Joining the Marines at 17
Chipman talks about when he first heard about Pearl Harbor and joining the Marines at age 17. He speaks at length about different motivations for young people joining the war before being drafted. He also addresses the importance of sharing his war experiences, even when others who haven't been in battle will never fully comprehend the traumas of war.
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Hardening into Marines
Chipman describes the profound effects of boot camp in shaping self-discipline, teamwork and pride. Chipman's childhood in a physically active and very disciplined household ease the transition to the rigors of boot camp.
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Bonding and growing
After boot camp, Chipman's division was assigned to Camp Pendleton for four weeks of infantry training school. They were then transported to Hawaii and assigned as replacements for the 4th Marine Division.

The following excerpt recounts the last period of training when the young Marines met and bonded with the veteran Marines, fresh from battle in the Marianas. The respect and affection between Marines was immediate. After months of training with battle-hardened veterans, the young Marines became veterans, "emotionally and mentally."
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A deafening, deadly battle
In this excerpt, Clayton Chipman discusses his psychological preparation before battle on Iwo Jima and reflects on the difference between being scared and being afraid. He describes the 4th Marine Division's brutal landing on Iwo Jima — a day filled with relentless, deafening artillery.
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Slow, bloody going on Iwo
As the days and nights pass on Iwo Jima, Clayton Chipman and his fellow Marines measured their progress by yards as they crawled across the island's airfields under fire.
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The million-dollar wound
In this excerpt, Clayton Chipman continues to describe the hours leading up to the ninth day on Iwo Jima, the day of his "million-dollar wound." Marines were decimated as they fought to take the "Meat Grinder, " "Turkey Knob, " the "Amphitheater" and "Hill 382."
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Nightmares, gratefulness and guilt
Clayton Chipman was evacuated from Iwo Jima to an Army hospital in Pearl Harbor. In this excerpt, Chipman notes that he and other fellow Marines suffered recurring battle nightmares. He also recalls his painful emotions of gratefulness and guilt. He asks, "How can you be thankful and feel guilty at the same time?"
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Bonds for a lifetime
After his recovery, Clayton Chipman joined a baseball team in Oahu, a team that was actually a ploy to build an MP Company to be sent back to Saipan. Chipman was stationed at Saipan to flush out any enemy remaining on six islands.

In this excerpt, Chipman describes his psychological stages in the battle of Iwo Jima. Chipman describes the elation of returning home and recounts some of the challenges of returning to civilian life. This excerpt concludes with thoughts on his religious faith and the enduring bonds amongst Marines who have fought together.
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A deafening, deadly battle
In this excerpt, Clayton Chipman discusses his psychological preparation before battle on Iwo Jima and reflects on the difference between being scared and being afraid. He describes the 4th Marine Division's brutal landing on Iwo Jima — a day filled with relentless, deafening artillery.
audio clip (14:52)

Chipman: … On January 27, we sailed for Eneiwetok in the Marshall Islands. On January 25, my high school class as West Allis Central graduated, and I was out in the middle of Pearl Harbor there while those kids were graduating. My mother got a, I think they call it a service diploma, don't they?

Van Ells: Yeah, I think that's what they call it.

Chipman: … So, on the, I was trying to catch the date that we sailed from Pearl Harbor, but I must have missed that. Anyways, on the voyage to Eneiwetok, we held classes, a lot of classes. We exercised; we studied a relief map of Iwo Jima. They didn't tell us where we were going until we left Pearl Harbor, of course, and then they brought out the big relief maps, and we studied relief maps and regular maps and what our assignment was and where we were going to land, and all that. Very detailed. …

So we were anchored at Saipan, and when we left Saipan—I can't recall the date, it had to be somewhere around the, oh, the 15th or so of February—and on the way up our Sergeant Smith again, I'm sure he did it to everybody but I don't recall him doing it except to me, he took me aside and he reassured me that we were capable, that he had been watching us, he knew that we could do the job, and he asked all kinds of family questions. And I'm sure it was to relax us, you know, and take our minds off of things. He also asked if I was afraid. And I had no immediate answer. I had to think about it, and the only way I could come up with a logical answer was I was not scared but I was afraid. I think scared is uncontrolled; afraid, you know it's coming, you know darn well that you should be afraid, and if you weren't afraid there was something wrong with your marble upstairs, I think. Only a fool would not have been afraid knowing what the situation was coming up. That was one of the later experiences.

