This booklet is the first volume of an extension training course developed for Air Force personnel. This book discusses the military history of the United States of America from the country's inception through the post-World War 1950's.

Interview with Jess Stanbrough, a Texas National Guard WWII veteran from Wichita Falls, Texas, who served and was captured with the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery (the "Lost Battalion.") Stanbrough discusses his time in the Guard before the war, deployment to the Pacific, the fall of Java and being captured, experiences in internment at Tanjong Priok and Bicycle Camp in Batavia, operating a clandestine radio, transfer to Japan, being an iron smelter at Kamaishi, Honshu, American air and naval bombardment, and liberation.

Interview with Griff Douglas, U.S. Navy WWII veteran and survivor of the sinking of the USS Houston, about his experiences as a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese during World War II. He discusses the sinking of the Houston (1942), his capture and imprisonment at Serang, Java, Bicycle Camp in Batavia (1942), Changi Prison Camp in Singapore (1942), building the Burma-Thailand Death Railway (1942-1944), Kanchanaburi and Tamarkan, Thailand (1944), Prachin Buri, Thailand (1944-1945), and his liberation.

Interview with Morris Williamson, U.S. Navy veteran, and his wife Mary Williamson concerning their experiences while at home in Honolulu at the Pearl Harbor Submarine Base during the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Interview with Albert Kennedy, a businessman, a Navy veteran and a survivor of the sinking of the USS Houston, concerning his experiences as a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese during World War II. Kennedy talks about the sinking of the Houston (1942), his capture and imprisonment at Serang, Java, Bicycle Camp in Batavia (1942), Changi Prison Camp in Singapore (1942), building the Burma-Thailand Death Railway (1942-1944), Kanchanaburi, Thailand (1944), Saigon, French Indo-China (1944-1945), and his liberation.

Interview with Martin Chambers, an Army veteran (2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery, Texas National Guard) and a member of the "Lost Battalion," concerning his experiences as a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese during World War II. Chambers discusses the fall of Java and his capture, Bicycle Camp in Batavia (1942), Changi Prison Camp in Singapore (1942), building the Burma-Thailand Death Railway (1942-1944), Kanchanaburi, Thailand (1944), Bangkok, Thailand (1945), and his liberation.