Interview
Interview conducted on Monday, November 8,2004 from
10:OOarn to 1 1 :30am, buy Rachel Gardiner and Ruth Kovner.
SIDE ONE
Ruth Kovner: Alright. Hi Mr. Adams
Mr. Richard Adams: Good morning.
Kovner: Good morning. Well we're just gonna start. Have you ever - - Have you
experienced any events relating to the Red Scare before you went to war?
Adams: No, actually no. In fact I don't know the name [laughing], sorry, Red Scare. We -
- we, you know, we knew the communists were bad, we knew the - - the Russians were
out to expand their empire, but that was it.
Kovner: You didn't experience any - you didn't see anyone being harassed or anything
like that?
Adams: No, not at the university. I went to, you know, three universities before 1 get - I
got my BA so, an eastern university, University of Pennsylvania, University of New
Mexico, University of Kansas, eh nothing.
Kovner: OK
Adams: Yeah, I had a radical roommate, as a matter of a fact he was, he was, yeah, a
mad-dog radical, but it didn't matter.
Kovner: OK. What did you feel about it? Like, did you argue with him all the time?
Adams: No, we didn't argue much, we just, we just, had each other's answers on the
matter and that was it. That's that was fine, we just agreed to disagree.
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Kovner: OK. What were your political stances upon the Korean war, or any American
foreign policies during the time before you enlisted?
Adams: well, I sort of agreed that we must resist any militant communism. It's essentially
what it was.
Kovner: OK
Adams: So, after all, I was 16 when I went to college, 18 when I enlisted to the Marine
Corp [laughing] but on active duty - I didn't go on active duty until after a long time,
they kept sending me back, trying to get me - to get my degree.
Kovner: Oh
Adams: Yeah I was in a, actually I was in a - what they call a platoon, it was a class
[indecipherable].
Kovner: Right. How did those opinions influence, did you, did your opinions about the
war influence your enlistment? -Did you enlist because -
Adams: Why did I enlist?
Kovner: Yeah.
Adams: Korean invasion Erom the north. The north invaded the south. It was clear, there
was war on, and so I was out getting my first field experience in archeology and in South
Dakota way out on an Indian reservation with a project and - it was at June and - and we
got back and I enlisted in August so.. [chuckle]
Kovner: OK
Adams: I signed up.
Kovner: Why did you join the Marines?
Adams: To be with the professionals, I didn't wanna be with a bunch of amateurs.
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Kovner: Oh.
Adams: on the battlefield. [indecipherable].
Kovner: Right. So they were more, more - the marines were - are more professional than
other divisions?
Adams: well they - yeah, from what I saw of them and what I knew about them at that
time, you know, and so forth, it was pretty well, was confirmed when I got in. Very
professional.
Kovner: OK. What did your family (parents) think about your enlistment? - Did they
encourage/discourage it? [034]
Adams: They thought it was ok-
Kovner: They-
Adams: oh yeah.
Kovner: They thought it was ok?
Adams: Sure.
Kovner: So they didnyt-object--or-
Adams: No-you know what I mean-the draft goes on-I was either gonna go-I was
gonna go somewhere. So they sort of agreed that-you know, go with the pros.
Kovner: Um hm.
Adams: Better chance of getting back.
Kovner: Right. Were you scared or excited before going to boot camp?
Adams: Probably, excited. (laughs) Yeah, but I-I-you know, I'd heard enough from my
uncles, and other associates that were, you know, World War I1 types-to know that it
wasn't going to be fbn.
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Kovner: It wasn't?
Adams. No.
Kovner: Oh. (laughs) Ok. Alright.
Rachel Gardiner: Ok. Do you recall your first days in service?
Adams: Vividly, yes.
(laugh together)
Gardiner: What were they like?
Adams: You mean at the boot camp, or after I got out of basic training?
Gardiner: Whatever you remember.
Adams: Oh. Well, yes, right. We rolled in, first on a troop train, went fiom.. .Kansas city
to San Diego, and as we rolled in, in a big sort of bus, the guys who had finished boot
camp were coming out, you know, all dressed in uniform, all neat and spiffy and so forth,
and they all shouted, shouted at us, "You'll be sorry! (Gardiner laughs) You'll be sorry!"
And we already were sorry.
(laugh together)
Gardiner: Oh.
Adams: But San Diego is a nice place, if you go through boot camp, I mean if you have
to do it-'cause the other one is Paris Island, in South Carolina, where the east coast
types---[indecipherable] the country.
Gardiner: So what is-what is boot camp like?
Adams: Sixteen-
Gardiner: What was your experience with that?
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Adams: weeks of very tough training. What they're trying to do is break down all your
old, bad habits, military, and-beg your pardon, I mean civilian habits, and--and they
change your attitudes and so forth-they've got it--sixteen weeks to do it-and you don't
get out, an' you're locked in there for sixteen weeks. An' your drill instructors or a team
of-or, usually, it's something like a boot platoon of around seventy-five men. So. Then
you're continuing unendingly under, you know, under instruction.
Gardiner: Ok. While you were away, have you-have you-did you hear any-any news
of events occurring back at home?
Adams: Well, yeah, on active duty, when I got on active duty, eventually, (sigh). Right,
sure. And-but, you know, it wasn't terribly--of interest. Somehow or other, we were all,
wrapped up in--you know, what was going on around us, on the base, or in the unit.
You-you-you sort of become focused on the unit and what's possible and what's -
where it's going -what - what's gonna do, you know, what's the next thing.
Gardiner: Mm-hmm. Do you think if you've gotten bad news, it would have affected you?
Adams: like, death in the family or something, you know?
Gardiner: ah-ha.
Adams: Oh yeah, sure, but - sure. But, not that much., I mean, some guys just went to
pieces sometimes, you know, when they lost family member, so - for some reason, I was
not that way.
