The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Rudolph Schultz. Schultz was drafted into the Army Air Forces in March, 1943. He received radar training in Florida and then served with the 13th Air Force. He installed a radar station at Noumea and trained men on its use. He also trained more men at Guadalcanal and the Admiralty Islands. Schultz was at Leyte when the war ended and soon went to Japan.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Walter Stuek. Stueck was born in St. Louis, Missouri 28 May 1921. Upon enlisting in the Army Air Forces in May 1942, he was sent to Santa Ana, California to begin eight weeks of pre-flight training which was followed by three months of primary training at Oxnard. While making his first flight in a P-40 fighter, the plane suffered a complete electrical failure resulting in a controlled crash landing at Luke Army Airfield. He was then sent to Tactical Reconnaissance School at Meridian, Mississippi where he flew a variety of aircraft including the P-51, P-40 and P-39 fighter aircraft. He then went to Europe where he began flying P-38s. He recalls his third combat mission, when due to a loss of both engines he crash landed destroying the plane and becoming slightly injured. As he was recovering, General Charles de Gaulle spoke to him inquiring about his health. During another mission, he was shot down and bailed out, landing in a mine field. An American soldier came to his aid and guided him to safety. On another mission, he was attacked by an ME-163 German rocket powered plane. …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Homer Dean. Dean completed law school in 1940 at Baylor University. He joined the Texas State Defense Guard in 1941. Right after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Dean served as a contracting officer with the US Army Ordnance Department at Rock Island Arsenal in Davenport, Iowa. He was assigned to tour various Arsenals around the US. He was inducted into the Army as a private in San Antonio in January of 1943 and assigned to serve as an instructor in the repair, assembly and disassembly of the 75mm Pack Howitzer. He graduated Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia in November of 1944. He was then assigned to an Infantry Replacement Training Center in Fort McClellan, Alabama, instructing servicemen how to use the Browning Automatic Rifle and prosecuting soldiers who had committed various infractions. Dean was then sent to the University of Beijing in California to learn Chinese. He did not make it overseas before the war ended. He was discharged in December of 1945, though continued his service in the Reserves until 1970.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jay Kopkey. Kopkey was born in Winamac, Indiana on 20 June 1920, and graduated from high school there in 1938. He joined the United States Coast Guard in June 1942 and was sent to Curtis Bay, Maryland to boot camp for seven weeks. Upon completion of boot camp he was sent to San Hill Barracks, Michigan for anti-aircraft gun training. After completion of this training he was assigned as a guard on an ore carrier on the Great Lakes. After several months he was selected to attend Police and Fire school in Baltimore, Maryland in 1943. After completing the seven week course, Kopkey was assigned to a fireboat patrolling the Maumee River (in Ohio and Indiana). He recounts an incident involving his fire boat putting out a fire on an oil tanker on the river. After four months of this duty he was sent to Camp Lejeune for amphibious landing craft training. Kopkey was then selected to go to Juneau, Alaska for port security work. He returned to the US in November 1945 and was discharged later that month.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ike Kampmann. Kampmann was born in San Antonio, Texas on 2 October 1918 and graduated from the University of Texas, Austin with a law degree. In the spring of 1945 when he was stationed at 6th Army Headquarters at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon Island, Philippines, he was attached to the Staff Officer for Personnel (G-1) as the Army was making its move toward Manila. The commanding general, Lieutenant General Walter Krueger, appointed him to a military commission defending four Japanese soldiers who had been caught behind Allied lines in civilian clothes. Kampmann was the least experienced of the six officers on the commission. The four were found guilty and hanged. Subsequently, he was appointed aide-de-camp to General Krueger. For the duration of the interview he expresses remorse over the trial’s outcome.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Lois Burns. Burns joined the Women’s Army Corps in January of 1945. She completed training in Fort Des Moines, Iowa, and provides details of her uniform and living and working conditions. She was later transferred to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where she remained through the spring of 1946. Burns worked at the National Laboratory and at a Western Union office, as a switchboard and teletype operator. She was discharged in July of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Alfred Schmitz. He was born on August 28, 1925 in Austin, Texas. He enlisted in the Navy in June 1944 and upon graduation from basic training and Fireman "A" School, he was assigned to the USS La Prade (DE-409) and sailed to Pearl Harbor. He next sailed in September 1944 with a hunter-killer task group during the Palau Islands invasion. He recalls the ship being involved in a joint attack on a Japanese midget submarine in the entrance to Kossol Roads Harbor, where the sub was destroyed with depth charges. In addition, he describes the ship's participation in the invasion of Okinawa servings as part of a submarine screen between the battleships and the beach and on rotating picket ship duty with other smaller vessels. After Okinawa he recalls that the ship