Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
4:20 | Lon Edgar Morris, Jr. recalls how green soldiers mishandled the machine guns in the Philippines and how an ice machine was procured for adult beverages. He may have been preparing for the upcoming Japanese invasion, but he was also concentrating on conquering the dance floor and meeting Filipino ladies.
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The draft came for Lon Edgar Morris, Jr. There was still some war left to fight and he was sent to infantry training to prepare for deployment to the Pacific. After a month of zig-zagging across the ocean, he landed in the Philippines.
He had never seen anything like what he saw in the Philippines. Lon Edgar Morris, Jr. recalls how the streets were clogged with desperate, hungry people. He was also disturbed by the decaying bodies on the beach when he came ashore.
While Lon Edgar Morris, Jr. was serving in the Philippines, his camp was hit by a tidal wave, something he never wants to experience again. A different kind of problem vexed him with the local population, sorting out the Japanese from the Filipinos.
The Japanese prisoners built their own prison camp, under the watchful eye of Lon Edgar Morris, Jr. and the other GI's there in the Philippines. He explains how, during the fighting, the Japanese were hampered by the poor quality of their weapons. The GI's, on the other hand, had the magnificent M1.
Lon Edgar Morris, Jr. was one of the GI's tasked with constructing a huge prison camp in the Philippines. He was skillful at adapting and repairing the electrical equipment they found there and this became a career path for him after the war.
