The National Museum of the Pacific War
(Admiral Nimitz Museum)
Center for Pacific War Studies Fredericksburg, Texas
An Interview with Donald J. Feindt, U.S. Navy Motor Mac — Higgins Boat USS Pres. Adams APA 19 Guadalcanal, Rendova, New Georgia October, 23, 2003 Interview with Don Feindt
Richard Misenhimer
My name is Richard Misenhimer. Today is May 2, 2003. am interviewing Mr. Donald J.
Feindt by telephone. This interview is in support of the National Museum of the Pacific Wars.
Center for Pacific War Studies, for the preservation of historical information related to World
War 11.
Mr. Misenhimer
Don, I v ant to thank you fbr taking the time to do this interview today. Let me ask you, do you
have a middle initial?
Mr. Feindt
J. John
Mr. \lisenhimer What is your mailing address 7there Mr. Feindt
915 Beachcomber Lane 1 actually live in Indian River Shores. It’s a little l)lace, I live about six
houses from the ocean. I was a businessman for thirt years. But anyway, Vere Beach, Florida,
32963. 1-usphone number is 772-234-9969 Since I saw you, my wife passed away.
Mr. Misenhimer
Oh, I’m sorry to hear that wasn’t aware of that.
Mr. Feindt
She passed away March [ met you in December 2001 and she passed avay March 2002,
Mr \‘lisenhimer
I remember meeting her there too. She was there with you.
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a Mr. Misenhimer
Now, you said you were born in November 12, 123. Where were you horn?
Mr. Feindt
I was born in Brook1yns Flat Bush, New York. I moved out of there in 1929 and moed out to
Long Island. I was really raised out in a place called Nesconset, Long Island, New York.
Mr. Misenhimer
Where did you go to high school?
Mr. Feindt
In Smithtown, Long Island, New York.
Mr. Misenhimer
What year did you finish high school?
f\lr. Feindt
I didn’t. I quit high school in my second year to join the \avy.
Mr. Misnhirner
You joined the Navy when
Mr. Feindt
1 went to boot camp February or March 194I I still have my picture of he group. Platoon 87 1
remember because I had a piciure of it in the garage.
Mr. Misenhirner
So you actually joined in November 1940, but eren’t called to acti’e duty until February 1941.
Mr. Feindt
Yes. By the time 1 had to take all of my tests and everything, we didn’t leave until 1941.
Mr. \lisenhimer
3 Wheredid you do your boot camp”
Mr.Feindt
Norfolk,Virginia.
Mr. Misenhimer
How did you get from Long Islandto Norfolk?
Mr. Feindt
Well,we took a train to Baltimoreand in Baltimorewe took the boat downto Norfblk.
Mr. Misenhimer
How was that trip down there?
Mr. Feindt
It was just an overnight trip. Nothing much to it. It was segregated. all the black ones in the
back of the train or boat.
Mr. !slisenbimer
What alldid you do in boot campthere? BootcampwasfromMarch 1941to June 1941.
Mr. Feindt
First of all, for four weeks they had us in quarantine. Then we went through with legjackets in
whites, we would carry 03 riflesand do drillwork. I thought “what the hell am I in, the Army?”
We did drillwork andthen teach all seamanshipand teach us navyandallthat sort of stuff
Mr. Misenhimer
Did you have knot tying?
Mr. Feindt
Yes, that was part of it. Knot tying such as bolan knots, square knots, half hitches and
seamanship,you kno’ia,types of shipsyou ‘& em on like destroyersor we used to nick namethem
4 tin cans, and light cruisers, heavy cruisers. Carriers were not that important to some of the
Admiralsin those days.
Mr. Misenhimer You saidthat the first thur weekswere quarantined. What do you meanby 9quarantined Mr. Feindt
Well, they kept us fenced in, in other words they gave us all of our shots and kept us in quarantine. I guess to see if you break out with anything. I really don’t know why they did it, but we weren’tsupposed to get in contactwith goingto the, I can’t rememberwhat you call it, whereyou go to get ice cream. It was calledthe Canteen
Mr. Misenhimer
In the army we called it the PX or the ship store maybe, I forget hat they call it in the Navy.
But you werealsogettingtrainingduringthose four weeks, is that righr
Mr. Feindt
Yes, we had about three monthsof trainingfrom Marchtil June 1941.
Mr. Misenhimer
How did you choosethe Navy?
Mr. Feindt
Well, my principal,his name was Mr. Ralph Floody, a LieutenantCommander.retired from the
submarineservice. He said “Feindt, hy don’t you join the Navy?” Tnhigh school,I was doing good but 1used to look out the windowall the time and the teacher would say,“Feindt,get back in your seat.” So I was actually wanting to travel. When I went down to the office I said I warnedto join the Navy I likedthe sea becausewe were surroundedby water.
Mr. Misenbimer
5 What are someother thingsthat happenedwhileyou were in boot camp’
Mr. Feindt
I learnedhow to scrubwith saltwatersoap. We usedto do our scrubbingand they would take us out and make us wear whites and hit the grassand ground and all that, then we would go in that night and scrub our clothes and get rid of the grass. Thenwe did a lot of cleaning. Everything had to be perlèctly clean. We would march a lot and they had me callingcadence,“left right left.” I usedto get a kick out of that because I would speakout a littlebit. 1rememberdoingall that in platoon. I put in fbr submarinebut they wereoccupiedso 1 couldn’tget in. My brother got in to submarines,but I never did. Maybe I was lucky. I visited my brother a lot in
Connecticut. He lived in (Jroton, Conn., after he was retired. That’s were the submarinebase was.
Mr. Misenhimer
Whenyou werein boot camp,what didyou livein?
Mr. Feindt
We had beautiftilbarracks. I rememberthat becausewe did go back there fro a reunionaboard
the USS Guadalcanal in 1988 or 1989 and we still saw the barracks. They were all together
difibrentin a lot of ways. it was right off the paradegrounds andreal brick and wellestablished.
Noribik is the largestnavalbaseinthe world. Eventhen it wasbig.
Mr Misenhimer
How wasthe foodduringboot camp?
Mr. Feindt
Verygoodfromwhat 1can remember
Mr.Misenhimer
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I transfer out in to the fleet. What they did is they sent me back and they sent me to, and all of this
is beibre Pearl Harbor, they sent me to Philadelphia Navy yard and 1 was on a receiving ship.
They had me go on a little tug. There was a tug boat that they used to run from the Philly Navy yard across to New Jersey and what we were assigned to do, I did cooking and I did everything on that little thing. There was only about live of us that were the crew members and what we did is we would take the people that were civilian shipyard workers building the ship, because we were right b the Philly Navy yard, was right by the ship yard. We were building these battleships like the Wisconsin, which I was on later on, the New Jersey, I think the Iowa and all
of them were being built there, if I’m not mistaken. We would take the workers across that lived
in New Jersey. In other words, we would be picking them up in the morning at 7:00 am. and
take them back. That’s all our job x as That x as only temporary duty while 1 waited for
assignment. I got assigned to the USS President Adams. I think 1 went down there in late
August or September of 1941 We hadn’t gone in commission yet but they were putting us on
board. They called us the plank owners. We went n commission on November 19, 1941, and 1
remember we had an Admiral come on board and we were going through an exercise, and a
week before that there was a big brand new ship, the IJSS 1-lornet went in commission, the
Secretary of the Navy was in there. She was the first big carrier the Navy was having. We
didn’t have very many carriers at that time. I think we had the Langley, the Saratoga, the
LexingtonEnterprise, we had the Yorktown, and that was about it. 1 think only had four or live carriers1 at that time Anyhow, we went in commission and that was November 19. 1941, and then we had what we call a “shakedown” cruise. I was assigned to the fire room. We had one
single screw, our ship was 500 foot long and carried thirty-two landing craft, two tank Lighters.
LCV P (Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel) we called them Jeep Lighters, and then we carried a
8 personnel boat and we carried thirty—twoof them. The two tank Lighters v ere up in the bow, I remember that because they were the biggest ones. They were all metal and ours was wood. In fact, believe or not, our boats had a bow on them and the Marines later on in Guadalcanal had to
jump over the side. I got pictures of it in my book “The Guadalcanal Legacy’. We were taught by Coastuardsinan who looked like Chiefs. They were teaching all about, we were just starting in the amphibious and President Adams, one of the first ships, there was a President Adams,
President Jackson, the Hayes and the Crescent City, and we only met later on off San Diego.
The shake down cruises were off Norfolk when Pearl Harbor was bombed, we went to general quarters and in fact, this one fellow that started our reunions, was the guy that made the announcement. He told us later at the reunions. 1-Icmentioned about Pearl Harbor. So right then, everything changed and what happened is from that time everything was secure this and secure that and blacking out portholes, I think we had portholes from what 1 can remember, and we did all that. Then we were told we were going to leave to go to the West Coast to pick up
some soldiers to go to the Philippines to reinforce them.
Mr. Misenhimer
Before we get to that, you mentioned Pearl 1-larbor. Where were you when you heard aboLit
Pearl Harbor?
Mr. Fcindt
We were about 50 miles off \ortblk, Virginia.
Mr. Misenhirner
On your shake down cruise?
Mr. Feindt
That’s right.
9 Mr. Misenhimer
So they announcedit over the PA?
Mr. Feindt
Yes, they announced it over the PA. I rememberhearingthat e had been attacked at Pearl Harbor andwe are now at war withJapan.
Mr. Misenhimer
Vhat was your reactionwhenyou heardthat?
Mr. Feindt
Welt to tell youthe truth, I took it with a grainof salt. Wejust discussedit and we thought well, now we are going to see some action of some kind. At that time, if I’m not mistaken,we had some others come on board. Two or three INlows from the USS Ruben James, which was a destroyerthat was a sunkin early October1941by the Germansoff of the coast. theywere on a neutralityWWLdestroyerpatrol, believeit or not we were at war with Germany,old thur pipers.
I had some of my fiends who were four piper destroyersailors. We were taking them over to
Reykjavik,Iceland and the British would pick them up. We were supplyingBritain with everything,because this was1939, 1940, 1941 and the British since 1939 being at war were havinga hell of a time. We knewthat we were going to war. 1guess we realizedthat at 17 and
IS, we are stillhigh schoolkids, I was more interestedin libertyand havinga good time and I don’t know if! should this but they had housesof prostitution in Norfolk, we usedto call it
S-h-i-t City, “Sailors and dolls stay off the Lawn”. it was a real tough town and very hard liberty. Sailorsin those days you know were a wildbunch. At that time too. I was trying to get on a cruiserand 1rememberthere was USS Astoria and the USS Vinennesand the USS Quincy. allthem wereEast Coastheay cruisersand everyone of them went down later on Aug 8th or 9”’,
10 1942. 1 was trying to get aboard them, hut you know eervhody wanted to he heavy cruiser sailor and the destroyers we didn’t care for that nuich at that time. The [‘ourpipers were terrible to live on. My buddies they used to move the tables up on to the overhead and then had to hang out your hammock, they slept in hammocks, these four pipers were from WWI. \obody wanted to go on board them. They were really tough living. When you left the engine room on the bottom you had to go topside to go up on the outside deck above that and during heavy seas guys used to ¶et \ashed overboard or get knocked off’against the bulkheads. So it was er tough
living on them damn ole four pipers. We were always looking for heavy cruisers or I didn’t really want a battle ship, but heavy cruisers or light cruisers, but I never got it. Getting back to
when we were on the USS President Adams (APA 19) we xere sailing and I uill never forget, 1
was sitting having Christmas, it was December 25, 1 was having Christmas dinner and we go to general quarters and what happened there was a German submarine that shot at us, and guess where we were sailing? Somewhere off the coast of Florida. My gun station was the ammo and
had one fi’e inch 50, it was old, like a live inch 38, an old cannon on the platform. You
wheel it one way and it goes up and down and wheel the other way and it goes sideways. All I had to do as pick from the elevator and pass the shell to another guy who would pass it to the
guy that stuck it in to the gun. By the time that I got up there, they fired one shot, it was on our stern, off’to our port side, and as I got there the damn thing knocked me on my fanny. They only fired one shot at it. We were doing it as fast as we could. This ship was lliirly new and it came right out of the shipyard and was converted to an attack transport. ft was called an APA 19 (Auxiliary Personnel Attack). Then later on we go with three others we called them the 41[oly
Four. Anyhow, the next morning I wake up and I said, “Something the matter” The ship was dead in the water. Our turbine engine got screwed up. Here we are about forty or lilly miles oft’
ii the coast of KeyWest. Speakingof four pipers. it was earlyin the morningand Ijust woke up, I went up to the topside and the four piper destroyerwas coming along side us. He was out of foci. It towed us in to KeyWest. I saidthis guy is comingin awfiuilyfIst at us. And boy did he, on the side and he hit a couple of our boats that were hanging on our lifts. I don’t know whether he got reprimandedor not. Anyhow,he did a lousyjob pullingup to us and when we fueled himand put out the line and everythingand they towed us in. I willneverforget standing on the topside and everybodyfrom Key West was lookingat this ship. Our shipwas about 550 ft. long with landingcraft hangingon lift on both sides. We were the largest ship to come in to
KeyWest, this is what I was told, sincethe USS Cincinnaticamein there in 1933. Now, I don’t know how true that is. But anyhow,they put us on the dock that was about 20 or 30 foot long.