joined the Japan occupation forces at Sasebo on September 23, 1945. During this period he recalls being sent to Nagasaki immediately after the atomic bomb was dropped to pick up Navy Seabees. He recalls that the ship returned to San Diego where he was part of the decommissioning crew until May 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Roger Went. Went joined the Navy in August of 1942, and began flight training in November. He was placed on active duty in December and began flying an N3N (Yellow Peril). He also practiced night flying. In July of 1943 he began work at the Naval Air Training Center in Corpus Christi, Texas, flying the SNV and AT-6. He received his wings in February of 1943. In April of 1944 he qualified for instrument flying and carrier landings on the Navy training ship, the USS Sable (IX-81). Went was assigned to bombing squadron VB-85, and piloted the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver aboard the USS Shangri-La (CV-38). On 25 April 1945 he had his first combat dive bombing flight over Oki Daitō Island, southeast of Okinawa. While flying over Kikaijima Island on 29 April, his plane was shot down by antiaircraft. He spent 3 hours in a life raft and was rescued by a PBM. He completed a total of 20 combat missions and was discharged in November of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Carrol Davidson. Davidson joined the Navy in November of 1944. He served in the Armed Guard as gun captain of the twin 3-inch .50 calibers aboard the SS Howell Lykes (1940). Beginning in February of 1945 they transported troops to New Guinea. They also traveled to Australia and picked up a group of Australian Rangers and delivered them to Borneo. He provides details of his travels over the Pacific, including firing at Japanese planes and working with the Merchant Marines. Their ship picked up some casualties in Manila around July of 1945 and delivered them back to the U.S. After the war, Davidson completed submarine school and served aboard the USS Boarfish (SS-327) beginning in late 1947. He provides details of his training and career in the Navy aboard submarines. He retired in May of 1964 as Chief Petty Officer.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Oliver Schaetter. Schaetter joined the Navy in December 1943 and was immediately selected as a pharmacist’s mate due to his civilian experience as an embalmer. He received training at Balboa Park sick bay and recalls comforting a shell-shocked soldier who had hidden under his bunk during a fireworks display. In December 1944 Schaetter was assigned to the USS Goshen (APA-108), which functioned as a third-class hospital ship as well as a troop carrier. He saw burials at sea at every stop in the South Pacific and felt they were extremely dignified events. When one of his own patients died at sea, the pharmacist improvised an embalming fluid so that the soldier could later be given a land burial on Saipan. After the war, Schaetter treated civilians and military personnel alike at a hospital in the Philippines. While there, he hypnotized and administered a truth serum to a guard who committed crimes against natives. Schaetter returned home in March 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Richard Halfast. Born in Corry, Pennsylvania 20 May 1916, Halfast graduated from high school in 1934. He attended Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, graduating in 1938 and receiving a Medical Degree in 1942. He interned at the City Hospital in Springfield, Ohio until August 1943, at which time he entered the US Army. Reporting to the Camp Davis, North Carolina station hospital, Halfast was trained to do various urological procedures. He was then transferred to the 74th General Hospital and sent to Devonshire, New Hampshire where they went aboard HMS Queen Mary for a five day trip to Glasgow, Scotland. He tells of setting up a hospital in Bristol, England in preparation for receiving wounded from Operation Overlord. They began receiving wounded 7 June 1944. In June 1945, Halfast was sent to the 1st Auxiliary Surgical Group as a triage officer in the 114th Field Hospital. He describes the various types of wounds treated and recalls having twenty-six amputations in one day. He recalls visiting Dachau and describes what he saw there. Returning to the United States in June, 1945, he was ordered to O’Reilly General Hospital in …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with J.R. Closs. Closs was born in Edge, Texas 9 March 1926. In 1944 he was drafted and entered the US Marine Corps boot camp at San Diego. After boot training he was selected to attend Marine Corps Sea School at San Diego. Upon completion of Sea School, he was assigned to the USS Yorktown (CV-10) as an orderly to the executive officer for a period of time and then he was assigned to a 20 millimeter gun. He tells of the Yorktown participating in the invasion of Okinawa and the ship being hit by a Japanese bomb. He also recalls seeing a kamikaze hit the USS Missouri (BB-63) during the invasion. Soon after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the Marines on board the various ships were brought together on a transport ship, where for several days, they practiced beach landings. Between the Japanese surrender and the signing of the peace accords, the contingent of Marines landed at Yokosuka, Japan. Closs describes the bomb damage he observed and the physical condition of and attitude shown by the Japanese people.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ruth Scarse. Scarse joined the Army in 1943 and became a WAAC. She was trained as a teletype operator and was sent to England to serve with the 8th Air Force. Scarse describes the voyage over on the Queen Mary, in particular having to share a state room with 24 others. She details her duties as a teletype operator and the place where she worked. Scarse also discusses the social activities that she took part in during her stay in the London area. She also describes how she met and married her husband who was an American supply sergeant and how an English couple hosted their honeymoon. Scarse returned to the US after the war and reunited with her husband a short time later.