Gardiner: Did you political opinions change while you were in service?
Adams: Not really, no. No.
Gardiner: Pretty much the same throughout the whole period?
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Adams: Yeah, pretty much the same. Yeah, yeah. Most of it - I saw it reinforced, but I -
already. From experience, I've learned in the university and by that time I had a
[indecipherable] credited work in Mexico, and, you know [indecipherable].
Gardiner: Do you remember arriving to the first foreign county?
Adams: Oh yeah, we were on a troop ship, from San Diego out into project[?] Taiwan, it
was first, first place. God, horrible place. [indecipherable] harbor. I mean, it was, no one
ever heard of it, I'm sure, but it's just a [indecipherable] God, man [indecipherable] I
would stay at the base most of the time (laughing).
Kovner: What - what - In what way was it horrible?
Adams: Ah, it looked like, they looked like the worst kind of sleaze bag bar, and whore
house and, you know, and district that you - you can imagine, you know, it's just terrible,
and I - I was very depressed I must say.
Gardiner: Did you get to experience the city or talk to the natives at all the first time?
Adams: Eh - no, I mean, we- we were only there for a few hours and then we went off to
Japan.
Kovner: Oh
Adams: Japan was much nicer - much, much better. Yeah. There, yeah, there, eventually,
we were allowed eventually to get quickly out of station, we worked [indecipherable]
station.
Gardiner: So, were the countries you visited different or similar?
Adams: Quite different, actually it's -. Japan and Taiwan, of course, were very -very
oriental, very East Asian, [Indecipherable] islands were, strangely enough, more like
Latin America. I guess it's because of the long Spanish domination of the country, but.. .
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I guess it's Spanish colony for- nearly three hundred years, something like that. And, so
yeah it was quite different.
Gardiner: Uh - had -
Adams: Okinawa is still different. (Gardiner laughs) That's -that's strange too, because
it's so close to Japan, Japanese have dominated them and the Okinawans have resented it.
Gardiner: Have you ever been shot at?
Adams: Yeah. But they missed (laughing). Yeah
Gardiner: What was- when was that, and what was that like?
Adams: Well, Philippine Islands, we were in communist guerilla territory 20-40[?] miles
north of [indecipherable] field, which is in the island of Luzon. [indecipherable] some of
those mountains, and we have been warmed that there were [indecipherable] still fighting
the "Belahawk7'[?]- that's what they were calling themselves, and, so, we were warned
that there were some notorious assassin in the area, and, you know, we were concerned.
And I got 60 men - I was in charge of them, you know, for establishing radar site up there.
We had to maneuver. It's what they called a flick [?I maneuver, but actually, I, you know,
thinking back on it, I wonder if there's more - if it wasn't more than that, because they
moved 7th fleet in around the Philippines, they moved the first Marine division onto the
islands, they moved the first Marine Air Wing, which I was part of, onto the island as
well. Islands - Islands [indecipherable]. So, you know, we were there for six weeks.
Gardiner: OK. Is there any - when you were under fire was there anything specific you
though of,
Adams: Getting out of there. (laughing). Getting out from under fire. Yeah, we were
actually - what happened was, another officer and I, we had bens and dental[?] - a long
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day's work - and [indecipherable] sundown and we were taking off [indecipherable] to
report, because they called us in, we had a radio up there on the hill [?I, so, we had - we
were both supposed to go in so, we had a [???I carrier, way down at the bottom of this
alley and it got stuck in the mud and we were tying to get this thing up, but, and, we got
shot at a couple of times, a couple of bullets went over and miraculously we got that thing
out just almost instantly, I mean, motivation is wonderkl (laughing).
Gardiner: Did you life pass before your eyes?
Adams: Oh (laughing), no. No we brought our 45's out though and -
Gardiner: You had a gun too?
Adams: Oh yeah,,yeah, we had to. Yeah-we-we were all armed. All my men were, we
had, we were essentially still in those days armed the way the - the services have been
armed in World War 11, so we had Browning automatic rifles and and one Gerund semi-automatic
rifles and so forth. The officers-
Gardiner: Did you ever have to shoot at somebody?
Adams: Didn't see anybody to shoot at, pretty much.
Gardiner: What were America's reasons for their presence in each of the countries you
were in?
Adams: Well, in - obviously in Japan, you know, 'cause of World War 11, so we were an
occupation - we were not an occupation force - by that time it was over, but on the other
hand it was still, at that point then we were protecting Japan, Japan had no self defense -
they had little self defense force, but that was it, and of course the communists were very
aggressive, the Russians they - went across the sea and North Koreans and the Chinese
communists, I mean, they had this terrific bunch of, you know, very aggressive people up
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there, so were there essentially as part of the protection force. Marine Air Wing, when
they were in Japan handled the western ADIZ - is what they call it, Air Defense
Identification Zone - A D I Z - so, since I was a fighter director most of the time, that-that
was what I did.. . senior director -it was-it was actually senior controller in the - in
the Combat Air Operation Center -that's what they call it. Anyway, so, you know, we
were there for that. Okinawa - we just went down there for just another maneuver.
Philippine Islands - another maneuver. Philippine Islands we started to show the flag, I
think there it's those communist guerillas all over the islands. But, pretty quickly the
Philippinos themselves cleaned them up. We were already pretty well under-under the
gun at the time we went in.
Gardiner: OK. What is the Marine - what exactly is the Marine Air Wing?
