The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Lawrence Warren. Warren joined the Navy in 1942. He was assigned to the USS Enterprise (CV-6) as a member of the 2nd Deck Division. Warren was a member of the gun crew of a quad-40mm anti-aircraft gun. He details 40mm operations, assignments, and gun watches. Warren describes anti-aircraft operations and being hit by Japanese bombs and a kamikaze. He also discusses some of the tasks performed as a small boat coxswain. Warren left the Navy in November 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Clyde Dahlin. Dahlin was drafted into the Army in 1943. He was sent to the Pacific and joined the 25th Infantry Division as a replacement rifleman. Dahlin discusses the combat conditions that he faced in Northern Luzon. He tells of an incident where he helped evacuate a wounded soldier and hiding in fox holes from enemy fire. Dahlin was removed from the frontlines toward the end of the war because he was only 18. He became an MP and tells of interactions that he witnessed between Filipinos and Japanese POWs. Dahlin then tells of his experiences during the year that he served in occupied Japan.

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 Roland Fisher. Fisher was born in Ainsworth, Nebraska 19 January 1921. He reflects on the depression’s effects in his formative years. After graduating from high school in 1939 he applied for the aviation cadet training program but was rejected for colorblindness. Undaunted, he took private flying lessons, becoming certified in 1940. Upon applying, he was accepted into the Royal Air Force in May 1941 and was sent to Tulsa for four months of training. Upon completion of flight training he went to England where, in January 1942, he was commissioned as a flight officer and began flying AS-10 Oxfords. In the summer of 1942 he went to RAF Instructor School in Scotland and spent several months giving instruction in night flying. He was then transferred into the 8th Air Force. After flying B-17s for a time, he was selected to set up a night fighter training school in Orlando, Florida. During September 1943, the 418th Night Fighter Squadron was formed with Fisher designated as the operations officer. He was sent to New Guinea to assist in setting up a 5th Air Force night fighter squadron. The squadron suffered …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Edwards. Edwards joined the Army Air Forces in 1944. He was trained as an aircraft engine mechanic and was sent to the Philippines where he became a crewman on an A-26 bomber. Edwards describes how his plane flew missions with P-61s as escorts and gives some detail on the types of targets that were selected. He talks about how his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire and forced down during an attack on a Japanese airfield. Edwards was captured and interrogated by the Japanese. He describes the treatment that he received and how he lost half of his total body weight in his six months as a POW. Edwards was liberated at the end of the war, hospitalized in Tokyo, and returned to the US where he reenlisted and remained in the service until 1949.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Bianca Cunningham. Cunningham was born in Brazil to an Italian mother and a German Jew who was a sculptor and architect that had won a competition to build the Presidential Palace. Eventually Cunningham traveled with her mother to her hometown in Capri where she remained throughout the war. She witnessed life under Mussolini, the German occupation, bombing of Naples, and the American occupation. Cunningham became a hostess for the American Red Cross and met and married an American soldier after the war had ended.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Weldon Kaspar. Kaspar joined the Army Air Forces in 1944 and received basic training in Amarillo. He wanted to be a pilot, but was ineligible due to poor eyesight. He received aircraft radio mechanic training at Truax Field. He was in Boca Raton maintaining equipment at a training center for high-altitude bombing when the war ended. He reenlisted as a supply clerk for one year and was in the Reserves for three years. He went to Coyne Electrical School on the GI Bill. Kaspar’s wife, Sheila L. Mack, served as a second lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps from 30 March 1945 to 20 June 1946.