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Florence Keliher. Keliher joined the Army as a registered nurse in December 1944 and received basic training at Fort Devens. Her training included a 20-mile hike in sub-zero temperatures. She was assigned to the 27th Station Hospital on Tinian, where she treated casualties from Iwo Jima and Okinawa. She often worked 12-hour days, seven days a week, tending to patients and training corpsmen. In her spare time, she would often take note of the B-29s leaving the base, keeping track of how many returned. When the Enola Gay departed, she said it looked like any other plane taking off. After the war, Keliher returned home and spent 30 years working at a VA Hospital in Maine.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Joseph O???Malley. O???Malley was drafted into the Army in 1943. In March of 1944 he was sent for airborne training at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana. He fought with the 84th Infantry Division in Germany and Belgium, pushing forward from Geilenkirchen, Germany in November, 1944 to Schnackenburg, Germany and ultimately contacting the Russian Army on the Elbe River in April, 1945. O'Malley spoke fluent German and served as an Army interpreter. He was honorably discharged in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Howard J. Sweeney. Sweeney was born in Eureka, Kansas 17 December 1917 and graduated from high school in 1937. He tells of hopping freight trains and working as an iterate worker until drafted into the US Army 21 February 1941. He was sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky for training and joined the 6th Armored Regiment. He participated in maneuvers in North and South Carolina using broom sticks for guns and telephone poles for artillery pieces due to the acute shortage of weaponry. He trained as a tank driver in medium tanks and was assigned to Company A, 27th Artillery, 1st Armored Division. In April 1942 the company boarded the SS Sea Train Texas landing in Belfast, Ireland. The company, equipped with M4 Sherman tanks, went to Oran, North Africa and two weeks later traveled to Algeria by LST. He tells of being in a night attack and his tank being hit by artillery fire, killing the gunner and putting the tank out of commission. Later, during the Battle of Kasserine Pass, his tank was disabled as it ran out of fuel and ammunition. The crew abandoned the tank …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Robert Cunningham. Cunningham joined the Army Air Forces in January of 1942. In June, he traveled to England. In November, he went to Algiers with a military police unit. He recalls a story about when he captured several German soldiers trying to sneak through the lines. He also went to Italy, arriving in Naples after the invasion and spent much time in Rome. He served in the 281st Military Police Battalion and shares several overseas anecdotes from Italy and Algeria. He had a motorcycle accident and was medically evacuated back to the US and was discharged in October, 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Eleanor Hughes. Hughes was working for Pacific Co-op in Roseburg, Oregon when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. She volunteered and worked nights on the local plotting board watching for planes and ships coming near the Oregon coast. When a blip appeared in their sector, they phoned in and someone checked to see if it was enemy or friendly. Hughes enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) on 27 September 1943 at Little Rock, Arkansas and was sent to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia for training. She was stationed there for almost a year before her group was sent to Port Moresby, New Guinea. They were trucked from their quarters to a headquarters building, known as the Pentagon of the jungle; they worked there all day and were taken back to their barracks by truck at night. Hughes was a secretary to a young lieutenant. A lot of the soldiers who were there when she arrived were replaced by WACs. The weather was hot and muggy but she does not remember it bothering her too much. There were no men in her camp; however, men worked at the headquarters and drove …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Harper Gruber. Gruber was an electrician's apprentice at the Charleston Navy Yard in South Carolina. He joined the Navy soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was sent to the Panama Canal Zone to join the 13th Headquarters. He was later transferred to YMS-339 where he served as an electrician's mate for the remainder of the war. He describes in detail minesweeping operations for the various types of mines. His minesweeper participated in 7 invasion operations in the Philippine Islands. Gruber was sent back to Charleston Navy Yard after the war ended, and remained there until eligible for discharge.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Larry Parker. Parker was drafted into the Army Air Forces in 1943. He was trained and joined the crew of a B-17 as a co-pilot. He was a member of a specialized unit trained to carry wooden life boats slung under the bomb bay and to drop them by parachute when downed aircrews were discovered. Parker operated out of the Philippines and eventually was sent to Ie Shima. He details several lifeboat drops. His plane carried General Stillwell to Okinawa after the death of General Buckner. He describes Stillwell almost melting one of the plane’s guns due to continuous fire during this trip. Parker also witnessed the Japanese delegation that landed on Ie Shima at the end of the war. He left the service in December 1945.

