Interview with Bruce Elliot, a Navy veteran and POW from Montezuma, Kansas. Elliot discusses his family, joining the Navy and volunteering for Asiatic service, the start of war and the bombing of Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines, retreat to Corregidor, capture by the Japanese, escaping internment on Palawan and joining Moro guerillas, sabotage, linking up with Australian forces, evacuation to Australia and returning to the United States, becoming a deepsea diver, and Korean War service. In appendix are a photo of Elliot, a map of the Philippines, two photos of a POW camp on Palawan, and a photo of three of his comrades.

The New Yorker recently referred to Pat Metheny as “possibly the most influential jazz guitarist of the past five decades.” A native of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, just southeast of Kansas City, Metheny started playing in pizza parlors at age fourteen. By the time he graduated from high school he was the first-call guitarist for Kansas City jazz clubs, private clubs, and jazz festivals. Now 66, he attributes his early success to the local musical environment he was brought up in and the players and teachers who nurtured his talent and welcomed him into the jazz community. Metheny’s twenty Grammys in ten categories speak to his versatility and popularity. Despite five decades of interviews, none have conveyed in detail his stories about his teenage years. Beneath Missouri Skies also reveals important details about jazz in Kansas City during the sixties and early seventies, often overlooked in histories of Kansas City jazz. Yet this time of cultural change was characterized by an outstanding level of musicianship.

Interview with Thomas A. Chipman, who is a World War II veteran and restaurant business owner from Hill City, Kansas. In the interview, Chipman discusses his experiences as a medic and driver in the European Theatre during the war. He describes what basic training and his induction into the Army was like, and also talks a little bit about when he was sent to the Pennsylvania Military College to earn a degree in engineering. Chipman recollects when his battalion was transported to England and France in order to fight in several battles that included the Battle of the Bulge. He describes what it was like to stay in Europe, and includes details such as the attitudes toward battlefield carnage, the evacuation and transport of the dead and wounded, the capture of German prisoners-of-war, and civilian refugees. Chipman reminisces of the German surrender and his return to the United States, where he started a restaurant business career.