The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jim Briscoe. Briscoe joined the Navy and received basic training at Great Lakes. Upon completion, he was assigned as a motor machinist to an auxiliary minesweeper sent to the shores of France. A diver would first walk the bottom of the harbor, cutting loose all the mines, which were then towed out to sea and detonated with machine gun fire. The ship once had the dangerous task of drawing enemy fire to help locate a nearby German howitzer; they spent 45 minutes dodging mortars while pretending to sweep mines. The ship was later sent to Okinawa to bring soldiers to China; they encountered a great typhoon along the way. They also carried a small box to the northern part of Japan, its contents precious but unknown. Briscoe then returned home and was discharged.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Heimsoth. Heimsoth joined the Navy in January of 1943. He participated in a choir group at the Great Lakes Naval Station. He completed amphibious training, and served as a Quartermaster aboard an USS LST-218. Heimsoth participated in the Gilbert Islands Campaign, the Marshall Islands operation, and the capture and occupation of Saipan. After the war, he served with the occupation forces in Japan. He returned to the US in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with H.L. Tyree. Tyree was born in Cullman County, Alabama on 4 August 1924. Drafted into the Army in 1943 he was sent to Camp Polk, Louisiana for basic training. He then went to Fort Ord, California where he trained as an amphibious tractor driver. After six months training, he was assigned to the 536th Amphibious Tractor Battalion and assigned as a tractor driver. After two months of advanced training, the unit boarded USS LST-608, along with their tractors, bound for the South Pacific. Tyree was in the first tractor to hit the beach during the invasion of Leyte, landing members of the 1st Calvary Division. Soon thereafter, Tyree became extremely sick requiring hospitalization. He was then put aboard a hospital ship and taken to San Francisco. He stayed in several hospitals before receiving a medical discharge on 4 September 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Willford Burks. Burks joined the Army around 1942. He was assigned to the 99th Infantry Division. They deployed to England in September of 1944. He participated in the Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace and Central Europe Campaigns. Burks returned to the US and was discharged in 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Florence Keliher. Keliher joined the Army as a registered nurse in December 1944 and received basic training at Fort Devens. Her training included a 20-mile hike in sub-zero temperatures. She was assigned to the 27th Station Hospital on Tinian, where she treated casualties from Iwo Jima and Okinawa. She often worked 12-hour days, seven days a week, tending to patients and training corpsmen. In her spare time, she would often take note of the B-29s leaving the base, keeping track of how many returned. When the Enola Gay departed, she said it looked like any other plane taking off. After the war, Keliher returned home and spent 30 years working at a VA Hospital in Maine.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Warren Link. Link joined the Navy in 1938. He completed Diesel Engineering School. From May of 1941 through December of 1944, Link served as a Machinist Mate aboard the USS Tambor (SS-198), completing 12 war patrols with the submarine. He traveled through Wake Island, Midway Island, Pearl Harbor, Australia, the Philippine Islands and Japan. In December of 1944, Link was transferred to the USS Diablo (SS-479), where he was stationed when the war ended. He returned to the US and was discharged in late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Smith. Smith participated in the Civilian Pilot Training Program before entering the Army Air Corps in late 1942. He graduated from flight school in August 1943. Smith was assigned to a B-24 crew and headed for North Africa in December 1943. From there, Smith went on bombing missions over Italy, Romania, etc. flying with the Fifteenth Air Force. After finishing combat missions, Smith ferried a B-24 back to San Antonio, his home in 1944. He then served as a flight instructor in Arizona until he got out of the service in October, 1945. He stayed in the Reserves and served briefly in Korea.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Richard Johnson. Johnson was eight years old when the war began. His father, despite being aged out of the draft, chose to enlist in the Coast Guard and was assigned to a tug boat as a watertender. Johnson visited him once and after that corresponded by V-mail. The tug’s crew was reported as KIA in the Philippines, but this was done in error after the boat had merely anchored in the wrong place. On the homefront, in Long Beach, Johnson was accustomed to an austere lifestyle and was not bothered much by rationing. He helped plant a victory garden and collected metal, rubber, and grease for the war effort. At school, he and his classmates made care packages for servicemen. Meanwhile, Johnson’s mother worked at the Douglas Aircraft factory. A nearby airfield complete with antiaircraft battery meant that his family used blackout curtains and took shelter from time to time. As a paperboy, Johnson sold the V-E and V-J Day headlines. His father returned home soon after and went to school on the G.I. Bill.