The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Charlie Boswell. Boswell was born in Coryell County, Texas 4 September 1921. He quit high school, joined the Navy and went to boot camp in San Diego. Upon completing boot training he was assigned to the USS Tennessee (BB-43) as a member of the crew in the engine room. During battle stations, he served as an ammunition handler for a five inch gun. He was aboard the ship on 7 December 1941 and he describes his activities during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Tennessee received two bomb hits during the attack. Boswell recalls being at his battle station for twelve straight hours before being permitted to go topside. The ship went to Bremerton, Washington for repairs. In 1942 Boswell was assigned to the USS Waller (DD-466). The ship supported various landings in the Pacific before returning to the United States in 1944. After refitting, the ship supported landing in the Philippines. When the Japanese surrendered, the Waller went to Shanghai, where various work parties from the ship assisted in disarming the Japanese troops. Returning to the United States in December 1945, Boswell remained aboard as part …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert D. Tippen. Tippen was born in Goldthwaite, Texas on 8 May 1923. He joined the Navy in July 1942. After boot camp at Great Lakes, Illinois, he was sent to the Canal Zone where he joined the USS Columbia (CL-56), assigned to the Navigation Department. In October 1942 Columbia sailed for Espiritu Santo, supporting the struggle for Guadalcanal. For the next 14 months, with few breaks, Tippen and Columbia saw combat. Starting with securing Guadalcanal, they participated in the bombardment of Munda, supported the landings at Bougainville, participated in the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, made raids on Rabaul and Truk, and covered an assault of Emirau Island. After an overhaul in San Francisco to repair battle damage, Columbia supported the landings at Peleliu, and participated in the Battle for Leyte Gulf. In December 1944 Tippen was transferred to USS Denver (CL-58). Denver helped in the final capture of the Philippines, supported the landings at Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and Balikpapan, Borneo, and hunted Japanese shipping off the China coast. Following the end of hostilities, Denver provided cover for the liberation of prison camps in Wakayama, Honshu, Japan. …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Lawrence Dibb. Dibb joined the Navy in September of 1941. Beginning January of 1942, he served aboard USS Maryland (BB-46) as a Fireman in damage control, fire and rescue, and diving repair. They traveled to Midway and Fiji Island. They participated in the battles of Tarawa, Saipan, Leyte Gulf and Okinawa. Dibb was discharged in October of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Gabriel Robert Caggiano. Caggiano joined the Marine Corps in 1943. He completed boot camp at Parris Island in South Carolina and provides details of his training. He was assigned to Company G, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division. They traveled to Pavuvu in the Solomon Islands for additional training. Over the next 2 years Caggiano participated in the Battle of Peleliu and the Battle of Okinawa as a Private First Class. He provides vivid details of his experiences throughout these battles. After getting wounded in battle he was sent back to the U.S. and honorably discharged from the service in November of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ray Boone. Boone joined the Navy in 1937. He was assigned to the USS Blue (DD-387) and initially served in the deck division. Boone was also a pointer on one of the 5-inch guns. He eventually joined the engineering division and worked in the boiler room and details how the boiler room operated. Boone describes his experiences during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He witnessed the Utah capsize and the Arizona explode. Boone describes traveling to several areas of the ship and trying to access ammunition for the main guns as well as the efforts to get underway. He also mentions dropping depth charges on a Japanese submarine. The Blue traveled to Guadalcanal and rescued crewmembers of HMAS Canberra. Boone details his ship being critically damaged by a torpedo off Guadalcanal. He was sent back to the States on leave and then joined the USS McCook (DD-496), participating in convoy duty to North Africa and Sicily. Boone was then sent to Steam Turbine school and subsequently joined the crew of Auxiliary Rescue Tug 64 (ATR-64). He travelled to Mindanao, Philippines as his tug towed a drydock. Boone was …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Uros Roessman. Roessmann was born in Vevce, Slovenia 9 September 1925 and graduated from high school in 1943. As the country was occupied by German and Italian forces, he joined the Slovene Home Guard (Domobranci), a home defenders group. The group, led by General Rupnik fought the communist group called the Partisans led by Marshall Tito. Roessmann tells of treating an American pilot for burns after being shot down by the Germans. Although the pilot was hidden from the Germans, he along with other Americans were betrayed and ultimately sent to a prisoner of war camp. At the end of the war, Rosessman and a group of anti-communists found their way to Austria where they were placed into a refugee camp. He and his family migrated to the United States in 1949.