Title
Cliff Glasgow interview with Shelby Peters and Lindsey Peterson
Subject
World War, 1939-1945-Iowa-Oral histories
Description
Glasgow served as staff sergeant and supply sergeant for the Army in the South Pacific. They were slated to go to the southernmost island of Japan, but the dropping of the atomic bombs prevented that and they were routed to Saipan instead.
Publisher
Buena Vista University
Date
4/21/2011
Rights
These oral histories are available for personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that a credit line reads: "Courtesy of Buena Vista University Archives, Storm Lake, IA." Prior permission from the BVU Archives is required for any commercial use.
Format
video/mp4
Language
English
Type
Moving Image
Identifier
Interviewer
Shelby Peters, Lindsey Peterson
Interviewee
Cliff Glasgow
Transcription
CLIFF GLASGOW
Shelby Peters [00:00:01] Today is April 21st and we are interviewing Cliff Glasgow. He was born September 22nd, September 22nd of 19-- or 1926. My name is Shelby Peters, and I'll be the interviewer along with Lindsey Petersen. And how old were you when you first--
Cliff Glasgow [00:00:21] 18.
Shelby Peters [00:00:21] 18. Were you drafted or did you--
Cliff Glasgow [00:00:23] Drafted.
Shelby Peters [00:00:24] And how did you feel about that?
Cliff Glasgow [00:00:27] Everybody else was being drafted. So I didn't have much choice. It didn't bother me.
Lindsey Peterson [00:00:32] What year were you drafted?
Cliff Glasgow [00:00:35] [19]44. The last month of '44.
Shelby Peters [00:00:39] So how-- what were your feelings about the war prior to your enlistment?
Cliff Glasgow [00:00:44] What did I feel about the war? Well, I was kind of concerned about the war. I had a brother serving in the South Pacific also. And of course, at a later date, I had a younger brother that was 19 that was killed in Korea. But I wanted to go do my part.
Shelby Peters [00:01:04] What kind of information did you learn from your brother? When he would write home to you?
Cliff Glasgow [00:01:09] Well, he was a tech sergeant on Hawaii and kind of a coincidental thing, he give me a lot of advice. In fact, he was-- at one time thought maybe he could pull me off of the [unintelligible] so many of em'-- when we was headed past to Hawaii to the South Pacific, course that couldn't happen. But it was kind of a coincidence because after I left Guam-- or Tinian and Saipan, I would come as a staff sergeant and also a supply sergeant, which my brother was.
Shelby Peters [00:01:45] And where did you do your training at?
Cliff Glasgow [00:01:47] Camp Hood, Texas.
Shelby Peters [00:01:49] What kind of-- what was training like for you?
Cliff Glasgow [00:01:52] It was an infantry, 151st Infantry Battalions. So it was-- had to do with hand-to-hand warfare and that type of thing, which was prevalent in the South Pacific.
Shelby Peters [00:02:04] Any specific experiences you remember from training?
Cliff Glasgow [00:02:10] It varied. You know, you learn to kind of get along with other people, and you knew you had a job to do. And when we were in Camp Hood, Texas under training, we'd get reports back from the group that was ahead of us and talk about those that were killed and those that had been injured in a period of two or three weeks.
Lindsey Peterson [00:02:33] How did you feel about training? Did you like it or just--
Cliff Glasgow [00:02:37] I enjoyed it. And most of the people in World War II were coming out of a Depression. And for the most part, the rural people, they were already in pretty much good shape. You know, now that's not prevalent today, but most of the people that were in World War II because of the Depression and this type of thing had to be working someplace. And of course, the country people, they were in pretty good shape to start with. So it was not a problem to me.
Shelby Peters [00:03:06] And after training, where did you go?
Cliff Glasgow [00:03:09] After training I got a-- a furlough and I come back to-- that was Milton, Iowa. I come back there for a short furlough and then from there I went to Fort Hood-- Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, on the East Coast. And we were told then that we were going to go to Europe, the European theater, as opposed to the South Pacific. But after we were there, about two or three days start-- things started to change a little bit in what was going on in those two wars. And they decided to send the 18-year-olds to the South Pacific and the 19-year-olds to the European theater.
Shelby Peters [00:03:50] What was your reaction when you heard that news?
Cliff Glasgow [00:03:53] I-- didn't really make much difference. We-- we left Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, on a-- on a troop train. I think-- it seems to me like it was four days. We went from there to Fort Lawton in Seattle, Washington, and it was quite a trip. I remember coming across Iowa with the side door open, looking at the corn and stuff. I said, "Goodbye."
Lindsey Peterson [00:04:16] What was the train like?
Cliff Glasgow [00:04:18] It was a troop train. It was-- it was no fancy stuff. It just a bunch of-- bunch of Army boys on a troop train. And-- and that's, you know, that's about the way it was.
Shelby Peters [00:04:32] And then where did you ship out for the-- the South Pacific theater.
Cliff Glasgow [00:04:40] Fort Lawton in Seattle, Washington.
Shelby Peters [00:04:42] And what was the name of the ship you--
Cliff Glasgow [00:04:44] SS Matsonia.
Shelby Peters [00:04:46] And how many days' voyage was that?
Cliff Glasgow [00:04:47] 17 days. It was-- back in those days you was either escorted or if you weren't escorted, you zigzagged, you know, you probably know about that. And that's to keep the enemy from picking you up on the screen.
Shelby Peters [00:05:02] And what was life on the ship like?
Cliff Glasgow [00:05:05] Very crowded. I-- I don't know the number now, but it seems to me there's just downright 5000. This was a big ship. And if we-- we were headed, I think what the problem was at that time, we were being enmassed in strategic points for the invasion of Kyushu, Japan, which is the southernmost island. And that's what we finally ended up with. We never did go to Kyushu because of the atom bomb.
Lindsey Peterson [00:05:37] What did you do on the ship to pass your time?
Cliff Glasgow [00:05:39] Oh, played cards and talk with other people. That was pretty much it. It was-- and then you kept the shades pulled so the Japs wouldn't see the lights in the windows.
Shelby Peters [00:05:53] And what was the destination? You said it got switched. Where did you end up going?
Cliff Glasgow [00:05:59] I went to-- I went to Saipan and that's-- there's-- that's in the Mariana chain. There's four islands there. I think it's Tinian, Saipan, Guam, and Rota.
Shelby Peters [00:06:15] And did you see combat when you got there?
Cliff Glasgow [00:06:17] No, we-- we checked out a few caves and things like that, but we ran out into a few caves and those type of things. Japs were good at hiding. And those Coral-- all the Coral islands throughout the South Pacific were pretty much mountainous or with caves. And that's the reason why it was such a-- we lost so many men, taking those because when you're sitting up in a cave shooting at somebody and you're down here in a boat trying to get at them, they got the-- they got the lead on you.