Key West was nothing at that time, there was nothingthere. It was a big empty lot where they had us stationed. I think there was an old Navy tug there. There was no Navybase or anything.
We stayedthere for about a week, in fact we spent New Year’sthere, from ‘41 to ‘42 we were in
Key West and the Captainsaid,let’s just stay out untiladler 12until 12:30(New Year’s Eve)on libertybecausethis is like a foreignport. They consideredKey West a foreignport. Now this is way back in ‘41, you know. Then they towed us up to Tampa, Florida and wt went in to Ebo
City, the Spanish section of town, and a Tampa ship yard replace tbe Westing House steam turbine,because I rememberthat they cut through the bulk headthat was forward of us in to one of the holds. See we carriedcargoliketanksand equipmentfor a combatteam. So they cut that hole and took that whole steamturbine out and put a new one in, becausewe had men from the factory; WestingHouse men, and they knew how to do that. It was quite a job. They did that and I don’t know how long it was but I remembergoing on libertyin Tampa Tampawas a little ole town then. We had to get the trolley car to go over to the other side. We were on one side
12 there where Ebo City, the little Spanish section was of Tampa, then from there after we were there about a month,then we start sailingand left there and went down to Panama,went through there. Same thing there, it was a filthy little town. Beinga 17-year-oldkid all of that was very risque. I rememberthey didn’t have any quarantinedown there. When I was drinkingrum and coke, I paid a nickelfor mm and coke. We all got drunk as hell. It was hot as heck down there
One Sailoron the bus went nuts. He was a big ole’ Bosun Mate and hejust dranktoo muchmm and boywe had to hold himdown. He put his handthroughand windowand we had to wraphis hand in a towel. A big guy named Gray. He went a little nutty from the drinking. Thenfrom
Panamawe hit San Diego.
Mr. Misenhimer
Just a minute,let’sback up a minute. What causedyour shipto stall?
Mr. Feindt
Our turbinestopped and the turbinebladesburnedout, possiblecausedby our extra speedafter the sub attack. In other words, we couldn’t mo’c. We had only a singlescrew. We only had one engine.
Mr. Misenhimer
What was the speedof your ship?
Mr. Feindt
Do about 18and 20 knots tops.
Mr. Misenhimer
Not real slow,but not realfast either.
Mr. Feindt
13 No, we couldn’t keep up with the Fleet. The Fleet could do 30 knots. The destroyers could do anywhere from 25 and 30 knots. We were a fairly new ship but we could not keep up with the
Fleet. We had some ships that when we landed on Guadalcanal that could only do 9 and 10 knots. They were mostly built around WWI time.
Mr. Misenhimer
Yes, the Liberty ships, I understand did 9 and 0, along in there.
Mr. Feindt
No, some of these were before Liberty ships. The American Legion they were attack transports, but they were built around WWI time. Our ship was built in 1940 or 1941, The President
Adams. The President Adams, The President Jackson, and the President 1-layes. The APA 18 was the Jackson, she was the senior ship, and she had the Admiral aboard. The President Adams was the APA 19 and the President Hayes was the APA 20 and the Crescent City. APA 21. She was a little bit different. She is still in commission out in California. They use her as an art ship out in San Francisco. A couple of guys went out there when they had it changed iThese four ships were nicknamed The “Unholy Four”. It x as in the magazines.
Mr. Misenhimer
What was it like when you went through the Panama Canal?
Mr. Feindt
Well, we stayed at Coco Solo and it was very slow and we just about fit in there at that time. It was interesting and from what I can remember was going to shore and seeing all the girly girlies
and what not and drinking and ha\ ing a good time. Tiwas a very wild town a swabby town. 1
remember one thing that I did while I was there, I cut all my hair off. I was bald headed, Then
was sorr I did it, because I had to wear my hat every place I went until it grew back in. Then I
14 remember hitting San Diego, Camp Elliot. now called Camp Pendleton. That’s where got real acquainted with a lot of the guys from the 31(1 Battalion Second Marine Division. We had the Battalion, the combat team and we carried them on there with their little Marine tanks and all their trucks and jeeps, and their equipment. We used to take them outside in the Pacific
Ocean off Coronado, California. We ould go out off of Coronado and we would land there.
The Pacific was much rougher than the Atlantic with higher swells and waves. I remember one weekend in our escapade, we landed the Marines there and almost ever’,’boat got stuck on the beach. We landed at high tide and heavy surfs just threw them boats all around. We missed liberty. The ship went back in and we were still out there all weekend trying to pull them boats off Fireman first in the Navy was the same as a 3 Class Coxun. It went from Coxswain to 1St Bosunmate 2’, then Chief Then the Navy went From Fireman l.t to Watertender or,
Machinist Mate second or Motor Mac second then first class then Chief Actually I was
Class and then I made J, Class, but we still were not considered Petty Officers until we reached
id ,id id 2 class. Ihe topside guys would be called Coxswain or i class radiomen or class gunners mate. They had 3” class, 2 class, l class and Chief. Navy rating completely changed. That’s what we had in those days. Anyhow, we finally got the boats all back on to the ship by running them back in. We were tied up at the foot of Broadway in San Diego. We did that For about three months time. In them days, the senior guys, like the 1st Class Bosun Mate or machinist mate, they used to carry cars. They had automobiles and the Navy Y was right up on the
Broadway. They had a locker in the Navy Y. They would put their civilian clothes in there. Us guys that were lower rank, we didn’t do that. Those guys were already in the Navy 4, 5, 10 years, they had their wives there. Then all of a sudden I think it was in the last part of June we just pulled right out. Nobody knew about it. \ot a sole on the ship We rendezvous wth some
15 Td other ships. We had the 3 Battalion, 2”’ Marines on hoard and I remember this Col. Hunt, and in fact I just read about him again in the book called, “Guadalcanal”. i’ve got it here at home. lie said we are going to a place called Guadalcanal, men. We said, what the hell is that. We didn’t know nothing about nothing. I will never forgeL we were out to sea for a couple of weeks at least, then we hit a place called Tonga Tabu, Tonga Island, South Pacific. We went ashore
and I remember we had a hell of a problem getting ashore because the coral around there was
horrible. We had two or three boats that ran in to the coral and we had trouble with them. Then they had a Queen there and I remember there vas nothing there, it was like a couple of shacks
and whatnot, and the natives were the Polynesians. They were all dressed in sarongs and they
had a tire truck from like 1920 or something like that and the Queen would ride on that. I
remember being in to\ n there and they had a little ole grocery store and stuff and why had
stopped there I do not know. I remember another thing, The Saratoga was there and she caught a
fish someplace and this was about the time I think, right after the Battle of Coral Sea, when the
Lexington got sunk. This was the sister ship of The Saratoga 1 know that. She was on the port
side they were trying to patch up the hole. So what they did is they put the ship at a thirty degree
angle so they could get to it, a big part of it was underwater. Mv brother’s ship, the Atlanta was
in there. Then we went to Fiji and this was sometime in, course it took us a long time to get to
Guadalcanal. I remember them saying there was a volcano there and from the distance you
could see the smoke coming out of a mountain. very active. Then in the early morning, they
woke us up about 3:00 am. and we came in from the North side, which screwed us up because
we went up past then came in past Savo Island and then down. I remember at 3:00 am. they
didn’t feed us nothing they just had sandwiches and apples and coffee. That’s all they would
fied us. There as no hot food. Just go grab something. They might have had bread and stuff’I
16 don’t remember that too well. I was assigned to a boat that was behind the stack and I was the top boat. They used to put one boat on top of the other one along the side and back. My boat
was on the top and it was early in the morning and it was still dark and all of a sudden I am
sitting in the boat and we hear sounds “BOOM BOOM” and the cruisers started blasting away.
Before that you could see little lights on the Guadalcanal side and when those eight—inchshells
went off all the lights went out. The cruisers were shelling. They were on our stai-boardside and
they were between the land and us. We started saying ‘Boggie up above the bow” We were in
line with a bunch of others, the Adams and the Jackson and them. They shot one down, they
shot down a Jap sea plane. That was where Gavutu and Tanambogo was. That’s where they
came out of and i didn’t know it at that time, that was a sea plane base. They gave me a big
hook with a cable and they hoisted us up above the stack about eighty feet up and over and back
down. What they do is they launch four nets on each side. We would wait our turn and pick up
the guys and picked them up and went in and there wasn’t a sole there. Not a sole.
Mr. Misenhimer
What was your job on the landing craft?
Mr. Feindt
My job was to take care of the engine. I was like the engineer. They would teach what to look
br. It was an old Superior diesel engine. I have pictures of them too. When the Marines got in,
they had to jump out the sides. See, later on in ‘43 we got a 1-liggin’sBoat that you could drop a
ramp in the front between the two guns. I would also man a machine gun, a round top Lewis
machine gun liom WWI. They didn’t do a good job, but they did teach us little bit about it.
They told us not to shoot it steady, because you will burn out the barrel in nothing flat. So we
used to have to fire in hLlrsts. The one we had I think had 65 rounds. There were two types from
17 what 1was told later on. It wasa roundcarouselammunitionstyleand youjust yankit and pull it off and the sameway when you get a foil one. You would pull that one off and put another one on. You had to be carefluland use gloves becausethey would get hot and the barrel would get very hot. I rememberone time, I think what happenedthey shot too muchand itjammed and he grabbedthe barrel without thinking and it burned the hell out of his hand. We had to use these big heavyasbestosglovesto unscrewthe barrel. Anyhow,we didn’t have any problembut the next day what happened is that we got calledto reinforce them at Gavutuand Tanamboro.
