Resource Type

Oral History Interview with Evelyn Myers McCune, August 4, 1996

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Transcript of an interview with Evelyn Myers McCune, nurse, concerning her experiences as a civilian secretary with the State Department in Washington, D.C., before the and during World War II. McCune discusses her educational background; decision to take a position with the State Department in early 1941; adjustments in moving from a town of 2,500 people to the nation's capitol; personal observations of the activities at the Japanese embassy on December 7, 1941; wartime living conditions, rationing, and transportation adjustments; social life; comments and observations of Secretary of State Cordell Hull, Japanese ambassadors Saburo Kurusu and Kichisabura Nomura, Ambassador Joseph Grew, and Eleanor Roosevelt; working with diplomatic codes; incident involving President Roosevelt's stamp collection; and her decision to join the Cadet Nurse Corps, 1944.
Date: August 4, 1996
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & McCune, Evelyn Myers, 1918-
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with W. D. Whitson, November 15, 1995

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Transcript of an interview with William D. Whitson, a businessman and an Army Air Corps veteran (442nd Bomb Squadron, 8th Air Force), from Denton, Texas, concerning his experiences as a B-17 pilot in the European Theater during World War II. Whitson discusses flight training, his flight from the U.S. to Grafton-Underwood, England, his personal relationship with Curtis Le May, his missions and German defenses, his nineteenth mission and crash landing, and his twenty-fifth mission.
Date: November 15, 1995
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Whitson, William D.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with Lyle Specht, May 3, 1993

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Interview with Lyle Specht, a Marine Corps veteran, concerning his combat experiences with the 6th Marines at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Okinawa in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
Date: May 3, 1993
Creator: Byrd, Richard & Specht, Lyle
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with Fiske Hanley, October 13, 1999

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Transcript of an interview with Fiske Hanley, an aeronautical engineer and Army Air Forces veteran (398th Bomb Squadron, 504th Bomb Group, 313th Bomb Wing, 20th Air Force), concerning his experiences during World War II, including as a flight engineer aboard B-29s in the Pacific Theater and as a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese.
Date: October 13, 1999
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Hanley, Fiske, II, 1920-
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with Robert Seidel, September 7, 1999

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Interview with Robert Seidel, a Army Air Force WWII veteran from Elkhart, Indiana, who served in the 763rd Bomb Squadron in the European Theater. Accompanied by his wife Helen, Seidel discusses his family, the start of the war and joining the Air Corps, training as a flight engineer, assignment to the B-24 and deployment to Spinazzola, Italy, flying combat missions, life at the base, ditching his aircraft near Salzburg and getting captured, being interrogated, internment at Stalag Luft IV, liberation, and returning to the US. In appendix are three photos of Seidel, his B-24 crew, and their aircraft, Seidel's papers from when he was a German prisoner, his POW log book, the official narrative report of the mission he was lost on, and a letter from his family while he was in Italy.
Date: September 7, 1999
Creator: Lane, Peter B. & Seidel, Robert
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with Leslie W. Bray, Jr., March 3, 1999

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Interview with Army Air Forces veteran Leslie W. Bray, Jr. The interview includes Bray's personal experiences about the China-Burma-India Theater during World War II, youth during the Great Depression, flight training, being designated as the commander of the 16th Combat Cargo Squadron, stationing at Sylhet, India as part of his assignment to the CBI Theater, supplying the British 14th Army in Burma, flying difficulties due to weather conditions, various transfers, and flying "The Hump." Bray also talks about his early aspirations to become an aviator, initial failures to pass the Air Forces physical examination, his assignment to Troop Carrier Command, flying C-47s with the 1st Troop Carrier Group, his appointment as assistant group operations officer for the 10th Troop Carrier Group, Air Force School of Applied Tactics, the training of replacement units at various Air Force installations, the deactivation of the 16th Combat Cargo Squadron, and his postwar Air Force career and retirement as a general officer.
Date: March 3, 1999
Creator: Alexander, William J. & Bray, Leslie W., Jr.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Brandy, Our Man in Acapulco: the Life and Times of Colonel Frank M. Brandstetter

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Book providing.a biographical account of Frank M. Brandstetter, documenting his life and work as a hotelier, corporate executive, and U. S. Army intelligence officer. The text is based on Brandstetter's own recollections and corroborated with source documents and other published accounts. Index starts on page 367.
Date: December 1999
Creator: Carlisle, Rodney P. & Monetta, Dominic J.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with Shuford M. Alexander, Jr., December 2, 1999

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Interview with engineer and Army Air Forces veteran Shuford M. Alexander, Jr. The interview includes Alexander's personal experiences about being a fighter pilot in Italy during World War II, basic training, flight training, various assignments and transfers, Operation STRANGLE, being shot down by flak over Piacenza, and being rescued by Italian partisans. Additionally, Alexander talks about his link-up with a British A-4 Mission and his attempt to reach Allied lines, his betrayal by a German agent and his subsequent capture, escaping and continuing his search for Allied lines, his observations and opinions about the partisans, a second encounter with a British A-4 Mission, the Martani family in the village of Tosca, his group's trek through mountain snow to reach Allied lines, meeting with British paratroopers and with African-American soldiers from the 92nd Infantry Division, and his reunion with his squadron in Pisa. The interview includes an appendix with a narrative by Alexander.
Date: December 2, 1999
Creator: Alexander, William J. & Alexander, Shuford M., Jr.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Lost in Victory: Reflections of American War Orphans of World War II

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In 1990, Ann Mix began her search to find out about her father who had been killed in World War II. She discovered that, of the servicemen who died in that war, 183,000 were fathers. During her search, Mix met others whose fathers had been killed and few of them had much information about their fathers. As a result, Ann founded the American WWII Orphans Network to locate war orphans and become a depository for sources of information about WWII servicemen who were fathers. Senator Robert Dole, who had fought in the 10th Mountain Division with Mix’s father, assisted the network as a National Advisor until 1995, helping it to become a true humanitarian organization. War orphan Susan Johnson Hadler, a psychologist, began a collaboration with Ann to collect the stories of the orphans when she discovered there were no statistics on the number of children and no studies on the effects of their fathers’ deaths on their lives. Records which could have helped sociologists, psychologists, and historians were simply nonexistent. Mix and Hadler began to interview war orphans, who nearly all reported having felt the awkwardness with which America treated the subject of their fathers. At a young age, …
Date: January 1998
Creator: Hadler, Susan Johnson; Mix, Anna Bennett & Christman, Calvin
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library