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 …