Herbert Haigh Clark, Springville, Utah: an interview by Benjamin Bahlmann, January 18, 2002: Saving the legacy oral history project

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H RBERT H. CLA BB: Did God ever start taking a larger part in your li£ a u nt t u h di 1 ult rn t situations? HHC: Oh he always had a pretty big part in my life. BB: Did you ever make any promises? HHC: No, I don't know that I made Him any promises. I could remember praying to Him a good many times. He may have made some promises to me because I made it through. BB: Do you think people became more religious, or less religious, in those types of situations? HHC: I think they became a lot more cognizant of God and whatever their religion was. I had one fellow that got killed. I can't remember for sure, but I think he was killed at Bougainville. His name was Marty, and he was from Missouri. On his dog tag there was an "A", and that meant he was an atheist. He claimed to be an atheist. And that was one of the few guys that I ever did talk much about religion to, but he had no use for it at all. I was there when he was dying, and the last words he said was, "Oh, my God!" I thought that was peculiar because somebody that claims to be an atheist, and the last words that he lets out of his mouth is, "Oh, my God," doesn't prove to me that atheism is very accurate, or something. But I do remember very vividly that the last words he said when he knew he way dying was "Oh, my God." BB: Were there any other wild animal encounters besides boars in New Zealand? Were there monkeys? HHC: I don't remember running into any monkeys. There were a lot of parrots. On Guadalcanal, though, there were wild cows. Oh, and the Japanese had brought some small horses that they used down there for something. I don't know what they were used for. They 66