By CASSANDRA HAMMAN
\nSpecial to the Saipan Tribune<\/p>\n
It was a hot night in the crimson waters of Saipan on June 14, 1944. Men of the G Company, 4th Marine Division decided go up onto the deck of their LST to cool off and search for some sort of relaxation. Carl W. Matthews, a tall 19-year-old Southern boy, had just come from the fierce battles in the Marshall Islands and was ready to kick back with his fellow crew. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had played fiddle in a little band up in Texas and I had found this sailor that played guitar. I tuned it up to his guitar and we started playing almost every night,\u201d said Matthews. The two started off the evening with a little country Western and later a man asked, \u201cDo you know any hymns?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cSo we started playin\u2019 hymns,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cAs quickly as we would finish one, somebody\u2019d say, \u2018Do you know What a Friend We Have in Jesus or do you know this or that.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
The two musicians played and the soldiers sang along. One man came up to Mathews and said, \u201cYou know I feel like I\u2019ve been to church.\u201d This phrase resonated in Mathew\u2019s mind \u201cbecause so many of those guys that were up there that night, that was their last time to go to church.\u201d <\/p>\n
The next morning Matthews got up at 3am, ate steak and eggs and put on clean dungarees, clean underwear and clean socks. Placing a pack on his back, the lieutenant heading their team checked on each soldier to make sure every Marine had proper gear.<\/p>\n
Once daylight peered over the horizon, the doors of the LST lowered into the warm Pacific water. Stepping into the clear blue, the company immediately ran to an area away from the shelling. <\/p>\n
Within two hours, 8,000 Marines were lined up. The G Company, as the first wave platoon, landed just below Sugar Dock in Chalan Kanoa and instantly traveled off the beach.<\/p>\n
As bullets from snipers rained down on them, Matthews and his comrades took shelter underneath the palm trees. Three artillery men ran toward the company but were hit directly. \u201cThey just disintegrated,\u201d Matthews said.<\/p>\n
That entire day the group only reached the edge of Chalan Kanoa\u2014about 150 yards. When the sun started to set, the platoon raced to the edge of the parched Susupe swamp and was ordered to cross. They headed into the hills.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat night we dug into the second hill and above there was a bomb crater. That\u2019s where the lieutenant and I stayed,\u201d he said. A journalist named Bob Cook from the Chicago Tribune joined the men that night. They all collapsed\u2014exhausted by the daylong tension.<\/p>\n
The next morning the G Company was ordered to form a line across the entire island. As they headed north toward DanDan, no shots were fired and surprisingly no enemies appeared through the deep murky jungle. <\/p>\n
Their mission was to investigate a Japanese gun emplacement. \u201cWhen we got there, it was a wooden dummy!\u201d Matthews said. \u201cIt was huge\u2014they had done a remarkable job of creating a 16 inch gun. They had camouflage depressed in an area in the lava rock.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company then moved toward the center of the island. \u201cI called it the Devil\u2019s Backbone because it was a long stream of mountains that went from the south all the way to the north,\u201d he said. The men fought in the mountains until June 23rd. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe met a Chamorro,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t understand what he was saying, but by the way he was pointing we could tell there was a cave by the side of this cliff.\u201d <\/p>\n
The lieutenant sent 10 of the men down, including Matthews, to follow the Chamorro. The local stood on the outside of the jagged rock and gradually made his way into the cave. Inside were 12-15 fearful Chamorros who didn\u2019t want to leave the confines of their hiding place. Finally, they were convinced and the 10 soldiers guided the natives up the side of the cliff. <\/p>\n
One woman who was holding a baby in each arm was unable to make the climb. Matthews offered to carry a baby, saying, \u201cLet me have one.\u201d \u201cNo, no!\u201d she said, snatching her babies from his arms. After a while, she finally allowed Matthews to take one in his arm. Slinging his rifle over his left shoulder, he nestled the baby in his other arm and made his way up to the top of the cliff. Once they reached through the thick bushes and trees, a photographer took a snapshot of Matthews with the baby. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen the picture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Over the next two days the Americans killed more than 4,000 Japanese. \u201cIt was a slaughter, so sad,\u201d he said. The Japanese had hardly any rifles and their weapons mostly consisted of pointed bamboo spears and rocks. \u201cThey didn\u2019t have anything. No ammo, no weapons and they were hungry,\u201d he said. \u201cBut they had a lot of sake evidently.\u201d<\/p>\n
The surviving Japanese fled to the cliffs by the Last Command Post and some took their place just above this point. Matthews\u2019 Company pulled out of the mountains and migrated toward the edge of these cliffs. They were ordered to travel downward and stopped 20 feet from the top of the ridge. After 30 minutes, Matthews peered through his binoculars. He spotted six Japanese officers near the command cave. They walked out of the trees. They were well dressed. They carried swords and wore new caps. \u201cI knew they were not the common soldiers we\u2019d been seeing,\u201d Matthews said.<\/p>\n
When the men of the G. Company stood up, a machine gun suddenly opened fire, instantly killing the lieutenant leading the company. Matthews dropped as well, but was unscathed.<\/p>\n
One night Mathews didn\u2019t think he would make it. Through the shower of bullets and bombs he couldn\u2019t hear anything. His eardrum had blown out and he felt like a big firecracker had gone off. His memory faded and came back and faded again. <\/p>\n
\u201cI remember the rock wall, I remember the trees, I remember the field that was west to the rock wall, but I don\u2019t remember getting off that cliff,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
In the middle of chaos, James K. Oliver, a soldier from Knoxville, Tennessee, forced Matthews up a cliff. He got to the top and withdrew behind the stonewall. They regrouped. Matthews started walking back toward the cliff by himself. The lieutenant called him and he didn\u2019t respond. Once they got him, he just sat and stared. He woke up eight days later in a hospital bed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I stood on that beach yesterday morning I looked out at the sea and I thought about all the ships that were out there. How that must have looked to those people that were on the beach before we got here and I wondered what the Japanese boys thought about when they saw all that muscle out there. Battle ships and cruisers, destroyers, hundreds of LST\u2019s. A lot of people died on that beach,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Matthews had his own private memorial this week. It was his first time back since 1944. \u201cThis is my 11th day and everyday has been filled with so much,\u201d he said, tears creeping into his eyes. \u201cPeople ask me if this brings back too many terrible memories, but the really gory things I kind of put into the back. I think it\u2019s always better to remember the beautiful things. I choose to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matthews now resides in Dallas, Texas and runs his own steel business called Steelhaus. He lives within walking distance of his grandchildren.<\/p>\n
Last Tuesday\u2019s parade was a hopeful and promising day for Matthews but he remembers not so much those who survived but also the thousands who died. \u201cAs I looked at those children, little girls waving their flags and waving at us like we are heroes, which we\u2019re not. The heroes are the ones that didn\u2019t come back\u2026I thought that\u2019s why we were here; to make this island what it is today. That\u2019s why we fought.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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