Edwin Knight was born in 1923 in Washita, Arkansas. He grew up on a small farm there during the Great Depression. People often came to the farm looking to work for something just to eat. Knight had four sisters and one brother. Knight was the youngest of the siblings. His older brother did not serve in the military due to his deferment as an agricultural teacher. Knight graduated from high school in 1941. He heard of Pearl Harbor when he was a freshman in college. As a poor farm boy, he worked to gain the higher education. He had to walk everywhere since automobiles were scarce during the Depression. Knight sometimes worked the graveyard shift from midnight to four in the morning. On one of those occasions, a friend accompanied him on the one mile walk to work. The friend fell and when he woke up, he did not know where he was. [Annotator's Note: Knight laughs.] After classes started, Knight and three other classmates decided the graveyard shift was too difficult to maintain. They altered living arrangements in order to share rental expenses. That was before the 7 December [Annotator's Note: 7 December 1941] announcement by President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: President Franklin D. Roosevelt] that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. Being a student, Knight was not immediately drafted. He was willing to go into the military but completed his college work in two years. He was subsequently drafted in May 1943. Up to that point, Knight had only kept up with war events as he heard them over the radio. The ongoing conflict was seldom a topic of conversation with friends.

Edwin Knight was drafted at Camp Robinson in Arkansas and put on a train traveling west. After a cold and uncomfortable trip, he reached Camp Roberts in California for basic training. The camp was situated between San Francisco and Los Angeles [Annotator's Note: near San Miguel]. He was in basic for 16 weeks and saw no rain the whole time. The most memorable thing was Separator Hill. It was a steep hill the trainees had to climb carrying all their gear. It separated the men from the boys. That gave the mountain its nickname. It was always hot and dusty during that time. When troops sat too long on the paved parade ground the tar would melt and stick to their trousers. After basic, Knight borrowed money from the Red Cross to travel back home to Arkansas. Following his leave, he returned to Fort Ord, California for more advanced training including live fire and range practice. If the target was missed, the soldier saw a "Maggie's drawers" [Annotator's Note: a red flag indicating a miss during target practice] flagged against him. [Annotator's Note: Knight laughs.] Knight was a fair rifleman. After two weeks in Fort Ord, Knight went to Camp Stoneman near San Francisco. He was held there about a week until his overseas deployment. He sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge never realizing that he would be gone for the next three Christmases. He was in the Pacific from 1943 through 1945. Knight departed San Francisco and sailed to New Caledonia.

Edwin Knight arrived at New Caledonia as a replacement for casualties suffered in the 43rd Infantry Division. He was in the 169th Infantry Regiment. Knight was chosen to be a medic. He had previously elected not to attend OCS, Officer Candidate School. He would have been qualified because of his college education. He did not want to be a 90 day wonder. He became a buck private. The weather was hot and dysentery was frequent among the troops. Knight even contracted the disease. There was a typhoon while he was there. It made a mess of the camp, but no one was injured. Before long, he was sent to New Zealand for training.

Edwin Knight spent four months in New Zealand learning to be a medic. He learned to give plasma, bandage wounds, and administer first aid. He became familiar with the associated equipment a medic uses. Knight enjoyed the training. He learned about the different types of wounds he would likely encounter. New Zealand was a beautiful country. He gained substantial weight while he was there in 1944. He ate a lot of mutton and ice cream. He shipped out from there to New Guinea.

Edwin Knight did not know where he was being shipped. He arrived at his destination at night and was told he was in New Guinea. He was there for six months. He did not treat any combat wounded even though he had just gone through training to be a medic. A previous infantry outfit had wiped out most the Japanese in the proximity. Most things were stable during those six months he remained in New Guinea. Training continued while he was there. There was still time for games such as volleyball. Movies were shown at night. Bob Hope even visited to entertain the troops. That was exciting for the men. Knight would see Bob Hope later in the Philippines. It was always a good show with Bob Hope. Hope loved the military. Knight's camp was near the ocean. The jungle was on the opposite side. Knight never traveled more than three miles from his camp in any direction during his whole tenure in New Guinea. Native women had been withdrawn from the area by the military. The native men brushed their teeth with silt from the sea. Knight treated sick or ill troops while there. Most of the cases dealt with jungle rot. Black troops were nearby. Most were not combatants. Knight's mother wrote a letter to him to say a black friend from the back home thought he had seen Knight. The friend's name was Hamp. When Knight went to unsuccessfully seek his friend amongst the local black troops, he gained the nickname Hamp. It was given to him by buddies in his outfit [Annotator's Note: 169th Infantry Regiment, 43rd Infantry Division]. He carried it for the rest of the war. [Annotator's Note: Knight laughs.] After six month in New Guinea, Knight learned he was headed to the Philippines. It was about Christmas 1944. He was fed a good Christmas meal prior to boarding an Alligator [Annotator's Note: nickname for Landing Vehicle Tracked or LVT] which was an amphibious tracked vehicle. It could operate on both water and land. They carried the troops to a flat bed Navy vessel that then brought them to the larger transport ships miles out at sea. The sea was rough that day. Passengers on the last leg of the route to the transport ship got seasick. It was almost impossible to climb the Jacobs ladder because the men were so sick. They were hauled up in nets. After making it to the deck of the large ship, everyone seemed to rapidly recover. The passage to the Philippines took about ten days to two weeks.

