The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Phil Perabo. Perabo joined the Navy in 1941. He trained and served as a fighter pilot. Beginning in 1942 he was assigned to the fleet aboard the USS Bogue (CVE-9), where he worked with a strike group. They sunk the first German sub in the Atlantic. Perabo later joined Fighter Squadron VF-82 in the Pacific and served aboard the USS Bennington (CV-20). He completed 25 mission and in May of 1945 he was shot down and taken prisoner at Ōfuna Camp in Japan for 113 days prior to the end of the war. He received two Distinguished Flying Crosses, five Air Medals and one Purple Heart. Perabo had a career in the Navy, promoted to full commander by 1957 and retired in 1968.

Interview with Homer James "Jim" Avery, founder of James Avery Craftsman from Kerrville, Texas. Mr. Avery discusses his childhood, education, service in World War II, and starting and developing his jewelry business.

Student recital presented at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with James Norwood. Norwood joined the Marine Corps in June of 1943. He provides details of his training including Biddle-style bayonet training. He joined Company B, 4th Amphibious Tractor Battalion (Landing Vehicle Tracked), 4th Marine Division. He traveled to the Marshall Islands in January of 1944. Norwood provides some details of the LVT. He participated in the first wave in the Battle of Kwajalein. They traveled to Guadalcanal in May of 1944 for training. In July they were the first wave of amphibious tractors on Guam, fighting side-by-side amphibious tanks. He speaks on the differences between the tractors and tanks, and the casualties that he witnessed during this wave. From there they were the eighth wave into Iwo Jima. Norwood received three Battle Stars. He was discharged in December of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Albert Donaldson. Donaldson talks about how the Great Depression affected his family. He joined the Navy in 1944 and provides details of his training. He traveled aboard the USS Buckingham (APA-141). They traveled to Pearl Harbor, which he describes along with his responsibilities with work parties unloading and reloading ships. He assisted with trading out old ammunition for new ammunition. He was transferred to the John Rodgers Naval Air Station in Hawaii. He worked on the Martin Mars seaplanes, repairing and test flying them. He also flew C-54s and the J-3 Piper Cub and shares his experiences. He spent the remainder of his Navy career in Hawaii and was discharged in August of 1946 and joined the reserves. While in the service he made storekeeper 3rd class. In the 1950s he was commissioned into the Air Force.

Transcript of an oral interview with Dr. Glenn Ivy. Ivy was attending Texas Tech University when he was inducted into the Army in 1943. When he entered the service, Ivy trained in the Signal Corps to send and receive encoded messages. In Jaunary, 1944, Ivy was sent to India where he was flown over the Himalaya Mountains to Kunming, China. He eventually served as a message courier delivering messages between Chiang Kai-shek and the US 14th Air Force in Kunming. Ivy discusses a situation he was involved in that featured lost plans calling for an invasion of the Chinese coast. When the war ended, Ivy was sent with much Signal Corps equipment to Shanghai to set up a facility to send and receive messages from there. He then shares a few anecdotes about occupation duty in China before being called home due to an inllness suffered by his mother.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Hoyt Richardson. Richardson left pharmacy school to join the Navy in 1942. Upon completion of corpsman training, he treated soldiers with PTSD. One of his unofficial duties was helping Eleanor Roosevelt with her parrots. Upon transferring to Bethesda as a pharmacist's mate, Richardson had the occasion to chat with FDR, who was receiving physical therapy. He deployed to New Guinea, specializing in the prevention of tropical diseases. Richardson himself suffered various ailments while there but was able to protect others from malaria, dengue fever, and dysentery. In the Philippines, he worked beside native doctors before returning to the States. He worked aboard USS Colorado (BB-45) during demobilization before returning to school on the G.I. Bill and earning his pharmacy degree.

