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WWIIMarine

Theater'sorst battlest 84 Jerry Sherlockf Smithfield blogsbout his war

Dick Martinme July 4th, Jeny Sherlock of Smithfield will be standingttention when members of the anned services parade by.will salute the flag and honor those who have served their

ntry. Chances are that few people will realize that the WWIIine veteran has been to hell and back in defense ofthate country and been through some of the worst battles in theific Theater, including Saipan and Iwo Jima in doing so.It was hell on earth," says Sherlock, 84. "I was constantlydering which bullet was going to hit me ... "herlock, at 17 fought to get into the war, but his parentsldn't give their consent. Finally, at 18, he simply said hegoing, despite the fact he barely passed the physical withart munnur. He was going to be drafted anyway. He haden to the Marine recruiter beforehand and made anangets to be taken by the Marines, and in a blink of an eye hethrough training and on his way to Hawaii, where he motarily hooked up with his sister, Martina, a Navy registerede. When he and his sister and her friend went to dinner atofficers club in the prestigious Moana Hotel, which hadcommandeered as an officers retreat, he recalls, it causede a stir, seeing that he was a Marine private.They thought I was the luckiest guy in the world," hekles. "There I was a Marine private with two pretty nurses.t was a big no-no!"rom there, however, it was all downhill, along with uphilltake the hill, as his unit entered the fray. One of his firstr battles was Saipan, where his unit was part of the Marinelion which invaded, crossed the island, and captured theort, a key ingredient to help ensure future success for thes. Part of Sherlock's job, along with a fellow Marine, waslean out a section of the thousands of caves dotting thed where Japanese soldiers were holed up.There were two of us. We flipped fingers at the first one,"Your Smithfield Magazine, June 2010

As a U.S. Marine Jerry Sherlock (r) survived some of the worstfighting in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II.On Iwo Jima only 150 of his unit of 900 men survived unscathed.Jerry's son Steve (on left) assists Jerry in the posting of a blog abouthis experiences on the internet. It can be found at jerrysherlockstory.blogspot.com. (Your Smithfield Magazine photo by Dick Martin)

says Sherlock. "We didn't have any coins. He lost, so he hadto go in the first one. He killed tv"o Japs and came out. I wentin the next one, and we took turns after that. He was a cattlerancher from Colorado, and he had his grandfather's Colt .44,so he knew how to shoot. He was wounded at Iwo Jima, andwe carried him back to the beach so the hospital ship couldpick him up. Marines don't leave anyone behind. He died twodays later. His name was 'Jonesy.'"Sherlock's job was to spot enemy positions and call in the

big guns, radioing back coordinates for targets. That meantsometimes inching his way as close as possible to enemypositions alone, extending and weakening his connection tohis fellow Marines behind him at times. While watching theHBO special Pacific, directed by Tom Hanks, Sherlock notedthat what he saw on the TV screen was as accurate a portrayalof what had actually happened as he had ever seen. In fact, itbrought back memories ... and sleepless nights."It was very well done," says Sherlock. "One of the greatest

series ever produced. I watched the Iwo Jima segment, and Ihad disturbed sleep, tossed and turned all night. It still disturbed me to see it after 65 years."Other episodes brought back other memories as well, including one incident in the series where a Marine comes apart andloses it under all the pressures of war. On his website, Sherlockrecalls similar incidents which he witnessed on the front lines."It happened," he writes. "Guys reached the breaking point

and for everyone it was different. I'm glad it never happened tome. Some guys, you never knew when it would happen."Amazingly, Sherlock made it through without even being

wounded. However, there were plenty of close calls.

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"I was in my foxhole and felt something trickling down myg," he recalls. "I wasn't sure what it was. It was pitch dark, soou couldn't see a thing. I reached down with my hand and feltf it, and then tasted it. It was water. We wore two canteens andne of them had been hit with shrapnel. The next day you couldill hear the piece of shrapnel rattling around in the canteen.at was close."Death, it seemed, was never far away."I can remember jumping into a hole and starting a conversaon with a guy," says Sherlock. "It was a one sided conversaon. I checked, and he was dead. Wounded and dead wereSherlock recalls in his blog that the constant fighting, andounding never seemed to end. He says that it was" ... justruel and unusual punishment is all I can think of what hapened. Guys getting hit multiple times. We'd fix a guy up, ande'd get hit again. It was unfair in a sense. I just still don'tnderstand why. To this day .. .I was just so very lucky. I neveralized how lucky I really was."Others weren't so lucky, including some former fellow Manes who still carry the evidence in their bodies to this day, heys. One Marine he knows of is still having shrapnel removedom his body as it works its way to the surface. Among thoselled in the war was Jerry's brother Jack, who had fought inurope as part of a tank destroyer battalion.After years of bloody fighting, came the bomb on Hiroshima."I was in my tent, and I heard a lot of gunfire," writes Sherck. "Guys were shooting everything. Couple mortar roundsent out too. When they told me, I started firing my carbineIt was both relief and happiness, knowing that he would notlanding on the Japanese home islands. He added that if thatere going to be the case, he was sure he would be wounded,ssibly killed in action. Now it was over."It was the impossible dream," says Sherlock. "I was rely glad. A lot of Marines would have died hitting the homelands. I know it sounds strange, but that was it. The war was'er with two bombs."Out of the 900 Marines in Sherlock's unit who stepped ontowoJima, only 150 survived, adds Steve Sherlock, his son.omehow, miraculously, Sherlock had survived some of theorst fighting in the Pacific. Part of the reason he says wasith as a Roman Catholic. Despite the battles, the atrocities,e killings and everything else he had witnessed, his faith hadelpedhim survive."That was not a place where you lost faith," he adds. "Thatas a place where you gained faith. It helped me survive."~owadays, Sherlock, with the help of his son Steve, hasegun posting his memories at his website in hopes of bothspiring other veterans to do the same, as well as remindingople that war is hell after all. It is not something to be takenghtly or entered into lightly."What I had been through .. .it was enough. Later on duringe Vietnam War I thought I didn't want my sons going throughhat I'd experienced. I'd go back before they went. It's hard tolderstand for some people. I knew what to do. Some thingsu don't ever forget. I would have been able to do the job. Notme kid who didn't know any better."~ 0 one will be standing taller come July 4th Visit Sherlock's website atjerrysherlockstory, blogspot. com.