HOW A BULLET SAVED MY LIFE
By A. J. Carlson
U.S. Marine Corp
During the Second World War I served in the U. S. Marine Corps in the Pacific. I was with Company B, 1st Battalion, 4th Regiment, 6th Division, USMC. In May 1945 we were in the invasion of Okinawa. We had made our second landing on the Naha Peninsula of Okinawa and we were going down the west side of the island. While waiting to move forward toward some action, I was sitting on the edge of a foxhole when something slammed me in the chest. I immediately dropped to the bottom of the foxhole. As I lay there I felt around my chest. I knew I had been hit, but could find no wounds.
I carried a Browning Automatic Rife (BAR). Normally the ammunition for a BAR is carried in metal magazines in pouches attached to a belt around the waist. It is heavy so it has to be held up by suspenders. I didn’t have the suspenders so I acquired a bandolier with pouches. I put the ammunition magazines in the pouches and I carried that bandolier around my neck across my chest and back.
As I lay on my back in that foxhole I saw smoke coming from my bandolier. The smoke was coming out of a pouch containing one of the ammunition magazines. I took it out and looked at it. A bullet from a Japanese rifle had hit the magazine, penetrated and lodged in one of the BAR rounds (bullets). The bullet had caught fire but did not explode. My BAR bullet stopped the Japanese bullet and prevented it from entering my heart. And that is how a bullet saved my life.
Jay Carlson holding the BAR magazine with Japanese bullet imbedded.
A letter was sent by the Marine Corps to my parents about the incident.
Here is a copy:
Here is a closeup of the Japanese bullet lodged in AJ's ammo magazine.
