John Freeman, Lowell,Ark, WWII Story
Description: "Killer Freeman" Arkansas Coon Hunter
Has Killed 46 Enemy Troops.
Pacific Stars & Stripes
Date: May 14 1945
Newspaper published in: At Sea
Source: on line archives /
LEAST WE FORGET
Monday May 14, 1945 - 10th Army Okinawa:
By Pfc. Bill Land, Stars & Stripes USA:
There is now no manual on how to kill the enemy but if the War Department should want to publish one, Staff Sergeant John Freeman of Lowell, Ark., infantry rifle platoon sergeant, should be the technical advisor. His technique of digging out and killing enemy is near perfect. During the Layte campaign he earned the "killer" name because in the first six weeks he sent 27 enemy troops to their ancestrial heavens. He particularly delights in sniper hunts and investigating bypassed burnt out caves where he has been known to wait hours to 'get' a jap soldier. Today he has 19 more notches on his M1's butt. Back in Arkansas Freeman was a farmer and hunted rabbits, squirrels and coons. His steel blue eyes, keen and piercing, are the eyes of a hunter. At the age of seven he bagged his first rabbit and feels his hunting experience has kept him alive during the fighting on Layte and Okinawa. To him, the enemy is is an animal to be hunted and once his nature is understood, hunting becomes simple. On Okinawa our troops had taken 'Tombstone Ridge', cliffs which were heavily fortified with caves and connecting tunnels. Mopping up had been completed and the demolition and flamethrower platoons had closed up all visible exits. Still there was constant snipper fire on the rear of our advancing troops.
Carefully John made his way back, trying to trace the direction of fire. Then standing in front of a big cave, seared black by flamethrowers, with an anti tank gun sticking out, said "I don't like the feel of this cave". So he threw in a few phosphorus granades and waited awhile, watching white smoke pour from several places. Suddenly, a lone enemy soldier crawed out and John finished him off. Snipeing on the rear of our troops ceased. Freeman has had one close call during the fight for Kukazu Ridge when he and two of his platoon were pinned down by machine gun and mortar fire, laying in a big foxhole when it received a direct hit. It killed his two commrads but he did not get a scratch. His company commander, Capt. Robert Rector of Bluffton, Ind.,
says Freeman just keeps on crawing while bullets fly. John says "I aint got no time to get scared, its when I am laying in hole and cant move when I begin to shake". His answer to the question on how to kill is "hit him in the chest, dont aim for the head, its too small. Since you dont want the hide, shoot him from the belly on up and hes dead, or it aint gonna take long for him to die".
Sgt John Freeman loves the infantry and wont change to any other branch of the service. " I know my dogs git tired and I only git three hours sleep here on Okinawa, but it sure keeps me in practice for squirrel hunting when I gits back home".