Adams: Well, it's a group of- let me put it this way: the Marine Corp has established its
own air wing-wings, there's one to each division, and they're responsible for-the primary
mission is close air support, and Marine fliers are trained to ride down the deck and go in
and get the guys that are trying to advance - the division people - platoons, companies
and so forth - the infantry And then also and transport squadrons and other things and so
forth, so, essentially it's a support - air support for the divisions. The Marine Air has
renown for its close air support, they - I talked to a fellow who lives here at San Antonio
who was an old Marine flier, he said Hirojima, he said the navy, when they were coming
in, the guys would be up to 2,000 feet, you know and so forth, dropping their bombs and
so on, he said they weren't hitting anything they couldn't get down close they wouldn't
get down close enough to come in and hit the guys and, the Japanese artillery, there was -
they were in caves on mount Sarabachi[?], in which they were bombarding our bases and
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so forth. He said, they called in the marines, and they came down so low they took the -
he said - I don't know whether it's an exaggeration or not - but it took the barrels off the
jeeps.
Gardiner: (laughing) Woohoo. That must have been something to see.
Adams: Yeah, but I mean, you know, they came in they were - they were renown for that
in fact, they- in the Philippines they had several Marine squadrons in support of army
troops and the army complained literally once the - these marines squadrons were lifted
away, because, I mean, they were so much better than the air force in terns of the support
that they gave the troops.
Gardiner: What was your job in each of the countries you were in?
Adams: Well, my principal job was fighter director.. . we had radar that would detect
bogies - unidentified aircrafts out to three hundred feet -three hundred - what am I
saying - three hundred miles or so. And we could scramble our aircraft and direct them
onto the enemy aircraf? and so forth, so, that was essentially what I was doing. Then, I
was in charge of a group of 60 establishing the site in the Philippines [indecipherable] so
that's it - did lots of different things, but mostly I was fighter director.
Kovner: So you were directing the aerial fights? Is that correct?
Adams: No, actually my job was to direct the fighters to the bogy, and identification, and
then shoot him down if they were hostile aircrafts, and then also we provided
navigational systems to dead aircrafts - dead aircrafts didn't have much fuel actually, I
mean they used it up in a tremendous rate, by the time they get down to 1500 Ibs of fuel
they are at perilous state, so they only ad about another 15 to 20 minutes to go, and so in
dirty weather we would bring them down, we could- we could hand them off at quarter
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mile out on the airship at 500 feet above the ground in total fog, you know, and the GCA
would pick 'em up there - the Ground Control Approach would pick them up there and
bring them right on in. So, we were part of that as well. One day the editor of the
Meinichi Times - that was the largest English language newspaper in Japan - was coming
back in his private airplane - we didn't know this but - was coming back in his hot little
airplane from North Korea. They didn't file a flight plan, they didn't - they weren't
guarding the guard channel, I mean, you're supposed to always have the emergency
channel on, and no response, and after, you know, something like three minutes we were
supposed to, we had to do something, and [indecipherable] coming in at 300 knots, so, it
might be a fighter, might be an attack plane or - I don't know, it was coming in from - it
was coming from North Korea, so I scrambled two F100's out of [Zuki?] first, the first,
the way we did it was we put the fighters about 20 miles apart; first time we go in to
either identifying or not, but we tried to visually at that part, the second one we would
shoot it down if it was necessary. The guy behind was - already has rocket pots down and
out [indecipherable] and the radar was locked onto the bogy and fortunately the first
fellow got a visual on it and it turned out a Japanese commercial aircraft of course, the
second guy was ready to go (laughing) it could have become famous, I mean (laughing).
Gardiner: Oh dear.
Adams: Yeah
Gardiner: As a captain have you lost men under your command?
Adams: well, not really in a way, the - well we lost guys, but they were in planes that
were in trouble, we lost four men one night off the east coast of the United States - they
got into a thunder storm, and apparently ran into each other and went down. We lost
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eleven men once night off the coast of China - they went out and never came back, I
mean they weren't directly under our command, they were under our control, I mean,
technically, and so forth and so forth.
Gardiner: How did that affect you?
Adams: It's one of those things, I mean they could have shot me in the Philippines. When
your number's up, I mean - you go into the service, if you're gonna be in a combat
service - I talked to guys who were in World War 11, like Ted [???I, who were also in the
Korean War and-and most of them did this too, they just decided they're not gonna make
it, and after you think about that a while you just put it aside and forget it and after that
you can operate pretty well, when you're number's up it's up, that's it. (chuckle)
Kovner: How long did it take you to realize that at first you're not gonna make it?
Adams: Probably in boot camp.
Kovner: in boot camp already?
Adams: Oh yeah that's about, that's- that's probably where they, no, I think the guys
there would tell you enough, you know, and they're the Dl's- Drill Instructors- are
combat veterans usually, I mean, they - they're - they usually have a senior what they
call a Gunnery Sergeant, be a three up and two down and those guys were really tough.
They've seen everything. And, you know, they'll tell you the way it was. [indecipherable]
Gardiner: Tell us about your experiences in planning battles.
Adams: In planning battles. I just, you know, I was not an infantry officer, I was trained
as an infantry officer, but then they put me into fighter director thing.
Gardiner: What was that about? How did that work?
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Adams: Oh when we came out of basic school, you've got supposedly a choice, so I
asked for infantry overseas, West Coast Artillery and the third choice was Air Control
east coast, so guess what I got - Air Control, east coast. The third choice (chuckle).
That's where - you know you go with the Marine Corp needs you essentially. That's
what it is.
Gardiner: Did you feel pressure or stress?
Adams: Yeah. Yeah, sure, I mean when you're, you know, you've got some guys' life
riding in your hands in a sense, I mean, you try to direct them down from dirty weather or
something, rain.. .
Gardiner: Was it pretty much constant?
Adams: Yeah 'cause you sort of rehearse in your mind that, you know, your routine and
so forth and you gotta improvise, you know, in the end, that's a reason for routines is that
been - once you've done what you can, that way then you've got to figure out, you know,
if you've got a crisis situation on your hands you got- you got what's best for your
position. The same thing on the battle field.
Gardiner: Were you in regular correspondence with anyone back home?
Adams: Yeah, my wife. I wouldn't tell her much, but.. . (chuckle) you know, be glad.
