The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Gordon Hurd. Hurd joined the Army in January of 1944. He was assigned to the 124th Cavalry Regiment as a second lieutenant in the China India Burma campaign. They deployed to India in August of 1944, and operated as dismounted cavalry alongside Chinese troops. He participated in battles with the Japanese to recapture sections of the Burma Road, and helped train Chinese troops to take over after the Japanese surrendered. Hurd was discharged in September of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Hardwick. Hardwick was born in Dallas, Texas on 5 December 1923. While in high school he joined the Texas National Guard, serving with the 112th Cavalry. He went on maneuvers in Louisiana with the horse cavalry. In December 1940 he joined the US Navy and was sent to San Diego for boot training. Upon graduation, he was selected to attend the Ford Motor Trade School at Rouge River in Dearborn, Michigan for four months. After completing the course, he was assigned to the USS Honolulu (CL-48) at Pear Harbor. He witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1942, the ship accompanied the USS Birmingham (CL-62) to the Aleutian Islands and bombarded Kiska. During the fall of 1942 the Honolulu went to Noumea and Hardwick saw the USS San Francisco (CA-38), whose bow had been blown off. He recalls 30 November 1942 during which the ship participated in the Battle of Tassafaronga. He also was involved in battles at New Georgia, Peleliu and Leyte. While bombarding Leyte, the Honolulu was heavily damaged by a Japanese torpedo necessitating repairs being made at Manus Island before the ship returned …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Hardwick. Hardwick was born in Dallas, Texas on 5 December 1923. While in high school he joined the Texas National Guard, serving with the 112th Cavalry. He went on maneuvers in Louisiana with the horse cavalry. In December 1940 he joined the US Navy and was sent to San Diego for boot training. Upon graduation, he was selected to attend the Ford Motor Trade School at Rouge River in Dearborn, Michigan for four months. After completing the course, he was assigned to the USS Honolulu (CL-48) at Pear Harbor. He witnessed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1942, the ship accompanied the USS Birmingham (CL-62) to the Aleutian Islands and bombarded Kiska. During the fall of 1942 the Honolulu went to Noumea and Hardwick saw the USS San Francisco (CA-38), whose bow had been blown off. He recalls 30 November 1942 during which the ship participated in the Battle of Tassafaronga. He also was involved in battles at New Georgia, Peleliu and Leyte. While bombarding Leyte, the Honolulu was heavily damaged by a Japanese torpedo necessitating repairs being made at Manus Island before the ship returned …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Skirvin. Skirvin was born on a farm in Iowa on 26 January 1922. He dropped out of school after the eighth grade to work on the farm. In 1942 he was drafted into the Army and spent six week of infantry basic training at Camp Robinson, Arkansas. He then went to Fort Bliss, Texas where he was assigned to the Troop G, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. He recalls training as cavalry with horses until early 1943 when the horses were taken away and the unit became infantry. Trained as a Browning automatic rifle (BAR) operator, he boarded the USAT Maui with an advance detail bound for Brisbane, Australia. Upon their arrival they began four weeks of intensive jungle training. This was followed by four weeks of amphibious training. Skirvin’s unit went to New Guinea and the Admiralties where they were involved in combat. While there, Skirvin developed a severe case of Shingles, which hospitalized him for two weeks. Eventually, his unit boarded the USS La Salle (AGF-3) and landed on Leyte in October 1944. He recounts various experiences while there, including a banzai charge, loss …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Walter Riley. Riley was born in 1932 in Cavite, Philippines. His father was a Navy man who traveled to the Philippines and married his mother who was a Japanese American. They raised eight children, Riley was the youngest. They moved to Manila and were living there when the Japanese invaded the Philippines. Their entire family was interned at Santo Tomas Internment Camp. They were there from early 1942 until February of 1945. Riley shares vivid details of the occupation of Manila by the Japanese, the living quarters at the camp, their room and board arrangements, their work assignments, battling illnesses, their communication with the Japanese guards and their liberation in 1945. Riley served in the Navy during the Korean War.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Sheldon Graham. Graham joined the Army in mid-1944. He completed Officer Candidate School just as the war ended. Graham continued his service, joining the 6th Infantry Division, 20th Infantry Regiment, and served with occupation forces in Korea. He returned to the US and received his discharge in October of 1946. Graham remained in the reserves, retiring as a colonel in 1979.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Edwin LeBreton. LeBreton was born in Louisiana and was in the Army National Guard stationed in Texas when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He served in an engineering outfit before entering military intelligence. After the war, LeBreton was sent to an engineer depot in Japan. After leaving Japan, he was stationed in France at another supply depot.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Terry Santos. Santos was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on 10 October 1921. Upon joining the Army, he underwent basic training at Fort Ord, California. Upon completing basic he volunteered for paratrooper training. After graduating from jump school he volunteered for special warfare training which comprised training in special weapons, Morse code, semaphore and sailing. Completing the course, he reported to Ft. Benning, Georgia where he was assigned to the 11th Airborne Division. He then volunteered to serve with the Alamo Scouts and received jungle training, hand-to-hand combat training and all infantry weapons training. He then rejoined the 11th Airborne Division. Santos relates in detail an intriguing tale of the operation to liberate Allied internees from the Los Banos internment camp.