Interview with Floyd Mumme, a medic during World War II. He discusses boot camp, being deployed to Saipan, Japanese trying to steal food, working in the Army Medical Corps, and treating wounds in combat.

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 Agaito Silva. Silva was inducted into the US Army in January 1941. Trained in anti-aircraft guns at Fort Bliss, Texas he was assigned to the 200th Coast Artillery. Several months later the unit was shipped to Fort Stotsenberg, Luzon, Philippines. He describes the Japanese attack on 8 December 1941 and the serious shortages of food and medical supplies that developed. He tells of retreating to Corregidor and of being wounded by shell fragments. After surrendering on 6 May 1942, Silva tells how the prisoners were treated. They sent to Bilibid Prison and then to Cabanatuan. He was then taken to Japan to work in the mines and gives several anecdotes describing the inhumane treatment of the prisoners by the Japanese. He relates how after the Japanese surrender, food and medical supplies were dropped to the POW camp. Silva returned to the United States on 18 October 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Dave Hollis. Hollis joined the Army Air Forces in December 1942. He had prepared for his aviation cadet examination by taking a class at the Douglas Aircraft Company, where he worked. He received basic training and pre-flight training in Santa Ana. From there he went to Meadows Field for basic flying in the Vultee BT-13 then to Luke Field with the AT-6. Upon completion he was assigned to a B-29 crew but was rotated out due to a shoulder injury. After recovering, he was transferred to the 2nd Air Force flight test center Alamogordo. In June 1945 he was sent overseas and flew nine missions against Kyushu.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Ralph Darrow. Darrow joined the Army Air Forces in December of 1942. He completed Electrical Specialist School and B-29 Armament School by 1943. Darrow served with the 73rd Bombardment Wing, 500th Bombardment Group, 883rd Bombardment Squadron as a side gunner aboard a B-29. Beginning in mid-1944, they traveled to Hawaii, Kwajalein, Truk, Iwo Jima and Saipan. They completed their first combat mission against a submarine base at Truk in November. They participated in high altitude raids against industrial targets in Japan through early 1945, and supported landings on Iwo Jima. Darrow was in Saipan when the war ended. He continued serving in the military, completing 28 years of service.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Richard Hanna. Hanna was born in Pennsylvania and joined the Marine Corps before his 18th birthday. He had basic training in California and shares a few anecdotes from that time. After he completed training, he was shipped to Pavuvu where he joined the Seventh Marines, First Marine Division. He landed on Okinawa in the eleventh wave ashore and shares many stories about combat. Hanna was eventually wounded by a Japanese hand grenade. When the war ended, Hanna went to China to repatriate Japanese troops to the Home Islands. When Hanna returned home in 1946, he elected to be discharged.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Edwin LeBreton. LeBreton was born in Louisiana and was in the Army National Guard stationed in Texas when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He served in an engineering outfit before entering military intelligence. After the war, LeBreton was sent to an engineer depot in Japan. After leaving Japan, he was stationed in France at another supply depot.

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.

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 …