The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Donald B. Davis. While attending the University of Iowa, Davis joined the Marines Corps and was sent to Parris Island for boot camp. After boot camp, Davis went to Camp Lejeune for Officer Candidate School and was commissioned. Afterwards, Davis was transported to Hawaii and assigned as a replacement officer to lead a mortar platoon in the 4th Marine Division. Davis then describes landing on the beach at Iwo Jima. When an infantry officer was killed, Davis assumed his command and left the mortar platoon. He then describes combat activity and his experiences fighting on Iwo Jima up to the point where he was wounded in action. Davis then describes his experiences in the hospital at Guam and Honolulu. From there, he was sent to San Diego. Davis concludes by expounding on the meaning of war.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Robert Bloedorn. Bloedorn joined the Marine Corps in June of 1944. He traveled to Guam and served with the 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division. He participated in the Battle of Iwo Jima from February through April of 1945. He was discharged in July of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Hobert Dempsey. Dempsey joined the Army in June 1943 and received antiaircraft training in the Mojave Desert. He came down with appendicitis just before his unit went overseas. After recovering, he was reassigned to the 232nd Infantry Regiment, Rainbow Division, as a combat infantryman. He arrived at Le Havre in December 1944, finding a port full of civilian casualties. He fought through France and into Belgium. He was shot in the leg and played dead until the Germans passed by. He was sent to a hospital three days later and returned to the front lines after four days of recuperation. After crossing the Rhine as a front-runner, he accidentally went behind German lines and was captured with five other Americans. He was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp that was unknown to the Americans, who strafed the camp at least once. Conditions were harsh, food was scarce, and the prisoners performed hard labor in cold weather. The camp was overtaken by Russians, who wouldn’t let American troops evacuate prisoners. Dempsey escaped on foot and was eventually rescued and smuggled past a Russian checkpoint by Americans. He weighed over 150 …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Stokesberry. Stokesberry joined the Navy in April 1940 and was stationed at Kaneohe Bay on 7 December 1941. He was out early collecting garbage from various stations on the base that morning and was among the first to see Japanese planes approaching. After the attack, he repaired damaged water lines. October 1942, he was sent to Johnston Island as an aviation metalsmith. After a brief assignment at Pearl Harbor doing overhaul and repair work, he was assigned to USS Independence (CVL-22). There he modified planes and landing craft to make night operations inconspicuous, such as adding flame dampeners to fighter planes and giving landing signal officers reflective clothing. He also outfitted planes with tubes filled with foil that when dropped would confuse Japanese radarmen. To give the impression that the 3rd and 5th fleet had two sets of aircraft, he painted planes with unique colors for each operation. He recalls the Independence participating in the sinking of HIJMS Musashi at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and he saw several kamikazes try to hit the Independence off Okinawa. After the war ended, he spent the rest of his …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Eustace. Eustace joined the Navy in 1943 and received basic training at Camp Farragut. He received further training at photography school in Pensacola. Upon completion, he was assigned to the USS Suwannee (ACV-27) as a photographer’s mate. Eustace flew in the backseat of a Douglas SBD Dauntless divebomber throughout the war in the Pacific. On 20 October 1944 the Suwannee was attacked by Japanese planes. Eustace contends that the antiaircraft fire did more damage to their sister ship than to the planes. On the 25th the Suwanee was hit by multiple kamikaze planes. Eustace photographed the attack and then tended to the wounded. He filled in as a helmsman and got the ship back to dry dock. He returned to the war and recalls pushing damaged planes into the water at Ishigaki. He then walked through Nagasaki after it was leveled by the atomic bomb and joined the occupation forces in Yokosuka. Eustace returned home and was discharged in May 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Causey. Causey was born in Mississippi and was drafted into the Army right after he finished high school in 1944. Causey shares a few stories about basic training in Florida. Causey went overseas aboard the USS General M.M. Patrcik (AP-150) from Seattle to Hawaii in February, 1945. Causey describes more training he received on Hawaii before shipping out to Saipan in April. On 1 May, Causey arrived as a replacement o nOkinawa. He was assigned to C Company, 1st battalion, 381st Regiment, 96th Infantry Division. Causey then describes his impressions and experiences fighting on Okinawa. Causey was eventually wounded by shell fragments and evacuated to a hospital near the beach. After treatment, he was able to rejoin his unit on Okinawa. When the war ended, Causey was aboard an LST bound for the Philippines and more training in anticipation of the invasion of Japan.