Interview with Al Flocke, a radio operator during World War II. He discusses his flight training and being the radio operator on a B-24 bomber which did raids on Guam, Turk, Iwo Jima and other islands. He also relates anecdotes about food, rations, and living conditions on the islands.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Frank Crain. Crain left law school to join the Army Air Forces in January 1942. He was assigned to an ordnance detachment with the 3rd Air Depot Group in Agra, India, where he loaded ammunition onto trains. He was transferred to Karachi, where he made reusable practice bombs out of tin cans and sand. He applied to OCS and returned to the States in April 1943. As an Infantry officer he taught math, reading, and ordnance use. He was sent to Italy and assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 86th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division. In the Apennines, his unit furnished ammunition and performed light engineering. Crain was the battalion commander’s primary troubleshooter. He was assigned to the 85th Infantry Division when the armistice went into effect in Italy. There was no resistance from Germans in the Po Valley, who pleaded with Crain to help them defend their homes from the Russians. When the war ended, he was assigned to keep the peace between political factions in Tarvisio. His last occupation duty was overseeing refugees in Milan. Crain returned home and was discharged in December 1945. He returned to …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Charles Mellon. Mellon joined the Army in March of 1944. He was assigned to the 314th Infantry Regiment, 79th Infantry Division, and participated in active duty through France and into the Siegfried Line in December. They continued their combat duty into Germany, and served on occupation duty after the war ended. Mellon returned to the US and was discharged in October of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Iliff Richardson. Richardson was commissioned in the Navy in 1940 and assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3 as the executive officer of PT-34. After the loss of his boat in April 1942, he joined a band of Filipino guerrillas. Richardson tells of setting up radio transmitters and of the unusual features of the operations and equipment used. At the request of General Douglas MacArthur he plotted the Japanese mine fields in Leyte Gulf and he gives the details on how this was accomplished. Upon returning to the Philippines, General MacArthur met with Richardson on the USS Nashville (CL-43) and he describes the discussion. After returning to the United States, he had a seven hour meeting with Admiral Ernest J. King concerning pending court martial charges against him and tells of the outcome of the meeting. Richardson joined the Industrial Incentive Division of the Navy and he comments on his travels and speeches given to industry workers. [A copy of the manuscript written by Richardson during the war describing PT boat operations in the Philippines is in the archives of The National Museum of the Pacific War and …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Bill Sheehan. Sheehan joined the Navy in June of 1933. Beginning October of 1943, he served as Quartermaster aboard USS Porterfield (DD-682). In February of 1944, they provided shore bombardment in the Marshalls. In April, they screened escort carriers during the Marianas invasion, and participated in the Guam Campaign in August. Sheehan provides details of their invasion of Saipan in June and Okinawa in April of 1945. He returned to the US and was discharged in late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Don Lamanna. Lamanna joined the Navy in November 1942 and was transferred to hospital corps school in Alabama, where he tended to casualties of flight training. He then attended field medical school at Camp Elliot. Upon completion, he was assigned to a medical battalion in the V Amphibious Corps where he worked as an orderly in hospitals. He landed on Saipan on the eighth day of the invasion and worked at an abandoned Japanese hospital there. He recalls the staff worked 96 hours straight, triaging the wounded before they were sent aboard hospital ships. Natives were also enlisted to help at the hospital. Lamanna returned to Maui and tended to the 4th Marine Division casualties at a hospital there. Next, he went to Iwo Jima and landed four days after the invasion. There the wounded were treated in tents on the beach. After working at a hospital in Sasebo, Japan, supporting the occupation forces, Lamanna boarded the ATA 197, picking up troops from the Philippines and China. He returned to the States and worked at the naval hospital in Oakland until his discharge in 1948.