The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with A K Sheffield. Sheffield joined the Navy in late 1943. He completed Armed Guard School in San Diego. He served with the Navy Armed Guard aboard a transport ship, and traveled to the Philippine Islands. In May of 1944, Sheffield was aboard the SS Henry Bergh when it ran aground on the Farallon Islands, and shares details of those events. He traveled through the Pacific Islands, to Japan and throughout the Atlantic. Sheffield does not speak of participating in any battles or combat. He returned home aboard USS Iowa (BB-61) after the war ended in late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Thomas L. Stafford. Stafford joined the Army in March 1943. He was trained as a quartermaster and sent to England as a replacement. Stafford volunteered to join the 6th Combat Engineer Amphibious Special Assault Brigade which was attached to the 29th Infantry Division. He describes landing on the wrong part of Omaha Beach on D-Day being sent to find a sergeant who had combat fatigue. Stafford was then sent to the 87th Infantry Division where he participated in front line combat from the Battle of the Bulge through the end of the war in Germany. He became a platoon leader and eventually received a battlefield commission. Stafford discusses crossing the Rhine under heavy fire and seeing Buchenwald soon after it was liberated. One of his proudest achievements occurred when he accepted the surrender of two German division near the end of the war.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Thomas Jeter. Jeter was drafted into the Navy in 1943. He found boot camp to be tough, and some men committed suicide there. Jeter attended fire-control school in Bainbridge and then boarded USS New York (BB-34) as a fire controlman, working with highly classified computers and gyroscopes. Because his commanding officer was a childhood friend, Jeter turned down promotions to avoid misperceptions of favoritism. He instead served as the telephone man and orderly for the captain. In combat, Jeter served as the main battery director, witnessing the bloody aftermath of friendly fire from his battle station at Iwo Jima. After a kamikaze attacked the ship at Okinawa, Jeter saved the rising sun emblem from its wing as a souvenir. Upon returning to the States, Jeter guarded German prisoners at Norfolk. After his discharge, he earned a degree in physics on the GI Bill, later befriending several Japanese colleagues through his work.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Roy Hughes. Hughes joined the Navy in July of 1943. He completed Midshipman School in December of 1944. Beginning in January of 1945, he served as a Fighter Director aboard USS Kasaan Bay (CVE-69). They completed anti-submarine patrols and combat operations through Guam and Okinawa. He returned to the US and was discharged around late 1945, early 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Karel Dahmen. Dahmen was born in the Netherlands and witnessed the bombing of Rotterdam in May 1940. He recalls the chaos of fires burning and people being shot. With two friends he quickly manned a vacant boat and carried 45 Jews across the North Sea to England, using only a compass and school atlas for navigation. He joined the Dutch Navy in February 1941 and was assigned to HNLMS Jacob van Heemskerck as a radar operator. He went in convoy to Iceland to dismantle a German weather station. Dahmen recalls picking up Germans who were eager to turn themselves in and become prisoners-of-war. At the end of the year he attended officer school and became an engineer officer. He was then assigned to the Dutch Naval Liaison office in England, where he received messages and delivered news of the attack on Pearl Harbor to the Dutch prime minister. After the war he was sent for training at Camp Lejeune and Camp Endicott to work with Marines and Seabees in preparation for deployment to Indonesia. With the Dutch Marine Corps, he facilitated Indonesia’s transition to independence. Dahmen was reunited …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Shelby Brown. Brown joined the Navy around 1942. Beginning April of 1943, he served as Seaman Second Class aboard USS Nashville (CL-43). Brown and his division took care of the fantail of the ship and the five turrets in their main battery. In August they traveled to Pearl Harbor to join carrier task forces for strikes on Marcus and Wake islands. They traveled to Espiritu Santo, crossing the equator, and had a shellback initiation. From Espiritu they shelled targets on New Guinea and the Admiralty Islands. They provided support for landings on Bougainville and Leyte. Brown recalls the ship being hit by a kamikaze, off Negros Island in December of 1944. In May of 1945 they provided fire support for the landings on Borneo. He was discharged in December of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Earl Ewing. Ewing enlisted in the Marine Corps in March of 1943. He was trained as a tanker and was sent to the Pacific as a replacement crewman where he joined the 3rd Amphibious Tractor Battalion. He crewed LVTs during the invasions of Guam and Iwo Jima. His LVT was hit and caught fire during the landing on Guam. During the battle for Iwo Jima, Ewing’s LVT was sent inland to retrieve wounded Marines and he had to guide it through a minefield. Ewing was discharged on 7 December 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Howard Parr. Parr was inducted into the Army in July 1942 where he served as a radio operator in the Signal Corps. In 1944 he was sent to OCS to become an officer in the Signal Corps. In November 1944, he was sent to Finschhafen, New Guinea to serve with the 3169th Signal Service Battalion. He later volunteered to serve in a signal unit attached to the 273rd Heavy Construction Company, an engineering unit consisting of primarily African-American troops. The unit was eventually shipped to the Philippines. Parr left active duty in February 1946, but remained in the Army Reserve.