September 1942

Private First Class Virgil George USMC is having a brief meeting with his commanding officer, the colonel cleared his throat gently then he began to speak to the young Marine "PFC George I am going to be brief and to the point, as you know the Japanese hit our ridge defensives last night and they gave us a severe beating a very severe beating."

"It was so severe that they almost broke through and got to the airfield, if we lose the airfield we will more than likely lose the island. If we lose the island our invasion will go down in history as a failure." The young Marine cleared his own throat and he said "Colonel what does all of this have to do with me?"

The colonel looked at his Private First Class and he said to the young man "as part of our defensives we had several companies of Marines who were at the bottom of the ridge and their job was to serve as a protective speed bump."

"When the Japanese hit those Marines they hit them hard very hard and now we don't have enough Marines to do that job. Your Job is to serve as a one man protective speed bump your dismissed. "Private First Class Virgil George left the colonel's tent and worked his way down the ridge when he found a suitable location to perform his mission he dug a fox hole then he got into the hole and laid out his weapon's magazines and waited for the Japanese to come.

Shortly after sundown he started hearing the chatter of the Japanese in jungle that was directly in front of his position. The young Marine picked up one of his hand grenades and he pulled the safety pin, then he threw the grenade into the jungle where the chatter was come from.

After the grenade exploded he threw a second grenade for good measure, after the second grenade exploded the Japanese started to run out of the jungle screaming and hollering. So he picked up M1 Carbine and started shooting at the Japanese who were running toward him.

He fired magazine after magazine of 30 Caliber rifle ammunition into the ranks of the enemy after a couple of hours of fighting the Japanese slowed and temporarily stopped their attack. Virgil pulled out a pack of Camel's cigarettes and a zippo lighter from his pocket. He put one of the cigarettes into his mouth and he lit it with his lighter and he smoked for several moments.

When he was finished smoking he crushed the cigarette butt between his fingers then he took stock of his situation and he thanked god that he had plenty of 15 round magazines for his M1 Carbine when he completed his stock taking he smoked another cigarette and waited for the Japanese to attack again. An hour later the attack came Virgil picked up his remaining grenades and threw them at the Japanese. Then he fired his M1 Carbine at the Japanese with as fast and as accurately as possible he knew he had to make every shot count.