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Oral History Interview with Rufus Johnson, March 27, 2005
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Rufus Johnson. He begins the interview with a summary of his life. Rufus Winfield Johnson was born in Montgomery County, Maryland in 1911. He was in the ROTC at Howard University. He earned his undergraduate degree in 1934 and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Reserves. In 1939 he received his LLB degree from the Howard University School of Law. He shares stories from his time working in the White House as lifeguard and personal butler to Franklin Delano Roosevelt prior to entering the armed forces. He served in the 92nd Infantry Division. He shares an anecdote about receiving a ten thousand dollar reward for shooting a bandit that preyed on American sailors in North Africa. He describes the campaigns of Sicily and North Apennines. He recounts an altercation with General Almond after which he was transferred to the 442nd Infantry Division. He describes his role in rescuing Company K of the 71st Infantry. He also recounts his capture and escape from German soldiers. He discusses the treatment of African American soldiers. He also served during the Korean War. He retired from the Army Reserves …
Date:
March 27, 2005
Creator:
Johnson, Rufus
Object Type:
Text
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with James Phinney, July 15, 2010
Interview with James (Jim) Phinney, an aircraft electrician for the U. S. Navy during Wold War II. He discusses joining the Navy, going through boot camp and becoming an aircraft electrician. He was assigned to the USS Lexington but abandoned ship after it was hit by a torpedo. He was rescued and was then sent to San Diego to be reassigned to the USS Enterprise. He mentions being at Guadalcanal and later aboard a sub-chaser. The crew crossed the Equator and consequently participated in an initiation ceremony, during which time Admiral Halsey was nearly shot by one of the ship's pilots who forgot to lock his gun. He also recalls some of the food he ate while at sea.
Date:
July 15, 2010
Creator:
Cox, Floyd; Phinney, James & O'Konski, Susan
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Jessie Clark, June 6, 2002
Interview with Jessie Clark regarding her experiences during World War II. She discusses having to adjust to a lifestyle of rationing for food products and shoes as well as blackouts and scrap metal drives. Her husband worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad and was often absent while she stayed home to raise their children in Houston. She discusses the scarcity of toys during Christmas and hosiery.
Date:
June 6, 2002
Creator:
Loyd, Ms. & Clark, Jessie
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Richard Bennett, November 15, 2001
Interview with Richard (Dick) Bennett, a pilot during World War II. He discusses his enlistment in the Army Air Corps, basic training and flight school. He then went to a base in South Carolina to learn to fly B-25s. At Fort Myers, Florida he flew B-26 bombers and trained to fly them off of aircraft carriers so they could drop torpedos on the Japanese fleet during naval battles. He traveled across the Pacific to Brisbane only to be told that they didn't have B-26s for the crews; the colonel there knew nothing about the plan to launch B-26s from aircraft carriers, so they were sent to New Guinea to fly B-17s and supplement the crews for those bombers. From there they made bombing runs or "Washing Machine Charlie"-type runs to keep people awake at night on various Japanese targets in the islands, particularly the base at Rabaul. In fall of 1943, the Army grounded the B-17s due to the damage they had incurred and replaced them with B-24s. The men received manuals and were given only a few days to familiarize themselves with the new planes. They were then sent on bombing runs. He finished his tour of duty at …
Date:
November 15, 2001
Creator:
Cox, Floyd & Bennett, Richard
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Joyce E. Sarvey, October 21, 2000
Interview with Joyce E. Sarvey discussing her work with Western Union in San Antonio, Texas during World War II.
Date:
October 21, 2000
Creator:
Pickard, Hesty & Sarvey, Joyce E.
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Dave Hollis, November 12, 2005
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Dave Hollis. Hollis joined the Army Air Forces in December 1942. He had prepared for his aviation cadet examination by taking a class at the Douglas Aircraft Company, where he worked. He received basic training and pre-flight training in Santa Ana. From there he went to Meadows Field for basic flying in the Vultee BT-13 then to Luke Field with the AT-6. Upon completion he was assigned to a B-29 crew but was rotated out due to a shoulder injury. After recovering, he was transferred to the 2nd Air Force flight test center Alamogordo. In June 1945 he was sent overseas and flew nine missions against Kyushu.