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Theodore Gruhn. Gruhn joined the Navy in September 1941 after working as a carpenter. He was en route to Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. Once at Hawaii, Gruhn did shore patrol for a year until he was assigned to the USS Farenholt (DD-491) as a carpenter's mate in December 1942. In May, 1944, Gruhn transferred to the USS Abercrombie (DE-343). When the war ended, Gruhn had enough points to be discharged in October, 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Jimmy Bennett. Bennett was born in Munda, New Georgia, Western Province, Solomon Islands in May of 1922. He recalls the Japanese invading in 1942, the Americans arriving in 1943, and his family hiding in the bush. Bennet, and a number of other natives, joined the American Army’s 118th Engineer Battalion, 43rd Infantry Division. He served as a scout for the island, and led the troops on Baanga Island, through the New Georgia Campaign, and until the end of the war. Reference Alfred Bisili’s oral history, a native friend of Bennett, who participated with him during the war.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Byron K. Henry. Henry finished high school in Indiana and joined the Marine Corps in January, 1943. He had his basic training in San Diego and recalls experiences there. He also provides details about training he got once he arrived at Pearl harbor later in 1943. He also served on Midway Island as a guard. He shares two anecdotes about saving guys' lives: one from a mountin accident and another from drowning in the surf.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Hugh Fuller. Fuller was born in Rogers, Texas 17 October 1924. He was drafted into the Army in 1942 and received his basic training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. He recalls his time at boot camp and that he was assigned to the 69th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized), 69th Infantry Division upon completion. During training at Fort Knox, Kentucky he recalls meeting and speaking with President Roosevelt. Fuller was sent to England shortly after the Allied landing on D-Day. He landed in France from an LST, and then marched into Belgium and Germany. He describes several of the reconnaissance missions carried out by his unit while assigned to the First Army, including some during the Battle of the Bulge. He recalls the day his unit arrived at Buchenwald Concentration Camp and he remembers the horrific conditions encountered. He describes several USO shows while in Germany. Following the end of the war, he embarked on a troop ship in Le Havre, France and sailed back to the US where he was discharged.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Donihi. Donihi was born in Erie, Pennsylvania. He graduated from high school in 1934. During the Depression, he worked low wage jobs and lost his leg in an automobile accident while hitchhiking to Florida. His experiences influenced him to attend law school. He passed the Bar in 1941 and went to work in Tennessee. He was exempt from the draft, but was motivated to learn to fly under the Civil Air Patrol. He joined the Coast Guard Reserve during World War II and became a Seaman First Class, ferrying submarine chasers down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico for shakedown cruises. After the war, he met Tom Clark, President Truman’s Attorney General (and later Associate Supreme Court Justice). Clark offered Donihi a job in Tokyo and introduced him to Joseph B. Keenan, who had worked in President Roosevelt’s White House. Keenan was setting up an organization named Project K, which operated out of the Justice Department. Its purpose was to prosecute Emperor Hirohito and other suspected Japanese war criminals. In Tokyo he lived with Keenan and 15 other lawyers and judges. He attended several meetings …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Donald Mac Showers. He joined the Navy after finishing school at the University of Iowa in August 1940. He signed up for the V-7 program and was commissioned an ensign in September 1941 after Midshipman School at Northwestern University. His first assignment took him to the intelligence center at the 13th Naval District in Seattle. He stayed in Seattle for six weeks hoping to get in with the public relations section. Instead, he was sent to fill a billet in the combat intelligence unit in the 14th Naval District in Hawaii, reporting to Commander J.J. Rochefort. Showers