Shelby Peters [00:06:52] Any specific memories you remember from that or--
Cliff Glasgow [00:06:56] Yeah, you mean-- my most memories that I've thought about was when Honolulu was bombed. You know, I go from there, really, when-- when this is how the troops were enmassed to the island systems and the-- before the invasion of Japan. But I don't sup-- none of you guys old enough to remember the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese? Are you aware of that? They come in there with the two waves. The first wave was 100 and I think 91 thou--191 planes. And it was on a Sunday morning and, you know, on a Saturday night with servicemen and everything, they're not-- they-- they knew that there-- they'd picked up a code that this was gonna happen, but they didn't know it was this way. They thought it was going to take Japan the other direction where they were having trouble down in the south seas of China. But they missed on that one. There was another flight come an hour later. I think there was-- it all told between the two flights, there was 350 planes that bombed, and that took out the-- the Air Force. It took out the-- the Navy, took out our warships. The only good thing that they did-- the thing that they didn't do that I think is one of the reasons why we actually-- we were on our knees as far as-- as our location in the war was concerned. And I think the only reason that really helped us was that our warships were at sea. Admiral Nimitz had them out in the South Pacific, and this is where they messed up, because then we were able to keep planes and-- and attacked the islands and assault from the islands up. You understand what I'm saying? They were-- they were able to assault from these islands up with these warships and stuff. Then they had a big battle at sea with Japan, fleet against fleet in the corals-- Coral Islands. And that's where the war really turned in our favor.
Shelby Peters [00:09:04] And so when you heard about Pearl Harbor, what was your reaction?
Cliff Glasgow [00:09:08] My reaction was this: I was just a kid, and I can remember-- you guys [are] gonna laugh at me now. I was-- I lived on a little farm down in south-- east Iowa, and I was out along the Des Moines River and I-- somebody just yelled at me that Honolulu had been bombed. I think, what was I, 13 or 14 or something like that at the time. But when I heard that, that was kind of a shock to me because I had a brother that was going to get in that. My other younger brother was five years younger than me, and he went to Korea and was killed in Heartbreak Ridge. But the-- this war in the South Pacific was a game of chess. You know how you play.?You ever play checkers? You had to get your man in the right spot. If you didn't, you lost them over here, you could get in trouble. And it was just like that. The only way we were able to win that war is, like I said, we had the Admiral Nimitz Navy fleet of Navy, and we-- we was able to break their codes. We-- we could decode where they was coming from and be prepared when they got there.
Shelby Peters [00:10:19] And how did you break the codes?
Cliff Glasgow [00:10:20] I don't know what that was. Intelligence done that. That was over my head. I don't know.
Shelby Peters [00:10:27] What was your specific job once you got off the ship and then onto land?
Cliff Glasgow [00:10:32] When I got off the ship, we were still in a training mode and-- and we-- we were being advised about where we were gonna-- we knew where we were gonna go. We were going to attack Japan. And-- and while we were on Saipan, a group of us was on that-- on the-- on the north shore of Saipan on a coral slope. I don't know how many of us were there, but there was a goodly number, and we were-- were being talked to by a chaplain, an army chaplain, and he was giving a pep talk, you know, for the-- this invasion that was coming up. He was telling us what to do. Incidentally, when this atom bomb was dropped, Truman had a bad, hard decision to make. The decision was that there would be an estimated 1,200,000 deaths and-- or-- or bomb with the two bombs. And he decided to go life-for-life and bomb Japan.
Lindsey Peterson [00:11:38] Now from Saipan, where did you go?
Cliff Glasgow [00:11:40] I went to Guam, and from there I-- I got into a hospital. I was in the hospital in Guam for-- I was free-- I was trying to figure out-- I'd almost forgotten. I got one of my letters today, and I read through it. I was in the hospital there for 25 days.
Shelby Peters [00:11:56] And what caused you to be in the hospital?
Cliff Glasgow [00:11:58] I had a-- had a staph infection from an appendectomy. And in the hospital-- the army hospitals were not clean like they are here. So they didn't know what staph infection was then. I'm just saying that's what I think I had because they didn't really know what-- I know I was in the hospital 25 days and lost 30 pounds.
Lindsey Peterson [00:12:20] Did they have any idea or diagnosed you with something even though they really didn't know?
Cliff Glasgow [00:12:25] Oh, that was appendectomy. Yeah, but-- but the reason why they kept me in the hospital, is my temperature wouldn't go down. It stayed up there. And I'll tell you, I pulled a goof and got out on this basis. I took the thermometer and set it in my teeth. They said if I could get it set three times in a row, they'd send me back to my outfit. So I did a no-no. I wouldn't advise anybody to do that. But I set that thermometer, and they said, "You can go back to your outfit."And so they called a M.P. to come and take me back. I had on a pair of combat boots and fatigue pants and no shirt.
Lindsey Peterson [00:13:04] So you preferred to be with your outlet-- outfit instead of in the hospital? You really wanted--
Cliff Glasgow [00:13:10] Oh, nobody wants to be in the hospital. I don't know anybody that did. I didn't want to be in the hospital, but I didn't have any choice.
Lindsey Peterson [00:13:19] What were you doing at Guam?
Cliff Glasgow [00:13:22] Would you ask the question?
Lindsey Peterson [00:13:23] What were you doing at Guam before you got in the hospital?
Cliff Glasgow [00:13:27] I was-- I had a C.O. from Ohio. His name was Banks. He was a captain. And he made-- he said I-- I was adept at typing. Now, when I went to school, I wasn't a good typer at all, but I guess I was good enough that he thought I should be supply sergeant. So-- so he put me in there and that's how I-- but I got into a lot of hard work there before this was over with because at that stage of the game, they were phasing the Army down. You know, they was-- they was coming home. And-- and one of the worst jobs I've ever had was when they activate-- when you deactivate a company and then activate another one. That was my job as supply sergeant. And I had to-- and what this process meant was that when you deactivate each-- I had to-- see, everybody's got a Form 32, which is a table of allotments for everything that they have in their possession. So their name follows them clear through the Army. Well, I had that for 300 men to take care of, and in addition to that they decided to-- I had-- what did I have? I had four or five other branches of service that I had to make a monthly report to, I think there was ordnance engineers, chemical warfare, quartermaster, and engineers, and I had to do that every month. That was a lot of fun. But at the same time, they said, Well, there's an order come down from headquarters that we're going to deactivate your company. And what this-- they say, well, there's nothing to that. Well, there isn't for most people. But what I was responsible for all of this, I had details to do it. But like all of your weapons, I think we had maybe 200 carbines and all them carbines had to be inspected and [unintelligible] and-- and wrapped in waterproof paper and put in boxes, I think, ten per box. And time you do that with all of that and all all of my equipment had to be inspected and passed before it was [unintelligible]. What happens when you turn all this stuff in? Then you-- you turn it in on a-- on a yellow slip. And after you get this yellow slip, that gives you the authority to put it back on a white requisition and draw it back out again for another company. So that kept me-- I tell you-- I was one busy boy.
Lindsey Peterson [00:16:02] Did you have any memorabl-- memora-- memorable experiences from that?
Cliff Glasgow [00:16:07] Well, no, I had plenty of help, I mean. But no, I-- I enjoyed that. Fact the C.O. wanted me to stay over there, but I didn't. I was too smart for that.
Shelby Peters [00:16:18] And what was the interaction like with the local life around in Guam and--
Cliff Glasgow [00:16:22] It wasn't-- it was kind of sparse, you know, it was-- it was a hilly-- quite-- quite a bit like Saipan. A few hills, maybe a mountain or two, but I can't see-- that there wasn't much going on there. It was pretty well disturbed by the bombing. The trees were knocked down. Saipan the same way, they'd-- most of the coconut trees were gone and all that kind of stuff. I don't know just what they-- how they lived, but they just seemed like more of a roving type of a person, you know, with nothing set to do. Every once in awhile you see one with the oxen going down the street on a two-wheeled cart, that type of thing.
Lindsey Peterson [00:17:09] Where'd you head after Guam?
Cliff Glasgow [00:17:12] After Guam? I come home.
Lindsey Peterson [00:17:14] Oh, you did?
