Veteran Transcript
Robert E. Canner
11/3/1925
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F.B: I’m Monroe Brigham and I’m interviewing Mr. Robert Canner at 7200 N. College Ave. in Park Tudor Upper School. I was referred to Mr. Canner by Mrs. Lerch and Mr. Canner is 81 years old and was born on November 3rd, 1925. Mr. Canner served in World War II and was in the 14th Regiment of the Fourth Marine Division. He also began his ranking at Buck Private and by the end of his war experience had moved to Private First Class.
[007]
F.B: Were you drafted or did you enlist?
R.C: I enlisted.
F.B: Where were you living at the time?
R.C: Indianapolis, Indiana.
F.B: Why did you join?
R.C: Because I felt it was my duty and I felt my country needed me.
F.B: What made you pick the branch of service that you are in?
R.C: Well, primarily two reasons: I have always admired the Marines and I didn’t want to go to Europe where it was cold.
[014]
F.B: Do you recall your first days in service.
R.C: Yes, I recall my first days in service.
F.B: What were they like?
R.C: Interesting and harrowing.
F.B: What did it feel like to be there?
R.C: Well, I was a little bewildered and eager to learn all that I could and find out what was required of me.
F.B: Tell me about your boot camp training experience.
R.C: Boot camp was an interesting experience. Two weeks after you were in you wished you were out. That was the bad part, but the good part was we did a lot of different things. We exercised regularly, ate well, and found out something about the more about the Marine Corps.
F.B: Where was the boot camp held at?
R.C: I did my boot camp at San Diego, California.
F.B: How did you get through it?
R.C: How did I get through it?
F.B: Yeah.
R.C: Very well. I it felt like I was a lot more healthy. I was healthier, and physically able to do a lot of things that were required of me.
F.B: Which war did you serve in?
R.C: World War Two
F.B: Where exactly did you go?
R.C: I participated in –well, I went to school in California after boot - … boot camp and then was assigned to the Fourth Marine Division in the Pacific Theatre.
F.B: do you remember arriving and what it was like?
R.C: Arriving in the Pacific Theatre? Well, it was very interesting everything was so much bigger than I had experienced, but I felt like I could be a part of the Fourth Marine Division, which was situated in Maui, Hawaii.
[050]
F.B: What was your job assignment?
R.C: I was a telephone lineman, having taken ... having gone to school in California to be a telephone lineman, but that changed shortly after I arrived on Maui, because the sergeant asked if anyone could type and I thought that was safe to volunteer for. So, I volunteered my typing experience and I became a hagelin code clerk for the 3rd battalion, 14th Marines. A hagelin machine was the only machine that was used by the military prior to the use of the Navajo Indians as code talkers.
[062]
F.B: So you were never in any combat?
R.C: I was in combat in Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima.
F.B: Were there many casualties in your unit?
R.C: Our division suffered – Well, the division went overseas with 20,000 men and came back with 2,000 of the original twenty. The division was essentially replaced four times during WWII.
[070]
F.B: Can you tell me a couple memorable experiences during WWII?
R.C: You might want to stop the machine while I think. [Interview paused] Probably the most difficult thing was performing the duties of a lineman, to string telephones lines to the various positions as needed because the enemy fire was heavy and … we had to string wire not only on the ground, but from tree-to-tree where you were exposed to enemy fire. That was my first experience with combat. Probably the most difficult experience was at Iwo Jima when we started ashore from a LST. The DUK that we were in took on water and was inoperable and we floated on the ocean for twenty-four hours in shark invested waters about a mile off shore from Iwo Jima we were finally rescued by an amphibious half - track which took us to shore. The danger of sinking in shark-infested waters where the water was a quarter to a half-mile deep was not a pleasant experience. Another experience was in supplying telephone service to the Navajo Indians we ended up behind enemy lines because we had moved up at night and upon rising in the morning we could only hear Japanese voices and we waited for about three to four hours before our troops moved up and we could hear friendly English speaking voices again. There were a couple of experiences with Japanese encroachment upon the command post and the ensuing firefights with kamikaze attackers was very challenging. We weren’t infantrymen by assignment, but we were for a period of time. So, on one occasion on Tinian we had 1,000 Japanese pulling a kamikaze attack one night about midnight.
