Interview with Tony Fileff [Undated]

Timothy J. Sanders:

You're Tony --

Tony Fileff:

Fileff, F-I-L-E-F-F.

Timothy J. Sanders:

And what's your date of birth, Tony?

Tony Fileff:

August 7th, 1921.

Timothy J. Sanders:

And you're from Schererville, as I recall.

Tony Fileff:

I live in Schererville now, yes.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Where were you born?

Tony Fileff:

Gary, Indiana.

Timothy J. Sanders:

And did you grow up in Gary?

Tony Fileff:

Yes, uh-huh. In the Glen Park District. I grew up there. Went to school there, grade school, high school. And my folks lived there for about -- from about '21 to 1970, so some 50 years.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Fifty years?

Tony Fileff:

Yeah.

Timothy J. Sanders:

After you graduated from high school -- did you graduate first before you got started in the military?

Tony Fileff:

Yes. I graduated in 1940, and then I worked a year in the mill to earn money to go to college, and then I went to Indiana University in 1941.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

And, of course, December '41 was Pearl Harbor.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Right.

Tony Fileff:

And then a friend of mine, after the war was declared, why -- you never saw -- or you never see a group of young people that wanted to enlist -- that Monday morning, everybody wanted to enlist after the Pearl Harbor Sunday incident. And shortly after that, why -- we all realized we were going to be drafted.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Sure.

Tony Fileff:

So shortly after that, a friend of mine from Whiting went up to Indianapolis and was interviewed by the United States Marines in Indianapolis at their recruiting office, and he said, you know, "I just signed up," he did, and he says, "You ought to look into it, Tony," he said, "because what they're doing is they're signing up college people like ourselves, and they'll call us when they need us."

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

So I went up to Indianapolis and --

Timothy J. Sanders:

Did you have expectations it was going to be a long time at that point?

Tony Fileff:

No idea, because when I talked to the recruiter, he says, "Well, we'll just call you when we need you."

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

And I knew I was going to be drafted, so I figured, "Well, let me" -- "I'll sign up," so I did. And what it was was an officer candidate's class.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

So I enlisted in June, on June 20th, 1942, and went back to school, and shortly after that, the Navy came out with the B-12 program for the Navy and Marine Corps, and that was an officer pool. And I don't recall whether we had to take a test to get into that program or not, but, anyway, I was accepted. And so I remained in school, and then they called me up in 1943, July. So, in effect, after signing up, '42 to '43 I had a year of school.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay. In July of '43.

Tony Fileff:

And they sent me to Purdue University.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

In the B-12 program. And there was a -- maybe about a hundred or two hundred -- a hundred fifty marines there, students. And, again, they told us, "We'll call you as we need you."

Timothy J. Sanders:

Uh-huh. Where did you stay when you were at Purdue?

Tony Fileff:

Well, we stayed in fraternity houses.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

We stayed in -- the first part of the year we stayed at the Phi Si fraternity house, and then the next year they moved us one door south. I can't recall whether it was a fraternity or sorority house. But, anyway, then I was called up to active -- well, that was active duty, but we were sent to Parris Island in 1944.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

And that's where I took my boot camp.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay. So you'd gone from '42 all the way to '44 before you got boot camp, then?

Tony Fileff:

Yeah.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

Almost two years.

Timothy J. Sanders:

All right.

Tony Fileff:

So -- you never know how things work out in the service. It's just a matter of where you were and the timing and everything else that's involved. I've always said that about the service. You never -- you never pick.

Timothy J. Sanders:

No, no.

Tony Fileff:

They do the picking for you.

Timothy J. Sanders:

They put you where they want you.

Tony Fileff:

Exactly. Well, anyway, boot camp. Then followed through with the OCS at Quantico.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

And then after OSC, we went to reserve officers' class, and then that was over in about January of 1945. And then I had orders to go to Camp Pendleton and then eventually go overseas.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Uh-huh.

Tony Fileff:

So from Quantico, I did go to Camp Pendleton, and then about April I got orders to go overseas, go to the Far East, as they say.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Sure.

Tony Fileff:

And then --

Timothy J. Sanders:

That was April of '45?

