The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Lloyd Pearson. Pearson joined the Navy in 1940 after five months in the Civilian Conservation Corps and received basic training in San Diego. Upon completion, he was assigned to the USS West Virginia (BB-48) as a seaman. He was aboard ship during the attack on Pearl Harbor and swam to Ford Island after the West Virginia was torpedoed. Afterward, he was assigned to Fleet Machine Gun School, where he learned to operate a 20-millimeter Oerlikon machine gun. He was transferred to an ammunition depot in New Zealand and returned to the States a year later for Deep Sea Diving School. He went aboard the USS ATR-52 as a gunner’s mate, providing support to other ships at Iwo Jima. The ship was in Leyte for repairs when the war ended. Pearson was discharged after a short stint aboard the USS Alabama (BB-60).

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Gerry Porter. Porter enlisted in the Navy in November of 1940. He completed Machinist School and was assigned to the USS West Virginia (BB-48), main engines M Division. He describes this job and the engine rooms he worked in. Porter talks some on the 3 weeks leading up to 7 December 1941, and the military being instructed to be on alert. The West Virginia was stationed in Pearl Harbor on the day of the attack. Porter discusses the events that occurred that morning both around and inside the ship. His ship was hit by 6 torpedoes that fateful day and sunk in Pearl Harbor. In October of 1942 he was assigned to the USS Bogue (CVE-9). They did convoy and submarine patrol in the Atlantic, operating out of Argentia, Newfoundland. They would convoy and meet the British halfway across the Atlantic, and he provides some detail of these convoy experiences. In July of 1943 he was rotated to the USS Langley (CVL-27), providing training for pilots. In January of 1944 they began operating with the Fleet and continued through April of 1945. By May of 1945 he was classified …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Koehl. Following high school and after a brief stint working in a blacksmith shop, Koehl joined the Army Air Corps in 1940 and was assigned to the 31st Bombardment Squadron. In November 1941, he was put on guard duty in Honolulu and quickly made sergeant of the guard. On the attack of December 7th, Koehl dragged a wounded man to the hospital and spent the rest of the day on guard with a Thompson submachine gun. In February, Koehl received orders to return to the States for staff pilot training, earning his wings and learning to fly gliders as well as the B-26 Marauder. He was sent to Belgium and France, where he flew 66 missions, including raids on so-called No-Ball targets, which were heavily guarded V-1 and V-2 launch sites. He was discharged as a second lieutenant shortly after the war ended and went to work for Eastern Air Lines.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William H Mullins. Mullins joined the Navy in July 1939 and received basic training in San Diego. Following in the footsteps of his father, a World War I Navy man, he attended machinist’s mate school. Upon completion, he was assigned to the USS Tangier (AV-8) at Pearl Harbor. On 7 December 1941, Mullins was on duty in the engine room, monitoring lubrication of large bearings at the recently damaged propeller shaft. He received updates on the action from someone shouting from above, and he felt the ship heave out of the water when a bomb landed in the mud nearby. Mullins was selected to attend Officer Training School at the University of New Mexico under the V-12 program. He was then assigned to the USS Coghlan (DD-606), where he was responsible for the rescue of downed pilots. Before his discharge, he served briefly in Japan; Mullins recalls vividly the ruins of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with George A Richard. Richard joined the Navy during the Depression. Upon boarding the USS Tennessee (BB-43), he was delighted to have free room and board. A second class seaman, he was assigned to the range-finder in the fire control division, later transferring topside and working his way up to boatswain’s mate. After surviving the attack on Pearl Harbor, he helped to recover bodies the following day. In the Philippines, Richard experienced an attack by a kamikaze that dropped a 500-pound dud, as well as collisions with the USS California (BB-44) and USS Black Hawk (AD-9). In the Marianas, while watching Marines land, he gave up his seat to another sailor who was then immediately shelled. At the end of the war, Richard endured a typhoon on the way to Japan and watched a Japanese admiral board the ship to surrender. He stayed in the Navy another year and was discharged as a boatswain’s mate, first class.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William St.John. St. John graduated from high school in 1939 and joined the Navy. He was assigned to the USS West Virginia (BB-48) in the gunnery division. His duties also included handling plane catapult charges. In December 1940, St. John received radio communication training in Hawaii. He was then assigned to the brand new Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station, maintaining radio equipment. On the morning of December 7, he was working on a transmitter when he watched in shock as the Japanese attacked. St. John later spent nine months in aviation communication on Palmyra Island, coordinating emergency landings. He was sent back to the States to oversee the installment of electronics on the USS Guam (CB-2) and USS Portsmouth (CL-102) prior to commissioning. He was then trained in coding machines and sent aboard the USS Dayton (CL-105) as a radioman, first class. His final duty before his November 1946 discharge was preparing top secret monitoring stations in California and New York. He applied his wartime experience to embark upon a civilian career at both the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and Kelly Air Force Base.