GOOD OLD DAYS:

It was midnight in the middle of the ocean, and the Japanese were attacking.

Ships launched torpedoes, planes unleashed bombs, and the young Marine leaned against the bulkhead of the U.S. destroyer Aaron Ward and prayed.

Battles on Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima are as vivid for Newport Beach resident Jim Gagne as if they happened yesterday.

The memories of Gagne and 51 other Iwo Jima veterans will be chronicled in the book, “By Dammit, We’re Marines” by author Gail Chatfield.

Chatfield’s father was a Marine in the 3rd Division and an Iwo Jima veteran. For 10 years she has attended veterans’ anniversary dinners at Camp Pendleton, where she met Gagne.

“These are men in their 80s and 90s, with such interesting stories to tell. Not just about Iwo Jima, but about life,” she said.

Gagne, 82, was 16 and living in Auburn, Maine, when he enlisted in the Marine Corps with childhood friends Louis Vincent and Jean Bellamari.

“We were the ‘Three Musketeers’ going in to take care of the bad guys,” Gagne said, adding that in those days young men were eager to serve.

Gagne was a member of the 3rd Marine Division, and war was what he expected, he said.

After boot camp, soldiers were shown the movie “Wake Island,” which centered on a small band of Marines trying to keep the Japanese Navy from capturing their island base.

Gagne said no man in the movie survived, and he said he guessed the Marines were shown the movie to make them angry and fight harder.

When you’re young, though, you think you’re invincible, that things like death won’t happen to you, Gagne said.

“You think that what’s happening is for your observation. That’s the only way to think if you’re going to survive in combat. You tell yourself you’re not scared, they’re lying to you.”

He said was frightened that night on the destroyer, part of a convoy that had been sent to the Solomon Islands.

“I thought that was my last day on Earth. All I could hear was ‘Don’t fire, hold your fire’ because they didn’t want to give away the location of the ship. The Japanese plane hit the boat behind us and killed almost everyone on board. The dead bodies were floating in the water.”

That’s where prayer comes in, Gagne said.

“The 23rd Psalm is said more often by atheists in foxholes than anywhere else.”

They’re all brothers too, in the Marines, Gagne said, and you sometimes think more of your buddy than you do yourself.

Gagne said the Japanese knew that about the Marines.

“They’d try to wound, rather than kill. Then they’d wait for two Marines to go in to their buddy’s aid, and they could kill all three instead of the one.”

Fortunately, all three of the “Musketeers” made it home.

His memories of the time he spent as a young soldier are always with him, he said.

After World War II, Gagne said, so many people criticized the use of the atomic bomb.

“If you had been in my shoes, you’d have cheered, and I praised [President] Truman for the decision he made.”

“By Dammit, We’re Marines,” will be released in several weeks. For information, contact Gail Chatfield at [email protected] or see leatherneckpublishing.com.

SUE THOENSEN may be reached at (714) 966-4627 or at [email protected].