Ira Gilliand recalls his night on the...

Ira Gilliand recalls his night on the ridge.

It's tough to talk about this stuff. It's been fifty-eight years. It gives me the chills thinking about it.It's interesting that after that many years he still gets a weird feeling about that everything that happened -julie smith 2/24/10 9:11 AM 

The Japanese were trying to outflank us and looked like they were going to overrun our position. I remember their screams. They screamed a lot, especially when they were charging. It made you alert in a hurry even after being up for two days and you're ready to fall asleep.I couldn't stay awake for that long and still be ready to battle at anytime. -julie smith 2/24/10 9:15 AM  Me either. I think I would be shaking, from being so tired and scared and nervous from the shots. I would definitely fall down.  -Steph stone 3/2/10 9:14 AM 

They kept charging, but that's where the grenades came in. We threw grenades all night long. I remember rolling the grenades down. Thats amazing that he remembers that kind of thing 58 years later. But I guess I would too if I was in this situation.  -Steph stone 3/2/10 9:15 AM  We were up on the hill and they were below us. They kept feeding us boxes of grenades. I remember the sound of Plante's BAR. He kept it going all night long. A lot of guys spent a terrible night out there.

The 1st Parachute Battalion was with us. I remember one of the paratroopers got shot. The corpsman came over because of his cry for help, and he [the corpsman] got shot right through the heart. His name was Smith, so when I saw Smith go down, I grabbed him and carried him down the hill. I didn't think he was going to die.It shows lots of courage that he would carry him down the hill risk his life to save someone else. -julie smith 2/24/10 9:14 AM  It really does, especially after he saw the guy go down by being shot in the heart, after I saw that I would go and check to see if he's still alive. I don't know if I would carry him. I'm not the brave.   -Steph stone 3/2/10 9:12 AM  When I got him down to the first aid station, I saw one of our doctors cry. [chokes up] Old Smitty was my friend, a real nice guy, and I broke down also.