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Oral History Interview with Paul Platz, August 1, 2007
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Paul Platz. Platz joined the Army in July of 1944. He served with the 77th Infantry Division, 307th Infantry Regiment. He participated in the liberation of the Philippines in late 1944. In the spring of 1945, Platz was in the assault on the Kerama Islands and the Battle of Okinawa, where he was wounded. He returned to the US and received a medical discharge.
Date:
August 1, 2007
Creator:
Platz, Paul
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Russell Banwart, July 24, 2007
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Russell Banwart. Banwart was born 16 March 1923 in Angona, Iowa into a family of nine children. He describes life during the Great Depression. Upon completing Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego, he entered radio school, after which he was assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Regiment. He describes boarding the USS Crescent City (APA-21) and participating in the invasion of Tarawa. Banwart describes the action around him including being wounded. He was taken to the Naval Hospital in San Diego. After he recovered, he was sent to Radio Repair School in Omaha, Nebraska then to Red Bank, New Jersey where he trained on the newly developed ANTRC rapid relay equipment. On 1 April 1945 he participated in the invasion of Okinawa. Once the island was secured, he was sent to Guam where he remained until he returned to the United States.
Date:
July 24, 2007
Creator:
Banwart, Russell G.
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Eddie W. Cook, July 18, 2007
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Eddie W Cook. Cook was drafted into the Army in June 1943. Despite being an experienced ship welder and foreman, he was assigned as a rifleman. When Cook deployed to India in December 1943, the troop ship was fitted with iron bars made to separate white from black soldiers. Upon arrival in Bombay, it was obvious the place had been recently bombed. The men then headed to a replacement depot in Assam. Meanwhile, one of Cook’s immunizations had backfired, and he came down with the measles. Upon recovery, he was assigned to the 475th Infantry Regiment, which had just finished 60 days of combat duty. After a short stint in Burma, Cook flew over The Hump to an Army depot in Kunming, China. There he was to search for Japanese holdouts; however, after six months of searching, his unit never found a single enemy. Cook returned home in February 1946 and was discharged early, returning to his wife and child.
Date:
July 18, 2007
Creator:
Cook, Eddie W
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with William Starke, July 17, 2007
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with William Starke. Starke joined the Army Air Forces in March of 1942. He completed flight training and graduated at Williams Field, Arizona, in July of 1943 as a P-38 pilot. He provides details of his flight training and the various planes he flew. In November he traveled to Guadalcanal and joined the 44th Fighter Squadron, 13th Air Force. Starke served as a P-38 Lightning pilot and completed 121 missions throughout the Pacific, including Sansapor, Bougainville and Rabaul in Papua New Guinea, Borneo, Luzon and the Philippines. His squadron flew combat missions and escorted B-24 bombers. Starke provides vivid details of several missions and describes how they acquired the name “Vampire Squadron.” He was discharged in July of 1945. He remained in the Reserves for 20 years and retired as a lieutenant colonel.
Date:
July 17, 2007
Creator:
Starke, William
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Frank R. Mace, July 26, 2007
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Frank Mace. Mace was born in Carseland, Alberta, Canada on 27 May 1917 and graduated from high school in Washington 1937. In 1940, he joined Morrison-Knudsen, Inc. as a construction worker and group chaplain on Wake Island arriving on 9 January 1941. He began constructing runways and buildings. Mace tells of the Japanese invasion of the island, of the combat and of the casualties taken prior to surrender. He tells of the starvation and inhumane treatment while a captive. He describes the manufacturing process and the method of sabotage that the slave laborers employed while working in an Osaka, Japan shipyard and also of disrupting production while working in an iron smelting plant. He relates how a plane dropped a message that the war was over and how food and supplies were dropped by air. Upon liberation, he was put on board the USS Rescue (AH-18) and taken to Letterman General Hospital for recovery.
