Daniel Inouye Interview (page: 2 / 6) Medal of Honor	Print Interview

Could you tell us about the day you were wounded. When was it? How old were you?

Daniel Inouye: April 21st was the last time. I was 20 then.

And you were in Italy. Can you tell us how that day started out?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Daniel Inouye: I was an officer then, first lieutenant, and about a week before this attack, we had an officers' meeting and the captain says, "I want you to pledge silence. You're not going to tell anyone what transpires in this room." Okay. His words were very simple: "The war is over." I looked at him. "What do you mean, the war is over? They're still shooting!" "They're now negotiating. So be careful, keep up the pressure, because you don't want to prolong the war. You want to end it fast, so put the pressure on, but be careful." Well at that point, you don't want your men to be wounded, so keeping that in mind, moving up. On that day was I wounded a couple of times. The first one I thought somebody punched me in the stomach, but no one was around. A bullet had gone through my abdomen. Believe it or not, it just felt like a punch, but there's no pain nerves inside. The pain nerve's on your surface. It is much more painful if somebody stepped on your toe. So I kept on going. The bleeding was very minor. It wasn't fatal at that point. Then we were confronted by three machine gun nests.

[ Key to Success ] Perseverance

So you were leading your men forward when you came under machine gun fire from three different locations. How many of you were there?

Daniel Inouye: I think about 15, and I was leading them, so I say, "Stay down!"

Get the Flash Player to see this video. To show you how lucky I am -- but I knew this was the day -- the first one... Boom! The second one... Boom! Until a grenade launcher came directly at me. Instead of hitting me here, it hit my arm. Now that's luck. Don't you think so? I lost my arm but I was still alive, until I got hit in the leg and then I couldn't walk. I must have looked terrible, because with blood gushing out, I've got this submachine gun, brrr, like the movies!

[ Key to Success ] Courage

You were grievously wounded but you weren't carried out right away. Is that right? Why did you stay?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Daniel Inouye: You have certain responsibilities as a platoon leader. I wanted to make certain before I left that the men were deployed in positions of defense, because you can always count on the enemy counterattacking. Once you've pushed them out, they try to get back. We were now at the high point, and I might as well tell you now, but most people think I got hit by Germans, right? No. In the early stages of World War II, the Italian army, navy, air force surrendered. If you think back to the African war, they surrendered. They sunk the navy, the aircraft were all burnt. One division refused to surrender, the Bersaglieri. They were the -- I would say the successors to the Praetorian Guards. In the old days the Praetorian Guards protected Caesar, the dictator. These were Bersaglieri troops, crack troops, protected the king. And their attitude was, "We will put down our arms if the king tells us to do so." Well the king was nowhere around, it was run by Mussolini. So they fought until the end of the war, and these brave fellows, when the war came to an end I think there were less then 500 out of the whole division. And so if you go to my office you'll see the hat and the plaque. I'm a member of the Bersaglieri, because years later -- I'm a Senator now, chairman of the defense committee -- I was in Rome as part of the negotiating team for the use of Aviano, the airport. And after the negotiations were finished, I looked at the Prime Minister and I said, "I'm looking for some one who fought with the Bersaglieri." He says, "Why?" and I told him. "These were brave men. None of them ever surrendered. They fought until they were killed or wounded, and I just want to shake their hands to say that it was an honor fighting them." He says, "This general is in charge." A battalion of Bersaglieri was run by a four-star general, that's how important they were.

[ Key to Success ] Courage

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