Homer Dugas; Theriot; Mrs. Dugas; Hewitt Theriot

Pearl Harbor Day

-Was in Abbeville out dancing with Mr. Zenou Bodie’s daughter (use to work for him)
-When he dropped her off her father told that them the news and that the President was going to declare war tomorrow
-Had never heard of Pearl Harbor and he or the daughter (she was few years younger than Dugas) knew where it was
-“Little did I know that’s exactly where I was heading for! It wasn’t long before I was in Pearl Harbor.”
-Joined the Marine Corps right after as he knew was going to be drafted since he was the right age and wanted to be in the Marines
-Went to New Orleans with Angus Mestayer and Lloyd Broussard (TH1-024) and they were separated the minute they signed up and Dugas went to boot camp in San Diego
-They did this in case men were related so as to spread out the risk of losing all of a family line; talks of what happened to the Sullivan brothers that were all killed
-Thinks he was in San Diego in September in 1942 for 13 weeks; might have been 18 or 19 years old

-After boot camp shipped to New Zealand and their climate was the opposite, left in the summer and landed in the winter
-Rained almost every day and mud on top of mud and it made it difficult to walk
-Camped out about 15 miles out of a town in a field; had a lot of sheep everywhere and eat a lot of them too
-Got together with about 4-5 guys and bought a Model T-Ford to drive around and to go into town easier since there was hardly any trains; but no island hopping
-They were training in New Zealand to land on beaches and knew they were going to islands to fight; was in the 2nd Marine Corp Division
-Trained when approaching the beach on Higgins boats; was told that Hitler was very impressed by the Higgins boats and wanted them

-Wasn’t there for D-day (he is referring to the battle of Tarawa that happens after he leaves New Zealand), but was in a Higgins and his Lt. was on Dugas’s left side and he was on the right with the gate in front of them; both were smoking cigarettes left and right

(9:28) His Lt. looked at him and said, “You’re really enjoying those Camels, huh?” Dugas replied, “Yes sir. I’m kinda nervous.” To which the Lt. said, “Don’t worry, I’m twice as nervous as you are. You’re just an enlisted man and you have to do what I tell you. Me, I have to do it myself!”
-Was probably in New Zealand for about 2 months but Dugas isn’t sure, just knew it was for a good while

(10:15) Mrs. Dugas has a question about the battle on November 20, 1943; they are consulting a book and photos

-It was a big battle and it took a few days, not just one day
-One Navy guy jumped the boat once and went back to the ship; doesn’t think he was punished for it
-Invaded Tarawa November 21st 1943, so he had been in the service for about a year
-Took a transport to Tarawa from New Zealand; they knew they were going into battle but not where, as that was a secret
-Once anchored off from the beach they unloaded down cargo nets into the Higgins boats
-Landed on one side of the island and dug a foxhole in the sand the moment he hit the beach
-Stayed there for a couple of days, standing halfway up in the hole; the first island was Betio

-Was wounded on this island; he was only a rifle man
-When landing their craft on the beach, it got caught on a reef so they had to get in the water and wade to the beach, carrying their rifles above their heads to keep dry
-They landed at the wrong time because the tides were all wrong and couldn’t fight or the rifles would get wet; it was too deep
-The Japanese waited to fire at them the closer they got to the beach; remembers seeing a raft of dead people floating in the water
-The Navy ships and planes had bombarded the island beforehand to help in the landing, near the Japanese airfield

-The island of Betio was nothing but a large airstrip

(20:35) Question: “How were the Japanese fighting you back?”
-The Japanese were in concrete bunkers that were built in 1938, so the only way to get at them was for two men to go on either side and come around to the slits of where the enemy was firing from and throw in hand grenades
-A lot of men were shot doing this; Dugas carried a M-1 rifle; looking at a photo of the island again

(22:33) When Dugas was wounded
-There was an airstrip that they had secured and his Lt. ordered Dugas and another man from Texas to send a message
-They were walking back when a machine gun went off and hit Dugas in the back of the leg and he went down
-His partner came over to help him but Dugas told him to keep going and get the message delivered; he was hit in the leg so he couldn’t walk

-A Marine came by later and saw Dugas was still alive and knelt beside him; Dugas told him lay down on him or the Japanese would kill him
-Just as the guy was laying down a bullet went right through the backside of the Marine’s shirt and left a hole, but the man had no injuries thankfully—he was lucky!
-Then another Marine came by with a jeep and they put him on the hood and left Dugas with some natives in a straw hut on the beach for the rest of the night
-They couldn’t speak English but stayed all night with him nonetheless

-The next day they brought him back to the ship and the doctor was waiting for him
-The doctor was talking to him and asked Dugas where he was from in Louisiana and Dugas answered “How do you know I’m from Louisiana?”
-Told him that the way Dugas talked gave it away so Dugas told him he was Loureauville and the doctor said he knew where that was since he was from Scott—it was a funny thing!

