The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with A J Dunn. Dunn joined the Navy in 1940 and received basic training in San Diego. Upon completion, he was assigned to the USS Oglala (CM-4) at Pearl Harbor. On the morning of 7 December 1941, he was returning from liberty when the attack began. Unable to find his ship, he jumped aboard the USS Mugford (DD-389) just as it was getting underway. After seven days of patrols, he returned to the harbor and was transferred to the USS New Orleans (CA-32). While on convoy duty to Brisbane, the ship received a warm welcome from Australian citizens. But one evening, the ship was nearly subject to friendly fire when a cruiser from New Zealand mistook the New Orleans for a Japanese ship. Dunn was transferred to the USS Indiana (BB-58) with Task Force 58, bombarding islands in the Gilberts and Marshalls. As a gunner’s mate, his duties included testing small arms ammunition in a surveillance oven to see whether it had expired. He was transferred to the USS Botetourt (APA-136), operating out of the Philippines until the end of the war. He sailed past the USS Missouri (BB-63) …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Frederick Long. Long joined the Navy in September of 1942. He was trained in airplane engine maintenance and worked on SNJs, SNCs and PBYs. He talks about life aboard the USS Lexington (CV-16). He provides the dates and locations when he was aboard the Lexington during combat, and he describes an incident when the carrier was hit during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Bill Merley. Merley joined the Merchant Marine in March of 1945. He enlisted as a cook and describes his training and his work. He describes his kitchen supplies of food. In May of 1945 they traveled aboard the USS Cape Johnson (AP-172) to the Mariana Islands. They traveled to Manila to unload supplies and then transported troops. He was discharged around December of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Marmaduke Bayne. Bayne received his commission in the Navy Reserve after finishing university in 1942. His first assignment was aboard the USS YP-429 before going aboard USS YP-61 as the executive officer. Then, he went for submarine training before going aboard the USS Becuna (SS-319) and making three war patrols in the Pacific with her. Toward the end of the war, he served aboard the USS Bergall (SS-320). After the war, Bayne applied for the Regular Navy and continued to serve aboard and around submarines. He retired as a vice admiral in 1977.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Wallace Dowd. Dowd begins with anecdotes about his father, a Navy officer in the Construction Corps. Dowd was in the ROTC unit at the University of Washington when the war started. He received his commission in the Supply Corps and was assigned aboard the USS Alden (DD-211) for a year. His next duty station was in Savannah and he comments about the segregated South. Afterwards, he went to Philadelphia where the USS Antietam (CV-36) was being built. He went aboard as the Stores Officer. When the war ended, Dowd went to the Bureau of Supply and Accounts. He discusses his involvement in the Korean War. During his career, he went to the Naval War College, served at sea again, served ashore in Italy, etc. and retired as a rear admiral.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Robert Plantz. Plantz was drafted into the Army in August of 1945. He completed his training in Camp Robinson, Arkansas. He was assigned to the 541st Quartermaster Corps and stationed in France during peace time. He operated the M29 81mm and the M19 60mm mortars. He describes life in France and the state of the buildings after the war. He was discharged in December of 1947.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Paul Taylor. In 1941, after Taylor graduated from high school at 17, he entered a trade school to learn airplane mechanics because his mother would not allow him to go into the military. Taylor tried to get into the Navy, but was not accepted for service due to his having Bright's disease. Instead. when he finished trade school, he went to work for Pan American Airways. Pan Am sent him to Pearl Harbor to work on the Clipper ships Pan Am used for contract work with the Navy. Pan Am hauled mail and freight for the Navy to various islands in the Pacific during the war. Taylor eventually got into the Navy Reserve while working for Pan Am at Pearl Harbor in 1943. When the war ended, Taylor got out of the Navy and went to work for private airlines before joining the US Air Force in 1949. After flight training, Taylor became an instructor at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas. During the 1950s and early 1960s, Taylor served in an Air Defense Command unit.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Winfred C Chamberlain. Chamberlain joined the Navy in August of 1942. He completed Midshipmen’s School and was commissioned as an officer. Chamberlain served as skipper aboard USS LST-696. From September of 1944 through January of 1945, he participated in the New Guinea, Leyte and Luzon operations. He transported some Seabees to Subic Bay, where they were constructing a submarine base. Chamberlain returned to the US and received an honorable discharge in January of 1946.