What happenedis that we went from one side to Guadalcanalside to the Tulagi, Gavutu and
Tanamboroside. I think it was about 20 to 25 milesacross miles across and it was about that time, so I was in my boat allthat day and when we first went in, they didn’t tell us the Japanese were still fighting so we go in to reinforcethem. So the Third Battalion, Col. Hunt’s men,we
7h1 th went in to reinforcethem, because they had landed in at the and this was the 8 and 0 and the ones that originallylanded in there was paratroopersoff a shipand landed by HigginsBoat
The Japs were giving them a hard time. There were two little islands that had some land between them and when we first went in there they started opening fire. Therewas a sea plane that was lyingup there with the tail stickingout. It was rightoff there and you could practically walk to it, but was in the water. Some Japanesethat night had crawledout there and whenwe were going in line they opened fire in the boats ahead of us. They hit a frp, of the guys in the boat and killeda &w of them. Whathappenedwhen we landed, we went around the islandand they were alreadyfighting,but I don’t know how you put it, but we were all duckingdown and they said, “Keepdown, keep down, we got them in the holes.” I rememberthis big Lieutenant
Marinewas sayingthat. This was the second dayof fightingand I got out of the boat and we got the guysthere and told them whereto go here and there and we were sort of tryingto get themto
18 mop them up or so. (avutu was an Islandwith a hill,maybethree, fbur hundredfeet up, if that high, and all the Japanesehad holesin them. Theywere in there and the first day they cleaned them up, but they kept comingout and I don’t know how manywere in the hole. I cameacross right there by one of the houseswhere they kept comingout at night.the dead Marineswere laid out in an open area getting ready for burialin their Panchos(raincoats). That reallyaffectedme seeing that. We usedto have these ponchosand the priestthere I think, I’m not a Catholic,but I think he was a Catholic priest, was burying them in ponchos. The poncho had a hole in the middleand was like a big round tent. The Marinescarded them all of the time for bad weather.
Theywere buryingthem in about two Ibot of land.
Mr. Misenhimer
Now,these wereAmericanMarinesthey wereburyingright?
Mr. Feindt
Yes, I think we lost a couplehundredguysthere. I willhaveto look at the bookagain.
Mr. Misenhimer
That’s right,around two hundredas I recall.
Mr. Feindt
See, we pulledalong sidea pier (end of firstside)
Mr. Misenhimer
This is sidetwo. O.K., go back becausewe missedpart of that.
Mr. Feindt
Trememberone lap was hangingout of a palmtree, I couldn’tget over that and the other one all
of his clotheswere blown off I don’t know what had happened.Now,! rememberanotherthing,
on the way in, there was a destroyer and I still rememberthe name of it, The USS Buchanan,
19 D.D. 484, because my brother later on, when his ship got sunk, was on the sister ship, D.D. 487.
Anyhow, it was tiring 5 inch guns in to that hill that we were talking about and the Marines had
Pulled back and there along crouching down and all that in there and the Captain kept saying,
“go ahead in, go ahead in” and we said wait until you stop shooting. We were afraid oI getting hit by our own shells. That didn’t last long, but I remember them 5 inch 38’s those tin cans could really put it out. Really kept us alert. Then it pulled out, it came right in behind. So, the water must have been pretty deep for them to get in there. They must have had a guy on board telling them where to hit. Also, something else had happened after we had gotten rid of the troops. We were going back to the ship and they were bringing guys that were bloody as hell and they were paratroopers I remember because they had the beautiful boots on. They were different t pe of outfit then our 3 Battalion boys. They had shiny really beautiful paratrooper boots. They were cussing like mad, “son of a bitch, our own goddamn plane.” What happened is our planes off the ship had hit the top of the island with small bombs. What I read about later was that we didn’t take the Jap flag down and they thought the Japs still had the hill and it was our paratroopers were on top of it. A few of them got killed 1 heard. I don’t know who was on it. What we did then was we went back up to the ship and back out again and were told to lay off on the side. It’they needed u they would signal, but we are not going to hoist you aboard, so you stay there. So what we did is we went swimming. It was early in the morning when we vent in there, but this was afternoon. after lunch. only we didn’t have lunch. I think we had some canned stuff on board the Higgins Boat that we were eating. They told us that we wouldiit be coming back on to the ship until later on. What happened on that, I will never forget this because we had been swimming and right around there about 15 or 25 feet off’the water a bunch
of Jap planes came and 1 thought they was ours and we were sitting in the position where we
20 were in front where there was a tin can to our port side and our ship was on our starboard side.
They went past our ship and they were headed to the ones on the other side over Guadalcanal, because there were still a bunch of them over there. They were torpedo planes. The first time that I knew that it was the enemy is when the tin can I saw them pick up speed and “vroom
vroom’ they started tiring their guns. Well that shooting was about I000 yards in front of us.
We got out of that water and started heading in to the beach, away from the planes. There must
have been about 18 or 20 (23 planes according to the book). I couldn’t count them. They
knocked a couple down later on because I could see where they hit the water. Then they hit one
of our transports on the other side. They ran right in to it. 1can’t remember the name of the ship now.
Mr. Misenhimer
Was it the 9Elliot The Elliot was sunk there Tknow. \4r. Feindt
It did? On the day we landed?
Mr. Misenhirner
I’m not sure which day.
Mr. Feindt
Well, it didn’t sink right ay, it was burning all day. We could see the planes. It as only 20 or 25 miles away. They did say that one of the planes crashed in to it. Then we knocked a few down and I guess the rest of them went home. That was exciting as hell. Then that night, we were still there all that day and we kept going in and it was a periodic type of’fighting and what else happened Irom what 1 remember now, is that in Tanambogo off our ship they took in Spike, he’s dead now, but he a returned as Lieutenant Commander, he landed the tank that had
21 Lieutenant Sweem aboard. He was killed plus all of the other Marines in the tank. I met him in
San Diego at one of our reunions. In the tank there was about 5 or 6 guys and from what I remember when they hit on Tanambogo the minute they got out, when the guys left the tank, they started firing at them and the Japs came out of no place. They surrounded the tank and I remember Spike said, “1 told the goddamned Lieutenant that why didn’t he shut the hatch”. It
seems that what happened is that the Lieutenant didn’t do that. Why, I don’t know. Anyhow, he
got killed and his body was lying in there and they couldn’t get the goddamned top. the hatch.
This is from what Spike was telling me. 1-lepulled back and he had two or three as the tank went
out and these guys came after it. A couple guys got killed and they were lying in the tank. A
couple of Marines and he ‘has pretty upset about that. The tank tracks kept Jamming and went
ai-ounclthe circle, finally one of the Japanese threw a hand grenade and I think they killed all of
the ones that were left in the tank. Spike said to the Col., “Get them people the hell out there and
get back in there.” And he said the way he treated the dead as if they should throw them to the
side. Spike didn’t say a word but was pretty upset with that guy l-1esaid that guy was a rough
son of a gun. Then that night, v.e used to have to yell and it was pitch black that \ as the night
the four heay cruisers went down. That ‘Aasthe L’SSQuincy, LSS Vincennes, the LSS Astoria,
and the 1-IMASCanberra. We found out about it the next day. \obody knew about that. it was
kept quiet. That was one of our worst disasters we ever had. Later on when we went back to
Noumea, \ew Caledonia. During niosi of the Guadalcanal fighting as the main \ay port for
the navy ship fighting at C’omal. See at that time unless you were second—classor more you
didnt go back to the U.S. for new construction We had a survivor’s camp at oumea, \ew
Caledonia. survivor’s camp, and all the survivors, because there were 78 ships damaged or sunk
at Guadalcanal from Aug 7, 192 to February I7, 1943 it took six months to secure Guadalcanal.
22 1, Like my brother, he was a Seaman iirst class, at the camp for about 1 or 2 weeks. He was assigned to the USS Larener D.D. 487. They stuck him on a Tin Can and they went back out.
There were two or three ships that got sunk , then they went on the Atlanta and then they went,
you know what I mean. They were short handed and like our ships they came on, because every time when we left Guadalcanal we lefl two or three boats there with crews. That’s what
happened to me later on. Anyhow, what happened is that them four cruisers went down and we
didn’t know it at the time, but we could see the fighting on there, the shelling and everything and
I said, “Boy, we are giving them hell!” It was pitch black and raining like hell, and they
wouldn’t let us near the ship because they were afraid it was Japanese. So we would have to
yell, “1-ley,this is Feindt, this Don, Don.” You know C Division like that and all good stuff, 20
millimeter trained on us and then we could come on in. Finally we came there and they hoisted
us aboard and all of a sudden we get word that we are going to pull the hell out. What had
happened is that Admiral Fletcher, who was on the Enterprise, said that he needed fuel. Later on
I heard that he had of a tank full of’oil, he didn’t really need focI, he was scared a hell of
getting sunk. So he pulled out and Admiral Turner, they called him Terrible Turner, he was in
charge of the amphibious force, he pLills out and we still have V of the equipment of the Marines,
we have all their equipment, food, and all that stuff and we pull our tails out. I will never forget
9111 1011 that. Then I remember as we are leaving that was on the or and it was still lousy weather
and we were burying the guys olTthe fantail, stern of the ship. so we are having ser ices o[Ithe
flintail and anybody want to go back and give their regards or whatever they do, I wasn’t one for
going to church much. and we were burying four or five Marines that were killed on the tanks
and we had a couple Sailors that were killed from the shooting. I think we buried seven or eight
guys. A couple of theni were only wounded and then died later. So then we go back to ew
23 Hebridesand guess what, an old four piper come along side and we startedloadingequipmentto them. They wouldn’t send us back because these stacks of pipes could do about, they were like attack transports, but smallversions. They took a couple of the broilersout and they could still go tister than us. Theycould do about 25 knots. So we loaded someof the food and everything on to them and they went out there and guess what, they got sunk. I rememberreading about that. So then we kept going in there, 1thinktherewere sevenbattles in Guadalcanalfrom what I had read, we were in about four. That’s another thing we did. After that, we went from Nev
Hebrides to AmericanSamoa and went in there and 1 will never forget we almostran in to the minefieldthey had there and we had to go full reverse. I was in the fire room and engineroom and they said, “back back back?”and there was all kinds of yelling. I said, “What the hell happened.” Wellwe went from going ahead as we were going in to Samoa to full speedastern and so we were backingaway in to the channelI guess. But whatever happened,we sure shook
up that engine. Thankgod it didn’t break down. We went in there and they let us go ashore,but
there was nothing in AmericanSamoa. Then the next day, they wake us up, andjust remember
that America Samoa and British Samoa is only 50 or 60 miles apart, and they wake us up and
said, “Get down to the fire room we are getting under way, getting under way.” “It’s an
emergency,emergency?” This was at night. We are wonderingwhat the hell is going on. You
see, they never reallytell you what the hell is going on. The next thingyou know, we went over 1h to BritishSamoa, Apia,to pick up the 7 Regiment. That was Chesty Puller’soutfit. 7” Marine 1h Reg., Task Group 67.1,1St Infantryand 4 MarineReply. Group. He later becamea legendin
the MarineCorp. He cameon our shipand a couple of the others. I was told lateron he was up
on the bridge a couple of times with Bosun Mates and the Signalmen and the Quarter Masters.
They told us, 1 only found this out at the reunionslater on. What we did is we spent the night
24 there and loaded them on and they were stationed in British Samoa, Apia. They had been down there a couple of few months before we landed on Guadalcanal from what I later read. I read the
history of Chesty Puller. I know how he was, he was trying to get in the action. I—feleft the
States way back in April or May and they sent him to Apia to British Samoa. So they were reinforcements. This was sometime in September or October and that was then the Japanese were fighting for the airport and they wanted us to surrender. The Japs wanted the Americans to
7hh1 surrender and we reinforced them with the Regiment and I dont know how many of us there 71h were, but I know that we got them up there sometime in September or October (the v1arines
landed on September I8, and then we got up in there in November, that was the Battle of
Guadalcanal, and that was another time. I think in November we brought the American Division on, but later on we had some soldiers on board. I know that the 43 Division which 1 fought
with later was supposed to go in there, but they were on a merchant ship, which was a big ocean
liner called the President Coolidge and the whole dRision was on there because it could hold
6,OOO men, 1 guess because that was a division size. They went in to New Hebrides and hit a
mine and sank and I think one or two crewman drowned. All the guys swam to shore. Did you
e er hear about that one’
Mr Misenlilmer
Yes.
