Resource Type

Oral History Interview with George Medcalf, December 27, 2000 transcript

Oral History Interview with George Medcalf, December 27, 2000

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Geroge Medcalf from Greensville, South Carolina. He discusses his experience in training in Camp Mcoy in Wisconsin and meeting his wife there. He also discusses his time in the Second Infantry Division with the 38th Regiment, Company C, preparing for the Normandy Invasion. Mr. Medcalf also relays how he had to take over command of his Company during the invasion when he was injured by flying shrapnel and sent back to England for recuperation. He shares a story of how while advancing on Leipzig, Germany he was saved from German artillery fire when his sergeant offered him a piece of candy moving him away from the line of fire. The war ended while Mr. Medcalf was in Czechoslovakia, and after the war he received a purple heart and a cluster.
Date: December 27, 2000
Creator: Medcalf, George
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with A. N. Wiseman, March 29, 2011 transcript

Oral History Interview with A. N. Wiseman, March 29, 2011

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Al Wiseman. Wiseman joined the Navy in 1942 and was assigned to the USS Greene (AVD-13). He served as a deck seaman and stood lookout while on watch. Wiseman discusses traveling as an escort to Brazil and then travelling to the Mediterranean. He describes taking part in the invasion of Southern France. The Greene was then sent to the Pacific and performed escort duty near Okinawa. He describes seeing several Japanese air attacks on ships that were nearby. Wiseman traveled to Japan at the end of the war to pick up POWs. He also visited Nagasaki. Wiseman describes how his ship was critically damaged when it ran aground during a typhoon in October of 1945. He served on two more ships working in engineering before getting out of the Navy in 1948.
Date: March 29, 2011
Creator: Wiseman, Al
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Richard Bennett, November 15, 2001 transcript

Oral History Interview with Richard Bennett, November 15, 2001

Interview with Richard (Dick) Bennett, a pilot during World War II. He discusses his enlistment in the Army Air Corps, basic training and flight school. He then went to a base in South Carolina to learn to fly B-25s. At Fort Myers, Florida he flew B-26 bombers and trained to fly them off of aircraft carriers so they could drop torpedos on the Japanese fleet during naval battles. He traveled across the Pacific to Brisbane only to be told that they didn't have B-26s for the crews; the colonel there knew nothing about the plan to launch B-26s from aircraft carriers, so they were sent to New Guinea to fly B-17s and supplement the crews for those bombers. From there they made bombing runs or "Washing Machine Charlie"-type runs to keep people awake at night on various Japanese targets in the islands, particularly the base at Rabaul. In fall of 1943, the Army grounded the B-17s due to the damage they had incurred and replaced them with B-24s. The men received manuals and were given only a few days to familiarize themselves with the new planes. They were then sent on bombing runs. He finished his tour of duty at …
Date: November 15, 2001
Creator: Cox, Floyd & Bennett, Richard
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Alan Pilot, August 10, 2010 transcript

Oral History Interview with Alan Pilot, August 10, 2010

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Alan Pilot. Pilot joined the Army in January 1943 and received basic training at Camp Howze. He received further training in Louisiana for the European Theater and then in California for the Pacific Theater. In January he left for Camp Old Gold at La Havre, where he served as a combat medic, supporting Companies E, G, and H of the 343rd Infantry, 86th Division. His unit relieved the 8th Division and fought in Cologne, where he was stationed at the top of the cathedral while it was being shelled. In the Ruhr Pocket a defective shell landed 10 feet away from him. He recalls seeing 100,000 Germans surrender there. He describes the Bavarian people as friendly as he passed through Austria on VE Day. He was then sent to the Pacific as part of Operation Coronet. VJ Day came while he was still crossing the Pacific. He spent the last five months of his service in the Philippines at a quiet outpost while the rest of his unit prepared the Philippines for independence. Pilot returned home and was discharged in January 1946.
Date: August 10, 2010
Creator: Pilot, Alan
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Charles H. Tucker, April 18, 2017 transcript

Oral History Interview with Charles H. Tucker, April 18, 2017

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Charles H. Tucker from Orange, California. He discusses volunteering for the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1943 and going to basic training in Miami Beach, Florida, then going to Aircraft Armament School in Buckley Field, Colorado, and finally air gunnery school in Fort Myers, Florida. In air gunnery school, Mr. Tucker learned to shoot in B-17 by shooting into the Gulf of Mexico. After gunnery school he was sent to the B-25 crew training at Columbia, South Carolina for 5 months. After Mr. Tucker completed his training, he was transferred to Dacca to a B-25 base and joined the 10th Air Force, the 12th Bomb Group. When he arrived his crew pilots were reassigned, and Mr. Tucker was not able to fly much until he was assigned to a regular crew again. Mr. Tucker was put in the 729th bomb squadron tasked with supporting the British 14th Army against the Japanese forces in Burma. The campaign he was involved in ended in May 1945 with the capture of Rangoon, the main city of Burma and Mr. tucker was in one of the squadron planes that flew over the …
Date: April 18, 2017
Creator: Tucker, Charles H.
System: The Portal to Texas History