(31:38 - 44:54) recapping what he retold so far since the beach landing to getting wounded and then leaving on the boat
-Referencing the book they’re looking at again and looking at photos

-Was eventually put on a transport ship to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii for his wound; doesn’t really know how he got there or how long it took as he slept most of the time

-Afterwards they sent him to San Diego to have surgery done and to recuperate for a year; had to rebuild the leg by breaking it five times to fix it an inch at the time
-The first time he was able to leave the hospital after being able to start walking with crutches was when a Lt. came by and asked him if Dugas wanted to go into town with him that night
-Went to a nice place with girls that would dance with them but he couldn’t dance so there were a few that sat with him and talked

-His mother wrote to a senator in Baton Rouge to ask for Dugas to be moved to a hospital in New Orleans
-His commander came to him and asked why this senator was writing to him and why Dugas would want to be moved to New Orleans—told him that’s where his family was
-Was put on a train the next morning, was given 2 seats so he could lay out and rest his leg
-Had an older lady come on and he tried to give her one of the seats but the conductor told Dugas he couldn’t as the government gave him those 2 seats and no one else could sit there

(55:37) End of interview
-Recapped the battle of Tarawa again; Hewitt Theriot comparing his experiences with the Japanese in-between
-Eventually discharged in Florida later; he was nineteen years old when he signed up; *talking in background*
-Received a Purple Heart medal at the hospital in New Orleans; everyone looking at his medal

-Talking about life; had a replaced hip; Dugas’ children; looking at more home photos
-Debating differences on sweet potatoes and yams; others Theriot has interviewed and exerts of their stories (see TH1-024)
-Hewitt telling them about Theriot and his job and fiancée; Mrs. Dugas and Dugas explaining how she caned their chairs and what type of wood works best

Transcription Begins:

Homer Dugas (3-9-02)
Born: February 4, 1924
903 N. Main
Loureauville, La, 70552
2nd Marines-Tarawa

For Pearl Harbor Day I was dancing in Abbeville with Mr. Zenou Bodie's daughter. I used to work for him. When we got back he was sitting on his front porch and he said, "The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor. The President is going to declare war tomorrow." His daughter was much younger than I was, and I asked her if she knew where Pearl Harbor was. She said, "I have no idea." I said, "Neither me; I never heard of it." Little did I know that was exactly where I was headed for and it wasn't long before I was at Pearl Harbor.

I joined the Marine Corp soon after. Three of us from Loureauville went to New Orleans to join. It was Angus Mestayer, Lloyd Broussard, and myself. The sent us directly to San Diego to boot camp. The minute we got there, they separated us. Boot camp was 13 weeks long.

After that, they shipped me to New Zealand. It's across the equator, opposite of our climate here. I left here, and it was the summer. When I got to New Zealand, it was winter. Mud on top of mud. We were camped out about 15 miles from town in a field. Boy they had a lot of sheep out there. We ate a lot of that too. We stayed there a good while. Four or five of us bought an old Model T Ford so we could get around when we weren't training. We trained to take a beach. I was in the 2nd Marine Corp Division.

When we'd approach the beaches, we were on a ship. Then we'd get out and load into those little Higgins boats. That's the boat that Hitler wanted. Boy Hitler couldn't get over that Higgins boat. He was really impressed with that. It was built in New Orleans.

We took a transport from New Zealand and headed to Tarawa. We knew we were going into battle, but we weren't too sure where we were going. We anchored off a few miles from that beach, and then we started unloaded down this cargo net, down into those little Higgins boats. (November 20, 1943) On the approach to the beach at Tarawa, I was on one side of the Higgins boat and my Lt. was on the other side. He was smoking cigarettes left and right. I was smoking too. He looked over at me and he said, "May you really enjoying those Camel's huh." I said, "Yes sir. I'm kind of nervous." He said, "Don't worry, I'm twice as nervous as you are." He said, "You are just an enlisted man, and you have to do what I tell you. Me on the other hand, I have to do it myself."

