Allen J Tillery

Well and Smartly Done Allen J Tillery

In 1944-1945 U. S. Marines fought the Japanese Imperial Army on several Pacific Islands to capture and secure them in America's plan to end the war, and the Marines discharged their duty with amphibious landings and island combat. But for Corporal Allen J. Tillery, a Marine combat interpreter, duty also required communicating with enemy soldiers who he had been trained to kill. Well and Smartly Done is the personal account of a Marine combat interpreter whose experiences both fighting and communicating with soldiers of an empire seeking America's destruction gave him a unique insight into the war. The son of a filling station owner in Shreveport, Louisiana, Allen withdrew from college at L. S. U. and enlisted in the Marines who sent him to language school. He served as a Japanese interpreter in the Intelligence Section of his Battalion, participated in amphibious landings and combat in the Marshall and Mariana Islands and the pacification of Tinian and Guam, and interrogated prisoners both in the field and in POW camps. This memoir is the story of a soldier whose acquaintance with his enemy inspired a unique perspective of war.