John Bleggi, Mapleton, Utah: an interview by Benjamin Bahlmann, 7 December 2000: Saving the legacy tape no. 379 and 380

Page 32

John Bleggi 7 D cemb r 2 0 invasion is going to start and we're moving you south. Wh n y u g aero w can't tell you, but we are moving south." Two days later we moved down to uthampt n. That was the primary port for holding, the staging area. We all went to church. I was Catholic at the time. I went to church and somebody said, 'You better go into confession." And I said, "I can't." I said, "I'll be on my knees the rest of the war." [laughing] When that Father got through with me, boy, I'll tell you he give me a blessing all right. You were worried. You told the truth. You didn't know whether you were coming back or not, and they told you that fifty percent weren't coming back, if they went in on the original invasion, and I can believe it. Because, when we went in, like I say, that day is still-oh, he keeps telling me that it's D-Day plus Six and I thought it was sixteen. I read these books and they say, of course, I was on detach service and this probably is telling me what our outfit did. BEN: If you saw bodies actually, that would be more congruent with probably the D-Day plus Six, don't you think? JOHN: Oh, bodies were still all over. This jeep driver was coming and he says, "What's that?" He says, "A duffel bag." And it was a man on his stomach floating, and he pushed him out of the way. You were told once you went in you didn't look back. You didn't. You took care of yourself first. BEN: So when you went were there a lot of boats still going out there with you? JOHN: Oh, there were boats everywhere. There were ships around there. We got in their with our liberty ship to where they anchored about ten o'clock at night. Bed 30