Date:
July 26, 2007
Creator:
Mace, Frank
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with William Smith, June 8, 2007
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with William R. Smith. Smith was born in April of 1921 and served in the Junior Naval Reserve as a teenager, joining the Naval Reserves around 1937 with a forged birth certificate. He received basic training by volunteering aboard USS Texas (BB-35) and USS Brooklyn (CL-40). By 1939, Smith was serving as a Chief Fire Control Technician aboard USS Clark (DD-361). They were docked in San Francisco on 7 December 1941 and took up antisubmarine patrol off Samoa by February of 1942. Smith reenlisted in April. The Clark escorted a tanker to Midway, a convoy to New Zealand and assisted with landings on Guadalcanal by November of 1942. In November of 1943, Smith transferred to USS Newcomb (DD-586), participating in the Battle of Leyte Gulf and the invasion at Lingayen in January 1945. Smith also participated in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, where the Newcomb was hit by 5 kamikaze planes on 6 April. Smith recalls a brief and positive encounter with Admiral Chester Nimitz. Around August of 1945 he was transferred to USS La Vallette (DD-448) and traveled to San Diego where he was stationed through April …
Date:
June 8, 2007
Creator:
Smith, William
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Edwin LeBreton, February 12, 2007
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Edwin LeBreton. LeBreton was born in Louisiana and was in the Army National Guard stationed in Texas when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He served in an engineering outfit before entering military intelligence. After the war, LeBreton was sent to an engineer depot in Japan. After leaving Japan, he was stationed in France at another supply depot.
Date:
February 12, 2007
Creator:
LeBreton, Edwin
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with George Beeler, July 24, 2000
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with George Beeler. Beeler joined the Army in April of 1943. He was assigned to a Military Police battalion with the 45th Infantry Division. In December, he was transferred to Baltimore. He completed Officer Candidate School in the spring of 1944. In December, Beeler completed additional schooling as a marine repair officer. In June of 1945 he deployed to Hickman Field in Hawaii, serving as a shipment officer, in preparation for the invasion of Japan. He continued his service after the war ended, receiving his discharge around July of 1946.
Date:
July 24, 2000
Creator:
Beeler, George
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Charles Borchers, October 24, 2000
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Charles Borchers. Borchers joined the Army in September 1944 and received training at Camp Hood and Fort Ord. His first combat duty was in the Luzon campaign, where he was stationed in the mountains north of Manila. There he was assigned to the 112th Cavalry Regiment. His platoon devised an alarm system out of barbed wire and tin cans to alert them to Japanese infiltration. They fired 15,000 rounds when a water buffalo stumbled into it. After the battle, Borchers was stricken with hepatitis and never was in action again. He arrived in Tokyo Bay on 1 September 1945 and camped at the Tateyama Air Base with a view of the surrender. He was part of the occupation forces and describes what he saw on his travels through Japan, including the rubble of Chiba. He joined the 649th Ordnance Ammunition Company, dumping ammunition, vehicles, and aircraft into the water near Shoshi. Borchers returned home and was discharged in November 1946 as a first sergeant, whereupon he joined the Naval Reserves and entered medical school. He resigned his commission in 1953.
Date:
October 24, 2000
Creator:
Borchers, Charles
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Stanley Bournias
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Stanley Bournias. Bournias joined the Army in July 1941 and received basic training at Fort Sam Houston. He was then sent to Fort Leonard Wood with the 26th Engineer Training Battalion. Upon completion, he was assigned to the 74th Engineer Light Pontoon Company to build the Alaska Highway. He then joined the 966th Engineer Maintenance Company at Fort Lewis, where he served as a company clerk. In February 1944 he left for Europe and served in the 1st and 3rd Armies. He visited Omaha Beach at D-Day plus three and describes gruesome debris. Elated Parisians treated him like a general as he passed through France. He recounts the extreme poverty he witnessed in Czechoslovakia. In Belgium, he came across a mass grave of civilians, which was his most difficult experience during the war. Bournias returned home and was discharged in July 1945.
