Carol Mestayer, Lloyd Broussard, Louis Prince, 2 women, Jason Theriot, Hewitt Theriot:

Carol Mestayer
(2nd part) Starts off with Mestayer telling a story trying to get a train from Chicago to New Iberia

(3:20) Basic Training
-Took basic training at Fort Sheridan, 30 minutes out of Chicago; was allowed to go in every other weekend
-Was there in the beginning of 1943; first time Mestayer had pizza
-Had a girlfriend in Chicago but she couldn’t dance
-Every Saturday there was a dance on the base and that’s where he met her, her name was Helen Thompson

-Got back home from the war and couldn’t get a job
-Government gave them 52/20 (for 52 weeks paid $20 each week)
-Worked out in the Atchafalaya Basin for 9 months before the job “folded up”
-Went out into the Gulf to work until his contract was up
-Then drove a butane truck in 1947; had to sell in rations
-1948 went to work at Brown and Root and stayed there for 35 years

(10:04) Interview with Lloyd Broussard
-Worked on a tugboat for a while; last job was for 6 weeks and then quit
-Was walking by the high school’s draft board when Broussard and some friends (Homer and Angus) decided to join the Marines
-Went to New Orleans to pass the examinations and did; left December 26, 1942 for training
-Took a train to training and they came in at night; was in San Diego for basic for 8 weeks

-Went on to rifle training and then on to Saint Clementi to specialize
-Broussard wanted to go into air force mechanics or metal smith on airplanes
-Next day was sent to North Island on the naval base; had to march everywhere
-Stayed there for 3 months doing Marine Corp Supply and Naval Accounting (not what he wanted to do)
-Sent back to San Diego for a week and then shipped out; at sea for 18 days
-On a French Liner, “Roe Sham Boo” with 10,000 people on it; landed in some islands and no one knew where they were
-Found out it was Espiritu Santo island, south of Guadalcanal; there to stop the Japanese

-It was a rough spot there and they couldn’t get supplies through; one point had to furnish gasoline on a raft to fuel the planes
-Broussard’s job was to keep the planes running and flying; had a Seabee battalion
-Worked in a warehouse with Marine Corps supplies; sometimes they’d take things from the Army base
-Stayed there for 18 months before sending him back to the states to get a promotion
-Went back to San Diego and got a 30 day leave and then stayed there for a year
-Worked again in a warehouse with the personal effects of those that went over to Saipan

(23:55) On the islands
-There were natives, 3 types: a few Japanese, Tonkinese and black cannibals
-Tonkinese were dropped off in groups as the others that had been there for a year working were picked up
-The cannibals would come out of the jungle once a year to get medical treatment from the nuns; wore no clothes
-Tonkinese men wouldn’t work, they’d bring their wives to work in the coffee patches and then sleep
-Broussard would go into the jungle but they made a policy that they would not go into the jungle after 12 as it got dark fast

(29:08) looking at photos, medals

(31:01) Interview with Louis Prince
(part 1)

-Went into service June 19, 1944; took basic at Fort Bliss, Texas
-Went into the infantry and then overseas to Liverpool, England
-Crossed the English Channel into Leharve, France straight into battle
-Contracted pneumonia in Leache, Belgium and sent to Paris to get well
-Once well he was sent to the 78th infantry division, the Lightning division in Patton’s 3rd Army
-Back into combat at Wuppertal, Germany and stayed there for the rest of the war

-Was sent to Berlin to occupy for 7 months after the war; the city was mostly gone
-Had more trouble with the Russians after the war rather than the Germans
-Stayed in a big apartment building, ate well, better than when in combat
-Wore the same clothes in combat, full of scabies; no food or drinking water
-Found a 5 gallon peanut butter can one night and ate it he was so hungry; everybody was starving

-Left Europe in 1946, June (looking at photos Prince took)
-After the war ended, Prince’s outfit was in Kassel, Germany and they got ready to go fight the Japanese in the Pacific
-Happy to hear that the war was ending on that side too; everybody was scared
-Looking more at photos (others in the background talking too)

