Cornelius Cahill and Linda Cahill

[00:02] CORNELIUS CAHILL: My name is Cornelius Cahill. My friends call me Neil. I am 84 years old. I am sitting here in Fort Myers, Florida, and I'm with my wife for 54 years, Linda Cahill. Go ahead, hon.

[00:23] LINDA CAHILL: Hi, I'm Linda. I'm 77 years old, a former english teacher, and we are having a conversation about a dear friend of ours who has passed.

[00:41] CORNELIUS CAHILL: Keep going.

[00:42] LINDA CAHILL: Oh. The friend's name is Harry, and I met him in my presbyterian church. He often sat behind me in a row that he could lean forward and he could ask me questions, make me laugh, give me candy, just generally be as rambunctious as a little kid. Now, he was in his nineties when I first met him, and the first thing he said was, your sleep is showing. And I said, what? And, you know, I had a pantsuit on. So then he thought that was funny, so he started laughing. And other times he tapped me on the shoulder and he said, wasn't that the greatest hymn? And he was just a man who lived his life joyfully, and I just grew to love him. And so we often talked after church, and he did as much as he could for himself, even down to trying to mow his own lawn. You know that he was a tall, slender man, full of jokes and happiness, and he loved to unwrap candies during the service so he could pass me one. And I just was charmed by him, totally. And so one day he hadn't come to church, and I became concerned, and I'll let Neil take it over from here.

[02:13] CORNELIUS CAHILL: Well, Linda came home and she said, harry wasn't at church today. So she inquired to members of the church, and what's with Harry? Well, Harry won't be coming to church anymore. His health is poor. So that afternoon we went over and saw Harry. And of course, Linda made him a great supper. And we now felt Harry was living by himself, very independent, didn't want to be in a home, but he was alone. So basically, every day we visited Harry, and sort of a cute little story is, we'd say to Harry, do you have supper ready? He says, yeah, I got a pork chop I'm going to cook. Right? And we said, well, don't cook the pork chop, Harry, because we're coming over with something for you to eat. So we did that just about every day. And a few times we ran into problems, because one morning I went over and Harry was in the bathroom floor yelling, Neil. Neil. I called EMS because the neighbor said, I don't think we should pick him up. We were liable to injure him. That afternoon, I went over to Harry again and again. He was on his floor, on the floor, second time. He had two daughters that didn't live in the high acres that they live very close. I called one and said, I'm going to have to insist that you come and stay with your father. And she did. So anyway, frequently I would just think of Harry sitting there alone, and I'd say to Linda, you know what? I think I'll just go over and see Harry. So I would. Harry and I are both veterans, but big difference is he was a combat veteran during World War two, so a lot of combat in the Pacific, being a marine. I was a veteran stationed in Germany from 1960 to 62. Thank God, no war. But I, Linda and I also belonged to a writing club. So one day I'm asking Harry about his experience in the Pacific, and he told me a very, very interesting story, and I think you will find it very interesting, too. I read the story at his funeral. A number of people came up after and said, how do I get a copy of that story? So I said, well, just give me your email and I'll send you a copy. I'm going to just read the story and then maybe Linda will do a follow up here if she wants. And the thing about this that really is great is it's very spontaneous. We were told, just talk. So here's the story. It was 1941. The young men and women from all over the United States were enlisted in the military after the Japanese attacked on Pearl harbor. One was from Ott, Pennsylvania, in 1941. Harry Snyder was a farm boy who would be one of 16 men and women to fight for their country. History later would call them the greatest generation. Most had never traveled more than 100 miles from the place of birth, and Harry now found himself 12,000 miles from home, a long way from the pleasant climate of rural Pennsylvania, fighting on desolate islands so remote that the primary, the primitive inhabitants were cannibals who had never seen these foreigners before, in their green uniforms and packs in their backs. Needless to say, in the words of Harry, they didn't have any trouble with them. Remember, Harry's a marine. It's obvious the cannibals were not a problem for the marines when they landed at Bougainvillea on the Salmon isles. They had to fight in the hostile heat of the tropical jungle. Not only the Japanese, but other diseases such as malaria, cholera, beriberi, dingy fever. Harry was 20 years old, well over 6ft tall, thin, all arms and legs. His marine buddies nicknamed him the spider. The Japanese in 1942 dominated all of Southeast Asia, eastern China, Korea, and the Philippines. 99% of the islands in the South Pacific. The Allies military strategy was to conquer these islands, build military ports and airfields to cut off their supply line to Japan. The japanese navy had to be defeated, as in the famous battle of Midway, the turning point of the war, in which the Japanese lost four aircraft carriers and were now fighting defense. Now the hard fighting was about to begin. For Harry and his fellow marines, the military strategy was to defeat the japanese army on these islands few people ever heard of, and therefore they would launch attacks against the four main islands of Japan. These islands now enabled the Allies to build airfields in which they would bomb the military targets of Japan. On many of these islands, 99% of Japanese would be killed. Before they killed many Americans, the Japanese followed the tradition of the samurai, never surrender. A handful of Japanese were still fighting in the Philippines until they were finally killed in 1972. Harry, with a small number of marines, landed on a very small island off the main island of Bougainville that was not occupied by the Japanese. They were surprised to see a domestic cat. Excuse me, domestic pig with twelve piglets. The marines immediately started to dig foxholes. The deeper the better. When the signal alert was sounded, the Japanese were already bombing their positions, which gave them very little early warning. All the pigs were killed except one, a small pig from the litter, the marines named Tojo. The fighting continued for every day. Harry noticed that two minutes before the alarm was sounded, Tojo ran for the nearest foxhole. Tojo, with the hearing of a pig, heard the enemy planes before the alarm was sounded. Tojo now became the early warning system. When he ran for a foxhole, Harry jumped in right behind him. Very few marines were killed because of Tojo. Well, Tojo, the hero in Moscow, became the best fed pig in the south Pacific, maybe the world. Obviously, Tojo put on a lot of weight, but still could run the hundred yard dash along with excellent hearing. Eventually, the campaign was over, and the marines would move to the next island. They built a crate, and when they left Bougainville, they took their secret mascot with them. Tojo was free to wander. You don't put your early warning system in a cage. One day someone said, has anyone seen Tojo? He was gone. Maybe he found a girlfriend. Harry Snyder lived to be almost 100 years old. Acres. He was independent, did his own cooking. Linda and I visited Harry and listened to his stories as often as we can. He had a great sense of humor. We were always. We always came away laughing. Linda?

[09:26] LINDA CAHILL: Yes. I think you've said it all, Neil. And Harry was a very memorable person. We'll never forget him because he was truly loving and that's the way to live your life.