Tony Fileff:

Yeah.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

And then I went to Hawaii, then went to Guam, and then when we got to Guam --

Timothy J. Sanders:

How long were you at Hawaii when you went there?

Tony Fileff:

Oh, a very short time. Maybe two or three weeks, at the most.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

It was like a transit.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Guard duty, and then you just --

Tony Fileff:

We just sat around waiting for orders.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay. All right.

Tony Fileff:

So finally we wound up on Guam, and we were on Guam for a couple of weeks, and then they needed officers for the Okinawa campaign.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

Replacements. So if I remember -- I can't -- we were all grouped together, and the captain, whoever it was, says --

Timothy J. Sanders:

What was your rank at this time?

Tony Fileff:

Second lieutenant.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

And my MOS, military occupation number, was infantry officer. So we volunteered -- as I remember, we volunteered to go to Okinawa, and that -- I look back and I can't believe that I did that, but, of course, when you're standing there and the guy says, "We need people. Who wants to go?" what other choice do you have? But they always tell you to keep your mouth shut.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Keep your hand down and your mouth shut.

Tony Fileff:

Yeah, that's right. But, anyway, I was a replacement on Okinawa, and the -- it was the tail end of the campaign, and so -- I do have some pictures.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Now, when you -- how did you get from Guam to Okinawa? You were on a troop ship the whole time?

Tony Fileff:

No. We flew in.

Timothy J. Sanders:

You flew in?

Tony Fileff:

Yeah.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Did you fly to Hawaii, too?

Tony Fileff:

No. From San Diego to Hawaii, we went by boat, and then from Hawaii to Guam and to Okinawa was by plane.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay. So you landed at Okinawa. What was that like when you got there?

Tony Fileff:

Well, there was still combat. There was still, you know, action going on, and if I -- it was utter destruction. You know, it was my first experience. And I saw a Japanese prisoner, and I couldn't believe how young he looked. I was 20, 21, whatever, and he looked like he was about 12 or 14. I couldn't believe it. And, also, I noticed the artillery was horse-drawn, the Japanese artillery, and I thought that was really outdated. I said to myself, "You know" -- "you know, we ought to beat these guys in no time."

Timothy J. Sanders:

Sure.

Tony Fileff:

But you got to remember, it's the soldier you're fighting. You're not fighting --

Timothy J. Sanders:

The horse.

Tony Fileff:

-- the horse or the mechanical.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Sure.

Tony Fileff:

What you're fighting is wills, someone will to live and so forth and desire to beat you. But, anyway, that was my first experience seeing a Japanese soldier. But, anyway, we moved in -- we reported to our regimental commander, and that --

Timothy J. Sanders:

What was your division and your --

Tony Fileff:

Well, I was assigned to the 22nd Regiment -- 6 _____ Division, 22nd Regiment. And when we received -- when we got down to the regiment, I was assigned the 3rd Battalion. But, anyway, I remember that day the regimental commander was killed in action, and we were talking to the executive officer. He had taken over that day. So you're getting right down to the nitty-gritty. You knew you were heading right into the -- you know, where all the action was. So he talked to us and kind of briefed us on what the situation was, and so then I was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, and from the 3rd Battalion I was assigned to Item Company.

Timothy J. Sanders:

How many troops -- U.S. troops did we have on Okinawa at that time? Was there a huge --

Tony Fileff:

I don't recall. In fact, Okinawa was really -- it was -- the invasion and amount of ships and troops that were involved, they said it was as big as Omaha or the Normandy landing. The Navy really took a beating at Okinawa because they were exposed to the Kamikaze, and those are suicide planes.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Yeah.