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Fred Bishop. Bishop studied at Syracuse University beginning in 1935 but entered the labor force in 1937 due to financial hardship. In 1940 he joined the New York Army National Guard and was mobilized to Salinas, California, with the 27th Infantry Division, 108th Infantry Regiment. After becoming a staff sergeant, he decided to transfer to the Army Air Corps, where he attended school to become a second lieutenant and bombardier. In October 1942 he was assigned as an AT-11 instructor with the Army Air Forces in California, under strict orders to destroy his Sperry bombsight gyroscopes if needed, rather than surrender it to the enemy. In 1943, having trained 1,000 men, he began navigation school before joining a B-25 training outfit as a bombardier navigator and nose gunner. After the war, he was discharged into the reserves and was called to active duty in Korea with a B-29 crew before retiring as a captain.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Lee Young. Young joined the Army Air Forces in March 1943. Upon completion of pilot training he was assigned to the 95th Bombardment Group, Eighth Air Force. Stationed in England, he enjoyed good relations with the British. As pilot of a B-17, he felt vulnerable in combat, yet he carries great remorse for the civilian casualties he caused in Dresden. In Berlin, he faced a barrage of antiaircraft fire and was hit in the wing by a shell that missed the supercharger. Young managed to land in England despite the resulting fuel leak. On his next mission, a raid on Nuremberg, engine damage from antiaircraft fire caused him to crash-land in Belgium. The crew received assistance from the local mayor to reach American forces. Young endured 28 combat missions, earning multiple medals. He continued his military career to become highly decorated for his service in the Korean War. He retired from the Air Force as a colonel, having been awarded the Legion of Merit.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with George Scholes. Scholes joined the U.S. Navy’s V-12 program in 1943, graduating with the rank of ensign from the Midshipman's School at Northwestern University in Chicago. Scholes trained in ordnance at the Washington Naval Gun Factory and Jacksonville Naval Air Station. He was assigned to the Aviation Construction Ordinance Repair Navy unit, ACORN-52, in Guam. The unit occupied the Japanese Naval Base at Truk Atoll, in the Pacific. They built an airstrip and repaired an airplane base once belonging to the Japanese. He served in the Navy for three years and was discharged in June of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Virgil Cassel. Cassel joined the Navy in July of 1942. From September of 1942 through March of 1946 he served aboard the USS Enterprise (CV-6) as an Apprentice Seaman and Chief Yeoman. Cassel signed up for extended duty and served in Berlin, Germany for two years beginning in March of 1946. He was assigned as the admiral’s secretary in the Office of Military Government for the U.S. Navy. They were disbanding the Germany Navy. Cassel assisted Admiral William Glassford in the analysis of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. He provides some details of the trials he attended. He was discharged in November of 1947. He remained active in the Navy Reserves until joining the Air Force ROTC at the University of North Texas. Upon graduating in 1951 he received a commission in the Air Force as a second lieutenant and was called to active duty in the Korean War. Due to his number of hours in duty overseas, he remained at a base in Texas and completed the remainder of his Air Force career as an instructor in leadership in the Strategic Air Command Security School in Camp Carson, …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with George W Denby. Denby joined the Navy and earned his wings in December 1943 at Corpus Christi. He was assigned to the USS Enterprise (CV-6), flying a Grumman F4F Wildcat. At the Battle of the Philippine Sea he was knocked unconscious after being struck by an 18-inch shell. When he regained consciousness, he fired on his target and returned to the Enterprise. The next day, he was wounded in a dogfight with seven Zeroes. He jumped from his plane at 30,000 feet and broke his back when deploying his parachute. Zeroes continued firing on him as he hit the water, and his life jacket was full of holes. He swam for eight hours, bleeding severely and unable to move one of his legs. He was attacked by a shark but was eventually rescued and returned to the