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Paul Wallace in memory of his father Paul Eugene Wallace. Wallace joined the Marines in 1927, graduated from Annapolis in 1933 and completed Marine Corps Officer Training in 1934. He was assigned to the USS Maryland (BB-46). Following that he was a China Marine and served with the 4th Marines in Shanghai. He later served aboard the USS Augusta (CA-31) with the Marine detachment. He completed Chemical Warfare School and was transferred to San Diego as commander of a chemical warfare company. He later became Commanding Officer of the Marine detachment aboard the USS Pensacola (CA-24). Paul???s mother was the secretary to the Chief of Naval Intelligence, 14th Naval District and their family was stationed in Pearl Harbor, present on the day of the attack. Paul describes life growing up in Pearl Harbor and what he witnessed that fateful day in December of 1941, including his mother???s and father???s reactions to the attack and their providing help in the weeks that followed. He and his mother were shipped back to California aboard the SS Lurline. His father was transferred back to the Marine Corps School to become a Chief …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Avery Willis. Willis left the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and joined the Navy in 1935. After training, he was assigned to the engine room of the USS Nevada (BB-36) as a machinist’s mate. On the morning of 7 December, he was filling in as an engineer on the motor launch. When the initial attack passed, he assumed his station in the engine room just before the ship got underway. Thinking he might be safer on a submarine, Willis soon requested a transfer and boarded the USS Tunny (SS-282). Conducting patrols off of Guam, he was at ease under the expert command of Lieutenant Commander John Scott. After five patrols, Willis was transferred to Mare Island, where he ran errands for Admiral Rickover. As the war came to an end, Willis’s last duty was decommissioning 57 submarines, some of them brand new.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Bernard Rubien. Rubien joined the Army Air Corps after his 22nd birthday and received basic training at Fort Slocum. Upon completion, he was assigned as a clerk typist to bomb squadrons at Hickam Field. He was then transferred to Hawaiian Air Command headquarters. On 7 December 1941 he received a distress signal from Wake Island via teletype. With Pearl Harbor also under attack, Rubien quickly set about burning classified documents. Within a few days, he was relocated to an alternate command post in a mountainside cave. After a year, he returned to the States for Officer Candidate School at Miami Beach. After training troops in Atlantic City, he returned to his former office in Hawaii. He was soon transferred to VII Fighter Command at Fort Shafter as adjutant for the 318th Fighter Group. He then joined ComAirForward, a joint task force designated as Task Force 59. Rubien returned home and later served in the Korean War. He retired after 26 years in the service.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Eugene Strathman. Strathman joined the Navy in the fall of 1943. He completed signal school and was assigned to LSM-11. They hauled tank destroyers. He provides some details of the LSM and its armament. They traveled to Hilo, Hawaii. Aboard the LSM he served as a cook. In January of 1945 they participated in the Invasion of Lingayen Gulf. They were the first ship to hit the beach. He describes some of the air raids of kamikaze planes that he witnessed. His battle station was on the 20mm anti-aircraft gun. They participated in the Battle of Okinawa in April of 1945, and then the invasion of Ie Shima. He describes his experiences at these battles. He was discharged in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Bond. Bond joined the Navy in early 1943 and received basic training in San Diego. Upon completion, he was assigned to USS Callaghan (DD-792), where he ran the handling room, sending ammunition up the hoist. He also was coxswain of a 26-foot gig that would be sent out from the main ship periodically. On night voyages he would communicate with the ship using a bell. He endured a perilous typhoon in the China Sea that lasted three days and caused the ship to roll 62 degrees. At Okinawa he traveled 40 miles in heavy fog to retrieve mail; when he returned, the ship was gone, and he had no choice but to wait for its return. He captured prisoners of war from a sunken Japanese patrol boat; upon returning to the Callaghan, Bond placed the prisoners in a mail bag and sent them across a line to USS Ticonderoga (CV-14). Within an hour of the Callaghan’s anticipated departure for the United States, the ship was damaged irreparably by a kamikaze attack. Bond leapt overboard and was rescued by USS Prichett (DD-561). He suffered extensive injuries from the …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Wallace Brunton. Brunton was born in Glouster, Ohio in 1924. Drafted at age 18, he went into the Navy and attended boot camp at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. He was then selected for training in sonar. Upon completion of the sound school he received training in both surface and air search radar. He tells of going aboard the USS Callaghan (DD-792) and being seasick during four days of the shakedown cruise. He recalls the ship being involved in bombarding Okinawa in early 1945, where it fought off a kamikaze attack. Brunton also tells of a Japanese two-man submarine surfacing and being destroyed by the guns of the Callahan. During July 1945 the ship was on picket station off Okinawa when it was hit by a kamikaze and sunk. He was picked up by the USS Crescent City (APA-125) and eventually returned home on the USS Warren (APA-53). He was discharged 17 December 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Robert Cooper. Cooper was drafted into the Navy in 1943. He served aboard the USS Callaghan (DD-792) as an electrician. He describes life aboard the destroyer. They participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June of 1944, and he describes his experiences through this event. They were in Task Force 39.3 and traveled throughout the Pacific. In October of 1944 they participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. He describes going