Nathan J. Fullmer, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Luke Kelly, August 11, 2001: Saving the legacy tape no. 282

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athan J. Fullmer fi ld-the edge of the rural houses-and rybody' lyin d idea for me to be lying down too. One of the things that an assistant squad lead r of a rift squad g t t d - h the antitank grenadier which meant I had two canvas bags with about two or thr antitank grenades. There was a gadget that went on the end of the M-1 rifle call d th grenade launcher. You'd put a blank cartridge in the chamber with this grenade launch r on the muzzle, and then slip this rifle grenade on and pull the trigger and it shoots that thing out much further than you could throw a hand grenade. Well, over in this field, and way down in the comer, was a mound of dirt. We didn't have binoculars, but you could see just above the mound there was some metal. And it just looked like there was a tank dug in behind that mound. It wasn't shooting at us, but my platoon sergeant, God bless him, says "Fullmer get an antitank grenade on that." I said, "Yes, sir." I'd never shot one before. I'd been told how to do it. So I get the live bullets out of the M-1, and get the blank cartridge in. I was smart enough to do that. I got the grenade launcher on the muzzle. I got the damn thing launched. I guess a big guy, a strong guy, an idiot guy, could fire that from the shoulder, but the accepted procedure was to dig the butt end into the ground, and then hold it up so that the recoil didn't kill you. And the thing had a little sight you could clamp on with a bubble on it. So I did all that, and pulled the trigger, and the grenade went hurdling out there and it hit just below the ridge. The aim and distance were pretty good. But nothing happened. I forgot to pull the pin. Humiliation. So I get another one out and pull the 18