker 2: I would love to see them used in a museum
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  Speaker 2: display or something along those lines. And at some point
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to track down an organization, whether it be
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  Speaker 2: the Pacific War Museum, the National World War Two Museum,
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  Speaker 2: or just somebody that's going to utilize it and put
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  Speaker 2: these videos and these stories in front of people, because,
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  Speaker 2: like you said, people need to hear these These guys
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  Speaker 2: have powerful stories to tell them. We need to get
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  Speaker 2: them out there.
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  Speaker 1: Scott. There are so many people on Zoom right now.
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  Speaker 1: I talk with these these warriors from these different wars,
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  Speaker 1: and they're all meeting in groups. It's not about going
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  Speaker 1: to a building or anything like that where you know,
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  Speaker 1: like where they used to go to the VFW. They're
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  Speaker 1: meeting on Zoom and I'll tell you what they are
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  Speaker 1: a connection to where you could really preserve these forever
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  Speaker 1: because they know how to get into these places of preservation.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I need to get on that and get
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  Speaker 2: these in a place where they can be you know,
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  Speaker 2: two hundred years from now, somebody can pull up an
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  Speaker 2: interview and watch it that he definitely needs to be
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  Speaker 2: a priority.
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  Speaker 1: So what was it about World War Two that's got
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  Speaker 1: your attention? My attention on it was because of my
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  Speaker 1: father and of course my grandfather in World War One.
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  Speaker 1: But but you go into it into a depth where
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  Speaker 1: I have a better understanding of it and it's not
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  Speaker 1: what I see on the History Channel.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, just like I said, just an inherent fascination. I
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  Speaker 2: can't explain to you why it is, but there's something
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  Speaker 2: and I felt the real kinship these veterans for whatever
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  Speaker 2: reason too these guys, and I think maybe it was
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  Speaker 2: just the way they were. They treated me like a grandkid,
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  Speaker 2: and then you hear these stories and it's just like, man,
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  Speaker 2: it's incredible what they went through, and it just really
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  Speaker 2: really captured me for some reason, and it felt important too.
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  Speaker 2: You talk to these guys, and there was an appreciation
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  Speaker 2: for me trying to record these stories. I mean, one
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  Speaker 2: of the most impactful things that a guy. At the
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  Speaker 2: end of one of the interviews I did, one of
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  Speaker 2: the guys stopped me. He said, hey, Scott, thanks for
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  Speaker 2: remembering the boys. Yes, that meant a lot to me.
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  Speaker 2: So it's just been impactful.
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  Speaker 1: I was going to ask you about that, because for
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  Speaker 1: a lot of these people, they've waited their entire life
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  Speaker 1: to have the opportunity to have their stories shared, because
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  Speaker 1: it's been so silent for them for so long that
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  Speaker 1: it's like, oh, that's right, I did do that back
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  Speaker 1: there in nineteen forty one or forty two.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. And it's a funny thing too, because I would
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  Speaker 2: talk to guys and I go in and they say,
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  Speaker 2: you don't want to talk to me. I was only
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  Speaker 2: in two battles, like you were only in two battles.
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  Speaker 2: But they'd say, well, they're guys that were in four
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  Speaker 2: or five, and it's like, well, yep, you were at
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  Speaker 2: Palelou and Okinawa. Those were major conflicts. You were a
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  Speaker 2: piece of history. And again, now that the numbers of
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  Speaker 2: these guys are so thin, they started to recognize that,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I am a piece of history and if
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  Speaker 2: I don't talk, I needed nobody's going to hear these
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  Speaker 2: stories and I need to talk on behalf of the
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  Speaker 2: guys who didn't talk in some instances. So yeah, there's
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  Speaker 2: been a Yeah, it's something that's needed to happen.
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  Speaker 1: Please do not move. Scott Davis is right around the corner.
