Submitted by Alta Dewey
Following added by: Helen Buffington 19Nov2011
 

From: “Okinawa  Etched Deep in My Mind,” by Herman Buffington.  Published privately in 2010.

…I asked Sgt. Bill Boals (during the 96^th Division reunion at Lubbock, Texas in 1995) if he remembered the attack in which two of our guys by the names of (Carl  W.) Childress and (Robert W.) Bund were killed, along with several wounded.  He said he did.  These guys were replacements who had been up for several weeks and we’d had a chance to get acquainted with them. 

While we were trying to take a big hill, Childress and Bundt were on my immediate right, Childress being about six feet away and  Bundt about six feet to the other side of Childress.  We were receiving heavy .50 caliber machine gun fire from our left rear.  I saw Childress fall and thought he was badly hurt.  Bundt was hit a few seconds later and the sound of his helmet hitting the ground caused me to assume that he had been killed instantly…

We advanced another 75 to 100 feet up the hill when the order came for us to pull back.   The lieutenant and I went back down the hill farther to the left of the path we’d taken going up.  The Japanese machine gunner was having a field day, wounding several of our men on their way down….

When we got back down, I relayed the fact that we had left Childress up on the hill and told the lieutenant that I was going back up to get him.  He wanted me to wait until he could get our units on our left flank to take those machine guns out.  But I told the lieutenant that Childress may already be dead and he certainly would be before we could remove those machine guns.  He waved his hand, giving me the OK sign. 

So I went crawling back up and when you reached a certain height on the hill, the Japanese gunner could see you and he started firing again.  It was the same as the first time up, with the exception that he had only one target to fire at now.   The bullets were knocking dirt all over me as I continued to crawl.  The best news was he kept missing me.  … 

As I continued to crawl, I kept hearing something behind me.  I finally looked and saw this GI crawling along, just below my feet….the lieutenant apparently had sent him with me. 

We got to the height were Childress was.  I reached up and jerked his foot to try to determine if he was still alive. I heard his low moan. I crawled up beside him and removed his helmet.  He was telling me in this very low, weak voice to leave him, that we were all going to be killed. I told him we were going to pull him down by his feet. He strongly insisted that we leave him.   But I got hold of one foot and the other GI got the other and we slowly started pulling him down the hill.  I could hear him from time to time urging us to leave him… 

We made it back down to the area where the machine gun couldn’t hit us. The medic came up to help. He cut Childress’ clothing off around the wounded area, the lower part of his body, and soon the Jeep he had called up arrived.  Childress was put on a stretcher and the medics started toward the Jeep with him.  Childress looked up at me and put his hand out for me to take. I took his hand and began walking alongside his stretcher. He kept saying, “Buff, don’t turn my hand loose.”  He continued saying this over and over and by leaning down close to his mouth I could hear him. I kept reassuring him we would get him to a field hospital soon.  We got about 15 ft. from the Jeep when the driver of the Jeep met us. I motioned for him to come over to my side of the stretcher and then  whispered to him that I had to get back to the unit, but I wanted him to take Childress’ hand. 

The very instant I put Childress’ hand in the Jeep driver’s hand, Childress died. I’ve always wondered whether he would have made it if I had continued to hold his hand. 

But getting back to what Sgt. Boals told me in Lubbock about Childress: He said he and a few of the other guys ate breakfast with  Childress the morning before he was killed that afternoon.

Childress was trying to trade a can of beans, which he didn’t like, out of his breakfast “C” ration kit for something he did like.  No one wanted to trade with him, Boals said, so he told Boals, “I’ll eat it myself and not leave it here for the Japs to get.”  Boals said he tried to get him to keep his beans and trade later with someone else.  Childress, however, looked at Boals and said, “Sergeant, I won’t be here to trade it with anyone later.” 

Boals said Childress then looked up at the hill and said, “This will be the last hill I’ll ever have to climb.”  It was…..

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