Tony Fileff:

And they were very vulnerable to that particular attack. But when I got down to the company I was assigned to, I remember meeting the captain. He came out of a cave, you know, and -- well, when you're in that situation, you're really down to the level -- you're almost living like an animal, you know, self-preservation. But, anyway -- I forgot how many people were left in the company. There were not very many. And so my combat activity was kind of limited, because we were not in a rest area. We were on the front lines, but we did -- we were not involved in any fighting, shooting. We were in a defensive position. And the 1st Marine Division to the left of us were really involved in heavy fighting toward the end of the island. But you really don't realize how destructive war is until you really see it. I mean, you -- you see dead people all over, and everything is destroyed. The Okinawa civilian population followed the Japanese army as they were being pushed south to the end of the island, to the southern part of the island, and a lot of the civilians went into the caves with the Japanese soldiers.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Were they trying to get away from the Americans or --

Tony Fileff:

Well, they were -- apparently they thought they were -- you know, they would be protected, moving with the Japanese army. But as we pushed toward the southern end of the island, there was no place else to go, and they realized it, so they start coming out of the caves. And I thought -- I really -- I realized how destructive war is, not only to the soldiers, but to the civilian population.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Sure.

Tony Fileff:

These women were coming out and they were dirty, emaciated. Their clothes were ragged. They were carrying out dead babies.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Sure.

Tony Fileff:

And you saw the children. You know, they were dirty and wounded. So that -- that really -- I never thought much about it at the time, but the more I think about it in my later years, I just -- you have to realize how war -- it's real bad.

Timothy J. Sanders:

You're right.

Tony Fileff:

It's --

Timothy J. Sanders:

How long were you on Okinawa?

Tony Fileff:

Well, we were there maybe a month and a half, I think. Another sad duty that we had to do was go through the sea bags of our people who were killed, and, of course, when you went through the sea bags, of course, you just threw the clothes away because the clothes were immaterial, but then you would go through some of their personal belongings --

Timothy J. Sanders:

Pictures?

Tony Fileff:

Pictures and -- so that was -- we gathered that and packaged that and it was sent on home, I'm sure. But then we went to -- we went back to Guam to get ready to invade Japan, and we went back on the Liberty Ship, and it was really crammed.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Sure.

Tony Fileff:

But, anyway, we got back to Guam, and I think we just opened our camp, and I don't think we were there very long, more than maybe three weeks or four weeks, at the most. In August -- I think August 5th is when they dropped the H bomb. And I remember that very vividly. It was about ten o'clock in the morning and this -- one of the fellows in my platoon came up. He says, "Lieutenant, did you hear about the H bomb?" Not "the H bomb," but "a bomb." He said, "It was so powerful, it destroyed a, you know, whole city." That's all about all he said. But -- and he said, "It might end the war." They heard it on the radio, I guess. But, anyway, just to go back, when we flew into Okinawa from Guam, we landed at the Yontan Airfield, and the Air Force was there, and there were rumors -- and there's always rumors flying around the service, and one of the rumors was that the war would end in 90 days.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

So I just wondered if -- maybe if they didn't know about the bomb, the Air Force.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Don't know.

Tony Fileff:

You know. But, anyway, just -- that's how prophetic it was. He said 90 days. That was in June, and they signed the end of the war on the Battleship Missouri sometime in September.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Right.

Tony Fileff:

So that's about 90 days.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Ninety days. Sure.

Tony Fileff:

But, anyway, we were prepared to go to Japan. Our group -- later on you learned about these things. The first group was to land on Kyushu in October or November after the typhoon season, and then the -- our group -- my division was assigned to another army group that was to land in April of '46.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Right.

Tony Fileff:

In the Tokyo, Yokohama area. Well, anyway, the war ended with the signing on the Battleship Missouri. And then in September our division was assigned to go to China.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

And we got there about October. And we were on the way there, we were in a typhoon, which was very common in that time of the year, in the fall. And we were ready to go in and fight the communists. We'd heard that -- we were already briefed and we had plans to go in there and fight -- fight the --

Timothy J. Sanders:

Now, this would have been the middle of '45?

