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In their 80s, WWII vets still don't regret a thing
Jones decorates his room with personal military mementos, such as this framed collection of photos and medals. He said he often thinks about Guadalcanal, and that the people there “will never forget that.”
Jones decorates his room with personal military mementos, such as this framed collection of photos and medals. He said he often thinks about Guadalcanal, and that the people there “will never forget that.”
Jones made a scrapbook of photos, documents, and newspaper clippings from his time overseas. Among the items in the scrapbook are his orders, his discharge papers, and a newspaper clipping of a story about him and his three brothers, who all served.
Jones made a scrapbook of photos, documents, and newspaper clippings from his time overseas. Among the items in the scrapbook are his orders, his discharge papers, and a newspaper clipping of a story about him and his three brothers, who all served.

Two members of Greatest Generation talk about their combat experiences in WWII

By Hunter Roach and David Hanson
Edited By Blake Arambula
Date posted: April 23, 2009

Clifton Jones still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. James Carter served in the United States military for nearly 30 years. Despite the effects and longevity of war, however, both would do it again.

The two World War II veterans rose to the occasion and fought when their country needed them most. Now, they spend their days at the Veterans' Victory House, a nursing home in Walterboro.

Jones, 86, from Elloree, served in the Navy, Air Force and Army at different points during his military careeras a radioman throughout WWII. He said he first enlisted in the Navy in 1941 because his older brother was in the Navyalready in that branch.

Jones served as a radioman throughout WWII. He Jones was involved in campaigns at Guadalcanal, Okinawa, Sicily, Normandy and the Philippines. O. One of his major tasks was to intercept and disrupt radio signals the enemy used to guide bombs.

In Normandy, Jones was part of a squad that jammed the signal of German gravity bombs by using a 1,000-watt transmitter, a device he said was 15 times more powerful than the Germans'. ThoughHe said he could not stop the bombs the Germans were dropping, but he said he was able to jam the radiothe signals and pull their guidance systems to one side, making them spin so the Germans couldn't control the bombs.

Jones said hHis hardest times was the lack of rest he experienced in the war came aboard the U.S.S. Betelgeuse, an attack cargo ship, in Guadalcanal, the first decisive Allied victory in the Pacific.. The lack of rest, he said, was the hardest part.

"There was no rest for any of the lower ranks; we had to work," Jones said. "I didn't know for six months what it would be like to sleep without my shoes on."
He said he started having blackouts from lack of sleep and stress, which led to depression, even suicidal thoughts.  Jones said he was being sent from Okinawa to San Francisco to get some rest and regroup before going back to the war in the Pacific when he decided he was not returning to Okinawa.

"I got off the boat, and I decided I was going to commit suicide," he said.

Then came President Harry Truman deciding's decision to use atomic bombs to deliver the knockout punch to Japan.

 "We were on the way back to California on the bus when a highway patrolman came on the bus and told me they dropped the super bomb. I knew I'd have to go all the way back to Okinawa anyway, but there was no use to committing suicide,." he said.

Jones' time overseas was not always miserable. His favorite moment was aboard the Betelgeuse, when he crashed into the captain of the ship while jumping down a set of stairs, knocking the captainjumped down a set of stairs and crashed into the ship's captain, who had accidentally stepped in Jones' path just as he jumped. Jones knocked the captain to the deck, but he said it was the captain who had forgotten one of the ship's protocols.

"I'll always remember, up the starboard and down the port," Jones said, referring to the Navy's practice that kept crew members from running into each other.

 Jones was honorably discharged on Nov. 11, 1945, but Carter decided that being discharged wasn't what he wanted.

"I was discharged in one room and was sworn in in the next room," Carter said. "I stayed in the reserves, the National Guard and the Army for 29 years, 10 months and two days."
Carter, an 82-year-old Walterboro native, enlisted so he could graduate from high school.

"You had to have 16 units, and I had 14," Carter said. "For being in the service, they gave me two units to make it 16."

Carter, an infantry sniper in the infantry in the European theateer, openly admits to having been scared in combat. As a sniper, he had to scout ahead of his platoon to protect the officers and soldiers he fought with.

 "Anybody who's been in war and says they weren't scared is crazy," Carter said. . "He's got something wrong with him."

A German sword was Tthe only war relic Carter brought home was a German sword. He had acquired a German colonel's uniform, but decided it was too cumbersome to carry around in combat.

As proud a veteran as Carter is, and as strongly as he believes every young man should serve his country, he uses three words first uttered by Civil War General William T. Sherman to describe his experience: "War is hell."

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