Degree Department

Oral History Interview with Roy Hughes, December 7, 2011 transcript

Oral History Interview with Roy Hughes, December 7, 2011

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Roy Hughes. Hughes joined the National Guard and was called into active duty in September 1941. He was assigned to an artillery unit with the 45th Division in Algeria, preparing for the invasion of Sicily. In Salerno, he was wounded by shrapnel and almost left for dead when the medic was frightened by enemy shelling. Hughes’s best friend forced the company medic out of his hiding place, and Hughes recovered at a British hospital in Tripoli. Three months later, he returned to his unit for the invasion of Anzio. They fought in Southern France and finished the war while capturing Germans in Munich. Hughes returned home in June 1945. During his readjustment to civilian life, his nightmares were so debilitating that he was granted a full medical discharge. Over time, he made a full recovery.
Date: December 7, 2011
Creator: Hughes, Roy
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with J. B. Young, February 7, 2011 (open access)

Oral History Interview with J. B. Young, February 7, 2011

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Reverend J.B. Young. Young enlisted in the Army Air Corps in December 1936. He became a cook and then was trained as an airplane mechanic. Young was sent to Hickam Field in Hawaii to serve as a crew chief on a B-17. He describes the attack on 7 December and how he taxied his plane out of danger and the patrols that they flew in the immediate aftermath. Young was then sent to New Caledonia where his plane flew photo reconnaissance missions for three months. They traveled to Australia and flew missions against Rabaul and Japanese ships in the Coral Sea. Young describes some notable incidents from this time. He returned to the US after 66 missions and remained there until the end of the war. Young retired from the Air Force in 1959.
Date: February 7, 2011
Creator: Young, J. B.
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History
[Oral History Interview with Rene Martinez] (open access)

[Oral History Interview with Rene Martinez]

Interview with Rene Martinez, an educator who has held roles as a teacher, campus administrator, and adjunct professor. Martinez discusses his upbringing and family life, his membership in the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), his experiences as a civil rights activist in Dallas, as well as his efforts in desegregation in Dallas schools.
Date: September 7, 2011
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with Davis Mayes, December 7, 2011 (open access)

Oral History Interview with Davis Mayes, December 7, 2011

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Davis Mayes. Mayes joined the Army in the summer of 1936 and received basic training at Fort Sam Houston. While there, he taught himself to type. Upon completion of his three-year enlistment, he left to join the Navy, where his typing experience qualified him to become a radioman, copying down Japanese signals. He was on standby aboard the USS Solace (AH-5) during the attack on Pearl Harbor, bearing witness to the incredible destruction and its aftermath. His next assignment was as chief communicator for the USS Enoree (AO-69), coordinating 50 ships for the delivery of supplies to Europe. Next, he was assigned to a seagoing tug as chief radioman. As the only chief aboard, he instructed the crew in repairing everything from kitchen equipment to motors, salvaging parts from the mothball fleet. In the Korean War, he again went beyond his duties as a radioman and conducted repairs all over the USS Healey (DD-762). Mayes left the service in 1957 and went on to enjoy a 25-year career with the RCA Corporation. He was the only engineer there without a college education.
Date: December 7, 2011
Creator: Mayes, Davis
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History
IT Dashboard: Accuracy Has Improved, and Additional Efforts Are Under Way to Better Inform Decision Making (open access)

IT Dashboard: Accuracy Has Improved, and Additional Efforts Are Under Way to Better Inform Decision Making

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Each year the federal government spends billions of dollars on information technology (IT) investments. Given the importance of program oversight, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) established a public website, referred to as the IT Dashboard, that provides detailed information on about 800 federal IT investments, including assessments of actual performance against cost and schedule targets (referred to as ratings). According to OMB, these data are intended to provide both a near-real-time and historical perspective of performance. In the third of a series of Dashboard reviews, GAO was asked to examine the accuracy of the Dashboard's cost and schedule performance ratings. To do so, GAO compared the performance of eight major investments undergoing development from four agencies with large IT budgets (the Departments of Commerce, the Interior, and State, as well as the General Services Administration) against the corresponding ratings on the Dashboard, and interviewed OMB and agency officials."
Date: November 7, 2011
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with William Miller, December 7, 2011 (open access)