[00:17:15] Yup. I got-- I got-- I think they put me on a ship, and I got to come home. Incidentally, on the-- on the way back. I come back on the same-- let's see, what did I come back on? The Zanesville Victory, and come back to se-- Golden Gate, come under the Golden Gate and come back there. Incidentally, when it comes to my birthday, I was operated on in this hospital on-- my birthday's September 22nd. I crossed the international dateline on September 22nd, had two birthdays, and my brother was killed on September the 22nd on my birthday in Korea.
Shelby Peters [00:18:02] So you were on Guam when you found out that you got to come home? How was-- what was your reaction to that?
Cliff Glasgow [00:18:10] Coming home? The soldiers-- the-- the personnel were being phased down by a point system, you know, depending upon the length of service and this type of thing. And a lot of guys over there five years and being in the service, I was only in the service two years, totally. But most of the old guys, they were sitting around waiting for your number to come up, you know. Go look at the bulletin board and see where you come on. But that's how we get to come on the rotation system.
Shelby Peters [00:18:45] Where-- you-- were you serving in the South Pacific Theater when the-- was the dropping of the atomic bombs?
Cliff Glasgow [00:18:52] I want to tell you that story. I was a-- Roosevelt-- President Roosevelt gave the go-ahead to try to get the scientists to perfect this bomb. They didn't know for sure what it was, and that was in-- I remember I was in New Mexico and this-- this ship-- when we were on Saipan and were setting up here listening to this Army chaplain tell us about this thing. We didn't know it at the time, but this atom bomb was being loaded on the Enola Gay in Tinian, you know, and that's just six miles. We can see Tinian. We're looking right straight at it. It was only six miles over there. And while we're sitting there and this chaplain's giving us this speech on-- on the entry into the Kyushu island of Japan, we looked up in the sky and there were some airplanes going over. I think they [were] B25s. And they had a formation that looked like a TD. And we're sitting there, what's that all about? What it was all about-- after they dropped that atom bomb on, I think it was Nagasaki first maybe. Probably was. That was-- what that meant was total destruction. These guys had got wind of something going on and that back there, they could get up and play around in the sky a little bit. And that's-- and that's when that atom bombs dropped. Two days later, another 'un was dropped. And that's where-- where we were sitting. We were sitting on the brink of going into Kyushu, Japan, and every-- everything was being centralized around the perimeter. All the branches of service, all four of them. And they were being-- the ships and everything was coming in on them. And we're sitting here like there's [unintelligible] unload ready for this to happen. And Truman says, Drop the atom bomb. And so that just flushed out the whole mess.
Lindsey Peterson [00:21:00] Were you relieved not to invade Guam island?
Cliff Glasgow [00:21:03] Well, nobody wants to invade anybody, but I'd have went with them. I mean, there's going to be-- as they said, there's going to be a million-- 1,200,000 deaths in that invasion, which is much more than the war-- both world-- both wars. So Truman had to make a decision. And I'm sure as far as lives [are] concerned, he made the right one.
Shelby Peters [00:21:28] And what was your reaction when you heard that the war was over?
Cliff Glasgow [00:21:32] I was elated about-- hey, we're sitting there getting ready to go to Japan. I felt pretty good about this whole thing. I think anybody else would.
Shelby Peters [00:21:41] And how did you-- your company celebrate?
Cliff Glasgow [00:21:43] Oh, they'd-- they'd celebrate like you college kids would celebrate, I suppose. Something in that manner. It was a big day.
Shelby Peters [00:21:55] And what was it like coming home and seeing your family again?
Cliff Glasgow [00:22:00] Well, I-- I was glad to get back. I-- I was offered a second lieutenant's rating. I'd turn it down after I got back and had a little schooling. I decided to go another route.
Lindsey Peterson [00:22:16] So you went to school after you got back?
Cliff Glasgow [00:22:18] Yeah.
Lindsey Peterson [00:22:19] Was that on a G.I. Bill?
Cliff Glasgow [00:22:20] Yes.
Shelby Peters [00:22:21] And where did you attend?
Cliff Glasgow [00:22:22] Fairfield.
Lindsey Peterson [00:22:24] What did you go for?
Cliff Glasgow [00:22:26] I wasn't quite sure at the time, but I think it was what do you call them? A B.S., or bachelors degree of some sort. But I-- I-- I determined at that time that that enclosure type of employment wasn't good enough for me. It wasn't suited to me. So I went back to Des Moines and started a company down there. It ended up I had an RV center, you know, where Adventureland Inn is on Hubbell, not too far from there on Hubbell. So my wife stayed down there for 40-some years, and 18 years ago we moved back up here to Des Moines because she had a lot of relatives and people that she knew, aunts and uncles. And-- and I got to tell you a story before I quit. Bob Rosenbrook and Janet Rosenbrook-- they'd come down with the fire department from-- from Storm Lake. And we had hosted them in our yard when they'd go fight the barrel out at the fair, you know, the water barrel? They'd go out there and do that. So, then they said-- they all talked to us-- and that was instrumental in our moving up here also. Said, "You got to get up here. Get away from that rats' nest." I don't know about that.
Shelby Peters [00:23:50] And you said you moved up very highly in the ranks. Can you tell us about that?
Cliff Glasgow [00:23:55] You want me to--
Shelby Peters [00:23:56] You got promoted.
Cliff Glasgow [00:23:57] Yeah.
Shelby Peters [00:23:58] Can you tell us about that?
Cliff Glasgow [00:23:59] Well, I was a private and the C.O.-- you know, you have to take tests and stuff. They got that all on record. And he synchronized by those tests, that I was the man for the job. And he put me in. And there was another one that I didn't like. He put me in. He said, "You go in there, you're going to be the supply sergeant." I was a private, and the guy that was-- been in the Army five years, he was a T-5. He said, "You're over him." Well, you know how that would sound to you. But anyway, in a matter of two or three weeks, I didn't make private. I made corporal. Put it on the bulletin board. And in the next two or three months, I went up to staff sergeant. I-- I have these letters here. I don't know whether you saw these or not. You can check those over and you can see my-- my ranks as I come up on that. Those are letters I mailed home. Here's one-- here's one when I was a private.
Shelby Peters [00:25:02] And you have other souvenirs that you brought back. Can you tell us more about what you have here for us?
Cliff Glasgow [00:25:09] Well, this one here is-- I wrote home I didn't realize that I did that, but I had a letter here that-- I received this from a Japanese prisoner that-- I was in charge of issuing weapons for the guard-- to guard Japanese prisoners on Guam. And one of them give me this-- and I didn't-- I forgot I had it 'til the other day when I started looking around and there's a-- maybe you can find somebody. Can you read that? You might not want to.
Lindsey Peterson [00:25:41] Do you know why the prisoner gave this to you?
Cliff Glasgow [00:25:43] Pardon?
Lindsey Peterson [00:25:44] Do you know why the prisoner gave it--
Cliff Glasgow [00:25:45] Well, I think so. I was in charge of issuing out the weapons and everything, and I'd have to go out and kind of observe once in a while. So I would meet these guys, you know, and it'd be just like you guys after the fourth or fifth time, you know, I-- I would, you know, kind of talk to them a little bit, but I guess that was a kind of a thank you note or something, I don't know. I don't know what else I have. Now I have-- I have here-- but I think this is a letter I have from President Truman. If you can see that. Thanking me for serving in the war and this is a letter here of my-- when I was in-- in Camp Hood, Texas, as a private. And the other one here is one that Bill Knapp sent me that paid for the-- for my tour to Washington, D.C. He sent me this, and this is one of the pictures that he took for that.