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with James Dukes. Born in Alabama, Dukes quit school in 1937 to join the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). In March 1941, he joined the Marine Corps, and was sent to San Diego for boot camp. Dukes was then assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 8th Marines where he received mortar training. On 6 June 1942, he boarded the SS Lurline bound for Pago Pago, Samoa. During November 1942 the unit merged with the 2nd Marine Division when they landed on Guadalcanal. He was assigned to the Matanikau River and tells of subsequent actions in which some of his men were killed. Dukes was wounded and sent to the Silver Stream Hospital in New Zealand. Following surgery, he was sent to the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital. Dukes struggled with malaria. Throughout the interview, he expresses his admiration for the people of New Zealand. He returned to the US and received his discharge on 12 August 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Israel Berger. While attending medical school, Berger took an officer’s correspondence course with the Navy in May 1942. After interning at the Norfolk Naval Hospital and completing the V-12 program, he boarded the USS Drew (APA-162) as a general medical officer, traveling between Oahu and Saipan. Berger was relieved to be treated kindly despite being one of only two Jewish men on his ship. Despite having grown up in a kosher home, he set his cultural differences aside and ate what everyone else ate. While supporting action at Samar and Okinawa, Berger dealt with very few serious injuries, although he encountered many fatalities. One of his most sobering experiences involved helping a 12-year-old Japanese girl who stepped on a mine. By the end of the war, Berger had made lieutenant. He was inclined to join the Naval Reserve but decided instead to return home and care for his ailing mother.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert G. Bass. Bass was born in Walnut, Illinois on 18 November 1922. He was drafted into the Army in February 1943. After three months of basic and combat military police training at Fort Riley, Kansas, Bass was accepted in the Army Specialized Training Program at the University of Indiana. The program was disbanded in early 1944 and Bass was sent first to an armored infantry unit and then to the 243rd Combat Engineers, training at Camp Breckenridge, Kentucky. On 22 October 1944 the unit sailed to Europe. After a brief stay in England, they crossed the English Channel to La Havre. In December, they were in Belgium in the area where the Battle of the Bulge was being fought. In early 1945 they were on the move to Germany attached to the 1107th Engineering Group, doing road work, clearing mines and building bridges in support of the 87th Infantry. They built a pontoon bridge across the Rhine, crossed, and continued east to Schmolln. They were there when Germany surrendered. Bass and the unit were sent to Erfurt to process German prisoners of war. Erfurt being in the …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with James C Chandler. Chandler joined the Marine Corps in the spring of 1943. He was assigned to the 1st Armored Amphibian Battalion. Chandler participated in the battles of Guam and Okinawa. He returned to the US and was discharged in December of 1945

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James L. Bell, Jr. He joined the Marine Corps in August, 1944. After basic training in California, he was sent to the Parker Ranch in Hawaii where he practiced maneuvers. He describes landing on Red Beach and fighting on Iwo Jima when he was in the 5th Marine Division. He discusses the placement of the American flag on the island, the Japanese tunnels, and the suicides of Japanese soldiers. After Iwo Jima, he joined the 2nd Division in Hawaii. When the war ended, he served ten months as part of the occupational force in Japan before being discharged.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Espie. Although Espie was enrolled at Indiana University and joined the Army ROTC with intentions of being commissioned, he grew anxious about the draft and decided to enlist in the Navy in December 1942. Upon completion of quartermaster school, he embarked on amphibious training and was assigned to USS LST-734. He was at the helm in the Panama Canal and was an expert in dead reckoning at sea. At Guadalcanal he was trained on lessons learned at Tarawa, in preparation for transporting landing craft to Peleliu. There he watched Imperial Japanese marines from the shore as the island was assaulted. After transporting a group of engineers from Hollandia to the Leyte Gulf invasion, Espie survived enormous debris raining on his LST after a nearby ammunition ship exploded. Espie was eventually recommended to the V-12 program, returning to the States to attend Princeton University. When Japan surrendered, the program continued for another year but wound to a close before Espie received his commission. He was discharged into the Fleet Reserve and completed his degree on the G.I. Bill.