Date:
November 12, 2005
Creator:
Hollis, Dave
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Les Skelton, November 14, 2005
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Les Skelton. Skelton joined the military in July 1942 after being persuaded by his Polish-American college roommate to fight Nazi Germany. Being of Jewish decent and growing up in a small town with some Nazi sympathizers, Skelton was itching to fight. His training was intense, his instructors harassing him midflight to induce combat-level stress. Hoping to become a P-38 pilot, after flight training he was instead assigned to a B-17 crew. As part of the 8th Air Force, he carried out bombing missions in Europe, often targeting railroads and factories. Between July and December 1944, Skelton had 35 missions. His most harrowing experience was navigating antiaircraft fire over Cologne. During one flight, Skelton was shot in the back of his helmet and rendered unconscious. On other missions, he encountered enemy aircraft and could sometimes spot the trails of V-2 rockets. Once, he was faced with an Me-109 flying straight at him, when enemy aircraft’s wings detached, causing the plane to plummet. Skelton returned home and was discharged in the spring of 1945, having earned seven Air Medals.
Date:
November 14, 2005
Creator:
Skelton, Les
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Bill Freeman, November 10, 2005
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Freeman. Freeman was born in Chapman, Kansas on 5 September 1922. Upon enlisting in the Army Air Corps in 1942, he was sent to Maxwell Air Force Base, Georgia for basic training. He tells the various training planes he flew prior to receiving his commission. Upon graduation he was sent to Ephrata Army Air Base, Washington where he began on the job training as the co-pilot of a B-17 bomber. Freeman recalls his various assignments until December 1943 when he reported to Cannon Army Air Base, Clovis, New Mexico for transitional training in the B-29 bomber. Upon completion of training he was assigned to the Air Transport Command and began flying planes to India. Following the Japanese surrender, he returned to the United States where he began flying weather mapping missions. This was followed by assignment in the Pacific where he flew geographical mapping missions. Freeman concludes the interview by telling of his life after being discharged in January 1948.
Date:
November 10, 2005
Creator:
Freeman, Bill
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Ralph Darrow, November 12, 2005
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Ralph Darrow. Darrow joined the Army Air Forces in December of 1942. He completed Electrical Specialist School and B-29 Armament School by 1943. Darrow served with the 73rd Bombardment Wing, 500th Bombardment Group, 883rd Bombardment Squadron as a side gunner aboard a B-29. Beginning in mid-1944, they traveled to Hawaii, Kwajalein, Truk, Iwo Jima and Saipan. They completed their first combat mission against a submarine base at Truk in November. They participated in high altitude raids against industrial targets in Japan through early 1945, and supported landings on Iwo Jima. Darrow was in Saipan when the war ended. He continued serving in the military, completing 28 years of service.
Date:
November 12, 2005
Creator:
Darrow, Ralph
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Jack Schaefer, November 10, 2005
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jack Schaefer. Schaefer was 11 years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked. While in high school, Schaefer worked part-time and contributed the entirety of his wages to the household. He accumulated war savings stamps, participated in bond drives, and collected scrap metal to support the war effort. His family supplemented their meat rations by raising rabbits. In 1950, he joined the Air Force, with a professional background in photography. He reported to the Wright-Patterson Motion Picture Department in Dayton, Ohio. In 1951, as part of a national effort to deploy combat camera teams worldwide, he was assigned to the newly formed Air Photographic and Charting Service and sent to Germany to conduct photographic surveillance of the occupation and rehabilitation of Europe. In 1957, he became a photographer for the DOD and the White House. During the course of his career, he filmed historic figures such as General de Gaulle and President Kennedy. In Vietnam, he couriered classified material into Saigon, receiving a Purple Heart after taking fragments from a grenade. Schaefer was then promoted to oversee all out-of-country photography and worked on the film, A Day in the …
Date:
November 10, 2005
Creator:
Schaefer, Jack
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Richard Hanna, November 12, 2005
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Richard Hanna. Hanna was born in Pennsylvania and joined the Marine Corps before his 18th birthday. He had basic training in California and shares a few anecdotes from that time. After he completed training, he was shipped to Pavuvu where he joined the Seventh Marines, First Marine Division. He landed on Okinawa in the eleventh wave ashore and shares many stories about combat. Hanna was eventually wounded by a Japanese hand grenade. When the war ended, Hanna went to China to repatriate Japanese troops to the Home Islands. When Hanna returned home in 1946, he elected to be discharged.