Shelby Peters [00:26:47] And that's for the Honor Flight.
Cliff Glasgow [00:26:49] That's the Honor Flight, yeah.
Lindsey Peterson [00:26:50] Can you tell us a little more about the Honor Flight?
Cliff Glasgow [00:26:53] Yeah, we-- my wife-- my wife couldn't go, but she went down and was-- was-- was able to go on our trip through the fairground and over to Adventureland for a night out over there. So we all went over there on busses. Now, what this flight was about-- every time you moved, there were six colored busses, like red, blue, black and that. You had a thing hanging here with your color above you's going to get on. So-- so that's how you did. Anyway, we went over to Adventureland and then-- then we went back and got ready to get on this plane, which we had-- well, that picture wasn't taken then. But we-- we get on this plane, and I thought, boy, this is going to be a long trip. It's a big V-57. We get on this and there was 500 men. This kind of bothered me a little bit 'cuz the biggest plane I was ever on was a Piper Cub flying over Des Moines. And I said, "How are we going to get this craft off the ground?" But the pilot did. He got it up and sat us down in Washington, DC in an hour and 41 minutes. It took me 3 hours to drive to Des Moines to get on it. So that kind of tells you how fast that thing was.
Lindsey Peterson [00:28:17] What was your favorite monument that you saw?
Cliff Glasgow [00:28:19] My brother's. I-- I was going to bring a picture of that. My brother was killed in Korea. And of course, they had the Korean monument. And I have a picture with-- with Bill Anderson from Alta in front of that monument. So that was probably the-- the best of them. I thought they were all good, as far as that goes. One of the things that impressed me most about the trip was the Arlington Cemetery where there's-- would you believe, 250,000 troops buried there. And just-- if you just look-- just like around here, when the corn's out in the fall, you see corn just as far as you can see. That's all you can see, just a-- just a sea of tombstones up there.
Lindsey Peterson [00:29:03] Did you get to see the changing of the guard while you were at Arlington?
Cliff Glasgow [00:29:06] In fact, I have a picture with me standing between those two guards. It come out in the Des Moines paper and I was down, it was hot. And I decided I'd just stand up, back up here, little bit out of the crowd. There was a lot of people there. But when these two guys were down here, there was another guy over here taking their picture and he-- when he shot this picture, I'm between the two of 'em. Now, you wouldn't know it was me or nobody else would know it was me. I knew it was me. We all looked alike, but that's where I was standing when that picture was taken. Awesome trip, awesome trip. And Bill Nye-- Bill-- whew-- oh, hey, I got to look at this. Wait a minute here. I got to tell you-- Knapp's his name. Bill Knapp, a realtor in Storm Lake. He's the one that put up, I think, $300,000 to pay for that trip.
Shelby Peters [00:30:02] And did you-- that Honor Flight was something you got to do after you got back. Did you win any awards or citations for your service?
Cliff Glasgow [00:30:11] Well, I got the normal-- the normal ones. I didn't get any fighting records or nothing, but I got the usual. There's always four or five of those good conduct-- Asiatic-Pacific-- Ruptured Duck-- and a string of those. But they're not-- they were not from shootin' anybody or anything like that. I was at the right place at the right time to-- and I'm glad that atom bomb got down there about the same time I did.
Shelby Peters [00:30:47] Do you have any other specific memories of your service that you'd like to share with us?
Cliff Glasgow [00:30:53] Well, I don't know if there's-- I've got a-- I've got a-- yeah, there's a couple of 'em. You guys haven't laughed yet. I'll tell you one [that] might make you laugh. When-- when I was on Guam as a supply sergeant. Here's the supply sergeant and the orderly room. And then the mess hall. We're having an inspection from a fly-in general, and he's been brought in by MPs on [unintelligible] horns a-honkin' and blared. Our C.O.-- C.O., his name was Peeks [sp] from Ohio. He's-- he's going to go down and meet him and ride with the general in the jeep and come out. And everything's all set and planned. Nobody was to be in there except us three: me, first sergeant, and the mess sergeant. So just-- we could hear the horns a-comin'. We knew they was comin'. We had to be-- we had to get out and salute those guys, you know. And the C.O., his name was Roberts, and he was from Ohio. He comes out to me, says, "Cliff," he says, "will you do me a favor?" I said, "What's the matter?" He said, "I cut myself shaving," he says, "I got blood all over me." And the-- the-- they were gonna be there in a few minutes. And he says, "Would you go to report at the sup-- at the orderly room for me?" Said, "Yeah." So, anyway, the C.O., he don't know about this. He don't know what's going on. He's going to make a big impression with those generals, see. So he comes up there, stops at the mess hall. The sergeant talks to him a little bit. He asks a few questions. Then he comes up to the orderly room. I'm at the orderly room. Well, can you imagine what the C.O. thought? He's sitting out there on that jeep. So I talked to him. I guess I got over pretty good. But the problem with that was I knew he was going to go to the supply room next, see? So I had to duck out the back of that tent and get in the other one. Run around there, [unintelliguble] the front door and here I am over here again. And he wants to know a few questions about, you know, what's going on with the things of the company, the weapons, and things like that. [Unintelligible]. And so they left. But when he left, he went over to show that C.O. and this is what he said. He says, "Well," he says, "how did things go?" He says, "I think that Staff Sergeant Glasgow is underrated." [Laughter]
Shelby Peters [00:33:16] Do you have other specific stories?
Cliff Glasgow [00:33:18] That-- that pretty-- not unless you'd want to ask some.
Shelby Peters [00:33:22] That's quite an honor.
Cliff Glasgow [00:33:25] No, I felt real good about it-- everything. The thing that really bothers me to this day is my brother got killed in Korea, and that was due to misjudgment. It seemed like we'd always get drawn in. For instance, in Pearl Harbor, when-- when they bombed Pearl Harbor, we had-- This was 8:00 in the morning on a Sunday. We had the Japanese diplomats talking peace in Washington, D.C., in the White House at that very moment that-- that they knew that was going to happen. Same thing happened in Korea on the 38th parallel. We're sitting there arguing with the Chinese about peace, peace, peace. And they were doing this-- they'd take-- killing time. While they're doing that, 400,000 troops come in to where my brother was killed in Heartbreak Ridge. We-- we haven't used the best diploma-- diplomacy for a lot of our stuff.
Shelby Peters [00:34:25] And you said your other brother, your older brother, served--
Cliff Glasgow [00:34:30] In Honolulu. Yeah. And then after-- after he come home from Honolulu, he had went to Iowa-- Iowa State-- Iowa University [Editor's note: University of Iowa.] And when he come back, after his stay in Honolulu as a tech sergeant, he-- he did some border training, and they called him and wanted him to go to Maryland and under-- under-- under secrecy. He never has talked about what he did. I suppose it had something to do with-- I don't know. He never did say. But he-- he was over there for quite a while.
Shelby Peters [00:35:11] And when he returned, what was it like to share your stories with him of what you did and then what he did--
Cliff Glasgow [00:35:16] We never talked-- we never talked much about-- this is the most talking I've ever done. I didn't even know about these 'til-- I had to start looking up some stuff. No, we-- we didn't discuss too much about that.
Shelby Peters [00:35:33] And so there's obviously a big tradition of serving in your family. I bet your parents were pretty proud of you. What was your proudest moment of serving in the war?
