Interview with Maurice Stamps, a serviceman in the U. S. Army during World War II. Stamps discusses growing up on a farm in Iowa, joining the army, going to Hawaii and staying at Schofield Barracks. He was assigned to the Classification/Assignment section at Fort Shafter without ever having basic training. He was later assigned to the Message Center at Ft. Shafter. He remembers his correspondence with his girlfriend Enid, whom he married upon his discharge in 1946.

Interview with Gilberto S. Trevino, a U. S. Marine during World War II. He attended Texas A&M before serving in the Marine Corps. He was in the 28th Replacement Battalion when he was assigned to the 3d Marine Division and deployed to Iwo Jima. He discusses his first impressions of landing on the island. He describes the constructed Japanese defenses on the island and the use of Japanese Nisei interpreters to convince defenders to surrender. He returned to Texas A&M where he was in the Corps of Cadets (ROTC) and accepted his commission in the Army in time to serve in Korea. He eventually earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Texas A&M and a doctorate degree in pathology from Michigan State University. He retired from service in 1976 with the rank of colonel.

Interview with Floyd R. Thomas, a serviceman in the U. S. Army during World War II. He discusses his childhood and education at Peacock Military Academy. He then joined the army and spent time in Okinawa during and after the war. He recalls being a surgical technician and working with Japanese civilians after the surrender, meeting his wife, and working for saw mills as a salesman and a pilot. He remembers stealing pineapples on Hawaii and getting diarrhea, being treated for jungle rot, selling old Japanese army blankets to civilians, and shipping silk bolts and sabers back home.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Mildred Bauman. Bauman’s family immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in 1923. She was born in Brooklyn, New York in November of 1926. Her family sent her back to Germany to live with her grandparents in Berlin in 1928. Bauman grew up in Germany during the Nazi reign and was 13 years old when World War II began. Being an American citizen, Bauman endured relentless harassment from neighbors and classmates. She vividly describes her experiences growing up and as a young woman in the early 1940s, including forced evacuations, Russians taking over, bombings, concentration camps and casualties. She was sent back to the U.S. in 1946 due to her American citizenship. From the early 1950s to the 1980s Bauman worked for Guaranty Federal in Dallas. She retired to Burnet, Texas. She speaks of desiring to compile her story into a book, though it wasn’t until 2014 that a book came to fruition, titled “Abandoned! The WWII Ordeal of an American Child Living and Surviving from 1928 to 1946 in Hitler’s Nazi Germany”, available at the Burnet County Library.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Eddie W Cook. Cook was drafted into the Army in June 1943. Despite being an experienced ship welder and foreman, he was assigned as a rifleman. When Cook deployed to India in December 1943, the troop ship was fitted with iron bars made to separate white from black soldiers. Upon arrival in Bombay, it was obvious the place had been recently bombed. The men then headed to a replacement depot in Assam. Meanwhile, one of Cook’s immunizations had backfired, and he came down with the measles. Upon recovery, he was assigned to the 475th Infantry Regiment, which had just finished 60 days of combat duty. After a short stint in Burma, Cook flew over The Hump to an Army depot in Kunming, China. There he was to search for Japanese holdouts; however, after six months of searching, his unit never found a single enemy. Cook returned home in February 1946 and was discharged early, returning to his wife and child.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Alfredo Buentello. Buentello joined the Army in September 1940 and received basic training at Fort Sam Houston. He received medical corpsman training for three years before landing on Normandy on 6 June 1944 with the 2nd Medical Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, supporting the 38th Regiment. He recalls the devastation at Normandy and remembers saving the lives of two men, one of whom was a German soldier. Buentello spent 160 days on the frontlines. He remembers Brest as being particularly bad. He was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. Buentello sustained a concussion and multiple head wounds, one of which was patched with a metal plate. He recovered at the 165th General Hospital and the 44th Evacuation Hospital. He saw men being sent from the hospital to the front lines without having fully recovered. At the end of April, Buentello rejoined his division in Pilsen. He celebrated V-E Day, complete with a parade. He had enough points to return home immediately and was discharged in June 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Grumman. Grumman joined the Army Air Corps in 1940 and earned his wings and commission in March, 1942. On one of his first assignments, he met General Patton in California. He went overseas to England in 1944 and was assigned to the 401st Bomb Group, 614th Bomb Squadron where he flew combat mission from May to September. Grumman flew 30 missions over France and Germany before coming home in November 1944. Upon his return and after some leave, Grumman served as an instrument-flying instructor. Grumman stayed in the reserves after the war, retiring as a lieutenant colonel.