Date:
unknown
Creator:
Bournias, Stanley
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Eleanor Brown, April 24, 2000
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Eleanor Brown. From early 1942 through 1944, Brown served as a general mechanics helper at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas, and had completed flight training. In April, she joined the Women’s Air Service Pilots (WASPs) in Sweetwater, Texas. Brown graduated, though WASP was disbanded in December of that same year. She returned to Kelly Field and continued to work as the first woman mechanic at the Air Force Base.
Date:
April 24, 2000
Creator:
Brown, Eleanor
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Alfredo Buentello, May 18, 2000
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Alfredo Buentello. Buentello joined the Army in September 1940 and received basic training at Fort Sam Houston. He received medical corpsman training for three years before landing on Normandy on 6 June 1944 with the 2nd Medical Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, supporting the 38th Regiment. He recalls the devastation at Normandy and remembers saving the lives of two men, one of whom was a German soldier. Buentello spent 160 days on the frontlines. He remembers Brest as being particularly bad. He was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. Buentello sustained a concussion and multiple head wounds, one of which was patched with a metal plate. He recovered at the 165th General Hospital and the 44th Evacuation Hospital. He saw men being sent from the hospital to the front lines without having fully recovered. At the end of April, Buentello rejoined his division in Pilsen. He celebrated V-E Day, complete with a parade. He had enough points to return home immediately and was discharged in June 1945.
Date:
May 18, 2000
Creator:
Buentello, Alfredo
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Joe Canion, May 4, 2000
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Joe Canion. Canion joined the Army Air Forces in June of 1942. He received a commission as a second lieutenant and completed pursuit pilot training at Foster Field in Victoria, Texas in May of 1943. He served with the 345th Fighter Squadron, flying P-39s and P-47s. Beginning in the fall of 1943, he flew combat missions during the North African Campaign and the Italian Campaign. He also supported the invasion of southern France, completing around 100 missions. Canion returned to the US in April of 1945, having earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, and was discharged in June.
Date:
May 4, 2000
Creator:
Canion, Joe
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Magdaleno Cerda, Jr.
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Magdaleno Cerda. Cerda joined the Army in November 1942 and received basic training at Camp Robinson. He received field artillery communications training at Camp Gordon. From there he was sent to Camp Forrest, where he served as a gunner. He landed at Normandy with the 90th Infantry Division three days after D-Day. Cerda recalls running out of supplies outside of Paris while trying to keep pace with Patton. Around Christmastime he encountered Germans wearing GI uniforms while he was on patrol. He remembers using a Howitzer to break through walls and cross the Siegfried Line. He was in Munich when the Germans surrendered. After V-E Day, he checked vehicles and trains in Austria for weapons and war criminals. At that time, it was forbidden to fraternize with Germans, and Cerda even reported a major for doing so. After a brief stay at Camp Lucky Strike and some R&R at the French Riviera, Cerda pulled guard duty in Belgium. He returned home and was discharged on 31 December 1945.
