Jay Cloud

Biography of a Grunt Jay Cloud

A boy was born into a dysfunctional, impoverished Tennessee hill farm family. His father was part American Indian. He finished high school. While in high school he wrote for the school paper. Later in life he attended college at nightHe left home the day after he received his high school diploma. Worked as a "grease monkey" for a Ford Agency until he earned enough to lease a service station at age seventeen. After a year of long hours, and seven day work weeks, he sold the lease and the station stock. With a used car as transportation he toured the Western United States for a year. Still not satisfied he joined the United States Marine Corps at age nineteen. Participated in the initial landings on Bougainville, Guam and Iwo Jima. There is humor in his account of the lighter side of the military. Not a famous person, also not a media created hero, the book documents the life of a "Grunt" (foot soldier). Who served the entire length of World War Two. To show respect for his generation, which is being thinned at about one thousand per day. Cloud created James Colton. The incidents depicted are true.