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Henry Hauschild. Hauschild joined the Army in January 1942 and received basic training at Fort Ringgold. He received chemical warfare training in Maryland. Upon completion, he became an instructor on how to survive phosgene and tear gas attacks. At Mitchel Field he trained P-47 pilots in creating smoke screens. While in Delaware as a chief chemical warfare officer, he was ordered to administer a surprise tear gas attack on the barracks at dawn. He was against the idea, because of the likelihood of chaos and potential injuries. He reluctantly followed orders, and fortunately no one was injured.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Richard Williams. Williams was born in Chicago on 21 April 1925. After quitting school in the sixth grade, he worked with the Works Progress Administration. In 1942, he joined the Navy and went to Camp Perry, Virginia for six weeks of basic training. He was then sent to Eastport, Maine for six months before taking a troop train to California where he was assigned to the 136th Construction Battalion. There he had advanced infantry training as well as training on various tractors, bull dozers and other construction equipment. The unit then sailed for Guam where they were assigned to the 3rd Marine Division. Williams describes burying the dead, both Japanese and American, by covering them with dirt pushed by the bull dozers. He also tells of being on patrol and engaging Japanese infiltrators. While on Guam the unit built a hospital as well as runways for B-29 bombers. The unit remained on Guam until the invasion of Iwo Jima at which time they were assigned to the 5th Marine Division. Williams recalls clearing the beaches of wreckage and burying the dead with bull dozers. Following the surrender of …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Harry G. Hadler. Hadler was born in Argonia, Kansas on 14 December 1919 and was drafted into the Army Air Corps on 1 January 1942. He had received his private pilot’s license through the Civilian Pilot Training Program while at Wichita State University. After completing his basic training he was enrolled in aircraft mechanics training at Sheppard Field in Wichita Falls, Texas. Advanced training in B-25s in Los Angeles followed. He was then transferred to Westover, Massachusetts and assigned to the 13th Bombardment Group (Medium) of the First Air Force as chief of a ground crew. Their mission supported anti-submarine patrols off the East Coast. In November 1942 he was accepted into Officer Candidate School and graduated on 20 January 1943, receiving his commission as second lieutenant. Hadler attended photo intelligence school and was assigned to a headquarters wing of the 2nd Air Force at Fort Biggs in El Paso, Texas. In March 1945 he was assigned to the 39th Bomb Group (Very Heavy) located in Guam, where he prepared bomb plots from aerial photographs for B-29 bombing missions over mainland Japan and Okinawa. In October 1945 he …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Peter Bourgeois. Bourgeois joined the Army in July of 1943 and served with the Medical Corps. In December of 1944 he was assigned to the 96th Infantry Division and participated in the liberation of Leyte and Okinawa. He provides details of working as a Combat Medic with L Company, and caring for wounded soldiers on the battlefield. He also served as a rifleman at Okinawa. He was discharged in January of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Clinton Jennings. Jennings joined the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1937. He joined the Army in the spring of 1941. He completed training on the Island of Corregidor and served as Battery Clerk with the 59th Coast Artillery, K Battery. He describes how his unit responded to the attack on the Philippines in December of 1941, enduring bombings and raids by Japanese fighter planes. Jennings and his unit surrendered on 6 May 1942, and were taken to the 92nd Garage for sea planes, and then on to the Bilibid Prison. They traveled by French cattle cars on the railway to a prison camp called Bongabon, northeast of Cabanatuan. He remained there for several months, then moved to Cabanatuan prison camp for two and a half years, helping bury the dead, setting up a small hospital and planting a farm. Jennings shares vivid details of life in the camps, his work, their living and food accommodations, illnesses amongst the prisoners and interactions with the guards. In 1944 he was transported to Japan where he worked in a coal mine. He was rescued in September of 1945 and returned to the US.