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Brown. Brown joined the Army Air Forces in March 1943 and received basic training in Florida. He received aircraft mechanic training in Newark and attended gunnery school in Florida. Upon completion, he was assigned to the 675th Bomb Squadron, as an engineer gunner in a two-man crew flying A-20s. Brown flew a total of 23 missions in New Guinea and the Philippines. He was wounded by an armor-piercing bullet over Luzon, and one of his engines suffered a damaged fuel line. They made an emergency landing in Manila, and Brown received two months of medical care before being reassigned to Okinawa. When the typhoon hit his camp, he held onto his tent’s center pole and was carried into the air. After the war, Brown returned home and was employed by the VA, teaching agriculture to returning soldiers.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ralph Edgar. Edgar joined the Navy in October 1943 and received basic training in Norfolk. Upon completion, he was sent to Guadalcanal, where he joined a special construction battalion that specialized in moving cargo. In the Philippines, he unloaded ships and brought supplies to the frontlines. The work was dangerous, and he encountered kamikazes. After the war, he ran a motor pool in Japan, supervising 260 Japanese drivers. One of his drivers stole three Jeeps, sold them on the black market, and was subsequently imprisoned. After two years, Edgar was sent back to the States to be treated for rheumatic fever. He received a medical discharge but soon returned to the Navy, managing motor pools again, this time as a civilian employee.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Lemar Hartman. Hartman joined the Navy in 1940 and received basic training at Great Lakes. Upon completion of radio school, he was assigned to the USS Selfridge (DD-357) at Pearl Harbor. During the attack, Hartman was on standby as a radioman, unable to answer messages, because the transmitting antennae had been shot down. Hartman witnessed the gruesome aftermath of The Battle of Vella Lavella and the Marianas campaigns, where he was tasked with installing radio communication infrastructure as soon as the islands were taken. He later returned home and was discharged in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Roy Hughes. Hughes joined the National Guard and was called into active duty in September 1941. He was assigned to an artillery unit with the 45th Division in Algeria, preparing for the invasion of Sicily. In Salerno, he was wounded by shrapnel and almost left for dead when the medic was frightened by enemy shelling. Hughes’s best friend forced the company medic out of his hiding place, and Hughes recovered at a British hospital in Tripoli. Three months later, he returned to his unit for the invasion of Anzio. They fought in Southern France and finished the war while capturing Germans in Munich. Hughes returned home in June 1945. During his readjustment to civilian life, his nightmares were so debilitating that he was granted a full medical discharge. Over time, he made a full recovery.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ramon Laughter. Laughter joined the Army in March 1941 and received basic training at Fort Monmouth. Upon completion, he was sent to OCS and earned a commission in the Signal Corps. He was then assigned to Camp Pinedale for further electronics training before joining the 134th Signal Intelligence Company, intercepting Japanese command radio communications while stationed at Kadena. Remarkably, some men in his unit were able to learn Katakana in one day, but Laughter relied on the help of six Nisei interpreters. After the war, Laughter returned to the States and was assigned to Air Defense Command, where he developed AWAC techniques that he had experimented with during the war. He retired as a full colonel in 1966.