The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Larry Pangan. Pangan was born in Arayat, Pampanga in September of 1919. He moved to Manila in 1938 to attend business college. He joined the US Army Philippine Scouts in March 1941 and was assigned to the 57th Infantry Regiment. He survived the Bataan Death March and incarceration at Camp O'Donnell. Although seriously ill with malaria, dysentery, beriberi and malnutrition, Pangan was able to escape. Upon regaining his health, he joined an American-led guerrilla group in central Luzon. He continued his service after the war ended, retiring from the Army in 1961.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Elmer Anderson. Anderson joined the Army in January 1943 and received basic training in Mississippi and training as a medic in South Carolina. Upon completion, he was assigned to the 87th Infantry Division, supporting the headquarters company. At the Battle of the Bulge, he was stationed one mile behind the front lines. He passed the Buchenwald concentration camp but didn’t know how severe conditions were inside. Although Anderson witnessed the aftermath of horrific casualties, both civilian and military, he was not himself exposed to heavy combat. Rather, he often socialized with German soldiers. Anderson returned home at the end of the war and was discharged in May 1946.

Transcript of an oral interview with James Bennie. He and his family immigrated from Scotland in 1930, landing in Boston. Bennie went to aircraft maintenance school before the war and was drafted in the fall of 1942 while working for Civil Service, preparing aircraft for ferrying overseas. He went to basic training in Atlantic City and was put to work after that, first at Williams Field in Arizona and then Hobbs, New Mexico (on B-17s). He ultimately wound up going to India and getting fighters. He took a Pan American C-54 from Miami to Karahci, India. Then his group took a train across India to get an airplane (C-46) to fly the Hump into China. Started work in Chinkiang in April 1943 on P-40s. Chinkiang had the 27th, 26th, 17th and one other squadron; Bennie was in the 17th. Two American pilots and two Chinese pilots would fly together to make a four-man element. The airplanes had Chinese markings on them. Maintenace crews worked off of dirt and didn't have much equipment (like engine hoists). Chinese labor built the runways. After the war, Bennie got assigned to an American photo reconnaissance unit and eventually wound up in Shanghai. He left …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with George Gibbons. Gibbons completed infantry training in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M his freshman and sophomore years of college. In January of 1943 he gave up his exemption for college and volunteered for the Army. He completed the Army Special Training Program, and volunteered for the paratroopers. Gibbons completed jump school at Fort Benning, Georgia. He also completed Demolition School. He traveled with replacement paratroopers to England in April of 1944, and joined the 82nd Airborne Division. He participated in the Normandy landings in June, Operation Market Garden in August and the Battle of the Bulge in December. He shares details of his combat experiences. After the war ended, he remained in Germany on guard duty, and completed college courses in England and France. He returned home and was discharged in December of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Allen Hugh. Hugh reads a series of letters dated 1907, when he was 21 years old, written to his mother while serving in the Navy. He speaks about schooling in the Navy and interactions with Chester Nimitz, whom he served with. He served as a deck and ordnance officer. He comments on traveling to Manila, Philippines, and his experiences hunting, swimming and touring the island. He served aboard the USS Wisconsin (BB-64), where he traveled to Nagasaki, Japan and Kuling, China. He speaks on visiting a Mr. McNally there and riding in sedan chairs with three other midshipmen. Hugh describes serving aboard the USS Decatur (DD-5) that Nimitz commanded in 1907.