The National Museum of the Pacific War presents a monologue of Dale Fagg. Fagg joined the Marine Corps in October of 1942. In Pearl Harbor he was assigned to the Marine Detachment of Admiral Chester Nimitz at Makalapa in Honolulu, and served as his personal chauffer, from 1942 to 1945. He shares numerous stories of his encounters with and work for the Admiral.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Howard Jackel. Jackel served aboard the USS Portland (CA-33) beginning in 1937. During World War II, he was aboard the USS South Dakota (BB-57). He noticed a stark difference between the two crews: while the Portland’s crew were polished sailors, the South Dakota’s were fighting men; uniforms did not mean much to them. During the Night Battle of Guadalcanal, Jackel was in the main battery plotting room, taking ranges from five range finders. As readings were coming in as quickly as five per second, Howard was concentrating on his plotting so much that he did not feel it when the ship was hit. By the end of the battle, only one range finder was left.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Rear Admiral Ray Hunter and Howard Jackel. The interview begins with Admiral Hunter’s experiences aboard USS Washington (BB-56) during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on 14-15 November 1942. Hunter served as officer of the deck, and speaks of events that occurred in company with USS South Dakota (BB-57). In the second interview, Howard Jackel shares his experiences aboard the South Dakota from January of 1942 through January of 1944. He participated in the Battles of Santa Cruz, the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal and part of the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaigns. Jackel speaks of their interaction with the Washington during the Guadalcanal battle.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ray Hunter. In this interview, Hunter recounts the Night Battle of Guadalcanal, for which he served as officer of the deck on the USS Washington (BB-56), on the lookout, keeping the ship out of collision with friendly forces, and making sure that the commanding officer’s orders were carried out. The crew had been at general quarters for 12 hours before the first shots were fired. Still, everyone remained calm. At the climax of the battle, Hunter ordered a port turn to bypass destroyers that were sinking and burning in front of the Washington. This put the Washington behind the flames so that it would not be silhouetted. For reasons unknown, the USS South Dakota (BB-57), which until this time had been following closely behind the Washington, made a starboard turn, creating a silhouette effect, and was subsequently hit by a salvo of shells. The Washington then shepherded the South Dakota to Noumea.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Harold Buell and Warren Taylor. Buell discusses being aboard USS Enterprise (CV-6) during the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands. Buell served as a Dauntless dive bomber pilot. Ingram’s (interviewer) primary interest in the battleship USS South Dakota (BB-57). Ingram also interviews Warren Taylor. Taylor served as a gunnery officer aboard the South Dakota. Taylor discusses much about gunnery at sea: targeting, target spotting, plotting, etc. He also recalls an explosion aboard ship while replenishing ammunition. Taylor also recalls going ashore in Japan after the surrender.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral monologue by Bob Willig. Willig joined the Navy in 1942 and received basic training in Newport, Rhode Island. He went on to receive flight training in Brunswick, Maine; Charleston, South Carolina; and Yellow Water, Florida. From 1944 to 1945 he served as a flight engineer with Patrol Bombing Squadron 26 in Palau, Ulithi, and Yap. He kept a daily journal and gives detailed accounts of a typhoon, a crash landing, an engine failure, a fuel explosion, a surprise enemy attack, and having a depth-charge stuck in a bomb bay. Yet he also fondly recollects cooking steaks on hot plates during the 10- to 12-hour patrols and how peaceful his time at Ulithi was. He was rarely ashore and spent his time mostly on the USS Casco (AVP-12), USS Cumberland Sound (AV-17), and USS Kenneth Whiting (AV-14). At the end of the war he returned home and was discharged in New York.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jack Jacobson. Jacobson was born in 1916. In 1940 he was accepted in the aviation cadet program and graduated in December 1941. He was sent to Fiji where he received additional flight training and was then sent to Guadalcanal. He describes being bombarded for over four hours one night by Japanese ships off the coast. He tells of the experiences of dropping bombs, strafing and escorting bombers during his more than 100 missions and three tours on Guadalcanal. He was selected to be Captain John Mitchell’s wingman during Operation Vengeance. He describes the precise flight plotted by Mitchell for intercept of Admiral Yamamoto’s plane over Bougainville. A vivid description is given of the actions taken by the planes involved in the attack.