Adams, Calvin "Cal", TSgt

TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE, WHAT INFLUENCED HIS/HER DECISION TO JOIN THE MARINE CORPS?
I attended grade school, Junior and Senior High in Hot Springs Arkansas. During my years of school, I had always dreamed of being a United States Marine and read all I could about them. I was determined to join and be a career Marine. The requirements were where you had to have a High School diploma and be at least 18 years old. Consequently, I talked to my Mother and Dad to let me join and on March 4, 1941, a day after my eighteenth birthday, Dad Adams took me on the train to Little Rock, Arkansas, where I signed the oath and passed a preliminary doctor's physical and was sworn in officially in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma with some other recruits on March 6, 1941. We were then all put on a train to the recruit depot in San Diego, California.

TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE, PLEASE DESCRIBE THE DIRECTION OR PATH HE/SHE TOOK IN HIS/HER MILITARY SERVICE. WHERE DID THEY GO TO BOOT CAMP AND WHAT UNITS, BASES, SHIPS OR SQUADRONS WERE THEY ASSIGNED TO? WHAT WAS HIS/HER REASON FOR LEAVING?
March - June 1941: Bootcamp at San Diego. Qualified Sharpshooter with the Garand Rifle and Marksman with the 45 calibur pistol. After Graduation from Boot Camp, assigned to the 1st Guard battalion.

June - December 7, 1941: Guard duty for various Admirals and officers, sensitive areas of San Diego Marine Base, downtown San Diego, etc.

December 7, 1941: I was on liberty at Point Loma near a beach when word arrived that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

December, 1941- August, 1942: Guard duty defending against sabotage at various port facilities on the West Coast . I was at the docks patrolling when the the ship carrying troops and equipment to Tarawa shoved off, which later lost most of their men in the fighting.

Jan. 10, 1942: Promoted to Corporal.

June, 1942: Transferred to a tent city at Camp Kearney, California, which later became Camp Pendleton, where we awaited a ship to take us overseas. While there, we continued guard details and funeral honor guard duties. This camp also had an air strip which assembled pilot crews and aircraft to follow us later on other ships.

July 8, 1942: I was promoted to Sergeant

August, 1942: Boarded the troopship USS President Monroe for destination unknown. Two weeks later, arrived at the beautiful island of Pago Pago where we stayed a little while until departing and heading South.

September, 1942: Arrived at Noumea, New Caledonia, with the armada where I was asigned to the First Marine Air Wing, Marine Air Group 14 (MAG-14) and given the MOS of Aviation Armorer. We would be servicing aircraft, clearing, loading and all duties to take care of the armament of any fighter or bomber craft that might need it. From Noumea, our Navy and Marine Air Forces were bombing Guadalcanal, daily, to soften them up and drive the Japanese off of the air strip they had been constructing, so we could take over. On Noumea, I found an area secluded with trees and bushes and found a log to sit on and thought I should pray. I asked for guidance and God to please not let me be a coward. I think that right there, I must have been assigned a guardian angel as from that moment on, I was saved from death so many times and seemed to have a charmed life, even when I did some very stupid things.

October 9, 1942: Loaded onto the cargo ship USS Zielin for Guadalcanal.

October 11, 1942: 9:00am. Arrived at Guadalcanal and Tulagi.

October 1942 - December 1942: Fought the Japanese on Guadalcanal until the end of hostilites.

December 25, 1942: Promoted to Staff Sergeant

April 4, 1943 - Army replacements arrived and we departed Guadalcanal for R&R to Auckland, New Zealand.

April 16, 1943: USS Crescent City delivered us to Auckland, New Zealand.where I suffered a severe attack of Malaria and had to go to the hospital for treatment and recuperation.

August 25, 1943: We were delivered back to Guadalcanal on the ship, USS American Legion to await moving on up to another island and its' battles. We killed time exploring Guadalcanal until then.

