Interview with Charles Pase, a marine during World War II. He discusses joining the Marines and training on New Zealand and other Pacific islands. He describes landing on Tarawa, the battle of Tarawa itself, and locating and burying the dead bodies after the battle. He also talks about going to Hawaii for more training before going to Saipan, various guns and artillery he used, encountering natives on Saipan and being in Nagasaki after the bomb was dropped. He relates ancedotes about having tonsillitis during the Tarawa attack, fights that some Marines got into with local Hawaiians while training there and prejudices against Japanese-Americans, mistaking a land crab that pinched the back of his neck for a bayonet, getting Dengue Fever, and faking a landing on April Fools' Day.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Lester Meis. Meis joined the Navy in January 1943 and received basic training in San Diego. He then received hospital corpsman training and was transferred to the Medical Field Service School at Camp Pendleton. Upon completion, he was assigned to a field sanitation unit attached to the 4th Medical Battalion, 4th Marine Division. At their base in Maui he surveyed latrines, dental clinics, and food preparation areas. He participated in D-Day at Saipan, unsure of what role to perform in combat. In Garapan he was commandeered by the Marines to help open a vault at Yokohama Specie Bank; afterward, soldiers were lighting cigars with 100-yen notes. Meis was sent to Aiea Heights after developing bronchitis and was mistakenly diagnosed with asthma. He was given a medical discharge in December 1944, which extended his benefits under the GI Bill. Meis earned three college degrees before the misdiagnosis was caught.

Transcript of an oral interview with Bob Burrell. Eleven days after finishing high school in 1941, Burrell was sworn into the Navy and reported to Newport, Rhode Island for boot camp. After boot camp, he was sent down to the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida and was here on December 7, 1941. He volunteered for submarine duty and was sent to submarine school in New London, Connecticut; finishing in May 1942. Burrell describes his experiences at the school including using the Momsen lung. After graduation, he was shipped to Pearl Harbor and assigned to Submarine Division 42. In September 1942, he went aboard the USS Nautilus as a Third Class Yeoman. He was a sonar and radar operator during combat. The Nautilus rescued 29 men, women and children on New Years Eve 1942 when they snuck into Teop Harbor which was off of Bougainville. In April 1943, the Nautilus went to Dutch Harbor to take on 104 7th Army scouts, training them like they had done with the Marine Raider Battalion earlier. They were training for the invasion of Attu Island and took them there. The Nautilus then headed to Mare Island Naval Yard for overhaul. After overhaul, the …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jean Dunn and Terry Dunn. Dunn grew up in China during the Japanese occupation during WWII and discusses some of her childhood experiences. Terry Dunn mentions the family business - making soy sauce. They als soeak of Jean's grandparents: a doctor and a nurse in China. Jean and Terry eventually settle into speaking about the exploits of her husband (Terry's father) during World War II in China. This man worked as an interpreter for SACO.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Groux. Groux was attending St. Edward's University in Austin Texas when he joined the Marine Corps in 1943 and was assigned to the Midshipman School at Northwestern University in Chicago. He was commissioned as an ensign there in September 1944. He volunteered for Scout and Raider duty within the Navy and trained at Fort Pierce, Florida. After training, Groux was shipped to Calcutta, India. After the war, Groux was assigned as a welfare and recreation officer on Kwajalein. From there, he was assigned to clear the coral reef around the Bikini Atoll so the atomic bomb could be tested in 1946.

Transcript of an oral interview with Richard Petri. Born in 1922 in Kansas City, Missouri, he joined the Navy in 1943. He began his training in the Naval Air Corps, but soon discovered he had no aptitude for flying and was assigned to the Navy's V-12 college student program. After completing his Bachelor's Degree, he completed Basic Training in Norfolk and Midshipman Training at Notre Dame and Navy Supply Corps school at Harvard. Upon completion of Supply Corps School he was assigned to the Navy Yard in Washington, DC. He was told to await further orders which arrived after two weeks when he was sent to Patuxent River, Maryland where he boarded a plane, beginning a long journey east, eventually flying over "The Hump" and into Kunming, China, where he assumed duties at the Naval Supply Depot, one of two such depots in China (the other at Chungking). He recounts the excellent treatment he and the other young officers received from the Chinese National Army. He recalls that after the release of American officers taken at the fall of the Philippines, including General Wainwright, all of whom had been imprisoned in China, a group of them came through Kunming. He …

Transcript of an oral interview with Arthur Bohus. Born in Philadelphia in 1917, he enlisted in the Navy (Communications Reserves) in 1939. He went through Recruit Training at Newport, Rhode Island followed by Radioman School and then was assigned to the Fourth Naval District, Philadelphia. His next assignment was at Cape May, New Jersey, where his duties involved recovering blimps which had been launched from Lakehurst, New Jersey. During this assignment he became proficient in Morse Code. His next assignment was at the Naval Gun Factory in Washington, DC, where the 16-inch guns were manufactured. He recounts several ancecdotes during his time in Washington, DC prior to receiving orders to Karachi, India under the Office of Naval Intelligence. He describes how repeated attempts at catching a flight from Anacostia Naval Station to San Francisco, where the troop ship was located, were aborted due to higher priority passengers. Eventually, he was provided with a train ticket to San Francisco. He describes some of the events during that rail ride to Chicago, enroute San Francisco. He describes the transit from San Francisco to Karachi where he received orders to Chungking, China. He recounts the landing in Chungking in late Spring 1942, where …