Tony Fileff:

October -- September '45.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

And I don't know how it happened. Historically, it's been recorded that the United States and communists and the Chinese under Chiang Kai-Shek worked out some kind of arrangement that we were to land at the Seaport Tsing-tau in the Shan-tung Province, and so we land there without any incident, and we took our positions and took over the city. And the idea was to hold these cities for Chiang Kai-Shek's army to move in and take over, and --

Timothy J. Sanders:

Was there any fighting at this point or --

Tony Fileff:

No. In fact, our division went to Tsing-tau. Then the 1st Marine Division went north to Tensin (ph) and Peking.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

And our mission was to protect the railroads and any industrial parts in those parts of the country until Chiang Kai-Shek came in and took over. And so we guarded the railroads, airfields. And there were some fire fights, but nothing -- you know, it was very limited. We also accepted the surrender of the Japanese army in that area. In fact, I brought -- this is a picture of our battalion officers on Okinawa after the Okinawa war, and this was a picture of the -- our General Shepard accepting the surrender of the Japanese army in our area. And this is -- this is a letter that General Shepard put out. The surrender was on October 24th, 1945, and this is his letter to the troops. This map here -- I got this map, oh, maybe a couple years ago, but it showed the positions of our units on June 18th, 19, -- June 18th to 21, 1945, of our positions, and it showed the position where our battalion was located on the front lines here.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

And, also, I have a letter here from my --

Timothy J. Sanders:

Now, this is China, right?

Tony Fileff:

No. That's in Okinawa.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Oh, this is Okinawa. Okay.

Tony Fileff:

Yeah. And this is the position of our --

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

-- of our battalion. We were on the front lines here.

Timothy J. Sanders:

I see. Okay. Got it.

Tony Fileff:

And then --

Timothy J. Sanders:

Who is this young guy here?

Tony Fileff:

Oh, that's me at Purdue University, B-12. But, anyway, I -- I have a letter here, and it was from my uncle, and it's dated August 15th, 1945, and my uncle was an engineer. He was very heavy in chemistry. He was a graduate of Alpo (ph) in, I think, 1909. But he knew something about the atomic energy. He says, "We are fortunate to live at the beginning of a new historical epo (ph) to witness the discovery of the atomic energy. From what I have read in chemistry, I never expected for 500 years or in a thousand years to be discovered this new energy, but the struggle for survival of our nation made it possible to come at this time. This is a solution that matter can be transformed into energy. In other words, we have discovered the secret of the universe. Einstein, that was -- theory is proved with facts conclusively. The heat of the atomic bomb spilled on Japan was a heat that exists on the sun, and, of course, I imagine they vaporized in a cloud form where they were struck, and the Japs could not stand for more, and this was the price of peace at any price." I'd like to have that in the file.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Certainly. Absolutely.

Tony Fileff:

But that's coming from someone that, like I say, had studied chemistry. This is a letter --

Timothy J. Sanders:

What was the attitude of your people when they dropped the bomb and they had the sense that --

Tony Fileff:

Well, we -- of course, we were -- we were happy. Yeah.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

Yeah. Because -- you know, going into Japan, we do -- we were going into their homeland, and the Japanese had a different culture as far as treating prisoners. You know, in Europe there was some kind of connection with our ethnicity. You know, you're German, or whatever, French. And we had the same moral standards. But with the Japanese, you never knew, you know, how -- they were very cruel to our prisoners. And the Japanese population was trained. They were trained as civilians to use scythes, knives and anything that could, you know, kill an American soldier. So we were aware of that. But this is a letter here from General Vanderver (ph) who is a commander out of the Marine Corps after we got out of the service, thanking us for our service.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay. Can I have these?

Tony Fileff:

Yeah. These are for the files.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Well, thank you.

Tony Fileff:

I think that's what we were told to do, wasn't it?

Timothy J. Sanders:

Yeah, uh-huh.

Tony Fileff:

Well, of course, my tour of duty with the Marine Corps or experience with the Marine Corps didn't end with World War II. I was a reserve officer and I was called into the Korean War, so I brought -- what I have here is the notice of my being called to active duty in the Korean War. And then this is a letter from the director of the Marine Corps Reserve after we -- after my tour of duty in the Marine Corps. I was called in January 1951 and I was discharged in June of 1952, and I spent about nine months, ten months in the Korean War.

Timothy J. Sanders:

June of '52 was your final discharge?