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Campbell. Campbell joined the Merchant Marine in March of 1942. He began as a wiper working in the engine room. Campbell soon found work on the North Atlantic convoy. His ship was torpedoed and sunk on the way to Murmansk. His next ship hit a mine and was forced to run aground. Campbell was a crewman on a ship that arrived at Cherbourg after the storm that destroyed the Mulberry Harbor. He also manned a diesel engine on a barque that made runs to France. Campbell was forced to spend time in a Naval hospital upon his return to the States for convoy fatigue. Next, he traveled to the Mediterranean where his ship transported a chemical warfare unit. Campbell eventually ended up in the Pacific near the end of the war to transport munitions for the invasion of Japan. He made one final voyage to Brazil after the surrender.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Wallace Morger. Morger enlisted into the Marine Corps Reserves on 13 October 1942. After boot camp in San Diego, Morger went to the naval station in Newport, Rhode Island to study electronics for three months. Morger then went to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina where he joined the 16th Pioneer Battalion. They joined the 5th Marine Division at Camp Pendleton. Morger was transferred out of the pioneer battalion and became the police sergeant in charge of clean-up duties and the battalion bugler. After a special pre-embarkation furlough, the entire division was shipped to Camp Tarawa, Hawaii arriving in the middle of September 1944. When the division shipped out, no one knew where they were going to Iwo Jima. Morger landed with the 7th or 8th wave as part of the 28th Regiment, First Battalion, Company C. He talks of the devastating fire they took once ashore and all the caves and spider holes that the Japanese hid in. For the first 10 days of fighting, Morger was in charge of security for the stretcher bearers. He was at the base of Mount Suribachi when he saw the flag go …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Thomas French. French joined the Navy and received basic training in San Diego. He received hospital corpsman training and was sent to the Solomon Islands, where he participated in evacuating wounded out of Guadalcanal. Patients were transferred with French in DC-3s, or C-47s, along with supplies ranging from toilet paper to hand grenades. French returned to the United States and served as a pharmacist’s mate at Miramar for one year. He then went to the Marshall Islands and on to Okinawa with Marine Fighter Squadron 311 (VMF-311). Bombs fell so close to him there that he experienced a permanent ringing in his ears. He stayed briefly with the occupation forces in Yokosuka, near Yokohama. French returned home and was discharged as a chief pharmacist mate.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Charles Cunningham. Cunningham joined the Army in the spring of 1943 while enrolled at Texas A&M and received basic training at Fort Riley. In the summer of 1944 he was pulled out of engineering training and selected as an infantryman, despite his educational background. He remembers that as a private he was reading and writing letters for his platoon sergeant, who was illiterate. He landed on Omaha Beach six weeks after the invasion and recalls a mess of mass graves. He was sent to Italy, where he joined the 135th Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division, in Bologna. He spent the winter of 1944-1945 in the harsh conditions of the North Apennines. He sprained his ankle on the way to the front lines at Po Valley and was sent to an evacuation hospital. After recovering, he traveled through Torino in search of his unit. There he saw young and frightened German prisoners-of-war. He found his unit in Milan after the war had ended. Cunningham was transferred to a service company of the 5th Army and oversaw hotels and bars at GI rest areas in the Italian Riviera. He met …

Transcript of an oral interview with William M. Stegall. He begins by speaking about scrap metal and scrap rubber drives he participated in during high school in Fort Woth, Texas. After high school, he volunteered for the Navy and was called into the service in April, 1945. Stegall describes in some detail his experiences while in training at San Diego. When he completed basic training, he was assigned to the USS Robert K. Huntington (DD-781) as a torpedoman and reported aboard right before the Japanese surrendered. Stegall recalls attacking a rogue Japanese submarine. Before the Bikini Atoll atomic tests, Stegall was transferred to a minesweeper and did not go to Bikini. He speaks of celebrating V-J Day in Long Beach.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Fred Daum. Daum joined the Navy in February 1942 and received basic training at Great Lakes and electrician’s mate training at the University of Minnesota. Upon completion, he was assigned to USS LCI-67, where he was responsible for all the electrical work aboard ship. At Bougainville, on Christmas Eve 1943, his ship was tasked with going one mile behind the Japanese position with the purpose of drawing artillery fire to locate their battery; fortunately, the Japanese never opened fire and Daum escaped unscathed. He was transferred back to the States in July 1944, helping run bond rallies, using search lights to illuminate the latest military equipment. Daum was discharged in October 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Earle Opheim. Opheim volunteered to join the Navy in May 1943 and trained in Idaho. He then trained as a hospital corpsman and worked in