Harold D. Collipriest: an interview by Winston P. Erickson, June 10, 2000: Saving the legacy tape no. 61

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Harold D. Collipriest Jun 10 2000 In every military unit there was always a little- what did w call th ? W 11 it was an Orderly Room for our unit. Whatever unit you're in there's an ord rly ro m and administrative work where they keep the assignments and so forth. And they always hav a little bulletin board outside. Well, I was wandering around trying to pass the time and noticed on the bulletin board my name. There was a little note. It said "If Private Harold Colli priest is in this unit report to the orderly room immediately." I had no idea what that meant. So I went in and said, "I am Private Collipriest." Boy, bells and whistles went off. They said, "We have been looking for you for weeks, two weeks or so." They said, "You go get your duffle bag packed, and report back here at the orderly room, and don't you move from here." I was a little quizzical about what in the world was going on, but as a private you don't ask a lot of questions. And so I did that, and reported back, and then they said, "General MacArthur's headquarters has been looking for you." Oh, I need to back up a little bit. While we were in Manila in the replacement depot, I had a one day pass to go down into the city waiting to be taken to my division. So another fellow and I went down to Manila. We were just sort of looking around. We still had our equipment with us because it was still a battle zone, and it was a hot and dusty day. I happened to notice a staff car approaching and slowly driving past. I could see that it was a general officer's staff car. In those days, a general officer's staff car would have on the front of the vehicle a little red plate on either side of the front bumper. On the red plate would be the officer's rank in white stars. Well I was really surprised to 14