Donald Cook
Birthday: June 17, 1919
Birthplace: Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin
Family: Leo and Sophia Cook
Occupation: Worked at Consolidated
Branch: US Army Infantry
Unit: 38th Infantry Division; 149th Infantry Regiment
Post: Assistant Machine Gunner
Rank: Private First Class

Donald Cook

Donald Cook

Donald Cook

Donald Cook

Donald Cook

Donald Cook

Donald Cook

Donald Cook

Donald Cook

Japanese soldiers surrendering.

Donald Cook was drafted in 1942 and served with the US Army in the South Pacific. After training in the United States, he was sent to the Philippines. "I was assistant machine gunner. I carried the ammo and the tripod for the gun. The gunner would most of the time carry the gun, but every so often we'd change off because the gun was a lot heavier than the tripod. Then we had a couple of other guys who carried ammunition, too." Mr. Cook was in I-Company under the 149th Regiment.1

They also carried packs with them that contained a shelter half, some tent stakes, and some tent poles. The small tents were put up at night if they weren't fighting. If they were on enemy lines they didn't bother with tents. "If you were fighting, you never monkeyed around with tents. You dug a slit trench. You crawled in that and that's where you stayed at night. A lot of times you'd dig a slit trench and you were in low ground; the slit trench would fill up with water, so you'd sleep along side of the slit trench. But if any fire would start coming in, you'd roll over into your slit trench."

Although they kept you out of direct fire, trenches were not always safe. Japanese mortar shells often dropped right in the trenches. "Two of the fellows in our outfit were killed right in front of me one night. A Japanese mortar shell came in and they (the two men) were both in a double slit trench. And that mortar shell went right in-between `em and killed both of them. "When I was talking to `em, I always said there was a chance you'd never go back home, you know. `Oh, I'm going home. I'm going home,' both of them always said. Well, they both were killed right together."

In 1944, in the Philippines, while setting up a trap, "I think I got two Japs. I'm not sure but I think I did. We set up our gun right on the trail. And we were the front one, you know, everybody was behind us. And I thought, `Boy, I'm gonna set up a booby trap tonight.' So I took one of my hand grenades and I drove a stake in the ground. I tied that hand grenade to that stake and I pulled the pin on it and tied the handle down, so when the guy tripped that wire, that hand grenade would go off. Sure enough, during the night `Boom!' Woke me up, and I could hear them laying there moaning and groaning-the two of `em." The following day the officer said to bury the dead men, so they buried him about two inches down. When they found out they had to stay there for a while, the men had to dig up the dead Japanese men and bury them deeper so the bodies wouldn't smell.

The Japanese were not only a threat on land but also in the air. Cook was traveling from New Guinea to the Philippines on a ship called the Marcus Daly when a Japanese plane attacked. "It was right around 6:00 at night and the guys were up there drawing rations. All of our rations were up in the front end of that ship and they had the hatch cover open. And the guys- some of them were down in there and some of them were sitting on the deck. That Jap plane came down around there and he went right under the number one gun and this torpedo went right down in the hatch. So all the guys down in that hatch that was getting groceries were all killed just like that from the concussion. It set us on fire and they started hollering for everybody to go get their blankets. Go get your blankets, bring `em up to the front end, they soak `em with water and throw them down in the hole trying to get that fire out, because it was getting dark and those Jap planes (we were lit up like a big torch, you know.) they couldn't miss us if another Jap plane would come in. So they wanted to get that fire out as fast as they could." The Marcus Daily did make it to land and everyone safely made it on shore. However, the Japanese came back and hit it again, and by the next morning it was sunk.

When the war was finally over, Cook was discharged. "They sent me to Camp McCoy over here in Sparta and that's where I got my discharge. I spent Christmas Day on the train coming home at Omaha, Nebraska. They had their field ranges set up in a baggage car on the train. And they had turkey and stuff. And we'd have to walk down there with our mess kits and get our turkey and potatoes and gravy, and then go back to coach and sit down and eat our Christmas dinner." After returning home, Mr. Cook continued working at the paper mill.