The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ben Wagner. Wagner joined the Navy in 1944. He worked in the engine room on the USS Howard F. Clark (DE-533), and was onboard when the Clark accidentally rammed the USS Saratoga during a training mission. Wagner had several members of his boot camp company assigned to the USS Mount Hood (AE-11). He discusses how they were assigned and what he was able to learn about the loss of the ship. Wagner witnessed the Ommaney Bay (CVE-79) burning before it was sunk. He also saw the battle on Iwo Jima from a distance. Wagner was in the States when the first bomb was dropped.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Roger Moore. Moore joined the Navy in 1943. Shortly after basic training, he was given the opportunity to train as a US Navy photographer taking classes in Pensacola, Florida and Washington DC. While in Washington DC, he volunteered for the Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO). He was shipped to Chongqing, China and trained Chinese guerilla troops in the use of photography. In 1945, Moore was sent to Shanghai to take photos of the Japanese and other subjects that would interest the Navy. While there, he also took photos of the Chinese for his own pleasure. He later displayed the photos at the National Museum of the Pacific War in 2010.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Harold DeYoung. DeYoung joined the Navy around mid-1942. He trained in radio and submarine cable telegraphy. In March of 1945 DeYoung was assigned to replace the cable station in Manila, which had been destroyed by the Japanese. He was discharged in late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Dorwin F. Lamkin. Lamkin was born in Hudson, Wisconsin on 30 October 1922. He enlisted in the Navy on 30 October 1940, and attended boot camp at Great Lakes, Illinois. He spent sixteen weeks at Great Lakes. His first assignment was as a Fire Controlman on the USS Nevada (BB-36). He joined the ship at Bremerton Naval Shipyard. He was transferred to the hospital division and was aboard when the Japanese attacked. Lamkin recalls the ship ran aground adjacent to a sugar cane field across from Hospital Point. After the ship was refloated, he was transferred to Hospital Corpsman School in San Diego, followed by Laboratory Technician School in Bremerton. After completing the training he was transferred to the USS San Francisco (CA-38), which was being repaired at Mare Island. Following the repairs the San Francisco headed north and operated in the Aleutian Islands over the next several months, including supporting the Allied landings at Attu and Kiska Islands. Lamkin spent two years on the San Francisco, was accepted into the Navy’s V-12 Program and attended the University of Kansas. When the war ended he was assigned as …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Bob Sweatt. Sweatt was inducted to the Army Air Forces in September 1942. He describes his training as a gunner. Sweatt joined the 389th Bomb Group as a waist gunner in a B-24. He describes his experiences on several missions. Sweatt was the only surviving crewmember when his plane was shot down. He describes getting wounded, escaping the plane, and parachuting to the ground. Sweatt details the three months that he was hidden by the French and Dutch Underground. He eventually escaped to England and then returned to the United States. Sweatt served as a gunnery instructor for the remainder of the war.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Clemens Kathman. Kathman was drafted into the Army in March 1941. He joined the 200th Coast Artillery and traveled to the Philippine Islands. He describes the Japanese bombing Clark Field and then being sent to Bataan. Kathman was captured and became a POW. He details the march to camp that followed and the difficulties that he endured. Kathman was assigned to the burial detail at Camp O’Donnell and describes the duties he performed. He was then sent to Cabanatuan and goes into detail on the diet of the prisoners. Kathman then traveled to Japan in the hold of a freighter. In Japan he suffered a ruptured appendix and was given an improvised treatment by American medics. He ended up in Nagoya and describes his liberation and treatment through his return to the United States.

Transcript of an oral interview with Burnes R. Whitehead. Mr Whitehead went into the Marine Corps on 10 Jul 1941 and went to boot camp in San Diego. Joined the 2nd Marine Division when it formed up at Camp Elliot and shipped out for Guadalcanal on the USS Alhena (Merchant Marine ship). His battle station for the Guadalcanal invasion was on top of a stack of the USS Alhena with twin Lewis guns. His outfit (2nd Regiment, 2nd Headquarters) went ashore at Tulagi Island but he didn't go ashore. His Headquarters company ended up in Espirtu Santo (New Hebrides) where he got malaria. He was a driver. From there they went by ship to Wellington, New Zealand, started unloading the ship and then got trucked to Paekakariki. They formed the 2nd Raider Battalion there but Whitehead was not part of that unit. He went to Tarawa from there with the 2nd Marine Division and was there for three nights and four days. He was the only survivor out of a Higgins boat. The boat got hung up on a reef and they got hit by a mortar (he received shrapnel in his arm); he was in water up to his …

Transcript of an oral interview with Brigadier General Harry Bayne. Bayne joined the Army Air Corps as a private in September, 1941. By August, 1942, he had attained the rank of flying sergeant, but soon was commissioned a second lieutenant. His first assignement was ferrying airplanes to fields where pilots were training. Eventually, he was sent to India and flew missions carrying fuel over the Himalaya Mountains to bombers and other airplanes operating out of China. He flew sixty-three missions over the HUmp before the end of the war. After the war, he remained in a pilot training command. What follows is a conversation about the remainder of Bayne's career in the military. He flew more planes, closed air bases in Europe, took a young Prince Charles of England for a joy ride in a plane, etc. Bayne also discusses his role in the recovery of the hydrogen bomb that was aboard a B-52 that crashed off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean Sea in 1966.

