The National Museum of the pacific War presents an oral interview with Bob Osborne. Osborne joined the Navy in 1943. He was assigned aboard USS Chester (CA-27). Osborne shares several anecdotes of his time aboard the ship. He also describes the collision between the Chester and another ship off Iwo Jima. When the war ended, Osborne elected to take his discharge.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Leon Stath. Stath joined the Navy and volunteered for submarine duty in 1944. After finishing sound school and torpedo school, he was sent to the Pacific and assigned aboard the submarine tender USS Howard W Gilmore (AS-16) at Subic Bay. He also served on submarine skeleton crews ferrying subs as well as aboard USS Requin (SS-481) when Slade Cutter commanded. When the war ended, Stath took his discharge in late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Dittmar. Dittmar joined the Navy in 1943 and trained at Great Lakes and shares a few anecdotes from those days. He served as an operating room technician aboard USS La Grange (APA-124) when he was assigned to the ship in mid-1944. He recalls his duties aboard and going to the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Marion Peck. Peck entered the Navy WAVES in January 1943. She went to Hunter College in the Bronx, New York for training. She describes in detail what she learned in training and her uniform. She then moved on to Boston to Burdett College for additional training. She served in naval supplies and accounts. Her permanent work station was at the U.S. Naval Reserve Midshipman School at Notre Dame University in Indiana. She was also assigned to the Navy Pier in Chicago to work at the U.S. Naval Expo. She then moved on to the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christ, Texas in 1945. Her rank was DK2C Disbursing Clerk Second Class. She was discharged February 1946. She used her G.I. Bill to attend St. Mary’s College at Notre Dame. She worked as a flight attendant and at Green Giant and as a housewife. She enjoys playing Taps at her local military burials as a member of the American Legion.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Alvino Mendoza. Mendoza was born in Round Rock, Texas on 1 March 1926, and briefly tells of his life before entering the US Navy. After completing boot training at Camp Wallace, Texas he was assigned as a seaman aboard USS St. George (AV-16). His battle station was loader on an anti-aircraft gun. Mendoza describes his experiences during the Battle of Okinawa in which the St. George, as well as USS Curtiss (AV-4), were hit by kamikazes. He tells of being in several typhoons and describes an incident in which he fell into the sea. He served in the occupation of Japan. Mendoza returned to the US and received his discharge in February of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Gordon Wilkinson. Wilkinson was drafted into the Army in January 1945. He completed basic training in Camp Wheeler, Georgia. He provides details of his experiences in training. He served in the Luzon, Philippines campaign. They first landed in Eniwetok and picked up a convoy then headed into the Philippines. He was a part of the fifth replacement and later the 43rd Infantry Division and Headquarters Company. They were set up in Cabanatuan. Then they traveled to Japan in September 1945. The 43rd Infantry Division was deactivated and Wilkinson joined the 1st Cavalry Division in Osaka, and he was assigned to the 302nd Recon. He provides detail of his time in Osaka. He left Japan in December 1945 and was shipped to Fort Stevens, Oregon where he re-enlisted. He attended Counter Intelligence School in Baltimore, Maryland. He was then stationed in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was in the service 29 years, and retired as Chief Warrant Officer Four.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Francis Sheahen. Sheahen joined the Naval Reserve in Chicago as an Apprentice Seaman in 1940. He transferred to the Baltimore Reserve Unit to complete Naval Academy prep school. Upon completion he entered the Academy in April of 1941 and graduated with an engineering degree with the Class of 1945. He provides some detail of his experiences in the Academy. Upon graduation he was commissioned as an ensign. From there he was sent to Jacksonville, Florida for aviation orientation. Upon course completion he was ordered to Little Creek, Virginia to assemble a crew in order to take command of the USS USS USS LSM-117. They were bound for Guam to deliver a load of dredging parts, then up to Saipan where they boarded a unit of Marines to deliver them to the invasion of Okinawa in April 1945. He provides detail of these missions. Their crew also took troops to Japan. He was ordered to decommission the ship in June of 1946. He was discharged around 1948.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Fred Marron. Marron joined the Army in June 1943, volunteered for the Airborne, and went to Georgia for basic and airborne training. He went overseas to France and was assigned to the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division. He remained with the unit until the war in Europe ended, then volunteered to go to the Pacific. On the way to the US for more training, the war ended and Marron was among the first soldiers home from overseas after the war. He was discharged in December, 1945 and became a police officer in Utica, New York.