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[Gene Hudson, Jul-Nov 1945]<\/p>\n
My name is Robert Eugene Hudson and I live in Casper, Wyoming.\u00a0 My friends and family call me Gene. \u00a0I was born and raised in Lake Wales, Florida.\u00a0 When I turned 18 years old my ambition was to join the Air Force and become a fighter pilot.\u00a0 To join the Air Force, one had to take a physical at the Air Base located in Orlando Florida.\u00a0 The first part of the exam was an eye exam, which I failed for being color blind.\u00a0 I was inducted into the Army in September 1943 and spent 16 weeks in basic training at Fort McClellan located in Anniston, Alabama. Basic training taught us to operate the M1 rifle, Browning automatic, the 81 MM mortar, 30 caliber water cooled machine gun, and the 61 MM mortar. At the end of basic training I was rated as an expert rifleman with the M1 rifle. We also marched a lot; the longest march was a 20 mile night march with a full pack and M1 rifle.<\/p>\n
Upon completion of basic training I was shipped to Milne Bay, New Guinea, a replacement depot with the rank of a PFC. It took 21 days to travel from San Francisco to Milne Bay.\u00a0 Our ship was traveling alone and used a zigzag route to protect us from submarines.\u00a0 To pass the time we would sit up on deck and watch the sailfish. In Milne Bay, it rained everyday, but it did not keep us from sitting on palm tree logs watching movies. I was assigned to the 40th<\/sup> division 160th<\/sup> Regiment Company D on New Britain Island. Company D was a heavy weapons company that used the 30 caliber water cooled machine gun and the 81 MM mortar. Our assignment was to add fire power to the rifle companies A-B-C.<\/p>\n New Britain had the largest bats with one to two feet wing spans, the largest I had ever seen.\u00a0 The bats looked huge flying through the jungle.\u00a0 I contracted a fungus in New Britain called jungle rot, which was treated with a solution that would steam when applied to the infected areas on my arms. The good news was that the jungle rot disappeared when I left New Britain.\u00a0 For entertainment we would take mattress covers and blow them up and ride in the surf.\u00a0 A few miles to the north was an active volcano that spewed hot gases and fire into the air.\u00a0 The volcano would shake the area.<\/p>\n Our responsibility was to be prepared for the invasion of Luzon.\u00a0 We practiced every day with the 30 caliber water cool machine gun and 81 MM mortar. After much practice it would be possible to set up the machine gun and mortar in 15-20 seconds and be ready to fire. My assignment was to keep communication between the mortars and front observation points in working condition. Communication consisted of a battery and a spool of wire with a telephone on each end.<\/p>\n A troop ship picked us up and we joined a small convoy heading for the invasion of Luzon, Philippines. As we steamed towards the Philippines we picked up troop ships along the way. By the time we reached the Philippines there were many ships in our convoy, including a jeep aircraft carrier, which was a small aircraft carrier, escorted by several destroyers.\u00a0 As we steamed through the Philippine Islands, a Japanese plane, a Kamikaze, appeared above us and started a vertical dive which appeared to be coming directly at our ship. The tracer bullets from the carriers and destroyers appeared to be behind the diving Kamikaze.\u00a0 The Kamikaze hit the carrier broad side and the ship was left burning as we steamed towards Luzon.\u00a0 I do not know the fate of the carrier.<\/p>\n On December 9, 1944, our troop ship arrived at the staging area off the coast of Luzon in Lingayen Gulf during the night. At daylight I looked out and had never seen so many different types of ships before.\u00a0 On our port side was a large battleship firing 16 inch projectiles at the landing area. The projectile could be seen as a red dot.\u00a0 The recoil from the firing of the 16 inch projectile would push the battleship sideways approximately 3 feet. Our company was in the 3rd<\/sup> wave to land with the objective being to advance to Clark Field, the air base at Luzon.\u00a0\u00a0 We transferred from the troop ship to a landing craft by going down a rope net.\u00a0 Carrying a full pack and rifle made this difficult with both ships bobbing in the waves.<\/p>\n At Clark Field we turned and headed into the Zambales Mountains.\u00a0 We had several methods of detecting the Japanese at night. We would put rocks in tin cans and string them in front of our fox holes.\u00a0 If the Japanese would hit the string we would fire flares to illuminate the area.\u00a0 While in combat in the Zambales Mountains I was wounded by mortar fire and received the Purple Heart.<\/p>\n When we completed our mission in the Zambales Mountains we were moved to Panay Island to push the Japanese back into the mountains.\u00a0 The health conditions on Panay Island were poor.\u00a0 In the streams were dead cows, horses and a few dead Japanese soldiers. The flies were so bad one had to wear socks over your hands to keep the flies from eating the skin off. The flies made meal times hard too. While on Panay Island I came down with anemic dysentery and was in the hospital for a couple of weeks and my weight was down to 135 pounds.\u00a0 It took about two years to recover.<\/p>\n We had our normal close calls as one would expect in combat. Several times I came under fire of snipers as I was installing telephone wire.\u00a0 The sniper\u2019s bullets hit the ground around me.