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Tom Stephens. Stephens was born 17 August 1916. He joined the Army and was assigned into the 33rd Infantry Division. After being a machine gun instructor, Stephens was selected for officer training. After receiving his commission at Fort Benning, Georgia he was assigned as a rifle platoon leader. He tells of the division arriving on Morotai, Indonesia on 18 December 1945 and although they conducted aggressive patrols, very little resistance was encountered. During February 1945 the division landed at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon. Stephens describes an incident of combat in which he received wounds that required hospitalization and two months of recovery. On 25 September the division landed on Honshu Island, Japan and after three months occupational duty he returned to the United States and was discharged.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Edward Cadwallader. Cadwallader was born in Manila, Philippines in 1938. His parents were of American and Australian descent, and managed an apartment complex inherited by their family in 1930. Cadwallader was 3 years old when he and his family were taken as prisoners to Santo Tomas Internment Camp in Manila. From such a young age, he recalls the deprivation they had living in the camp, Japanese and American planes fighting overhead, shells exploding, picking up shrapnel, interactions with the guards, taking first communion in the animal husbandry museum of the main building, his schooling, American fatalities and vivid details of their liberation from the camp. After liberation they moved back to their apartment complex for 6 months, then on Cadwallader’s seventh birthday, they relocated to the United States.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Paul Shafer. Shafer moved from the States to Baguio in 1937 after his father was offered a job with the Benguet Consolidated Mining Company. They lived extravagantly there, and Shafer attended a private school. As Japanese aggression heightened in China, American civilians asked the State Department whether they ought to return to home. Despite having evacuated military families in 1941, the civilians were asked to stay in the Philippines so as not to alarm locals. On 6 December 1941, Shafer survived an air raid and was evacuated to Manila. On 3 January 1942, Japanese invaded the city and Shafer was taken to Santo Tomas University. Apart from food shortages, his time at the internment camp was relatively normal, complete with a classroom education and recreational sports. Shafer remembers cozy homemade shanties and warm evening strolls. By 1944, however, internees began to die of starvation. Shafer and his family survived until liberation and returned to the States in February 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Sheldon Graham. Graham joined the Army in mid-1944. He completed Officer Candidate School just as the war ended. Graham continued his service, joining the 6th Infantry Division, 20th Infantry Regiment, and served with occupation forces in Korea. He returned to the US and received his discharge in October of 1946. Graham remained in the reserves, retiring as a colonel in 1979.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Eugene Crispi. Crispi joined the Navy in February of 1940. He served aboard USS Houston (CA-30). Crispi worked aboard the ship until it sank in March of 1942 during the Battle of Sunda Strait. He swam ashore on Java Island and was captured by the Japanese. Crispi was taken to a POW Camp in Serang, Java, and later to a camp in Jakarta. After 3 years of imprisonment, he was placed into an Army hospital. He returned to the US and was discharged in late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Robert Goodman. Goodman graduated from Virginia Military Institute in May of 1942 in Electrical Engineering. He served as a Communications Officer with the Signal Corps Company. Goodman traveled to Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, India and Iran. In Iran, his job was to establish a link between the US and Russia in preparation for a supply route. Working with Morse Code, he encoded and decoded messages in a radio room. His was a technical group, not a fighting group. Goodman returned to the US and received his discharge in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Victor Liptrap. Liptrap was drafted into the Army and after basic training, volunteered for paratrooper training. Once overseas in New Guinea, Liptrap was assigned to the 711th Ordnance Company in the 11th Airborne Division. He travelled with this unit to Leyte in October, 1944. There, he joined the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment as a replacement. He remained with the unit during the Luzon invasion. From there, he went to Yokohama for occupation duty.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Ream. Ream was born in the Philippines on 28 November 1943. His parents and three older sisters were originally from the United States, but his father had previously taught in agricultural schools in the Philippines and eventually returned and moved his family there, working near Baguio as a manager of a bus and taxi company, as well as a mining-equipment salesman. On Christmas Day in 1941, after the Japanese invaded the Philippines, Ream and his family were taken to various camps, including Camp Holmes, Old Bilibid Prison and Santo Tomas. They remained imprisoned from late 1941 through their liberation in February of 1945. After the war, their family traveled to San Francisco and established life in the United States.