I think we were as well-prepared as we could be; psychologically and mentally and emotionally and, certainly, physically. We were just drilled to death and physically, even on the ships, it was always exercise. I think, now after Iwo, I was in six little — oh, they've got a special name extending the authority of the United States to these little islands — but I think if I'd have been in a major battle, I'd have been a heck of a lot more afraid the second time than I was the first time. We weren't quite prepared for what was coming. The sergeant, and I'm getting ahead of myself, but wherever, the nine days I was on that island, whenever I looked up, and a lot of times you didn't look at anything but sand, you had your head down, and whenever I looked up you could see his helmet. I always knew I was OK then. He was very, I think he was one of the most courageous guys that the Marine Corps ever had.

Again, getting ahead of the story, but talking about Ray Smith, several days after I was hit, he was talking on the microphone of a tank and directing fire, and some Jap shot him right through the head. He was, very sad situation for us. It gets us up to D-Day. … We had an opportunity to go to church and take the Lord's Supper, communion. Here the attendance was just overwhelming. I think just about everybody went. …Right after that, we went back to our bunk area, and they called it "saddling up." And we put on our gear, our packs, and so forth and we were issued ammunition and grenades and what they called a battle ration — a little more sophisticated than K-rations.

As we lined up in the bunk rows, each squad in a bunk row, they gave us a few last-minute instructions. We left that area and we went to an assigned area on the ship where our Higgins boat or whatever they call it when they hang it up there, and then we waited there for the proper time. There was, I can't remember any talking at all once we left the bunk area. I think guys had their own thoughts. When the word was given, of course, we went up and over the side with 85-pound pack and a BAR, ammunition, canteens.

We had to leave our packs un-strapped and our helmets un-strapped. In case we went in, we'd have a chance to get rid of those anyway. We went down that cargo net and, of course, the day was February 19 of '45. Out there was a few fluffy clouds and it was pretty pleasant temperature — I'd say in the low 70s — but the swells, the swells were they said 16 feet high. I don't know whether the boat rose, sank — the Higgins boat, you know, along side the big ship — rose that far, but we had one fellow break an ankle when he got off at the wrong time.

That gets us to the Higgins boat. At this point we were doing things automatically. I don't think there was much real thought going into what you were doing except you were being cautious. The brass, the officers, had told us that they expected a three- to five-day battle, that the island had been pounded for 74 days by B-24s and B-29s, and they didn't see how too much could be left. …

So we went to the line, but before we got to the line of departure, the lieutenant asked, he said, and the Japanese still had air force then and they were sending planes over, he wanted volunteers on each side of the coxswain in the Higgins boat — there were two 50-caliber machine-guns — and he said, "I want two volunteers to take those machine-guns and watch for Japanese airplanes." And it was a long time before anybody responded.

Finally, a corporal called and said, "Well, I'll take one." I just thought to myself, well, someone has to do it, and nobody was stepping forward, so I said, "OK, I'll take the other one." So I handed my BAR to a friend and I went up there. I think it was a wise decision because, for several reasons. First, I was up there; I could see what was going and I could see that beach, I saw Mount Suribachi over on the left, and the billowing smoke and sand and stuff just rising hundreds of feet in the air.

And I didn't know the word "panorama" at the time; I don't think it was coined at the time. It was just a panoramic view of the entire coast. It didn't sink in that Marines were getting killed at that time and Japs were getting killed. While I was watching and, of course, looking up for airplanes, I saw a Corsair come down along the beach strafing the first air field and never came out of his dive. He just went, and I think he was dead before he hit the ground. There's a picture of his plane, well, you can't see anything but a big billow of smoke coming up, black smoke, as it exploded.

A few minutes later — now, this, we've left the line of departure and we're going into Yellow Beach One - -I'm watching, I see another plane over the north end of an island and I recognized it as a PBY. I didn't realize there were 10 or 15 models of PBYs, but anyways, I'm watching that plane and all of a sudden the tail dropped off of it and that plane went right down. A few minutes later, a little observation grasshopper in the middle of the island was shot down. All of a sudden it dawned on me, hey, there were no parachutes. You know, Americans were getting killed.