through a typhoon and the overall morale amongst the captain and crew. In early 1945 the Callaghan screened carrier strikes shelling Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the Tokyo area and Cooper provides some detail of these events, including rescuing seven Japanese off a sunken boat, shooting down kamikazes and picking up a Japanese officer. The officer, named Hasegawa, became a prisoner in the Hawaiian Islands and Cooper provides some detail of this officer???s experiences and their meeting at a 50-year reunion. In July of 1945, the Callaghan was struck by an enemy aircraft and sank. Cooper provides some details of this fateful event. He was discharged in January of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ronald Jones. Jones joined the Navy in 1943 and received basic training in Illinois. He received advanced sonar training in San Diego and preliminary radar training at Mare Island, in case he would be needed as a replacement aboard ship. Upon completion, he was assigned to the USS Callaghan (DD-792) as the captain’s talker. His ship provided fire support at the Marshall Islands, Saipan, and Guam, protecting against enemy submarines and airplanes, and also firing at Japanese positions on land. He recalls running short on supplies when taking over the patrol of a damaged sister ship, and that the food shortage wasn’t remedied until there was a change of command some months later. At Okinawa his ship was sunk by a kamikaze, and Jones was nearly sucked into the propellers of the rescue ship, which fortunately reversed its propellers and washed him out at the last minute. While he was in the Philippines awaiting new orders, the atomic bombs were dropped. Jones returned home and was discharged in 1946. Jones returned home and was discharged in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Robert Bland. Bland joined the Navy in April of 1944. He served as Signalman Third-Class aboard the SS Francis Preston Blair (1943). They traveled to Australia, New Zealand, India and Manila picking up and delivering cargo. Bland served aboard the ship until it got stranded on Saumarez Reef in the Coral Sea during a cyclone in 1945. Bland continued his service after the war ended, receiving his discharge in May of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Glenn Reynolds. Reynolds left high school to join the Navy in 1939. In March 1940 he was assigned to USS Maryland (BB-46). Anchored at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked, Reynolds was writing a letter to his girlfriend when the war began. He manned his battle station, despite being barefoot, and then helped fight fires on a nearby fuel tanker. He later transferred to USS Halawa (AOG-12) as a gunner’s mate. In August 1942 he was sent to gunnery school and upon completion joined an amphibious base in England, where he met an English woman who would become his wife. While on shore patrol duty, Reynolds was alarmed one evening when Downtown London was suddenly crowded to the point where he could not move. This was how he learned that the Germans had surrendered. V-E Day celebrations lasted until four in the morning. After being discharged from the Navy, Reynolds joined the Army and went served in Korea and Vietnam, retiring after 26 years.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Fletcher Taylor. Taylor joined the Army Air Corps in 1940 and received training as a navigator in Miami. At the beginning of the war he was sent to the Panama Canal, patrolling in B-17s for ships and submarines. He was then transferred to India as a B-24 navigator, where he flew 30 missions, some as long as 13 hours. His first mission was to disable the electrical components of a coal mine in China that was critical for Japanese steel production. While the mission was successful, he believes there were several hundred Chinese casualties. Taylor participated in missions bombing the Andaman Islands, Bangkok, Rangoon, and Mandalay. He returned to the States for pilot training at Fort Worth. Upon completion, he was sent to staff school. At the end of the war, he was assigned to retrieve a plane from England. Taylor returned home and spent 25 years in a secret censorship program run by the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with C.R. Walters. Walters joined the Army in March 1943 and received basic training at Fort Belvoir. Upon completion, he began a degree in mechanical engineering under the Army Specialized Training Program. In March 1944 he was transferred to the 102nd Infantry Division and sent to Cherbourg, France. He was in combat as a platoon sergeant from mid-October until April 1945. German soldiers surrendered to his unit at the Elbe River. After the war, Walters was assigned to a prisoner-of-war camp formerly run by Germans. He was tasked with making arrangements for Russian prisoners to return home. Walters remained in Europe with the occupation forces until May 1946. He completed his degree in mechanical engineering and was assigned to an engineering unit that primarily built airfields. Walters retired from the service in 1957.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Wesley Fronk. Fronk joined the Army Air Forces in December 1942 after starting college at the University of North Dakota and working as a mechanic for Lockheed. He received basic training in Fresno and was sent to engineering and operations clerical school. Upon completion, he was assigned to the 347th Airdrome Squadron. He was sent to India, where his unit supported the 4th Combat Cargo Squadron, 1st Combat Cargo Group. In his spare time, he helped build engines on the flight line. His unit dropped aerial supplies to British troops in Burma, American mountainside detachments, and the OSS. Supplies for Chinese troops included oats for their mules, since they had no motor vehicles. These missions were flown in C-47s, and after the war the unit switched to the larger C-46s, moving Chinese Nationalist troops to where they would face off against the Chinese Communists. Fronk returned home and was discharged in December 1945. He began a civilian career with the Department of Defense and retired after 48 years of service.

