The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Joseph Finigan. Finigan joined the Navy in January 1941. He worked at a Navy radio station and then was sent to the USS Bootes (AK-99) to serve as a yeoman. Finigan describes his ship picking up wounded Marines at New Caledonia. The Bootes was then designated as an ammunition ship and operated out of New Guinea. He discusses what it was like to serve on an ammunition ship. Finigan traveled to the Philippines where the Bootes continued to distribute ammunition to the fleet. He tells of the Bootes shooting down 6 Japanese planes in one day including a close call with a kamikaze. Finigan returned to the US and was discharged for medical reasons in June 1945.

Transcript of an oral interview with Marvin T. Alexander. Alexander grew up in Louisiana and entered the Navy in early 1941. Upon completion of basic training at San Diego, Alexander was assigned as an engine mechanic to Patrol Squadron 12 (VP-12), which flew PBY airplanes at Coronado Naval Air Station. His unit was sent to Pearl Harbor in October, 1941. Alexander describes what he witnessed at Ford Island on 7 December 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Alexander was also present on Midway during the Battle of Midway. Eventually, VP-12 headed for the Solomon Islands where they conducted search and rescue operations. Alexander and VP-12 stayed aboard the USS Wright (AV-1), a seaplane tender. Sometime in 1943, Alexander received some home leave and returned to the US. He was still stationed in the US when the war ended.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Brayton Harris. Harris was a child during WWII and discusses recycling and victory gardens. He was commissioned as an officer in 1953 and served on a destroyer based in Japan. Brayton eventually was stationed at Treasure Island in California and met Admiral Nimitz. He tells of dice games that he used to play with Nimitz at the officer’s club. Brayton served as an active member of the Naval Reserve for some time and later went on to write a biography on Nimitz and discusses some of his research.

Transcript of an oral interview with John A. Reulet. Reulet graduated from high school in 1940, went to a trade school studying to be a machinist, became a government inspector (ammunition plant), and went into the Navy in May 1943 after he was drafted. After boot camp in San Diego, he went to San Francisco where he was put on a troop ship which went to New Caledonia. At New Caledonia, he went to gunnery school part of the time and assigned to an LCI gun boat which had already seen action so they had a lot of maintenance to do. From there, four of the boats (23, 70, 68? and probably 67) went to Tulagi. According to Reulet, these LCI gunboats were designed to protect the UDT men. The gunboats supported the invasion of Treasury Island and Bougainville. After Bouganville, they took the 23 boat to Australia for repairs (dry dock) and then came back to Tulagi. They supported the invasion of Green Island next. Reulet had a hospital stay there after getting infected with coral. From there, they went to New Guniea, New Hollandia and then Morotai. Then they got ready for the big one - Leyte in …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Donald Bunnell. Bunnell joined the Marine Corps in 1942, fresh out of high school, and received basic training in San Diego. Upon completion of radio school, he was assigned to the 4th Marine Division, working a Hagelin coding machine in the message center. He was instructed that in the event of impending enemy capture he should burn his records and then commit suicide. But by the time he arrived in Iwo Jima, his skills had become obsolete and he stepped aside to let Navajo code talkers take over. Bunnell returned home after the atomic bombs were dropped and was discharged. He was shocked to learn secondhand that his father had participated in the Manhattan Project, though his father would never admit to it.

Concert presented at the UNT College of Music Voertman Hall.