East L.A. Marine: The Untold True Story of Guy Gabaldon (2008)

Guy Gabaldon died on August 31, 2006 and the world lost someone very special. During the bloody struggle for Saipan in July 1944, U.S. Marine PFC Guy Gabaldon is indeed officially credited with capturing over 1500 Japanese soldiers and civilians - singlehandedly, a record that is untouchable in the annals of American military history. For over sixty years, Guy talked about his exploits on that island, sharing his experience and using his celebrity to inspire new generations who valued bravery and bravado. However, war experience alone does not make a life, and Guy's didn't stop in 1944. He lived many different lives and most importantly he took it upon himself to help the less fortunate, particularly the wayward teenagers he encountered when he returned to the Mariana Islands in 1980, where he would live for twenty years. Guy Gabaldon grew up in East Los Angeles where he spent more time on the streets than at home. He would get into fights and he was thrown out of school at one point, but things began to change when he was introduced to the Japanese American community. Practically adopted by his Nisei school friends, Guy learned about the Japanese culture, its language, and the tight family structure that was alien to him. All of these elements - learned at first hand - would have a dramatic effect on his experiences on Saipan. When his Japanese American friends were interned after Pearl Harbor, Guy, 17, joined the Marine Corps, trained at Camp Pendleton, and was assigned as a scout to the 2nd Regiment of the 2nd Marine Division. His unit was then shipped to Hawaii, and then on into the Central Pacific, where he landed on Saipan, nine days after D-Day in Europe. Saipan was a rocky, cave-strewn island in the Mariana chain. It was part of the Japanese Empire's inner defense perimeter and it had an airfield within striking distance of Japan. It also had a large civilian population of Japanese and native islanders. The American high command in the Pacific had determined that the Marianas - Guam, Tinian and Saipan were a high priority for the war effort. B-29s were now flying and they needed a base to attack Japan. Saipan fit that bill. Guy Gabaldon didn't set out to be a hero. In the first few days of heavy fighting, he simply tried to survive murderous mortar, artillery and machine gun fire. But in succeeding days, he began to go on lone-wolf excursions into the countryside and he brought prisoners back. Japanese prisoners were a bit of an oddity at that time. The credo of most soldiers of the Japanese Army was kill or be killed. Japanese soldiers on Saipan were ordered to kill seven Marines for one Japanese. Thus, the campaign featured one suicide banzai charge after another. Capturing one Japanese was considered a feat - bringing in 1500 was unthinkable. But, amazingly, that's exactly what Guy Gabaldon did during the two months of early fighting on Saipan. At one point, he captured 800 in one day - his commanding officer Captain John Schwabe would later dub him "The Pied Piper of Saipan." How did Guy do it? Perhaps it was his language skill - Guy was hardly fluent in Japanese but he spoke the language with a certain inflection that reached into the psyche of the exhausted, hopelessly outnumbered island garrison. He had learned the words on the streets of L.A. with his Japanese-American friends, and those words helped him on the island. Perhaps it was the fact that the Japanese were, in the end, human beings who just couldn't fight anymore. Timing was thus everything. Guy wasn't hesitant to make a point with a hand grenade of a carbine if the enemy proved stubborn. But they eventually came out of their caves and became his prisoner. Guy was later wounded after the island was secured. Astonishingly, he was denied the Congressional Medal of Honor - a medal for which he was recommended by Captain Schwabe of the 2nd Marines. He did receive the Silver Star for his valor, but he was not promoted and left the Marine service as a PFC. Being Hispanic, perhaps, didn't help his cause. Racism and prejudice was rife throughout the U.S. armed forces in World War II and Guy was not immune to it. Guy returned to the United States, married a Japanese woman who was living in Mexico and became a successful pilot and importer. His story was first told on the television program "This is your Life" in the late 1950s. That program came to the attention of Hollywood and a movie was produced in 1960 entitled "Hell to Eternity." Actor Jeffrey Hunter played Guy. Hunter was your poster boy U.S. Marine - no reference was ever made to his Guy's Hispanic ethnicity. However, the notoriety of the film at that time encouraged the U.S. Navy to award Guy its highest decoration - the Navy Cross. But no Medal of Honor. Today, a strong effort is being waged by Congressmen, private business people and friends of Guy to get him the Medal. It would be measured as a sign of respect, not only to Guy, but to the people in America of Hispanic descent. Production Production on "East L.A. Marine" commenced in late 2003. Guy Gabaldon was enlisted as a creative partner on the project, and he was interviewed, at length, at his home outside Gainsville, Florida. We later interviewed his commanding officer, U.S. Marine Colonel John Schwabe, at his winter home in Tucson, Arizona. In June 2004, during the 60th Anniversary celebrations on Saipan, a local DV crew was hired and footage was gathered all over the island. Seventeen additional interviews were completed with returning veterans, local historians and friends of Guys. Guy and his wife had returned to the Island and lived there for many years - so he was well known throughout the Marianas. His autobiographical book Maverick Marine was published in 1990. Much of the footage that was gathered on the island is designed to match combat footage and still photographs taken of the campaign (yesterday and today shots). In early 2005, we interviewed a number of Hispanic veterans in Montebello, California. That May, we met Guy in Corpus Christi, Texas and helped celebrate Memorial Day with him. Footage of Guy participating in solemn commemorative ceremonies combined with nostalgic trips to the U.S.S. Lexington - a U.S. Essex-class aircraft carrier, that participated in the invasion of Saipan, sixty one years ago. In July 2006, Guy was honored by Mayor Antonio Villagairosa and the Los Angeles City Council. He was indeed a "favorite son" of the City of Los Angeles.