Rent bicycles and go out in Japan, and just fortunately, we were in a certain country-side
area, and we could just ride our bikes around. And watch the farmers, you know, planting
and harvesting [indecipherable] make friends with the farmer- couple farming families,
and helping move the rice harvest. Not much, but we did.
Gardiner: And they speak English and everything?
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Adams: No, we picked up enough Japanese by that time, sort of make ourselves [???I I
mean, understood.
Gardiner: Were you the only one who did that?
Adams: Oh no, a lot of the guys did it at the base, so, we were on a 24-hour duty, you see,
so we were on sometimes 6 hours on 4 hours off, 6 hours on and then they would give
you a day off. So we had to go around the clock, and have continuous surveillance, you
see, and continual navigation aid, possibilities for anybody who's incoming, from Korea
or something, got in trouble, can't have it down, right? So, at any rate, so, then we just,
you know, so that was a nice thing about my work, although stressful on the other hand,
we did get time off, so we'd use that, those days to sit around and visit shrines, you know,
drive the train up to Eaglcoony[???], or I mean Hiroshima, you know, places like that.
Gardiner: Did you get to enjoy a lot of the culture?
Adams: Yeah we try to do, most of us tried to do that, I shouldn't say most of us, but a lot
of us were interested, tried to do it, and my roommate was a French Major - he had the
ambitions to go on and become a professor, you know, a university professor, but
unfortunately he was killed, so, but he and I used to go out a lot.
Kovner: When you say your roommate, do you mean your roommate form university that
cam with you?
Adams: No, no. That was another roommate.
Kovner: Oh
Adams: That guy was really off the wall. No, no, that was my roommate in Japan,
bachelor officers quarters of the HQ.
Gardiner: How did you stay in touch with your family?
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Adams: Writing.
Gardiner: From wherever you were? Did they allow you to tell them where you were?
Adams: Oh they knew where I was, you know, except for when we went off maneuvers,
at that point it was all closed down and so forth, being more or less peacetime, we got to,
you know, write back .
Gardiner: OK have you had any - did you have any contact with the local civilians
besides the rice-picking thing? The rice planting and how did the American troops
interact with them?
Adams: I think it went very well, actually, we were around navy - naval air stations there
were naval aviators as well, support groups now for ground crews in the wing itself, of
course, they were overwhelmingly marines, although we did have a bunch of crazy
Australians. They started coming - yeah Australian fighter squadron, that briefly was
there to see - - - the squadron, I mean the Air Wing it just got pulled back form Korea
and, you, know, out of there, and- so the Australians have been attached to the Wing
when the war was going on over there, and, but, anyway, we got along fine, as far as I
know, you know, we used to ride by preference, we'd ride third class in the trains and
almost inevitably there'd be some Japanese school teacher, or something, you know, with
a group of students off on a trip and come over and talk to us and try to exchange
information with us, and so on and so forth. And the Philippines and - got into a bad
accident [indecipherable] we were - we were on a hill and finally got a [???I there and
one day, about three days after we went up there, the - really small people, I mean like
four feet six or so -the Pigmies - [indecipherable] and they were all perfectly
proportioned. Small dark people, but - and then the regular Philippino, you know, who
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were small enough themselves, but you towered over them, and he was a translator, he
explained that this - this chief - this chief had about 8 men with him.. . had several men
with him at any rate, and, the translator explained that the chief was the head of about 8
villages around and he felt responsible for us, and since I've been putting out security
posts at night, you know, to protect our position, he wanted me to know that, you know,
beyond mine, about a hundred yards or so were his - he was putting his men out. "Relax
you're safe" (laughing). Right, 'cause, I mean, those guys were tough, they were the ones
that, you know, helped the Americans during World War I1 up in the hills there, they
used to go in and cut Japanese throats in the fields and so forth, you know, sneak in and
sneak out, and-
Gardiner: So they were armed with knives?
Adams: Oh yeah. Nice big ones. (chuckles). They gave me one, gave me a bow and
couple of arrows, you know, one for - he said: "this one is for shooting animals and this
one is for shooting people" (laughing). Right.
Gardiner: What did they look like?
Adams: I still got them at home, the one for- strangely enough - the one for shooting
animals and h i t bats - the h i t bats' wings spread about that big (showing with his
hands) I mean, it's scary.
Gardiner: About 5 feet?
Adams: Yeah, something like 4 feet, at any rate - 4 feet, you know, 4, 5 feet maybe.
Huge things apparently. But the ones- they were the most sinister-looking, 'cause they
were long and narrow, and they're serrated, the creation's coming back. The other ones
looked like - for shooting people - if they had to - or large animals actually [347] except -
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just looked like normal what we were familiar with as-as arrow heads, they were both
made of metal. So we got along with them very well.
Gardiner: Were they refined metals?
Adams: No, I think they had just scrounged the metal and used it, yeah, you know, that
place was littered with artillery shells and they used it - and they were feeding their pigs
out of old Japanese helmets over in the village - over in the villages, and I mean I, I've
never seen so much junk in my life, you know, we had a sort of scary incident where we
had to go buy a couple of unexploded 105's, you know, which were still lying there - it
was 12 years after the war.
Gardiner: Wow
Adams: Yeah. It was just junk all over the place, obviously there was something of a
skirmish there.
Kovner: Did -did you know about them before you came there?
Adams: I can't remember whether I did or not, I'd been an anthropology major of course
I - I may well have known that there were Pigmies in the villages, yeah. Small people.
Kovner: So, the question was were you afraid of them attacking you or anything like that?
Adams: Oh no, (chuckles)-
Kovner: Before you knew.
Adams: Of course it's - you know, I knew about them - I - no I know, I didn't know
about them from anthropology I knew about them from World War I1 because I knew
they had helped the Americans, you know, that escaped or either or evaded the Japanese
when they collapsed the place on the town. Yeah, they hid them out up there in the hills
with them.