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Davis Mayes. Mayes joined the Army in the summer of 1936 and received basic training at Fort Sam Houston. While there, he taught himself to type. Upon completion of his three-year enlistment, he left to join the Navy, where his typing experience qualified him to become a radioman, copying down Japanese signals. He was on standby aboard the USS Solace (AH-5) during the attack on Pearl Harbor, bearing witness to the incredible destruction and its aftermath. His next assignment was as chief communicator for the USS Enoree (AO-69), coordinating 50 ships for the delivery of supplies to Europe. Next, he was assigned to a seagoing tug as chief radioman. As the only chief aboard, he instructed the crew in repairing everything from kitchen equipment to motors, salvaging parts from the mothball fleet. In the Korean War, he again went beyond his duties as a radioman and conducted repairs all over the USS Healey (DD-762). Mayes left the service in 1957 and went on to enjoy a 25-year career with the RCA Corporation. He was the only engineer there without a college education.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Miller. Miller joined the Navy in October 1941 and received basic training in San Diego. After a bout with the mumps and the measles, he was assigned to the USS Argonne (AG-31) at Pearl Harbor, where his first duties included removing projectiles from the badly damaged USS Oklahoma (BB-37), while the USS Arizona (BB-39) was still smoking. At Manus he was instructed to unload ammunition from the USS Mount Hood (AE-11) just before it exploded; fortunately, he had requested and been assigned a different task at the last minute. Miller spent the remainder of the war as a carpenter, repairing Higgins boats and PT boats damaged in action or left behind to rot. After the war ended, he was given train patrol in Seattle, trying to keep control of rowdy soldiers on their way home. Miller was discharged in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Sheron. Sheron joined the Navy in May 1944 and received basic training and learned to operate a Higgins boat at Camp Peary. Upon completion, he was assigned to the USS President Jackson (APA-18), where he worked as a typist in the S Division, managing dry supplies and disbursements. At Iwo Jima, he served as a stretcher bearer, retrieving wounded Marines from the shore. He recalls doctors performing amputations in the mess hall while the ship was used as an overflow hospital. He saw the flag raised on Mount Suribachi and remembers hundreds of ships nearby blowing their whistles in celebration. He stayed aboard after the war as part of Operation Magic Carpet and was discharged in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Joseph Smith. Smith joined the Army Air Forces in December 1942 after working for Curtiss-Wright and Emerson. Upon completion of boot camp, aerial gunnery school, and celestial navigation training, he earned his wings. He was given further training until he qualified as a B-29 bombardier, radarman, and navigator. Smith was then assigned to the 29th Bomb Group, flying all of his missions out of Guam. His crew once voted to make an emergency landing in Iwo Jima to escape enemy fighter planes; he says many B-29s were saved that way on Iwo Jima. Smith’s last official flight of the war was over the USS Missouri (BB-63) during the singing of the surrender. He flew 26 missions in the Korean War before retiring as a first lieutenant.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer joined the Navy in June 1942 and received basic training in San Diego. Upon completion, he was assigned to the USS Tappahannock (AO-43), where he encountered many close calls with Japanese bombers and one Kaiten. At the end of the war, Pfeiffer was treated for post-traumatic stress disorder because he was experiencing quiet sounds as though they were as loud as gunshots. His time in the service took him all over the Pacific: to the Aleutians, Tulagi, Guadalcanal, Espiritu Santo, Ulithi, and Japan. Pfeiffer survived a typhoon and was discharged at the end of the war.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Mel Trenary. Trenary joined the Army in March of 1943. He served as a machine gunner with Company A, 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Trenary participated in the Italian Campaign, the invasion of southern France and the Battle of the Bulge. He returned to the US and was discharged in late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Buck Ward. Ward joined the Navy in 1944 and received basic training in San Diego. He received aviation communication and gunnery training on the West Coast. Upon completion, he was assigned to the USS Hornet (CV-12) where he served as a Helldiver radio gunman. He flew missions over Chichi Jima and the Philippines. After the war, Ward was stationed for R&R on Guam, where at night he heard Japanese holdouts sneaking into the camp to forage. He stayed aboard the Hornet for Operation Magic Carpet and was discharged in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Newton Zanes. Zanes joined the Marine Corps in July 1940 and served in Guantanamo Bay until April 1941. In February 1942 he was assigned to MAG-13 as an SBD radio gunner and sent to Samoa, where his first task was to make a campsite by clearing enormous banyan trees using dynamite. He was soon promoted to then-Major General Price’s PBY-5A crew, visiting almost every island in the Pacific theater. Zanes returned to the states in late 1943 and helped to start MAG-51 in North Carolina. There he met Charles Lindbergh, who put on an impromptu air show for the base. Toward the end of the war, Zanes qualified as an engineering chief and oversaw engine maintenance training at bases throughout the country. He remained in the Marine Corps until October 1952, when he began a lengthy career as a mechanical engineer. His family moved 45 times to capture unique job opportunities, including working for NASA and working behind the Iron Curtain.