Transcript of an oral interview with Robert W. Wood. Wood begins by discussing growing up during the Great Depression and the effect it had on him and his family. When he finished high school in 1941 in Greenville, Texas, he moved to Dallas, worked for Woolworth's and attended night school at Southern Methodist University. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Wood had already volunteered for the Navy and was called up shortly after Christmas. Wood discusses riding the train to San Diego to attend boot camp in January, 1942. Then he describes a few experiences while in training. While in San Diego, he trained to become a radio operator before reporting to Bremerton, Washington where he boarded the USS Altamaha (CVE-18). Wood describes some of the sea trials and early voyages of the Altamaha as it delivered planes and cargo to various points in the Pacific: Brisbane, Australia, Noumea, Espiritu Santo, Pearl Harbor, Karachi, India and the Solomon Islands. He also describes some carrier-landing qualifying assignments for pilots the Altamaha had. He recalls a time when Bob Hope came aboard and performed a show for the sailors at Ulithi. He goes on to describe being caught in a typhoon in which …

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.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Arthur Keller, Jr. Keller joined the Army in 1942. He was sent to North Africa where he served in the 601st Ordnance Battalion. Keller was then a part of the invasion of Southern France as a part of the 3251st Quartermaster Service Company with the 7th Army. He describes how his unit would organize and ship supplies to the front. Keller describes serving in occupied Germany and his return to the US on the Queen Mary. He left the service soon after his return.

Transcript of an oral interview with Robert J. Rabbitt. He discusses going to boot camp in Mississippi as part of the 69th Division, then shipping out to France via Scotland and England. He entered France through Omaha Beach in late July 1944, and was part of later Normandy Invasion action before being transferred to the 3058th Graves Registration Company where he served until fall of 1945.

Transcript of an oral interview with Eugene George. He was born in 1922 in Wichita Falls, Texas. After graduating from high school, he attended the University of Texas and worked for a contractor, doing plumbing work at Sheppard Field, Texas. He enlisted in the Air Force Reserve in 1942. After receiving training at various U.S. bases, he graduated from aviation school in 1944. He was sent to an Air Force Base in Goose Bay, Labrador. He describes landing at Bluie West 1 (BW-1), an airfield in Greenland. Stationed at Royal Air Force Station Tibenham, England, his first mission was a bombing raid in a B-24 bomber over the Orly Airfield, south of Paris, France. He recounts his experiences when his plane was shot down in the Kassel Mission. He parachuted from the burning airplane. After trying to make his way to Switzerland, he gave himself up to German soldiers in order to receive treatment for his injuries. He was sent to a Durchgangslager der Luftwaffe, or Dulag Luft, for interrogation before being sent to Stalag Luft I, a German POW camp near Barth, Western Pomerania, Germany. He describes his activities in the camp. After liberation from the camp, he returned …

Transcript of an oral interview with Bill Kennedy. He discusses joining the Army Air Corps in 1944, training stateside before shipping to Germany in fall of 1945 with the 8th Air Force, 891 Air Engineering Squadron, as part of the occupation force in Berlin where he worked typing up enlisted men's records, returning home in May of 1946.

Transcript of an oral interview with James B. Hinshaw. When Hinshaw finished high school, he was draftd into the Army in 1943. He went ot basic training at Camp Roberts in California. At Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, Hinshaw was attached to an anti-tank company in the 222nd Regiment of the 42nd Infantry Division, which shipped over to Marseille, France in December, 1944. Shortly thereafter, his unit moved into combat near Strasbourg. the 42nd eventually assaulted into Wurzburg, Germany where Hinshaw fired his 57mm anti-tank weapon at a German machine gun nest, neutralizing it. He remembers being strafed by a German jet fighter. When the war in Europe ended, Hinshaw's unit was headed for Austria, where the 42nd ID served occupation duty. He finally shipped home in Marchm 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Walter Sy. Sy joined the Navy in January of 1941. He was trained as an electrician and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 6 December 1941 to join the crew of the USS West Virginia (BB-48). Sy briefly discusses being handed a rifle on the day of the attack and seeing the damage. He was assigned to the USS Gridley (DD-380) and traveled from the Aleutians to the South Pacific. Sy discusses how he became a baker after the CO had some bread that he made with his mother’s recipe. He also discusses having to be transferred to the USS Baltimore (CA-68) due to an appendicitis. Sy was later transferred to the USS Maryland (BB-46) and then shore duty in California where he appeared as an extra in a movie and helped fight a fire at Delmar Racetrack. He left the Navy in 1947 after a six-year enlistment.

