The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with David Lipscomb Houston. Houston graduated from high school around 1938. He enrolled in Pre-Med at Hardin Junior College, Wichita Falls, Texas in September of 1941. He enlisted in the US Army on 30 June 1942 and served with the 3rd Medical Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division. His unit landed at Fedala, Morocco on 8 November 1942 for the Invasion of North Africa. In September of 1943, they invaded Italy. Houston returned to the US in mid-1944, and was assigned as a surgical assistant in the New York Point of Embarkation Station Hospital. In July of 1945, Houston graduated from Officer Candidate School in Louisiana. He was discharged in late 1945, and remained in the Army Reserve for 28 years.

Transcript of an oral interview with Colonel Gordon Spencer. Colonel Spencer discusses his family lineage briefly before shifting to his education up through his years at Harvard. Before finishing at Harvard, Spencer joined the US Army Air Corps flight training program, but was eventually rejected. He went to communcations school instead and was commissioned in Wichita Falls, Texas in October 1941. Eventually, he was sent to England and joined the 306th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force. Spencer relates several anecdotes about making bombing raids over targets in Germany and Holland; losing friends and planes in combat. He served as the radar bombadier on missions over Frankfort, Cologne, etc. He was in England when the war in Europe ended and was shipped back to the US to be transferred to the Pacific to serve as a radar bombadier aboard B-29s. The war in the Pacific ended and Spencer got out of the military. He rejoined later in 1946 and ran a small medical clinic at Hensley Field, Texas; went to weather forecasting school; was a nuclear physics instructor at Air University.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Lee Osterloh. Osterloh joined the Army Air Forces in March of 1942. He completed Technical School and served as a Tech Sergeant. He worked in Greensboro, North Carolina for two years. He additionally completed Machine Records School, utilizing an IBM machine with punch cards. In November of 1944, Osterloh deployed to Calcutta, India, maintaining records of planes and cargo flying over the Himalaya Mountains. He returned to the US and was discharged in March of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Owens. Owens joined the Navy in 1943, aspiring to be a fighter pilot. He enrolled in the V-12 program but by 1944 there was declining interest in pilots with as little experience as he would have had, so he volunteered for gunnery school. He joined a PBY4-2 Privateer crew in Florida as a turret gunner and deployed to the Philippines. Flying over the South China Sea and along the coastline of Indochina, his crew was often accompanied in the air by nonconfrontational Japanese fighters. On one mission over a targeted ship, however, Owens's crew flew too closely to the lead plane and struck a column of water splashing up from their bomb. This caused engine trouble and made them an easy target for nine aggressive enemy fighters. The crew escaped after shooting down three Oscars and diverted to Palawan for an emergency landing. In their haste to lighten the load on the damaged plane, they tossed out their life rafts before crossing the sea. Fortunately, they arrived without incident. After 23 combat missions in both the PBY4-1 and 4-2, Owens returned home and became an engineer for …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Baker. Baker joined the Army Air Forces around 1942. He completed flight school and served as a bomber pilot. He was selected to serve as a B-24 pilot instructor in Courtland, Alabama. He flew B-29s. Baker was discharged in August of 1946 and remained in the Reserves.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with G. K. Guennel. Guennel moved to the United States from Germany in 1934. From January of 1933 to September of 1934, prior to moving to the States, he lived under the Hitler regime and provides some details of this experience. While attending Butler University in Indiana Guennel enlisted in the Army Reserve in the summer of 1942. He was called to active duty in June of 1943 after his graduation. He was invited to take Army Intelligence training at Camp Ritchie in Maryland and graduated in July of 1944. He learned all communication systems, Morse Code, semaphore, map reading, learned Italian and more. He was assigned to the Interrogation, Prisoners of War (I.P.W.) Team 124 as a POW Interrogator. In late 1944 he traveled to Scotland and France where he was attached to the 44th Infantry Division. He provides details of his experiences overseas, including surviving the cold winter and interrogating prisoners of war. At the Rhine River crossing they joined the 3rd Infantry Division and arrived in Berchtesgaden, Germany by April of 1945. They posted Eisenhower???s proclamations in every town and village. Upon his discharge in January of …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Lawrence Sykora. Sykora joined the Army Air Forces in May of 1943. He completed schooling in Radio, Mechanics and Aerial Gunnery by February of 1944. He was assigned to the 14th Air Force, 308th Bomb Group, 374th Bomb Squadron. He deployed to China, serving as a radio operator and top turret gunner aboard B-24s. They made numerous trips over the Himalaya Mountains. They supported Chinese ground forces by attacking airfields, coal yards, docks, oil refineries and fuel dumps in French Indochina and Burma. Sykora completed 39 missions, returned to the US and was discharged in late September 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ruth Fowler. Fowler was teaching in Big Spring, Texas, when she went out for the Civilian Pilot Training Program in 1939. She was accepted and was trained to fly. She evetually became an instructor. She also discusses rationing.

Interview with Eleanor MacDonald discussing her early life and education in New England; her early career in the Cancer Division in the American College of Surgeons; her recruitment and subsequent work at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute; her work in developing the biostatistics coding in the early years of the institution; and her relationship with various physicians and luminaries of the Texas Medical Center.

The National Museum of the pacific War presents an interview with Roy McIlvain. McIlvain describes his experiences growing up in Kansas during the Great Depression. McIlvain joined the Army in January 1943. Instead of training, he joined a searchlight outfit in Washington DC. He was eventually attached to the 76th Infantry Division and traveled to England with them. He shares several anecdotes from his time in the infantry in France, Belgium and Germany. McIlvain carried a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) and was wounded in February 1945. McIlvain shares several anecdotes about his experiences in WWII.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with C F Bednorz. Bednorz worked for Douglas Aircraft in mid-1941 assembling C-47s. He joined the Aviation Cadet Program and provides some details of his flight training and the planes he flew, including the BT-13, B-17, B-24 and UC-78. He completed training in May of 1944. Bednorz was assigned to the 7th Air Force, 11th Bomb Group, 42nd Bomb Squadron and served as a B-24 pilot. In January of 1945 he traveled to Harmon Field in Guam, where he began his combat flying. In April they were transferred to Yontan Field in Okinawa. He provides details of his 33 missions, including witnessing the mushroom cloud over Nagasaki after the second atomic bomb was dropped, and effects of radiation from the blast. He was discharged in early 1946.