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Brush. Brush was assigned to serve as the Chief Engineer of the Philippine Manufacturing Company in Manila, before World War II. He and his wife traveled to Manila in May of 1941 and operated the factory until the end of December. He and his wife were taken prisoner into Santo Tomas Internment Camp in January of 1942. Brush shares details of the accommodations, building structure, atmosphere, food rations, starvation, illnesses, separated living conditions of men, women and children as well as their required daily work. They were later moved to Los Baños Internment Camp. In December of 1943 his wife, along with other women from Santo Tomas, were brought to Los Baños and allowed to live together as a family. Brush provides vivid details of their rescue in February of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Prudence Burns Burrell. Burrell was an African American woman who enlisted in the Army Reserve and served as a medical nurse in World War II. She was stationed in Australia, Java, New Guinea and the Philippines. She provides some details of her work in these areas and with the natives. She also shares experiences of racial discrimination. She completed her degree in public health at the University of Minnesota. She then served as a nurse aboard SS America. Upon returning home she became the first black instructor at Mission High School in San Francisco, teaching health and participating with the Future Nurses of America organization.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Eddie Albert. Albert was born in Rock Island, Illinois on 22 April 1908 and joined the Navy in 1942. Following officer training at Cornell University, he was shipped to the South Pacific. Albert recalls spending a night in November 1943 with Lieutenant Colonel Evans Fordyce Carlson (of Carlson’s Raiders fame) in a hole during the Battle of Tarawa. After the battle he relates that he was called to Washington, DC for duties relating to public relations and was sent around the United States selling war bonds. He recalls that by the end of the war he also had produced at least six war-related training films.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Martin Clemens. Clemens was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1915 and, after attending Cambridge University, joined the British Colonial Service and was posted to Guadalcanal in 1938. After Pearl Harbor, Clemens became the only British colonial authority on Guadalcanal and, in February 1942, was assigned coast watching duties prior to the Japanese invasion in May. After the Japanese invasion, he was forced to relocate from his village to a location in the jungle, where he describes his activities in conjunction with island volunteers in gathering intelligence and transmitting radio signals to British and Australian listening posts. When the Allied Forces landed on Guadalcanal in August 1942, Clemens provided volunteer scouts and laborers to Colonel Carlson of the Second Raider Battalion. He also recalls his encounters with General Vandegrift, who awarded him a Military Cross following the battle.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Sanford Hunt. Hunt was born in Newark, New Jersey on 18 October 1915 and after graduating from high school in 1934, joined the Naval Reserve as a radioman. In October 1940 he resigned from the Navy Reserves and enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve. He was sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as a radio operator, where he worked with Holland M. Smith. He was next transferred to the newly established Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and was trained as a cryptographer and cipher machine repairman. He describes his role in setting up and operating a radio transmitter station on Guadalcanal. While there, he worked closely with Major General Alexander Vandegrift and Brigadier General Gerald C. Thomas, Commanding General and Chief of Staff of the First Marine Division, respectively. The three of them were the only Marines on Guadalcanal authorized access to ULTRA message traffic (intelligence obtained by breaking encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter messages). Upon returning to Pearl Harbor he was given a field commission to second lieutenant. Hunt accompanied General Vandegrift to Noumea, New Caledonia as Special Assistant and Chief of Staff for Special Traffic and Messages, until …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Dick Keresey. Keresey was born in Delawana, New Jersey in 1913 and graduated from Columbia Law School in 1941. He joined the V7 Midshipman Program while at Columbia and completed training in January 1942, followed by motor torpedo boat training in Melville, Rhode Island, from which he graduated in March 1942. He served as captain of PT-105 in the Solomon Islands and recalls meeting John F. Kennedy, when Kennedy, as captain of PT-109, pulled Keresey’s boat off a reef. Keresey describes his participation in a major battle involving 15 PT boats in the Western Solomons on 6 March 1943, which became known as the Battle of Blackett Strait. Following that battle, he recalls learning that Kennedy’s boat, PT-109, had been cut in half by a Japanese destroyer. Finally, he describes another action in the Russell Islands on 22 August 1943 where he was assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Five along with nine other boats. He recalls PT-108 was destroyed by Japanese shore batteries during the battle.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral monologue with Gerald Martel. Martel was born in Massachusetts and joined the Army in the spring of 1941. He was assigned to the 182nd Infantry Regiment as a machine gunner and headed for Australia. His unit comprised the Americal Division when it was formed. Martel went to Guadalcanal and Leyte. He eventually was pulled from the ranks and put into special services where he performed for GI audiences. Sometimes, he opened before other celebrities performed (Irving Berlin, Bob Hope, and Jack Benny).