Tony Fileff:

Discharge. But, anyway, by that time I was a first lieutenant. But, anyway, I was called in with maybe -- maybe three or four hundred other junior officers. And, of course, we were a draft. We knew we were going to be eventually sent to Korea. So this is a letter from the general thanking us for our service and explaining what happened and why we were called. And I'd like that in the file. Now, the Korean War was a lot different than the World War II. We never -- well, in World War II, you just -- you never knew when it would end, and you knew you were in for a long stretch. But the Korean War was a different situation. You thought, "Well, it might end at any time." In fact, when I was sent overseas, they just started the peace talks.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

And --

Timothy J. Sanders:

Did you go to Korea?

Tony Fileff:

Yeah. It was a whole -- practically ten months. When I got there, I was assigned to their Division Reconnaissance Company, and I was executive officer. The thing that you remember most about Korea is the terrain, mountains. We were in the eastern front. And these -- I'm going to submit a couple of exhibits of the terrain. This is what it looked like with mountains after mountains.

Timothy J. Sanders:

In Korea?

Tony Fileff:

And these are in meters, so you'd multiply this approximately by three times, so that would be 1,800 feet. This mountain would be around 3,000. This is another, 3,600. But this is the area that we were in and where we fought in Korea. This was -- this is a picture of what it looked like in the winter there, more mountains, more hills, and this is another shot of the terrain. The two things that I remember that I want to talk most about, Korea was a September offensive in 1951. It was the last -- what would you call -- offensive in the Korean War, and after that most of the action was in the combat outposts, and --

Timothy J. Sanders:

Is that the push that went back up north and sort of got to the --

Tony Fileff:

We went -- 38th, that's where it stopped, and this is another -- this is a cover of the Leather Neck. This is the Marine Corps enlisted man's magazine. This is a picture of the action on Hill 673.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Right here. It would be this hill here?

Tony Fileff:

Yeah, uh-huh. One of the things that we participated in -- in fact, our company was the first company to ever participate in combat with helicopters. It was a new tactic in warfare, especially -- it was very useful for the type of fighting in the terrain that we had to fight in Korea because of the mountains and so forth. If we were -- this action that we were in was called Operation Summit, and it's listed historically in a number of books, and this is a story from the Marine Corps Gazette, which is the magazine that the officers get in the Marine Corps, and it tells all about the combat preparation and so forth for the operation on Hill 884. This is another article that appeared --

Timothy J. Sanders:

These are the helicopters that --

Tony Fileff:

Yes. Now, these helicopters were the older ones. The newer ones are more sophisticated.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Sure.

Tony Fileff:

The most that these helicopters would carry in the Korean War were only five people. Now they carry a whole squad, almost 12 guys. Because of the weight, they can only carry so much. They allowed each man a weight of 250 pounds with himself and his combat gear, so that it was limited to just the five guys per helicopter. But, anyway, they talk about how the shore party came in and they cleared the landing and so forth. Now, this operation, if we'd have walked -- or -- yes, if we'd have walked into this thing, it would have taken us about two days to do it. With this operation, everything -- the transportation of all the troops and all the materials and ammunition, so forth, took four hours, so you could tell how --

Timothy J. Sanders:

Much better.

Tony Fileff:

-- how much better it was. Now, the -- that helicopter operation made the big news in the states. This was a report saying "Helicopter Used In Korea Mountain Landing." Then they had -- and this story was in the New York Times, "Marine Force Lands By Helicopters and Korean Pick is Under Control."

Timothy J. Sanders:

Now, this is September 21 of --

Tony Fileff:

Yeah.

Timothy J. Sanders:

-- of 1951?

Tony Fileff:

'51, uh-huh. And this is another story.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

This is another story, "Helicopter Troop Lift 884." But the tenor and things was different than World War II. In World War II I was in a rifle company, and the -- how would you say it? The attitudes of men were -- you know, they didn't know how long we were going to be in the war and -- whereas in the Korean War, I was with the Recon Company. They were a highly-trained group of men, and their morale was a lot different. I mean, they -- they almost seemed like they were professionals, and whereas in World War II, most of us were, you know, like we were drafted.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Right.

Tony Fileff:

And the attitude was different.

Timothy J. Sanders:

A lot of the people that were there in Korea, had they also been in World War II?