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Kovner: OK.
Adams: The people on the road were very friendly in the Philippines, I mean, we got the
old World War I1 "v" sign (chuckle) kids would come up the road and you know and give
us the sign.
Kovner: What was-were the conditions of the natives when you arrived - were they
hungry or-?
Adams: They lived pretty well, you know, I mean, you know - traditional way of life in
these villages, and so forth, I mean, it's not-not what we would prefer, but on the other
hand it certainly didn't seem to be any impoverished, you know, they had corn - not corn,
probably not corn, they had rice patties, they had sugar plantations, they had plenty of
honey it looked like and nobody I saw looked malnourished. No, I think that's it.
Kovner: OK.
Adams: The Americans, of course, at Eckheart field the air force provide a lot of work for
them there.
Kovner: Right. So, even in other places you- have you seen any starvation in the local
people, or any other-
Adams: I take back, yeah, the only place I saw people that looked like they were
malnourished was in Taiwan in that horrible port. But then you know we probably were,
in -you know, the lowest of the low places there.
Kovner: Did any of the natives fight alongside the American troops?
Adams: No, we didn't have that experience at this point, but -yes, I mean, sure, the [???I
-that's what they called themselves, and they were called in the Philippines, and then
also the Filipinos, of course, had fought against the Japanese and then the people who-
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these people were against the communists as well, I mean they were against these
communist guerillas - they looked upon them as outsiders.
Kovner: Right. But did they fight separately, or did they fight with the Americans like did
they have any-
Adams: Well, at that time, see, we didn't have any hope, well, in World War 11, of course,
they were fighting alongside the Americans, yeah, and they had Filipino scouts in the -,
as I understand it, in the army groups and so forth. The Americans didn't have anything
in the Philippines in World War I1 except the Air Wing units, and then in the other areas
we had lots of - - they were resisting [indecipherable].
Kovner: How did the climate affect the combat? Was it bad or OK or-
Adams: Well, in the Philippines I imagine it was pretty rough it was terrible because it
was a tropical climate, and . . . In Korea according to the vets there, the guys that came
back from it was pouring out there, they said it was rather a h 1 during winter time
because it was terribly cold, of course, it was not too far from Siberia.
Kovner: So you haven't experience any -
Adams: No, I didn't get in any-any formal combat, no, I mean, formal battles, no.
Kovner: OK. How did the presence of American troops affect the natives' way of life?
Did it affect it in any way?
Adams: Yeah, yeah, the natives being [indecipherable] was-is usually provided medical
services to everybody they could reach, and I mean, they just send out just like teams and
so forth, that didn't happen in Japan, but certainly did happen in the Philippines it was
temporary as short a time as we were there, I noticed that we were helping guys out, we -
the chief asked me if we had any extra rations so, you know, it turned out we had a lot of
MS 315. Veterans History Project Adams
them so at the end of - before we pulled then I sent out I sent six by-- a big trucks full of
rations and guys unloaded them, in the village.
Kovner: Did the natives' culture affect the soldiers in any way? Did you participate in
any traditional ceremonies or anything like that?
Adams: Only in Japan, we would go to a tea ceremony or something like that. And, but,
Japan was a very sophisticated place - unless we were fighting them and then they were
barbaric (laughing).
Kovner: Was there any conflict with any of the civilians? Were there any cultural clashes?
Anything you did that they didn't like or anything they did that you didn't like? In terms
of cultural, you know.
Adams: No, not really, not that I can recall they were very accommodating, they - the
men - the older men that we talked to about in Japan who experienced World War I1 all
said that it was a terrible mistake to go to war, etc. etc. It's quite different from now -
from the attitude now. These guys they said, you know, I mean, the leadership was
terribly mistaken, you know, to take on the United Sates and I mean look how we paid
for it, you know - burned down sixty cities, you know between us, most people don't
even realize that in one night alone they killed over 100,000 people in Tokyo, in fire
raids- they really, really suffered. On the other hand they - Chinese, Filipinos, all sorts of
other people suffered as well. The death rate in their prison camps was something along
30 or some odd percent where it was something like 8 percent in our prison camps, which
is more of a normal rate especially given- when guys were wounded or had malaria or
something and so forth.
MS 315. Veterans History Project Adams
Kovner: Are there any other distinctive or important memories that you would like to
share - that you remember?
Adams: Oh, I just - not very - can't say I enjoyed my service, and in a normal sense, but
on the other had it was an extraordinary thing, I mean I learned as much in four year in
the Marine Corp as I had in the University, I mean - and it certainly did focus me on what
I wanted to do, I mean I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the rest of my life when I
got out - not very surprised, and so forth, so, there was no question about it and it did that
for a lot of people I think, sort of, I didn't make a career of it, I briefly thought about
making a career out of it, but then I decided I wanted to do archeology, I rather dig ruins
than fox holes (laughing)
Kovner: Right. Did you have plenty of supplies, did you have any moments where you
had trouble getting supplies: food or clothes?
Adams: No, not really, no, we were well supplied, on the field there, you know the
Marines have the tradition - in the field the enlisted men eat first, then the officer.
Kovner: Oh really?
Adams: Yeah, and the most junior enlisted men would eat first and then the most senior
non-combs and then the most junior officers eat first and then the most senior officers last.
Kovner: Why did they do that?
Adams: I think it's to keep humility in the ranks - it works pretty well. After all, the guys
that were ahead of you in the line were guys you were dependent on.
Gardiner: Did it instill a sense of respect in the enlisted men?
Adams: Yeah, I think so, yeah. I mean after all, the colonel said: "Come on! Come on
lieutenant" or - or - sure.
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Kovner: Did you or anyone that you knew do anything special for "good luck? Like
doing something as a charm?