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Norman Hatch. Hatch was born in Boston in 1921. Following graduation from high school in 1939, he joined the Marine Corps. He volunteered for an English instructor billet at the Marine Corps Institute in Washington, DC. After six months he left for an editorial position at Leatherneck Magazine. Soon thereafter, he took a position at the Office of Information in the Office of Naval Operations, where he assisted in putting out press releases. In September 1941 he was accepted to the March of Time School of Pictorial Journalism operated by a major newsreel company in New York City. He recalls photographing President Roosevelt from the Capitol Gallery on 8 September 1941 as he asked Congress for a declaration of war. In 1942 Hatch was sent to Quantico, Virginia to join the newly-formed Marine Corps Photographic Section. From there, he joined the Second Marine Division in New Zealand. He was one of only two movie photographers assigned to the Second Division, and he describes being at Tarawa. Hatch describes the events that took place over the next three days, many of which were featured in his film With the …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents a monologue by David Richardson. Richardson served as a journalist and Sergeant in the Army from 1941-1945. In 1941 he worked as editor of the Camp Pendleton newspaper. He then worked for the Army weekly, Yank, in New York in 1942. They sent him, with orders, to General MacArthur in Australia to put together a group of journalists to document the war in the China, Burma, India Theatre of Operations. He participated in battles in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Leyte Gulf, India, Burma, the Philippines and shares his grim experiences in journaling through combat. In Burma, Richardson walked 700 miles with Merrill’s Marauders. He shares details of casualties, illnesses, attacks, weapons and military vehicles he handled and writing GI stories from the front lines.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral presentation given by George DeLong in 1993. DeLong tells of joining the Navy in January 1941 and of being on the battleship Oklahoma (BB-37) during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He describes the ship turning over and his being trapped, along with 32 other shipmates for one and a half days. DeLong describes the struggle to stay alive before being rescued and spending time in the hospital. He discusses causes of the war with Japan, actions which various admirals and generals took and various battles that were fought. He closes the presentation by answering questions presented by members of the audience.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Donovan. In January 1943 Donovan served as a member of the 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division as it joined the ongoing battle at Guadalcanal. His unit was withdrawn in February to New Zealand, and after recuperating from widespread malaria, his battalion landed at Tarawa on the day after the initial landing. After Tarawa, Donovan recalls that members of his battalion were put ashore by the USS Nautilus onto the Northern Gilbert island atoll Abemama, to flush out entrenched Japanese soldiers. Donovan was the battalion executive officer during the landing on Saipan. His landing craft was shot up resulting in several casualties but eventually landed. He describes the ferocious action that followed over the next three weeks until Saipan was eventually secured on 9 July. Donovan next describes the landing on Tinian where the 2nd Marine Division landed in support of the 4th Marine Division and secured the island over the following eleven days. At the end of 1944 he was transferred back to Pearl Harbor for a job at Fleet Pacific Headquarters until June 1945 when he was sent to Quantico, Virginia as an instructor.