Oral History Interview with William Miller, December 7, 2011

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Miller. Miller joined the Navy in October 1941 and received basic training in San Diego. After a bout with the mumps and the measles, he was assigned to the USS Argonne (AG-31) at Pearl Harbor, where his first duties included removing projectiles from the badly damaged USS Oklahoma (BB-37), while the USS Arizona (BB-39) was still smoking. At Manus he was instructed to unload ammunition from the USS Mount Hood (AE-11) just before it exploded; fortunately, he had requested and been assigned a different task at the last minute. Miller spent the remainder of the war as a carpenter, repairing Higgins boats and PT boats damaged in action or left behind to rot. After the war ended, he was given train patrol in Seattle, trying to keep control of rowdy soldiers on their way home. Miller was discharged in 1946.
Date: December 7, 2011
Creator: Miller, William
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Newton Zanes, December 7, 2011 (open access)

Oral History Interview with Newton Zanes, December 7, 2011

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Newton Zanes. Zanes joined the Marine Corps in July 1940 and served in Guantanamo Bay until April 1941. In February 1942 he was assigned to MAG-13 as an SBD radio gunner and sent to Samoa, where his first task was to make a campsite by clearing enormous banyan trees using dynamite. He was soon promoted to then-Major General Price’s PBY-5A crew, visiting almost every island in the Pacific theater. Zanes returned to the states in late 1943 and helped to start MAG-51 in North Carolina. There he met Charles Lindbergh, who put on an impromptu air show for the base. Toward the end of the war, Zanes qualified as an engineering chief and oversaw engine maintenance training at bases throughout the country. He remained in the Marine Corps until October 1952, when he began a lengthy career as a mechanical engineer. His family moved 45 times to capture unique job opportunities, including working for NASA and working behind the Iron Curtain.
Date: December 7, 2011
Creator: Zanes, Newton
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History
Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 65, No. 14, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 7, 2011 (open access)

Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 65, No. 14, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 7, 2011

Weekly Jewish newspaper from Fort Worth, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.
Date: April 7, 2011
Creator: Wisch-Ray, Sharon
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty: Background and Current Developments (open access)

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty: Background and Current Developments

This report discusses the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which bans all nuclear explosion and was in 1996 adopted by the U.N. General Assembly but rejected by the U.S. Senate in 1997. This report discusses the Obama Administration's stated goal of pursuing U.S. ratification of the CTBT, although the Administration has mainly focused on securing Senate consent to ratification of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START). This report also discusses other nuclear weapons-related issues as well as the long history of nuclear testing.
Date: December 7, 2011
Creator: Medalia, Jonathan
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Yoakum Herald-Times (Yoakum, Tex.), Vol. 119, No. 49, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 7, 2011 (open access)

Yoakum Herald-Times (Yoakum, Tex.), Vol. 119, No. 49, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Weekly newspaper from Yoakum, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.
Date: December 7, 2011
Creator: McCracken, Michael S.
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Robert Sheron, December 7, 2011 transcript

Oral History Interview with Robert Sheron, December 7, 2011

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Sheron. Sheron joined the Navy in May 1944 and received basic training and learned to operate a Higgins boat at Camp Peary. Upon completion, he was assigned to the USS President Jackson (APA-18), where he worked as a typist in the S Division, managing dry supplies and disbursements. At Iwo Jima, he served as a stretcher bearer, retrieving wounded Marines from the shore. He recalls doctors performing amputations in the mess hall while the ship was used as an overflow hospital. He saw the flag raised on Mount Suribachi and remembers hundreds of ships nearby blowing their whistles in celebration. He stayed aboard after the war as part of Operation Magic Carpet and was discharged in 1946.
Date: December 7, 2011
Creator: Sheron, Robert
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Mel Trenary, December 7, 2011 (open access)

Oral History Interview with Mel Trenary, December 7, 2011

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Mel Trenary. Trenary joined the Army in March of 1943. He served as a machine gunner with Company A, 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Trenary participated in the Italian Campaign, the invasion of southern France and the Battle of the Bulge. He returned to the US and was discharged in late 1945.
Date: December 7, 2011
Creator: Trenary, Mel
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History
Kuwait: Security, Reform, and U.S. Policy (open access)

