Malejan, John
Service: Army
John is the first of over 110 DVD interviews of WW II veterans that I have interviewed who was in hand to hand combat. He was in a fox hole when the Japanese mounted a Banzai attack. He was bayoneted in the neck but killed the attacker with his entrenching tool (small shovel) which the men would sharpen so that they could dig through tree roots quicker. He was also in very tough fighting around Manilla as well as the Genko line. John parachuted into the prision camp named Los Banos to help rescue about 2,200 civilians who the military leaders thought were going to be killed by the Japanese.