Adams: Most of us were traditional Christians I think, yeah. You know, not that we
attended services so much, but it's just [indecipherable]
Kovner: Well then, were there moments that anyone prayed during combat or during
some stressful situation?
Adams: Stressfbl situation - yeah, sure I always prayed a lot. I - it was mainly silent
prayers and so forth. Yeah once in a while I would go to church services and
[indecipherable] Episcopalian and so once in a while they would have a priest come
around, Catholic padres, always-didn't hesitate to give us mass either even if we weren't
Catholic - so that was a great thing, some you know, in fact, they had a couple of Jewish
chapels, they- they were perfectly willing to do Christian services for us. It was
wonderfbl, I mean, you know, no-no distinctions there, so yeah.
Kovner: What did you do-
Adams: In fact -- I'm sorry, I was thinking - I thought of something - rabbi Jacobson who
you probably know of, he was for a long time rabbi of Israel I think it was - wasn't it?
Yeah I believe. At any rate, he was a member of the club he's now dead - he's deceased,
but - he said that when he was a chaplain- he was - that, you know, it didn't matter who
he was dealing with, you know, he just made himself - adjusted himself to whatever -
especially if the guy was wounded, so.
Kovner: What did you do whenever you were on leave?
Adams: Actually, tried to see more of Japan, well, I take it back - yeah, more of Japan,
we went up to Kyoto and stayed in Japanese guest houses and by that time our Japanese,
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my roommate, and my Japanese - was good enough to get a punch in the nose or a glass
of water, you know, and - and looked at soap making, for example, up there, and then
visited the traditional shrines in Kyoto, and did a number of things and then one leave I
went down to Hong Kong, because the Wing had flights going down there, if you stayed
over, if you were over 6 or 8 months something like that, then you got to go if they had a
room on a plane that was going that way anyway, so, I took advantage of that and went
down for that week to Hong Kong. Yeah, yeah, yeah that was something special, yeah,
now there - I liked Hong Kong, the Brits were still in charge of it though - (chuckle) still
British colony in those days. Although it was very Chinese.
Kovner: What did you think of officers or fellow soldiers? Did you feel like friends with
them or did you look up to some or did they look up to you?
Adams: Oh yeah, I mean, you know, you're just get well adjusted to each other, you
know, you're dependent upon one another, some of the guys were fliers, they were, you
know, they were not only patrollers, but they were also naval aviators, so they - they you
know, would go up, some of them take the - some of them feel lucky, some of them are
transport planes, take us up, you know, they-they get their - they had to get - I think it
was about 5 hours a month of flying time to maintain their wings and so forth, maintain
their flight pay as well, so, you know, then we'd go skipping around the in-land sea,
looking at various islands and taking pictures and all that sort of thing, you know, so we -
we did things like that, we go up to the old club and get a couple of drinks and, you know,
or discuss, you know, the latest mess-up and, you know, whatever it was, or hnny stories.
And the inspector general came in from Washington and one of my friends was the
maintenance officer for the Wing, first lieutenant, I believe, you know, he had charge of
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all those things - he had - one of those hangers was sorta stuffed full of old World War I1
type aircrafts sorta worn out, they put them in there, but they were cannibalizing them,
gradually, you know, for-
END OF SIDE ONE
SIDE TWO
Adams: We had Japanese employees working on the base, of course, maintenance people,
a lot of 'em, carpenters and so forth, and so the Inspector General, who was a general
officer, and, you know, he had staff with him and so forth-and so he was going through
over things, and he looked over in this hangar and said 'Oh gosh! I used to fly one of
those in during World War 11. Let me take a look at it!' so he goes over, opens the door,
and here's this apartment that this Japanese carpenter has created inside (chuckling) this
thing, unknown to my friend, who was the maintenance officer, and everybody was just
astounded, you know! (laughing) The Japanese carpenter, of course, would be-was
living there, on the base, and nobody knew it! You know, he'd been living there for two
years, inside that aircraft, and, you know, it was a beautiful apartment!
Gardiner: Wow! (everyone laughing)
Adams: So, yeah, things like that.
Gardiner: Did the officer look really astonished?
Adams: (laughing) Yeah, everybody was astonished, I think! (laughing) My friend did
not suffer, however; I think the-the IG thought it was funny-as funny as anybody else.
So, no, we all got along, you know, pretty well. A few clashes, personality clashes, that
sort of thing, but, by and large, it's not-not a big thing. You just have to--you know,
you have t e y o u depend upon one another, sometimes you depend on each other for life
MS 315. Veterans History Project Adams
25
and death stuff. Especially if they're up there flying around in a fighter plane, and you're
down controlling 'em, (chuckle) you know.
Kovner: Right. Wow. Did you make any special friends or enemies? Something-someone
you really hated, or someone you really (Adams starts answering over the
remainder of the question) felt close to?
Adams: No one I really hated, but, yeah, some friends, yeah. Unfortunately a couple of
them have died, several of them died. Mostly age, although the other-my-my
roommate was killed in an air crash, about three years after he got out of the service. It
wasn't service related, it was strictly, just an unlucky air crash.
Gardiner starts to ask a question-Sorry.
Adams: No, it's alright, no, I-no, 1-1 tell you, though, every marine story relates to
every other marine in some way, and so-even though you may not have served with
somebody, if you find out that somebody else has been in the marine corps then you,
usually find out where they've been, and usually you overlap-the Corps is-is fairly
small, you know, compared to the navy or the army, air force-yeah, so-you almost
know somebody who-almost always know somebody who the other guy knows-in
other words, you know, cross-cutting friendships.
Kovner: How was the war you were involved in different from others? (wars)
Adams: Well, it wasn't really a war-it was the Cold War-you know, and Communists,
insurgencies, and militants, all that sort of thing-terrorists. I don't know, it looks like
what we're doing now is more like that.
Kovner: Right.