F.B: During these attacks what were you setting up the telephone wires for?
R.C: Well, we had the assignment of providing telephone and radio service where it was needed for fire missions - receiving or sending messages. We were not totally aware of what the Navajos were doing, because it was all very secret, but our main job was to make sure that the communications were available between battalions, regiments and division as necessitated and supplied by the Navajo Indians speaking in their language.
[ 122]
F.B: what exactly did the Navajo Indians use the telephone wire for? How were they involved?
R.C: The Japanese would tap our telephone lines and intercept our messages. We would give the messages to the Navajo Indians and they would transmit the message in their language, which the Japanese could never understand. The Navajo Indian at the other telephone would receive the message and translate it from Navajo back to English all in thirty seconds or a very short period of time. The haggling machine that was no longer used with the advent of the Navajos sending and receiving messages was very difficult to use and it would take thirty minutes. The Navajo transmitted and received the messages in a matter of seconds.
F.B: While you were providing the telephone wires and things for the Navajos, did you know what they were for?
R.C: Not exactly. The Navajo usage and language and operation was a military secret and was not made available even after the war and until about 1985. So, we knew the Navajos were there and we knew that they were providing a service, but that’s about all we knew.
F.B: Around what time were black people allowed to enlist in the service?
R.C: When I first joined the Marines I don’t think there were any black people in the Marine Corps. Later on during the war black people were joining the Marine Corps and to the best of my knowledge they were only used in work battalions, but not as combat soldiers; but later on they became a big part of the Marine Corps.
F.B: Starting off as a Buck Private, how did you move up to a Private First Class?
R.C: … I went to communication school and advanced communication school in California and after completing those schools I was made a PFC [private first class].
[160]
F.B: About what time, when did you leave the war?
R.C: I was discharged about the middle of November in 1945.
F.B: Did you receive any medals or citations?
R.C: I did but I didn’t. Another person and I in helping making this command area safe, were going through a cave and we found some very important Japanese maps. We turned them in to our battalion intelligence officer and he sent them to regimental intelligence officer, the lieutenant and the messenger each received a Bronze Star for turning in that material … we received nothing. So, really, I didn’t get any medals.
[179]
F.B: Were you there when they raised the flag over Iwo Jima?
R.C: Yes. I was probably a half of mile from the foot of Suribachi when the first flag went up. I was unaware of the second flag-raising, but at the first flag raising there was a momentary silence over the island, because of the surprise to everybody and the Japs and Americans both seemed to have stopped, firing but maybe they really didn’t but it seemed like it but I was about that far from Suribachi.
F.B: did you know any of the gentlemen personally who raised the flag?
R.C: I knew - I went to high school with one man that was in the platoon; he didn’t help with raising the flag, but he was present at the site when they raised the flag and that was Cliff Taylor from the 5th Marine Division. He was killed later on - on Iwo Jima.
F.B: While you were in the war, how did you stay in touch with family?
R.C: I wrote letters to when – where possible I wrote letters to my mother every week. That was the only communication that we had and all of our letters were censored so it was - but I received letters from her every week.
F.B: How long were you in the war?
R.C: About twenty-six to twenty-seven months.
[206]
F.B: What was the food like?
R.C: The food on Maui was good. The food in combat was scarce, rations only. After Saipan and Tinian I weighed 40 pounds I weighed 80 pounds when we went in, but we had nothing but rations if we got them. The food aboard ship was not very good but in Hawaii or in California food was good.
F.B: Did you have plenty of supplies?
R.C: We had everything that we needed to work with, to protect ourselves with, and to take care of ourselves. Yes.
F.B: was there any stress or pressure during the war on you?
R.C: Any stress? Well, only that I was scared while most of the time what we were in combat, because we had the pressure of getting our job done under very difficult circumstances.
F.B: Was there anything special you did for good luck or to lower the stress level?
R.C: Every time the chaplain held church, I was at church.