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Arthur Downard. Downard was drafted in November 1942. He was sent to Camp Dodge in Des Moines, Iowa for basic training and then on to Fresno, California. From there he was sent to Denver, Colorado for Air Corps administrative school, where he became an instructor of officers until November 1944. In January 1945 he received orders to go to the Pacific and serve as administrator to the lab technicians and photo interpreters of aerial photography. He served with the 4th Photographic Procurement Detachment. He had thirty enlisted men and six officers he worked with. His group was sent to Fort McKinley in Manila, Philippines to make an aerial map of the southeastern third of China. Their job was to develop the film and make the map. He describes life in Manila. He was there until April 1946 to complete the map, and was discharged in Denver.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Harmon Moody. Moody quit high school and joined the Navy when he was 17 in early 1945. After recruit training, Moody was assigned to USS John W. Weeks (DD-701). Moody recalls a kamikaze attack. He also recalls going ashore at Nagasaki. When the war ended, Moody received his discharge and went into radio engineering.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Kenneth Shaub. Shaub joined the Marine Corps right after the attack on Pearl Harbor and trained at Parris Island and then Quantico as a radio operator. He was then assigned to a tank battalion in the 4th Marine Division. He went to the Marshall Islands and mariana Islands campaigns. Between campaigns, he trained at Maui. Shaub served in a Sherman tank during the Mariana campaign and relates a few anecdotes about combat on Saipan. When Shaub went to Iwo Jima, he was with a headquarters company. He shares several anecdotes from his experiences on Iwo Jima.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Denzil Rogers. Rogers enlisted in the Army in November, 1944 and trained for the infantry in Arkansas. In April, 1945, he landed at Leyte where he joined the 132nd Infantry Regiment, Americal Division. He went to Japan with the Americal Division and was soon transferred to a military police outfit. Rogers remained in Japan until rotating to the US in October, 1946. He was then discharged.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Peter Schultheiss. Schultheiss grew up in Germany and was a student when the war started. He recasll details about being in a national youth orgaization: Deutsches Jungvolk (the 10-14 year-old branch of the Hitler Youth). Before he finished school, he was recruited to serve within an antiaircraft battery in Halle in 1944. He served on an 88mm gun. In January, 1945, Shultheiss began serving as a horse messenger to German infantry units at the front an was wounded during and artillery barrage. He then wandered just behind German front lines until the war ended. When the war ended, he found work on a farm briefly caring for horses before moving east i nan attempt to get home. When he had to cross over to the Soviet side, he was robbed of everything he had. Schultheiss made his way back home to Erfurt and reunited with his mother and father. They soon fled to the American Zone in Berlin to escape the Russian communists. He studied engineering and in 1955 moved to the US.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Reed. Reed was drafted into the Army in June 1945, while he was in ninth grade. He later received his diploma in 1949. He went to Sheppard Field, Texas, Ft. McClellan, Alabama and Ft. MacArthur, California for training. In California he was a medical technician, though received no formal training. He worked in a separation center, taking blood pressure. He was in the 9th Service Command and the 6th Army. He also worked as a longshoreman in San Pedro. From there he was shipped up to Camp Beall, California where he worked the remainder of his Army career as a medic, driving an ambulance and giving shots to inductees coming into the Army. He was discharged in December 1946 and he worked for the Pure Oil Station, and then later at the Veterans Hospital in Montgomery. He used his G.I. Bill to go to business school in Montgomery, Alabama while working at the Veterans Hospital.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with W. Donald Wertz. Wertz joined the Army Air Forces in February of 1943 and trained as a pilot earning his commission in March of 1944. In January of 1945 he went overseas and joined the 42nd Bomb Group, 390th Bomb Squadron in New Guinea, in time to participate in the invasion of the Philippines. His group was set up in Palawan, Philippines and flew missions throughout the archipelago. Wertz completed 34 missions. He was discharged in December of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Ralph Stintzcum. Stintzcum joined the Marine Corps in 1943 and trained at Parris Island before going to radio and radar school in Florida. From there, he went to the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro where he was assigned to Marine Torpedo Bombing Squadron 131 (VMTB-131) as an aircrew member. In March, 1944 his unit boarded the USS Petrof Bay (CVE-80). In August, Stintzcum headed for Guam. His unit also went to Okinawa where they provided ground support for the Marines. He rotated back to the US in July and was discharged in October. He was recalled for one year prior to the outbreak of the Korean War.