The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Tom Gillespie. Gillespie joined the Navy and went right to radio school because he was already a radio technician ion civilian life. He was assigned to Special Task Air Group 1 and trained with them to conduct drone strikes on Japanese targets. When he went overseas, he was based at Banika Island, near Pavuvu in the Russell Islands. They attempted a few strikes, but nothing ever came of the project, so the unit went back to the US before the war ended. Gillespie was discharged in November, 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Hood of Indianapolis, Indiana. He discusses entering the U.S. Navy in September of 1942 without basic training as he was a college graduate. After being sworn in at Wabash College he was sent to Harvard Business School for Supply Corps for 4 months before being assigned to a ship in Pearl Harbor despite having no sailing training. Mr. hood was assigned to the Cummings DE643, he was supposed to be on the Samuel B. Roberts but the naval officer over him changed his mind last minute and 37 days later the Roberts sunk. While in Tulagi, Mr. Hood was involved in shooting down a Kamikaze plane, even receiving a ribbon for it after the war. He was also involved in the Battle of Okinawa and even saved two shells and years later had them signed by U.S. pilot Paul Tibbets. Mr. Hood was discharged from the Navy on February 28th, 1946, at Santa Ana, California as a Full Lieutenant. He was recalled to the Navy for the Korean War on March 2nd, 1951, and discharged for the final time on March 30th, 1953, as a Lieutenant Commander.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Owen Fluckey. He discusses his childhood and family and what led him to join the US navy. He describes his experiences in bootcamp at the Great Lakes Training Station in Indiana and his time in the Pacific Theatre during World War Two.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Hood of Indianapolis, Indiana. He discusses entering the U.S. Navy in September of 1942 without basic training as he was a college graduate. After being sworn in at Wabash College he was sent to Harvard Business School for Supply Corps for 4 months before being assigned to a ship in Pearl Harbor despite having no sailing training. Mr. hood was assigned to the Cummings DE643, he was supposed to be on the Samuel B. Roberts but the naval officer over him changed his mind last minute and 37 days later the Roberts sunk. While in Tulagi, Mr. Hood was involved in shooting down a Kamikaze plane, even receiving a ribbon for it after the war. He was also involved in the Battle of Okinawa and even saved two shells and years later had them signed by U.S. pilot Paul Tibbets. Mr. Hood was discharged from the Navy on February 28th, 1946, at Santa Ana, California as a Full Lieutenant. He was recalled to the Navy for the Korean War on March 2nd, 1951, and discharged for the final time on March 30th, 1953, as a Lieutenant Commander.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John L. bates, Jr. where he discusses his childhood and education and what led him to join the Army. He describes his experiences working for the Counterintelligence Corps in China during World War two.

Transcript of an oral interview with Ellsworth Handy. Born in 1914, he entered the Army in August, 1940. He was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Headquarters, 29th Quartermaster Regiment. In early 1942 he was sent to the Pacific Theater. He describes being transported from San Francisco, California to Australia aboard the RMS Queen Elizabeth. He was responsible for running convoys of trucks in remote areas of the country. As Plans and Recreation Officer in Brisbane, he arranged entertainment in a local theater for soldiers on leave. He was sent to Milne Bay, New Guinea and the Philippines where he was responsible for trucking activities. He describes witnessing General MacArthur’s return to the Philippines. He shares an anecdote about a narrow escape during an air raid. He talks about not being rotated back to the U.S. as part of the normal two-year rotation. He left active duty in 1945. He served in the Reserves until 1981. The interview also contains information about his family during the Depression.