October 7, 1943: We were picked up by a landing craft LCI #66 and transported to Ondongo. A small island in the new Georgia Group of the Solomon Islands. This island had and airstrip where we worked servicing the needs of the fighters of the squadron participating in the Battle of Munda.

December 24, 1943: After a little more than three months at this place, on Christmas Eve, someone came running into our camp area from Headquarters to tell us there was a list posted there with names of any men that might be sent home. I think the entire camp must have run up to see. A list of forty was posted and A.C. Adams was the first name posted there. The Sergeant major came out and told us that there were two cargo planes arriving and we had only an hour to collect out gear and personal effects and meet the plane. I can tell you that it only took me about ten minutes to cram my worn out uniforms and other stuff in my seabag and meet the plane. There were twenty of us on each plane with only a pilot and copilot for crew. the pilot told us he was to deliver us to the New Hebrides where we would wait to catch a ship home to good old USA. What a Christmas present! Our trip, however, was saddened because about halfway over, we noticed that our second plane seemed to be losing altitude. We could see them through the windows. Then we observed them open their side hatch door and begin frantically dumping out seabags, cargo, etc., because one engine was dead and they were trying to lighten the load so the remaining engine could keep them up. It was all to no avail because, in about five minutes, we we could see the plane hit the water. What an awful thing to see! twenty two persons lost like this, especially it being Christmas and on our way home after going through so much. Our pilot said that he was not allowed to use the radio to notify anyone of the crash, as the Japs would hear the message and come out to shoot us down. Supper, that evening was not as joyful as we had started out.

January 12, 1944: Boarded the USS Luraline for home.

January 19, 1944: The greatest day of my life as we sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge and I looked up to see the underside of this magnificent structure and San francisco there before me.

February 1944: Began survival classes for preparations for new battles in the Pacific. Also took IQ tests for placement based upon aptitude. My IQ was determined to be 139 which helped me to be put on assignment to be transferred to the Norden Bomb Site and Bombardier school at Jacksonville, Florida Naval Air Station.

April - June 1944: Bomb school went by quickly.

June, 1944: Transferred to Marine Air Group 62 (MAG-62) at Cherry Point, North Carolina.

October 17, 1944: Assigned to PTS 813 as armorer to aircraft

March 15, 1945: Assigned to MOTS 81 as armorer to aircraft. My first flying was on B-25 Bombers and I flew many days, eight hours each as a bombardier instructor to over Cape Hatteras, for in air gunnery practice.

July, 1945: Promoted to Tech Sergeant and given charge of fifty B-25 aircraft which I had to get ready for transfer to Guam for use in a final push on the Japanese home front.

August 1945: Received word that a big bomb was dropped on Japan and the Japanese surrendered.

Septemeber 21, 1945: They turned me loose having served four years six months and fifteen days. I was a free man.

IF HE/SHE PARTICIPATED IN ANY MILITARY OPERATIONS, INCLUDING COMBAT, HUMANITARIAN AND PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS, TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE, PLEASE DESCRIBE THOSE YOU FEEL WERE THE MOST SIGNIFICANT TO HIM/HER AND, IF LIFE-CHANGING, IN WHAT WAY.
Yes. I fought against the Japanese in the Island Hopping campaign in the Pacific. I have four battle stars on my Asiatic-Pacific Campaign medal indicating that I participated in five battles in the Solomon Islands on Guadalcanal in 1942. In April of 1943 I left Guadalcanal for Aukland, New Zealand to be treated for Malaria and recovered in time to join my unit in the New Georgia Islands in the Battle for Munda in 1943.

Each night, generally after midnight, a single enemy plane would fly over to harass us and drop explosives to keep us awake. We named him "Washing Machine Charlie", as his engine was very loud and sounded like an old time washing machine. Each afternoon we were fired on by some large cannon that was located in the hill behind and above the jungle. he was referred to as "Millimeter Mike", because our planes would fly up to see where he was located, but each time, they could not see where he was. Later, my friends in the "Carlson's Raiders" climbed the mountain behind and found that he had a 70 millimeter cannon mounted on a track that led from the mouth of the cave. He would fire several shots and pull back into the camoflaged cave. When our Raiders finally got him, they found it was a German operating with a Japanese crew. A couple of explosive charges from the Raider boys put him out of action.