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Clifford Staffenbeck. Staffenbeck was born in Galveston, Texas on 24 February 1926. In 1944, he was drafted into the United States Navy. Upon completing boot camp at San Diego, he was trained as a Gunner’s Mate. He was sent to the Philippines and assigned to crash boat 26635, nicknamed Bug Bunny. He describes the boat and the crew and tells of his experiences while aboard the boat. Following the end of the war, he was assigned as a Shore Patrolman and he tells of some of his experiences. He was discharged soon after his return to the United States.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with James Leavelle. Leavelle joined the Navy in 1940 after he finished a stint in the Civilian Conservation Corps and high school. After training, Leavelle was assigned to USS Whitney (AD-4). He was aboard the Whitney during the attack on Pearl Harbor and was later injured by a rogue wave and elected to be medically discharged. He went on to be a detective in the Dallas Police Department and was escorting Lee Harvey Oswald when Jack Ruby shot him. Leavelle in the man in the light suit on the right in the famous image depicting the murder.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jesse Dwain Holmes. Holmes joined the Navy in 1944 and attended boot camp in San Diego. Upon completion of gunnery school, he boarded the SS John T. McMillan (1943) as an armed guard. After joining a convoy at Leyte, the crew was at general quarters every hour for air raids. Whenever the ship laid smoke screens, Holmes didn’t fire a single round, for fear of engaging in friendly fire. He returned home briefly after 10 months at sea and redeployed to Okinawa, where he fired a 3-inch gun at kamikazes. He then served on Guam as a postman to enjoy some shore duty. Holmes sailed to Wake Island after the war ended and went ashore for its surrender. After being discharged in December 1945, he was grateful to return home unscathed despite the Naval Armed Guard's heavy casualty rates.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with George Charland. Charland initially provides details of his family history and growing up. He joined the Marine Corps in 1939. He completed boot camp at Camp Elliott in California and provides details of his training. In June of 1941 he was assigned to the 3rd Marine Defense Battalion, H & S Company in Hawaii. He was serving guard detail at Marine Corps Air Station Ewa, 7 miles west of Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941. Charland provides vivid details of his experiences through the attack. For the next month he and his sergeant went through the harbor in the captain’s gig picking up survivors and the dead. In August of 1942 he was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, E Company, 2nd Marines, 2nd Marine Division in New Zealand. In November of 1943 he participated in the Battle of Tarawa. Upon getting wounded he boarded the USS Comfort (AH-6) and went back to Hawaii, where Admiral Chester Nimitz awarded him a Purple Heart. He was then assigned to the 4th Marine Division in February of 1944 and supported the infantry during the battles of Saipan, Tinian and …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Howard Snell. Snell joined the Navy on 11 February 1941. After boot camp in Great Lakes, Illinois he took a train to San Pedro and from there rode the USS Kaskaskia (AO-27) to Hawaii where he was assigned to the USS Enterprise (CV-6). On 7 December 1941 Snell was in baker’s school at the submarine base. He went down to the pier and got a panoramic view of all that was happening. Snell returned aboard the Enterprise on 8 December. He saw the USS Hornet (CV-8) with Doolittle’s B-25s aboard and the battles of the Coral Sea, Midway, Santa Cruz and Stewart Islands before going back to Bremerton, Washington for repairs. Snell was assigned to the USS Morrison (DD-560) and helped put her in commission in December 1943. The Morrison saw action off Saipan and in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Snell was supervisor of lookouts and saw the plane that dropped the bomb that hit and sank the USS Princeton (CVL-23). Next, the Morrison was sent to Okinawa for radar picket duty. There, on 4 May 1945, the Morrison took four kamikaze hits and sank with heavy …