The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Clint Libby. Libby was born in New Zealand in September 1946. During the war, his father was stationed there as a United States Marine. His grandmother remembers the Marines as well-mannered and generous. Their presence was a welcome relief to the local population, who feared a Japanese invasion. In fact, in the early years of the war, his mother had an emergency plan in place which involved riding a bicycle to a truck which she would then use to transport neighbors to an escape boat. His father saw combat in Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, and Tinian. At the landing on Tarawa, he narrowly avoided drowning by pushing off from the coral when he was submerged under water, bobbing along in this fashion until he reached the shore. Although two men from his mortar platoon were missing at that point, he managed to assemble his weapon and was the first on the beach to begin firing. In September 1944 he was sent to Camp Pendleton as an instructor, and in 1945 he returned to New Zealand and joined his wife.