The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Orlan Scott. Scott joined the Navy in 1944. He completed amphibious force training. Scott served aboard USS Texas (BB-35) beginning in March of 1945, participating in the Battle of Okinawa. He returned to the US and received a discharge in May of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Eugene Hillyer. Hillyer joined the Marine Corps in 1942 and received basic training at Parris Island and further training at Camp Lejeune. Upon completion, he was sent to Kwajalein and Roi-Namur. During a rest period at Hickam Field, he was brought aboard the USS Texas (BB-35) along with a detachment of Marines. He manned an M1 rifle from the crow’s nest at Okinawa, shooting down kamikazes and detonating floating bombs disguised as ammunition cans. He watched as the flag was raised on Mount Suribachi, and recalls the beauty of all the ships lit against the night sky when the war ended and blackouts were lifted. Hillyer returned home and was discharged in September 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Clinton Shoppe. Shoppe joined the Navy in 1943. In early 1944 he served on the deck force and the 14-inch guns aboard the USS California (BB-44). They traveled to Pearl Harbor, and participated in bombardments during the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, the Philippines Campaign, and the Battles of Leyte Gulf and Lingayen Gulf. Shoppe shares his experiences through a kamikaze attack on the California. He returned to the US and received his discharge in December of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Thomas Turner. Turner joined the Navy in 1943 and attended boot camp in Virginia with the Seabees. He shipped overseas in early 1944 and headed first for the Solomon Islands in time for the invasion of the Admiralty Islands with the 11th CBs. He was attached to the 71st CB in time for the invasion of Okinawa and went ashore on the first day. at both places, his outfit either built air bases or improved airfields. Turner recall souvenir hunting on Okinawa. He was there when the war ended and was discharge din early 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Everett Smiley. Smiley volunteered for service in the Army Air Forces in January 1943 and trained as a pilot. He earned a commission and his wings in December. After flight training, he reported for duty in Hobbs, New Mexico to learn to fly B-17s. Once he was stationed in Italy in July, 1944, he flew 51 combat missions before returning to the US in May. Smiley flew missions over Italy, Austria, Germany and other points in Europe and shares anecdotes about his experiences.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with George Young. Young was drafted into the Navy in 1944 and trained at Great Lakes. After training, he reported to Hawaii and was assigned aboard the USS Kaskaskia (AO-27). While aboard, he worked in the galley and helped operate the captain’s gig. When the war ended, Young elected to get out of the Navy and was discharged.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Kenneth Barclay. Barclay joined the Army in February of 1943. He served as a rifleman with the 27th Infantry Division, 165th Infantry Regiment. He deployed to Honolulu, Hawaii in May. Barclay participated in the Battle of Makin in November, the Battle of Saipan in mid-1944, the Battle of Okinawa in April of 1945. He received his discharge in November.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with James Gillespie. Gillespie joined the Navy in late 1944. Beginning around mid-1945, he served on Corregidor Island, Philippines as Radarman 2nd Class. He worked guard duty and serviced a radar atop a mountain on the island. He recalls his time living and working on Corregidor, and the removal of Japanese prisoners-of-war from the island. He continued his service after the war ended, returning to the US in the spring of 1946 to receive his discharge.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Robert Erfurth. Erfurth joined the Army Air Forces in 1943. He completed Armament and Aerial Gunnery training. He served as a B-24 Armorer with the 8th Air Force, 392nd Bombardment Group. They deployed to England and Erfurth completed 27 bombing missions over Germany and France. He received his discharge in late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Howard Wander. Wander joined the Army and received basic training at Camp Wheeler. He went on to Officer Candidate School and was commissioned in 1942. He then worked as a platoon leader all over the United States. He went as a replacement to the Americal Division, working beside Filipinos to capture Japanese holdouts. After the war ended, he was reassigned to the Eighth Army in Yokohama as head of military police. Wander returned home and was discharged in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Austin Estes. Estes was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1922. In 1942 he joined the Navy and received boot training at San Diego. He was then sent to the University of Oklahoma to attend ordnance school followed by three months of training at the Mine Warfare Test Station in Solomons, Maryland. He was then sent to the Naval Mine Warfare Station in Yorktown, Virginia where he was assigned to a team that received an additional ten weeks of training. The team was then assigned to the USS Bogue (CVE-9). He worked with torpedoes and bombs for use by the carrier based planes for anti-submarine warfare. He recalls that planes from the Bogue sunk thirteen German submarines while he was assigned to the ship. Following the end of World War II, Estes was assigned to shore patrol duties in San Francisco.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Marilyn Richards Dow. Dow joined the Navy Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, WAVES, in March of 1943. She attended Navy Storekeeper School in Bloomington, Indiana. She was stationed at a base in Edenton, North Carolina as a teletypist, taking coded messages for and from her commanding officer. She shares stories of working and living at the base, and meeting her husband there. Dow was discharged in May of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Paul Sebacher. Sebacher’s son David assists with the interview. Sebacher enlisted in the Navy in December of 1942. He completed boot camp in Chicago. He volunteered for submarine training in New London, Connecticut. He boarded the USS Picuda (SS-382) at Pearl Harbor in January of 1944. He served as the electrician on board. From Pearl Harbor they went to Midway Island. He made six patrols and sunk Japanese ships on every patrol. He provides detail of these patrols and sinking around 26 ships. They also traveled to Saipan. He was discharged in January of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Joseph Dubray. Dubray joined the Navy in June, 1943 and trained in San Diego. Afterwards, he was assigned to USS San Juan (CL-54) in December. He went with the ship to the Marshall Islands and describes his experience crossing he equator. He shares several anecdotes about life aboard the cruiser and some about the surrender and going ashore in Japan.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Robert Hanley. Hanley joined the Navy in January of 1941. He served as a Pharmacist’s Mate aboard the USS Houston (CA-30), providing general first aid and administering shots to the soldiers. In February of 1942 they participated in the Battle of Sunda Strait, where the Houston was sunk. Hanley describes his experiences through the sinking of their ship, getting captured by the Japanese, surviving in the POW camp and providing medical care for his fellow captives. In 1945 he was sent to a camp in Thailand working in a medical pool. He was liberated there and returned to the US and was discharged in February of 1947.

