{"id":194300,"date":"2015-03-19T04:00:21","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T18:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=194300"},"modified":"2015-03-19T04:00:21","modified_gmt":"2015-03-18T18:00:21","slug":"wwii-veterans-visit-saipan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wwii-veterans-visit-saipan\/","title":{"rendered":"WWII veterans visit Saipan"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Bill Thompson first arrived on Saipan\u2019s beaches more than 70 years ago, he was being shot at.<\/p>\n

For a more relaxing stay on the island, he joined other World War II veterans on their tour of Saipan yesterday\u2014enjoying local barbecue and music at the Carolinian Utt in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

Their tour, dubbed \u201cThe Greatest Generation,\u201d were made up of 24 veterans, 17 of whom served on Saipan and Tinian during the war.<\/p>\n

\"Bill
Bill Thompson, World War II survivor and veteran, was wounded three times during the Battle of Saipan. He served as a sergeant in the 4th Marine Division. (Dennis B. Chan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thompson first landed on island during the Battle of Saipan \u201con June 15th, 1944, on Red Beach C,\u201d he said in an interview, pointing out into the nearby lagoon across the pavilion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got wounded on the first day, in my face,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the second day, I got wounded in my leg.\u201d And on his eighth day, he was wounded again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got taken out\u201d and was sent back to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, he said.<\/p>\n

Thompson, a sergeant of the 4th Marine Division, 3rd Battalion, Company M, called his return to Saipan\u2014for the first time after seven decades\u2014a \u201cwonderful\u201d experience so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great, wonderful\u2014but sad in some ways. I saw a lot of people killed out here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the war, Thompson has gone on to father six kids and build high-rise buildings in New York as a civil engineer. He was 18 when he fought on Saipan.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaipan\u2019s got so beautiful now. It\u2019s not torn up with shells. Now it\u2019s such a beautiful place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Battle of Saipan veteran, Bud Hampton, remembers being shot at during his time here in 1944.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember I got shot at a bit. I remember\u2026I talked to civilians in caves to get them out\u201d because they had medical problems or needed water, he said.<\/p>\n

B-29 bombardier Gene Friley said he was stationed at one end of Saipan during the war, about 4 miles away from Tinian.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Enola Gay flew right over my head,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Yesterday was Friley\u2019s first time back to the island since then. He said Saipan \u201cfeels warm, very pleasant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a swim in the ocean\u2026 I\u2019ve spent three months in Guam before\u2014but this island has got to be the most beautiful island in the area,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pacific Development Inc.\u2019s Gordiano Marciano gave many thanks to the Marianas Visitors Authority, the Division of Parks and Recreation, and Northern Marianas Athletics, for the barbecue, and PDI guides, for their help with the tour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Bill Thompson first arrived on Saipan\u2019s beaches more than 70 years ago, he was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":194301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3059,3060,3061,364],"class_list":["post-194300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-bill-thompson","tag-bud-hampton","tag-marine-division","tag-wwii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}