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Giles McCoy. McCoy joined the Marines in June of 1943. He served as a sniper. McCoy was assigned to the 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. He participated in the Invasion of Peleliu in September of 1944, as well as the battles of Okinawa and Iwo Jima. He talks about his experiences with kamikaze planes at Okinawa. He then served as a Marine replacement and a hot shell man aboard the USS Indianapolis (CA-35). McCoy provides vivid details of the ship sinking and his 4 days surviving in the Philippine Sea. He was discharged around late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Charles Wade. Wade was born on 23 November 1921 in Nolanville, Texas and attended John Tarleton College where he completed Civilian Pilot Training. As a cadet he trained in P-38s at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona, followed by advanced training in 1943 at North Island Naval Air Base in California. Upon completion of training he flew to Nadzab, New Guinea for his first combat assignment with the Fifth Air Force, Eighth Fighter Group, Thirty-Sixth Squadron. He flew escort missions for B-24s. He also qualified in the bombers and transferred to the Forty-Third Bomber Group flying out of Biak. He flew the first B-24 to land on Leyte while ferrying in replacement radio operators. He flew subsequent missions out of Tacloban and then Clark Air Base in bombing runs over Formosa and Okinawa. Next, he volunteered to return to the Eighth Fighter Group, Thirty-Sixth Squadron flying P-38s out of Mindoro. His squadron was sent to Ie Shima to support operations on Okinawa. After the war Wade flew over Hiroshima and provides details of the devastation. He escorted the hierarchy of the Japanese military flying in a Mitsubishi G4M Betty …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Arvon E Caruthers. Caruthers joined the Navy in 1939. He served as a Gunner’s Mate Second-Class aboard the USS Tanager (AM-5) during the Philippine Campaign in 1941 through the sinking of the ship in May of 1942. Caruthers participated in the Battle of Corregidor, and was captured by Japanese forces. He was imprisoned at Cabanatuan number three and traveled aboard a hell ship, eventually settling at Ōmori. Cauthers was liberated in August of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Creed Coffee. Coffee was in the Army ROTC at Texas Technological College, now Texas Tech in Lubbock, in 1941 and 1942. He was in the Corps of Engineers. He was on active duty beginning June of 1943. He completed Officers Candidate School in June of 1944 and commissioned a second lieutenant. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 1327th Engineer General Service Regiment. Coffee served as a platoon leader and worked on a 200-mile section of the Ledo Road, connecting Ledo to Myitkyina in Burma. He was discharged in May of 1946. In November of 1950 he was recalled for the Korean War and served as a captain in the 183rd Engineer Combat Battalion.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Harry Akune. Akune was born in Turlock, California. He served as a translator and interrogator for the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Service in the Pacific Theater. The Akune family had 4 brothers, all of whom served in World War II, though two served with the U.S. and two served with Japan. Upon their mother???s death in 1933, the brothers and their father moved to Japan to live with relatives. Once old enough, Harry Akune and his brother Ken returned to California to work. Shortly thereafter, the war started. In 1942 Harry and Ken were relocated to an internment camp in Colorado, where they were recruited by the U.S. Army, using their Japanese language to provide translations, question Japanese prisoners and create propaganda used to encourage opposing forces to surrender. Harry was assigned to the 33rd Infantry Division, 503rd Parachute Infantry Regimental Combat Team. He traveled to New Guinea, Leyte, Corregidor and Mindoro in the Philiippines. Unbeknownst to Harry and Ken, their younger brothers Saburo and Shiro were serving in the war for Imperial Japan. Harry was discharged in January of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Eleanor Schneider. Schneider was born in November of 1932 in New Braunfels, Texas. She grew up in a German-American community, and speaks on some of the difficulties she faced on the homefront during World War II. She speaks about her family history, education and the impact of war on her town. She recalls her family being questioned by the FBI regarding communications they had with relatives in Germany. Schneider speaks of other families of Lebanese, Mexican and Czech descent living in New Braunfels and how discrimination played a role in her community.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Jim Tuttle. Tuttle joined the Army in October of 1940. He served as an infantry Sergeant with Company G, 127th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division. He participated in the New Guinea Campaign and the Philippines Campaign. He was discharged in August of 1945.