Date:
November 12, 2005
Creator:
Hanna, Richard
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Frederick Leiby, November 10, 2005
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Frederick Leiby. Leiby was born in Pennsylvania in 1923 and worked in a defense plant after finishing high school in 1941. in 1942, he passed the aviation cadet exam and was called up for active duty in January, 1943. He trained as a navigator at Selman Field, Louisiana for eight months before flying a new B-17 to North Africa. From there, Leiby went to Forge, Italy to join the 99th Bomb Group. He was shot down on his 39th mission and captured by the Germans in Italy in April 1944. In early 1945, Leiby was transfered to a POW camp near Nuremburg. From there, he was marched to Moosburg. During the march, he attempted escape, but was recaptured. After being liberated, Leiby returned to the US and attended an intelligence school. He also served in a military police unit in Massachusetts. He eventually attended Georgetown University and stayed in the inactive reserves. Leiby eventually made his way into the Foreign Service where he went to Vietnam.
Date:
November 10, 2005
Creator:
Leiby, Frederick
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Tom Anderson, February 3, 2004
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Tom Anderson. Anderson dropped out of college in 1941 and hitchhiked from Texas to San Diego. There he worked for Consolidated Aircraft, drafting plans for the B-32, B-36, and C-99. He then transferred to the Fort Worth plant, where he stayed until 1944, when he enlisted in the Navy. He was selected for radar technician training, and after boot camp he studied electronics in Chicago, followed by airborne radar training in Corpus Christi. He had a lifelong interest in flying and looked forward to his first duty assignment. But when the war ended in Japan, his radar conning class was cancelled and he was reassigned to the radar shop of CASU-5 at the Naval Air Station in San Diego. Anderson was discharged into the Armed Guard in March 1946, taking up work at the Fiscal and Disbursement Office of the Adjutant General at Camp Mabry. In 1950 he returned to school and joined the Army Reserves, retiring in 1966 as a lieutenant colonel.
Date:
February 3, 2004
Creator:
Anderson, Tom
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Vernon Grim, November 11, 2005
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Vernon Grim. Grim joined the Army Air Forces in June of 1942. He volunteered as a glider pilot, and trained for one year in Pittsburgh, Kansas. He was then selected to train as an aviation cadet, and served as a B-17 pilot. In March of 1944 he deployed to England. He joined the 92nd Bombardment Group, 407th Bombardment Squadron. He completed 32 missions, including support operations for the Normandy invasion, the Battle of Saint-Lô and advancing ground troops into Germany. Grim returned to the US in October of 1944. He was assigned to Laredo, Texas to fly for the Frangible Bullet Project, and also served as a military surplus officer. Grim continued his service after the war, receiving a discharge in November of 1946.
Date:
November 11, 2005
Creator:
Grim, Vernon
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Bill Dingfelder, November 11, 2005
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Bill Dingfelder. Dingfelder joined the Army Air Forces in July of 1943. He completed Armament School in early 1944, and served as an armorer-gunner aboard a B-17. He was assigned to the 15th Air Force, 97th Bomb Group, 341st Bomb Squadron. By April of 1945, Dingfelder had completed 35 missions over Italy, France, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Yugoslavia attacking oil refineries, marshalling yards and aircraft factories. He continued his service after the war, receiving his discharge in March of 1952.