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Albert Stone. Stone joined the Navy in April 1945. He completed boot camp at Great Lakes. From there he went to Gulfport, Mississippi for basic electronic training. In September 1945 he was shipped to Corpus Christi, Texas to train on naval aviation electronics and radar equipment. In June 1946 he was assigned to Operation CROSSROADS at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific. His rank was AETM-3C, Aviation Electronics Technician Mate 3C. He was assigned to the USS Avery Island (AG-76), though was farmed out to a destroyer escort to fix and test all of their radio-controlled boats. He was discharged October 1946. He received a real estate license and a radio-telephone license and earned his pilot’s license with his G.I. Bill. He finished up at Duke University in 1950 with an electrical engineering degree. He worked for Savannah River Plant for DuPont Construction. He also worked on the Boemark Missile System, the Apollo program, the moon shots, and the Saturn V program.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Joseph Jura. Jura was drafted into the Navy in December of 1944. He was sent to Yerba Buena Island and was considered ship’s company. Jura worked in the barracks office as a Ration Yeoman on the island installation, billeting about 4,000 soldiers. Jura describes life on Treasure Island, and his job in detail. He was discharged in July of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Virginia Cumberland. During World War II, Cumberland worked in a factory in Indiana as a tool and die maker. She also speaks some about a brother of hers that was in the service and stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas and served overseas in France.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Enrique Moncada. Moncada joined the Navy in October of 1944. He served aboard the USS Forrest (DMS-24) minesweeper beginning in December of 1944. He performed regular seaman duties and served as gunner on the 40mm gun. They traveled to Okinawa. They did patrol work, screening with small minesweepers and performed local escort missions. Their ship and crew suffered one kamikaze attack. He provides detail of their endeavors to save the ship. He was discharged in June of 1946, but reenlisted in the Navy in June of 1948 and worked up to Seaman 1st Class. In December of 1950 he served aboard the USS Gloucester (PF-22), a patrol frigate and minesweeper. They traveled to Japan, South Korea, Wonsan, Inchon and Kojo. He was then transferred to the USS Mount Baker (AE-4), an ammunition ship, in February of 1952 as a gunner’s mate. He was discharged in June of 1952.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Whitcomb Jones. Jones volunteered for the Army Air Forces in June 1943, and went to flight training in Texas. He finished flight school and went to B-17 crew training in Nebraska. Just prior to deploying overseas, Jones was ordered to B-29 training. Upon completion of training in a B-29, Jones was sent to Saipan and assigned to the 499th Bob Group. He flew a few sorties before the war ended. He extended his service time in order to keep flying. Jones opted to join the Reserves and went to college. He was flying P-51s when the Korean War started.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Walter Karnes. Karnes was drafted into the Army in January 1945. He was aboard a troop ship in the Pacific headed for the Philippines when the war with Japan ended. He spent some time guarding Japanese prinsoners of war on Leyte before deciding to extend his enlistment. He was back in the US in December and was assigned to Germany in Janaury 1946. He shares a few anecdotes about his time in Occupied Germany. His enlistment expired in October 1946 and Karnes opted for discharge in January 1947.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Charles Kollman. Kollman joined the Marine Corps in January 1944 and had basic training at San Diego. After training, he went to Hawaii and was at Maui when the war ended. He returned to the US and was discharged in December 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with William Jackson. Jacklson was drafted into the Army Air Forces in June 1943 after he had finished high school. He trained in aerial gunnery and served as a nose gunner on a B-24. He flew 32 missions over Italy, Romania, Czeckoslovakia, Germany, etc. before being shot down over Poland, captured and made a prisoner of war in October 1944. He shares anecdotes about bailing out, being captured and interrogated, and arrving at Stalag Luft IV. Jackson recognized a high school friend in the POW camp. Jackson describes being liberated and eventually making his way back into the Allied fold.