china Marines The comrades of the Yangtse Patrol USN River Rats
Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2023 11:45 am
This is for all of you Jarheads and others who find them as amusing as I do. 
Ugly looking bastards aren't they?
Short Version
CHINA MARINE
Pete George
Pete was born in Dallas, Texas to Greek immigrants, Nick and Mary George. At age 20, Pete joined the United States Marine Corps on December 4, 1939 and began this memoir that would take him 7,353 miles from home. Five years and ten months later, Pete would finally make it back home and celebrate with family and friends.
Pete served with the 4th Marine Regiment at the International Settlement in Shanghai, China from July 1940 until November 1941, then arriving in the Philippines for the start of World War II. Over the next 4 years, Pete survived a massive aerial and artillery bombardment on the island of Corregidor . . escaped an unexploded 1,000 lb bomb landing into his barracks . . survived an artillery shrapnel wound in his leg the night before surrender . . survived being stranded on a medical stretcher in the middle of the road as a Japanese airplane made two passes strafing the road below . . survived a no anesthetic surgical removal of the shrapnel . . survived a starvation diet . . survived with zero medical supplies . . survived being surrounded by torture and executions . . survived a sea voyage thru Allied submarines to POW camps located inside Japan . . and then survived the cave ins of the Hitachi Copper Mines.
. . .
"Then after that was over with, we went back to the ship and they said, well, we're going to put you on the list again but we're going to leave in the morning for the States if y'all want to go back with us on the ship. Well, I think I weighed a little less than a hundred pounds at the time. I dropped from about around 155, 158 down to under a hundred pounds. So I said, well, it will give me a chance to kind of gain a little bit of weight. Well, we left Tokyo on the Ozark on September the 8th and arrived in San Francisco in October-- so about 15, 16 days or so. But I think I weighed, like I said, less than a hundred and as soon as we got off the ship, went over to the naval hospital in Oakland and jumped on a scale and I weighed almost -- I weighed a little over 170 pounds. They fed us anything that we wanted, I looked like a balloon. Nobody would believe that I came out of prison camp. I mean my cheeks were full, you know, and it was terrible. It's a wonder it didn't kill us all but they didn't give us any examination, no pills, no nothing. Just fed us. The whole time your elbow moved, your mouth opened up.
When we passed underneath the Golden Gate bridge, you know. We said, well, here it is, good old San Francisco. We always called it Frisco. They said, you don't call it Frisco, it's San Francisco. And they had the band, well, the band greets every ship that comes in, see. And nobody met us after we disembarked off the ship and all they had was the bus. We got on the bus to take us to the hospital and they had a lady driver.
Of course, they didn't have this before and we just teased that poor girl to death, got her so rattled it was terrible. We said oh, my gosh, we went through three and a half years of prison camp and we're all going to be killed by a woman driver."
Long version IMO well worth reading
https://chinamarines.com/PeteGeorge/shanghai.html
Ugly looking bastards aren't they?
Short Version
CHINA MARINE
Pete George
Pete was born in Dallas, Texas to Greek immigrants, Nick and Mary George. At age 20, Pete joined the United States Marine Corps on December 4, 1939 and began this memoir that would take him 7,353 miles from home. Five years and ten months later, Pete would finally make it back home and celebrate with family and friends.
Pete served with the 4th Marine Regiment at the International Settlement in Shanghai, China from July 1940 until November 1941, then arriving in the Philippines for the start of World War II. Over the next 4 years, Pete survived a massive aerial and artillery bombardment on the island of Corregidor . . escaped an unexploded 1,000 lb bomb landing into his barracks . . survived an artillery shrapnel wound in his leg the night before surrender . . survived being stranded on a medical stretcher in the middle of the road as a Japanese airplane made two passes strafing the road below . . survived a no anesthetic surgical removal of the shrapnel . . survived a starvation diet . . survived with zero medical supplies . . survived being surrounded by torture and executions . . survived a sea voyage thru Allied submarines to POW camps located inside Japan . . and then survived the cave ins of the Hitachi Copper Mines.
. . .
"Then after that was over with, we went back to the ship and they said, well, we're going to put you on the list again but we're going to leave in the morning for the States if y'all want to go back with us on the ship. Well, I think I weighed a little less than a hundred pounds at the time. I dropped from about around 155, 158 down to under a hundred pounds. So I said, well, it will give me a chance to kind of gain a little bit of weight. Well, we left Tokyo on the Ozark on September the 8th and arrived in San Francisco in October-- so about 15, 16 days or so. But I think I weighed, like I said, less than a hundred and as soon as we got off the ship, went over to the naval hospital in Oakland and jumped on a scale and I weighed almost -- I weighed a little over 170 pounds. They fed us anything that we wanted, I looked like a balloon. Nobody would believe that I came out of prison camp. I mean my cheeks were full, you know, and it was terrible. It's a wonder it didn't kill us all but they didn't give us any examination, no pills, no nothing. Just fed us. The whole time your elbow moved, your mouth opened up.
When we passed underneath the Golden Gate bridge, you know. We said, well, here it is, good old San Francisco. We always called it Frisco. They said, you don't call it Frisco, it's San Francisco. And they had the band, well, the band greets every ship that comes in, see. And nobody met us after we disembarked off the ship and all they had was the bus. We got on the bus to take us to the hospital and they had a lady driver.
Of course, they didn't have this before and we just teased that poor girl to death, got her so rattled it was terrible. We said oh, my gosh, we went through three and a half years of prison camp and we're all going to be killed by a woman driver."
Long version IMO well worth reading
https://chinamarines.com/PeteGeorge/shanghai.html