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with E. B. Potter. Potter was attached to the Intelligence Section of the 14th Naval District in Oahu during World War II. He graduated with an English degree from the University of Richmond in 1929. He completed an advanced degree in English at the University of Chicago, and during this time the war broke out in Europe. He applied for and received a commission in the Navy. Potter was sent to the Naval Academy as a reservist to teach college-level European and naval history. After 7 December 1941 he went to communications school. From there he went to Pearl Harbor in November of 1943. Potter worked in the Registered Publications Issuing Office (RPIO), distributing codes and ciphers to ships of the fleet. He provides a vivid description of his work. Potter became second-in-command of RPIO. He talks some of Commander Joseph Rochefort’s operation and code breaking. He discusses briefly working on the biography of Admiral Chester Nimitz, and some of Admiral Bill Halsey’s actions during the war. Potter was later assigned as executive officer to the 14th Naval District and provides stories of his experiences. In 1945 he returned to …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents a monologue with Douglas Hubbard. Hubbard recalls several events surrounding the recovery of the artifacts from various Pacific battlefield areas during the 1971-72 time period. His father, Doug, Sr., served as museum director in 1971, and during that time Hubbard, Jr. was serving in Vietnam with the US Naval Intelligence Command. Through his numerous travels through New Guinea and other Pacific Islands, Hubbard identified remaining artifacts that would help the museum interpret certain events in the Pacific War. He also identified veterans who could assist with firsthand accounts in World War II. He recounts how he acquired and transported the artifacts and veteran interviews back to the museum in Fredericksburg.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents a monologue by Jim Woods. Woods joined the Marine Corps in January of 1943. He served with the 3rd Marine Raider Battalion, participating in the Bougainville Campaign in November of 1943, the Battle of Guam in 1944, landing on Emirau Island, the Okinawa Campaign in April of 1945 and landing on Japan on 30 August 1945. After Bougainville, the Raiders were disbanded and Woods joined the 4th Marine Regiment for the remainder of his service. He provides vivid details of his combat missions with fellow servicemen, anecdotal stories from his squad and witnessed heavy casualties at Okinawa. Woods was discharged in late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with George McColm. McColm was born on a farm in Kansas in 1911. In 1928, he was selected to go to Washington, DC where he met President Herbert Hoover and his wife. Graduating from Kansas State College in Manhattan in 1935 he began studying terrain, weather and demand in crop growing. He tells of recognition and honors he received in the agricultural field. Soon after the war with Japan began, he was offered a commission in the US Navy to participate in a special classified project. At the time, he was in charge of crops at the Topaz War Relocation Center in Utah. McColm shares many of his experiences with the Japanese internees and expresses his opinion of the people he worked with. Upon being inducted, he went to Tucson, Arizona for boot training and then to Princeton University Naval School of Military Government. Upon completion of the training he was sent to the Civil Affairs staging area at the Presidio of Monterey, California. Upon his arrival he was assigned to a Top Secret staff working on the plans for the invasion and occupation of Japan. He concludes the …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents oral interviews with Tex Hill, Joe Robert and Dick Rossi. Hill and Burken go into great detail regarding an issue of LIFE Magazine with a picture of General Claire Lee Chennault on the cover and a drawing of a panda bear dressed like a cowboy, as Hill was a member of the Panda Bear squadron of the Flying Tigers. Burken then visits with Joe Robert about a print that Joe is looking to sell and a LIFE Magazine that Joe is featured in, sitting on the wing of the P-40. They also discuss some events with the Japanese and the Pappy Boyington book titled Tonya. Robert was in the same squadron as Boyington. They also visit some on the history of the Flying Tigers and the Burma campaign. Beginning on page 44 through the end of the interview Burken speaks with Dick Rossi. They visit about Flying Tiger pilot Robert T. Smith and a letter from filmmaker Ron Howard in regards to a movie about the Flying Tigers. They also discuss some events with Flying Tiger pilot Freeman Ricketts.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Arthur Owen. Owen enlisted in the Marine Corps in May 1941. After boot camp in San Diego, he was assigned to the Marine Detachment at San Clemente Island, California. After he was there for a year, they transferred him to Camp Elliott in San Diego where he became part of the 2nd Marine Division. In Oct 1942, they sailed for New Zealand and additional training. They made several practice landings and then invaded Tarawa on November 20, 1943. Owen was a corporal in what was called Shore Party Command Group - Headquarters, 2nd Battalion, 18th Marines. The job of this Group was to establish dumps on the beaches and unload the ships. Owen states that he was probably one of the few that made the landing in Tarawa twice and never did get ashore, because he spent 13 days on the pier. At the end of this time, they went aboard the President Monroe and sailed to Hawaii. Upon arriving in Hilo, they set up a camp on the volcano which was at the Parker Ranch in Kamuela (Camp Tarawa) and at an old Japanese POW camp. While …