Transcript of an oral interview with Norman E. Winter. Born in 1924, he was inducted into the Army in October 1944 after a one-year agricultural deferment. He talks about basic training and weaponry at Camp Hood, Texas. He was assigned to a light weapons platoon in Company E, 129th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division. He shares an anecdote about sea sickness on the ship to the Philippines and describes the living conditions of the Filipinos. He describes advancing to the northern end of Luzon in the face of Japanese artillery fire and night fighting. He shares anecdotes about dancing in Manilla and going to the beach in Aparri. After V-J Day, he re-enlisted and returned to the U.S. with the 37th Division. He was transferred to Germany where he was assigned to the Army Counter Intelligence Corps. While serving in the Berghausen field office, his mission was to arrest Nazi war criminals. He shares the stories of three such arrests. In late 1947 his mission changed to gathering information about Communist activities. He describes an incident in which he, disguised as a Military Policeman, accompanied refugees on a train bound for Hungary for repatriation. He served as Army personnel in …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with James Norman Price. Price was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Air Forces in May 1942. He served as a B-17 pilot and flew missions during the Guadalcanal Campaign. He was selected to serve with the 509th Composite Bomb Group, 393rd Bomb Squadron. Price became a qualified B-29 commander, and piloted the bomber titled Some Punkins, arriving at Tinian in June 1945. On 6 August he made the final check of the Enola Gay and other aircraft as the expeditor for the mission. After the war, Price remained active in the Air National Guard at Naval Air Station, Corpus Christi, retiring as a lieutenant colonel.

Transcript of an oral interview with Robert Lewis Kelly. Kelly joined the Naval Reserve in 1938 in Kansas City, Missouri. He was sent to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on an ATA (auxiliary ocean tug.) He initially served on a troop transport ship. He later served on minelayers and minesweepers in the Atlantic Theater. He describes being transported in Africa in a 40-and-8 box car. He also provides information about his parents and siblings. He served until the end of the war. Kelly served on a troop transport ship in both the Pacific and Atlantic Theaters. He went to Mine Warfare School and then served on minesweepers and minelayers. He provided minesweeping support for the Normandy Invasion. In addition to sharing information about minelaying and minesweeping, he describes being on liberty in Greece; serving as a brig warden; experiencing a tsunami and a typhoon while at sea; witnessing a German submarine attack near Bermuda; experiencing a London air raid; witnessing the USS Osprey and the USS Tide hitting mines and the USS Texas being hit by German shells; and living on the beach in Casablanca. He recounts a story about missing alcohol in the marine compass. He also describes the food situation …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Wendell R. Benson. Benson joined the Navy in August of 1943. He was trained as an electrician and then attended submarine school in Groton, Connecticut. Benson then joined the crew of the USS Trutta (SS-421) for three war patrols. He details the advantages of the Tench-class submarines over their predecessors. Benson also tells an amusing story of how the crew celebrated the announcement of the Surrender with a swim call.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Hubert Douglas Crotts. Crotts joined the Marine Corps in July 1941. He was trained as a tanker, but realized he was claustrophobic. Crotts became a ground guide for the tanks and helped direct their fire from outside of the vehicle. He was sent to the Pacific as a part of the 2nd Marine Division. Crotts landed at Tarawa and tells of the difficulties that the tanks faced. He was awarded a Navy Cross by Admiral Nimitz. Crotts met Admiral Nimitz earlier on the island after the battle. He had a short conversation in which Nimitz asked several questions about the battle. Later, Crotts landed with his unit on Saipan where he was wounded while directing tanks. He was evacuated to a hospital and underwent several operations for his wound. Crotts left the service soon after the war ended.