Kuwait: Security, Reform, and U.S. Policy

This report provides a brief overview on the current political state of Kuwait, which has been pivotal to nearly two decades of U.S. involvement in Iraq and the Middle East. This report also discusses relations between Kuwait and the U.S., and the continuing domestic unrest in Kuwait, an issue separate from the unrest currently sweeping the rest of the Middle East.
Date: December 7, 2011
Creator: Katzman, Kenneth
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with Edward Hill, July 7, 2011 transcript

Oral History Interview with Edward Hill, July 7, 2011

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Edward H. Hill. Hill was born 29 November 1918 In Los Angeles. He was inducted into the Army in 1940 and sent to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey where he became an enlisted instructor at the Signal Corps Replacement Training Center. He then entered Officers Candidate School and ninety days later was commissioned a second lieutenant. After being commissioned he applied for pilot training. After taking preflight and basic flight training, he washed out during advanced flight training in 1944. He was then sent to Signal Corps Officer’s school. Upon completion of the training he was assigned as Cryptographic Security Officer for the 31st Infantry Division stationed on Mindanao and was there when Japan surrendered. Returning to the United States in January 1946 he entered the Air National Guard and in 1950 was called into active duty. He remained in the Air Force until his retirement in 1967.
Date: July 7, 2011
Creator: Hill, Edward H.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with James Pfeiffer, December 7, 2011 transcript

Oral History Interview with James Pfeiffer, December 7, 2011

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer joined the Navy in June 1942 and received basic training in San Diego. Upon completion, he was assigned to the USS Tappahannock (AO-43), where he encountered many close calls with Japanese bombers and one Kaiten. At the end of the war, Pfeiffer was treated for post-traumatic stress disorder because he was experiencing quiet sounds as though they were as loud as gunshots. His time in the service took him all over the Pacific: to the Aleutians, Tulagi, Guadalcanal, Espiritu Santo, Ulithi, and Japan. Pfeiffer survived a typhoon and was discharged at the end of the war.
Date: December 7, 2011
Creator: Pfeiffer, James
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
The Oklahoma Daily (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 97, No. 76, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 7, 2011 (open access)

The Oklahoma Daily (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 97, No. 76, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Student newspaper of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma that includes national, local, and campus news along with advertising.
Date: December 7, 2011
Creator: Lusk, Chris
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Gateway to Oklahoma History
Oral History Interview with Martin Mark, April 7, 2011 transcript

Oral History Interview with Martin Mark, April 7, 2011

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Martin Mark. Mark joined the Army in April 1943 and received basic training at Camp Joseph T. Robinson. Upon completion, he was reassigned to the Pacific and was shipped to New Caledonia for further training. At Suva, Fiji, he was trained by natives to perform jungle reconnaissance. As part of the Americal Division, he served for one year on the frontlines at Bougainville, where he built pillboxes and performed a dozen recon missions. During those missions, he engaged in hand-to-hand combat and destroyed Japanese military buildings while identifying targets and trails for his unit to follow. He then shipped to Leyte, where during recon missions he protected Filipino natives from Japanese atrocities. His service ended when he developed jungle rot from a day spent in the Torokina River. He was treated in Leyte with penicillin but never fully recovered. On his way back to the States, he suffered his first malaria attack and was taken to the Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco. Mark returned home to New York City.
Date: April 7, 2011
Creator: Mark, Martin
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Ralph Edgar, December 7, 2011 transcript

Oral History Interview with Ralph Edgar, December 7, 2011

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ralph Edgar. Edgar joined the Navy in October 1943 and received basic training in Norfolk. Upon completion, he was sent to Guadalcanal, where he joined a special construction battalion that specialized in moving cargo. In the Philippines, he unloaded ships and brought supplies to the frontlines. The work was dangerous, and he encountered kamikazes. After the war, he ran a motor pool in Japan, supervising 260 Japanese drivers. One of his drivers stole three Jeeps, sold them on the black market, and was subsequently imprisoned. After two years, Edgar was sent back to the States to be treated for rheumatic fever. He received a medical discharge but soon returned to the Navy, managing motor pools again, this time as a civilian employee.
Date: December 7, 2011
Creator: Edgar, Ralph
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians (open access)

