The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Henri Granier. Granier joined the Army in 1939 and received basic training at Fort Slocum. Upon completion, he was assigned to the 27th Infantry Regiment and sent to Schofield Barracks. He fired at Japanese planes as they left Pearl Harbor on the day of the attack. His first experience of combat was on Guadalcanal in January 1942 when he survived a banzai attack in the jungle. While on night duty in the Solomon Islands, he heard a Japanese troop carrier approaching, so he quickly disassembled and reassembled a jammed 57-millimeter recoilless rifle, successfully defending his unit. He was wounded twice in combat, once by a piece of shrapnel and once by a Japanese saber. His unit was relieved and sent to New Zealand for reorganization. While there, the war ended. Granier returned to the United States and remained in the Army, twice deploying to Korea and twice to Vietnam. At the beginning of the Iraq War, he donned dress greens and showed up at a recruiting office, requesting to reenlist. He was 89 years old at the time.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with B C Peters. Peters joined the Navy in September of 1942. He served with the 31st Seabee Battalion. From 1942 to 1943 he worked in Bermuda, building a refueling station as well as working with a survey crew. He worked on surveys for the construction of a submarine dock at St. Georges and a military highway near Hamilton. He was transferred to Camp Endicott, Rhode Island, where he was trained as Crew Chief of an 81mm mortar squad and his survey party made a topographic map of the area. They were later assigned to the mountains of Hawaii and he describes his living conditions there, and the scenery. They completed physical training and trained aboard an LCM as well. They traveled to Eniwetok and Iwo Jima. He provides great detail of landing at Iwo Jima and the battle that ensued. Peters’ group was there to repair the airfield closest to Mt. Suribachi, and then set up shop in foxholes on the island. He provides great detail of his experiences there. He assisted with the surveying and engineering of another airfield and describes his involvement. After Iwo Jima he returned …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John R. Ahlgren. In 1942, Ahlgren, a Navy communications officer, was assigned to Admiral Chester Nimitz's staff at Pearl Harbor. From 1946 to 1947 he was stationed in Russia and worked as a translator and attaché to the US Embassy in Moscow. Ahlgren left the service soon after his time in Moscow.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Arthur Keller, Jr. Keller joined the Army in 1942. He was sent to North Africa where he served in the 601st Ordnance Battalion. Keller was then a part of the invasion of Southern France as a part of the 3251st Quartermaster Service Company with the 7th Army. He describes how his unit would organize and ship supplies to the front. Keller describes serving in occupied Germany and his return to the US on the Queen Mary. He left the service soon after his return.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents and oral interview with Thomas Earp. Earp was born in Baltimore 15 November 1923. He joined the Marines and went to Camp Pendleton where he had boot training. He then went to Camp Goettge on New Caledonia and was assigned to the 1st Raider Regiment. In January 1944 he went to Guadalcanal where he had additional combat training before transferring into the 4th Marine Regiment. He was then assigned to the 1st Marine Provisional Brigade. Earp’s unit served as a reserve force during the invasion of Saipan. On 21 July 1944 he participated in the invasion of Guam. He recalls waiting on deck for a Higgins boat and seeing piles of body parts taken on board. His landing craft hung up on a coral reef and the troops had to wade ashore in high water under fire. On his first night on the island, they endured a banzai charge. As the battle moved inland he was assigned to the 53rd Construction Battalion and they began building bridges and roads. They also constructed landing strips for B-29s as well as a headquarters building for Admiral Chester Nimitz. Earp departed Guam November 1945 and …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Todd. Todd joined the Marine Corps on 10 December 1941. He was sent to Bougainville as a member of a heavy weapons squad. Todd mentions a patrol narrowly escaping getting cut off by the Japanese. He then took part in the invasion of Guam and describes following the tanks through the jungle and forming a defensive line at night. Todd discusses the equipment including the .50 caliber heavy machine gun, 37mm anti-tank gun, and 1-ton trucks. His unit was held in reserve at Iwo Jima and landed after 4 days. Todd describes driving his truck off of a landing craft and immediately becoming stuck. He was wounded after four days in battle and evacuated to Guam for surgery. Todd was sent back to the US for duty and remained there until the war ended. He was discharged September 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Harry Dallison. Dallison joined the Navy in 1944 and attended radio school at the University of Wisconsin. Upon completion, he went to submarine school in New London. He received radar training in Groton and went to sound school in San Diego. During his studies, he came down with a fever. By the time he recovered, the war had ended, so Dallison never made a war patrol. He was assigned for three months to USS Pintado (SS-387) and was discharged in April 1946. In his retirement he was an active ham radio enthusiast.