Enterprise. He finished his tour of duty with a total of 57 combat missions. While at Ulithi on R&R, he rubbed elbows with well-known fighter aces. For some time after the war, Denby was skittish while flying. But he flew combat missions in the Korean War and retired as a commander …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Ho. Ho was a boy living in Hong Kong when the Japanese attacked in December 1941. Ho’s father served as a major general in the Chinese Nationalist Army and the Japanese were after him and his family. They changed their identities and escaped to Luchow and joined his father. When the Japanese overran Luchow, Ho escaped to Kunming. He remained there for the rest of the war. When the war ended, Ho went to Macao before returning to Hong Kong.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Garfield Crawford. Crawford was born 13 June 1922 in Edgar, Wisconsin and graduated from high school in Green Bay. He entered the Army Air Forces in March 1943. He trained at various bases and with a variety of aircraft. Upon graduating from multi-engine, he was assigned as an aircraft commander and went to Walla Walla, Washington for crew training. Arriving at Nadzab, New Guinea he made several training flights with experienced pilots prior to going to Wakde where the crew was assigned a B-24 in the 307th Bomb Group, 421st Bomb Squadron. Crawford recalls his first combat mission to Balikpapan. Of the twenty-four bombers on the mission, fourteen where lost due to heavy flak and Japanese fighters. He also recalls a mission to Negros Island where they encountered sixty enemy aircraft that dropped phosphorus bombs and steel rods above his formation in attempts to knock them down. During this mission, his friend’s plane went down. A month later, while returning from a bombing mission over Corregidor, he saw signals on the ground from the surviving crew members. They were rescued and sent home. Crawford flew thirty-eight other mission, …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert C. Edgar. Edgar was born 30 March 1924 in Santa Ana, California. Upon entering the Army Air Forces in February 1943 he was sent to a college training detachment in La Grande, Oregon. After thirty days of pilot training he was sent to Santa Ana Air Base classification center for testing. Qualifying for bombardier training, he was sent to Kingman, Arizona to gunnery school. He also trained in Albuquerque as a bombardier. He graduated 18 March 1944 and received his bombardier wings and commission as a second lieutenant. Edgar then went to Fresno, California where his crew was assembled. They were then sent to Walla Walla, Washington for transition into B-24s. Upon completing their crew training they flew a new B-24 to Townsville, Australia. Leaving the plane, they were transported to Wakde, where they joined the 307th Bomb Group, 424th Bomb Squadron. His first combat mission over Balikpapan, Borneo lasted seventeen hours. Japanese fighters were encountered as well as heavy flak resulting in the loss of some planes. Edgar recalls one combat mission when Japanese aircraft flew above the B -24 formation and dropped phosphorus bombs and …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Lois Kerimis. Kerimis graduated from Rawlins College in Winter Park, Florida in 1938, at 21 years old, with a Bachelors in Foreign Languages. She and her family were moved by the YMCA to Honolulu, where she taught at the Punahou Academy and her father was the Activities Director of the Army and Navy YMCA. She shares experiences of their life living and touring the island before the war, where her family fed and cared for homesick enlisted men and officers. They were living in Honolulu when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred 7 December 1941. She provides vivid details of this day, including witnessing a bomb dropping in the empty lot across from her home and lights out in the evening. Because Kerimis was fluent in four languages, including German, she was drafted by the Naval Intelligence on 8 December 1941. She served as a civilian employee, working with a Dictaphone interpreting phone calls in German between the Japanese and Germans. Kerimis left Hawaii in 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Charles Misenheimer. Misenheimer served in the Army from March to October of 1944. He completed basic training and went to the 99th Division. In October of 1944 he received an appointment to the Naval Academy in Annapolis and was discharged from the Army. He provides some details of his experiences at the Navy Academy Preparatory School. In early 1945 Misenheimer was assigned to the USS Midway (CV-41), as the carrier was initially being launched. He served in the gunnery division on a Quad-40mm Antiaircraft Gun. They traveled to the Atlantic and Guantanamo Bay. He provides details of life aboard the Midway. The Midway never entered into combat. Misenheimer made Seaman First Class and was discharged in June of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Ward McGill. McGill