James Wesley “Snooks” Hudspeth landed in the Philippines on his 18th birthday. The year was 1942, and he, like most young men within the appropriate age groups, had been drafted to fight in WWII. While stationed there, he served with a 250 men battalion that participated in multiple ground battles. One of those battles that ensued was hand to hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese who had conquered and commanded a certain hill that Hudspeth and his fellow troops were ordered to win back.