a recovery ward at Oak Knoll Hospital then a first aid station at Alameda, California. He was then transferred to the 113th Fleet hospital in San Francisco where he helped tend to returning wounded prior to shipping them elsewhere. Sometimes, he was called upon to do some transport work. He was discharged in May, 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Edmond Ward. Ward joined the Army in 1942. He served with the 1st Infantry Division, 18th Infantry Regiment. He participated with the Omaha Beach landing forces during the Invasion of Normandy and served in the Battle of the Bulge. Ward returned to the US and received his discharge in November of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Louis Lepore. Lepore was born 24 May 1923 to immigrant parents in San Diego. He attended San Diego State College. In July of 1943, he was activated into the V-12 Navy College Training Program. In 1944 he completed boot camp and went to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina for OCS training. After being commissioned, Lepore joined the 5th Marine Division in Hawaii and trained at Camp Tarawa. In late 1944 he arrived at Iwo Jima where he was assigned as platoon leader with Company A, 1st Battalion, 27th Marines. He vividly describes combat situations, the 75% casualties suffered in his company and the burial procedure used to inter the dead. Following the surrender of Japan, Lepore took part in destroying Japanese war materials and expresses his conviction that the use of the atomic bomb saved many thousands of lives both American and Japanese. Lepore received his discharge in mid-1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Benjamin Ostrofsky. Ostrofsky joined the Army Air Forces in January of 1943 as an Aviation Cadet. He completed Navigation School that same year. He then went through a College Training Detachment at the University of Massachusetts to study algebra and physics. In 1944, Ostrofsky completed pre-flight training as part of his navigation training at Maxwell Air Force Base, and received additional navigation training at Ellington Air Force Base, graduating January of 1945. While waiting for assignment with a B-29 combat crew headed for the Pacific, the war ended. He shares numerous details of his training experiences. He served in the Reserves in the Korean War, and was discharged around late 1953.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Bill Barrow. Barrow joined the Navy in April of 1944. And, beginning in June, Barrow served aboard the USS Claxton (DD-571). Barrow was assigned to a 40-millimeter gun and served as a deckhand. They went to the Solomon Islands, escorting other ships and the old USS Mississippi (BB-41). He discusses life aboard the Claxton, and his initiation experiences crossing the equator. They participated in the Battle of Peleliu and the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944. Barrow was discharged in February of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with William Lindsey. Lindsey provides background on his family’s history. He completed a Civilian Pilot Training program in Monticello, Arkansas. He began flying school in February of 1941, training in San Angelo, Barksdale and Great Falls, Montana. The US Army Air Corps accepted him in the 41G Class. He became a Ferry Pilot, working with Jimmy Doolittle’s organization in Pendleton, Oregon, practicing take-offs in B-25s to bomb Japan. He ferried planes in 1942 out of Long Beach, and then Great Falls. He participated in the China Burma India Theater in 1945 and flying The Hump. He traveled several times to Japan. Lindsey provides much detail on flying various types of aircraft and life overseas. He was discharged in December of 1945 and remained in the inactive reserves until 1959.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Pedro Alvarez Vasquez. Vasquez was drafted into the Army around 1943 and assigned to the 87th Armored Field Artillery. In 1944, they were deployed to England. Vasquez traveled throughout France and Germany with the tanks, in charge of gasoline, ammunition, serving as an assistant driver and working the machine guns. He recalls his experiences during the Battle of the Bulge. He returned to the US in November of 1945 and received his discharge.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Robert Murphy. Murphy joined the Navy in late 1942. After boot training at Great Lakes, he went to quartermaster school in Rhode Island. Upon completion, Murphy was assigned to USS Carlson (DE-9). He was on the commissioning crew and rode it through the Panama Canal to the Pacific. He was transferred off the ship, underwent further training, and was assigned to ACORN-44 and sent to Okinawa. He arrived at Okinawa when the fighting was winding down and set up a seaplane base on Buckner Bay. He remained on Okinawa until he had enough points t oreturn to the US and be discharged in January 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with O. Harold Mainer. Mainer joined the Navy in October, 1940 and trained at San Diego. He was then assigned as a deckhand to USS Helena (CL-50) and caught the ship in Hawaii in late 1940 and was still aboard during the attack on Pearl Harbor, which he describes. Mainer was aboard when Helena sank at Kula Gulf. Then, Mainer was transferred to USS Munsee (ATF-107), an ocean going tug, for the remainder of the war. He was discharged in January 1947.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Arnold Holden. Holden joined the Navy on 30 December 1943. He served as a coxswain aboard USS Olmsted (APA-188). They transported troops and supplies in support of amphibious operations, traveling to New Guinea, Leyte and Okinawa. Additionally, they participated in the first occupational landings in Japan. He returned to the US and received his discharge in 1946.