Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

Faculty recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

A jazz recital performed at the UNT College of Music Kenton Hall.

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Voertman Hall in partial fulfillment of the Master of Music (MM) degree.

A senior recital presented at the UNT College of Music Kenton Hall.

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall in partial fulfillment of the Master of Music (MM) degree.

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.

Faculty recital performed at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall.

Opera concert performed at the UNT College of Music Lyric Theater.

Concert presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

Concert presented at Winspear Hall at the Murchison Performing Arts Center.

Interview with Mary Steele Leon, a secretary for the U. S. Navy during and after World War II. She joined the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) and was trained as a secretary. Her first assignment was in the office of the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) during World War II. The CNO at the time was Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King. After the war, she served as personal secretary for Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz while he was CNO. She was discharged in 1946.

Early music ensembles concert presented at the UNT College of Music Organ Recital Hall.

Jazz ensembles concert presented at the UNT College of Music Winspear Performance Hall.

Ensemble concert presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Bruce Heard. Heard worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1937 to 1939 as a baker and he build houses and benches at a national park. He joined the Army in April of 1944, and served as a Tech Sergeant with the 1260th Combat Engineers Battalion, Headquarters Company. He provides details of his training. He traveled to France in late 1944. His battalion was attached to the 3rd, 7th and 15th Armies at different times. They moved into Nuremberg, Hanover and Berlin, and participated in the Battle of the Bulge. His job was to build bridges and haul ammunition to the Infantry and Artillery on the front lines. He shares some of his experiences through this battle, including casualties of fellow servicemen, bomb attacks and living accommodations. He was discharged around the spring of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert de Jong. De Jong was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1922 and enlisted in the Navy in 1942. After boot training at the Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois he was sent to school in Boston for training as a yeoman. Upon completion of the training he was assigned to the executive officer aboard the USS Lexington (CV-16). Soon after he went aboard, it proceeded to Pearl Harbor via the Panama Canal. His battle station was as a loader on a 20mm gun. On 4 December 1943 the Lexington was hit by a Japanese torpedo and returned to Bremerton, Washington for repairs. Remembering various actions in which the Lexington was involved, he tells of the momentous decision by Admiral Mitscher to turn on the carrier’s lights to act as a guide for returning aircraft during the Battle of the Philippine Sea. He also recalls a kamikaze hitting the Lexington, which killed every man on the gun on which he had previously been assigned. The ship put into Ulithi for repairs. During February 1945 the Lexington returned to Pearl Harbor at which time de Jong was transferred to yeoman’s …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral Interview with Paul Bonilla. Bonilla was born on 18 September 1921 in San Luis Obispo, California. He enlisted in the Navy in May, 1942 and took boot training in San Diego. He trained to be an aviation ordnanceman in San Diego and Millington, Tennessee. After training he was assigned to an SBD Dauntless dive bomber flying anti-submarine patrols from the air craft carrier USS Lexington (CV-16). He was aboard the Lexington when a Japanese attack damaged the ship’s steering mechanism, jamming the rudder and forcing the ship to sail in a circle while still under attack. He participated in attacks on Mille Island, Tarawa, Wake Island, Truk Island, Saipan, Hollandia and Guam. During an attack on Guam, his plane was damaged and crashed into the ocean. He was picked up by the submarine USS Skate (SS-305). While on board, Bonilla stood watch. He returned home in July 1944 and was assigned to flight school, from which he was discharged in 1945. Fifty years later when attending a Skate reunion he was presented with a submarine pin and was considered a member of the crew.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Sigrist. Sigrist was born in Rochester, Missouri 7 September 1921 and entered the Navy V-7 program while in college. After graduating from Midshipman’s school he went to Raleigh, North Carolina to attend electrical engineering school. This was followed by three months of intensive training at the General Motors Institute of Technology specializing in marine Diesel engines. He then reported aboard USS LCI-677 at Norfolk, Virginia, as the Diesel electrical engineer and supply officer. The ship proceeded to San Diego where the crew made practice landings with the 4th Marines. They then were ordered to Pearl Harbor where they transported liberty parties from Pearl Harbor to and from Maui for six months. In 1944, USS LCI-677, along with twenty-one other LCIs transported the 204th General Hospital to Guam. They then went to Saipan, where they encountered a typhoon. They then proceeded to Ulithi where they were subjected to attacks by Japanese kamikazes. After the surrender of Japan, USS LCI-677 was sent to the island of Yap. Sigrist describes the natives and their way of life. In 1946, he returned to the United States and was discharged.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Audrey Sigrist. Sigrist joined the Coast Guard in June 1944. She attended boot camp in Palm Beach, Florida and radio school in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Sigrist describes her training and daily life as a SPAR. She was stationed in Port Angeles, Washington and discusses he duties as a radioman receiving calls for ship pilots. Sigrist describes celebrating the end of the war and her departure from the service in November 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Gerald Campbell. Campbell joined the Army around 1943. He served as a replacement for the 77th Infantry Division, and worked aboard an Army personnel carrier. He participated in the amphibious assault on Guam, and the battles of Leyte Gulf and Okinawa. He remained in a convalescent hospital in Saipan, after receiving injuries during the Okinawa campaign. After the war, Campbell returned to the US and was discharged in January of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Lewis Brinson. Brinson was drafted into the Army Air Forces in 1942. He completed basic training in Texas and Nebraska as an airplane mechanic, working on B-17s and B-29s. Brinson was in the 6th Bomb Group, 40th Bomb Squadron. In December 1943 he went to Tinian and served as crew chief on a B-29. He flew over Iwo Jima for two weeks looking for downed aircraft. He gives some description of seeing the Enola Gay, and of flying over a destroyed Japanese landscape, and of flying over the USS Missouri (BB-63) on 2 September 1945. He was discharged in December 1945. He utilized his G.I. Bill to go to college and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ray Murray. Murray joined the Army Air Forces. Upon completing flight training at Lubbock, Texas, he graduated as a twin-engine pilot and spent the next year as an instructor. Next, he went overseas to transport supplies in the European Theater. Operating first out of Scotland, he carried anything and everything, from overcoats and tomatoes to gasoline and mail. In the whole of his career, he was only ever taken off one flight, and that was to be a trip to Paris in stormy weather. The pilot that replaced him perished, along with all 16 men aboard, after the engine caught fire. After the war, Murray remained in the service, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel after the Cuban Missile Crisis.

UNT Flute Choir ensemble concert performed at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.