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 Laura “Sally” Bussey. Bussey was born in Goree, Texas on 29 April 1916. She attended Mary Hardin Baylor College in Belton, Texas receiving a teaching degree. She married in 1939 and tells of Thomas J. Taylor, the father of Lady Bird Johnson, offering to build and furnish a new house for her and her husband if she would take a teaching job in Karnak, Texas. She accepted. Her husband entered the United States Army soon after the declaration of war and she describes the experience of having living essentials pre-packed and ready to go during multiple location changes and the living conditions encountered at these locations. She tells of war time rationing, planting victory gardens and doing volunteer work with the Red Cross. She describes keeping up with the progress of the war by listening to the radio news reports by Edward R. Morrow and fireside chats by President Roosevelt. She also describes a wonderful reunion with her husband upon his return from Europe at the conclusion of World War II and tells of their life until his retirement from the Army in 1967.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Annabel Ring. Ring was in college on 7 December 1941, completed one semester and then went to work in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She went into the Navy on 6 May 1943 as a WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) and took boot camp in the Bronx, New York for six weeks. The Navy took over a women’s college there and they stayed in apartments across the street. From there, Ring went to medical school at Great Lakes, Illinois. She had classes and then would work in the ward with the patients. Ring then went to Patuxent River, Maryland where she worked in a hospital on different wards. After two years there, she was sent to dentist school in Quantico, Virginia. Ring was there when the war ended and was discharged in October 1945 as a hospital second class petty officer.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Zeno P. King. King was born in Mexia, Texas in 1919. After graduating from a military school in 1936 he accepted a music scholarship at Southern Methodist University. He entered the Army on 5 February 1942 at Victoria, Texas and played in the post band until he was accepted into the Army Music School at Fort Myer, Virginia. He was made a warrant officer and assigned as the leader of the 83rd Infantry Division band. He formed a fifty-six piece band and explains the selection process and the responsibilities of a band director. He indicates band members were trained infantrymen. In his case, King went to disposal and demolition school for four weeks before returning to the band. King’s unit departed Camp Breckenridge, Kentucky for Liverpool in May 1944. Two weeks after the Normandy invasion, King and his unit landed on Omaha Beach to provide security for division headquarters. He received orders to provide thirty-two men from his unit to act as stretcher bearers. After completing this assignment the group was assigned to 3rd Army and put in charge of the German prisoner of war enclosure at Dinan, …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with David Curry. Curry joined the Navy one year after graduating from high school. Upon completion of basic, he was assigned to the USS Mississippi (BB-41), where he was trained as a gunner’s mate, serving as a rammer man and then setting fuses. Along with three other men, he maintained their five-inch gun and cleaned it daily. He was standing watch when a kamikaze hit the ship, catching Curry by surprise. The impact blew him backwards, and he cut his head on his helmet when he hit the deck. Although he was not seriously harmed, he witnessed gruesome injuries at sick bay. He recalls going into the Battle of Surigao Strait with only 12 rounds of ammunition, which were successfully fired into an enemy battleship. And he also remembers bombarding Shuri Castle at Okinawa. Curry returned home after the war and pulled shore duty in New Orleans until his discharge.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Paul Harless. Harless dropped out of high school to join the Navy in 1939 and received basic training in Norfolk. Upon completion, he was assigned to the presidential yacht, the USS Potomac (AG-25) which brought the Roosevelts to visit Churchill, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, and Princess Martha of Norway. In November 1942 Harless transferred to the USS John Rodgers (DD-574) and oversaw 59 sailors who had never been aboard a ship. Providing shore bombardment throughout the Pacific Theater, they did not lose a single man in their 12 battles. At Okinawa, Harless was credited with shooting down a kamikaze as captain of a twin 40mm gun. After the ship ran into a typhoon and nearly capsized, Harless attended the signing of the surrender in Tokyo Bay and returned home immediately thereafter, with special instructions from Admiral Halsey to prioritize the exemplary crew's discharge.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with EJ Robertson. Robertson joined the Navy at the age of 17 and received basic training at Great Lakes. In the summer of 1942 he was assigned to the USS Brooklyn (CL-40) as an apprentice seaman. At Casablanca, a victory over the French fleet was aided by the Free French. After providing long-range artillery support to the 45th Army Division throughout North Africa, his ship hit a mine in Sicily, temporarily paralyzing Robertson. In Anzio, he contracted malaria and was treated only with aspirin, which gave him stomach ulcers. At Monte Cassino, bombardment was prohibited in order to preserve a monastery, so the ship armed Poles with guns and grenades so that they could attack German forces. He was transferred to the USS Everett F. Larson (DDR-830) and led the first shore party to Yokosuka Naval Base, where he was surprised to find a pile of surrendered arms in a cave. After transporting Korean POWs off a Japanese island, Robertson returned home and was discharged in December 1945. He suffered recurring bouts of malaria throughout his life.