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with David Lynch. Lynch joined the Marine Corps just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and received basic training at Parris Island. He received further training at Camp Lejeune with the 1st Marine Division. Upon completion, he was sent to Guadalcanal, where he fought for five months and contracted malaria, despite taking Atabrine daily. He recalls that all the Marines were cheering for the Americans during an air fight at Henderson Field as though it were a football game. He then went to Cape Gloucester and Pavuvu. When securing Peleliu, he ran out of grenades and resorted to throwing rocks at the Japanese. He describes how challenging the Japanese style of combat was at Peleliu. On his way to Bloody Nose Ridge, his helmet was shot. Lynch fell to the ground and was knocked unconscious. He awoke two days later, on a hospital ship, and received medical treatment at a field hospital in the Admiralties. Lynch returned home and was discharged in 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Garlic. Garlic joined the Navy to become an aviator in 1941. He trained to become a pilot of a F6F Hellcat night fighter. He tells stories of his experiences through training on the USS Ranger (CV-4) in the Atlantic to his service in VF(N)-78 aboard the USS Lexington (CV-16) in the Pacific. Garlic downed three Japanese torpedo planes in one mission while protecting the Lexington .

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Albert Skiles. Skiles joined the Army in March 1943. He was sent to the Pacific as a replacement. Skiles eventually joined the 96th Infantry Division and landed at Leyte. He served as a switchboard operator and company clerk with a headquarters company. He was later sent to Okinawa and landed in one of the first waves of the invasion. He was wounded by a mortar shell and evacuated to Hawaii. During his time on Okinawa he witnesses a kamikaze attack on the USS Morrison (DD-560). He also was near Yontan Airfield when it was attacked by Japanese commandos and witnessed the aftermath.

Transcript of an oral interview with Jack O. Arnold. Arnold was born in El Paso, Texas on 27 June, 1923. He enlisted in the Army in May 1942 while in his second year at the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy. After basic training at Camp Maxey, Texas, he joined the 14th Armored Division. Circa 1944-1945, he joined the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment. He participated in the battle for the recapture of Corregidor. He discusses the Japanese defensive network of tunnels on the island. He was awarded the Purple Heart for a shrapnel injury while on Negros Island. Arnold describes the living conditions of the soldiers. He also describes the Japanese practice of binding themselves up with cloth for battle. He was discharged from the Army on 31 December, 1945. After he finished college, he enlisted in the Air Force in 1949 at the age of 26 and served during the Korean War. He recounts stories of flying in an airplane during a typhoon, a bird strike, engine trouble and landing gear failure. He was discharged from the Air Force in 1952. Arnold provides information about his parents and siblings as well as his children.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Walter Lamb. Lamb participated in the Civilian Conservation Corps in the late 1930s. He joined the Navy around 1940. In April of 1941 he traveled to California for basic training and Ordnance School. He joined Utility Squadron 2 (VJ-2) and traveled aboard the USS Ramapo (AO-12) to the Philippines. On 6 December 1941, they stopped over at Pearl Harbor. Lamb was on the island when the Japanese attacked the next day. He remained on Ford Island until December of 1942, assisting with debris clean up. He served as Ordnanceman aboard an unnamed, in the South Pacific, transporting airplanes and supplies.