-When the war was over, joined the boxing team for the ETO Championship
-Got home by ship and landed in New York and discharged at Camp Shelby in Mississippi

Transcriptions Begin:

Carol Mestayer (7-15-2001)
Born July 23, 1923
397th Antiaircraft Regiment/100th Infantry

(This story appears at the end of Mr. Mestayer's interview. But it pertains to his time spent in Chicago on basic training.) We took our basic training at Fort Sheridan. And I had a girlfriend in Chicago. A beautiful girl who couldn't dance. Every Saturday, we had a big dance on the base. Busloads of girls would come to that fort. Each one of those girls had a chaperon. I would go every Saturday. They had good music- Big Band music. Big hall. And I notice that pretty girl against the wall about every Saturday. I said, "damn that's a pretty girl." I kept putting it off to ask her to go dance. Finally I got enough courage to go see if she wanted to dance. She said; "Aw ya man, I can dance." But she couldn't dance worth a shit. Two left feet. Pretty girl though. Her name was Helen…Helen Thompson. About 19 maybe 20. Pretty girl.

I got back and I couldn't get a job. The government gave us 52/20- 52 weeks for $20 a week. I went to work at the Atchafalaya Basin. I worked there for about 9 months. Then I worked in the Gulf. I drove a butane gas truck in '47. Then in '48 I went to work for Brown and Root. I stayed there for 35 years. And that's the end of my story.

Lloyd Broussard.
Born: Dec 24, 1924
Marines-Quarter Master
Espirito Santos- South Pacific

I worked on a tugboat for awhile and every two weeks the boss would come bring us something to eat or he would relieve us. So we had been gone for six weeks. We I finished that hitch I decided I would quit my job. So I came over here, I was walking down, in front of the high school. The draft board was after us. Homer and Angus (Dugas?) decided to join the Marines and they asked me if I wanted to join with them. I said," aw ya," not knowing any better. So I joined up. We were 5 or 6. We went to New Orleans to see if we could pass the examination. We all passed except Lloyd Ransonet and Sam Girard. The Dr. asked Sam why he couldn't pass he said, " Well I thought we come here to kill Japs, not eat them."

So we left from New Orleans on December 26, 1942. We went on the train; we got there that night. They showed us where we would sleep, and they said don't worry, you showed up late so we'll let y'all sleep late. That was the biggest joke I had ever heard. Next morning they had a speaker right over my top bunk, blowing. (Reveille). This was in San Diego. I took basic training for 8 weeks.

After basic we went to rifle training. Then after we got all that done we went to San Clementi. They took us out and they wanted to know what kind of school I wanted to go to. So I told them I would like to take up a coarse in airforce mechanic. They asked what would be my second choice. So I said I would like to be a metal smith on airplanes. The next day they sent me to North Island on the naval base. That was one of the worst parts of the whole thing, because we were one platoon of 62 people on a base with god knows how many people. Every where you'd go you had to march. So we stayed there for three months. They sent me to Marine Corp Supply and Naval Accounting. That's the two subjects that I took in school. Then they shipped us out. It took us 18 days. We were on the French liner, the Roe Sham Boo. We had 10,000 people on it. They brought us into some islands. We didn't stop anywhere; we went right on through. Come to find out it was Esperito Santose Island, just south of Guadalcanal, part of the Solomon's. That's where they stopped the Japs.

Things were pretty rough right there. See you couldn't get supplies through. Finally it got to the point where we had to furnish gasoline on a raft, a 50-gal drum, to keep those pilots flying. That was our job…to keep those planes operating you know. The army guys, when we first got there, built an airstrip using those steel mats. Then, when the Marines got there, they built a coral airstrip on the other end of the island. A real good job. We had a SeeBee battalion that took care of all that.

I remember one time we were running short on supplies, see we would get naval supplies from one place and we'd get some food from the army and everything they didn't want to eat they would send to us, until we learn we could shoot cows. (Laughing) Anyway, my main job was to keep the airplanes flying. We had the F-4U. It turned out to be one of the better planes in the war.