On October 13, we were warned by our Command Post at Cactus Post next to the air field that our radio operators in deep dugouts had been warned by an advanced Australian spotter, up in the north jungles of Guadalcanal near the coast, that the Japanese Navy of, at least, fifty ships were on their way down the slot to wipe us off the island that night. Just after dark, they arrived with an aircraft carrier, several battleships, destroyers and who knows what else and began firing across the island. We, of course, were all huddled in any air raid bunkers we could find. These were made of old bomb craters that were covered with palm logs and much dirt, heaped on top with just a small entrance facing away from the oceanside. What a terrible night, until daylight when they finally pulled out to head back north. Shells and shots from big guns like this skimmed across the ground with such a terrible noise, cutting down everything in its' path. A terrific number of coconut trees were blown down and away that night.

The morning after, we picked up the damage and began our operations as our planes arrived to get ready for our assault of retaliation and we worked the next seventy two hours without rest to keep our aircraft ready for their retaliatory raids. On the sixth day, we were finally allowed to return to our camp to recoup, sleep and rest. The First Division Marine Air Wing was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation from Navy Secretary Knox, for this action, which was labeled as "Above and beyond the call of duty".

After this, the following days and nights mirrored the past days. On mornings when we had to go to the beach to move our bombs to their safe cover under the palms, we could see the evidence of this terrible aftermath and, many times, the beach would be covered with dead Japanese bodies. Occassionally these would include one of our own who had washed in from a sinking ship. We had burial patrols that would go out each morning to retreive our dead. They were generally buried in a gravesite, later, to be sent home when possible. The Japanese bodies were generally left to wash back out to sea and they decayed quickly in the heat and humidity which would speed the process...as well as sharks. Also, inland, where Japanese had fallen, many times, they were bulldozed into mass graves by us. Individuals who fell in the jungle were bleachedout to white bones, as the soldier ants would devour all flesh in a matter of two weeks, so it was not a startling sight to find skulls and bones everywhere. The Japs did not bother to retreive or bury their own. I had always been a tender-hearted person, but soon learned to not let this bother me. How war changes a person's outlook. To us, there were no more than so many items that you could bother to be concerned with.

OF ALL THEIR DUTY STATIONS OR ASSIGNMENTS, ARE YOU AWARE OF ANY HE/SHE HAD FONDEST MEMORIES OF AND WHY? WHICH WAS THEIR LEAST FAVORITE?
Understandably, January 19, 1945 was the best day of my life as I was returning from Guadalcanal aboard ship and came in view of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco.

FROM THEIR ENTIRE MILITARY SERVICE, DESCRIBE ANY PERSONAL MEMORIES, YOU MAY BE AWARE OF, WHICH IMPACTED HIM/HER THE MOST.
Guadalcanal, while a tough and dangerous assignment, gives me the most pride as the stakes were so high for, not only us Marines, but for the United states and the entire war effort. Had we failed, or been pushed back into the ocean, it would have been a tremendous blow, moral wise to Americans back home . As it was, our defeat of the Japanese halted their forward momentum in the Pacific, depriving them of a forward airfield with which to attack from, dispelled the belief that they were invincible and instilled in the Japanese that Americans could and would fight just as fanatically as they and boosted the moral of Americans back home during a time when, up until then, Allied forces had suffered nothing but defeat at the hands of the Japanese, particularly at Pearl Harbor and the Philipines. I had many memorable experiences, many close calls, made alot of friends and lost alot of friends who remain, forever young in my memory. Sometimes I wonder why I survived while so many outstanding young men didn't.