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Owen Fluckey. Fluckey joined the Navy in April 1944. Fluckey recalls hearing the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor when he was 16. He trained at Great lakes, Illinois and recalls a few humorous incidents. Fluckey served at a weather station on Clipperton Island for nine months before transferring to a submarine tender. While assigned to Clipperton Island, Fluckey witnessed USS LST-563 running aground there. Fluckey's job was to tend to the salt water evaporators on the island. When he transferred off Clipperton, he was assigned to the USS Nereus (AS-17), a submarine tender. After the war, Fluckey went to Japan for some occupation duty. He was discharged in June, 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Frank Myers. Myers joined the Navy in 1941. He served aboard the USS Maryland (BB-46) as a gunner on five-inch 51s and five-inch 25s. He provides details of the guns aboard the ship and how they function. They traveled to Pearl Harbor in May of 1941. They were docked next to the USS Oklahoma (BB-37). Up until the attack, they mostly completed training missions from the base. He describes the December 7th attack, and his duties aboard the Maryland. He describes their efforts to get their ship to dry dock in Portland, Oregon for repairs. He discusses their crew traveling to Espiritu Santo to guard against the Japanese. They participated in the Battle of Tarawa in 1943. He was discharged in 1946, though remained in the reserves another five years.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Richard Van Klaveren. Despite being colorblind, Van Klaveren joined the Navy in 1944 by cheating on his eye exam. After receiving basic training in San Diego, he trained as an LCVP coxswain and deployed to the Pacific aboard the USS Lenawee (APA-195). He developed a rapport with the storekeeper, who gave him real eggs and fresh bread. Van Klaveren showed the storekeeper a picture of his beautiful sister perched atop a 1936 Ford. At Iwo Jima, a few of the men in Van Klaveren's party were killed immediately. Fearing for his life, he initially defied his commander's orders and attempted to steer his LCVP away from the beach, ducking enemy fire and steering blindly. He eventually landed his party and returned for another load of Marines amidst kamikaze attacks. Okinawa was an easier landing for Van Klaveren, leaving the Marines to contend with the jagged coral. After VJ Day, he was terrified of the throngs of Japanese gathered at1 Tokyo Bay, but they turned out to be friendly. Van Klaveren returned home soon after, and his sister married the storekeeper.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Fred Daum. Daum joined the Navy in February 1942 and received basic training at Great Lakes and electrician’s mate training at the University of Minnesota. Upon completion, he was assigned to USS LCI-67, where he was responsible for all the electrical work aboard ship. At Bougainville, on Christmas Eve 1943, his ship was tasked with going one mile behind the Japanese position with the purpose of drawing artillery fire to locate their battery; fortunately, the Japanese never opened fire and Daum escaped unscathed. He was transferred back to the States in July 1944, helping run bond rallies, using search lights to illuminate the latest military equipment. Daum was discharged in October 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Edwin Jennings. Jennings enlisted in the Army Air Forces around 1942. In November of 1943 he was commissioned second lieutenant. He served as a math instructor. He completed training in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey on how the weather affects the radar of the enemy. He traveled to New Guinea and then to Leyte in October of 1944. He was assigned to a radar station in Leyte and the Apo Reef in the Philippines, and he provides details of these experiences, and their radar equipment.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Dempster W. Martin. Martin grew up on a farm in Indiana, finished high school in 1942, and received agriculture deferments for several years during the war. Finally, in February, 1945, he volunteered for service in the Navy. Martin was in radio and cryptography school in Memphis, Tennessee when the war ended. Then he was shipped to New Orleans. From there, he went back to Memphis and began assisting in discharging veterans returning from overseas. Martin was discharged in August, 1946. Martin also speaks about an Honor Flight he participated in in April, 2012.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Clyde “Bert” Moore. Moore was born in Norman, Indiana 2 October 1923. He joined the United States Marine Corps in 1942 and attended boot camp in San Diego, California. After boot camp, he was assigned guard duty at the Bremerton Navy Yard. Following this assignment he underwent training for special weapons at Camp Pendleton. He tells of spending 57 days aboard ship awaiting the invasion of Guam and vividly describes combat including surviving a banzai charge. Following Guam the division trained for the invasion of Iwo Jima. Moore landed on the second day of the invasion. He describes the heat and volcanic ash conditions and the heavy artillery and machine gun fire he encountered. He was awarded the Bronze Star while for service at Iwo Jima. He tells of being hospitalized on Guam and returning to the United States aboard a hospital ship. Soon after his return he received his discharge.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Boyd R. Murphy. Murphy joined the Army in August, 1942, in Indiana. He eventually attended Officer Candidate School and received a commission in April, 1943. Murphy eventually qualified for flight training and went to Pine Bluff, Arkansas and then Lubbock, Texas. When he earned his wings, he then learned to fly B-24 bombers. Murphy shipped out in early 1945 and reported to Clark Field in the Philippines. He flew one combat mission before the war ended and then was sent to Japan during the occupation.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Lloyd Fulbright. Fulbright joined the Army in September 1943 and trained in the artillery branch. He went overseas in Fenruary 1944 first to New Caledonia, then to New Zeraland where he was assigned to the 169th Field Artillery Battalion, 43rd Infantry Division. He then went to Aitape, New Guinea with the division and the Philippines. Fulbright shares several anecdotes about his combat experiences and stories from his time in occupied Japan. While in Japan, he was part of a detail that guarded the Kirin Brewery in Yokohama. He returned tot he US in January, 1946 and opted for discharge.