Transcript of an oral interview with Jack Ward. Ward moved quickly through school and enlisted in the Navy at 17 in March, 1945. He caught scarlet fever in training and was held back. As a result, the war ended while he was still in training. Ward recalls working in an office in the San Francisco Bay Area where orders were typed out. He implies that he wrote his own orders to get aboard a refridgerated merchant vessel hauling cold supplies to various points in the Pacific. Ward recalls several anecdotes about serving aboard his merchant vessel. One was a stroy about smuggling booze aboard to sell to sailors at an inflated price. Ward finished by speaking about his post war careers.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ken Wiley. Wiley was born in Hillsboro, Texas 18 July 1925 and joined the US Coast Guard in 1942. He underwent basic training at St. Augustine, Florida for six weeks before being sent to landing craft school at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina for training in LCVPs. Upon completion of the training he was assigned as a coxswain of a four man boat crew. After arriving in Hawaii he began making practice landing with the 22nd Marine Regiment in preparation for the invasion of Kwajalein. He tells of participating in the invasions of Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Saipan, Leyte and Okinawa. He describes the various landings and tells of seeing men killed. In recalling landing in the Philippines, he tells of the landing craft being met by Filipinos in their outrigger canoes and of the joy they had in meeting the Americans. In recalling the invasion of Okinawa he mentions attacks by kamikazes. He also describes an incident involving Jack Dempsey that took place on the beach of Okinawa after the initial invasion. Soon after the Okinawa invasion, Wiley returned to the United States and was discharged.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Mrs. Tula Augusta Hickman Shook. Born in 1929, she discusses life on a farm in Texas during the Great Depression and the war. She talks about learning of the attack on Pearl Harbor. She describes rationing, scrap metal drives, war bonds, and blackouts. She recounts how she met her husband, Leon J. Shook, as the result of corresponding with him while he was serving as a Machinist?s Mate on the USS Colorado. She shares the story of her underage elopement. She talks about leaving high school at age fifteen to travel to San Diego where her husband was stationed. After the war, the couple returned to Texas.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Paul Hilliard. Hilliard was 17 years old when he joined the Marine Corps in February 1943. Upon completion of aviation radio and gunnery training, he joined Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 341 (VMSB-341), as an SBD rear-seat replacement. There he had an opportunity to chat with pilot and Yankee infielder Jerry Coleman. En route to Luzon, he was terrified by a typhoon as nearby ammunition barges were being tossed around by the waves. Once in the Philippines, Hilliard flew over 50 missions as support for the Army. At night he slept in a tent or took cover in a foxhole. When the war ended, Hilliard was reassigned to a C-47 squadron as a radio operator, flying with actor and pilot Tyrone Power, transporting entertainment acts to military bases. After being discharged in June 1946, he attended law school and bought a house on the G.I. Bill.

Transcript of an oral interview with Glenn McDole. McDole begins with some anecdotes about homesteading in Nebraska with his parents and siblings in the 1930s. In 1940, after finishing high school, McDole enlisted in the Marine Corps. He trained in San Diego and then shipped out to the Philippines aboard the USS Chaumont (AP-5). When he arrived in the Philippines, McDole was assigned to a security detachment at Cavite Navy Yard. McDole describes his experiences during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. He ended up on Corregidor manning a machine gun and was present for the surrender. McDole describes being taken back to Manila by the Japanese before being transported to the POW camp at Cabanatuan. After a while, McDole went to Palawan with a large group of POWs to build an airstrip. He also relates the story about when his appendix ruptured while a prisoner of war, the surgery and his recovery.