WHAT PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS DO YOU BELIEVE HE/SHE WAS MOST PROUD OF FROM HIS/HER MILITARY SERVICE?
I didn't receive any medals for valor, in particular, but every Marine who fought on Guadalcanal in 1942 could not escape the danger or avoid combat. Everyone fought for his and his fellow Marine's life. Because of our efforts, the Marines on Guadalcanal received two Presidential Unit Citations for turning back the Japanese. I have often been called a hero but my answer to that is, I didn't do anything any other Marine would not have done under the same circumstances. The real heros are still there, having paid the ultimate price. As for me, I was very lucky. As many close calls as I had, I could have easily been among them.

OF ALL THE MEDALS, AWARDS, FORMAL PRESENTATIONS AND QUALIFICATION BADGES HE/SHE RECEIVED, WHICH WERE THE MOST MEANINGFUL TO HIM/HER AND WHY?
The Presidential Unit Citation with a star. Everyone in our unit earned that, for our acheivements in the Solomons, as a whole and without everyone's participation, contribution and sacrifice, success would never have been possible. It represents a team effort with everyony having given their all for a single purpose.

ARE YOU AWARE OF ANY PARTICULAR INCIDENT FROM HIS/HER SERVICE, WHICH MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN FUNNY AT THE TIME, BUT STILL MADE THEM LAUGH LATER ON?
We always had iron bottom coffee (so strong it would eat out the bottom of the pot). Eventually, we received some pwedered lemonade which was good and, occassionally, some canned peaches and apricots would arrive along with dried raisins which always mysteriously would disappear. The cooks were trading to some enterprising Marines or Navy who, secretly made a terrible drink called "raisin jack". Foul tasting, but was very potent, alcohol-wise. There were some guys who also made something called a "coconut bomb". Punch a hole in the top of a coconut, pur in a little sugar and put it away under your bunk for a week or more. This had the right name because when you drank any of this it would knock your head off.

One morning, we had a number of 500 and 1000 lb. bombs to load and take to our storage dump. We had such a problem in unloading, having to wench the bombs off of the truck to the ground, one of our men, who happened to be the driver, said he knew how to unload them quickly. He found that he could back the truck up at a good speed, then jam on the brakes and all those babies would slide right off. it worked so well that we continued to unload in this manner, However, one morning, some officers going by in a jeep saw us doing this and came running and screaming that we were going to blow the whole island up. It took us some time to convince them that this was safe because the bombs could nopt explode until the nose fuses were installed, which we only installed after hanging them in the bomb bay or under the wings of some fighter planes just before they were to take off for their missions.