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Richard Blair. Blair joined the Merchant Marine in 1943. After training, he was assigned to the MV Pigeon Point, a sea going tug stationed on the West Coast. Blair worked in the engine room and made a few trips across the Pacific while aboard: one to Hawaii and another to New Guinea. After returning, he switched ships to the MV Saint Simon and made it to the Philippines during the invasion in 1944-45. Blair shares several anecdotes about being aboard ship and going ashore. He returned to the US in spring, 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Max P. Shambaugh. Born in Ft. Wayne, Indiana 16 June 1922, Shambaugh joined the US Army Air Corps in February, 1941. After completing basic training at Keesler Field, Mississippi he was accepted into pilot training. He went to Dickerson College at Carlisle, Pennsylvania for preliminary training. He was then sent to Albany, Georgia where he began basic flight training under the leadership of civilian instructors. He tells of the various bases where he took training and of the type of aircraft he flew. Upon graduating from twin engine school at Columbus, Mississippi he received his wings, was commissioned a second lieutenant and sent to Columbus, Ohio for transition training in a B-17. Completing the advanced training he went to Lincoln, Nebraska to pick up a new B-17 and the assigned crew. They went to Pyote, Texas for crew training. In July 1944 they went by ship to Brighton, England where they were assigned to the 91st Bomb Group, 323nd Bomb Squadron. Shambaugh flew thirty-five before he was shot down. Encountering heavy flak and with the plane damaged, the crew, of which seven were wounded, bailed out. He crash …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John McKillican. McKillican was born in Burbank, California. Quitting high school, he worked at a ranch until he joined the Navy at seventeen years old. He was sent to Farragut, Idaho for eight weeks of boot training followed by sixteen weeks at the Navy Signal School at San Diego. He then reported to Oceanside, California where he joined a ten man communication team assigned to the 5th Marine Division. After three months of simulated landings along the California coast the team was sent to Hawaii where they trained with the Marines. In December 1944 the unit boarded the USS Rutland (APA-192), bound for Iwo Jima. He graphically describes landing on Red Beach 1 with the Marines amid the Japanese artillery and mortar fire as death and destruction unfolded around him. McKillican’s unit set up a ship-to-shore communication center in a captured enemy pill box. After eight days ashore the unit went aboard ship and proceeded to Espiritu Santo for R & R. Soon thereafter, the unit proceeded to Okinawa. While there, Japan surrendered. He tells of the ship being in Tokyo Bay during the signing of the Peace …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Erwin Schilling. Schilling joined the Navy in 1939 with only an eighth-grade education, his family having been too poor to provide him transportation to the nearest high school. Upon completion of basic training in San Diego, he was assigned to the USS Twiggs (DD-127), on escort duty in the Atlantic. The water was particularly rough in the wintertime, and Schilling remembers the ship rolling 56 degrees. After about a year, he was reassigned to the USS Sturtevant (DD-240), which later sank off of Florida. While he was in a lifeboat, he saw enginemen covered in oil waiting in vain for rescue. Schilling was transferred to the USS Buchanan (DD-484) as a gunner’s mate. He was slightly sounded in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. Schilling was sent to gunnery school in Washington, D.C., and finished his Navy career aboard the USS Idaho (BB-42). He had no duties to perform at that time and enjoyed live music on deck each afternoon. He returned home and was discharged in October 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Simmons. Simmons joined the Navy in July 1943 and received basic training in San Diego. He received electro-hydraulics training and was assigned to the USS Davis (DD-395) as a gunner’s mate, his battle station in the lower forward handling room, sending up five-inch shells. He participated in the invasion of Normandy, providing support to troops landing on Omaha Beach. After escorting the USS Texas (BB-35) back to England and attempting a return trip with supplies, the Davis hit a mine and was sent to Scotland for repairs. Simmons returned to the States, where he was diagnosed with asthma and given a medical discharge. He claims to have not suffered any psychological impacts from witnessing drownings at Normandy, but his wife recalls that Simmons would become so nervous watching news reels that they would often leave the theater early together.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Tina Burnham. Burnham was born in Sulpher Springs, Texas and graduated from high school in 1940. She attended a trade school in Texarkana, Texas to become a riveter. She was then employed at Spartan Aircraft Industries in Tulsa, Oklahoma as a riveter. On this job she manufactured wings on Grumman Wildcat aircraft. In January 1944 she joined the Coast Guard Women’s Reserve (SPARS) and went to Palm Beach, Florida for six weeks of intensive training. She describes the clothing she was issued and the training she received. Upon completion of boot camp she went to Philadelphia working as a pharmacist’s mate in the St. Agnes Hospital. She was then selected to attend the College of Pharmacy at Columbia University. She graduated 31 December 1944. After spending a short time in the SPARS barracks sick bay in Norfolk, Virginia she was transferred to the