From there we helped with what ever needed to be done. Now they put me in a warehouse. I handled all the Marine Corp supplies including your rifle, sacks, clothing, everything you owned you would get from there. And it was very interesting. We had to find places for everything, and when we couldn't find something, we found out where the Army had kept their base. One night our General said we were running low on gasoline and he told us to load up our caterpillars onto trucks, and we were going hunting tonight. See they would give us a list, and we had to have everything on that list or we couldn't go into combat. That's something about the Marines, it doesn't matter where it comes from they had to have it.

I stayed there for 18 months. I had even built me a washateria over there. They sent us two of them washing machines that you start with your foot. I asked the boss, "why don't you let me open up a washateria?" He said, "ok." So I opened me up a little business. I cut me a barrel in two. Fill it up with water and heat it up with a butane burner. I'd wash the cloths and hang it up on the line. The men would come pick it up that afternoon. And they would pay me so much apiece. I had good business going, but then we ran into something else.

What happen, was it got to be my turn to serve mess duty? So he called me into the office and he told me, "I hate to tell you this, but the way things are we are running short on promotions." He says, "now they are giving those boys Corporal rating when they get out of school." So here I was, I had spent a year and a half over there and the boys in the states were getting promotions not me. He told me, he said, "Don't worry, I'll find a way." So what they normally do is they'd send you to a place like that (the island) for 18 months, then they would send you back to the states for 18 months. One day he called me into the office and told that Santa Claus had passed.

They sent me back home for a 30-day leave, and then they sent me back to San Diego for about a year. In fact they were getting ready to send us into combat. We didn't really have that much training in that type of thing. And they sent me to stay in San Diego while the young boys in my outfit went to Saipan. They put me in charge of personnel effects. I had a big warehouse. So I stayed there until the war ended.

May I was doing a pretty good business with my washateria, I had made some money, but you see we had no use for money over there. Every thing was free, so when I left, I left my business behind.

I had joined up when I was 17, and I hadn't been home since. It was nice coming home, but then you think about going back.

(What is your wife's name?) (His wife said, "At the end of the 30 days I was worn out and glad to send him back. I was working all day; he was sleeping all day. Then we'd go out every night.")(What is her name?) Anne G.

They had three kinds of people on that island. They had a few Japs and they had the Tonganese. I don't know where they came from, but they would bring them there about every two years. They would drop off a load and pick up the rest. They would pay them twenty cents a day. Back in jungles they had the cannibals. Now they would come meet us once a year and they would meet us at the gates. (For trading and medical purposes. The nuns had a hospital near by to give medical relief.) They were colored people; they didn't wear many cloths, just a few leaves. They carried spears. They don't work very hard. They got a big ole machete, and they would go down in the jungle and bring their wives to work in the coffee patch. They wouldn't work at all. They'd nock off at noon.

Every once in awhile on Sunday afternoon after we had finished our work, we would travel down the island to an ole Frenchman's plantation. He was the over-seer for a coconut plantation. He had a little girl that was three and a little boy that was five. You wouldn't believe how well educated they were. You could talk to them about airplanes and stuff, cause they had seen all that you see. Well that old boy say he hadn't drank water in 20 years, so we'd bring him some water and he'd send us back with some jugs of wine and bananas. Well one time on our way back, we had to pass a slue in our little boat and we tip over. We hauled back to the old man's house, he say, " What happened." So we told him and he asked where we had passed to come here. We said the little slue, the way we always come, he said, "Well I just wanted to tell you that one of my nigas (helpers) got his leg cut off by a barracuda." (Laughing) Luckily we had our little boat, cause I don't know if we would have got back at all.

That's about the size of it. I can't say that I didn't enjoy it, but I don't think I want to do it again.