Mr. Feindt 43 Well, that was the rd Division. That was a New England National Guard outiit. I fought wiih
them later on because as 1 go on, I got transferred to the beach. That was where had my worst
experiences.
Mr. Misenhirner
25 Wewillget to that laterthen.O.K.
Mr. Feindt
That was later. But inbetweenthistimewe alsowentto NewZealandand Australiaandnowoff handthe datesare not that Ihmiliarwithme, but I cangiveyou approximatetimes. Anyhow,we reinforcedhimat that time.The reason I rememberthe Battleof Guadalcanalmore so than with
Chesty’sbunch,becauseI know that was in Septemberor October,what happenedis we would only stay there two or three days and then we had attacks by planes and we shot down; I rememberthis now, it comesback, there were about thur of us in line,the Adamsship,and for some reason one of the stupid guys on the 20 mm opened fire on an SBD that was flying betweenus andthey shotit downand our guyspickedup the pilotandthat sonof a gunwaso.k..
Thankgod noneof themgot hurt or killed. We shot it down and one of our own friendlyfires and they brought them aboard our ship and he was made as hell. I don’t know when that happenedbut I rememberit happened. Now, the Battleof Guadalcanal,I rememberunloading there. We weren’thavingmuch,we met a lot of the guysthat we knewandtheywouldcometo the shipto get somefood and talk to us, becausethey were on our shipsat that time sinceway back in Februaryor March, when we practicedlandingoff of San Diego, California. So we knew some of the guys pretty well. They wouldtell us all about how the Japs wouldbutcher their guys and they would butcherthe Japs and cut off their heads. You know we didn’thave muchusefor the Japs at all. It was prettyraw. Anyhow,whathappenedwas I was pullingalong side the ship and I would look up and they said, “Feindt,if you are going to, come on board becausewe are gettingunderway.” I said,“Whatthe hellis the matter,what’sgoingon?” He said,“Wejust got wordthatjust up theywaythereis a coupleof carriersor a carrier,a coupleof battleships,cruisersand tin cans, Japanesecomingdown. They are comingdown and there is
26 goim to be a hell of a battle so we got to get the hell out of here” I said, “Don’t leave us!”
What they did, they did leave some of them and they hoisted us on board and while we were still moving, the ship started moving. They hoisted us on board and away we went and that night was the Battle of Guadalcanal That’s when we lost the Atlanta and I think seven tin cans got sunk that night and the Atlanta. The Atlanta didn’t get sunk right away. According to my brother, he was in the handling room of a 5” gun mount. The Atlanta was a light cruiser and there was four of them. The Atlanta, The USS Juneau, The USS San Diego and The USS San Juan. They were light cruisers and they had a fault, and the fault was that the ammunition storage was right on the edge of the ship, on the outer sides of the ship. if a torpedo hit there, that’s happened to The
Juneau, it blew it up in two. One torpedo hit right in the ammunition section and it went up on two pieces. That’s another story. Anyhow, what happened, my brother was in the handling room. He was in what they called the handling room. He job was handling the ammunition and passing it up. He was aft in number three. They had three —fiveinch 38’s there, three on each side and three up front. That’s 12 five inch 3$, which that is why it was calkd a anti aircraft
cruiser. It was fairly new and only went in commission in ‘42. 1think my brother commissioned it in the Brooklyn \avy yard it’i’m not mistaken it was around December of ‘41, yeah, January
‘42, i’m not sure. Anyhow, the Atlanta got sunk and his Admiral got kiiled Admiral Scott, and
Admiral Callahan was killed on the San Francisco. Now, she didn’t get sunk, but she lost
approximately 300 men all told. What had happened is the Japs tin cans \ou1dl pLit the big
searchlights on our big ships and before we could blow them out they’d get the range and they
raised hell. As they say, there was a shell that went through the bridge in the San Francisco that
you coLilddrive a jeep through. I got a picture of it in my book. I remember seeing that, In fact,
it showed ‘\dmiral irnitz going on board v hen she went back to I-[awaii or wherever she went.
27 Then, what happened, is my brother, when he looked up at one time lie could see the sky. A shell, t’romeither a battleship or a heavy cruiser blew the mount right oft’the ship. Then he got with a bunch of guys and they were carrying the dead down in to the mess hail and all that. Then
a Higgins boat from the beach, you know because this is late at night, between two and three and
it was about five am. and he said that the Higgins boat picked him up and a few of the other
guys and took them off the ship. The ship’s main deck was level with the water. The Atlanta
hadn’t sunk right away. She sunk later on. When they were getting squared av ay, taking the
dead in to the mess hail, the wounded and stuff they were taking off in our boats. See we had
guys in the Lunga Point boat pool, we had the Tulagi boat pool and a lot of our guys used get off
I knew my time was coming and they’d leave eight/ten boats at a time. I’m trying to remember,
let me think, lie went ashore and what happened is lie stayed on the beach and they gave him a
gun about two or three weeks and they finally shipped him to New Caledonia where he caught a
destroyed called the l.JSS Lardner D.D. 487, he was on her until the end of the war. Anyhow,
going back to that battle, we went back and I know what happened is we went up again and I
think we had the part of the 25hh1 Division. We would only carry a battalion between a bunch of
the three of us we would carry a regiment. Combat teams. Then I remember we weni in to
Australia around Townsville. Why we went in there 1don’t know, it vas near
Mr. Misenhirner
The Great Barrier Reef?
Mr. Feindt
Yeah, the Reef, we had lo go through that Reef up in Townsville. I didn’t get ashore there. 1
forget why, but didn’t get ashore. We were only there one or two days. Then we enl to
I3risbane and for some reason or another, I have no idea why, I didn’t get ashore there But I did
28 get ashore in Melbourne. That is when we started taking Marines out of Guadalcanal. That was in December 1942. When we first took them out ... that was it, we brought some in to Brisbane. that was it. We brought some Marines in to Brisbane for recreation, some of our guys. But some of our guys we had on the ship were also came on the ship after they fought in Guadalcanal.
They found that Brisbane and Townsville was too hot and they kept breaking out with Malaria.
They must of shipped them down by train because the next batch that we took out we went to
Melbourne, which was way in the South and it was cool down there. Then ve also went in to
Wellington and Auckland, New Zealand. We went to dry dock for some reason or other. So 1
spent time in Auckland and Wellington and 1 have pictures taken in there. So then, we started training for the next landing. So we were training in the New Flebrides. What happened is we 43 id72 got the, if i’m not mistaken 72’ Regiment of the d Division, it was the 1 and the 169. 1 got to know that pretty well because they said, “Feindt, you are in the next batch.” Because what happened is that I don’t know if I should mention this or not, but I should, the LSS Atlanta got sunk I didn’t know if my brother was alive or not, so when we went back to New Hebrides, the survivors were coming in off them tin cans and off the USS Atlanta and the Juneau was sunk the next day by a submarine and there was a scandal about that because Captain Hoover off the
Helena kept going and there was over 120 men in the water and they wound up with only 14 survivors. Some of them drifted ashore il’i’rn not mistaken reading where PBY pick up one poor swabby that was in a floating boat. if I’m not mistaken Admiral 1-lalseycourt martialed this fillow, but I don’t know if it was rescinded or not later on. It was a damn shame that they had to leave all them guys in the water. What happened is we went back to New Hebrides and we 43i trained the and we landed there, this is when they trained us and they put all of us, by that time we are etting new boats by the way, we are getting new 1-tigginsBoats and ve are getting
29 the ones with the rampon the front betweentwo gun mountsand I was on that and also the Jeep
Lighteror LCVP. I was assignedto the Jeep Lighterlater on becauseI was going to staythere.
They said, “Feindt,you’re going to be one of the crew.” “They were going to leave 10boats and
30 men. You willbe assignedto do scout and raiderwork and all kinds of work and you willbe working under the 43” Division.” We had a Colonelthat was going to take over. We had two
Ensignsthat camewith us. Not off my shipbut one off’the USS President Hayesand one of the
USS PresidentJackson.
Mr. Misenhimer
Wherewas that at now?
Mr. Feindt
Rendova. See we used Rendovabecause of the because of the reefs and everything. Ve used
Rendova as a starting off spot to capture Munda Air Field. What happenedthere is I was, I
remembersittingin the HigginsBoat we stayedand slept in it all night,before the landing,and
we kept talking and what we did is we had raisinjack and cherryjack. The boats were loaded
with these woodenkegs, and we usedto get these gallon cans of raisinand cherriesand we used
to borrowthem out of the galleyandput them in to the kegs,to tbnnent. If I’m not mistakenthe
guy I was with said,“Hey, I’vehad this stufffermentingfor a week,” We knew we weregoingto
get transferred,and they hadme wearinggloves and the god damnedheatis about 110 degrees. I
said. “I’m gonna throw this stuffout the minute I get a chanceto.” We had our packs and the
helmetsand I said,“God, I’m in the Armynow, not behindthe plow” Thenwe were manningthe
boats, so we wentin there andI looked and rememberearlyin the morningwe had these 61 guys
with us. Either we had to go througha strait I said, “Christ almightyif there’sJaps on both
sides we are goners.” I was going through there 1was like, even though ‘don’t go to church I
30 was and
over behind
and
a barrels
in
unloaded. Whenever
in
They engines, mountain, together came 1943,
BOOM!
were concussion
2” I started
few
had
one
our
I like,
or
I
there
don’t
bombing
remember guys
were
over
boats. and
a the set.
1” of
looking
“1
funny
BOOM! and but
and
gasoline
and
different they
now
We
I
hope know
around.
We
from
as high
think
1
at
Our
they
that’s
that
slept
was
feeling!
us.
did
Rendova,
would
around,
that
to
the
altitude
why.
the
BOOM!
boat
were
the
and
damn
God
palm leave
standing
I
in
Then
fire,
when
jumped
time
south
our
put
ships we
was
stuff
trying
1 nobody
and
trees
bomb’s we,
“Pop,
twin-engine
you
would
we
boats.
would
there 1
all
our
I
side
on
in had
only
bodies
right
could
this
these kept
remember to and
another
home. the
pop,
is
was
to
make say,
were fbrgotten.
have
We’d
time
stayed
there!”
in brush,
coming
back
see
soldiers
were
surprise
only
the
pop,
“My
bombers.
been
was We an
we
the
pull section.
of
Rendova water
a
it
all
airstrip
a
Sure
got
pop” were in
God,
31 little
day. landing the lasted
few,
with
sitting out
around, us.
When
and
most
boat
and
enough
off
bombed
dots
The
not
the how
1
on I
They
unloading.
about As
has
think ducks,
remember
and
right
went
they and
the
of
30/30 many,
I
coming
soldiers
I
many
a
remember
we
anchor the
might
remember,
landing a
all mountain
if
by in
in
came
we
half
went
Fm
ammo
among but
of food
between
surprise
guys
down went
We
were
that
a
have
and
out
not
a
over
point,
sudden
right
and
few
that
would
are boxes
about
and
hour
the
through
our
the
mistaken
when
running
left
on
the
equipment
they
through
Japs
near
but
Seabees
gasoline
sleep
fbur
2”
flying
it
or
July
in
boats.
unload
3,000
they
was
1
were
came
and
so.
one
those
there
don’t
and
in
boats
that
l’,
that
fortresses
dead
came
our
had 4”
There
foot
section
and
the
around
and I
hiding
and over
I
explosions.”
think
was could
of there
boats
were
‘m
come
man’s
ammunition.
ammunition
high.
over.
ammo,
July,
we
were
June
the
not
they and
in
channel in
hear
tied were and
landed
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point. there
1943. there
small
They sure.
