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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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.
audio clip (10:50)

Chipman: … When I turned 17, I started to bug my parents to join the Marines.

Van Ells: This was after the war started.

Chipman: Yes. I was in junior high school when the war started. It was on, of course, a Sunday afternoon, and my dad and I and brother were listening to a football game. That's how we heard about Pearl Harbor.

Van Ells: You must have been, what? 16? 15?

Chipman: When the war started, 1941, what was I?

Van Ells: You were still a fairly young guy.

Chipman: I was in seventh grade, I believe. Probably 13.

Van Ells: When you heard the attack on Pearl Harbor, did you think that the war was going to involve you at all? Did you have any inkling of that?

Chipman: My dad had joined at 17 in World War I, and he boasted that the war would be over in six months, like it was in World War I. I didn't think much about it. I was too busy playing football and baseball and basketball. And I don't know, sometime around age 16 or 16-and-a-half, when all the reports started coming in about Bataan and Corregidor and, of course, Pearl Harbor itself, and Wake and Midway, it started to get my attention. And, of course, the psyche or mind set in the United States in the early '40s was one of patriotism. I think most youngsters had some desire to contribute. I think a lot of things played in that age-level there. We, of course, felt sympathy for the victims, and by that time everyone hated the Japanese. I think that played something into a decision, you know, to join. And, of course, patriotism entered in.

Van Ells: So, when you signed up, you were 17.

Chipman: I was 17 when I signed up.

Van Ells: You had to get your parents' permission. As you mentioned before, you bugged your parents. Did they resist your going into the service?

Chipman: My mother did. Finally, my dad said, "Well, unless you let him go, you'll never be satisfied." So that was the pivotal statement …

Van Ells: I was going to ask you, why the Marine Corps? There were a lot of different services to choose from.

Chipman: Yeah. Well, basically, I guess I was, and still do, if you tell me I can't do it, I'm going to try like heck. Of course, the Marines were highly publicized, and they were supposed to be the best and the toughest and that was a challenge. So I took the challenge. That's why I got in the Marines.

Van Ells: Was your father a combat veteran of Word War I?

Chipman: Yes. He has a commendation from his captain for being in the 442nd Motor Transport Company, and they were under fire for 77 days in a row. I still have the commendation and his pictures and so forth. He was not a Marine; he just supported the Marines by transporting materials up and so forth. …

[Chipman discusses his induction and training.]

And for a youngster, you know, without any travel experience, it was quite new. We arrived in Oceanside kind of late in the evening, and two sergeants met us and they pretty much set us straight. They berated us and maligned us and badgered us and everything else that you can think of. It was their initial process of beginning to have you retrogress back to your base instincts. And what I was told many years later was that, that was a deliberate process, and once they got you down to where you were reacting on your instincts, then they started to build you up into being what the Marines wanted.

Van Ells: Were they successful in this?

Chipman: I think so. I think so. As I relate this, I'm sure that will become evident. The reason I'm talking about this is that I was old enough to remember a few Civil War veterans up in Fond du Lac, where my mother lived. And I was old enough, certainly, with my father who was very reluctant to talk about things, and I think it was a mistake because unless you know history you're going to make the same mistakes over and over again. So I'm very willing to talk about it.

Sometimes it's hard, especially when you refer to, like, Calvin Canal, who was killed on Iwo Jima with me, who was, again, one of our friends that we made during the train trip. The other thing is, if you were there, nobody has to tell you. If you were not there, nobody can tell you. So there's a big problem that exists, and that is you try to paint a war picture or you try to use videos or slides or whatever to the senior group that we planned to show our Iwo Jima presentation to, and you still try to get across some of these attitudes and feelings and so forth but —

Van Ells: But there's a limit to how deep an understanding someone —

Chipman: That's correct. I feel that's correct. It's like if you haven't lost a child, there's no way someone can tell you. And if you, like the Gold Star Mothers — I refer to World War II mainly — there's no way that we can empathize with those people. We can say we do but until it happens to you.

You still do not give up. You attempt to get across some of the basic ideas. You try to paint the word pictures, you know, if we possibly can. And hopefully by doing that, the people who will be making the decisions in the near future will have at least some idea, and all you have to do is look at our legislators now in Washington, D.C. They have taken away exactly one-third of the — not Bill of Rights, but the GI Bill; and, in fact, there was one year where they took 11 things away.

There are, I know, that there are many questions that people have, not only veterans but other people who associated with veterans, and I presume that most people do. There are just some that are unanswerable from our experiences. There are decisions that are irreversible, and some of these decisions precipitate permanent change in you. The lessons that you experience from an educational standpoint to you learn what you live and you live it to, you learn it to the degree that you live it.

When you get into these areas where you're immersed totally into a traumatic experience and not — I'm not indicating that boot camp or anything was traumatic, the battle was. It just, it's indelible on your mind. You can't get it out. It's with you subliminally always. I assume that later on there might, something might happen to your mind like Alzheimer's and so forth which would eliminate that.

But even though with these handicaps I've mentioned, sometimes you just want to say, throw up your hands, forget it, deep-six it. You learn in the Marine Corps a few minor deterrents don't stop you. I indicated before, I think the reasons why I joined the Marine Corps and as I indicated, the news reports had a very big effect on it, as the information came back later on in the war. Just before I went in, the Death March leaped out and so forth. I think that probably had a lot to do with a lot of people. I think in there one of the feelings was retaliation; you want to retaliate.

Emotions played a big part. They always did through everything. I think another thing that played a big part in the youngsters who joined before they were drafted was the psyche in the United States. Everybody was doing their part. I can't remember anybody who wasn't totally patriotic and doing what they could do. And then as I mentioned before, some people like a challenge and that's the way they go. They want to see what they can do.