Interview with Lanson B. Ditto, clothier and Navy veteran regarding personal experiences about the Pacific, Atlantic, and Mediterranean Theaters during World War II. Ditto talks about his education, enlistment in the Navy V-7 Program, midshipman training, assignment to the USS Langley, pre-war duty in the Philippines, coming of war and combat around the Philippines and Netherlands East Indies, the sinking of the Langley and his transfer to the USS Pecos, the sinking of the Pecos and his rescue by the USS Whipple, various naval battles and assignments, antisubmarine patrols off the Solomons, various escort duties, and his promotion to captain of the O'Toole.

Interview with John J. Clemens. The interview includes Clemens' personal experiences about childhood and early adulthood in Houston, Texas, World War II-era service in the U.S. Navy, serving aboard USS Wren in the Pacific Theater, and piloting a ship into Tokyo Bay immediately following the Japanese surrender. Clemens speaks about convoy missions across the Atlantic Ocean, the January 4, 1944 sinking of the USS Turner while moored in New York Harbor and the court of inquiry regarding the sinking, actions in the Aleutian Islands, Attu, Okinawa, and Philippine campaigns and anti-kamikaze warfare while aboard the USS Wren, and the effects that Allied bombing had on Tokyo.

Interview with Army veteran Harlan W. Crouse, including personal experiences about combat in the Philippines during World War II, the Japanese surrender in Yokohama Harbor, and being present during the post-war U.S. occupation of Japan.

Interview with Navy veteran Jean Balch, including Balch's personal experiences about the Pacific theater, being a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese during World War II, boot camp, radio, radar, and gunnery school, operations during the Leyte invasion, missions over Luzon, and raids on Japanese installations on Formosa and Saigon, French Indo-China. Additionally, Balch talks about his plane being shot down on a raid to Hong Kong and his capture on January 16, 1945, interrogations and beatings by the Kempei-tai, imprisonment at Ofuna, Honshu, solitary confinement for six months and continued interrogation, beatings by Japanese prison guards, starvation diet, the end of the war and liberation, and his participation in the war crimes trials held by the International Military Tribunal.

Transcript of an interview with John Ruddick, a Navy veteran, concerning his experiences while aboard the destroyer USS Melvin during World War II in the Pacific Theater. Ruddick discusses the Marianas invasion, the Carolines invasion, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Battle of Surigao Strait, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Kurile operations, and the occupation of Japan.

Transcript of an interview with Caleb H. Canby, III, a Marine Corps veteran (Scout-Bomber 243, 1st Marine Air Wing), concerning experiences in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Canby discusses his family background and education; decision to join the Marine Corps, 1942; boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina; advanced training at Quantico, Virginia, 1943-44; assignment to Scout-Bomber Squadron 243 at Emirau, Solomon Islands, 1944-45; his work in the flight department processing pilots' flight logs; transfer to Mangaldan, Luzon, 1945; assignment to Mindanao in March, 1945; contraction of hepatitis and return to the U. S.

Interview with Captain George Duncan, a Navy veteran, concerning his experiences in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Duncan discusses his pilot training at Pensacola Naval Air Station in 1941, his assignment to Air Group 9 on the carrier Essex, the Hellcat fighter, the sinking of Fubuki-class destroyer in June of 1944 off of Pagan Island, the Marianas Campaign in 1944, the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot," the Philippines Campaign and the attack on the Japanese battleship Musashi, and his postwar naval career.

Transcript of an interview with General Robert E. Galer, a Marine Corps veteran (VMF-224) and recipient of the Medal of Honor, concerning his experiences in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Galer discusses his pre-war training at Pensacola and Quantico; assignment to Saint Thomas and reminiscences about the "destroyers-for bases" deal, 1940; experiences at Ewa during the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941; assignment to Guadalcanal as commander of VMF-224, August 30, 1942-December 31, 1942; air combat around Guadalcanal; his receiving the Medal of Honor; reassignment to the States for war bond drives; experiences on Iwo Jima, February-March, 1945, as commander of a 584 Radar Team; and assignment to the Philippines and Okinawa, 1945.

Interview with General Robert E. Galer, a Marine Corps veteran (VMF-224) and recipient of the Medal of Honor, concerning his experiences concerning the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941; the Guadalcanal Campaign as commander of VMF-224; and as head of the 584 Radar units during the campaigns for the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Navy ROTC at the University of Washington, 1931-35; pilot training at Sand Point, Pensacola, and Quantico, 1935-38; assignment to amphibian squadron on Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands, 1938-40, and his minor role in the "destroyers-for-bases" deal with Great Britain, 1940; assignment as commander of VMF-224, 1942; description of the Grumman Wildcat fighter plane; assignment to Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, 1942; episodes involving aerial combat against the Japanese; aerial combat tactics; living conditions at Henderson Field; shot down for the first time on September 12, 1942; shot down for a second time on October 2, 1942; personnel problems with dysentery and malaria; reassignment to COMAIRPAC, November, 1943; Command and Staff College, 1943; awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for twenty-nine consecutive days of combat and eleven-and-one-half kills; meeting President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Oval Office; development of the 584 Radar for close-air support; Iwo Jima, …

Transcript of an interview with Burton S. Pearsall, a Marine Corps veteran, concerning his experiences as a dive-bomber pilot in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Appendix includes photos, newspaper articles, samples of flight log, and US Marine Corps certificate.

Transcript of an interview with Captain Victor Delano, a Navy veteran, concerning his experiences in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Delano discusses his first assignment to the battleship USS West Virginia and his experiences during the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941; assignment to the antiaircraft cruiser USS San Juan, 1942; naval battles around Guadalcanal; Battle of Savo Island; assignment to the destroyer USS Wedderburn, 1944; Battle of Leyte Gulf, 1944; Pacific typhoons; Iwo Jima and Okinawa operations, 1945.

Transcript of an interview with Iliff D. Richardson, a Navy veteran, concerning his experiences as a guerrilla fighter in the Philippine Islands during World War II. Richardson discusses his assignment to patrol-torpedo boats in the Philippines, 1941; orders from General Douglas A. MacArthur to establish a clandestine radio network to maintain communications with Commander Southwest Pacific after his evacuation from Corregidor; his role in plotting Japanese minefields in Leyte Gulf prior to MacArthur's return in 1944; pre-invasion weather reporting from Leyte to MacArthur's headquarters; dealings with Filipino guerrillas; transfer to stateside duty and his work with the Industrial Incentives Division of the Navy Department; and the sale of rights to the book about his adventures, "American Guerrilla in the Philippines."

Transcript of an interview with Ralph W. Nelson, a Navy veteran, concerning his experiences while aboard the submarines USS Batfish and USS Parche in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Submarine School, San Francisco, California, 1942; early torpedo problems; his responsibilities as a fire controlman; assignment to the Batfish, 1944; various patrols in the Luzon Strait and Makassar Strait; lifeguard duty off Palau for downed airmen; transfer to the Parche, 1945.