Transcript of an interview with William Wayne Kitts, U.S. Navy anti-submarine warfare veteran of World War II. Kitts shares concerning his childhood and family history in Sulphur Springs, Texas; college at the University of Texas during the Depression; musical background; enlistment in the U.S. Navy shortly after the attack at Pearl Harbor; midshipman school in New York City and selection for sonar school in Key West, Florida; assignment to USS Mason, the first ship in the navy with an integrated crew; post-war duty as commanding officer of USS Hollis and USS Tollberg; role in establishing Naval Reserve Training Center in Lubbock, Texas; reactivation to active duty during Korean War; and his post-military career at Vought Aeronautics.

Interview with John J. Clemens. The interview includes Clemens' personal experiences about childhood and early adulthood in Houston, Texas, World War II-era service in the U.S. Navy, serving aboard USS Wren in the Pacific Theater, and piloting a ship into Tokyo Bay immediately following the Japanese surrender. Clemens speaks about convoy missions across the Atlantic Ocean, the January 4, 1944 sinking of the USS Turner while moored in New York Harbor and the court of inquiry regarding the sinking, actions in the Aleutian Islands, Attu, Okinawa, and Philippine campaigns and anti-kamikaze warfare while aboard the USS Wren, and the effects that Allied bombing had on Tokyo.

Interview with Frederick Dittus, an executive at Caltex Petroleum Corporation. He discusses his educational background, his early job experience with Standard Oil Company of California, the Dittus-Boelter equation, his pre-World War II experiences in Nazi Germany, construction of the Bahrain refinery for Bapco, the formation of Caltex in 1936, his transfer to Caltex, his activities during World War II, the postwar refinery expansion, and the evolution of the Technical Services Division.

Interview with James C. Venable regarding his experiences in the military and as a prisoner of war of the Japanese during World War II. Mr. Venable was captured while serving in the Marine Corps on Wake Island.