They
only
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eat
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4
I did. Anyhow,what he was doing, he was bulldozingand we had rain in between that time and the ground was muddyand he was caughtunderneaththe tractor and they were tryingto get him out. I think it wasquite a fbwbodieslaid out in orderto identilSrsome these guys. Becausea lot of them are like me. We had a pair of shorts on and bandana with ammo and hats, I had
Australianhat on. We didn’t even look like Army,Navy, Marines,we looked like a bunch of ragabonds. One guy said, “1-leyFeindt, they identifiedyou!” I said, “Me!” No! It was some buddie that was off our ship namedAndersonfromMinnesota, I remember,becausehe got hit,
shrapnelwent right through his right side of his head. I will never forget those two bombings.
Now, we were loadingto go over to New Georgia. The ArmyColonelsaid to our Boat Master,
“We gotta go to Mundabelow the airfield. Well,anyhov, this was in the afternoonand we were
going to go over that night. That night we load up, 1willneverforget, the Officerthat was in our
boat was a Coloneland were assignedto make our first landing,this was around the 5th of July,
we were tryingto get establishedover in Munda. Guess what, we went over there at night and
whoever was leadingus got lost! Then finallywe did get establisheda day later. We kept going
up a long the beach towards the Munda airfield. We landed one place and then that wasn’t
enough and then we would land another place and we were going in there one time and all of a
sudden they were shellingus from some place and you’d see water pop up and you’d say what
the hell’s going on and they were shellingus, you know. The funny part is they didn’t hit a
thing. Then we went in by the beach and we were underneath the coverage from where they
were shooting. Then anothertime we were comingback with them, we did a lot of this scouting
work withthe 43”. If I’m not mistaken, I worked withthe 172” Rg. 3”’Battalion. The soldiers
were very good. We ate with them by the way all of the time and the Armycooks were good.
They knes how to cook. Then1rememberthe third landinge landedit closest to the airport
32 and they had their big battle there and said, “We need you sailorsto help us.” We were taking back some of the wounded and they left the dead up there. We didn’t go get the dead until a week or two later. I will never forget that because what they used to do is take the stretchers, they had these cheap stretchers and they’d sprinklelye over the bodies,and then they’d put them in a sheet and we would take them back. We used to pile them nine high to take them back to the cemetery. That was one of my worst assignments. Then we caught a bunch of Jap soldiers in that one section. It was over in about 10 or 15 minutes. They went back in to the jungle, those that ere left. 1think we killedabout 12 or 15 of them. We didn’t bother with them. We
didn’t go near to see how manywere alive or dead. It was a case where you’re going around a bend and there they are. Then we went up on the Bairoke Harbor and we were there and they
called us that they need about thur or five boats to go and pick up the wounded from Marine
Raidersthen a guy in Bairoke Harbor, they were doing some kind of trying to shut off the Japs
comingfromKolombangara. What we did is take the wounded and put them on a PBY. They
were getting pretty well shot up. Therewere onlytwo or three companiesthat I couldpick out. I
think they were from the 6tb Marine Raiders. I know they were from a rough bunchand they
were having a hard time to get with them. Finally.,whatever they did they succeed pretty Mell.
Japs counterattacked July 25th, We went overthe Kolombangaraand by that time the Japanese
had evacuatedthank God, and airplanesand everythingwere over there and 1 will never forget
the bombsthat were lyingon the airfield. See Kolombangarahad an airfield. Big 500 pounders
from our B24’s and stuff Some of them never went oWlyingthere. We werewalkingby them
and said,“Gees, I int to get the hell outta here.in case they ever decide to detonate themand
get them outta there.” We only did that for about two hours and thengoLthe heck out of there
so that was that. Then they sent me back to Guadalcanaland they finallysaid you guys have
33 about two years out here, so some of you get a thirty-day leave. We went back to Guadalcanal and waited for transportation, they put us on the ship. it was a \‘lerchant ship that took us back to
San Diego and ok about three weeks, We finally got back there and I don’t know anything if it was March or April.
Mr. Misenhimer
That was in ‘44? Right?
Mr. Feindt
‘44 right. They had us all, we didn’t have any uniforms at all, you know what I mean, because we were six months on that Island. That six months there was a lot of fighting, but there vvasso much going on every day that it’s hard to remember all of it and the different ones that died and all that. A lot of times, you shut that out of your mind. When we finally got back there, I got thirty days, I will never forget, I got thirty days and no transportation I spent four days goin’ and four days back. The train trip cost me $72.00 round trip. By that time I had a couple hundred dollars. Even though I was only making $50 bucks a month. I think I was making $40
or $50 a month. t started out at S21. $36. and $54 and 1iom there went to S60 and the Chiefs were making about $100 a month or SilO. But anyhow, I took the trail] and from there I walked
From one Station to another station and boy it was cold. It was still around March or April in
Chicago. Then I caught the train the other way’. Meanwhile, what happened is that I hadn’t shaved for three days because the train we were on was a servicemen only train. It must have been built in the 1900’s. It still had the old fashioned lights in them. From there, they had a big building in Chicago. the IJSO building, we could shave and everything, because the shore patrol picked me up once because they thought I was AWOL. I said, “‘No. I’ve been on a train br three
days.” I showed them my papers.
34 Mr. Misenhimer
Your orders?
Mr. Feindt
Well, 1 got ordersto go back to San Diego. My leave papers and they said o.k. They are the
ones that showed me where to go to the IJSO. So then I went to the USO and I shavedand
refreshedmy clothes and then I made New York in 18 hours on another train. I had thirty days
and guess what then 1 had to go back to San Diego and because of my recordsthey lookedand
when I went to aviation school, they stuck me on a Carrier,the USS SargentBay. It was the
CVE 83. 1was on sometimein ‘44, 1think it was sometimein June, July, August. From there
we went to Kwajaleinand there we picked up a bunch of Japaneseprisoners. On the hanger
deck we made a big fence around them and took them someplace. I think we took them to
Honolulu. From there we went to the Battle of the Philippines. We had these Hellcats and
bombers and we used to support the amphibious. I wasn’t amphibious anymore, I was
supportingthem now. I was in the fire room and I was second-classreadyfir first class Water
Tender. I got a promotionand we werefightingoff the Philippinesand then we hadthe Battle of
Leyte Gulf when all the carriers and all the carriers planes and we were from Mindinao
supportingthemand they sunktwo of our sister ships on the other end. That’swhen Halseygot
waylaid. He was waylaid and he pulledhis fleet out and the only fleet down here was small
carriersand tin cans. Therewas one tin can (end firsttape secondside)
Mr. Misenhimer
Thisis sideone of the tape 2 withDonaldFeindt. O.K., you were there at the Battle of...
Mr. Feindt
PhilippineSea(Battle of LeyteGull).
35 Mr. Misenhimer
‘vVhatwas the name of your CVE again?
Mr. F&ndt
U.S.S Sargent Bay, in fact, I never heard anything more about that ship. I never had a reunion or nothing. But when we were down at the point in Charleston, South Carolina, you know Patriot
Point, she was listed in there, of all the Carriers were on there and she was listed with five battle
stars. The U.S.S. President Adams had nine battle stars.
Mr. Misenhimer
Ho do you spell the name of that ship?
Mr. Feindt
IJSS Sargent Bay.
Mr Misenhirner
Sargent, S-a-r-g-e-n-t?
Mr. Feincit
Yes, CVE 83 or 87. 1 forget which. But I never heard anything more about it Anyhow, hat
happened then we left Iwo Jima and our planes supported Iwo Jima All I did is watch the planes
come in and out. The U.S.S. President Adams, my old ship was at l\.o Jima. the Navy did the
landings. Tn fact it \ as one of the fellow shipmates. Bill Wright that was at our reunion, he was
a Beach Master down there where all the Marines were killed. 1-lesaid it was terrible. They had
them piled high in the pushcarts picking up the dead bodies along the beach Oh it was horrible
he said. That was when we had the USS President Adams reunion, Then from i o Jima we
went to Okinawa and we used to stay in a little island South of Okinava then when we were
acting as Support for them we had a bunch of Kamikaze’s come and they hit the carrier next to us
36 and they missed us by I don’t know somebody said 20 or 30 feet 1don’t know, I was in the fire room. They almost got kamikazied there. Then guess what, see I was regular Navy, and regular
Navy on that ship are shipped over. In other words, my four years were up (November 1944).
See I went in a minority crew, 17 to 21. I was supposed to get out November 1944 and this was
12hu1 sometime in November ‘44. November turned 2 1 years old. The Commander was a
Chaplin and he said, “Feindt, vvhy don’t you ship over because you will get two hundred and
some odd dollars?” He said, “You gotta stay in anyhow, you’re not gonna get out. The war is
still on.” So 1 said all right and 1 shipped over. So that means that I was going to stay until
November 12, 1946. Right after that everybody started surrendering. Anyhow, Tdidn’t get out.
I worked way up until they said, “Feindt, you’re regular Navy.” So this is sometime in, after I
shipped over that was November ‘44 and then we fought Iwo Jima, that was in ‘45, in February
when we were there fighting that and Okinawa was right after that.
Mr. Misenhimer
April 11 was when Okinawa was invaded.
Mr. Feindt
O.k., we were there April and May and then 1 got notice to Saipan and they left me oft’and this
was sometime in late May or early June and they said, “Feindt, you are going to oil burning
school in Philadelphia Navy Yard.” After a 30-day leave. In ‘45 so I got to an old [ST. I
remember that was acting as a receiving ship and it couldn’t get oil’and when high tide came the
back of it would till up with water. I remember that. it would get water in it and it was stuck on
the ground. They used that as a receiving ship for people leaving to go back to the States. I went
back to San Francisco on a ship called the S.S. Tisdane, a Danish merchant ship, it was a civilian
shIp witli Dutch Ofticers and Indian crew. We landed in San Francisco. California Now how
37 the heck I can rememberthat, I don’t know. Certain things in my mind I can rememberand I can’t remember what happenedyesterday. Anyhow, to make a long story short, I go to San
Franciscoand 1get my thirty days again,this is in ‘45. 1had about a year out there then. So all total I had about 3 or so years out there. So then I go back to Long Island and report in Philly
Navy at the oil burningschool. So I get therejust about the timethe war ends. Guess what, they close it down. Theyput me on, sinceI was regularNavy, I take that back, I thinkI went there about a week, to the oil burningschool. I was in the oil burning schoolwhen the war ended. I went ashore and all the bars were closed in Philly. I will neverforget. Then I remembera big girl about six foot tall grabs me around the neck and said, “The war’s over, here have a shot.”
She had a bottle of whiskeyin her hand. So 1took a shot of whiskeyand off she goes. I will never forget that. Then so I went back and they said, “Feindt, you’re going on a tin can.”
Everybodyis getting out of this Navy, everybody,it’s an all point system and they said “Feindt, we needall the regular Navy guys.” So that put me on the USS Herbert3. Thomas,DD 833, it was a kamikazeship, DD 833. 1just get all unpacked and I’m there for about a week,they said,
“Feindt, you gotta get transferred to the IJSS CharlesP. Cecil DD 835, another kamikazeship.
She’sgoing out to Japan.
Mr. Misenhimer
What do you meanby kamikazeship?
Mr. Feindt
It was designed;in other words a destroyer in between her hadtwo stackshad a big radar instead
of torpedo tubes. Ttwas twin mountsforward and AFT. It carriedsixfive-inch38’s. It was the
newestthingout WeusedtocallitaradarpicketshipDD835. Iwillneverforgctit.
Mr.Misenhimer
38 And they calledthem kamikazeshipsbecausethey were to guard againstthe kamikazes. Is that it?
Mr. Feindt
Yes, there were supposedto pick up the kamikazesway back aheadof timeandthen we would carryextra anti-aircraftand gunsand the five-inch38’s. We carriedsixof theminsteadof three.
The older shipsused to carry three singlemount, we had twin mounts. Twin five-inch38’s.