On the way to the beach, our landing craft got caught on a reef and so we had to get out in the water and wade through it to get to the beach. When we hit that coral, the boat stopped, and the gate dropped and they told us to move out. We were a good ways from that beach, probably a couple of hundred yards. And the water was pretty deep. We carried our rifles on top of our heads so they wouldn't get wet. Everything was messed up. We came in at the wrong time. The tides were all wrong.

The navy ships and the planes bombarded the island first to soften the landing. The Japs held off their fire right until we got close to the beach. I remember seeing these rafts of dead bodies floating all in the water.

I landed on one end of the island, at Betio. I dug me a foxhole right when I got there at the end of the airstrip, and I got in it. I sleep there in that hole that night. The island was one big airstrip. The Japs were in these concrete bunkers and pillboxes. We had to crawl on the ground to get to these bunkers, and then throw hand grenades in the little hole to take them out. A lot of men were lost that way.

Not long after we landed, we were able to secure the landing strip. I came in from the right corner. Me and this boy from Texas were ordered to deliver a message to the back. When we started going, I was up and running and a Japanese machine gun went off and it caught me right in the leg and I went down. That boy came over to help me, but I told him to keep going, because there was nothing he could do. I was hit in the leg and I couldn't walk. I told him to keep going to deliver that message. So I lay there for awhile. This Marine Corpsman came by and he saw that I was alive, so he kneeled down beside me. I told him that he better lay down on top of me otherwise the Japs were going to kill him. And just when I said that, a bullet passed right through his shirt. You could see the hole in his shirt where that bullet went through. He was lucky.

This other marine came with a jeep and they helped me up and put me on the hood. That night the marines took care of the rest of those Japs right there. They brought me to the beach and I spent the night with these natives in their straw hut. They couldn't speak English. I was coming in and out of conscious, but they stayed with me all night long.
The bullet had crushed all the bone in my leg, and I could see through the hole.

The next day, they brought me aboard ship, and the doctor came and talked to me. He asked me what part of Louisiana I was from. I asked him how he knew I was from Louisiana, he said because of the way I talked. I told him I was from Loureauville. He said he was from Scott. He said he knew where Loureauville was. It was a funny thing.

It's amazing the things that happened during the war. Its amazing how they planned for all this stuff. And we were trained so well for being so young. I was only 19 years old.

Before I left I had saw that we had captured 6 Japs from Tarawa. There wasn't many left alive after that fight. When I got on that ship, I knew that I wasn't going back to that island. I could the island from that ship. They treated me very well.

("There were some forty-five hundred fighting troops and another twenty-two hundred construction troops and Korean laborers on Tarawa. The commander's orders were to fight till the last man. They fought to the last 146; all the rest died."- This was taken from a book that I read. The Pacific Campaign. Dan van de Vat. 1991. P. 299.)

I got to a hospital in San Diego finally. The doctor broke my leg five times, and it was about 5-inches short. They fixed it an inch at a time. They did a lot of work putting me back together. I ate well in that hospital too. I had a pleasant stay in that hospital. I had to walk in a cast for a long time too. I remember when they came and brought me the Purple Heart.

The first time that I was able to walk on my own, I had walked outside of the hospital and I was sitting on the bench. This Lt. came by and so I saluted him. He asked how I was doing and asked if I would like to go to town that night. I told him that I would like that very much. When we left he said, "You wanna go see some girls." I said, "Well, if it's just to look at them, I'd like to go, other than that no dice for me." So he brought me to a place, and it was a very nice place. There were some nice girls and they would dance with the boys and some of them came and told me hello, but I couldn't dance because I was on crutches. I danced when I got back to Loureauville though.

My mom wrote to a senator in Baton Rouge, asking him to get me out of that hospital in San Diego. And one day my commander came and asked me if I knew that senator and I said that I did. I told him that if I were to move to the hospital in New Orleans I would be closer to my family. That commander told me I would be on the train the next morning.
I had two seats on the train; one to sit on and one rest my leg.