Date:
unknown
Creator:
Cerda, Magdaleno
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Frank Crain, June 22, 2000
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Frank Crain. Crain left law school to join the Army Air Forces in January 1942. He was assigned to an ordnance detachment with the 3rd Air Depot Group in Agra, India, where he loaded ammunition onto trains. He was transferred to Karachi, where he made reusable practice bombs out of tin cans and sand. He applied to OCS and returned to the States in April 1943. As an Infantry officer he taught math, reading, and ordnance use. He was sent to Italy and assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 86th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division. In the Apennines, his unit furnished ammunition and performed light engineering. Crain was the battalion commander’s primary troubleshooter. He was assigned to the 85th Infantry Division when the armistice went into effect in Italy. There was no resistance from Germans in the Po Valley, who pleaded with Crain to help them defend their homes from the Russians. When the war ended, he was assigned to keep the peace between political factions in Tarvisio. His last occupation duty was overseeing refugees in Milan. Crain returned home and was discharged in December 1945. He returned to …
Date:
June 22, 2000
Creator:
Crain, Frank
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with John DeLane
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John DeLane. DeLane joined the Army in January 1941 and received basic training at Dodds Field. At Camp Bullis, he specialized in communication in the 38th Field Artillery Battalion. He received winter survival training at Camp McCoy, where he learned to ski with a radio on his back, and was transferred to Headquarters Battery. He went to Europe and arrived at Normandy on D-Day plus one. Communication equipment was still aboard ship, so DeLane improvised with German radio wire found on the beach. He participated in the attack through the Cerisy Forest, the Battle for Tinchebray, the Brittany Campaign, the attack for the Brest peninsula, and the Battle of Elsenborn Ridge. He crossed the Rhine on 21 March and freed 17,000 malnourished prisoners of war. A 12-year-old Polish refugee befriended the unit and would later return to the States with them. The 38th celebrated V-E Day in Pilsen alongside merry and hospitable Czechoslovakians.
Date:
unknown
Creator:
DeLane, John
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Hobert Dempsey, August 13, 2002
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Hobert Dempsey. Dempsey joined the Army in June 1943 and received antiaircraft training in the Mojave Desert. He came down with appendicitis just before his unit went overseas. After recovering, he was reassigned to the 232nd Infantry Regiment, Rainbow Division, as a combat infantryman. He arrived at Le Havre in December 1944, finding a port full of civilian casualties. He fought through France and into Belgium. He was shot in the leg and played dead until the Germans passed by. He was sent to a hospital three days later and returned to the front lines after four days of recuperation. After crossing the Rhine as a front-runner, he accidentally went behind German lines and was captured with five other Americans. He was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp that was unknown to the Americans, who strafed the camp at least once. Conditions were harsh, food was scarce, and the prisoners performed hard labor in cold weather. The camp was overtaken by Russians, who wouldn’t let American troops evacuate prisoners. Dempsey escaped on foot and was eventually rescued and smuggled past a Russian checkpoint by Americans. He weighed over 150 …
Date:
August 13, 2002
Creator:
Dempsey, Hobert
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Carl DuBose, June 27, 2000
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Carl DuBose. DuBose joined the Army Air Forces in June of 1942. He served as a B-17 pilot with the 427th Bomb Squadron, 303rd Bomb Group. He deployed to England, and flew 36 combat missions over Germany, attacking airfields, submarine yards and railroads. DuBose returned to the US in October of 1944. He was assigned to Roswell, New Mexico, flying B-29s. He was discharged in December of 1945.
Date:
June 27, 2000
Creator:
DuBose, Carl
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Melvin Dusek, November 14, 2000
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Melvin Dusek. Dusek left college to join the Army in May 1943 and received basic training at Camp Maxey. He then received nine months of engineering training, specializing in rebuilding war-torn infrastructure. In September 1944 he was sent to the battlefield in Belgium with the 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Infantry Division. He was hit by shrapnel from a German tank and was discovered 30 minutes later by German soldiers. He was taken to a German field hospital, but he was not given any pain medication for his wounds. That evening, after the German had tended to their own wounded, Dusek was given surgical treatment. He was transferred to Stalag IVB and was treated very well. Upon recovery, he was sent to Halle, where conditions were fair. An American air raid struck the camp on 1 April 1945, killing all but 10 of the 80 American prisoners. Dusek was liberated by the 8th Armored Division on 25 April and sent to McCloskey Veterans Hospital. He received a medical discharge in September 1945 and returned to college on the GI Bill.
Date:
November 14, 2000
Creator:
Dusek, Melvin
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Warren Elder, November 2, 2000
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Warren Elder. Elder joined the Army Air Forces in February of 1941. In March, he deployed to the Philippines, and was stationed at Clark Field. After the attack on the Philippines, Elder served as a gunner in defending Bataan and Corregidor, surrendering to the Japanese in May of 1942. He was captured and held a prisoner of war at Bilibid Prison and Cabanatuan Camp, until liberated in early 1945. He returned to the US, and continued his service until retirement in 1961.