Two forwardand one AFT. So it was quiteinterestingbecausewe went from Newport, RI, we were therethree days,to Panama,Panamauh we wentto Honolulufor two daysandbelieveit or not I was in Yokohama,Japan. I willneverforgetbecausewe pulledinto the Navalbase,what a beautifulNavalbasethey had, we wentby the USS Missouriand we had to standat attention.
“Attentionaboard,attentionaboard.” The big shots, the Admiralwere on there. We pulledin there and it was sometimein October, T think I was in there Septemberor October and I rememberbeing there for Thanksgivingand Christmas. What we did all along in there pretty welt more or less, we droppingdepth charges. Tryingto set off shipsthat were in Yokohama
Bay loaded with ammunition. They were supposedto be three or four places and were droppingdepth chargesand we rescueda Japanesefishingboat and we tried to get a hold of them becausethey were in heavyseas. Then one of mybuddiet the Chief he was gettingout, he had fourteenyearsin. He wantedto get out of the Navyso hegot bouncedagainstone of the bulkheadswith a waveandbrokehisleg, so he was gettingoffanyhow. Thenwe went downto
Yokasukaand Nagoya. it was a pretty well damagedcity. and them differentones and we all patrollingall inthere and thenwe get word, now we didthis allthe wayfrom Novemberandthe occupation in Japan and all these differentIslands and mostlyjust you know patrollingand takingcare of differentthings. Like rescuework up at Japanese Sampansor whenevertheyget
39 hurt. Then we got ordersto go to takethe Iowabackto Honoluluto go to OperationCrossroads in May or June 1946. What the hell is that? They were dropping the atomic bomb in Bakini
Testing Islands. I said, “Oh no, I gotta go back to the Pacific.” So what we did is we went to
Honolulu to the destroyer base and stayed there a little while then headed South in to Bikini
Islands. That’s when we were plane guard, we acted as plane guards. Thesecarriers you know carried drones. It was the USS Shangri-La,I will neverforget. Whatwe would do is we would be behind her when she launched the planesand if anything happened you know we were be there to pick up the pilots, etc. So we were about fifty miles off when they dropped the first
bomb and then we went back in and they were washingit down. A lot of guys they saidcaught
cancer fromthat. I don’t know how true it is. In fact, I got lettersfromdifièrentIbllows. And
what they did to me, they put in these little squares,like a littlesquare film,and they stuck them
in my pockets,becauseI was first class then, stuck themin my pocket and if the radiationcame
out, as I saidwe were forty-five,fiftymilesoff it was show true to radiation. So we went back
in and we could see that almostallthe shipswere stilltherebut a lot of them were scarredup and
everything. Afterthe second one, we didn’t evengo nearthe place..they wouldn’t let us in. We
headed back to San Diego and then I got discharged. Thiswas about November 1946and since
mybirthdaywasNovember12, everythingwentby my birthday. So I got out around November th101946 and went home and thenI went to work withESSO Tankers. By the way, this is what happened, I joined the reserves. This guys says.“Feindt..look you put in six years, why don’t
you join the reserves and maybe you can make Chief and can get a pension.” I said all right,
maybe so because therewill be nowar. ThenlalmostwentbackintotheAnny,the24”
Divisionas a Sergeant,because I couldn’tget any work at that time. I was on the 52/20 club. I
was fmishingit up. You get $20.00buckseveryweek. Doyou rememberthat?
40 Mr. Misenhimer
Oh yeah, I remember that.
Mr. Feindt
So anyhow, I got that then as I said I was getting tired of standing around and playing shuffleboard and drinking beer. So what happened then is I decided to go down and join the
24111 Army in the Division and they’d give me a Sergeant job, but I didn’t sign up. thank God
I’m down in Ne York City down around the Bowery, South part of NYC, Manhattan, and down around there and this guy meets me and says, “Hey Feindt, where you been?” I said, “Oh,
I’ve been here and there.” He was on the USS President Adams with me. He said, “I’ve been
sailing ESSO tankers” He said they pay good money and everything and he says their looking for
Sailors that have experience in the engine room. Well, I went and signed up with them and 1
said, “Thank God I left the Army.” My buddy, Thomas Dickey of Nesconset, Long island, New
York. believe or not, he was my buddy from school in Nesconset school in Long island, where I
worked. I-Icwent back in the 24111 Division. He was in the 32 Division in New GLIinea. Guess
what, when the Chinese overran them, the th24 Division was almost wiped out. i-ic was missing
and assumed dead from what 1was told. They never Poundhim and a lot olothers in his outfit.
Mr. Misenhimer
Well, your friend was killed in the th24 Division.
Mr. Feindt
Oh yeah, Thomas Dickey, i’ll never forget. I didn’t find out until much later. Then I went with
ESSO tanks and guess what, I’m down in Maracaibo, J was with them three or four years, and
I’m still single, 1 didnt get married until ‘53, July 12th. So what happens is that I get notice
when I was down there. I vas On SS ESSO Hartford and they said report back to the Brooklyn
41 NavyYard, so 1went back and I say hey I’m a MerchantMarineand they said,“That don’t mean nothing,you get back in there and report to the BrooklynNavy Yard.” So, I did. They said, Fit never forget interviewingme, they gave me shot and oh that hurt my arm. Those shot, I had to get shots again. This was 1950. So then I said whenI was interviewedthey said,“Whatkind of duty do you want?” Well, the first duty is like yours. I like to stay here in Brooklyn.Flushing
ALJEBarracks. He says what’s your second choice. 1 said, sbTincan, I’d like to go back on the
USS ChalesP. Cecil DD 835, so it’s out in San Diego.” Oh o.k., Guess what? About a week later he comesin and says, “Donald Feindt, USS Wisconsin.battleshipat Portmouth Navy Dry-
Dock.” They gave me a battleshipon the East Coast and I just broughta brand new car 1950
Pontiac with metallic paint and I paid cash for it because I was making good dough. It was metallicpaint and believe it or not, I went down there and I couldn’t find a place to park. The thing was in dry dock, no bathroom, no head and I hadto walk ashore to go to the bathroom or wash. Oh, it was terrible and it was that way for a couple of weeks. 1 said, “God ahnighty”1 was going nuts. HereI have on my ESSO tankers I worked up to, I did&t haveallthe nonsense1 had in the Navy, and so cause see I got busteda coupleof timesbecauseof the fact, let’s see, one time I, I shouldn’tyou know, i’m going back on this but I can’t help it. When the Atlanta got sunk, I went and we come backthere, I knew it wasthe survivorscamp, wellthey said, “Feindt, you are on stand by, you can’tgo ashoreto find out if your brother is alive.” So I said o.k. So we had the boom out, boom’s ere swingingarmsthat we tied the smallHigginsBoats up to, and I just went and took a HigginsBoat and somebodybroughtit back whileI was still up there and foundout my brotherwas alive and they broughtit back and so when I came backthey said,
“Feindt, you took one of themHigginsBoats.” 1 said, “Yeah,but 1was gonna bring it back, but somebodybeat me to it.” Anyhow,they said o.k. that’s when I got transferredand they said,
42 “You’re on the next invasion.” They threw me in the brig for three days and the executive
officerand it was one of them things that you know and then fbr some other reason, I forget
what, oh yeah I rememberwhat happened. Rememberwhen we would comingback, well we
wereplayingguardfir the Iowa,we hit Honoluluandwe wereina groupof thur destroyers. We
pulledalongsidethis Tenderon the beachand everybodygets liberty. The Captainon our ship,
brand new from WashingtonD.C. saysthere willbe no libertyfor anybodyuntilyou declareall
that you purchasedfromJapan. Boy, I was sweating,Ijust cameup out of the engineroomand I
said,“No way.” I went ashoreto have a good time and we hadn’teaten a good mealin weeks
becausewe had heavyseasand they do the samething. Theyjust fed us sandwichesand apples
and so 1went ashoreand had a few drinksand steak and in Australiathat say “Steak& Eggs”.
Anyhow,he busted me again. I got busted two times. I kept gettingmy rank back and then I
wouldget busted. See at that time,in the old daysyou wouldget bustedby the Bureauof the
Navyand nowjust the Captaincan promoteyou anddemoteyou. But it’schanged,the Navyhas
changeda lot sincethen. So anyhow,that’swhathappened,I wenton boardthe 1.35 Wisconsin,
I had joined the reserves in November‘46 and my Navy time was up November‘50 in the
reserves,O.K What happenedis that 1 was calledback in July or Augustof ‘50 but I would
have had only a couple of monthsin there, but PresidentTrumanextendedeverybodya year.
Theyfinallyhad to let me out becausefirst we sent to Halifax,Nova Scociathen fromHalifax
we hadthis MID ShipmanfromAnnapolis,NY, on boardthis battleshipand we did someheavy
driving,we woulddo 31 knots. That battleshipcouldreallymove. Thenwe went to Edinburgh,
Scotland,and thenwiththemand then fromScotlandwe went over to Portugaland (remember
Portugalvery wellbecauseeverythingwas so cheap. Thiswas aroundAugustor Septemberof
‘50 or ‘51, 1forget which.I can’t remember. What happenedis I thinkTgot a wholebottle of
43 wine for .50 centsand a steak dinnerfor about $1.50or something. It was very reasonableand
Portugal was very beautitbl and very nice. Then November 1951 and they had to let me out before the KoreanWar ended. I didn’tgo to Korea with them. You know what I mean. So that was pretty wellsquaredaway.
Mr. Misenhimer
Now, let’s go back. You mentionedthat they called your four ships The “Unholy Four”. Tell me about that.
Mr. Feindt
Well, here’s what it is. I have all this stuff on the “UnholyFour”. You know we had that name from the Marines. What it was it was the Great Novelsof WWII. It was in that book. i’ve got the book here. The Great Novels of WWI1of the Pacificedited by Mark Jaffe. On page 34 it mentionsabout the “UnholyFour”. Then in the book BaffleCryand the movie, it was about the
“UnholyFour”. it was about the 2”’ Division. We had on board the 3” Battalion,2” Marines.
This fellow, what was his name, he wrote the book, oh and uh it said the story of the Marine
Corp. oh, here’swhat he said about it. He said about the book, ‘Thebook the Battle Cry, was
Leon Uris Ex-Marine,and he was in the 2” Marine Divisionand the 3”’Battalion”and we had them on the ship. Now, I don’t know if he was on when we were. but Tthink he was. lie said in the book, in the beginningof the book, “I want to do justice to the story of the MarineCorp.. I felt a sound historicbasis wouldbe the onlythiravenueof approach.” in other words. the names in the book were fictitious,but action and the ditThrentplaceweren’t fictitious,because he was there. It was called,“BaffleCry”. Even in the moviethe guy mentionedit, “Oh, w&re going on board the ““UnholyFour”, w®onna see a lot of actionnow.” So we got the nicknamethe
““UnholyFour”” that way. That was the four ships. Tworked with the Navy museumhere in
44 the Ft. Pierceand I had a littledisplaythere at the “UnholyFour and stufflikethat. I alsohave some a lot in my travels I had bunch of pictureof Okinawa. I got them from one of the Marines.
They are not my pictures,but he gave them to me for some reason, I tbrget what it was. Then I also have Japanesemoneyhere and on ft says 1945 from Okinawa. I have two Jap flags. I think
I got them,one of themwas from, Fm not sure where, eitherNew Georgia or one. Allft was on it, I had somebodytranslate at the Japaneseplace and ft was and at first some of themwouldn’t tell me and then some of them did. It was names of people that were wishinghimgood luck at that he livesa long lifb. That what was in there. ThenI hadanotherthat I had gottenwhenI was in the occupationof Japan. I stillhavethe two Jap flags, but I don’t have much. I had a Jap gun and a I had a Jap luger. Did you know Japanese had luger? The imitationof the Germanluger, but they were cheap guns. That was stolenfrom me and I don’t know what happenedto that ‘03 and the Jap light machineguns. But I got a lot of these diflèrent pictures and all that sort of
stuff It’s a quarter after 11:00.
