Transcript of an oral interview with Ethel Tucker. She discusses life prior to and on the homefront during the World War II. She gives a detailed portion of her history of going to New York City to work while waiting for her husband to return to port. Her husband was in the U.S. Navy at the time, and she shared an apartment with some of the other wives.

Transcript of an oral interview with Nila Jackson Alderson. Born in 1925, Alderson describes life before and during the war in rural Texas as well as in the town of Burnet, Texas . Her husband, Joe Alderson, served in the military in Europe. They both discuss the mail service during the war. The interview includes information about her parents and siblings.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Kana. Kana joined the Navy in April of 1944. He served aboard the USS Dennis (DE-405). He visited the Marshall Islands and the Philippines. He provides vivid details of a battle off Samar. He was discharged in February of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with L. B. Blackmon. He discusses his time in boot camp in San Diego, getting shipped to Pearl Harbor, his experiences during the attack and later training cadets in Corpus Christi.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Margaret Gardner. Gardner tells of life in rural South Carolina during the war years and the emotions she felt as the result of losing her husband, Ensign Russell Edwards, a US Air Corps fighter pilot.

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 interview with Edgar McCann. McCann was drafted into the Navy in 1944. He completed boot camp in San Diego. He served in Hawaii for fourteen months and remained at a base during the war repairing landing craft. He provides some details of his work and life in Oahu, Hawaii. He was discharged in Houston in late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Paul Platz. Platz joined the Army in July of 1944. He served with the 77th Infantry Division, 307th Infantry Regiment. He participated in the liberation of the Philippines in late 1944. In the spring of 1945, Platz was in the assault on the Kerama Islands and the Battle of Okinawa, where he was wounded. He returned to the US and received a medical discharge.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with S M Sullivan. Sullivan joined the Navy Seabees in May of 1942. In the fall, he deployed to New Caledonia to help build a hospital, and later served on Guadalcanal building airfields. He contracted malaria while on Guadalcanal. In early 1945, he transferred to Saipan. He returned to the US and was discharged around late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Otis M Scott. Scott joined the Army in October of 1944. He served as a Browning Automatic Rifle gunner with the 23rd Infantry Division. In early 1945, Scott deployed to the Pacific, participating in the Cebu offensive against the Japanese during the Philippines Campaign. After the war ended, he served in the occupation of Japan. Scott returned to the US and was discharged in September of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Warren Wells. Wells joined the Navy in November of 1942. He served as the Electronic Field Service Group lieutenant aboard 11 different combat vessels. The Navy sent him to Harvard and MIT to receive advanced Radar training, where 3-coordinate radar was developed to combat kamikaze attacks on the US fleet in the Pacific. Wells was discharged in October of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Dale R. Walker. He joined the Marine Corps in 1944 and was trained in mortars at Camp Pendleton, California and then went on to Camp Tarawa at Hawaii for further training with the Fifth Marine Divison. Walker landed with the sixth wave on D-day at Iwo Jima. While working with mortars supporting the infantry, he was called on to be a stretcher bearer on occasion. Walker spent 36 days on Iwo Jima. After the Japanese surrendered, Walker served in the occupation of Japan.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Floyd Cox. Cox was born in Hutchinson, Kansas on 26 November 1932. Upon graduating from high school in 1950 he joined the US Air Force. He recalls, as a child, hearing a broadcast telling of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and how the war affected a youngster living in a small town during that time. He relates his experiences in participating in scrap iron and grease collections for war time purposes and purchasing War Bond Stamps. Cox alludes to the effects of government enforced rationing on various commodities during this time.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Elnora Geer. Geer finished high school in 1933 and went to work as a telephone operator in McKinney, Texas. When the war started, Geer was married and had one child with another on the way when her husband was drafted in early 1944. Before her husband shipped overseas, she moved out to California with her babies. He was en route to the Philippines when the war ended and she was on hand to greet him upon his return to New Orleans.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Wilburn McIntire. McIntire joined the Army in August of 1944. He served as an infantry rifleman with the 357th Infantry Regiment, 90th Infantry Division. He deployed to England before participating in the Battle of the Bulge, and saw combat through the Siegfried Line, and liberated prisoners left behind by the SS at Flossenbürg concentration camp. He returned to the US and was discharged in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Laverne Arnic. Arnic joined the Army Air Forces in October of 1942. He was assigned to an Air Force Base in Spokane, Washington for two-and-a-half years and served as a guard. Around mid-1944 Arnic was sent overseas to the Pacific. He did not participate in any combat and was assigned as a guard of Japanese prisoners-of-war on the Island of Okinawa until the end of the war. He was discharged around 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Bruce Gardner. Gardner joined the Navy in 1944. He provides some details of boot camp. An LST transported him to Pearl Harbor and he shares details of his experiences on board. He completed radar school in Hawaii at Camp Catlin, and talks about his activities on the base including conducting weather observation. Gardner was assigned to the USS Azurlite (PY-22) working with radar and weather reporting. He provides details of daily life aboard the yacht. Gardner was discharged in 1945 as Radarman 2nd Class.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Edward Kozak. Kozak provides some details of his family’s history as professional musicians, including his experience on the piano, marimba, harp and drums. Kozak served as the head of the department in the Shreveport Symphony, and served as a music teacher at a number of schools, including Juilliard School of Music in New York. He joined the Navy in 1943. He graduated from the Washington D.C. School of Music and was assigned as a Coxswain on a Higgins boat. He served as a marimba soloist in a band that played for Admiral Chester Nimitz throughout the war.