\u00a0 Thank goodness they were poor shots.<\/p>\n Our next assignment was Negros Island on March 29, 1945. The most dangerous encounter that I had was on Negros Island.\u00a0 We were dug in, in a tight perimeter.\u00a0 Everybody slept in fox holes at night.\u00a0 At dawn I was sitting up in my fox hole putting my boots on when all hell broke loose.\u00a0 The Japanese had crawled within 50 to 100 feet of our perimeter when they began firing.\u00a0 Their bullets were kicking dirt into my fox hole.\u00a0 Had I gotten up a few seconds earlier, I would have been in their sights. Out platoon leader and a couple of soldiers were killed in the attack.\u00a0 Our 30 cal water cooled machine gun saved us.<\/p>\n After the Negros Island campaign was completed, our unit was pulled back and started training for the invasion of Japan. A notice was put on the bulletin board that General MacArthur was forming a guard company to protect his home and office.\u00a0 The unit was to be composed of one soldier from every battalion in the Pacific.\u00a0 A full Colonel was sent to interview all interested soldiers. I decided to apply and when I got in line it was so long one could not see the front. When the Colonel was interviewing me, one of his questions was, \u201cWhat were my plans when I got out of the service?\u201d I told him my plans were to attend the Colorado School of Mines and study Petroleum Engineering.\u00a0 The Colonel said that is a good school and you have a good plan. Several weeks went by with no word about the interview, and then the Army Intelligence Service arrived and asked questions about me.\u00a0 They told me to pack my gear, that a plane was waiting to fly me to General MacArthur\u2019s Headquarters in Manila and I was promoted to Corporal.<\/p>\n The assignment had many amenities that we did not have in combat. We had ice cream, hot food, hot showers, movies inside, and a bed to sleep in. I remember one of the first things I did after landing was get ice cream.\u00a0 At that time it seemed like the best ice cream ever made.<\/p>\n My assignment was to stand guard in front of General MacArthur\u2019s office.\u00a0 I would see General MacArthur daily and he would always salute.\u00a0 I remember those rare times when General MacArthur would stop and we would chat about life back home. I would also see all the generals and admirals in the South Pacific coming to General MacArthur\u2019s headquarters.\u00a0 I was standing guard at General MacArthur\u2019s office when the Japanese peace envoy arrived in Manila. The Honor Guard arrived in Tokyo three days before the peace treaty was signed, to set up guard duty of the transfer to the new headquarters. After the treaty was signed, we went to guard General MacArthur\u2019s home, and new office and other brass at the Imperial Hotel.<\/p>\n The Imperial Hotel is a beautiful building that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The hotel is built on pylons and is earthquake proof.\u00a0 The Guards on duty would get the treat of eating at the restaurant in the basement of the Imperial Hotel. The guards barrack was a large office building a short distance from the Imperial Hotel, with many windows that would rattle from minor earthquakes.<\/p>\n When we had two or three days off from guard duty, we would take the train into the hills and stay at the pagodas. They were so beautiful and quiet compared to the busy streets in Tokyo.\u00a0 They also offered wonderful views of the forests below them.<\/p>\n When I left Manila and went to Tokyo I stopped taking malaria medicine and as a result I had an attack of malaria while at the Pagodas. I was shipped back to the states in December 1945.\u00a0 On the troop ship from Japan to Washington State I had another attack of malaria and was put in the hospital in Fort Lawton for a couple of weeks, but I did make it home for Christmas. I continued to have attacks of malaria for the next couple of years.<\/p>\n When I was discharged from the service I enrolled at the Colorado School of Mines and graduated as a Geological Engineer in 1950.\u00a0 I married a wonderful woman and had four terrific children.\u00a0 I have since spent my life as a Geologic Engineer.<\/p>\n \n [Gene Hudson, Jul-Nov 1945] My name is Robert Eugene Hudson and I live in Casper, Wyoming.\u00a0 My friends and family call me Gene. \u00a0I was born and raised in Lake Wales, Florida.\u00a0 When I turned 18 years old my ambition was to join the Air Force and become a fighter pilot.\u00a0 To join the Air … Continue reading Gene Hudson’s Story<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":76,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-99","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/generalmacarthurshonorguard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/generalmacarthurshonorguard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/generalmacarthurshonorguard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/generalmacarthurshonorguard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/generalmacarthurshonorguard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/generalmacarthurshonorguard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1845,"href":"http:\/\/generalmacarthurshonorguard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/99\/revisions\/1845"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/generalmacarthurshonorguard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/76"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/generalmacarthurshonorguard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"