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Frank D. Barger. Barger joined the Army Air Corps in 1940. He started his career as an airplane mechanic. In 1941, he became an Air Cadet. After completing training he spent some time near Austin, Texas training cadets on C-46s and evaluating returning pilots. Barger was eventually sent overseas where he completed 170 missions while stationed in India and Burma flying supplies. He left service in 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with George Stroppel. Stroppel joined the Navy in September of 1943. He was sent to gunnery school. He served at an ammunition depot in Hawthorne, Nevada. He describes working munitions including how he was part of a crew tasked with disarming 30 to 40 thousand primers so that the shell casings could be recycled. He was then sent to the Pacific and joined the USS New Jersey (BB-62) and worked as an ammunition handler. Stroppel describes his duties and the munitions that he worked with. He also discusses going through a typhoon and briefly mentions shelling Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Stroppel remained on the New Jersey until the 1946 when a back injury sent him to the hospital. He was discharged soon after his release.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Alls. Alls joined the Navy in June 1942. He was only 15 years old at the time. Alls went to submarine school and describes having to go through a depth chamber test. He was sent to diesel school and became a crewman on the USS Flier (SS-250) in early 1943. Alls describes an incident where the sub ran aground at Midway. His sub sank two ships in the Marianas and later endured 118 depth charges dropped by two Japanese destroyers after sinking a freighter. Alls was injured while on shore patrol and was recovering while the Flier was lost on another patrol. He was transferred to another sub. Alls left the Navy in 1948 after his six-year enlistment ended.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Keeffe. Keeffe joined the Army Air Forces as an aviation cadet in July 1942. He describes his flight training and the planes he flew. Keeffe was then sent to England to become a co-pilot on a B-24. He discusses in detail how he was forced to bail out on his fourth mission over Germany. Keeffe managed to elude capture with the help of the Dutch underground for over four months. He was eventually captured by German counter-intelligence and sent to Stalag Luft III. Keeffe describes how he and his fellow POWs were forced to evacuate due to the Soviet advance and his eventual release and repatriation. He left the service after the war, but soon returned and retired from the Air Force in 1966.

Interview with Don Hibbitts, a Camp Wood resident.

Concert presented at the UNT College of Music Voertman Hall.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with James Mooney. Mooney received his Navy wings at Pensacola, Florida in October of 1943. He went aboard the USS Ranger (CV-4) and was sent to the South Pacific as a replacement pilot. He was then sent to Guadalcanal where he performed escort missions for C-47 Air Force planes up through the Solomon Islands and Admiralties. He was sent back to Pearl Harbor to become indoctrinated in the Hellcat at the Naval Air Station at Berbers Point. In September of 1944 he was assigned to the USS Essex (CV-9). His first combat was in the Philippines, in the Rescue Combat Air Patrol. He provides details of his flying missions to attack Japanese aircraft on airfields and Japanese destroyers in Manila Harbor. He participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October of 1944. He provides details of the planes that he flew during his missions. He was discharged around the summer of 1945.

Transcript of an oral interview with J. Whitfield Moody. He discusses joining the Navy to become a pilot, going through flight school and training at various bases in the States before joining the USS Chenango (CVE-28) in February of 1945 as part of squadron VT-260 flying TBM's and TBF's. The Chenango went to Guadalcanal to join the invasion force for Okinawa, where Moody flew submarine patrols, dropped bombs on the island, other surrounding islands and on Formosa to prevent the Japanese from using airstrips there to resupply Okinawa troops or make counterattacks from there. Moody also discusses having to land on Okinawa after getting hit by shrapnel from a bomb he dropped when he was flying too close to the ground, using fuel tanks taken from the Japanese to fuel up to get back to the carrier, and getting hit by ground fire after a bombing run over one of the surrounding islands, but managing to limp the plane back to the carrier. After Okinawa, Moody returned to the states for leave before reporting for duty at the Landing Signal Officer's school in Jacksonville, Florida, and being home on leave when the Japanese surrendered.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Maddux. Maddux joined the Navy in December 1942. He was sent to the USS Argonne (AS-10). Maddux describes his role as a deck seaman, coxswain, and boatswain’s mate. He also details the capabilities of the ship as well as the repair and supply work that it performed. Maddox describes the fatal explosion that occurred aboard the USS Mount Hood (AE-11) and how he was blown over the side of his own ship which was anchored 100 yards away. He mentions that 1,300 pounds of metal from the Mount Hood was recovered on the Argonne and finding a shell-shocked survivor clinging to a buoy two days later. Maddux describes how his ship converted PT boats from torpedo boats to gun boats and describes test driving one. He left the service in January 1946.