Transcript of an oral interview with Francis D. Reynnett. Reynnet was in Oklahoma in 1925 and moved to East Lansing, Michigan during the depression, where he attended Michigan State University. Drafted into the Navy in 1944, he attended Boot Camp in Simpson, New York and Radio School in Holidaysburg, Pennsylvania, where he graduated as a Radioman Third Class. First assignment was to Fort Story, Virginia, an Army base, with Navy personnel controlling the harbor entrance. Sent to the Navy Department in Washington and began studies in basic weaponry as well as indoctrination on China. Then on to San Diego, where he shipped out to Calcutta, India in mid-1945. Received field training in weaponry at Camp Knox in Calcutta. He recounts that two sailors who shipped over to Calcutta with him were killed there, one in a training accident with live ammunition and the other drove a truck off the Burma Road. He was flown on a DC-3 over The Hump into China, and prior to reaching their destination the plane lost one of two engines and had to make emergency landing. He and a companion were then flown onto Kunming, China in another plane. He was in Kunming for only …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Claud Grizzell. Grizzell was born in Denison, Texas on 19 June 1916 and joined the Navy in 1939. He attended machinist mate school following basic training in June 1940 and was assigned to the USS Cushing (DD-376) at Pearl Harbor. Upon returning to Hawaii, Grizzell describes the devastation at Pearl Harbor. He remembers the Cushing escorting various combatants to the South Pacific and arriving at Espiritu Santo Island. He recalls that the Cushing was sunk by a Japanese battleship the night of 13 November 1942 while in a task force sailing out to intercept the Japanese Fleet during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. He says that one-third of the crew was lost and that he and the others spent the night in the water before being picked up by landing craft. He recounts several experiences on the island over the following weeks while he and the other survivors were awaiting transportation back to the States on Survivors’ Leave. Grizzell recalls that he was assigned to the commissioning crew of USS Mission Bay (CVE-59) in September 1943. He recalls that the carrier alternated submarine patrol duty in the South …

Transcript of an oral interview of Elmer Batschelet. Born in October 1918, near Spencer, Iowa he joined the Navy in October, 1942. Upon completion of Boot Camp at Great Lakes, Illinois he was transferred to Bremerton, Washington in February, 1943. He was assigned to the USS Mission Bay (CVE-59) as a Fireman in the Engineering Department. He recounts his duties on the Mission Bay and transiting the Panama Canal to Norfolk, Virginia and then across the Atlantic in convoy with other vessels to deliver supplies to North Africa. On his next deployment, the Mission Bay transported Army P-40 aircraft to Karachi. In June 1944 he was transferred to the newly commissioned USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) which then deployed to the South Pacific and joined the US Third Fleet engaged in retaking the Phillipines. During those battles he recounts two kamikaze hits on the Ticonderoga in January 1945. He recalls a typhoon in the South China Sea. He recalls being aboard the Ticonderoga in Tokyo Bar during the signing of the Japanese surrender. Soon after the surrender, the Ticonderoga was converted into a troopship and in December 1945 6,000 men were embarked for the return to the United States. He recounts the …

Transcript of an oral interview with Carl Hecht. He was born in St Louis, Missouri in 1920 and joined the Navy Reserves in October, 1940. In early 1941 he was assigned as a Signalman aboard USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37). He recalls sailing to Argentia, New Foundland in August 1941 in company with USS Augusta (CA-31) (President Roosevelt embarked) and Henry Hopkins and the remainder of the President's staff embarked on Tuscaloosa. He recalls that the two American war ships met up in Argentia harbor with HMS Prince of Wales (Winston Churchill embarked) and that, on 11 and 12 August, Churchill and staff met with Roosevelt and aides on the Augusta for conferences and their first of several meetings in order to form the Atlantic Charter. Later he recalls three instances when Tuscaloosa was assigned convoy duty between the United Kingdom and Murmansk, Russia. Upon return to the US he was assigned as part of the commissioning crew aboard USS Monrovia (APA-31), which became the flagship of Admiral Hewitt, Eighth Fleet Commander, in charge of training for the invasion of Sicily. He recalls General Patton and his staff were aboard, in addition to army troops being prepared for the invasion and how …

Transcript of an oral interview with Joseph F. Fitzgerald. He was born in Ambler, Pennsylvania on May 3, 1926. He enlisted in the Navy in in May of 1944. He attended Naval Radio School at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and in Sheltonham, Maryland. Upon graduation he volunteered for duty with the Sino-American Cooperative Association (SACO) and was flown to Calcutta, India. He recalls his experiences in Calcutta, where he was assigned to the Motor Pool. He was flown to Kunming, China enroute to Chungking, China. In Chungking his duties consisted of communications with Pacific Headquarters in Honolulu, including Japanese intercepts and weather reports. He describes his interactions with cryptographers who were decoding his Japanese intercepts. In December 1944 he was transferred to Shanghai, China where he spent several weeks communicating with Pacific Fleet assets. In May 1944 he was shipped back to the United States and discharged from the Navy in June 1946.

Transcript of an oral interview with Charles Pase. He discusses joining the Marines, training on New Zealand and other Pacific islands before landing on Tarawa, the battle of Tarawa itself, locating and burying the dead bodies after the battle. He also talks about going to Hawaii for more training before going to Saipan, various guns and artillery he used, encountering natives on Saipan and being in Nagasaki after the bomb was dropped. He ancedotes about having tonsilitis during the Tarawa attack, fights some Marines got into with local Hawaiians while training there and prejudices against Japanese-Americans, mistaking a land crab that pinched the back of his neck for a bayonet, getting Dengue Fever and faking a landing on April Fools' Day.

Ensemble concert at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

Ensemble performance at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall.

Ensemble performance at the UNT College of Music Winspear Hall.

Interview with John Bounds, a U.S. Navy Seal veteran from McGregor, Texas who served in the Vietnam War. Bounds describes his time in boot camp in San Diego and experiences in Vietnam. He also shares his opinions on the war and the state of things at home in the United States.