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Gerard Noteboom. Noteboom was a child living near The Hague when his father was taken away by the Gestapo and sent to Buchenwald. From December 1940 to September 1944, his father remained active in resistance groups while interned. Meanwhile, the Dutch underground provided financial assistance to Noteboom's family. Noteboom prudently invested in salt, a valuable commodity that could be easily traded for food. He also actively resisted the occupation, stealing arms and ammunition. As the Allies drew near, his family sought refuge from crossfire in a reinforced cellar. After the liberation, Noteboom worked as an English translator in exchange for bread. His father soon returned home. Noteboom went on to attend medical school, graduating in 1954 and immigrating to the United States. There he joined the Army as a pathologist at Fort Meade.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Robert Wesley Clum. Clum joined the Army Air Forces in February of 1943. He served as a Bombardier aboard a B-24 Liberator with the 484th Bomb Group, 827th Bomb Squadron. In October of 1944 they traveled to Bari, Italy to the headquarters of the 15th Air Force. They completed 25 combat missions, traveling over Germany, Czechoslovakia, northern Italy and Libya. Clum was honorably discharged from active duty as lieutenant in 1945, and honorably discharged as Captain in 1959 from the Air Force Reserves.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Donald Bentley. Bentley joined the Navy in 1942 and went through the V-12 program. He was assigned to the Seabees. Bentley was trained on ship loading and unloading and joined the 30th Special NCB stateside. He was transferred to the 4th Special NCB and traveled to Okinawa. Bentley describes the work that his unit performed and life on Okinawa at the end of the war. He left the service after four years in March 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Gordon Sage. Sage joined the Marine Corps in mid-1941. He served aboard USS Maryland (BB-46) as an orderly for Rear Admiral Walter Stratton Anderson, commander of battleships in the Pacific Fleet. Sage was aboard the ship the morning of 7 December. They were moored along Ford Island, with USS Oklahoma (BB-37) on Battleship Row. Sage describes his experiences through the attack, including passing ammunition down a line to the anti-aircraft gun. They traveled to Bremerton, Washington for repairs, where he was detached from the ship. Sage later joined the 14th (Artillery) Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, in Hawaii. In 1945, they participated in the Battle of Iwo Jima. He returned to the US in late 1945, and went on to complete a 21-year military career in the US Air Force.

Transcript of an oral interview with Murven J. Witherel. He grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and graduated from Allegheny High School in 1939. He went to work for a untility company before being drafted into the Army in February 1942. He qualified for Officer Candidate School (OCS) after Basic Training at Fort McClellan, Alabama. He was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant at Fort Benning, Georgia in December 1942. He was then assigned as the leader of 3rd Platoon, Company E, 20th Infantry,6th Infantry Division and sent to the Mojave Desert to train anticipating a trip to North Africa. Instead, his unit went to New Guinea in January 1944. In June, his unit landed at Baffin Bay and assaulted Lone Tree Hill. Witherel was evetually wounded twice and received the new drug, penicillin at the Lae General Hospital. He was eventually shipped back to the USA. the conversatio then veers to cover such subjects as USO shows, friendly fire, the Red Cross, Tokyo Rose on the radio, morale in his outfit and a visit in the Lae General Hospital by Jack Benny.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Jesse Farmer. Farmer joined the Marine Corps in July of 1943. He was assigned to Company G, 2nd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division. In June of 1944, Farmer and his unit participated in the first wave of assault landings on Saipan, continuing to take Tinian in the days following. They additionally served in the fifth assault wave on Iwo Jima in February of 1945, where he sustained injuries. Farmer returned to the US and was discharged in October of 1945.