Cliff Glasgow [00:35:44] What was my proudest moment? Oh, I don't know. There were several of them. You can't-- you can't pinpoint it-- [the recording begins to fail]
[00:36:01] --when they drop that header. I got. To head back. To the. When? We are. I mean, the. Not a moment. When we. He went. Do. Don't. Okay. John.
Shelby Peters [00:37:47] On the. Her.
Cliff Glasgow [00:37:59] That was. The proudest. There. Your.
Shelby Peters [00:00:01] Today is April 21st and we are interviewing Cliff Glasgow. He was born September 22nd, September 22nd of 19-- or 1926. My name is Shelby Peters, and I'll be the interviewer along with Lindsey Petersen. And how old were you when you first--
Cliff Glasgow [00:00:21] 18.
Shelby Peters [00:00:21] 18. Were you drafted or did you--
Cliff Glasgow [00:00:23] Drafted.
Shelby Peters [00:00:24] And how did you feel about that?
Cliff Glasgow [00:00:27] Everybody else was being drafted. So I didn't have much choice. It didn't bother me.
Lindsey Peterson [00:00:32] What year were you drafted?
Cliff Glasgow [00:00:35] [19]44. The last month of '44.
Shelby Peters [00:00:39] So how-- what were your feelings about the war prior to your enlistment?
Cliff Glasgow [00:00:44] What did I feel about the war? Well, I was kind of concerned about the war. I had a brother serving in the South Pacific also. And of course, at a later date, I had a younger brother that was 19 that was killed in Korea. But I wanted to go do my part.
Shelby Peters [00:01:04] What kind of information did you learn from your brother? When he would write home to you?
Cliff Glasgow [00:01:09] Well, he was a tech sergeant on Hawaii and kind of a coincidental thing, he give me a lot of advice. In fact, he was-- at one time thought maybe he could pull me off of the [unintelligible] so many of em'-- when we was headed past to Hawaii to the South Pacific, course that couldn't happen. But it was kind of a coincidence because after I left Guam-- or Tinian and Saipan, I would come as a staff sergeant and also a supply sergeant, which my brother was.
Shelby Peters [00:01:45] And where did you do your training at?
Cliff Glasgow [00:01:47] Camp Hood, Texas.
Shelby Peters [00:01:49] What kind of-- what was training like for you?
Cliff Glasgow [00:01:52] It was an infantry, 151st Infantry Battalions. So it was-- had to do with hand-to-hand warfare and that type of thing, which was prevalent in the South Pacific.
Shelby Peters [00:02:04] Any specific experiences you remember from training?
Cliff Glasgow [00:02:10] It varied. You know, you learn to kind of get along with other people, and you knew you had a job to do. And when we were in Camp Hood, Texas under training, we'd get reports back from the group that was ahead of us and talk about those that were killed and those that had been injured in a period of two or three weeks.
Lindsey Peterson [00:02:33] How did you feel about training? Did you like it or just--
Cliff Glasgow [00:02:37] I enjoyed it. And most of the people in World War II were coming out of a Depression. And for the most part, the rural people, they were already in pretty much good shape. You know, now that's not prevalent today, but most of the people that were in World War II because of the Depression and this type of thing had to be working someplace. And of course, the country people, they were in pretty good shape to start with. So it was not a problem to me.
Shelby Peters [00:03:06] And after training, where did you go?
Cliff Glasgow [00:03:09] After training I got a-- a furlough and I come back to-- that was Milton, Iowa. I come back there for a short furlough and then from there I went to Fort Hood-- Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, on the East Coast. And we were told then that we were going to go to Europe, the European theater, as opposed to the South Pacific. But after we were there, about two or three days start-- things started to change a little bit in what was going on in those two wars. And they decided to send the 18-year-olds to the South Pacific and the 19-year-olds to the European theater.
Shelby Peters [00:03:50] What was your reaction when you heard that news?
Cliff Glasgow [00:03:53] I-- didn't really make much difference. We-- we left Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, on a-- on a troop train. I think-- it seems to me like it was four days. We went from there to Fort Lawton in Seattle, Washington, and it was quite a trip. I remember coming across Iowa with the side door open, looking at the corn and stuff. I said, "Goodbye."
Lindsey Peterson [00:04:16] What was the train like?
Cliff Glasgow [00:04:18] It was a troop train. It was-- it was no fancy stuff. It just a bunch of-- bunch of Army boys on a troop train. And-- and that's, you know, that's about the way it was.
Shelby Peters [00:04:32] And then where did you ship out for the-- the South Pacific theater.
Cliff Glasgow [00:04:40] Fort Lawton in Seattle, Washington.
Shelby Peters [00:04:42] And what was the name of the ship you--
Cliff Glasgow [00:04:44] SS Matsonia.
Shelby Peters [00:04:46] And how many days' voyage was that?
Cliff Glasgow [00:04:47] 17 days. It was-- back in those days you was either escorted or if you weren't escorted, you zigzagged, you know, you probably know about that. And that's to keep the enemy from picking you up on the screen.
Shelby Peters [00:05:02] And what was life on the ship like?
Cliff Glasgow [00:05:05] Very crowded. I-- I don't know the number now, but it seems to me there's just downright 5000. This was a big ship. And if we-- we were headed, I think what the problem was at that time, we were being enmassed in strategic points for the invasion of Kyushu, Japan, which is the southernmost island. And that's what we finally ended up with. We never did go to Kyushu because of the atom bomb.
Lindsey Peterson [00:05:37] What did you do on the ship to pass your time?
Cliff Glasgow [00:05:39] Oh, played cards and talk with other people. That was pretty much it. It was-- and then you kept the shades pulled so the Japs wouldn't see the lights in the windows.
Shelby Peters [00:05:53] And what was the destination? You said it got switched. Where did you end up going?
Cliff Glasgow [00:05:59] I went to-- I went to Saipan and that's-- there's-- that's in the Mariana chain. There's four islands there. I think it's Tinian, Saipan, Guam, and Rota.
Shelby Peters [00:06:15] And did you see combat when you got there?
Cliff Glasgow [00:06:17] No, we-- we checked out a few caves and things like that, but we ran out into a few caves and those type of things. Japs were good at hiding. And those Coral-- all the Coral islands throughout the South Pacific were pretty much mountainous or with caves. And that's the reason why it was such a-- we lost so many men, taking those because when you're sitting up in a cave shooting at somebody and you're down here in a boat trying to get at them, they got the-- they got the lead on you.
Shelby Peters [00:06:52] Any specific memories you remember from that or--
Cliff Glasgow [00:06:56] Yeah, you mean-- my most memories that I've thought about was when Honolulu was bombed. You know, I go from there, really, when-- when this is how the troops were enmassed to the island systems and the-- before the invasion of Japan. But I don't sup-- none of you guys old enough to remember the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese? Are you aware of that? They come in there with the two waves. The first wave was 100 and I think 91 thou--191 planes. And it was on a Sunday morning and, you know, on a Saturday night with servicemen and everything, they're not-- they-- they knew that there-- they'd picked up a code that this was gonna happen, but they didn't know it was this way. They thought it was going to take Japan the other direction where they were having trouble down in the south seas of China. But they missed on that one. There was another flight come an hour later. I think there was-- it all told between the two flights, there was 350 planes that bombed, and that took out the-- the Air Force. It took out the-- the Navy, took out our warships. The only good thing that they did-- the thing that they didn't do that I think is one of the reasons why we actually-- we were on our knees as far as-- as our location in the war was concerned. And I think the only reason that really helped us was that our warships were at sea. Admiral Nimitz had them out in the South Pacific, and this is where they messed up, because then we were able to keep planes and-- and attacked the islands and assault from the islands up. You understand what I'm saying? They were-- they were able to assault from these islands up with these warships and stuff. Then they had a big battle at sea with Japan, fleet against fleet in the corals-- Coral Islands. And that's where the war really turned in our favor.