Marine Hospital in Norfolk. While at the hospital she rotated through the various departments. She states that surgery was her favorite. She was then sent to the Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Coast Guard Air Station where she served until being discharged 20 May 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Fred Hargesheimer. Hargesheimer joined the Army Air Forces in March of 1941. He completed flight training in March of 1942 and served as a pilot aboard an F-5, a modified P-38. He was assigned to the 8th Photo Squadron, 5th Air Force. He traveled to Australia and New Guinea. His plane had three cameras used for mapping at 20,000 feet, covering a 40-mile-wide strip. He provides some details of the cameras and techniques used in mapping. On his 49th, and final, photo reconnaissance mission in June of 1943 Hargesheimer’s plane was shot down by the Japanese over Papua New Guinea. He parachuted to safety and survived in the jungle for 31 days. He was rescued, and hidden from the Japanese, by the Nakanai tribe in the village of Eaea. In February of 1944 he was rescued by the submarine USS Gato (SS-212). He was discharged in 1946. Hargesheimer later became a philanthropist, helping the village that hid him from the Japanese.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Lois Kerimis. Kerimis graduated from Rawlins College in Winter Park, Florida in 1938, at 21 years old, with a Bachelors in Foreign Languages. She and her family were moved by the YMCA to Honolulu, where she taught at the Punahou Academy and her father was the Activities Director of the Army and Navy YMCA. She shares experiences of their life living and touring the island before the war, where her family fed and cared for homesick enlisted men and officers. They were living in Honolulu when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred 7 December 1941. She provides vivid details of this day, including witnessing a bomb dropping in the empty lot across from her home and lights out in the evening. Because Kerimis was fluent in four languages, including German, she was drafted by the Naval Intelligence on 8 December 1941. She served as a civilian employee, working with a Dictaphone interpreting phone calls in German between the Japanese and Germans. Kerimis left Hawaii in 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with George Scholes. Scholes joined the U.S. Navy’s V-12 program in 1943, graduating with the rank of ensign from the Midshipman's School at Northwestern University in Chicago. Scholes trained in ordnance at the Washington Naval Gun Factory and Jacksonville Naval Air Station. He was assigned to the Aviation Construction Ordinance Repair Navy unit, ACORN-52, in Guam. The unit occupied the Japanese Naval Base at Truk Atoll, in the Pacific. They built an airstrip and repaired an airplane base once belonging to the Japanese. He served in the Navy for three years and was discharged in June of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Richard Austin. Austin joined the Army Air Forces in January of 1943 as an Aviation Cadet. He graduated as a pilot in March of 1944 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He went on to train as a B-17 co-pilot. He provides details of his flight training. Austin was assigned to the 335th Bomb Squadron, 95th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force stationed in England. He completed 35 missions from November of 1944 through April of 1945. Austin describes some of their missions over Cologne, Hanover, Hamburg, Berlin, Dusseldorf and Brunswick. He was discharged around November of 1945. Upon returning home he joined the Air Force Reserve and National Guard.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Floyd Cox. Cox was born in Hutchinson, Kansas on 26 November 1932. Upon graduating from high school in 1950 he joined the US Air Force. He recalls, as a child, hearing a broadcast telling of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and how the war affected a youngster living in a small town during that time. He relates his experiences in participating in scrap iron and grease collections for war time purposes and purchasing War Bond Stamps. Cox alludes to the effects of government enforced rationing on various commodities during this time.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Todd. Todd enlisted in the Army before World War II, spent some time in the National Guard, went to Prep School and took the exams for West Point. He graduated from West Point in 1944, the first three-year class. After Parachute School at Fort Benning, he was assigned to the 13th Airborne Division and they went overseas (France), becoming the theater reserve. The 13th never saw combat. The 13th was enroute to the Pacific when the atomic bombs were dropped. The 13th was deactivated at Fort Bragg and he joined the 82nd Airborne Division. Todd was part of the 11th Division which stayed in Japan for almost four years as part of the occupation forces (some details). Todd stayed in the Army, retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 1967.