Edwin Knight participated in the amphibious landings in Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines [Annotator's Note: in January 1945]. Fortified with a hearty breakfast, he observed the heavy naval bombardment that drove enemy troops away from the beach. Kamikazes attempted to destroy American ships. The Japanese pilots were foolish to give their lives in such an attempt. Reaching shore, Knight used his training as a medic to aid wound troops in the advance to Baguio. He carried a carbine since the Japanese did not respect medics as non-combatants. Taking shelter in a foxhole, he heard the wounded calling for aid. He also heard the Japanese preparing for an attack. It was dark and late at night. The enemy advanced near Knight's foxhole. A rat ran in his armpit. He sat still rather than bring attention to himself while the large force of Japanese passed near him. Enemy trucks followed them afterward. A 57mm fired point blank into the truck and destroyed it. The enemy went a different direction. Knight could hear the moaning of the wounded. The battle ensued. It was noisy with shells and grenades exploding.

Edwin Knight was in the midst of a battle [Annotator's Note: in Lingayen Gulf in January 1945]. While advancing through a series of ditches and foxholes, he observed multiple dead medics. A medic who was attempting to retrieve the wounded was killed. His name was Helton [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling; no given name provided]. A military person sat down near Helton's body and began eating rations that he took from the dead man. That was war. [Annotator's Note: Knight laughs.] The Japs [Annotator's Note: period derogatory term for Japanese] began bombarding the Americans. Knight responded to the wounded by giving them treatment. Another medic was hit. Knight treated the injured medic. Men were killed and wounded from the intense Japanese fire. Knight loaded dead and wounded together on a truck to remove them from the battle. With all the explosions, Knight never got hit. God was watching over him. Some of the wounded were horribly disfigured. Pleading to God did not help for those whose clock had run out. [Annotator's Note: Knight laughs.] Knight tried to do the best he could for those injured since he was a medic. He moved from one wounded man to another since there were so many. Some were already dead. It was the way of war. He would have preferred to be home and out of the action. [Annotator's Note: he laughs.] In the first night of combat, there were 130 casualties with six or seven medics lost in Knight's unit [Annotator's Note: 169th Infantry Regiment, 43rd Infantry Division]. After 15 or 20 days of combat, the outfit was pulled back for a brief rest. They next advanced on Hill 355.

Edwin Knight and his outfit [Annotator's Note: 169th Infantry Regiment, 43rd Infantry Division] advanced on Hill 355. The Japanese had captured the Philippines in 1942 and had until 1945 to prepare for the American attempt to retake the islands. The crest of the hill had Japanese emplacements that were well dug in. American infantry was slaughtered attempting to retake Hill 355. It was terrible to lose so many men. A first aid station was established halfway up the hill. Knight recognized a wounded man running down the hill toward him. As he ran, his artery kept steadily pumping out his blood. After reaching Knight, everything was collapsed such that a needle could not be inserted into any vein. The one doctor nearby could not even do it. The wounded man was named Goodwin [Annotator's Note: no given name provided]. He died from his wounds. It was impossible to get any blood into him. Treating the wounded, Knight's bare hands were often full of blood. It is not like today with diseases, like AIDS [Annotator's Note: acquired immunodeficiency syndrome], that are carried in the blood. Hill 355 was quite an ordeal.