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.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Philip M. Grass. Grass was born in Mark, Louisiana 5 April 1924. He dropped out of high school and enlisted in the Army in 1942. After basic training at Camp Roberts, California he went to Ft. Benning, Georgia for airborne training, from which he graduated in 1942. Injuring his knee, he was incapacitated for a period of time. Upon recovering, he attended ordnance school at Camp Connelly, Georgia. His knee problem resulted in surgery requiring lengthy recovery time. Upon being returned to active duty in 1943 he went aboard the USS Sea Snipe (APA) and went to Brisbane, Australia. He arrived at Port Moresby and was assigned to F Company, 503rd Army Parachute Infantry Regiment and recalls his experiences while in Australia and Hollandia. The Regiment traveled by LCIs to Noemfoor, New Guinea at which time he was assigned to Headquarters Company and became a wireman and a runner. He recalls parachuting onto Corregidor and describes combat casualties that occurred. He returned to the United States in 1945 and was discharged. He tells of reenlisting in the army, receiving a commission and describes some of his experiences during …

Transcript of an oral interview with William T. Carroll, Jr. Born in 1922, he volunteered for service in the Army in March, 1941. He was assigned to a Signal Corps company on the northern tip of Luzon in late 1941. He tells the story of the Japanese invasion, eluding the enemy, and surviving in the mountainous jungle for three years. He talks about contracting malaria and harrying Japanese forces. In May 1945 he was flown to Lingayen Gulf where he was processed following his ordeal. He returned to the U.S. and received additional training in instrument repair as well as teletype repair. After volunteering to serve in the paratroopers, he was assigned to the 11th Airborne Division in Sapporo, Japan. He was discharged in June, 1950. He used the GI Bill to attend college and became an educator.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Elaine Graydon. Graydon was born in Manila, Philippines in 1937. Her mother was a native and her father was born in Spokane, Washington. He worked as a mining engineer. When the war began, Graydon was only 4 and ½ years old. She recalls when the Japanese invaded, and she and her family seeking refuge. In early 1942, she and her family were sent to Santo Tomas Internment Camp, where they lived in a shanty. Graydon provides vivid details of her experiences in the camp as a child, including schooling, food and living accommodations, interactions with the Japanese guards, their daily work and tasks and liberation from the camp in February of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Frederick W. Rosen. Rosen was born in Kings County, New York 9 September 1917. Graduating from the University of Georgia in 1939 he entered the US Navy in 1941. In October 1942 he reported for duty at the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Center, Melville, Rhode Island, where he met John F. Kennedy. Upon completion of the limited training he was assigned captain of PT-207 in Squadron 15. He tells of the boats being loaded onto the USS Housatonic (AO-35) and taken to Gibraltar. Rosen relates his experiences while based in Bizerte, Tunisia, Palermo, Sicily and Maddalena, Sardinia. He describes in detail participating in a multi-boat attack on a German convoy which resulted in damage to his boat. In May 1944, Rosen returned to the United States. He was then assigned as gunnery officer on the USS Randolph (CV-15) and he tells of the ship being hit by a kamikaze. His next assignment was to the USS Noble (APA-218), which participated in the invasion of Okinawa. Following the Japanese surrender, the ship was sent to Korea and China to pick up Allied prisoners of war and he relates several …

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.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Walker. Walker was born in Waco, Texas and attended Texas A & M after high school. In 1943 he was called to active duty and reported to Camp Roberts, California. While there, he applied for airborne training and was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia. Upon completing jump training, he was sent back to California and was assigned to the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment as a replacement. The replacements were sent to Oro Bay, New Guinea where they joined their unit to begin advanced training. He recalls in detail the unit’s participation in combat on Hollandia, Noemfoor and a parachute drop on Corregidor. Following a successful operation on Corregidor, the unit made an amphibious landing on Negros Island. Walker describes the combat in which he was involved and of being wounded. He was taken to a field hospital and then moved to a general hospital on Leyte. Following his recovery, he rejoined his unit at Bacolod, Negros Island where he once again was involved in combat. Soon after Japan surrendered, he and an officer met with a Japanese general to accept the surrender of his troops on Negros …