The National Museum of the Pacific Ware presents an oral interview with Andy Miller. Miller was born in Miller, South Dakota 15 March 1924. He graduated from high school in 1938 and enlisted in the US Army Air Corps 23 July 1941. He arrived at Manila, Philippine Islands on 28 August 1941 where he was assigned to the 19th Airbase Squadron stationed at Nichols Field. Starting on 9 December 1941, Nichols Field was bombed by the Japanese daily throughout the month. On 24 December Miller boarded the inter-island steamer MS McTane and went to Mariveles Harbor at Bataan. There he was given an infantry assignment in the Reserve Resistance Line as a member of a machinegun team. He recalls the lack of adequate food supplies as well as the shortage of medical supplies. He recalls taking a small boat to flee the area and of being picked up by a US Navy patrol boat and taken to Corregidor on 10 April 1941. Upon his arrival he was assigned to the 4th Marine Regiment 3rd Battalion for beach defense. He remembers on 7 May 1942 he was told to report to the 92nd Garage Area near Manila Hill. There he became …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John M Cook. Cook joined the Army in September of 1940. In October of 1941, he traveled to the Philippines. He was assigned to Fort William McKinley in Manila, to receive training in field operations for the Medical Corps. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Cook was captured by the Japanese and interned from January of 1942 in Cabanatuan prison camp through his liberation in early 1945. After the war, he continued medical services in the Army and was discharged in August of 1961.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Bill Barnett. Barnett was born in the San Joaquin Valley on 17 June 1920. Upon graduation from high school in 1937, he entered the United States Naval Academy. After graduating from the Academy in December 1941, he was assigned to the gunnery department aboard the USS Helena (CL-50) which was being repaired after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. After being repaired the ship was sent to Espiritu Santos where it operated with a task force that included other cruisers and destroyers. Barnett was involved in a battle with a Japanese naval force in which a number of ships were sunk. After undergoing repairs in Sydney, Australia, the ship participated in the battle of Guadalcanal and was sunk in Kula Gulf in July 1943. He describes the sinking of the ship and how he exited the vessel. He was picked up by the USS Radford (DD-446) while other survivors made it to the island of Vella Lavella. He and other survivors were taken to Espiritu Santos where, after three weeks, they boarded a liberty ship and returned to the United States. He was then assigned to the USS …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Unger. Unger was born in 1920 in Austria and immigrated to Missouri when he was a child. In 1939, he joined the Navy and trained as a hospital corpsman. After various schools and duty stations in the US, Unger volunteered to go to Wake Island in late 1941. He recalls the Japanese assault on the island and his activities prior to being captured and made a prisoner of war. The Japanese used Unger to care for their wounded and eventually shipped all American military personnel to a POW camp China. Unger served in the camp hospital combatting illnesses such as dysentery and malaria. Sometime around early 1945, Unger and his bunch were shipped to Japan. Upon being liberated, Unger developed appendicitis and was taken aboard a hospital ship that returned to California. Unger also mentions being reunited with his wife and seeing his 4-year old son for the first time.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Roy Warren. Warren was a child when his father was stationed in Pearl Harbor in 1941 as a communications officer with the Navy. He tells of life as a 4th grader attending school on Ford Island and living in Little Makalapa. Warren recalls seeing the first wave of Japanese torpedo bombers flying over his house. He describes his experiences during the attack and the days afterward. Warren details the types of souvenirs that he collected during and after the battle. He describes sailors showing up at his house in wet uniforms. Warren mentions how his family stayed in Hawaii after the attack and how his mother ended up as a civilian employee for the Navy. Later in life he joined the Army when he grew up and describes some of his career highlights.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Bob Addobate. Addobate joined the Navy in June of 1941. Beginning in August, he served as a Signalman Second-Class aboard the USS Solace (AH-5), arriving in Pearl Harbor in October. They were docked in the Harbor when the Japanese attacked. From March to August of 1942 they traveled through the Pacific to Australia, and discharged patients. From August of 1942 through May of 1943, they cared for fleet casualties and servicemen wounded in the island campaigns. From June through August, they operated as a station hospital at Noumea, New Caledonia. In April of 1945, during a typhoon, Addobate had his leg crushed by a crane, which had to be amputated. He returned to the US and was medically discharged in January of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Warren S. Adams II. The day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Adams set aside his law career and joined the Marine Corps. Adams began his Marine career as an instructor, but wished for another assignment. He ended up on Saipan and describes his experiences there.