The National Museum of the pacific War presents an oral interview with Howard Jones. Jones was born in 1925 in Missouri. He joined the Navy in December 1942 and trained at Great Lakes, Illinois. After boot training and gunnery school, Jones was assigned to the USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) as a 40mm gun crewmember. Jones was aboard the Bunker Hill from 1943 to the end of the war. He recalls being off Tarawa, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He describes the kamikaze attack on the Bunker Hill off Okinawa.

Transcript of an oral interview with Joel Alderson and his wife Nila. He discusses going to boot camp in Texas, shipping off to France in early 1945 and working as an engineer, constructing bridges and demolishing German fortifications for the Army as it made it's way through Germany, blowing up Hilter's bunker in Salzburg, Austria and using bulldozers to cover piles of dead Jews the Germans left in the open (likely at Dachau). He ancedotes about meeting Eisenhower, carrying fuel up to Patton's limo when it ran out of gas, seeing Bob Hope, soldiers getting poisoned from confiscated alcohol, and getting met by his family and the town sheriff when he came home after the war.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Michael Tostik. Tostik tried to join the Navy in 1939 but was turned away. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps instead and worked for civilian contractors building materials for the military. After training with an aviation unit, he was assigned to the USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73). Tostik served as a mechanic aboard ship. He was aboard when the Gambier Bay sank off Samar and describes the day. He describes abandoning ship and being in the water for just over two days. He was rescued and transferred to an LST that got caught in a typhoon. He returned to the US via the Panama Canal and was discharged in New York.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Jim Spriggs. Spriggs joined the Navy in August of 1943. Beginning February of 1944, he served as Machinist Mate Third-Class aboard the USS Laffey (DD-724). They provided support during the Invasion of Normandy and the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. During Okinawa, Spriggs worked in the engine room helping keep the ship afloat after significant kamikaze damage. He returned to the US and received his discharge in late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Ralph Weymouth. Weymouth joined the Navy in June of 1934. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1938. He completed flight training in August of 1940. Beginning September of 1943, he served as Commanding Officer of Bombing Squadron 16 (VB-16) aboard USS Lexington (CV-16). Weymouth participated in the Gilbert Islands operation and the Battle of the Philippine Sea. He continued his service after the war, retiring in January of 1973 as a vice admiral and anti-nuclear campaigner.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Joseph Hanley. Hanley joined the Navy in April of 1942. He trained as a storekeeper and completed midshipman’s school at Navy Pier in Chicago. In December of 1944 he was transferred to Hawaii and served on the CINCPAC staff of Admiral Chester Nimitz. He traveled to Guam in early 1945, working as head over all the stores. He shares a number of anecdotes of his encounters with Nimitz. His discharge was around late 1945.