Jack McGrath US Army

Larry Martin’s World War II In Their Own Words would like to invite you to hear Army paratrooper Jack McGrath tell on a DVD interview what being a Paratrooper during WW II was like.  Jack was involved in some of the worst fighting in the Pacific around Manila in the Philippines.  Jack also parachuted to rescue 2,200 men, women and children who had been held in captivity since early 1942, which is known as the Raid on Los Banos where the 11th Airborne and Philippine Gorillas made a successful rescue.  The American authorities had information the Japanese were going to kill them all.  The Japanese went into the village of  Los Banos and killed as many as two thousand Filipinos because the Japanese thought the Filipinos has helped the Americans during the Raid on Los Banos which they certainly had. Hear Jack talk about a “old” Japanese soldier they captured while fighting around Manila who was probably only about 40 but to the 20 yr old paratrooper that was old.  Jack tells of how the men took him in and treated him very well.  What is different to me is that very often there were no prisoners taken by either side in the Pacific war.

Where: Comstock library