Q: Where did you get Malaria?
A: On Guadalcanal.
Q: Oh, so you got...you had that early...you got that right after you first landed?
A: Yeah.
Q: So, how long were you sick with Malaria?
A: Well, I had it the rest of the time I was in, really. They just gave me something to keep it from getting any worse; Atabrine was what it was, I had to take one pill every day and it turned me just as yellow as anything you ever saw. Everything but my eyes. That's really how they knew the difference (someone with Malaria or not)...see they fooled around and got to where they weren't shipping us that much food and practically everybody on there (Guadalcanal) had dysentery...from this Malaria, I guess it was. Had a lot to do with it, and diet did anyway. Then, all of a sudden we started getting turkeys and whatnot. I guess most everybody survived it; I don't think it was anything except just the fact you had a fever and didn't feel good.
Q: So, a lot of people had it (Malaria) ?
A: Oh yeah.
Q: You were sleeping in tents, or out in the open?
A: No, by then it was in tents; with even a wooden floor.
Q: When you first got on some of these islands, you were just eating from your mess kit?
A: Oh yeah.
Q: What were the islands like before...or by the time you got there, were they already...had they already been destroyed by the fight, or were the islands pretty...
A: They were secured. Most of the Japanese were killed, and they really...we really wanted that air strip on Guadalcanal. And we got it...at a great cost.
Q: You said that when you first got to Guadalcanal, the S.S. President Tyler, you had to come down one of those rope ladders?
A: Everybody did, except the Merchant (Marines.) See, they were put off on a pier.
Q: So you had to come down a ladder with your...you said you carried about 100 pounds?
A: At least that much.
Q: How many feet do you think it was?
A: 25 or 30 feet coming down the side of those ships. See, and then they would put you in the smaller boat and take you to shore.
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