Transcript of an oral interview with Clarence E. Peck. Peck was drafted into the Army in the fall of 1942, went through boot camp at Camp Clairborne then on to Camp Miles Standish for motor pool training before joining the 338th Engineers and shipping out to Oran, Africa. In Africa, he helped build staging areas for General Patton and worked in the motor pool as a mechanic and truck driver, then following Patton into Italy, landing in Naples. In Naples, his unit built roads and airstrips and helped villages around Naples when Vesuvius erupted during his stay there. He discusses moving north through Italy, following the fighting and repairing bomb damage, rebuilding bridges, aqueducts and airstrips in cities like Pisa, Rome, Anzio, and Livorno. He ancedotes about recovering art stolen by the Nazis from Florence in a barn near Lake Como and shipping it back to Florence, going to Switzerland on leave and touring the League of Nations' building, building a lumber camp in Balzano before returning to Pisa to build a POW camp, where he was when Germany surrendered and had a few bottles of cognac with his unit to celebrate.

Transcript of an oral interview with Paul T. "Tom" Beeghly. Beeghly was attending Ohio Wesleyen University when war was declared. He enlisted in the Army Reserve and stayed in school until he was called in early 1943. He trained as a medical aid man in the infantry at Camp Joseph P. Robinson in Arkansas. After basic training, he joined the 96th Infantry Division in Oregon for more training. By the time the division left for Hawaii in the spring of 1944, Beeghly was serving as an administrative clerk in the division's adjutant general section. En route to invade Yap, the division was diverted to Manus in the Admiralty Islands to participate in the campaign to liberate the Philippines. Beeghly then describes un;loading artillery equipment onto the shores and being on Leyte while it was being liberated. Eventually, the division left the Philippines and headed for Okinawa. When Beeghly got to Okinawa, he manned a 50-caliber machine gun while others unloaded cargo from an amphibious landing craft. When the Okinawa campaign concluded, Beeghly and the 96th went back to Mindoro to replenish train for the invasion of Japan. They were there when the war ended and eventually shipped out back to …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Oliver E. Marheine. During the Depression, Marheine worked in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1939 before moving to Detroit and taking a jobn in a factory making poarts for airplanes. From there he was drafted into the Army Air Forces in September, 1942. For a while he served as a cook at a glider pilot training base in North Carolina. Then Marheine shipped out to New Guinea. He continued serving as a cook there, then on Luzon and Okinawa. He was attached to the 7th Glider Echelon, 54th Troop Carrier Wing, 5th Air Force while serving in the Pacific. On Luzon, in the Philippines, Marheine worked in an officer's club. He was serving there when Japan surrendered. After the war, Marheine established an officer's club in Japan during the occupation before shipping home.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Procter. Procter volunteered for the Navy in 1944. He was assigned to the gunnery division on the USS Hornet (CV-12). Procter was aboard when the Hornet was supporting at Okinawa. He describes the operation of the 5-inch gun and going through a typhoon that heavily damaged the flight deck. Procter remained aboard after the surrender and took part in Operation Magic Carpet to return servicemen to the States.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Caposella. Caposella left his studies at Ohio State University to join the Navy in March 1944. He received basic training at Great Lakes and attended radio school in Bedford Springs. After completing amphibious training at Camp Bradford and Fort Pierce, he was assigned to the USS Ostara (AKA-33) where he rode in LCVPs transporting troops and supplies throughout the Pacific. Although it was not well-armored, it survived floating mines that bounced off the ship. Arriving at Manila toward the end of the war, Caposella witnessed great devastation and poverty. He recalls the hesitation of Japanese citizens when his ship brought the initial occupation forces ashore. After the war ended, he brought Marines to China, where he noticed the local population had very few women, presumably a result of kidnapping comfort women. Caposella was discharged in June 1946 and resumed his studies at Ohio State University.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Theodore Anderson. Anderson was drafted into the Navy in April of 1943. He graduated from the hospital corps in San Diego and worked at Long Beach Naval Hospital. As a hospital corpsman Anderson was assigned to the 13th Marines, 5th Marine Division artillery group H & S Battery in the fall of 1944. They traveled to Saipan in preparation for the Battle of Iwo Jima. Anderson provides details of his experiences at Iwo Jima, including serving as a roaming hospital corpsman on the island, how he was severely wounded by a mortar and witnessed the raising of the American flag on Mt. Suribachi. He was discharged in October of 1945.