General Hodges pins a Silver Star on U.S. Army Infantry Private First Class Bob Snyder during a ceremony in the Fiji Islands. The Silver Star is awarded "For Gallantry in Action."
Bob Snyder
Age: 86
Hometown: Chicago
Residence: Indio
Military branch: U.S. Army; 33rd Division/Americal Division; 132nd Infantry Regiment; K Company
Years served: 1941-1946
Rank: Private first class
Medals: Two Purple Hearts; Silver Star; Combat Infantryman Badge
Family: Wife Agnes; eight children; five grandchildren; one great-grandchild
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Bob Snyder joined the Army soon after the U.S. declared war on Japan.
Snyder, in his third year at Sullivan High School in Chicago, entered the conflict just as the military was scrambling to pull together the firepower needed to fight the war.
Snyder and others who enlisted early on had the disadvantage of being assigned old, World War I-era equipment — which was all that was available at the time, he said.
Snyder's infantry regiment was originally outfitted with 1903 Springfield bolt-action rifles — they were later assigned modern-era M1 rifles — and flat, metal helmets that offered minimal head protection.
In January 1942, Snyder boarded the Swedish American luxury liner the SS Kungsholm, bound from New York for Bataan and Corregidor in the Philippines.
The ship, converted to a troop transport ship when the U.S. entered the war, was terribly overcrowded, Snyder said.
“The ship held 1,500 people but there were 6,500 of us,” he said.
Snyder was a member of the 132nd Infantry Regiment — at that time part of the Army's 33rd Division.
The division's original objective was to reinforce the U.S. military efforts in the Philippines, but while the ship was on its way to Pacific, Allied forces surrendered Bataan and Corregidor to the Japanese.
On April 10, the day after the surrender of Bataan, the 65-mile Bataan Death March began.
The ship was diverted to Australia, where enemy fighting was so intense, it had to circle for 45 days before landing at Melbourne.
Not ready for war
The next stop was New Caledonia, where the 132nd joined the newly created Americal Division. The division arrived on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands on Dec. 8, 1942.
“It was very hot and muggy,” he said. “When we got there, we were in winter uniforms. We had to cut off the legs. You have to remember, we were not ready” for war.
Snyder's regiment was ordered to attack Hill 27, near Mount Austen, an area of rugged, jungle terrain where Japanese forces were firmly entrenched.
“The Japanese were hiding in the trees, way up on the hill shooting down on us,” he said.
Japanese .44-caliber machine guns rained down fire on the U.S. troops.
“We called it a wood chipper,” Snyder said. “When they fired that thing, pieces of wood (from tree limbs) would fall.”
The “living” conditions in the jungle were horrendous, he said.
“We had every kind of insect you could imagine,” he said. “We'd wake up in the morning covered with mosquitoes.”
Snyder had several bouts of malaria and suffered from jungle rot — a skin infection contracted in tropical environments.
“It gets under your arms and in your genital area,” Snyder said, grimacing at the memory.
Snyder, who spent three years with the Army infantry in the South Pacific, got shot up a couple of times during battle.
“I got wounded at Guadalcanal and again in Bougainville,” he said.
In Guadalcanal, a bullet “bounced off my head and they sewed it up,” he said.
Snyder refused to be separated from the infantry to recuperate from his injury.
“I went right back, like a dummy,” he said. “I wanted to stay with my buddies.”
In Bougainville, Snyder was shot between the thumb and forefinger on his left hand. Again, they stitched him up and he returned to his position.
He has two Purple Hearts to show for his encounter with enemy bullets.
Almost as an afterthought, he added, “I saved a couple of guys' lives. Got a Silver Star for that.”