discusses breaking the Japanese Naval code (JN-25) at Station HYPO, at Pearl Harbor. He recalls the origins of the ruse involving fresh water at Midway to determine what AF stood for in the JN-25 code. Showers also comments on the dysfunctional torpedoes used early in the war. He also discusses the role of intelligence gathering in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway and Operation VENGEANCE. Showers describes the emergence and flexibility of JICPOA (Joint Intelligence Center Pacific Ocean Areas) in Hawaii and the need for various intelligence …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Schiller. Schiller joined the Navy in February of 1941. He entered Navy Flight School at Pensacola and upon commissioning was assigned as a pilot of a scout plane on USS Astoria (CA-34). When Pearl Harbor was attacked, the Astoria was at sea escorting USS Lexington (CV-2). The Astoria engaged in the battles of the Coral Sea, Midway, and Guadalcanal where it was sunk off Savo Island in August of 1942. Subsequently, Schiller was assigned to USS Halford (DD-480) and later, became a Fighter Squadron Leader aboard USS Saginaw Bay (CVE-82), which covered the invasions in the Palau Islands, Leyte and Luzon. He served with a Composite Squadron VC-78. Schiller was discharged in October of 1945, though remained in the Naval Reserve and retired as a Commander.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Dwight Dehaven. Dehaven joined the Navy in 1939 and served aboard the USS Yorktown (CV-5) in the boiler room. Dehaven recalls being shaken by a bomb and by explosions from the USS Lexington (CV-2) nearby in the Battle of the Coral Sea. In the Battle of Midway, bombs and a torpedo caused fire and flooding. Dehaven witnessed the gruesome death of a sailor jumping ship and saw a pilot trapped underneath an overturned plane. After abandoning ship, Dehaven was rescued by the USS Henley (DD-391), which was subsequently hit by a torpedo. He abandoned that ship amidst the explosions of depth charges and was then rescued by the USS Balch (DD-363). He was assigned to help repair the USS California (BB-44) and was then transferred to the USS England (DE-635) as a chief machinist’s mate. Dehaven describes the complementary skillsets and personalities of Captain Williamson and Commander Pendleton, and how that contributed to the England’s unparalleled success in anti-submarine warfare. Dehaven was discharged in November 1945. He returned to the England for its decommissioning ceremony, remembering his friends who were trapped and burned in the Yorktown after it …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Muriel Usselman. Usselman was a child living in Hawaii when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Her father worked as an electrician and the family lived on base. She recalls what she witnessed during the attack on 7 December as well as her experiences in the following days. She returned with her family to the Mainland in 1944.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Leroy Reininger. Reininger was born in Seguin, Texas 29 November 1924 into a family of thirteen children. After dropping out of high school to work on the family farm, he was drafted into the Navy in 1943. He went to San Diego for four weeks of boot training before being sent to Seattle where he was assigned to Carrier Aircraft Service Unit 7. The unit went to several bases for training prior to going aboard the USS Lunga Point (CVE-94) in October 1944. After taking part in the invasion of Luzon, the ship went to the Admiralty Islands to prepare for the invasion of Iwo Jima. Reininger saw the USS Bismarck Sea (CV-95) sinking after being attacked by a kamikaze, and remarks that the Lunga Point was also stuck by a kamikaze during the invasion of Iwo Jima. After returning to Guam for ammunition and supplies the ship participated in the invasion of Okinawa. Following the Japanese surrender the ship went to Japan on a number of occasions to pick up Allied prisoners of war, returning them to Okinawa or to the United States. The Lunga Point returned …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Frank H. Bigelow where he discusses his childhood, family, education and life during the great depression. He describes his recruitment into the Navy and his experiences in the Pacific Theatre during World War Two.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John J. Clemens. He discusses his childhood and family and what led him to join the US Navy. He describes his experiences fighting in both the Pacific and European theatres of World War Two.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Muriel Usselman. Usselman was a child living in Hawaii when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Her father worked as an electrician and the family lived on base. She recalls what she witnessed during the attack on 7 December as well as her experiences in the following days. She returned with her family to the Mainland in 1944.