Date:
November 2, 2000
Creator:
Elder, Warren
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Jack Franklin
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jack Franklin. Franklin joined the Marine Corps in October 1942 and received basic training in San Diego. Upon completion, he was assigned to Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 235, where he served as a Douglas SBD Dauntless plane captain. He arrived in the South Pacific in March of 1943. Franklin’s daily duties included preparing a particular plane for strikes, keeping its maintenance records, and repairing the plane as needed. He recalls that he even slept by his plane. He remembers Joseph McCarthy, who was the executive officer of their squadron, as friendly and polite. Although Henderson Field had been secured during Franklin’s time there, Japanese from up in the hills were still problematic from time to time. Munda Point was quiet, with time for collecting shells and playing baseball. At Bougainville, Franklin often slept in a foxhole and was kept awake by Japanese Howitzers and bombers. Franklin returned home and was discharged in September 1945. As a civilian, he worked for several years in the Military Air Transport Service at Kelly Air Force Base and then became a minister.
Date:
unknown
Creator:
Franklin, Jack
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Karl Everitt, November 20, 2000
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Karl Everitt. Everitt joined the Navy in June of 1942. He served aboard the USS Electra (AKA-4), and worked on a salvage boat. They participated in the invasion landings on North Africa. He was transferred to shore in England, and assigned to the USS LST-48. Everitt participated in the Normandy landings. He was then assigned to join the 3rd Army, and participated with them through the Battle of the Bulge. He returned to the US in the spring of 1945, and was discharged in November.
Date:
November 20, 2000
Creator:
Everitt, Karl
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Manuel Garcia, December 20, 2001
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Manuel Garcia. Garcia was born in Goliad, Texas on 11 June 1920. He attended the Rincon Bend County School, a segregated school, until the seventh grade. In 1940, he joined the Army and underwent basic training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. He was then assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division, 38th Infantry Regiment. The division moved to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. In 1943 the division went to Camp Shanks, New York where they boarded a ship bound for Ireland. After ten months of intensive training the division participated in Operation Overlord, landing on Omaha Beach on June 7 1944. Garcia describes leaving the transport ship to land on the beach and seeing wreckage and bodies stacked like wood. He was slightly wounded and went to a field hospital for treatment. Several days later he was severely wounded by German artillery fire. After being taken to another field hospital, he was placed aboard a Piper Cub and flown to the Army hospital in Cheltenham, England where surgeons amputated one of his legs. Garcia returned to the United States by a hospital ship and was placed in several military hospitals until …
Date:
December 20, 2001
Creator:
Garcia, Manuel
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Willis Gathright, October 31, 2000
The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Willis Gathright. Gathright was born on 3 December 1924 and graduated from high school in 1942. Upon being drafted in June 1943 he went to eight weeks of boot training at the US Naval Training Station in San Diego. This was followed by twelve weeks of sonar training at the West Coast Sound School at Point Loma, California. He describes how a sonar unit works. After graduating from the sonar school and receiving gunnery training at in Algiers, Louisiana, Gathright was assigned to Patrol Craft Escort 849. On 18 June 1944, the ship arrived at Brisbane, Australia where Army radio equipment was placed on board manned by a crew of ten Army soldiers. Gathright recalls the ship being part of the fleet during the invasion of Leyte acting as the radio relay between the USS Blue Ridge (AGC-2) and General McArthur’s headquarters in Australia. After participating in the invasion of Lingayen Gulf at Luzon, the ship remained in Manila until February 1945 when they were ordered to Morotai, where they joined the Australian Fleet for the invasion of Tarakan, Borneo on 1 May 1945. Gathright describes the ship …
Date:
October 31, 2000
Creator:
Gathright, Willis
Object Type:
Sound
System:
The Portal to Texas History