Mr. Misenhimer
That’sfine. No problem. You got homewith quiet a few souvenirsthen, huh?
Mr. Feindt
Not quiet a few, no, just a pictures and all that. Most souvenirswere hard to hold on to beibre getting home. Then I have a lot oC I still keep my “Guadalcanal Echo”, it was the
quarterly magazine. I am a lifetimemember. Then I got a lot of pictures to show, in 1956. I’m looking at it now, The L.S.S. Wisconsinhit a destroyer and ruined the whole bow. it shows a picture of the bow stoved in real bad. Guess what, they took the bow otTthe Minnesota they
were buildingand stopped after the war stopped and they stuck ft on U.S.S. Wisconsinand she’s
a foot longer than her other three. So she is the largest battle shipin the world. She’sright now
45 in Norfolk, Virginia. I belong to the USS Wisconsingroup and I belong to the USS President
Adamsgroup (we also callft “UnholyFour group) and alsothe USS CharlesPC has a reunion.
But I haven’tbeengoingto anyof them lately. SinceI lost my wife I didn’t care aboutgoing to them. Thenwe also have the tin can sailors,and I have the book herein front of me here. There is a bunch of pictures of the tin cansthat werehitby kamikazes. Shows one of them had five of them land on it. It looks like a flat top hadjust flattenedthat ship out. Then I got a buddy here that wrote a book, it’s called,“SailorBoy”. Oh, i’ve got a storyto tell you. Rememberwhen we were there December7”, you know over there, well what happenedis that we were in our hotel and believe it or not, this guy gets up and talks, “My name is Jim Oswine and I was a plank owner on the USS President Adamsand this is the firsttime that I havebeen here.” We were at this hotel in NewOrleans. I said to my son, “I don’t rememberhim”. So anyhow,guess what, I go over and I said, “Hey Jim, I don’t rememberyou on the USS PresidentAdams”and he says,
“Yeah,I was on the USS PresidentAdams.” I said,“Where?”and he said,“1was in the engine room” and I said, “Well how come I don’t know you???”he said, “What’s your name?”and I said, “Feindt”and he said, “I rememberyou, I used to stick you in the bilges.” I said, “What!” and he said, “Yeah, I was the Chief Machiniston there, I was the.” 7.said, “You were? i rememberyou now” and i shouldn’tsay it, but I wantedto say,“You werethe son of a bitchthat was a real tough one”. Anyhow, he was in the Navy from 1928 up until the, he just wrote a book, “A SailorBoy” I got it in front of me. He is one of our Vice Presidentsnow. He was 94 lasttime Theard! But I don’t know what happenedto himallthis time, but he wrote a bookhere,
“Goingall the Wayfroma fleeting Glimpse”He gave me a copy of the book. Ho was in charge
of the engine room and the fire room. He was the head enlistedman in black gang. He joined the Navyin 1929.
46 Mr. Misenhimer
Good. Let meask you a couple of questions. You mentionedthe USO in Chicago. Didever see anyUSO showsor anythinglikethat?
Mr. Feindt
No, 1 never did. No, in the Pacific1 was always up in the front. So 1 never did. I had heard about you know when I think if I’m not mistaken,Bob Hope was in Guadalcanalat one time,but
I was alreadyfightingup in New Georgia. He was there in ‘43 after it was secured. But I never did get to anyof the USO’sreallyat all.
Mr. Misenhimer
Did you ever haveany experiencewiththe Red Cross?
Mr. Feindt
Well,the Red Cross was not well liked in my time in the Navy. I know they usedto, when in
Saipanthey hadthe Red Cross,but I think if I’m not mistakenthey made us payfbrthe donuts in
Saipan.l’m not sure. I thinkthe SalvationArmywas thought of in a muchbetter light.
Mr. Misenhimer
Whenyou were overseas,how about gettingmail? Couldyou get mailwithanyregularity?
Mr. Feindt
Well, I was single and my mother would have been the only one writing me and I didn’t have any girlfriends.My two brothers were with me in the Pacificas I mentionedbefore. My mother was the only one who wrote me. So didn’t go much Ibr mail. Twas so young when I left,right out of highschool. 1didn’tgo throughthe regularstufl’you know what 1mean.
Mr. Misenhimer
47 In May of 1945, Germany surrendered. Do you recall hearing anything about Germany surrendering?
Mr. Feindt
When did they surrender, April or Mayo
Mr. \‘lisenhimer
1h May 5 think. Somewhere first part of May.
Mr. Feindt
I don’t know. I don’t remember much about them surrendering. You see the only communication we had with tile outside world was the ship’s paper, but it didn’t have much on it. In fact, when I was called back in the Korean War, two ESSO tankers collided in tile GulioF
Mexico and I had a lot of buddies killed on that and that vas sometime in ‘50. It was the SS
Suez and one other DIL tankers, I don’t remember what one, and another one collided in the
Gulf of Mexico and it mentioned about it cause I happened to pick it up. I was on The
Wisconsin then by the way. I didn’t find out any names or nothing. They didn’t have nothing
and there was no way I could find out anymore about it, and they were both ESSO tankers that
collided with each other and a bunch of guys killed. I don’t know if you ever heard about it. In
my time with the ESSO Co., I must have been on 12 to 15 different oil tankers.
Mr. Misenhimer
No, I hadn’t.
Mr. Feindt
That happened sometime in the ‘50’s
\lr \lisenhimer
What did ou think oFyour Commanding Officer and other people you had over you?
48 Mr. Feindt
\Vell. a lot of them I didn’t care for. Most of’them in the Navy when I was ills there was a big distinction between tile officers and the men. Tilere was a, what do you call, you know, how do you put it A caste system between the officers and the men. you know what I mean. We didn’t associate at all. Now there two that I had fought with on Rendova was all right, but they were botll Ofl tile transfer list, if you know what 1 mean. One gLiy was an alcoholic I think because I know Ile used to drink with us all of the time. The other one, he was a newspaperman and I guess Ile talked too much. I don’t really know. But I didn’t have flluch and being so young, I
didn’t ilave much contact with the Officers, you know what I mean. Mostly witil tile Chiefs or
anything like that. I kept pretty well away from them. We didn’t have much to do ith them.
Now, I \ent aboard a ship here tile other day and 1 it was so different. I went on the LSS
Normandy and tllat was in Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Everglades in tile port. And god almighty. it a
light cruiser with missiles, a light missile cruiser and I went on the bridge and on the quarterdeck
and my god., it was hall’women. So, I talked to this Oflc guy and they were ver ftiendly,
especially my soil-in-law brought me because I fought on Guadalcanal and it was I could meet
somebody from the ancient days. you know what I mean. So. I said, “What about this no see, no
hear. no evil ,“ what the hell do they cafl “What about these guys and these gals” Ftc said,
“We don’t care what the hell they do, as long as they don’t bother us. If we get in to trouble c
ha\e to go to Court and all that.” With all these women and everything, you knox what I mean.
So, the Captain was aboui the friendliest guy ever say in my liiè. He was like a big comedian.
See when I was in the Navy, every time tile Captain came by. every body stopped everything and
said, “Attention”. And everybody had to stand at attention until he said “at ease” then you go on
49 your way. But this guy was running all over the place and lie was a four stripper too, Captain in rank. The Navy is very lax as far as discipline, not like it was in our time.
Mr. Misenhimer
Let me ask you another question? What would you consider your most frightening period?
Mr. Feindt
One of the most frightening was New Georgia, when I was fighting at Rendova. When I was fighting in Rendova I have four or five experiences when them damn dive-bombers came and dropped bombs on our Higgins Boats. It was about four of us in a line. Vvhat the hell are they, you know the first thing you do when a dive bomber, why the hell would they be doing something like that on just a 36 ft. landing boat. Maybe they were scared. Thank God they went right in to the water and didnt explode until they went to the bottom. Then they just splashed water all over us. Course the water might have been 20 or 30 feet deep. Then when they were shelling us and when the bombs hit us and a lot of times I was scared as hell when my own planes came by when we were out on reconnaissance and doing scout and \ould be an advance.
We would scout and recoii with Army, looking for Jap hideouts. It would be me, my Coxswain and there would be four or five different soldiers 43 recon and they would dive down and if you
waved an American flag or something, 1think we did have one, we would try to wave. Because
the second time they coming down they going down opening up, I remember now. jLtstvaguely, that we had guys that didn’t see these planes and they were shooting at gators and sharks in the water with their machines guns and they seen this stuff popping in the water and they went clown and they strafed and shot up a couple of our guys. That’s what they today call ‘friendly Iire’.
The most frightening was the bombings and when we got bombed on the 211 and 4111 of July.
4111 Every time I hear theni bombs I still think of ii on oP July when they start all the fire works.
50 On the ship. it was too bad. Then in Gavutu is when I came in close contact fighting. Gavutu in
Tonombago. The rest of the time when we had air attacks and we were just the lucky that the bomb don’t land where you are.
Mr. Misenhimer
What ribbons did you get?
Mr. Feindt
Let me see, I have a bunch in the garage. I have, I don’t know, eight or nine battle stars, you now they give those little stars. Then I have pre—warand I have to count them, I don’t know, I have them in a little, let’s see, I have eight different kind of medals, I sent away to the Bureau and they sent me back, because a lot of people can buy them that don’t deserve them. Then some of them I have the four of five silver, little stars, lhr each, oh, I don’t have my glasses on that. Yeah a bunch fi’omthe Philippines and one &om, I will go in to the kitchen with them and
then 1 can read them. 1 haven’t looked at them for quite a while. It’s according to what they
order you I think our ship got a citation. I know the Atlanta got one too and my brother, Bob, did. They give it to you when you get sunk. If you don’t get sunk you dont get one. Oh yeah, let me see, The avy Occupation with Asiatic Clasp, American Campaign Medal before Pearl
1-lat-bor,\ational Defense Service Medal, American Defnse Service Medal with Fleet Clasp, ational Personal Record Center, 9700 Page Blvd, St. Louis, Missouri, with the awards letter pinned in the back, W\V11 Victory Medal, Asiatic Pacific Medal with one sil er and thur bronze stars. Philippine Liberation Medal with two bronze stars, then the Korea Service Medal
Mr. Misenhimer
What did you get the silver star for?
Mr. Feindt
51
number
boot
your
service thing,
When came ribbon.
MO. with
To
Seal.” the are
American didn’t awards. one,
Yeah,
Mr. Mr.
lgotitonthebackhere,letmereadwhereitcamefrom. No
little
be
no,
branch
Feindt
Misenhimer
they
important
camp
a
from
when
I
You
tell
they
honest
I
that’s
cross,
number
understand,
is
stars
would
One
Then
never
224-19-29
Defbnse
me
they
the
of
know
said
I
the
was
not
thing
with
not
why.
service.
Navy
over
number
say.
sent
and
that.
have.
battle
the
there
at
eligible.
you,
Service
it
right.
“Oh
me
the
Then
I
they
and
you
Liason
that
said;
have
stars,
That’s
where
were
any
A
I
U.D.T.
what’s
I
know
don’t
had
the
right
read
review
Good
with
a
notice
Yeah,
Office,
not
so
they
hard
Philippine
like
the
what
it
know
Museum
there
your
Fleet
a
many
conduct
offjust
of
silver
why.
your
Asiatic
Navy
give
time
room
I
bud
your
clasp.
says,
what
mean.
guys
you
star,
service
Liberation
But
remembering
I
like
Unit
numbeti”
medal
52
had
3475,
Pacific
personal
oh
the
that
a
Whatever
they not
that.