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  Speaker 1: The name of the book, The Last of the Old
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  Speaker 1: Breed from authors Scott Davis. Did you have to do
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  Speaker 1: the roundabout talk? In other words worth because I've been
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  Speaker 1: with them where they where they don't really want to talk,
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  Speaker 1: So I would do it roundabout way of getting into
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  Speaker 1: the talk. And then somehow, some way through I guess
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  Speaker 1: the universe, we got we finally got on the subject.
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  Speaker 1: What was your method in order to get them to talk?
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  Speaker 1: Because it's not something they instantly go to.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to kind of find ways to work
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  Speaker 2: around it and ways to ask questions that are respectful
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  Speaker 2: as well, because you know, you're not going to go
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  Speaker 2: up to somebody and say, well, did you ever kill anybody?
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  Speaker 2: You know, it's just that would be boneheaded. So you
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  Speaker 2: got to find different ways of talking about combat. And
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  Speaker 2: part of it was having a good background in the subject.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I could go in and when a guy
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  Speaker 2: knows that I've already talked to twenty other Eojima veterans,
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  Speaker 2: he goes, He's going to know that, Okay, I know
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  Speaker 2: my business a little bit. And then just finding different ways.
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  Speaker 2: You know, a lot of it's just asking maybe the
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  Speaker 2: same question in different ways. So there's just different strategies
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  Speaker 2: of getting these guys to open up and get into
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  Speaker 2: their experiences.
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  Speaker 1: As you will know, do you find yourself becoming a
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  Speaker 1: magnet now? Because I still want to figure out how
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  Speaker 1: we can get into the stories of the Korean War,
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  Speaker 1: because I think though that we need to know the
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  Speaker 1: history of World War two before we can go to
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  Speaker 1: the Korean War so that the man of that Korean
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  Speaker 1: War will have the respect for us. You have you
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  Speaker 1: stepped in that direction at all?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've actually did. I got into the Korea Korean
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  Speaker 2: War a little bit. My grandpa was increased the living
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  Speaker 2: he's ninety six years old, and that kind of opened
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  Speaker 2: a door to me where I've interviewed I don't know,
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  Speaker 2: like forty or some war veterans, fifty maybe, but it's
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  Speaker 2: a much more difficult topic to get into because they
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  Speaker 2: don't get the exposure.
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  Speaker 1: That's right. That's right.
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  Speaker 2: And then a lot of the guys who fought in
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  Speaker 2: Korea worl World War II veterans in the early years
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  Speaker 2: of the Korean War as well, So it's like you're
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  Speaker 2: kind of getting a crossover in that sense. So it's
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  Speaker 2: I find it's difficult to get into. And then some
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  Speaker 2: of the guys just don't want to talk or they
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  Speaker 2: just felt, you know, it's a forgotten war. They felt
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  Speaker 2: a little forgotten. Some of them just say it's you know,
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  Speaker 2: happened a long time ago. You know, forget about it, kid,
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  Speaker 2: And you know, so there's a lot of strange attitudes
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  Speaker 2: around the Korean War.
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  Speaker 1: Did anybody talk about that when when you were talking
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  Speaker 1: about or putting focus on the War of the Pacific,
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  Speaker 1: did they talk about the weather conditions? Because it seems
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  Speaker 1: like everybody that was in the Eastern War, how bitterly
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  Speaker 1: cold it was. And so I and I, in my
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  Speaker 1: own way, I want to believe that the Pacific area,
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  Speaker 1: even though we all see the beautiful sunshine, they still
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  Speaker 1: had conditions that the rest of us were not capable
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  Speaker 1: of understanding unless you really went through the training.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think people, we know we fought the Japanese there,
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  Speaker 2: but we fought the jung as well. We took guys
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  Speaker 2: from Minnesota farms and guys from apple workers in Washington State,
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  Speaker 2: and we sent him off to these places that they
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  Speaker 2: couldn't even imagine, these jungles that were so dense. And
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  Speaker 2: that's something about the Pacific. It's such a diverse topography
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  Speaker 2: that there were these coral atolls and that were blazing
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  Speaker 2: hot and these wet, nasty jungles. And it was a
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  Speaker 2: battle all in itself, fighting the mud and the crud
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  Speaker 2: and all that stuff.