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Adams: 'Cause, you know, occasionally things will break out-like the Coup
[Indecipherable] insurgency in the Philippines. You have to deal with it, you know.
Kovner: Right. (aside to Gardiner) I'm just going to ask this. (to Adams) Do you recall
the day your service ended?
Adams: Oh yeah!
Kovner: (laughing) Were you really happy-about it?
Adams: Yes, 'cause I was going to see my wife for the first time in fourteen months,
(laughing) for one thing, but we got back to.. .gosh, after a grueling flight, we landed on
Mid-way Island, and we'd taken down a,. . gooney bird into our air-air intake, engine, so
we thought we were going to be stuck there for about three days, but fortunately, we
cleaned the gooney bird out and he--and then, we were able to take off, and so on. At
any rate, we got to San Francisco, and, you know, the officer, the captain, that sort of
finished processing me out said, you know, "ok, that's it." you know, and stood up, shook
my hand, see you - said "see you next war" (laughing) And - 'cause I was being
transferred to the reserves, of course, so, and sure enough about 4 years later I saw him,
of all places in the back woods in the- in Guatemala, in the jungle, and 1 was, as a matter
of fact, at that site right there (points to a picture on the wall), which is way out in the
[indecipherable] boondocks there out in the jungle, and they were training for the "Bay of
Pigs" thing, in Guatemala, up the river, we heard about them, but they kept their own -
kept their distance. One day they came down and - couple of guys came down in a real
speedy boat - motor boat, we just had dugouts with 18 horse power engines on them, and
they had this super thing, and they had come zipping down the river and so forth and both
of them, both the guys in the boat had, you know, Marine fatigues - trousers on, but only
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T-shirts, no indication of military clearance or rank or anything of the sort, obviously
they were officers. And I looked at this guy as he came up the bank from the river and he
looked at me and he said (laughing) and so we recognized one another. They - they, what
they had done - one of the reasons, really, they had done this is come down - it was 3
hour trip for them -to check us out and see if we were legitimate. In other words are we
some communist outpost that's monitoring things, you know, up the river, and so forth.
Well it turned out, I mean, after all, there I was, and then my roommate at the- in the
camp actually had been the assistant navigation officer on the Benington, which was an
aircraft carrier in the Korean War and Legard who was the older fellow there in the
pictures was a special agent for the FBI in Guatemala for - during World War I1
(laughing), you know, so we all just sat down and I showed them around the ruins and
then we all sat down and had a couple of beers, reminisced, and that was it.
Gardiner: Did someone meet you at the port when you came home?
Adams: No, I didn't know where we were going to wind up, but - whether we were
going to wind up in San Diego or San Francisco. It was sorta dependant upon which -
what aircraft - aircraft space was available, after all we were off-duty and so, you know,
nothing urgent about our- and so forth, so, you know, since we're - I was - I arranged to
meet my wife in Santa Fe.
Gardiner: Did you feel like a hero?
Adams: No. (laughing) No, no, no.
Gardiner: Did anyone else see you as a hero or maybe even something negative?
Adams: Did 1 look at somebody else as a hero?
Gardiner: No, did someone - did anybody else see you as a hero.
MS 315. Veterans History Project Adams
Adams: My god, no.
Gardiner: Were you psychologically exhausted?
Adams: Not really. Took me a while to readjust to civilian life though, I must say. Here I
had 60 men's lives on my hands a half-a-million dollars worth of equipment - in those
days, that was a lot of money. Checked out from the Air Force in the Philippines and so
forth and you know and they hardly would - when I went into - briefly - into business
they'd hardly allow me to, you know, trust me to check out two pencils. The accountants
you know, in this firm I worked for. So, it was-it was tough, you know, 'cause we had all
been entrusted with a lot of responsibility and, you know, some life and death situations.
So I think- and I talked to some other people after the war about that and so they said
"yeah" it was a problem for them too.
Gardiner: Did you stay in contact with any of your fellow soldiers?
Adams: Marines, yeah. Sure. Yeah my old company commander, as a matter of fact, here
- there's a reserve outfit downtown, which was 16'~in fantry battalion and I was - I got
into that 'cause I was already - you know, I was in reserve, so I needed to be in an active
unit. So, you know, I -there was a fellow there that I had known before, and so he turned
out to be my company commander - I was in charge of the machinegun platoon, and did
some maneuvers afterwards. But no - at this - oh yeah, after - after the, sure yeah. I- I,
you know, I kept writing to friends, so - couple of particularly close friends, and so forth
- we kept in touch for a while. They're both dead now.
Kovner: Was your education supported by the GI Bill?
Adams: the PhD was, but that means - not a lot (laughing). Let me put it this way, they
paid a certain amount towards your tuition - I take it back. They paid my tuition - that
MS 315. Veterans History Project Adams
was very good because I was in Haward, and but then the support was about 360 a month
- so we were married, we- rent was 280 dollars a month out in Quartertown, and so, you
know, my wife took a job as a secretary, in the department of statistics, would you
believe at Harvard? And I shelved books in the Peabody museum library for extra money,
and so that's the way we got through.
Kovner: How- how- how did the war influence your studies? Did it influence you in any
way?
Adams: Yeah I- well- Right. I found myself much more disciplined than most of the guys
who were in the graduate program who had never been in the military, but on the other
hand a lot of the people had been in the military, but none of them had been in the
Marines so, which I found was quite different than - it had affected me much more
strongly than their service had affected them, but practically speaking, later on in life,
when I was organizing projects, you know, 45 workers and 15 staff, and trying to move
everybody a 100 kilometers up into the jungle and establish a camp, and water filtration,
etc. etc. etc.. Then, the logistics, the logistical planning that I - courses that I had taken in
the Marine Corp - it helped a lot.
Kovner: What did you go on to do as a career after the war?