Tony Fileff:

Well, the reserves.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

And, of course, some of the reservists were kind of out of joint because they were called back, but, you know, I never felt that way. I felt if I was a reserve and I knew that if we were in combat again, I would be called, no questions asked. I mean, I signed the dotted line.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Sure.

Tony Fileff:

That's my responsibility, my fate, whatever you want to call it. So I was never in that group that griped about being called. Of course, in the event now, morale is different. I don't think the reserves were called at all. And it was all draftees Well, that was my experience with the Korean War, but that didn't end. I was still involved with the Marine Corps, in a way. Like I told you before, I belonged to a Marine Corps Reserve Detachment here in Hobart, and I'm proud of this situation here. This is --

Timothy J. Sanders:

Toys For Tots, maybe?

Tony Fileff:

Toys For Tots. We had a Marine Corps unit here at the naval armory in Gary and they were moved to Battle Creek, and so they needed someone to fill the void in to take care of the Toys For Tots program, so our Marine Corps detachment chapter got involved, and it was a very wonderful experience. Bill Pierce and I were the cochairmen for the Toys For Tots for Lake and Porter County, and I'd like to submit this information and these pictures for the record, and -- that's it.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Yeah. You were not wounded, right, in combat?

Tony Fileff:

No. I was lucky.

Timothy J. Sanders:

That's very good.

Tony Fileff:

Yeah. You never -- like I say, it just -- it's a time, a place -- it's just your fate. You know, you don't know where you're going to go. And I had no idea I'd be assigned to the recon company. I don't know why I was assigned to the recon company, because, like I say, those guys were a group of highly-specialized people who were trained with -- to go into an area before the main landing and reconnoiter and even draw to scale the area, you know, churches and streets and so forth. They were also -- they were good swimmers. They had rafts that -- they had swimming paraphernalia, the fins and all, and they had -- and it was mechanized. We had Jeeps. I can imagine, if I was in the infantry, I would be walking all the time.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Sure.

Tony Fileff:

But like I say, I just -- I had no idea why I was assigned to recon, but I enjoyed the duty very much. Also, my second tour of duty in Korea, what they did with the officers, the junior officers like ourselves, when we were called back, we went to a junior staff and command school at Quantico, Virginia.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay.

Tony Fileff:

And we had staff classes where we learned different duties, you know, on staff positions, and so what they did with us in Korea, we spent four months or five months with a line outfit with a recon company or a rifle company, and the second half of the duty we were assigned to staff positions, and my second tour of duty in Korea was with the secret and confidential files headquarters battalion, a division, and there we disseminated all the information that would come through the division from stateside or wherever, and we would package it, whatever we thought would be necessary, and we sent it to the regiments and to the division officers, and so, like I say -- and some of them were assigned to intelligence, some were assigned to operations. So our duty was divided, and I think they had a -- the Marine Corps had a plan for that.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Sure.

Tony Fileff:

So that's about it.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Sounds like you had a good experience and one that you look back on as --

Tony Fileff:

Yeah. I was -- like I say, there are moments when I think back, you know, things were -- but war is useless.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Uh-huh. Okay.

Tony Fileff:

That's --

Timothy J. Sanders:

There has to be a better way.

Tony Fileff:

There has to be a better way. And, of course, we have had them through our whole mankind.

Timothy J. Sanders:

That's right.

Tony Fileff:

And I suppose there will be more, but -- in fact, after the last offensive in Korea, the word came down from Washington, D.C. from headquarters, no more offensives, you know. Useless. Like that last offensive that we had, we had over 20,000 casualties, wounded and killed. And for what? Just to get a better position of the mountains.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Okay. I very much appreciate it. Thank you for what you've done.

Tony Fileff:

Okay. Well, thanks.

Timothy J. Sanders:

And thanks for participating in this program.

Tony Fileff:

Yeah. Well, I'll tell my other friends if they're interested, they should contact you.

Timothy J. Sanders:

Please do.

Tony Fileff:

Okay.

Timothy J. Sanders:

We'll be happy.

Tony Fileff:

Thanks.

[CONCLUSION OF INTERVIEW]