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Al Jowdy. Jowdy enlisted in the Navy in July 1942 at the age of 15, with his parents’ consent. His first assignment was pulling bodies out of sunken ships in Pearl Harbor. At Guadalcanal, his ship was torpedoed. Due to the presence of enemy subs, he could not be rescued initially and spent two weeks floating in a raft. Then he joined a rescue effort to aid the USS Wasp (CV-7), only to be torpedoed again, spending another four days in the water. Jowdy was then assigned to the USS Salt Lake City (CA-25), patrolling the Bering Sea and participating in the Battle of the Komandorski Islands as a second loader on a 40-millimeter. After witnessing the Marianas Turkey Shoot and also seeing MacArthur film his famous return, Jowdy participated in the bombardment of Iwo Jima, amidst kamikazes and suicide boats. After the war, he survived a typhoon and served occupation duty in Japan, later transporting troops as part of the demobilization effort before being discharged in January 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with William Jones. Jones joined the Army Air Forces in July of 1944. He shares a few anecdotes about basic training and went to aerial photography school as well as aerial gunnery school. Before he was assigned to a B-29 crew, the war ended. Jones was sent to Japan on occupation duty. While there, Jones visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki and was able to take aerial photographs in January, 1946. He returned to the US in August and was discharged.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Edward Cumbie. Cumbie joined the Army in January of 1943. He completed Officer???s Candidate School in May of 1943, earning a commission as a second lieutenant. He began training in the Army Air Forces in November of 1943. He provides details of his pilot training, including glider training in Lubbock, Texas. He graduated in the fall of 1944. Their glider pilot training was in preparation for an airborne crossing of the Rhine River in Germany. He was assigned to the 313th Troop Carrier Group. They traveled to England in November of 1944. On Christmas of 1944 they hauled the 17th Airborne Division up near the front lines in northern France, during the Battle of the Bulge. Cumbie provides details of this experience. He also transported supplies and wounded soldiers. He was discharged in July of 1946, though stayed in the Air Force Reserves until 1952.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Edward Daniels. Daniels was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts 9 February 1921. Upon graduating from high school in 1939, he joined the Navy. Completing boot training at Newport, Rhode Island, he was temporarily assigned to the USS Arkansas (BB-33). He was transferred, as a seaman, to the USS Badger (DD-126). Six months later, he was assigned to the USS Dallas (DD-199) as a quartermaster. Recalling convoy duty in the Atlantic, he describes the extreme weather conditions encountered. After a brief period of time aboard the USS PC-562, he was assigned to APc-21. He endured the experience of the ship being sunk by Japanese bombs off New Britain. Daniels was put aboard the USS Brownson (DD-518) only to have it attacked and sunk a week later. Returning to the United States he was sent to the Great Lakes Naval Hospital before being assigned duty as quartermaster on various LSTs being ferried from St. Louis to New Orleans. He was then sent to Boston where he instructed ensigns on the use of a compass. Daniels was discharged in 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Regis Butler. Butler joined the Army Air Forces in March of 1942. He completed flight training and classes in aircraft structures and mechanics. He worked at Bell Aircraft Plant in Niagara Falls to become familiar with P-39s and completed additional classes at Kelly Field in San Antonio on various phases of engines, controls and instruments. He served as a project engineer with the 5th Air Force, 4th Air Service Command, 13th Air Depot, and the Black Cat Squadron. Around February of 1943 they traveled across the Pacific by troop ship to New Caledonia and Guadalcanal. The squadron’s job was to do night patrols, seek out targets and rescue downed pilots. Butler engineered parts and made plane modifications as needed with the PBY, B-25, C-47, P-38 and P-51 aircraft. He traveled to Biak, to survey the airfields in preparation to relocate their squadron. He shares his experiences moving across these Pacific islands, his encounters with the natives and establishing a repair depot in Biak. Butler was discharged in December of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Glen Parker. Parker was born on 28 March 1919 in Carnegie, Pennsylvania. He was drafted into the Army in March 1941. His basic training was at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. From there he was sent to Camp Livingston, Louisiana and assigned to the 32nd Division, 120th Artillery, Company C. From Louisiana, his unit was sent to Macon, Georgia, then to Fort Devens, Massachusetts, and finally sailed from San Francisco to Australia in April 1942. There Parker was reassigned to the 126th Infantry Battalion. After three months in Adelaide and Brisbane, the 126th sailed to Port Moresby in New Guinea. After about a week, the unit marched north 130 miles across the island, over the mountains, to Sanananda, between Buna and Gona on the north coast. The march took over 4 weeks. They were poorly supplied with food and other equipment. They participated in the battles for Buna-Gona and the Battle for Sanananda. Parker was then sent back to Australia for a lengthy treatment for malaria he had contracted in New Guinea. Once that was under control, he returned to his unit. They made landings in Katika in spring, 1944 …