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Hector Mendieta. Mendieta was born in Laredo, Texas in 1924. After graduating from high school in 1941, he attended Texas A & M University until March 1943. When he was inducted into the Army he underwent nine weeks of basic training at Camp Roberts, Texas and was then sent to Camp Abbot, Oregon. In February 1944, he was selected to attend Officers Candidate School. Upon receiving his commission on 14 June 1944 he was sent to Camp Claiborne, Louisiana where he joined the 1326th Engineer General Service Brigade. The unit, composed primarily of African American soldiers, received training in various types of construction. On 12 February 1945 the regiment left Camp Kilmer, New Jersey for France. After landing at Le Havre, the unit moved to Marville. Mendieta’s unit converted a school into a hospital. Casualties from the 3rd Army arrived before reconstruction was completed. After Germany surrendered, his unit was sent to Mondorf les Bains, Belgium to convert a hotel into a prison for high ranking German officers. He saw Hermann Goering and Karl Doenitz arrive prior to the trials in Nuremburg. Afterward, the unit boarded the USS …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with R. Paul Kelly. Kelley was born in Irving, Texas on 21 June 1934. In 1951 he volunteered to join the Navy. After 12 weeks of boot camp in San Diego, he was assigned to the USS LST-887 in Yokosuka, Japan. He spent several months in the Korean theater before being reassigned to LCU-588 in Coronado, California. Sea duty in Korea resumed on the LCU-1273, USS Comstock (LSD-19), and USS Begor (APD-127). He then spent 3 years at the Supply Center in Yokosuka, rated as a yeoman. His next duty was at the 6th Naval District Charleston, the Naval Air Station Guam, went back to sea, then to the 12th Naval District in San Francisco. By now a chief petty officer, one of his duties there was Admiral Nimitz's writer or personal secretary. Most of this work took place in the admiral's home. Kelley relates what a quiet, humble, pleasant man Nimitz was. Kelley then was assigned to the USS Norton Sound (AVM-1), was Master Chief of the Command at Mare Island Shipyard, spent 2 years with US Naval Forces Europe in London, and finished his career at the …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Sally Morgan. Morgan was born in Tientsin, China. Her father was in the 15th Infantry, stationed in China in the 1920s when he met Sally’s mother. He died of tuberculosis when Sally was 3 months old. At 11 years old, her mother attempted sending her and her two brothers to the US to escape the Japanese occupation of China. The children only traveled as far as Manila before the Japanese invaded the Philippines. Sally and her brothers were imprisoned in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp and later, the Los Baños Internment Camp until their liberation in 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Leo Itz. Itz was given a one-year exemption in order to help his father on the farm before he was drafted into the Army in March 1945. He was trained in demolitions at Fort Lewis and sent to Luzon to join the 395th Infantry Regiment. Before shipping out to the Philippines, he was assigned to work at Del Monte Foods in California, due to the labor shortage. During his voyage overseas, the war ended. Itz was tasked with guarding an ammunition dump outside of Clark Field. Armed only with an unloaded rifle, he came under fire when Japanese holdouts were raiding the dump. He returned safely to his bunk, only to discover a putrid smell. In the ground beneath him was a shallow grave. In August 1945, Itz was granted a dependency discharge upon learning that his father had suffered a heart attack. He returned to the States in December.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Charles Huffman. Huffman joined the Navy in March of 1944. He completed Midshipman’s School in mid-1945, and was completing Advanced-Line Officers School in Florida, when the atomic bomb was dropped. He continued his service after the war ended, traveling to Naval Supply Depots in the Pacific, processing supply requests. Huffman returned to the US in August of 1946, though remained in the reserves through May of 1958.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Tony Serria. Sierra was born in a village in Mexico on 17 January 1924. At eight years of age he moved to Phoenix, Arizona. In 1942, while in high school, he volunteered for the Army. After completing basic training, he trained as a paratrooper at Fort Benning, Georgia. Upon arriving in Australia, he joined the 503rd Parachute Infantry, D Company, 2nd Battalion as an ammunition carrier in a machinegun squad. Several weeks later the unit made an amphibious landing at Hollandia, New Guinea where they provided security for General Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters. He recalls amphibious landings the unit made on Noemfoor, Leyte, Mindoro and the parachute jump they made on Corregidor. Serria graphically describes moments of combat, including a Japanese banzai attack, which resulted in heavy American casualties and numerous enemy dead. The Corregidor campaign was followed by six months of combat on Negros Island during which time Japan surrendered. He tells of the Negros Island Japanese being put into a crudely constructed prison camp until they were returned to Japan. Sierra returned to the United States on 24 December 1945 and was discharged soon thereafter.