Edwin Knight was in the Philippines when fighting began to subside. The priority for logistical support was redirected to Europe. The decision was made to focus on ending that war so that troops could be moved to the Pacific to end the conflict with Japan. Artificial moonlight was beamed on the overhead clouds to generate nighttime lighting. Knight's commanding officer told his men to stay in their holes all night. They were ordered to fire on anything that moved above them. The enemy had been bombarding the American position. The next morning, Knight went to the foxhole of a man near him and saw the man had his leg blown off. The injured man had applied a tourniquet to reduce the bleeding. He was very weak. Knight provided him with plasma. The man strengthened enough to say that he would have to learn how to jitterbug all over again after he received his new leg. Knight lost contact with the man and does not even know if he survived the injury or if he is still alive today. He would like to know what happened to him, but Knight never saw any of the men he treated after the war. Further down the road, the Americans had taken a village from the Japanese. The bodies of the enemy dead were stacked up to be burned. A soldier was in his foxhole and was white as a sheet. He told Knight that a Japanese soldier had climbed into his hole that night. The shocked soldier played dead while the enemy took his canteen and other things from him before moving on. That was likely why he was so white looking. [Annotator's Note: Knight laughs.]

On one occasion, Edwin Knight removed a wounded man downhill by following a telephone wire. The wire split and changed directions. Knight was baffled. Which way should he take to reach American lines and an awaiting jeep to bring them to safety? Choosing one, the two followed it to a Filipino cabin. There, they rested for the night. Knight had to administer morphine to the injured man. That was a typical practice in World War 2. The next day they reached the jeep and safety. He had picked the right wire after all. [Annotator's Note: Knight laughs.] Knight had to improvise on some of the treatments he provided due to lack of supplies in the field. One forward observer for the artillery called in fire support too close to his own position. His dead body was recovered in the rain. A dead body is hard to carry for an extended distance as they had to do. The body becomes very heavy. War is not held in convenient places. Though fatigued, Knight would never have left the body. Some individuals wanted to get out of the war so much that they seriously injured themselves. One man exploded a hand grenade in his hand. It was not a good way to escape the war. Another man shot himself in the foot. He died on his way back to the hospital. Knight thought it was stupid to injure yourself to evade combat. He did not report those who did even though he assumed that was their motive. Knight has been close up to the enemy during combat. The Japanese sometimes caught a grenade in flight and tossed it back at the Americans. The timing for the explosion was reduced from five to three seconds as a result. Knight has memories of what happened during those times. It is a long process to forget. One man was wounded while a long way up a steep slope. Bringing him down had to be done carefully. Eight men were required to do that. The terrain was difficult, but he reached the jeep for transport out of the front. Knight administered first aid to the wounded but did not know their final status. Knight was never hit in the war. God was watching over him.

Edwin Knight knows that Americans fought for a good purpose during World War 2. The enemy could have won and we would not be speaking English. He felt the Japanese were vicious people. After the war, Knight contracted malaria and stayed in a hospital in Japan for two weeks. He was kept on heavy dosages of Atabrine tablets for two years. Eventually, the malaria went away. Before it did, he went several times into hospitals in the United States for treatment. While in Japan for four months of occupation duty, Knight and some of the medics were called upon to set up prophylactic stations for "Whorehouse Row." The troops were treated for diseases after they had visited the brothels. In New Guinea, the Army withdrew the local women from the military locations to prevent the spread of social diseases. In New Guinea, Atabrine was administered to the troops every day for malaria. In the Philippines, Knight did not have access to the medicine because he was in the field. That was when he contracted malaria. It felt great to return to the United States. He had been overseas for three Christmases. It was good to get home. His sister was in the WACS [Annotator's Note: Women's Army Corps]. She married a military man named Bob Madden. He went overseas while Knight's sister was based in the United States. Madden and Knight met each other in a latrine while en route home. He met his brother-in-law in the privy. They discharged within hours of each other in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Edwin Knight knows the Second World War had to be fought to protect the country's freedoms. He served because he was drafted and everyone was going into serve. Every American seemed to be behind the war effort. The war made Knight a better man. After the war, Knight advanced his education through the G.I. Bill at the University of Arkansas. He earned a master's degree. Education was important to him. The war helped him better evaluate what life is all about. Many individuals today do not recognize the importance of education. People seem to be focused on veterans of World War 2 even more than the wars of today. People are divided today in their opinions toward current conflicts. Military service should be required for today's youth so they are able learn about the things that are important in life. Institutions like The National WWII Museum are important to teach the history of what happened. The war brought citizens together to protect American liberties. At the time the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, Knight was in the Philippines about to ship out for Borneo. Everyone cheered and thought it was great.