F.B: How did you entertain yourself during the war?
R.C: Probably the most memorable thing that we did is when we were aboard ship and the ships were traveling five and six knots per hour we would topside on the deck and many of us would sing songs, trade stories about our life at home, and bonded together very well.
F.B: Do you have any special or close friends that you served with during the war?
R.C: Yes, all of my close friends, as far as I know, are deceased at this time, but there were six of us that went through boot camp, went through communication school, went overseas, and served all together all the time overseas. We communicated after the war was over until they were all deceased.
F.B: All six of you survived the war?
R.C: Yes.
[254]
F.B: Where did you travel while in service?
R.C: Where did I travel? Well, I went to Hawaii on an aircraft carrier and joined the Fourth Marine Division on Maui, and then when we went to Saipan, we went from Hawaii to Saipan and Tinian and then back to Hawaii and then from Hawaii to Iwo Jima, then back to Hawaii and then back to the States on an aircraft carrier. The day before my 20th birthday I saw California again. Okay?
[267]
F.B: Can you recall any humorous or unusual events while in the war?
R.C: While moving up on Saipan we passed through an airstrip that had been cleared of Japanese and one of my friends started to sit down in a barber chair and I said, “no, red don’t sit in that chair.” I saw a wire leading from that chair and Red didn’t sit down in the chair and upon discovering where the wire led, it was tied to a rifle that was pointed at the chair and it would have killed - Red would have been killed if he had sat down in that chair. It was booby-trapped.
F.B: Booby-trapped by the Japanese?
R.C: Yes, it was booby-trapped by the Japanese.
F.B: Did things like this happen often?
R.C: Well, the Japanese booby-trapped everything. When we would move through an area there would be booby-traps or grenades under mats, under equipment, if you picked up a sword it may be booby-trapped. They booby-trapped everything they could, even dead bodies were booby-trapped.
F.B: How often do you think people were hurt or killed by booby-traps?
R.C: I can’t say specifically how many, because I wasn’t involved in clearing bodies, but people that were involved in clearing Japanese bodies, or U.S. Marine bodies would report that grenades would be put under them, or they would be booby-trapped in various ways. I never had to take care of a deceased body that was booby-trapped.
F.B: Do you know of anyone in your Division, other than Red who has been booby-trapped?
R.C: No, that was the closest experience that I had. I had an interesting experience - one of the guys in our outfit woke up one morning with a white flag beside his legs, which represented a shell that was fired from Tinian that didn’t explode but it earmarked an unexploded shell and the fellow woke up with that beside him. He could reach out and touch the flag and that’s pretty scary.
[319]
F.B: Did the soldiers play a lot of pranks or jokes on each other often?
R.C: Play jokes? Well, I played a joke one time that got me in trouble. We were in advanced communication school at Camp Pendleton and I decided I would tie the shoe strings of the field shoes of about a dozen of my buddies … [when] the Sergeant called for us to fall out in formation and about twelve men showed up in their stocking feet and I had to confess that I tied their shoestrings together and that warranted me spending the night cleaning the head with a toothbrush.
F.B: We saw some photographs earlier, could you talk about a couple of the people that were in the photographs, or a couple of the events that were going on in the photographs?
R.C: [ recorder shut off, so he can pick a couple of events.] While going ashore on Saipan we came upon an amphibious tank that had been hit by a Jap mortar and another fellow and I help pull the driver out of the tank, which was on fire. He had been killed we found out later. That’s all I can say about that.
F.B: What do you think about your fellow officers and soldiers?
R.C: My fellow officers? We had some very good career officers. We had a warrant officer who had twenty-three years in when the war started. He was very good. We had sergeant major who later made Lieutenant who was good. I can’t say much for our wartime officers.
F.B: Did you keep a personally diary or journal during the war?
R.C: No.
[375]
F.B: Do you recall the day that you ended your service?
R.C: Yes, I was discharged in Chicago at Great Lakes. My mother and Stepfather came to Great Lakes and got me. I wanted to be discharged in California, but they said I had to be discharged at a station closest to where I had enlisted. So, Chicago was it.