U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians

U.S. aid to the Palestinians has fluctuated considerably over the past three years, largely due to Hamas's changing role within the Palestinian Authority (PA). Since Hamas's forcible takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, the U.S. has dramatically boosted aid levels to bolster the PA and President Mahmoud Abbas vis-à-vis Hamas. Because of congressional concerns that, among other things, U.S. funds might be diverted to Palestinian terrorist groups, much of this assistance is subject to legislative restrictions. Experts advise that PA stability hinges on, now more than ever, improved security, economic development, Israeli cooperation, and the continuation of high levels of foreign assistance.
Date: October 7, 2011
Creator: Zanotti, Jim
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with Buck Ward, December 7, 2011 transcript

Oral History Interview with Buck Ward, December 7, 2011

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Buck Ward. Ward joined the Navy in 1944 and received basic training in San Diego. He received aviation communication and gunnery training on the West Coast. Upon completion, he was assigned to the USS Hornet (CV-12) where he served as a Helldiver radio gunman. He flew missions over Chichi Jima and the Philippines. After the war, Ward was stationed for R&R on Guam, where at night he heard Japanese holdouts sneaking into the camp to forage. He stayed aboard the Hornet for Operation Magic Carpet and was discharged in 1946.
Date: December 7, 2011
Creator: Ward, Buck
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with John B. Hinshaw, June 7, 2011 transcript

Oral History Interview with John B. Hinshaw, June 7, 2011

Transcript of an oral interview with James B. Hinshaw. When Hinshaw finished high school, he was draftd into the Army in 1943. He went ot basic training at Camp Roberts in California. At Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, Hinshaw was attached to an anti-tank company in the 222nd Regiment of the 42nd Infantry Division, which shipped over to Marseille, France in December, 1944. Shortly thereafter, his unit moved into combat near Strasbourg. the 42nd eventually assaulted into Wurzburg, Germany where Hinshaw fired his 57mm anti-tank weapon at a German machine gun nest, neutralizing it. He remembers being strafed by a German jet fighter. When the war in Europe ended, Hinshaw's unit was headed for Austria, where the 42nd ID served occupation duty. He finally shipped home in Marchm 1946.
Date: June 7, 2011
Creator: Hinshaw, John B.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Lemar Hartman, December 7, 2011 transcript

Oral History Interview with Lemar Hartman, December 7, 2011

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Lemar Hartman. Hartman joined the Navy in 1940 and received basic training at Great Lakes. Upon completion of radio school, he was assigned to the USS Selfridge (DD-357) at Pearl Harbor. During the attack, Hartman was on standby as a radioman, unable to answer messages, because the transmitting antennae had been shot down. Hartman witnessed the gruesome aftermath of The Battle of Vella Lavella and the Marianas campaigns, where he was tasked with installing radio communication infrastructure as soon as the islands were taken. He later returned home and was discharged in 1946.
Date: December 7, 2011
Creator: Hartman, Lemar
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Ramon Laughter, December 7, 2011 transcript

Oral History Interview with Ramon Laughter, December 7, 2011

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ramon Laughter. Laughter joined the Army in March 1941 and received basic training at Fort Monmouth. Upon completion, he was sent to OCS and earned a commission in the Signal Corps. He was then assigned to Camp Pinedale for further electronics training before joining the 134th Signal Intelligence Company, intercepting Japanese command radio communications while stationed at Kadena. Remarkably, some men in his unit were able to learn Katakana in one day, but Laughter relied on the help of six Nisei interpreters. After the war, Laughter returned to the States and was assigned to Air Defense Command, where he developed AWAC techniques that he had experimented with during the war. He retired as a full colonel in 1966.
Date: December 7, 2011
Creator: Laughter, Ramon
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
The Altus Times (Altus, Okla.), Vol. 112, No. 348, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 7, 2011 (open access)

The Altus Times (Altus, Okla.), Vol. 112, No. 348, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 7, 2011

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.
Date: April 7, 2011
Creator: Bush, Michael
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Gateway to Oklahoma History