Asiatic
shake
frllows
here’s
commendation
difibrence
number.
Navy
National
the
had
did
is
1
with
file
And
one
don’t
down,
Pacific,
one
to
another
say
U.S.
come
my
the
and
have
your
two
they
on
silver
between
Funny
Personnel
know,
social
hell
Marine
you
Hereitis,Ireceivedthesein’Slby
in
you
was
the
bronze
thinking
pboy
would stuff
ribbon
and
that
and
know,
back
know,
thing.
it
therefore
security
the
said, Corp
is
you
means,
four
Records
say,
stars,
stuck
of
bar.
Your of:
silver
when
I
for
“Oh
my
and
know
can
bronze
“What
it’s
number.
the
Philippine
issued
up
I
page
Then
bud
one
yeah,
they
going
still
don’t not
Center,
in
difibrent
here’s
do
the
and
number,
stars,
that
about
remember
wrote
the
they
I
through
know.
you
was
1y
brain
the
Liberation
no.
St.
the
following
but
that,
battles.
had
meanT’
in
a
service
bronze
Louis,
that’s
funny
These
some
Navy
there
This
they
that
my
the see place. I wish I had other stuff stuck up there. It’s funny that way. On these different stars, I don’t know. ir’s how many years now, 62 or 63. As of today, it is almost 63 years this August
7, 2005. 1 meet people that still act young as hell you know and I still meet people in their 60’s and I get to talking about well and they sa, “Hey, that was before my time.” You know I got all that different stuff Then I got a post card here of one of the Higgins Boats, an LCVP down at the Navy here. The one guy I was with wrote a book. In fact he is coming back down to Vero.
He lived up there with his xife and he ‘has the Curator of the Navy Seal Museum in Ft. Pierce back in 1989—1993,you know they have a museum there like yours, just a small version and they are self—supportingand he was the curator for a while. 1-usname is Jim Watson aiid he wrote a book called “Point Man”, in fact his Commander was called Marchinko, lie was a Captain that got busted. Did you ever read about him?
Mr. Misenhimer
I don’t think so
Mr. Feindt
Oh yeah, lie’s been on television and he’s rote a book. it vas bestseller for a time in the New
York Times and it wasn’t fiction. He’s written a lot of books now. But Marchinko was a
Captain that got busted to a Commander because his boys didn’t toe the mark, and lie was a
Vietnam man. Jim Watson wrote a book called, Point Man. \ow they don’t want him in the museum too much anymore because he’s kind of ild, he drinks and smokes a lot [ic’s coming back down and he’s quite a guy. I ‘.‘ orked with them guys ten years as a volunteer. I collect the money and I mostly talked about Guadalcanal and Sew Georgia. I never talked about the
Vietnam War. 1 didn’t know anything about lie Vietnam War.
Mr. Misenhimer
53
the
the
months.
Baton
New afternoon, fbnnics
really work
were
here
say
Depression,
only
having
Club
to
said, Not
said.
Mr.
I
Let
was
civilian
port,
Arabs
that
me
Misenhimer
too
23
“I
“How
York,
and
and
making
and
a
worked.
Rouge,
a
a
got
ask
23
year
much.
but
I
sandwich
because
couple
they
and
that’s
life?
some
three
did
year
to
no you
did
and
may
old
such
the
go
Boston,
transportation.”
are
Louisiana,
you
old
another
I
No.
months
about
some
of
of and
not
to
Jews. worked
I
trying
and
good
remember
kid,
get
times
Iraq
the
1
spell
having
tell
and
of
it
drinking
over
they
question,
in
I
people
and
money.
or to
the
you
4:00
because
and
it was
to
row.
get
Iran.
right
six here?”
come
then
people
Baytown,
one
when
Charleston,
out
I
in
beer,
me
years
were
used
Them
out
Don.
the
I
Yes,
time
also
there
of
down
was
I
a
I
used
said
job
there me
saying
got
that
in
morning
working,
going
tankers
or
one
Texas
back
twice.
experience
When
and
and
for
we
home
54
as
to
twice,
South
in
of
that.
an
look
hitchhiked.
a
$.50
the
say,
out
with
and
you
to
couple
my
only
Those
excuse
in
Middle and
there I
Carolina
over
8:00
“I
an
‘46,
Aransas
ESSO
I
buddies
almost got
like
stayed
got
hope
hour
remember
trips
of
otherwise
what
and
home.
in
in
that.
East
to
the
I
Co.
194748
the
forgot.
this wasWt
knocking
and Pass
took
in there
knocked
playing
I
other
called
did
port
I
did
morning
oil
war
was
you
and
three
was
they
we
you
tankers,
married
is
just
a
guys
When
shuffleboard
never
Rast-Anoura,
a I
all
know
day
spikes
a
a
we
went
cut
have
little
months.
before
couple
bar
and
them
were
or
you
we
ends.” at
because
in
any
I
belligerent.
and
in
coming
four
two.
that
different
did
there
would
hooked
off
the
the
of
trouble
joined
I
and
to
time
still
that
the
them
war,
what
I
railroad
Because
with
and
eight
used
out
come
$20
doing
remember
areas
up.
and
the
for
between adjusting
we
a
on
I
them,
of
to
name.
bucks.
would
in
three
52/20
I
and
They
were
back
their
they
that
and
was
run
the
the
I I It was a port where we pickedup a load of oil to Le Havre, Franceand then home, USA. Then I hit Lehavre,France once and I hit Naples, Italy once, and hit two difièrent ports, but they didn’t send us, see they had a rule that you had to be an Americancitizento sailcoast wise, you didn’t ha’e to be an Americancitizento go foreign.
Mr. Misenhimer
You were part of the OccupationinJapan?
Mr. Feindt
Yes, I was in the Occupation. On a tin can and alsocalleda DestroyerUSSCharlesP. CecilDD
835.
Mr. Misenhimer
Were you on the mainlandof Japan” You were on the ship,not on the landthere?
Mr. Feindt
\o, I was on the USS Charles P Cecil Dl) 835. We hit a bunch of the ports there. We hit
Yokohama,Scgoya,Nagoya,Yokasuka.a couple of other towns we went. We hit about four or fivedifferentsea ports becausewe would go along in there and settingoff depthchargesto try to blow some of these shipsthat got sunk with ammunitionon them. We didn’t have muchlove tbr the Japs at all. In flict they tre trying to get rid of anybodythat fought in the Pacificagainst them and replacethem withpeoplethat neverfoughtagainstthem in WWII.
Mr. Misenhimer
This is sidetwo tape two withDonaldFeindt.
Mr. Feindt
New Georgia. Rendova, Munda Campaign June 30, 1943 — December 1943, that was my roughesttime.
55
Mr.
my
nursery
fi
Raton. shopping
and to
South
smartest smartest lot
opposite and
casualties whatever
history 4111
swabby.
Yes,
Mr. With
Mr.
rnft’
Florida boat,
2 id,
of
Misenhimer
I
the
Feindt
Misenhimer
when
the
built
of
times
etc.
and
1
of
higher
guy guy
there.
43 d
store
here So
center
used
you
had
did
from
Chesty
it I
only
Because
these
when
fought
in
in
up
Division?
you
them
could.
about
a
and
the
the your
He
Long
and
machine
in
did
historians
they
have.”
Puller,
world
got
world
I
all.
to
in
I
casualty
130
bonsais
from
had
Icland,
Casualties
there.
wasn’t
an
a
stuck
poor
miles,
from
gun
either,
a
appliance,
the
the
When
finance
said
\ev
us
and
Also
trained
rate
more
mark
that
first
what
and
ashore,
but
was
he
it
used
the
the
York
wasn’t
I
company
when
than he
it
would
I
TV.
I
to
the
had
could did
25 th
is
better
to
would
you be
in
so
the
second
teach he
56
the
and have
a
Div
his
1959
talk
crowded
know
read.
soldier
was
rifle,
you
nc\t
appliance.
furniture
fault.
ask
helped
a
them
to
and
thing
good up
were
but
in
You
to
one
some
or
at
them
I
now.
One
at
me
I later
Marine.
opened
on
Peliliu.
business.
see,
supposed
of
had
store
the
TV.
that
of
their
days..
his
rood
and
what
Then
a
Florida
his
in
rifle.
Majors
up
and
I
I-Ic
You 37111
mind,
they
thini
rented
the
My
compadres,
happened
to
a
I
had
furniture
chot
had
Western
Division
Atlantic
know
wife
would
have
\4argate,
or
about
some
in
to
the
guns.
Lieutenants
fact,
and
done.
what
with
actually
appliance,
heavy
See
Auto
University store
and
him.
I
was,
hand
Florida,
when
came
I
me,
Marine
I
mean?
I
he
store
then
casualties.
built
“How
was
have
gi-enades
I’m
reading
or
down
wasn’t
T.V
which
in
1
just
in
Colonel
a
Raiders
not
you I
had
Boca
small
was
many
I
here
9
and
the
the
the
the
do
in
is
A
a
I a
Mr.
Now,
weather
Mr. know
trail.
with 60
did
really
one boats
O.K.
On
Mr.
Uh, Mr. On
Mr. O.K.
Mr.
Yes.
Mr.
and
the
the
have
Feindt
Misenhirner
well,
little Misenhimer
Feindt
Feindt
Misenhimer
Feindt
much And
this
what
as
You
had So
But
shore.
shore?
90
raised
we
all
you
island
now
ship
others
to
you
shots
know
I’m
more
kinds
moved
go
would
was
Yeah,
were
half
hell
saying.
and
ashore
when
what
of
ammo.
Later
an
with
the
up
actually
leave
an
weapons
we
LCV
Halsey
the
time
I
That
other
with
them
were
mean.
on
your
How
coast
and I
fighting
was
them
and
didn’t
called
and
under
aboard
boat
That
of
Browing
much,
vety
we
you
isto
New
their 11w
and
even
with
the
was
shot
difficuh.
had
help
I
pick
go
Georgia.
ship,
command.
the
have
don’t
machine
the
57
them
to
ashore
in
up
43”
be
only
we
to
August
know
some
up
careful,
DMsion?
leave
had
to
But
gun
difibrent
while
fight
of
the
and
in
them
the
that
you
the
each
we
machine
with
September.
boat.
had
time
guys,
wounded.
had
were
them.
ammo
sliding
that
to
We
we
guns,
in
keep
we
the did
caught
box.
box
That
30
would
them
most
boat.
caliber
attached
The
was
coming
of
up
The
go
thing
our
up
to
Lewis,
ashore.
only
date.
the
to
in
fighting
between
was
the
Munda
time
round
You
gun
We
the
in I
landing because
alive.
of
didn’t
Makin the
had the Hayes,
Well,
The am
Mr. must
Mr I
Rendova Yes,
Mr.
Now,
Mr. Yes.
think
them
5 th
looking
President’s
heard.
Feindt Misenhimer
Feindt
Misenhimer
three
LCVP
have
yes
no,
show
did
Some
Marine
Island,
one
all
behind
I’ll
Ibr
with
we
hewas
you
looked
been
ships,
of
You
tell
at
three
up
Landing
of
did.
about
Roosevelt’s
a
see
Division.
us.
us,
son,
you
to
these
him.
picture
know
The
at
or
alike.
any
their
well,
I
You
why
believe
three
Makin
don’t
four
Craft
guys
PT
USS
they
spot
now
The
I
hit
“Are
1
months
boats
or
know
sons
only
know
would
Vehicle
lslandwithCoL
disbanded
it
President
a
on
of
four
USS
or
good
we
was
read
a
down
time
that
not
him
ship
talk
then
of
going
Crescent
Personnel.
out
question.
about
them
because
and
was
but
there?
the
with
about
Mams,
executed
there.
to
later I
raider
at
Marines
58
that
did
these
City
Calson.
have
the
their
it
I
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