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Pappy and his friends went through a lot of bombing raids on Woodlark Island. Many times, sailors got hurt or killed. It was very scary. One windy, stormy day while Pappy was working, the enemy planes came over to drop bombs. Pappy jumped into a foxhole with two other guys. They could hear the loud screaming sound of the bombs as they fell “Eeeeee.” Other sailors had told Pappy if the bombs sounded like a spiral, “Wow wow wow” that meant it was coming straight for you and you would be hit. Pappy and his two friends in the foxhole heard that spiral sound themselves for the first time. They all knew what it meant. They looked up at each other and said nothing. There was nothing they could do. They could also hear the wind howling and blowing like crazy. The wind over the foxhole took their breath away. As the bomb got louder, which meant closer, the wind blew it off course just a little “Wow wow-eeeee.” The sound changed to the screaming sound and the bomb landed a few yards away from the foxhole. Pappy and his friends got covered with dirt but were ok.

Another time, three LSTs (Landing Ships for Tanks) were docked at the island when a bombing raid came over. Pappy was watching from the communications tower and could see the three ships. The planes dropped four bombs at the LSTs. The first bomb landed next to the first LST. The second and third bombs landed in between the LSTs. The last bomb landed just beyond the third LST. The ships sloshed up and down in the waves, but none of them were damaged and no one was hurt. Pappy couldn’t believe how lucky that was!

Sometimes bombing raids came at night while the sailors were sleeping. One night, Pappy and his friend were sleeping in their tent on the island when they woke up to the sound of bombs falling. “Eeeeee BOOM! Eeeeee BOOM!” the bombs landed around them in the dark. After a while it grew quiet and they could hear the bomber planes going away in the distance. Pappy and his friend came out of their tent and saw that the tent next to theirs had been hit. They rushed over to find one sailor alive but in a lot of pain. Both of his legs had been broken. Pappy sat with him while his friend went to find a medic. They had to take him to the big hospital tent near headquarters. A few days later Pappy and his friend decided to visit the sailor with the broken legs in the hospital tent. They thought he looked pretty good for a guy who had been so badly injured. “Why are you so happy?” Pappy asked him. “Because I just got married!” he answered with a smile. He had married a nurse in the hospital tent just that morning.