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  Speaker 1: How did you stay so true to the story, because
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  Speaker 1: so many times I know that when I talk with
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  Speaker 1: modern day men and women today, they'll sit there and
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  Speaker 1: they'll say, well, we can only say so much. And
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  Speaker 1: it had to be run through the Pentagon. They had
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  Speaker 1: to do the editing. Did you have to do anything
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  Speaker 1: like that as well, or has it been long enough
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  Speaker 1: to where we can get away with sharing the real
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  Speaker 1: in depth stories.
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  Speaker 2: It's been long enough that we could just kind of
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  Speaker 2: tell it the way it was. And that was my
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  Speaker 2: big thing with this book is I just want to
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  Speaker 2: tell the truth. Tell the truth. It's been long enough,
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  Speaker 2: and there were times where, you know, you edit out
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  Speaker 2: a guy's name where it's like, I don't know if
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  Speaker 2: he has family still living it's been eighty years. But
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  Speaker 2: I also don't want to embarrass family. So you've just
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  Speaker 2: got to be careful with that type of stuff.
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  Speaker 1: So with the stuff that you've got recorded, are you
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  Speaker 1: like me? It's all saved on this one, the backup
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  Speaker 1: to the backup, to the backup to the backup, because
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  Speaker 1: we all know that wherever we're storing it, it may
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  Speaker 1: not be there tomorrow when we get to it.
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  Speaker 2: Yep, exactly. I've got like three drives On's fireproof safe,
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  Speaker 2: ones in a desk drawer, ones in a different place.
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  Speaker 2: So it's, uh, yeah, exactly.
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  Speaker 1: Do you feel like a historian or do you feel
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  Speaker 1: like you're a teacher.
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  Speaker 2: I feel like a historian. Maybe a historian's job is
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  Speaker 2: to teach.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, a real historian.
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  Speaker 2: There are some people that get a little lost saying,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I research, I don't need to communicate with
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  Speaker 2: the public. No, no, No, real historian communicates with the public.
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  Speaker 2: What's the point of researching if you can't communicate the information?
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  Speaker 1: So true, Pitch Follyman tone is everything. Where where can
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  Speaker 1: people go to find out more about you? Because ten
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  Speaker 1: minutes with you is just not enough, Scott, It's not
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  Speaker 1: And so I want them to really tap into where
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  Speaker 1: you are, how we can grow and if you have
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  Speaker 1: some sort of funding account where we can help you,
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  Speaker 1: you know, keep growing forward with this, with this journey.
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  Speaker 2: Yes. So I've got my website Scott Davis books dot com.
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  Speaker 2: You can get books there and read a little bit
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  Speaker 2: more about me. I have a YouTube channel called the
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  Speaker 2: Vietnam Experience and that's where my Vietnam interviews are and
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  Speaker 2: those are just out there for free and there's I
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  Speaker 2: don't know sixty of them or something like that, and
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  Speaker 2: then you just subscribe to that and watch those videos.
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  Speaker 2: But that's probably the main thing, Dude.
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  Speaker 1: You got to come back to this show anytime in
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  Speaker 1: the future. Everything that you're sharing with me is exactly
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  Speaker 1: what I love to help push forward. So please, you
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  Speaker 1: got to make your way back to this show.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, that'd be awesome. I really appreciate the opportunity to
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  Speaker 2: talk about it. Sounds like I'm preaching to the choir.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, but the thing about it is it is that
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  Speaker 1: you are, but at the same time, we're both on
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  Speaker 1: the same mission of get the word out there. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: we are so focused on making sure that this word
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  Speaker 1: is preserved. So no, I'm totally on your side, dude.
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  Speaker 2: Awesome, awesome, I really appreciate it. Yeah, we'll'tch chat again sometime.
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  Speaker 1: Will you'd be brilliant today?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, I will, I will.