Shelby Peters [00:09:04] And so when you heard about Pearl Harbor, what was your reaction?
Cliff Glasgow [00:09:08] My reaction was this: I was just a kid, and I can remember-- you guys [are] gonna laugh at me now. I was-- I lived on a little farm down in south-- east Iowa, and I was out along the Des Moines River and I-- somebody just yelled at me that Honolulu had been bombed. I think, what was I, 13 or 14 or something like that at the time. But when I heard that, that was kind of a shock to me because I had a brother that was going to get in that. My other younger brother was five years younger than me, and he went to Korea and was killed in Heartbreak Ridge. But the-- this war in the South Pacific was a game of chess. You know how you play.?You ever play checkers? You had to get your man in the right spot. If you didn't, you lost them over here, you could get in trouble. And it was just like that. The only way we were able to win that war is, like I said, we had the Admiral Nimitz Navy fleet of Navy, and we-- we was able to break their codes. We-- we could decode where they was coming from and be prepared when they got there.
Shelby Peters [00:10:19] And how did you break the codes?
Cliff Glasgow [00:10:20] I don't know what that was. Intelligence done that. That was over my head. I don't know.
Shelby Peters [00:10:27] What was your specific job once you got off the ship and then onto land?
Cliff Glasgow [00:10:32] When I got off the ship, we were still in a training mode and-- and we-- we were being advised about where we were gonna-- we knew where we were gonna go. We were going to attack Japan. And-- and while we were on Saipan, a group of us was on that-- on the-- on the north shore of Saipan on a coral slope. I don't know how many of us were there, but there was a goodly number, and we were-- were being talked to by a chaplain, an army chaplain, and he was giving a pep talk, you know, for the-- this invasion that was coming up. He was telling us what to do. Incidentally, when this atom bomb was dropped, Truman had a bad, hard decision to make. The decision was that there would be an estimated 1,200,000 deaths and-- or-- or bomb with the two bombs. And he decided to go life-for-life and bomb Japan.
Lindsey Peterson [00:11:38] Now from Saipan, where did you go?
Cliff Glasgow [00:11:40] I went to Guam, and from there I-- I got into a hospital. I was in the hospital in Guam for-- I was free-- I was trying to figure out-- I'd almost forgotten. I got one of my letters today, and I read through it. I was in the hospital there for 25 days.
Shelby Peters [00:11:56] And what caused you to be in the hospital?
Cliff Glasgow [00:11:58] I had a-- had a staph infection from an appendectomy. And in the hospital-- the army hospitals were not clean like they are here. So they didn't know what staph infection was then. I'm just saying that's what I think I had because they didn't really know what-- I know I was in the hospital 25 days and lost 30 pounds.
Lindsey Peterson [00:12:20] Did they have any idea or diagnosed you with something even though they really didn't know?
Cliff Glasgow [00:12:25] Oh, that was appendectomy. Yeah, but-- but the reason why they kept me in the hospital, is my temperature wouldn't go down. It stayed up there. And I'll tell you, I pulled a goof and got out on this basis. I took the thermometer and set it in my teeth. They said if I could get it set three times in a row, they'd send me back to my outfit. So I did a no-no. I wouldn't advise anybody to do that. But I set that thermometer, and they said, "You can go back to your outfit."And so they called a M.P. to come and take me back. I had on a pair of combat boots and fatigue pants and no shirt.
Lindsey Peterson [00:13:04] So you preferred to be with your outlet-- outfit instead of in the hospital? You really wanted--
Cliff Glasgow [00:13:10] Oh, nobody wants to be in the hospital. I don't know anybody that did. I didn't want to be in the hospital, but I didn't have any choice.
Lindsey Peterson [00:13:19] What were you doing at Guam?
Cliff Glasgow [00:13:22] Would you ask the question?
Lindsey Peterson [00:13:23] What were you doing at Guam before you got in the hospital?
Cliff Glasgow [00:13:27] I was-- I had a C.O. from Ohio. His name was Banks. He was a captain. And he made-- he said I-- I was adept at typing. Now, when I went to school, I wasn't a good typer at all, but I guess I was good enough that he thought I should be supply sergeant. So-- so he put me in there and that's how I-- but I got into a lot of hard work there before this was over with because at that stage of the game, they were phasing the Army down. You know, they was-- they was coming home. And-- and one of the worst jobs I've ever had was when they activate-- when you deactivate a company and then activate another one. That was my job as supply sergeant. And I had to-- and what this process meant was that when you deactivate each-- I had to-- see, everybody's got a Form 32, which is a table of allotments for everything that they have in their possession. So their name follows them clear through the Army. Well, I had that for 300 men to take care of, and in addition to that they decided to-- I had-- what did I have? I had four or five other branches of service that I had to make a monthly report to, I think there was ordnance engineers, chemical warfare, quartermaster, and engineers, and I had to do that every month. That was a lot of fun. But at the same time, they said, Well, there's an order come down from headquarters that we're going to deactivate your company. And what this-- they say, well, there's nothing to that. Well, there isn't for most people. But what I was responsible for all of this, I had details to do it. But like all of your weapons, I think we had maybe 200 carbines and all them carbines had to be inspected and [unintelligible] and-- and wrapped in waterproof paper and put in boxes, I think, ten per box. And time you do that with all of that and all all of my equipment had to be inspected and passed before it was [unintelligible]. What happens when you turn all this stuff in? Then you-- you turn it in on a-- on a yellow slip. And after you get this yellow slip, that gives you the authority to put it back on a white requisition and draw it back out again for another company. So that kept me-- I tell you-- I was one busy boy.
Lindsey Peterson [00:16:02] Did you have any memorabl-- memora-- memorable experiences from that?
Cliff Glasgow [00:16:07] Well, no, I had plenty of help, I mean. But no, I-- I enjoyed that. Fact the C.O. wanted me to stay over there, but I didn't. I was too smart for that.
Shelby Peters [00:16:18] And what was the interaction like with the local life around in Guam and--
Cliff Glasgow [00:16:22] It wasn't-- it was kind of sparse, you know, it was-- it was a hilly-- quite-- quite a bit like Saipan. A few hills, maybe a mountain or two, but I can't see-- that there wasn't much going on there. It was pretty well disturbed by the bombing. The trees were knocked down. Saipan the same way, they'd-- most of the coconut trees were gone and all that kind of stuff. I don't know just what they-- how they lived, but they just seemed like more of a roving type of a person, you know, with nothing set to do. Every once in awhile you see one with the oxen going down the street on a two-wheeled cart, that type of thing.
Lindsey Peterson [00:17:09] Where'd you head after Guam?
Cliff Glasgow [00:17:12] After Guam? I come home.
Lindsey Peterson [00:17:14] Oh, you did?
[00:17:15] Yup. I got-- I got-- I think they put me on a ship, and I got to come home. Incidentally, on the-- on the way back. I come back on the same-- let's see, what did I come back on? The Zanesville Victory, and come back to se-- Golden Gate, come under the Golden Gate and come back there. Incidentally, when it comes to my birthday, I was operated on in this hospital on-- my birthday's September 22nd. I crossed the international dateline on September 22nd, had two birthdays, and my brother was killed on September the 22nd on my birthday in Korea.
