Norman Marcuellus Lucas

Enlisted at Indianapolis, Indiana, on 24 February 1943; to active duty in May 1943. Boot camp at MCRD San Diego with Eleventh Recruit Battalion through July 1943; transferred to Company A, Infantry Battalion, Camp Elliott for additional training.

Joined Charlie Company, First Battalion, 24th Marines at Camp Pendleton on 26 August 1943.

Outfit: C/1/24th Marines
Rank: Private First Class
MOS: 521 (Basic)

Campaign Narrative

Outfit: C/1/24th Marines
Rank: Private First Class
MOS: 504 (Ammo carrier, 60mm mortar)
Important Events: 
Slightly wounded in action (date unknown, not reported).

“On Saipan, I shared a grenade, but it was just fragments under the skin.”

Campaign Narrative

Outfit: C/1/24th Marines
Rank: Private First Class
MOS: 504 (Ammo carrier, 60mm mortar)

Campaign Narrative

Outfit: C/1/24th Marines
Rank: Private First Class
MOS: 504 (Ammo carrier, 60mm mortar)
Important Events:
February 22, 1945 – wounded in action (slight, cause unknown), not evacuated
March 2, 1945 – wounded in action (mortar shrapnel, left leg). Evacuated to USS Solace for treatment and transport to hospital.

Campaign Narrative

Admitted to US Army General Hospital #204, Guam, 6 March 1945.

They put me on a hospital ship and took me down to Guam. Down there, after a couple of weeks, they thought they ought to amputate my left leg. So they didn’t give me nothin’ to eat the night before. And at 4 o’clock the doctor comes in to wake me up, and I said, “are you takin’ it off at this time in the morning?” He said, “We’re makin’ up a plane for Hawaii. Maybe they can save it.” He was gonna put me on that plane with nothing to eat for breakfast. I hollered a little bit, so the nurses cooked up some oatmeal. From there, by 8 o’clock, we were running down the runway, and we landed in the Marshalls that night. We ate, flew all night, and landed in Johnston Island. They brought us out beans for breakfast. The pilot said, “you guys simmer down, I’ll have you in Hawaii at noon and you’ll get some good food.” And we did.

Admitted to US Naval Hospital #128 (Oahu) on 7 April 1945. Discharged for duty on 23 April 1945; to Headquarters Company, Headquarters and Service Battalion, Fleet Marine Force Pacific for duty duty as messman.

[In Hawaii], they took a school and sent the kids home and turned it into a hospital. And from there, I went into what they call the casualty battalion, where the doctors evaluated that I could be on limited duty. Well, from that school that they made into a hospital, as the wounded from the Philippines and Iwo Jima began to come down, the Navy hospital opened up, and then they transferred me over there. That’s where the Navy doctor got the piece of shrapnel out; it had worked up to the top. I had told the corpsman how they’d been doing it at the Army hospital, and he did the same thing. When this doctor came by, I was in a lot of pain. He said, “What’s the matter?” and I said, “I dunno, I told the corpsman to do just what they did at the Army hospital. I got some severe pain.” He said, “Let’s take a look.” He reached in and pulled that thing. “This is what we’re looking for.” He pulled it right out with his finger.

The provost marshal called me up when they decided I could be on limited duty. He said, “I see you’re still a private in three years. In the Marine Corps, you do one month of mess duty for every year you’re a private or PFC.” I said I did time at the officer’s mess back in the States. He says that doesn’t count; we paid you ten dollars a month for that, which was true. So he sent me to a Marine camp called Camp Catlin on Oahu. I did three months of mess duty. I came back and was there about four or five days, and he called me in again. He said, I got an opening on the MPs at the camp here, that’s where I’m putting you. And that’s what I was doing when the war ended.

Rejoined Charlie Company, First Battalion, 24th Marines at Camp Maui on 3 October 1945, for transit back to United States. Transferred to Separation Center, Great Lakes, Illinois on 21 October. Honorably discharged on 30 October 1945.