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William W. Wright. He was born in Arlington, Virginia on 15 July 1918 and joined the Marine Corps Reserve in May 1938, receiving his commission in October 1941. In February 1942 he was sent to Camp Lejeune as the Executive Officer of I Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Division. Wright recalls boarding the MS John Ericsson in San Francisco and sailing to Wellington, New Zealand where they transferred cargo to the USS McCawley (APA-4) and practiced amphibious landings. He landed in the second wave at Guadalcanal on 7 August 1942 and his battalion guarded against a Japanese landing. Wright recounts his involvement in action over the ensuing months during which he was awarded the Silver Star. On 15 December 1942 he sailed to Brisbane, Australia where his unit was bivouacked for two weeks before an infestation of mosquitoes forced them to move to Melbourne. On 30 December 1943 his company participated in the landing at Cape Gloucester. He describes his experiences on New Britain and then recalls that he was transferred back to Camp Lejeune on 30 January 1944 where he spent the next year training recruits. When …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Irving Cumbie. Cumbie joined the Coast Guard in mid-1942 and was commissioned as ensign that December. He completed Quartermaster school. Cumbie was assigned to Key West, Florida to patrol the harbor and transport pilots out to merchant ships. In the summer of 1944 he completed amphibious school at Camp Bradford, Virginia. In October he served as communications officer aboard USS USS LST-886. In January of 1945 they began a 5-week trip for Ulithi to deliver a load of ammo and black powder. They restocked their ship with more ammunition in Guam, which they delivered to Iwo Jima. They continued traveling to Saipan, Tinian and Okinawa moving Seabee equipment, fog oil, and other supplies. Cumbie provides vivid details of their travels and his experiences. In September of 1945 they transported part of the Occupation Force to Japan. He was discharged in March of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with James Van Lieshout. Van Lieshout joined the Coast Guard in December of 1941. He served as Seaman Third Class for one year aboard Hollyhock, a buoy tender and icebreaker on the Great Lakes. He was part of the deck crew, overseeing lighthouses and breaking up ice for ships in the winter time. In the summer of 1943 Van Lieshout played baseball for the Coast Guard team. He then completed LST training. In 1944 and 1945 he served as water tender aboard the LST-886 in the Pacific, delivering ammunition and supplies to numerous islands, including Guam, Saipan, Tinian, Iwo Jima, the Philippines, Okinawa and Japan. He provides some details of the LST and his experiences across the Pacific. After the war they took occupation troops to Japan. He was honorably discharged in January of 1947.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Dick Schumacher. He was born in 1916 in Canton, Ohio. In about 1941, he received a Navy commission and was sent to Navy Supply Corps School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His first duty assignment was to the Supply Department at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard during the building of the USS New Jersey (BB-62) and the USS Wisconsin (BB-64). He was assigned to the USS Ashland (LSD-1) in 1943 and served in the Pacific Theater until June 1945. He describes the living conditions on the ship. He shares his concern about being blown up while transporting large amounts of ammunition. Prior to his discharge in February 1946, he was assigned to the Naval Storehouse in Baltimore, Maryland. He shares anecdotes about being required to have a sword; the crew brewing alcoholic beverages on the ship; the ship hitting the dock at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; and experiencing a typhoon while at sea.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Waldrip. Born in Texas in 1923, he enlisted as an Aviation Cadet in May 1942. After training, he was sent to England where he was assigned to the 490th Bomb Group. He served as a crewmember on a B-17 aircraft. Other members of the crew were Charles Smelser, Neil Johnson, Leonard Kail, and Jake Jackson. He talks about ?buzz bombs?, the living conditions, and flight suits. He describes the airplane weaponry as well as the logistics of bombing missions. He recounts a story of his plane going off course due to bad weather when returning from a bombing mission during the Battle of the Bulge. He was involved in missions to bomb strategic targets in Germany. He describes bombing missions to Berlin and Merseburg, Germany. He also describes a mission to bomb submarines at Brest, France during the Normandy Invasion. He shares anecdotes about flak; obtaining coal to heat his Quonset hut; cleaning his uniform with airplane fuel; and censoring mail. He returned to the United States in 1945 after flying 35 missions. He left military service when the war ended. In 1949 he joined the United …