Shelby Peters [00:18:02] So you were on Guam when you found out that you got to come home? How was-- what was your reaction to that?
Cliff Glasgow [00:18:10] Coming home? The soldiers-- the-- the personnel were being phased down by a point system, you know, depending upon the length of service and this type of thing. And a lot of guys over there five years and being in the service, I was only in the service two years, totally. But most of the old guys, they were sitting around waiting for your number to come up, you know. Go look at the bulletin board and see where you come on. But that's how we get to come on the rotation system.
Shelby Peters [00:18:45] Where-- you-- were you serving in the South Pacific Theater when the-- was the dropping of the atomic bombs?
Cliff Glasgow [00:18:52] I want to tell you that story. I was a-- Roosevelt-- President Roosevelt gave the go-ahead to try to get the scientists to perfect this bomb. They didn't know for sure what it was, and that was in-- I remember I was in New Mexico and this-- this ship-- when we were on Saipan and were setting up here listening to this Army chaplain tell us about this thing. We didn't know it at the time, but this atom bomb was being loaded on the Enola Gay in Tinian, you know, and that's just six miles. We can see Tinian. We're looking right straight at it. It was only six miles over there. And while we're sitting there and this chaplain's giving us this speech on-- on the entry into the Kyushu island of Japan, we looked up in the sky and there were some airplanes going over. I think they [were] B25s. And they had a formation that looked like a TD. And we're sitting there, what's that all about? What it was all about-- after they dropped that atom bomb on, I think it was Nagasaki first maybe. Probably was. That was-- what that meant was total destruction. These guys had got wind of something going on and that back there, they could get up and play around in the sky a little bit. And that's-- and that's when that atom bombs dropped. Two days later, another 'un was dropped. And that's where-- where we were sitting. We were sitting on the brink of going into Kyushu, Japan, and every-- everything was being centralized around the perimeter. All the branches of service, all four of them. And they were being-- the ships and everything was coming in on them. And we're sitting here like there's [unintelligible] unload ready for this to happen. And Truman says, Drop the atom bomb. And so that just flushed out the whole mess.
Lindsey Peterson [00:21:00] Were you relieved not to invade Guam island?
Cliff Glasgow [00:21:03] Well, nobody wants to invade anybody, but I'd have went with them. I mean, there's going to be-- as they said, there's going to be a million-- 1,200,000 deaths in that invasion, which is much more than the war-- both world-- both wars. So Truman had to make a decision. And I'm sure as far as lives [are] concerned, he made the right one.
Shelby Peters [00:21:28] And what was your reaction when you heard that the war was over?
Cliff Glasgow [00:21:32] I was elated about-- hey, we're sitting there getting ready to go to Japan. I felt pretty good about this whole thing. I think anybody else would.
Shelby Peters [00:21:41] And how did you-- your company celebrate?
Cliff Glasgow [00:21:43] Oh, they'd-- they'd celebrate like you college kids would celebrate, I suppose. Something in that manner. It was a big day.
Shelby Peters [00:21:55] And what was it like coming home and seeing your family again?
Cliff Glasgow [00:22:00] Well, I-- I was glad to get back. I-- I was offered a second lieutenant's rating. I'd turn it down after I got back and had a little schooling. I decided to go another route.
Lindsey Peterson [00:22:16] So you went to school after you got back?
Cliff Glasgow [00:22:18] Yeah.
Lindsey Peterson [00:22:19] Was that on a G.I. Bill?
Cliff Glasgow [00:22:20] Yes.
Shelby Peters [00:22:21] And where did you attend?
Cliff Glasgow [00:22:22] Fairfield.
Lindsey Peterson [00:22:24] What did you go for?
Cliff Glasgow [00:22:26] I wasn't quite sure at the time, but I think it was what do you call them? A B.S., or bachelors degree of some sort. But I-- I-- I determined at that time that that enclosure type of employment wasn't good enough for me. It wasn't suited to me. So I went back to Des Moines and started a company down there. It ended up I had an RV center, you know, where Adventureland Inn is on Hubbell, not too far from there on Hubbell. So my wife stayed down there for 40-some years, and 18 years ago we moved back up here to Des Moines because she had a lot of relatives and people that she knew, aunts and uncles. And-- and I got to tell you a story before I quit. Bob Rosenbrook and Janet Rosenbrook-- they'd come down with the fire department from-- from Storm Lake. And we had hosted them in our yard when they'd go fight the barrel out at the fair, you know, the water barrel? They'd go out there and do that. So, then they said-- they all talked to us-- and that was instrumental in our moving up here also. Said, "You got to get up here. Get away from that rats' nest." I don't know about that.
Shelby Peters [00:23:50] And you said you moved up very highly in the ranks. Can you tell us about that?
Cliff Glasgow [00:23:55] You want me to--
Shelby Peters [00:23:56] You got promoted.
Cliff Glasgow [00:23:57] Yeah.
Shelby Peters [00:23:58] Can you tell us about that?
Cliff Glasgow [00:23:59] Well, I was a private and the C.O.-- you know, you have to take tests and stuff. They got that all on record. And he synchronized by those tests, that I was the man for the job. And he put me in. And there was another one that I didn't like. He put me in. He said, "You go in there, you're going to be the supply sergeant." I was a private, and the guy that was-- been in the Army five years, he was a T-5. He said, "You're over him." Well, you know how that would sound to you. But anyway, in a matter of two or three weeks, I didn't make private. I made corporal. Put it on the bulletin board. And in the next two or three months, I went up to staff sergeant. I-- I have these letters here. I don't know whether you saw these or not. You can check those over and you can see my-- my ranks as I come up on that. Those are letters I mailed home. Here's one-- here's one when I was a private.
Shelby Peters [00:25:02] And you have other souvenirs that you brought back. Can you tell us more about what you have here for us?
Cliff Glasgow [00:25:09] Well, this one here is-- I wrote home I didn't realize that I did that, but I had a letter here that-- I received this from a Japanese prisoner that-- I was in charge of issuing weapons for the guard-- to guard Japanese prisoners on Guam. And one of them give me this-- and I didn't-- I forgot I had it 'til the other day when I started looking around and there's a-- maybe you can find somebody. Can you read that? You might not want to.
Lindsey Peterson [00:25:41] Do you know why the prisoner gave this to you?
Cliff Glasgow [00:25:43] Pardon?
Lindsey Peterson [00:25:44] Do you know why the prisoner gave it--
Cliff Glasgow [00:25:45] Well, I think so. I was in charge of issuing out the weapons and everything, and I'd have to go out and kind of observe once in a while. So I would meet these guys, you know, and it'd be just like you guys after the fourth or fifth time, you know, I-- I would, you know, kind of talk to them a little bit, but I guess that was a kind of a thank you note or something, I don't know. I don't know what else I have. Now I have-- I have here-- but I think this is a letter I have from President Truman. If you can see that. Thanking me for serving in the war and this is a letter here of my-- when I was in-- in Camp Hood, Texas, as a private. And the other one here is one that Bill Knapp sent me that paid for the-- for my tour to Washington, D.C. He sent me this, and this is one of the pictures that he took for that.
Shelby Peters [00:26:47] And that's for the Honor Flight.
Cliff Glasgow [00:26:49] That's the Honor Flight, yeah.
Lindsey Peterson [00:26:50] Can you tell us a little more about the Honor Flight?
