Military offered more than home did during Depression

When Ray Schum enlisted in the Marine Corps in September, 1940, he soon realized that military life was far better than his post-Depression-era hometown of Dale, Ind.

Schum, who enlisted shortly after his high school graduation, was sent to Parris Island, S.C., for boot camp.

“There was no question that boot camp was really tough in those pre-World War II days,” Schum said. “Because I grew-up during the worst of the big Depression in the 1930s, I quickly found out that the food we ate was far better that what I had back home.”

In those days, there were no food banks, foods stamps or welfare checks, he said.

“Life was a grim reality,” Schum said. “I had really found a home in the Marines.”

Schum was assigned to Company I, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines and was sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the First Marine Division was forming.

The division returned from Cuba in June 1941 and spent the next three months practicing amphibious landings along the east coast.

The division was sent to Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese had taken over the island and were constructing an air base at Lunga Point, later renamed Henderson Field.

The Japanese were establishing bases on the islands in hopes of threatening the supply routes between the United States and Australia.

Schum said the Marines were deployed to capture the airfield and then prevent the Japanese from retaking the strategically located military installation.

“We took it over, and they were just desperate to retake the field for their offensive operations in Australia,” he said.

The Marines built a frontline perimeter around the air station, where they defended against the Japanese attack. When the bombing raids started, the men would take cover, waiting out the aerial attacks in the trenches.

“We would be laying on our backs, and it looked like every bomb was headed for your hole,” said Schum.

On the battlefield, Marine life had become a lot less homey.

“My strongest personal memory was not the fire fights but the miserable conditions of life forced upon us for eight months,” said Schum.

Schum said he was hungry the entire time, and many times the Marines were without water for days. They spent almost every day cutting down jungle and stringing barbed wire to strengthen their defensive positions.

“We were all dead tired,” he said.

“Every night a Japanese artillery piece we called ‘sling-shot Charlie,' would fire into our position and wake us all up. Guadalcanal was a mosquito haven, to add to our misery.”