Joseph Bottoni

After we landed in Manila we had to clear the Japanese out of the islands.  We went to North and South San Fernando.We worked our way all the way up to Bagio. During one of those offensives was when I was injured.  There was a Japanese soldier who had a gun pointed at me, ready to kill.  My buddy got him, but when all that happened I fell off of a cliff and destroyed most of my left arm.  They said that they were going to have to cut my arm off, but I didn’t want them to do that so they put it in a cast. I was in Bagio for a little over a year recovering

In the Philippines as a truck driver my job was to transport the guys from our secured areas to the front lines.  I had to try to take care of all of these boys, to make sure that they got there safely to do their job. And they took care of me too.  A lot of times driving through a combat zone I would have to pull over and they would have to get off of the truck and take care of what was going on around us.  I was with them the whole time.  Then we would all get back in, go a little farther, and do it all over again.  The roads were awful.  There were no real roads to speak of; they were almost all dirt.  There were a lot of bad things happening all the way through during our time over there. Being the driver of a troop carrier I knew I had a pretty big bullseye on me, but we all took care of each other.

We had to be close and work as a team to get where we were going and do what we had to do.  At one point during a battle we all got separated and a lot of us were lost. Everyone was scattered around and we couldn’t find each other anymore.   I don’t even like to think about what that was like.  The whole platoon was scattered or killed. I wound up on top of a mountain near Bagio.  I found a house where two or three Phillipinos lived and they said it would be alright if I stayed there.  After staying there for a short time and not really knowing what was going on, I set out to try and find my buddies and regroup.  For the longest time I couldn’t find anybody.  Finally we were able to regroup and as more US troops came in to reinforce Bagio, we were able to take over the island and that was a big relief.  A few months after taking Bagio those of us who were still left from taking over the island got sent back to the States. 

Looking back now I have really been through it. For the most part I don’t like to talk or think about my experiences there due to the hardship, pain, and loss we all experienced.  But at the end of the day I know we saved our country; we saved so many of our own people, and we are proud of that.