Cliff Glasgow [00:26:53] Yeah, we-- my wife-- my wife couldn't go, but she went down and was-- was-- was able to go on our trip through the fairground and over to Adventureland for a night out over there. So we all went over there on busses. Now, what this flight was about-- every time you moved, there were six colored busses, like red, blue, black and that. You had a thing hanging here with your color above you's going to get on. So-- so that's how you did. Anyway, we went over to Adventureland and then-- then we went back and got ready to get on this plane, which we had-- well, that picture wasn't taken then. But we-- we get on this plane, and I thought, boy, this is going to be a long trip. It's a big V-57. We get on this and there was 500 men. This kind of bothered me a little bit 'cuz the biggest plane I was ever on was a Piper Cub flying over Des Moines. And I said, "How are we going to get this craft off the ground?" But the pilot did. He got it up and sat us down in Washington, DC in an hour and 41 minutes. It took me 3 hours to drive to Des Moines to get on it. So that kind of tells you how fast that thing was.
Lindsey Peterson [00:28:17] What was your favorite monument that you saw?
Cliff Glasgow [00:28:19] My brother's. I-- I was going to bring a picture of that. My brother was killed in Korea. And of course, they had the Korean monument. And I have a picture with-- with Bill Anderson from Alta in front of that monument. So that was probably the-- the best of them. I thought they were all good, as far as that goes. One of the things that impressed me most about the trip was the Arlington Cemetery where there's-- would you believe, 250,000 troops buried there. And just-- if you just look-- just like around here, when the corn's out in the fall, you see corn just as far as you can see. That's all you can see, just a-- just a sea of tombstones up there.
Lindsey Peterson [00:29:03] Did you get to see the changing of the guard while you were at Arlington?
Cliff Glasgow [00:29:06] In fact, I have a picture with me standing between those two guards. It come out in the Des Moines paper and I was down, it was hot. And I decided I'd just stand up, back up here, little bit out of the crowd. There was a lot of people there. But when these two guys were down here, there was another guy over here taking their picture and he-- when he shot this picture, I'm between the two of 'em. Now, you wouldn't know it was me or nobody else would know it was me. I knew it was me. We all looked alike, but that's where I was standing when that picture was taken. Awesome trip, awesome trip. And Bill Nye-- Bill-- whew-- oh, hey, I got to look at this. Wait a minute here. I got to tell you-- Knapp's his name. Bill Knapp, a realtor in Storm Lake. He's the one that put up, I think, $300,000 to pay for that trip.
Shelby Peters [00:30:02] And did you-- that Honor Flight was something you got to do after you got back. Did you win any awards or citations for your service?
Cliff Glasgow [00:30:11] Well, I got the normal-- the normal ones. I didn't get any fighting records or nothing, but I got the usual. There's always four or five of those good conduct-- Asiatic-Pacific-- Ruptured Duck-- and a string of those. But they're not-- they were not from shootin' anybody or anything like that. I was at the right place at the right time to-- and I'm glad that atom bomb got down there about the same time I did.
Shelby Peters [00:30:47] Do you have any other specific memories of your service that you'd like to share with us?
Cliff Glasgow [00:30:53] Well, I don't know if there's-- I've got a-- I've got a-- yeah, there's a couple of 'em. You guys haven't laughed yet. I'll tell you one [that] might make you laugh. When-- when I was on Guam as a supply sergeant. Here's the supply sergeant and the orderly room. And then the mess hall. We're having an inspection from a fly-in general, and he's been brought in by MPs on [unintelligible] horns a-honkin' and blared. Our C.O.-- C.O., his name was Peeks [sp] from Ohio. He's-- he's going to go down and meet him and ride with the general in the jeep and come out. And everything's all set and planned. Nobody was to be in there except us three: me, first sergeant, and the mess sergeant. So just-- we could hear the horns a-comin'. We knew they was comin'. We had to be-- we had to get out and salute those guys, you know. And the C.O., his name was Roberts, and he was from Ohio. He comes out to me, says, "Cliff," he says, "will you do me a favor?" I said, "What's the matter?" He said, "I cut myself shaving," he says, "I got blood all over me." And the-- the-- they were gonna be there in a few minutes. And he says, "Would you go to report at the sup-- at the orderly room for me?" Said, "Yeah." So, anyway, the C.O., he don't know about this. He don't know what's going on. He's going to make a big impression with those generals, see. So he comes up there, stops at the mess hall. The sergeant talks to him a little bit. He asks a few questions. Then he comes up to the orderly room. I'm at the orderly room. Well, can you imagine what the C.O. thought? He's sitting out there on that jeep. So I talked to him. I guess I got over pretty good. But the problem with that was I knew he was going to go to the supply room next, see? So I had to duck out the back of that tent and get in the other one. Run around there, [unintelliguble] the front door and here I am over here again. And he wants to know a few questions about, you know, what's going on with the things of the company, the weapons, and things like that. [Unintelligible]. And so they left. But when he left, he went over to show that C.O. and this is what he said. He says, "Well," he says, "how did things go?" He says, "I think that Staff Sergeant Glasgow is underrated." [Laughter]
Shelby Peters [00:33:16] Do you have other specific stories?
Cliff Glasgow [00:33:18] That-- that pretty-- not unless you'd want to ask some.
Shelby Peters [00:33:22] That's quite an honor.
Cliff Glasgow [00:33:25] No, I felt real good about it-- everything. The thing that really bothers me to this day is my brother got killed in Korea, and that was due to misjudgment. It seemed like we'd always get drawn in. For instance, in Pearl Harbor, when-- when they bombed Pearl Harbor, we had-- This was 8:00 in the morning on a Sunday. We had the Japanese diplomats talking peace in Washington, D.C., in the White House at that very moment that-- that they knew that was going to happen. Same thing happened in Korea on the 38th parallel. We're sitting there arguing with the Chinese about peace, peace, peace. And they were doing this-- they'd take-- killing time. While they're doing that, 400,000 troops come in to where my brother was killed in Heartbreak Ridge. We-- we haven't used the best diploma-- diplomacy for a lot of our stuff.
Shelby Peters [00:34:25] And you said your other brother, your older brother, served--
Cliff Glasgow [00:34:30] In Honolulu. Yeah. And then after-- after he come home from Honolulu, he had went to Iowa-- Iowa State-- Iowa University [Editor's note: University of Iowa.] And when he come back, after his stay in Honolulu as a tech sergeant, he-- he did some border training, and they called him and wanted him to go to Maryland and under-- under-- under secrecy. He never has talked about what he did. I suppose it had something to do with-- I don't know. He never did say. But he-- he was over there for quite a while.
Shelby Peters [00:35:11] And when he returned, what was it like to share your stories with him of what you did and then what he did--
Cliff Glasgow [00:35:16] We never talked-- we never talked much about-- this is the most talking I've ever done. I didn't even know about these 'til-- I had to start looking up some stuff. No, we-- we didn't discuss too much about that.
Shelby Peters [00:35:33] And so there's obviously a big tradition of serving in your family. I bet your parents were pretty proud of you. What was your proudest moment of serving in the war?
Cliff Glasgow [00:35:44] What was my proudest moment? Oh, I don't know. There were several of them. You can't-- you can't pinpoint it-- [the recording begins to fail]
[00:36:01] --when they drop that header. I got. To head back. To the. When? We are. I mean, the. Not a moment. When we. He went. Do. Don't. Okay. John.
Shelby Peters [00:37:47] On the. Her.
Cliff Glasgow [00:37:59] That was. The proudest. There. Your.
Original Format
DVCAM
Duration
0:36:15
Bit Rate/Frequency
80 kbps