joined the Army in June of 1943. He completed boot camp at Camp Abbot in Oregon. He trained as a Combat Engineer, building Bailey bridges and pine log bridges. He provides great details of his training. He was assigned to Company B, 66th Armored Infantry Battalion, 12th Armored Division. Around September of 1944 they traveled to England where McGill worked as an assistant squad leader, driving a half-track. In November they landed at Le Havre, France, supporting the 94th Infantry Division up to the banks of the Rhine River, enduring numerous attacks and casualties of fellow servicemen. McGill was wounded in April of 1945 by a sniper near Würzburg, Germany. He was discharged in 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Thompson. One of seven boys, he was born in Dewar, Oklahoma 29 November 1921. Six of the boys served in the military during World War II, with two of them being killed in combat. Thompson describes his family life during the depression telling a touching story of his mother. After graduating from high school in 1938, he attended college for 2 years before going to California to work in a Northrup Aircraft plant. In 1942, he returned home and joined the Army. After completing basic training, he entered Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Field Artillery in March 1943. After attending Ranger School, he went overseas. He tells of his experiences in North Africa and Italy where he was assigned to the 132nd Field Artillery as a forward observer. During August 1944, he went to Southern France, where he was captured by the Germans. He recalls the various POW camps he was moved to including one in Hammelburg, Germany. While there, a US tank column, under the leadership of General George Patton liberated the inmates. Thompson recalls being captured again and …

Transcript of an oral interview with Glenn E. McDuffie. He begins by talking about how he lied about his age to join the Navy at 15, describes boot camp, becoming an Armed Guard on merchant ships transporting supplies across the Atlantic, being in London while German bombers flew overhead, in Marsellies and Naples soon after those places were liberated and transporting German prisoners out. He then describes how he came to be in Times Square when he heard the Japanese had surrendered and was the sailor in the iconic photo of the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square on V-J Day, how he proved he was the sailor in the photo, what he did after the war and finding out his brother survived the Bataan Death March.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James G Rabalais. Rabalais joined the Army in 1943 and volunteered for parachute school. He joined the 188th Parachute Regiment in the Philippines, training on bazookas and flamethrowers while there. He was assigned to patrol jungle areas and never encountered any enemies. In preparation for the invasion of Japan, he made test jumps out of modified B-24 bomb bays; normally, he would jump from C-46 Commandos and C-54 Skymasters. After the surrender, he was instructed to scale a mountain in Japan with the goal of contacting people on the other side, but the snow was too deep. Rabalais returned home and was discharged in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Jagers. Jagers joined the Navy in June 1942 and received basic training at Great Lakes. He attended signalman and quartermaster school there and received amphibious forces training in Maryland. Upon completion, he was assigned to an LST sent to North Africa, where Jagers was treated for appendicitis in a hospital that was bombed daily. He rejoined his unit for landings at Sicily, Salerno, and Anzio. At Normandy, his LST carried supplies from the USS Davis (DD-395) to Utah Beach. They loaded 1,000 prisoners and 250 paratrooper casualties and brought them back to England. Each day, Jagers spent four hours guarding prisoners, four hours tending to the wounded, and four hours standing watch. After dozens of trips across the Channel, the ship was decommissioned and handed over to the British. Jagers returned to the States in December 1944 and gave boot camp training at Great Lakes before he was discharged. He authored a book about his experiences, entitled Whales of World War II.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Hugh Sheffield. Sheffield joined the Navy when he was 17 years old. He received basic training in Jacksonville and attended electrician’s mate school in Mississippi. Upon completion, was sent to the New Hebrides and then Guam, performing general duties such as digging ditches. At Subic Bay he was taught to engineer an LCVP, in preparation for the invasion of Japan. His crew was a mixture of inexperienced seamen, aviation radiomen, and soldiers fresh out of the brig; Sheffield suspects the motley crew was assigned an old Higgins boat as part of an expendable first wave of attack. After Japan surrendered, Sheffield was sent to Tokyo Bay and worked aboard several different ships. He was discharged and attended college on the GI Bill.