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.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Raymond S. Pugh. Pugh enlisted in the Navy when he was 17 in August, 1941. Pugh begins describing his career in the Navy with his activities on Tulagi. Pugh then shifts to discussing his role aboard the USS Hornet (CV-8) during the Doolittle Raid. He describes watching the pilots practicing taking off the carrier's deck in Chesapeake Bay before sailing through the Panama Canal, loading sixteen B-25s on the Hornet's deck at Alameda and rendezvousing with the USS Enterprise (CV-6) in the Pacific. Pugh recounts a story of encountering his brother at Pearl Harbor close to the end of the war.

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 interview with Bailey Salmon. Salmon joined the Marine Corps in March of 1943. He completed advanced training with landing craft vehicles, and was placed in the V-12 Navy College Training Program. He traveled to a transit center in Hawaii, and practiced for the invasion of Japan. He was transferred to Guam, and joined the 3rd Marine Division. Shortly thereafter, the bombs were dropped and the war ended. He was ranked as Acting 1st Sergeant and worked on patrol missions. His discharge date is not noted, though likely around late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Carlo Didio. Didio joined the Navy in early 1942, having already worked as a patternmaker in the ship repair unit at the Norfolk Naval Yard. After basic training, he was stationed at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard as a second class patternmaker. He commissioned and boarded the USS Kermit Roosevelt (ARG-16) as part of the repair crew at the Panama Canal. The ship then headed for Saipan. Didio then traveled to Okinawa, where his ship immediately disembarked with countless other ships, fleeing a typhoon. After 12 days in the storm, the ship lost track of the seven LSTs they were shepherding. The captain advised everyone to put on their life vests as he turned back into the wind and waves to find them. Six were recovered, one having washed ashore on Formosa. Didio’s last station before discharge was Sing Tao, where the locals were neither friendly nor unfriendly but simply wanted to sell goods. He returned home in June 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Earl Kohlman. Kohlman joined the Navy in 1944 after beginning college in pre-med. Despite requesting to be a medic, after an aptitude test he was assigned to radio school. Upon completion, he narrowly missed being assigned to the USS Indianapolis (CA-35). He instead boarded the USS Langley (CVL-27), copying code around the clock and maintaining the ship’s antennae. His battle station was in the navigator’s compartment, where he was in charge of communications within the ship. He worked briefly in the Combat Information Center (CIC) and hated to hear the distress calls of ships in combat or, worse, to lose all communication with them. But he found typhoons to be even more dangerous than battle. When he received the message that the first atomic bomb had been dropped, he copied the code and handed it to his communications officer, who immediately decoded it and accused Kohlman of dreaming. After the war he visited Naples, and was caught in a major storm off of Gibraltar. Kohlman returned home and was discharged in June 1946. He returned to school, earning a teaching degree in economics and government.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with R.V. Burgin. Burgin was born in Marquez, Texas 13 August 1922 and joined the Marine Corps in March 1941. Completing boot camp, he went to Camp Elliott, California for training with 60mm mortars. He boarded the USS Mount Vernon (AP-22) and went to Melbourne, Australia. Upon arrival, he was assigned to K Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division (Eugene B. Sledge, author of With the Old Breed, served in K/3/5 with Burgin). On 1 January 1944 he landed on Cape Gloucester, New Britain. Burgin describes repelling a number of Japanese banzai charges. Burgin also describes the invasion of Peleliu and comments on the high casualty rate. Once the island was secured his unit went to Pavuvu for rest. On 1 April 1945 he landed on Okinawa. During the battle, Burgin was wounded. After being treated at a field hospital he returned to the front lines and remained there until the island was secured.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Cook. Cook joined the Navy in November of 1939, and completed submarine school. Beginning April of 1942, he served as a fireman aboard the USS Silversides (SS-236). He traveled to Japan and Truk participating in 2 successful war patrols. From November of 1944 through April of 1945 he was assigned to the USS Flasher (SS-249), traveling to the South China Sea and completing war patrols five and six, sinking two Japanese destroyers, Kishinami and Iwanami. After the war ended, Cook enlisted in the Army, when he was discharged as Chief Petty Officer in August of 1945.