Assignment 6

Blog 6.


Ken grew up in Hayward, Ca with a family that was well-rooted in the Hayward Hills. Aside from the 6 years he spent in the military, he has lived in the Hayward area his whole life. After being sent to a hospital in Oakland after serving on Iwo Jima, Ken went back home and married one of his (many) girlfriends from before the War.
Ken attended Hayward High and graduation in 1940. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, he enlisted in the Marine Corps. One of his bosses was a Marine in WWI, a nice motivating factor for Ken. In regards to his reason for choosing to enlist as a Marine, Ken stated, “well it was either that or being drafted into the Army and I didn’t want to go into the Army or the Navy. And I had seen Marines at Alameda Naval Air Base when I was driving trucks, hauling top soil over there and I noticed how great they looked. So I said I was going to join the Marine Corps and I did.”
It would seem that he was inspired to be like the men he seen on a base; they were, it is safe to say, his heroes. Ken thought it would benefit him most to devote his life, literally, to a cause that had inspired him, the protection of the US through his service in the Marine Corp. He did not speak with any sort of remorse or regret. He seemed, in fact, very proud and pleased that he was a Marine and went on the different campaigns around the Pacific.
Ken was in the 9th Regiment, which opened Camp Pendleton, in San Diego, CA. He left the US for the South Pacific in February 1943. He embarked and lived through 4 campaigns : Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Guam, Iwo Jima. Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima are vary infamous battles in WWII, major campaigns that changed the War of the US against the Japanese. Guadalcanal is considered the first offense of US forces from August 1942 until February 1943.
Guadalcanal Map

Iwo Jima Map