About that time or maybe a little later, all of a sudden I could hear some funny noises. You know, zing, zing. And then a couple of thuds on the front of the Higgins boat and our sergeant says, "Fellows, come on down. There's no use being a shooting duck in a gallery for them." He said, "Come on down below the plating." They had, I guess, a little steel plating along the sides in front. So we went down there, left those machine-guns. About that time I thought to myself, "What the hell am I doing here? What am I doing here?" Well, all of a sudden (it) dawned on me, hey, something's going on that isn't actually what I like.

As the boat hit the beach and the whole front of the Higgins boat goes down — and everybody rushed off because a boat's a bigger target than an individual, you know, and there was a lot of firing going on — the first thing, even before I hit the black sand, I saw three rows of dead Americans, dead Marines. That was my first view. My second view was the black sand. As we got off, there was no wreckage apparent, you know, as you glance to the side, so it was early in the battle because a few hours later it was just a total junk yard. You know, jeeps and tanks and Amtraks and guns, the bigger guns, you know, and stuff.

We hid in the first hole that we could, you know, guys spread out like they were taught to do and hid in the holes. Now, we hid in the holes because, for several reasons. One, it took you below the surface of the beach. Two, where a shell exploded, the mines explode. So we'd go from hole to hole, you know, hoping that you wouldn't hit a land mine in between.

It was a struggle to move. You couldn't a foxhole because the volcanic ash came right back in, and the load that we had — one of the first things everybody did, including myself, was throw our gas mask away. That was the least of our things that we needed at that time. Of course, another thing that impeded us was the noise of shells going over your head and bullets going over your head and explosions. The noise was relentless. You can't imagine the noise unless you were there.

This thing in Oklahoma City, those people, that must have been their first awareness, you know, that horrendous noise. That's one of the things that impressed me. It's just incomparable. I tell my wife at the finale at the fireworks, well, this is probably 1/50 of what it sounded like down there. It took us from, I would say we hit the beach at 9:40, 9:45, took us until 4 to fight our way up to the edge of the first airfield.

On the way, one of the things I saw was a Marine with his leg shot off; only one strip of flesh holding this leg. He had to bleed to death. And, of course, in a situation like that with so many guys getting killed and wounded, the corpsmen couldn't get to everybody. Probably nobody stopped to put a tourniquet on or something. The next guy I saw in going, you kept your head down pretty much looking for if you could see any Japanese, which we saw very, very few, but you always knew where the pillbox is and things — the machine-guns were pretty well knocked out by then — but the pillboxes, of course, they had caves, tunnels, and you throw a sachel charge in a pillbox and you'd kill the Japs that were in there, but a few minutes later more would come up through the tunnel so you were always looking for that.

Then I saw a third Marine and no apparent wounds at all, dead as a door nail but no apparent wounds. Oh somewhere around maybe 11, 11:30 in the morning, someone jumps in the hole with me — I was alone in a shell hole — and had two canisters of machine-gun ammunition, dressed just like a Marine and, of course, the first thing you talk about is what outfit are you with. This was a Seabee, and what the heck they had Seabees on that island at that time when the Marines couldn't even move, what could a Seabee build up? Anyways, he stayed with me the rest of the day, and when we got up to the edge of the airfield our group was happy that he was along. It was one more man.

By that time, 30,000 Marines were on the beach. The realization struck me at that time — I hadn't thought about it before — of course I was aware of it and I was thinking about it — but it struck me that I was praying constantly, constantly praying. Once we reached that airfield and we set up for the night, not many people ate. In fact, I ate my battle rations and someone gave me theirs. I guess all you can do is attribute it to stupidity. I was hungry, and I was one of the few guys that slept, you know, when I wasn't on watch. I was able to go to sleep that night. But the only talking, again, the only talking was of who got killed and who got wounded. There was nothing else.

I don't remember much about that night except that we looked out over the airfield continually trying to see movement. We expected a banzai charge, which, of course, Kuribayashi didn't believe in. He believed in a defense at depth and extracting most due that he could out of the Marines. …