F.B: What did you do the days and weeks after the war?
R.C: Well, I had about a thirty-day holiday and then I started to school at Hanover College in January of 1946 and then stayed in school for the next six to seven years.
F.B: What did you go to school for?
R.C: I started at Hanover College majoring in physics and mathematics and received my bachelor’s degree from Butler University as a teacher of physics and mathematics, and received a maters degree in physics from Colorado State in physics, and helped write science curriculum at the University of California in 1970.
F.B: Did you ever end up teaching physics?
R.C: I taught physics for thirty-seven years in the Indianapolis Public Schools and at IUPUI.
F.B: While you were in school was your education supported by the G.I Bill?
R.C: I got my bachelor's degree under the G.I Bill. I had a, - I paid for my master’s at Butler. and I had a grant for my master’s at Colorado State.
F.B: When did you end your teaching career?
R.C: I retired in June 1985.
[423]
F.B: Did you join a veteran’s organization?
R.C: I belonged to the VFW for a while, then I belonged - currently to … World War II Round Table in Indianapolis.
F.B: Did your military experience influence your thoughts about war or about military in general?
R.C: Over the years they - I have come to believe that every boy and girl upon graduating from high school should give or spend one or two years in the military in some capacity. The experience that they get will decide very quickly what that person is going to be.
F.B: What kinds of activities does the Round Table host?
R.C: … I participated in the Round Table first in describing to the Round Table my relationship with the code talkers during WWII and my experience with the Navajo Indians after the war, especially at Eiteljorg Museum. We have various speakers on many different topics that are related in some way to the military, but I think most of the speakers and most of the information is very valuable and provides information that many of us didn’t know or didn’t have.
F.B: Do you attend any reunions?
R.C: I just came back from attending the 60th reunion of the Fourth Marine Division in Louisville, Kentucky. It was my honor and privilege to shake hands and talk with the new Commandant of the Marine Corps who is a black person - a very distinguished articulate person and I think the Marine Corps is in excellent hands.
F.B: What is his name?
R.C: I have it at home, but not here.
[486]
F.B: How did your service and experience affect your life?
R.C: When I finished boot camp the sergeant said to me, “what did you do in civilian life?” I said, “I was a farmer.” The Sergeant looked at me and paused for a minute or two and said, “I think you would make a fine electrician.” How he ever arrived at that conclusion, I have never been able to ascertain. I have often told the teachers that I wish we all had that ability to decide what a person can do best, because I went to communication school, studied electricity, then studied electricity and physics in college, and it was my career. So, the military really influenced my life considerably.
F.B: Is there anything you would like to cover that hasn’t already been covered in the interview?
R.C: I heard a Sergeant of the 4th Marine Corps state and I concur that it is not fair for ten million military volunteers to be expected to support 300,000,000 Americans in the U.S and to do all of the work that’s required of the military. I think that a compulsory training for everybody would be a plus and make it much easier for the men and women that are volunteering for the service today. I think that is all I will say of that.
[543]
F.B: … That concludes our interview for now. Thank you I really appreciate it. [ recorder shut off but he has something else to say] You can just say that episode that happened at Eiteljorg I don’t know how to make it seem professional.
R.C: I can relate an interesting humorous experience at Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis. About six years ago, I was at Eitlejorg to meet some Navajo Indians. While standing in line to meet Samuel Smith who was a Navajo Code Talker for the Fourth Marine Division, I had my Fourth Marine Division history book and people in line with me were looking at and a lady asked me if I was there during those combat operations. I said, “Yes, I was.” And we talked about the war and she said, “Well, can you speak any Japanese?” and I said, “ Not very much anymore.” She said, “Well say something in Japanese.” And I said, “Susami hanakade ray.” She said, “What does that mean?” And I looked at her for a long moment and said, “Come here and take off your clothes. And she replied very hastily, “Here!” and we both laughed and she said, “how come you remember this.” Well, when we took Japanese prisoners we had to make sure they weren’t armed and we had to delouse them and the only way we can do that to have stripped and so we can search then and delouse them. So we had a good laugh and talk over that, okay.