Transcript of an oral interview with Robert W. Wood. Wood begins by discussing growing up during the Great Depression and the effect it had on him and his family. When he finished high school in 1941 in Greenville, Texas, he moved to Dallas, worked for Woolworth's and attended night school at Southern Methodist University. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Wood had already volunteered for the Navy and was called up shortly after Christmas. Wood discusses riding the train to San Diego to attend boot camp in January, 1942. Then he describes a few experiences while in training. While in San Diego, he trained to become a radio operator before reporting to Bremerton, Washington where he boarded the USS Altamaha (CVE-18). Wood describes some of the sea trials and early voyages of the Altamaha as it delivered planes and cargo to various points in the Pacific: Brisbane, Australia, Noumea, Espiritu Santo, Pearl Harbor, Karachi, India and the Solomon Islands. He also describes some carrier-landing qualifying assignments for pilots the Altamaha had. He recalls a time when Bob Hope came aboard and performed a show for the sailors at Ulithi. He goes on to describe being caught in a typhoon in which …

Transcript of an oral interview with Ralph E. Donnelly. Donnelly joined th eArmy Air Corps in December, 1942. In the process of learning to fly, Donnelly was eliminated. He instead earned his wings as a navigator. Whe ntraining as a navigator, he flew with several WASPs. Donnelly was eventually sent to Tonopah, Nevada and was assigned to a B-24. When Donnelly was assigned overseas, his crew flew their B-24 to North Africa and then to Italy, where they were based. Donnelly was assigned to the 778th Squadron, 464th Bomb Group, 15th Army Air Force in Italy. Donnelly describes missions over Bulgaria, Germany and Austria. He describes being shot down in October, 1944, jumping from the plane, and using his parachute. He was captured, sent to Budapest and describes being interrogated. Eventually, he was shipped to a prisoner of war camp in Germany. He rode in a boxcar to the POW camp with a Tuskegee Airman. As a prisoner, he was marched to various camps. During one forced march, Donnelly and another prisoners escaped into the forest. They were recaptured in a village a few days later and handed back to the Wehrmacht (Luftwaffe). After another escape attempt, Donnelly and few …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with David Hoobler. Hoobler joined the Army Air Forces in December, 1941 and trained as a bombardier. He was placed in a B-24 crew in the 458th Bomb Group and went to England in January, 1944. Hoobler describes his journey to England and also a few bombing missions over Germany. Hoobler flew 30 combat missions.

Transcript of an oral interview with Ivan E. Davies. Born in 1921, he joined the Navy and was assigned to the B-2 hangar deck division on USS Enterprise (CV-6) in 1943. He describes the flight deck after the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. He discusses his subsequent assignment to the mess deck as well as his assignment as aircraft elevator operator. He describes a shooting accident on the hangar deck; an aircraft landing accident; and a fire on the flight deck. He talks about kamikazes and the damage sustained by the USS Enterprise. He shares an anecdote about clearing the stacks of the USS Enterprise. He also shares stories about Edward “Butch” O’Hare, pilot and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. After the war Davies was assigned to Alameda Naval Air Station, California. He was discharged in 1945. The interview also includes information about his childhood during the Depression.