Date:
November 11, 2005
Creator:
Dingfelder, Bill
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Mildred Bauman, November 18, 2005
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Mildred Bauman. Bauman’s family immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in 1923. She was born in Brooklyn, New York in November of 1926. Her family sent her back to Germany to live with her grandparents in Berlin in 1928. Bauman grew up in Germany during the Nazi reign and was 13 years old when World War II began. Being an American citizen, Bauman endured relentless harassment from neighbors and classmates. She vividly describes her experiences growing up and as a young woman in the early 1940s, including forced evacuations, Russians taking over, bombings, concentration camps and casualties. She was sent back to the U.S. in 1946 due to her American citizenship. From the early 1950s to the 1980s Bauman worked for Guaranty Federal in Dallas. She retired to Burnet, Texas. She speaks of desiring to compile her story into a book, though it wasn’t until 2014 that a book came to fruition, titled “Abandoned! The WWII Ordeal of an American Child Living and Surviving from 1928 to 1946 in Hitler’s Nazi Germany”, available at the Burnet County Library.
Date:
November 18, 2005
Creator:
Bauman, Mildred
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Richard Paine, March 13, 2006
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Richard Paine. Paine joined the Navy Reserves soon after 7 December 1941. He served as a photographer’s mate in charge of a photo printing lab in Washington DC. Paine briefly discusses the equipment he used. He was discharged in 1944 when he contracted a serious case of tuberculosis and took several years to recover.
Date:
March 13, 2006
Creator:
Paine, Richard
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Morton Harrington, July 6, 2007
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Morton Harrington. Harrington joined the Navy in January of 1944. He completed Gunnery School and Aviation Ordnance School, learning about aircraft bombs, fuses, various caliber guns, rockets, flags, radio communication and Morse Code. Beginning February of 1945 Harrington was assigned to the USS Nehenta Bay (CVE–74), serving as a turret gunner aboard both TBF’s and TBM’s. Their ship qualified with F4-U Corsair squadrons for carrier work. They traveled to Eniwetok, bombing several islands that the Japanese still held. In April of 1945 they participated in the Battle of Okinawa, where they shot down three kamikazes. Harrington provides details of his experiences aboard the Nehenta Bay and throughout their battles. He was discharged in January of 1946.
Date:
July 6, 2007
Creator:
Harrington, Morton
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Thomas McCrea, July 10, 2007
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Thomas McCrea. McCrea joined the Army in September of 1943. He completed an Army Specialized Training Program in Fort Benning, Georgia. He provides vivid details of his training. He served with the 3rd Army, C Company, 1st, Battalion, 376th Infantry Regiment, 94th Infantry Division. McCrea and his group qualified as an Expert Infantry Division. In August of 1944 they traveled to Scotland, then on to England. In September they landed on Utah Beach. They traveled to Brittany to relieve another unit. They endured much 88mm shelling from the Germans. From there they traveled toward Belgium and participated in the Battle of the Bulge, and traveled to the Siegfried Line. McCrea shares many details of his experiences in battle. In February 1945 he was sent to a hospital in England, suffering from frozen feet. He returned to the U.S. due to the condition of his feet and discharged in mid-1945.