Louis Prince (7-15-2001)
Born: February 3, 1925
310th Regiment/78th Infantry

I went into service in 1944, June 19th. I took my basic training at Fort Bliss Texas. I was assigned to a 99mm gun, AA. From there I went into the infantry, then I went overseas. I landed in Liverpool England. Then we cross the (English) Channel into France, at Leharve France. From there I went straight into battle. I contracted pneumonia in Leache Belgium. So I was sent to Paris to a hospital. I stayed there for awhile until I got well, then they sent me to the 78th infantry division, the Lightning division, in (Patton's 3rd Army.) Wuppertal Germany, in the Rhur Pocket. I went right back into combat.

When I went into combat I stayed in the same cloths for 2 or 3 months. No time to change clothes. No place to wash. We were all full of scabies. No fresh drinking water, no shaving. But the worst thing is getting hungry with nothing to eat. One time, in Germany, I was so hungry that I couldn't sleep. So I got up, and there was this old tent, and I went inside looking for something to eat, and they had a big 5-gallon can of peanut butter. That's all they had. And it's hard swallow peanut butter by its self. Boy I ate and ate till I couldn't see. Then I couldn't look at peanut butter for years after that. In Germany in these little towns we would go to people's houses and tell them to get out and then take what little food they had. There wasn’t much. Everybody was starving.
I left Europe in June of 1946. Most of these pictures I took. I had a camera. (He has three photo albums full of pictures) That was the big three. (The whole city is destroyed and here is a mural of the big three…ironic.)

After the war our whole outfit was around Kassel Germany. We were getting ready to go to the Pacific to fight the Japs, when we received the word (Pacific war was ending) we were happy.

Somebody that would tell you that they never got scared, they were lying.

After the Germans surrendered my outfit was sent to Berlin. We occupied the city for 7 months. When I got there all I saw was piles of rubble and rocks where buildings once stood.

Berlin was all messed up, all bombed out. We had more trouble with the Russians than with the Germans. They (Russians) weren't civilized people. In Berlin, there were Americans, Germans, English, and Russians, but the Russian's weren't civilized at all. (Were your living quarters reasonable in Berlin?) Ya, where I was staying, it was a big apartment building. We stayed for 7 or 8 months. We had plenty to eat there, but before we got to Berlin, while in combat, we had nothing…we were starving. Cold, cold all the time!
The people who survived were starving. The Germans would beg us for a cigarette. They would follow us around and pick up cigarette butts on the ground to smoke it.
I joined the boxing team toward the end of the war. I fought for the ETO Championship in March 1945, but I lost. (What weight class did you box?) (Lightweight)

But the Russians were cruel people, cruel to the Germans. (Mr. Broussard says, "But they caught hell that winter before on the other front." Well, ya. (Mr. C. Mestayer replies, "If it wouldn't have been so cold, I think the Germans would have taken Russia, the whole bit…Stalingrad and Moscow…but it was so cold that they ran out of supplies.") They had no winter cloths.

(What would be worse: freezing cold, no drinking water, not being able to drink for a couple of days, dirty, not able to bath for months, hungry, not be able to eat for a few days?) Hunger, but it was all bad. I always said, that whenever I get back home, I'll eat anything you put on the table, (Except peanut butter!) I won't ask any questions.

Born and raised in Lorauville. Five in my family went to the war. Four were in combat. One went to Italy; the others went into the Pacific. Whitney, and Sidney, they used to call him Neg. There's only Sandy and I left.

When I went into Europe, I'd write home every time I had a chance. I had a girlfriend back home, I'd write to her, but nobody would ever write me back. I said well isn't that something, nobody cares for me. But I'd never stayed in the same place. I kept moving all the time. So finally at mail call one time, they called me, "Prince. Mail for you." It was a big ole box of mail. Boy I was happy. I sat down and started reading. Before I got through the Captain came in and told us, "come on, drop everything, we are leaving." I read about half, then we had to leave so I left the rest behind.

I left Berlin in May of ’46 to come back home. I came back on a troop ship. I landed in New York, camp Kilmer, New Jersey. We left on the USS Manhattan. I got back in June '46. I received my discharge papers from Camp Shelby in Mississippi and came to Loreauville Louisiana. I was lucky. I didn't stay in battle too long.