Adams: Oh- well, at first I tried business 'cause I was- I was a little disoriented when I
came out - didn't know where- actually, I take it back, no, no- immediately we went
from- my wife and I went down to Tikal, 'cause an old friend of mine who, at the
University of Pennsylvania, said at the beginning of Tikal is the greatest site in the Maya
lowlands, see. And, T I K A L. And so, you know, "Come on", and so, sure enough when
we went down, she went to the lab and worked with me in the field as well, we were
MS 315. Veterans History Project Adams
there for 8 months - something like that, 8. And then I got a little disillusioned, quite
disillusioned with field archeology, mainly because of the director, not my friend and the
way he operated and so forth, so, hey, shoot, if this was going to be my archeology, I
don't wanna have any part in it. So I tried business for about a year, then decided, well,
you know, since- thinking, you know - talking to a couple of other people, 1 decided -
well I you know, I can live with this stuff and it's better to do something you really like
and, you know, maybe pay the cost of having to be associated with some unpleasant
people, but, so, so, you know, I went on to Harvard and got a PhD. Been in my
archeology ever since.
Kovner: Alright, so, yeah. And you said that while in service you, you felt like that's the
thing that you wanna do - archeology, right?
Adams: Well that's' what I had in mind if I got out - after I got through, sure.
Kovner: Right.
Adams: Yeah, but I mean, I- I, you know, I briefly toyed with the idea of staying in
service as well - made a lot of sense in many aspects.
Kovner: Did you join any veterans' organizations?
Adams: Yeah, I belong to the First Marine Division Association, which is also, of course
my Air Wing and it's - so I belong to that, I think our birthday luncheon is coming up on
the loth of November here, so we all get in San Antonio, just get together for lunch.
Belong to the American Legion.
Kovner: What do you do in those kind of meetings?
Adams: The Marine Corp birthday luncheon, we just reminisce and get a talk form the
local - usually it's a major or a lieutenant-colonel that are in charge of the regular officers,
MS 315. Veterans History Project Adams
in charge of the reserve units here-local so they tell us roughly what's going on and then
reads a message - a brief message from commandant, and, you know, that's about it. And
in the American Legion, I don't do much.. .
Kovner: Did your military experience influence your thinking of your- thinking about
war or about the military in general?
Adam: Oh yeah, sure. In reality, sure.
Kovner: Right, so, how is it different from before you joined? Your opinion on-
Adams: Well, I mean, you know, I already thought the war was disastrous kind of
endeavor, in many ways, and actually many of the gunning sergeants, and actually an old
Marine general who became a good friend after- or actually during- after my service. He
came sort of an aficionado of archeology, you know, all said, you know, you know, war
is a horrible experience, but if you had to do it and you sometimes have to do it, I mean,
you know, you must - you must go at it in such a way that you win, and win quickly, and
at the - you know, and minimize the cost, to both to yourself and the innocents on both
sides, so, that's something I agree with - it's sort of deep in my- just sort of- you know,
became more sophisticated, I suppose, when I was in the service.
Kovner: How did your service and experiences affect your life?
Adams: Yeah, well, still self disciplined, focused me, cleared me what I was good for and
not good for, certainly wasn't fitted for, you know, in the Marin Corp officers picking on
you (laughing), you know, so that was one of the reasons why archeology appealed to me
so I could get out, you know, at least part of the time, and, you know, yeah. In the jungle,
you know, and also the intellectual stimulation.
Kovner: So, was it hard for you to readjust to civilian life?
MS 315. Veterans History Project Adams
Adams: Yeah - that was- that was part of the problem, just simply because seemed like
your, you know, your all this responsibility- all these lives, all these - all this equipment
and so forth, you know you're hardly be trusted with a pencil sharpener.
Kovner: Right.
Adams: And by people who haven't done nearly as much as you have. In some ways. I
mean, you don't wanna say that out loud, but that was part of it, yeah.
Gardiner: Thinking back, did you agree with the President's decisions?
Adams: When? Now? Yeah.
Gardiner: No, during that era.
Adams: Harry Truman?
Gardiner: Yes.
Adams: Yeah, yeah, I wish he hadn't let somebody say that Korea was out of our sphere
of influence, though. Because that's what, you know, now everybody agrees allowed the
North Koreans and the Russians to push- to go ahead and try to take over South Korea.
So, then we had to pick up the pieces.
Gardiner: Have recent events changed your opinions?
Adams: We should have gone on and knocked off South- North Korea. (laughing)
McArthur - I didn't- I don't agree with him very much of anything he said, but I certainly
agreed with him on that one.
Gardiner: Do you think a different President would have handled it better?
Adams: (thinking for a long time) Yeah, but it would have had to be someone who's -
who could handle McArthur. [indecipherable].
Gardiner: Have any of your children or grandchildren ever asked you about the war?
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Adams: yeah, my son, sometimes.
Gardiner: What did you tell them?
Adams: Just what I told you - some of the things. Mainly what I tell him is anecdotes
[indecipherable]
Gardiner: Have you had any nightmares about the war?
Adams: No.
Gardiner: Did you learn anything that you want to pass on?
Adams: It's sort of cliche, it's an unfortunate thing, but war is sometimes necessary, it
seems like there's always some nitwit out there, you know, first it used to be a sword,
now it's a nuclear weapon. And trying to dominate other people, you know, I don't think
it's gonna change.
Gardiner: Well, thank you for agreeing to do this interview with us and I know it would
probably be very helpful to hture historians - it's been very interesting.
Adams: Oh thanks.
Gardiner: We've learned a lot.
Adams: Oh, thanks, I don't think I did much and I don't think it as very, terribly
illuminating, but at any rate. Here are a few notes, by the way.
Gardiner: Thank you, thank you very much.
Adams: Sure. They may be indecipherable.
Gardiner: Thank you very much
Adams: OK sure you're welcome
MS 315. Veterans History Project Adams