Lecture presented at the UNT College of Music Room M258 in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Clarence Wolgemuth. Wolgemuth joined the Army Air Forces in September 1942 and received basic training at Fort Meade. He received flight training in California and Arizona. He was sent to Port Moresby in April 1944 and crash landed in a jungle while on a training mission there. Natives took him in until he was rescued by his unit four days later. While there, he contracted malaria, experiencing his first symptoms several months later. Upon completion of his training, he was assigned to the 80th Fighter Squadron. He participated in 108 combat missions throughout the Pacific, both escorting B-17s and dropping bombs out of his P-38. On the night of 26 December 1944, Wolgemuth was one of 70 pilots sent on an impromptu strafing mission after a Japanese naval force was sighted off Mindoro. During the Battle of Manila, he dropped napalm to drive the Japanese out of the mountains. By the end of the war he had a total of 650 flying hours. His longest flight was over 8 hours, which was made possible after Charles Lindbergh came and gave demonstrations on maximizing the range of the P-38. …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Glenn Hope. Hope joined the Army Air Forces in 1941 and received flight training in Texas and Oklahoma in PT-19s and AT-6s. Upon completion, he was assigned to a P-40 squadron on Oahu. He was transferred to Port Moresby with the 80th Fighter Squadron, flying P-39s. The only advantage they had over Zeros was horsepower, so when Hope later became a flight instructor he taught pilots evasive maneuvers consisting of shallow dives and shallow climbs. His squadron received new P-38s, which Hope once pushed to 550 miles per hour while being pursued by a Zero. He shot down three Japanese planes in aerial combat, and is credited with one victory, which was confirmed by troops on the ground. He was sent back to the States to train pilots, producing triple-ace Robin Olds.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Hugh Shoults. Shoults joined the Army Air Forces in March 1944 and received basic training in Amarillo. Upon completion of radar maintenance school, he trained radar navigators and bombardiers for the invasion of Japan. After the war ended, he worked on the flight line, maintaining radios, until his discharge in June 1946. He was called to active duty during the Korean War as a maintenance officer at Fairchild. In 1951 he began pilot training, and from 1954 to 1957 he flew F-84s in Japan. He was then assigned to a parachute test facility in El Centro. Shoults served in Vietnam as an Air Force liaison officer to the 9th Infantry Division. He returned home in December 1967 and became a missile project supervisor at Vandenberg. He went on to earn a master’s degree in aerospace operations management and retired from the Air Force in June 1972.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jerry Mason. Mason joined the Army Air Forces in December 1942 and received basic training in Lincoln, Nebraska. He played reveille during training, which helped distinguish him from the other recruits and secure him a spot in fighter pilot training. After learning to fly the P-38 and P-39, he was sent to New Guinea and the Philippines, where he flew as Cy Homer’s wingman in the 80th Fighter Squadron, the Headhunters. He was shot down over Formosa and narrowly escaped drowning by deploying his inflatable raft, which was tied to his belt and pulled him to the surface. The next morning, he was rescued by a PBM Mariner. When the war ended, Mason served as an engineering officer in Manila, where he was ordered to set fire to L-1s once they were replaced with L-5s. Mason returned home and attended veterinarian school on the GI Bill; he went on to become base veterinarian at Elmendorf.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jim Davenport. Davenport was born 3 March 1925 in San Antonio, Texas. Graduating from high school in 1942, he joined the US Army Air Forces in September 1943 and received his basic training at Amarillo, Texas. After basic training he was sent to Iowa State Teacher College for three months to improve his skills in mathematics and sciences in preparation for entry into the Cadet program. Upon completion of pre-flight training at Santa Anna, California he elected to enter navigator school at Ellington Field in Baytown, Texas. Upon graduation he was sent to Lincoln, Nebraska and assigned to a B-24 crew as navigator. Davenport went to Mountain Home, Idaho for crew training and described observing a devastating crash of a B-24. Soon thereafter, he volunteered for an experimental pilot’s class and was selected to be sent to Randolph Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas for fighter plane training and advanced P-51 training at Williams Field, Arizona. Upon completion of P-51 training he was assigned to the 307th Fighter Squadron stationed at Turner Field, Albany, Georgia. He describes in detail a near fatal incident which occurred while practicing aerobatics. …

Transcript of an oral interview with Lloyd Dane Handschy. Handschy went to high school and college with John Glenn in New Concord, Ohio. They learned to fly together. Handschy joined the Marine Corps and went to pilot training at Pensacola. When he finished there, he was commissioned a second lieutenant and continued training in single engine aircraft. When he went overseas in 1943, he was assigned to VMF-213 and they went to the Solomon Islands. He describes aerial combat versus Japanese pilots. After the war, Handschy stayed i nthe Reserves and was called back for the Korean War, where he flew observation planes spotting for artillery units. On several occasions, Mrs. Handschy provides a lot of details. Handschy recalls flying Jack Benny, the entertainer, around so Benny could see the front lines.