As I Was Saying . . .

Listeners to WOR and the Mutual Net work last week heard a marine's-eye view of the fight for Peleliu. The narrator was shy, wry Sergeant Alvin Flanagan, Ma rine combat correspondent and ex-WOR (Manhattan) announcer. Microphone in hand, FM-walkie-talkie strapped to his back, Flanagan landed on the beach at Peleliu with the ist Marine Division, describing the scene as he went. His account went to an associate aboard a Marine transport offshore, where it was recorded for last week's broadcast.

Due to the shooting and considerable static, Sergeant Flanagan was not crystal clear, but enough came through to tingle listeners' scalps: from the quiet "All right, men, let's go" of the Marine commander, to Flanagan's terse "Here come the Nips!"

Flanagan moved on shore aboard an amphibious tractor whose motor fouled the walkie-talkie, failed to cross an airfield on foot when mortar fire pinned the marines down. Later, carbine in hand, but walkie-talkie still functioning, he joined a group of marines flushing out a Jap pillbox.

Suddenly there was a pause, confused noises, the sound of firing.

Flanagan presently went on. The interruption had been caused by a Jap, flushed out of the pillbox, who had rushed Flanagan. The commentator had stopped talking long enough to shoot the Jap.

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