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012 - Sidebar Incident on D3 · Across the Reef- The Marine Assault of Tarawa

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seven sidebar of across the Reef the Marina cell
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  Speaker 1: of Tarawa by Joseph H. Alexander. This LibriVox recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Incident on d plus three, a
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  Speaker 1: small incident on the last day of the fighting on Batio,
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  Speaker 1: cost First Sergeant Louis J. Miscelloni Junior his sense of smell. Mischelloni,
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  Speaker 1: a member of the first Battalion, six Marines, was a
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  Speaker 1: former boxing champion of the Atlantic Fleet and a combat
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  Speaker 1: veteran of Guadalcanal. Later in the Pacific War. He would
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  Speaker 1: receive two Silver Star medals for conspicuous bravery on Deep
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  Speaker 1: plus three at Tarawa. However, he very nearly lost his life.
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  Speaker 1: First Sergeant Miscelloni accompanied two other Marines on a routine
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  Speaker 1: reconnaissance of an area east of Green Beach, looking for
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  Speaker 1: healthy positions to assign the battalion mortar platoon. The area
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  Speaker 1: had been cleared by the infantry companies of the battalion
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  Speaker 1: the previous morning. Other Marines had passed through the complex
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  Speaker 1: of seemingly empty Japanese bunkers without incident. The clearing was
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  Speaker 1: littered with Japanese bodies and abandoned enemy equipment. The three
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  Speaker 1: marines threw grenades into the first bunker they encountered. Without response.
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  Speaker 1: All was quiet. Suddenly, out of nowhere, all hell broke loose,
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  Speaker 1: recalled Mischaloni. The front bunker opened fire with a machine gun.
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  Speaker 1: Grenades hailed in from nowhere. One marine died instantly, the
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  Speaker 1: second escaped, leaving Mishaloni face down in the sand. In desperation,
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  Speaker 1: the first sergeant dove into the nearest bunker, tumbling through
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  Speaker 1: a rear entrance to land. In what he thought was
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  Speaker 1: a pool of water and the bunker's dim light, he
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  Speaker 1: discovered it was a combination of water, urine, blood, and
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  Speaker 1: other material, some of it from the bodies of the
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  Speaker 1: dead Japanese and some from the live ones. As he
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  Speaker 1: spat out the foul liquid from his mouth, Mischaloni realized
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  Speaker 1: there were live Japanese in among the dead decaying ones.
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  Speaker 1: The smell, taste, and fear he experienced inside the bunker
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  Speaker 1: were almost overpowering. Somehow I managed to get out. To
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  Speaker 1: this day, I don't know how I crawled out of
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  Speaker 1: this cesspool. Dripping wet, The scorching sun dried his utilities.
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  Speaker 1: As though they had been heavily starched, they still stank
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  Speaker 1: for months after. I could taste and smell, as well
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  Speaker 1: as visualize this scene. Fifty years after the incident, retired
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  Speaker 1: Sergeant Major Miscealoni still has no sense of smell. End
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  Speaker 1: of Chapter seven, sidebar red by Aaron Bennett,