Date:
July 10, 2007
Creator:
McCrea, Thomas
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Robert Meyer, June 25, 2007
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert W. Meyer. Meyer was born in Olympia, Washington on 3 September 1924. After graduating from high school in 1942, he was drafted into the Army on 15 May 1943. He was placed into the Army Specialized Training Program. Following 13 weeks of basic training at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, he was sent to the University of Alabama for 3 months of specialized training. He was accepted for flight training, but returned to the infantry in April 1944. Assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 263rd Regiment, 66th Infantry Division, he went overseas in September 1944. Reassigned as a machine gunner to Company A, 109th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division, Meyer saw combat in Belgium, Germany, and Luxemburg. He was captured by the Germans on 18 December 1944 while fighting near Longsdorf, Luxemburg. He spent the next 4 months in various prisoner of war and labor camps, including Stalag IIA north of Berlin. In April 1945, as the Russians approached Stalag IIA, the German guards fled. Essentially free, Meyer first tried to avoid the Russians but finally advanced with them to the Elbe River where he was reunited with US forces. …
Date:
June 25, 2007
Creator:
Meyer, Robert
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Keith Westphal, June 27, 2007
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Keith Westphal. Westphal describes growing up during the Great Depression and how it affected his family. He joined the Navy in May of 1945. He provides some details of his boot camp. He completed signal school, though was assigned to Fire Control in the Gunnery Division where he served as Seaman First Class. In December of 1945 he began work overseeing the antiaircraft guns aboard the USS Pocono (AGC-16), an Adirondack class amphibious force command ship. They remained on the Atlantic coast and did not go out to sea. Westphal describes the ship’s interior and weapons on board. He shares his experiences of transporting Admiral Marc Mitscher, and general duties and life aboard the ship. Westphal was discharged in August of 1946, then enlisted in the Naval Reserves.
Date:
June 27, 2007
Creator:
Westphal, Keith
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with James Walsh, July 13, 2007
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Walsh. Walsh was born in Wheeler, Indiana on 19 October 1926. He quit high school in 1944 and joined the Navy. He went to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Illinois for six weeks of boot training followed by six months of amphibious training and gunnery training at Norfolk, Virginia. Upon completion of the training he went by troop train to Portland, Oregon. In September 1944 he went aboard Landing Craft Support vessel USS LCS(L)(3)-51. He describes the ship’s heavy armaments. In November 1944, Group 7, consisting of Walsh’s LCS and five other sister ships, sailed to Saipan before going to Leyte. They remained at Leyte until 19 February 1945 before participated in the invasion of Iwo Jima. Walsh led the first wave of Marine onto the beach and describes clearing the beach of disabled landing craft. The ship then participated in the invasion of Okinawa. Walsh tells of the ship being on picket duty and being attacked by kamikaze aircraft. Walsh saw the USS Laffey (DD-724) hit by several suicide aircraft while LCS-51 sustained damage caused by debris from a plane they shot down. The …
Date:
July 13, 2007
Creator:
Walsh, James M.
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Clayton Mishler
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Clayton Mishler. Mishler served in the Navy in China with the Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO), within a weather-reporting project that played a role in the US submarine campaign against Japanese shipping, in B-29 raids on Japanese cities and in rescuing downed Allied airmen. Mishler served in the Fukien Province with the Rice Paddy Navy, and traveled the Nine Dragons River in the course of his duties. He recounts numerous stories of his day-to-day life in rural China.
Date:
unknown
Creator:
Mishler, Clayton
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Joseph Meyer, July 11, 2007
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Joseph Meyer. Meyer participated in ROTC in high school. While studying at St. Louis University, he enlisted in the Army Air Forces Reserves. In February 1943, after one semester of college, he was called to active duty and began flight training, earning his wings in March 1944. He was then sent to Karachi, India, to join the 33rd Fighter Group, 59th Squadron. After an unexciting period of time, due to a lack of planes to fly, he finally went on his first mission in the mountains between India and Burma, deterring Japanese planes from attacking transports to China. Later missions involved strafing and dropping bombs or napalm on photographed targets from a P-47. During one flight, he narrowly avoided getting hit as he flew underneath a friendly plane while it released its payload. Although Meyer never engaged in air-to-air combat, he was exposed to antiaircraft fire from the ground. In December 1944, he transitioned to the P-38, as he was preparing for involvement in an invasion of China, which never materialized. Afterward, he transferred to the 58th Squadron in Burma. After the war ended, Meyer had a chance …
Date:
July 11, 2007
Creator:
Meyer, Joseph
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History