On August 25, 1943, the ship, USS American Legion delivered us back to Guadalcanal from Aukland, New Zealand, where we were shipped for R&R. We were to await moving up to another island and its' battles. It had been estimated that we would have a wait of 4 or 5 weeks before our bomber missions had run the Japs from some of the northern islands, so we had lots of free time, only having to be in camp for roll call in the early mornings. By this time, the waters around our island were fairly clear of bodies and debris, so, a number of us would go to the beach and swim, generally, every afternoon. On looking down the beach, a large Jap ship could be seen with the bow on the beach and stern partially submerged in the deeper water. Our desire for souveniers was still with us and Jim Higgens and I got the idea that we should hike down the beach and check it out. We were still hearing stories from Navy personnel that many things had been rescued from other beached ships. Guadalcanal was fairly clear of fighting at this time, but there might still be some lost Jap troops way back up in the hills. The next morning, we each took our M-1 rifles, a belt of ammo each and our canteens and headed down a trail adjacent to the beach. The ship was about three to three and a half miles down. About two thirds of the way there, we had to cross a small stream. We had run across a large column of army ants that seemed to be heading into the jungle and had to detour around them. As we got ready to cross the stream, I noticed a split toe footprint in the fresh mud. Japs wore rubber soled shoes with a split for their large toe. We chambered a shell into our rifles, but not seeing another indication that others might be around, we decided to continue on as, by now, we could see the ship, quite clearly. It was the "Kinugawa Maru". When we arrived to where it was supposedly resting on the beach, we found that it was actually about 500 feet out. Pondering how we could get aboard, I figured we could swim out, but Jim told me he could not swim very well and was afraid. We found a large wide board floating in the surf so we lay on our stomachs and, using our hands as paddles, paddled out to the ship's bow. Of course there were no ladders or nets hanging over the side, but there were several steel cables hanging down into the water, so, I said we could climb aboard hand over hand. About that time, Jim spied what he thought was a shark's fin. Until that moment, we had not taken into consideration yet, that these waters were teaming with sharks. Jim was so afraid that he climbed hand over hand up one of those cables, as fast as a monkey and I was right behind him. The ship and its' contents were burned so completely, that nothing of value could be seen except, looking over the side to the bottom, in about twenty feet of water, we could plainly see in the clear water, all kinds of items there. All types of cookware from the galley and many china plates and so forth. There was no way we could dive that deep, especially after thinking about those sharks. On deck, at the very front, were two 22 mm aircraft guns. There was a metal seat like our farm tractors have, so I sat in one and found that you could still crank them around and up and down. While I was sitting there, playing, we could hear the sound of two planes coming. They were two of our fighters returning from a mission and they flew so low over, I could see the pilot and I waved to him. He made a return pass and we both waved to him. After they left, we jumped overboard and retreived our boat (board) and paddled ashore getting our rifles and canteens and took off back to our camp. By this time, it was about 4:00 pm and we arrived back at camp at about 6:30 pm and, as we always did, we went up to the fighter pilots tents to listen to their stories about how they had done that day. Just as we arrived, we heard a pilot ask another if he had seen those dang fool Marines on deck of the old ship. He stated that he had and wondered why they were there because it was darn lucky they had seen them because when they returned from their missions, they always fired any left over ammunition out of their guns and used this old ship as target practice and if they hadn't seen these guys it would have been curtains for them. I will have you know that we kept our mouths shut because they might have court martialed us. So, ol' lucky Cal lucked out again and gave up the idea of getting anymore battle souveniers.

IF HE/SHE SURVIVED MILITARY SERVICE, WHAT PROFESSION(S) DID HE/SHE FOLLOW AFTER DISCHARGE?
After my discharge, I went into the photographic business in Charlotte, North Carolina, where, on Christmas Day, I married my wonderful wife, Lucille Holmes. We had forty eight beautiful years together, had three sons, Jeffrey, Gary and Alan,, eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. In 1950, I became a registered General Contractor and did six years of restoration jobs in Washington, D.C. and then moving to Bartow, Florida in December, 1956, I continued building and restoration work, until retiring in 1994. Later, I served as City Commissioner for Bartow until 2008.

IF KNOWN, WHAT MILITARY ASSOCIATIONS WAS HE OR SHE A MEMBER OF, IF ANY? ARE YOU AWARE OF ANY SPECIFIC BENEFITS THEY DERIVED FROM THEIR MEMBERSHIPS?
Life Member of the Pacific War Veterans Association
American Legion, Member #203084212, Post 003, Bartow, FL
Guadalcanal Campaign Veterans

Meeting with like minded patriotic American who proudly served their Country.

IF HE/SHE SURVIVED MILITARY SERVICE, IN WHAT WAYS DO YOU BELIEVE HIS/HER SERVING IN THE MILITARY INFLUENCED THE WAY THEY APPROACHED THEIR PERSONAL LIFE, FAMILY LIFE AND CAREER?
My service in the Marines is the keystone of my life and has made me into the man I am today, continuing to affect my life in everything I do and in the way I think and approach life. Marines are a special breed and I have an instant unspoken bond with all Marines I meet no matter how old or young they are. I am truly a better man for my experiences and the many Marines I have known . The Marines have given me some of the worst experiences and memories of my life as well as some of the best, but in retrospect, the good far outweighs the bad and, looking back on it, even the worst experiences do not seem so bad and make me appreciate the good all that much more. I just wish everyone of the Marines I have known could have been blessed to live as long a life as I have.