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.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Calloway Scott. Scott joined the Army in October 1943 and received medical training at Camp Grant. Upon completion, he was sent to Omaha Beach with the 9th Infantry Division, arriving eight days after D-Day. Although there should have been three medics assigned to each company, they were often short-staffed, with only one medic per several hundred men. Scott participated in house-to-house fighting in Cherbourg and pushed onward into Belgium and Germany. He recalls an evening when Germans parachuted behind American lines, creating a great deal of confusion in the morning, but the Germans were taken prisoner without incident. Scott celebrated the end of the war alongside dancing Russians and returned home in October 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John R. Ahlgren. In 1942, Ahlgren, a Navy communications officer, was assigned to Admiral Chester Nimitz's staff at Pearl Harbor. From 1946 to 1947 he was stationed in Russia and worked as a translator and attaché to the US Embassy in Moscow. Ahlgren left the service soon after his time in Moscow.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jack Homrighausen. Homrighausen joined the Army in November 1943 and received basic training at Camp Gordon. Upon completion, he was assigned to Cherbourg where he was a half-track driver in the 10th Armored Infantry Division. He arrived in September 1944 and went through France, liberating Trier along the way. By mid-December he was in the Ardennes with snow up to his hips. His unit functioned as a mobile reserve for foot troops, watching for flares and deploying wherever help was needed. On 10 March 1944, in Ettal, he was sniped by a Russian prisoner of war who was following the orders of an SS officer. His neck injury was treated at three different hospitals before Homrighausen arrived at the general hospital in Cherbourg. He returned to his outfit on V-E Day, his truck driver shooting a pistol into the air in celebration as he drove. Homrighausen saw the devastation of German cities, and his unit liberated Dachau and Birkenau. He was assigned to a mountain post in Austria, to be on the lookout for fugitives. His unit enjoyed hunting and relaxing by the cool streams during their duty …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Sayles. Sayles joined the Navy in March 1944 and received basic training at Camp Farragut. Upon completion, he was shipped to Midway and assigned to the USS Pompon (SS-267), nicknamed “The Peaceful P” because it never found any targets. Sayles enjoyed rest camp on Guam. As punishment for using the officers’ pool, he patrolled Truk for four of the hottest weeks of summer, with no air conditioning and while short on rations. When the war ended, he was immediately shipped home. On the way, he stopped for liberty in Panama City. Once stateside, he joined the Air Force and was commissioned at Loyola University as a junior in the ROTC. Sayles took a compassionate discharge in 1951 to care for his wife after the birth of their third child.

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.

Transcript of an oral interview with Murven J. Witherel. He grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and graduated from Allegheny High School in 1939. He went to work for a untility company before being drafted into the Army in February 1942. He qualified for Officer Candidate School (OCS) after Basic Training at Fort McClellan, Alabama. He was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant at Fort Benning, Georgia in December 1942. He was then assigned as the leader of 3rd Platoon, Company E, 20th Infantry,6th Infantry Division and sent to the Mojave Desert to train anticipating a trip to North Africa. Instead, his unit went to New Guinea in January 1944. In June, his unit landed at Baffin Bay and assaulted Lone Tree Hill. Witherel was evetually wounded twice and received the new drug, penicillin at the Lae General Hospital. He was eventually shipped back to the USA. the conversatio then veers to cover such subjects as USO shows, friendly fire, the Red Cross, Tokyo Rose on the radio, morale in his outfit and a visit in the Lae General Hospital by Jack Benny.

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 Talmage Gilbreath. Gilbreath joined the Army in February of 1942. He was trained as a radio operator in the Signal Corps. Gilbreath was assigned to work in communications aboard merchant marine vessels. He travelled in convoys to Murmansk, England, delivered troops to North Africa and brought back German POWs. Gilbreath was then assigned to a refrigerated ship and tells of delivering food throughout the South Pacific. He stayed in the reserves after the war and eventually became a Master Sargent.