"When we picked up the rifles on that little about an acre and a half, we picked up 1,100 rifles-Japanese rifles." (Audio Interview, 30:33)

Raymond Robert Wade

Raymond Wade, 2002 War: World War, 1939-1945 Branch: Army Unit: 182nd Regiment Service Location: Australia; Fiji; New Hebrides Islands; Guadalcanal and Bougainville Island (Solomon Islands); San Francisco, California Rank: Private First Class Place of Birth: IL

Raymond Wade was a 23-year-old farmer in Indiana when he got his draft notice in the mail. Raymond Wade served in many locations in the Pacific Theater, including Australia, New Caledonia, Guadalcanal (twice), the Fijis, Bougainville, and New Hebrides. While overseas, Wade contracted malaria on several occasions and his knee had began to give out as well. So after a battle at Hill 260 on Bougainville and another case of malaria, Raymond was finally shipped stateside to another hospital and then finally home. Just after he was discharged from the Army, the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and ended the war.