That's unbelievable! I'm so happy you were able to do this.
My own story: worked for a PBS affiliate doing interviews with WW2 veterans from Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. I guess, FYI, there are (were, now) a ton of Native American WW2 vets.
Those guys had some major crazy stories, all very lucid, lots of tears were shed by them and our film crew.
Out of the five guys we interviewed, 4 of them lied about their ages to join the war effort. One guy who was particularly great at storytelling attended a war dance the community held about 2 days before he shipped off to San Diego in 1944. This guy was working on a ranch at 16 just south of Fort Berthold, two days later he was at Naval Training.
His story took place mainly after Iwo Jima. I forget which ship he was stationed on, but he mentioned that they showed up right after the battle of Iwo Jima to provide support. He said he just saw bodies floating in the ocean, and they would try to pull as many bodies as they could from the water, but sharks would grab some of them as they reached them, and you'd never see them again. Many of the MIA were due to this.
He said the worst part was seeing their faces - many of them were around his says age. Just a bunch of kids, fighting against evil, only to be killed by the Japanese and then eaten by sharks. Very very few survivors.