Transcript of an oral interview with Gilberto Mendez. Mendez's parents left Mexico in 1910 to escape the violence Mexican Revolution and relocated to San Antonio, Texas, where Gilberto was raised until the family moved back to Mexico during the Depression. When Mexico declared war on Germany in 1942, Mendez was drafted into the Mexican Army (Spanish: Erjecito Mexicano) for one year. Upon being discharged from the Mexican Army, Mendez was called up in the US where he volunteered for duty in the US Marine Corps. He trained in Sna Diego and then went to Hawaii. From there, he was attached as a replacement prior to the invasion of Iwo Jima. Mendez landed on Iwo Jima six days after the beginning of the invasion. Mendez then describes action on Iwo Jima in which he faced a banzai charge from Japanese infantry and shot twenty enemy soldiers. After about a week of combat on Iwo Jima, Mendez was wounded by an exploding mortar round and evacuated from the island to a hospital ship. He eventually made his way back to the US where he was discharged from the Marine Corps in November, 1945. Mendez then mentions that he did a little boxing …

Transcript of an oral interview with Captain Robert K. Kaufman. Kaufman discusses getting nominated to the US Naval Academy in 1936 and describes some experiences he had there. During his years there he went on summer cruises aboard the USS Arkansas (BB-33) and the USS New York (BB-34), visiting Germany in 1937 and again in 1939. Upon graduation, Kaufman reported aboard the USS Wichita (CA-45) as the communcations officer before it steamed for South America. After a few months, he became a gunnery officer. When th ewar got started, the Wichita cruised to Iceland and patrolled in the Atlantic. Kaufman was aboard the Wichita when the North African invasion occurred and then left the ship to report to submarine school, from which he graduated in June, 1943. From there, he reported aboard the USS Gato (SS-212). Kaufman served aboard the Gato for five war patrols, the last two as the Executive Officer. In March, 1945, he became the Aide and Flag Lieutenant to the Submarine Force Commander (Admiral Charles Lockwood) and moved to Guam. He was invited to attend the sirrender ceremony aboard the USS Missouri (BB-63) i nTokyo Bay and rode in an airplane from Guam to Saipan with …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Evan Riley. Riley was born in Nashville, Tennessee 5 September 1921. At a very young age, he and his four siblings were placed into an orphanage and he tells of growing up during the Depression. Joining the US Army in 1942, he was selected to attend Officer Candidate School and graduated as a second lieutenant in 1943. He then received training in the tank corps at Fort Knox, Kentucky. After spending several months at Camp Cooke, California, he requested a transfer to an Airborne unit. He was accepted and sent to Fort Benning, Georgia where he transferred from being a tank officer to being an infantry officer. Upon completing his paratroop training he joined the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 11th Airborne Division on Luzon in June 1945. The unit was on Okinawa preparing for the invasion of Japan when Japan surrendered. On 28 August 1945 the unit landed at Atsugi, Japan as a part of the Occupation forces. He was then sent to Sendai where he served for nine months before returning to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Following the end of World War II, Riley remained …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James C. ""Bill"" Trowell. Trowell begins by telling about his father-in-law, Claude W. Lester. Lester was a torpedo man in the Navy during World War I and was recalled to active duty during World War II. He reads from Lester's diary about destroyer picket duty off Okinawa. Trowell then begins with his own experiences of growing up during the Great Depression on a farm in New Mexico. Trowell finished high school at 16 in 1942 and go a deferment due to his work in agriculture. In April, 1944, he joined the Marine Corps. He speaks a bit about training in San Diego. After training, Trowell qualified for Marine Aviation school and trained as a ground crew member examinig fuselages, wings, elevators, rudders and ailerons for damage, etc. The war ended before Trowell got overseas. When he did go overseas, he went to China for occupation duty with the First Marine Air Wing. He describes some trouble the Marines had with the Chinese communists. Trowell feels certain he would have gone to Iwo Jima had he not been able to get into a Marine aviation unit.

Transcript of an oral interview with Glenn O. Thorsen. Born in 1926, he was drafted into the Army in February, 1945. He arrived on Luzon just prior to the end of the war. He was then assigned to the personnel section of Headquarters Company Kobe Bay of the 8th Army in Kobe, Japan. He later served in the engineering section as a dispatcher of plumbers, electricians, and carpenters. He was discharged in November, 1946. He used the GI Bill to continue his education.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Roger Anderson. Anderson joined the Army Air Forces in mid-1943. He served as a B-24 gunner. Anderson deployed in June of 1944 to Australia. He completed 42 missions, including over the Palau Islands, the Philippines and throughout the Pacific. He describes his work aboard a B-24. Anderson was discharged in late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Brosius. Brosius joined the Army Air Forces after graduating from college and working as an agricultural supply manager. He washed out of cadet training when it was determined he was at risk for asthma. He was then sent to Harvard Business School and trained in statistical control, a new military discipline. Upon completion, he was assigned to the 19th Bombardment Group in Australia and designed his own method of surveying operations. He also received permission to travel to Sydney to arrange for the publication of a yearbook depicting his unit’s wartime experiences. In 1943 Brosius was sent to Monterey to study military government in anticipation of the occupation of Japan. At the end of 1945 however, he seized an opportunity to return home and retired as a major. Despite being invited to join an elite group of military veteran statisticians known as the Whiz Kids, who would go on to run Ford Motor Company, Brosius chose instead a career in land development and construction.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Jacobs. Jacobs joined the Army Air Forces in March of 1943. He was classified as pilot and gunner. He received his wings in January of 1944. He served as a flight officer aboard B-24s. He flew to Townsville, Australia and Nadzab, New Guinea. He was assigned to the 22nd Bomb Group, 408th Squadron, serving as both pilot and co-pilot. They flew to Noemfoor, New Guinea. He flew 37 missions overall. Jacobs discusses overall life in the military including comradery with fellow crew members, food, housing and more. His crew was on the first mission to bomb the Philippines and he provides information on this mission.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Lyle White. White joined the Navy in July of 1943. In Pearl Harbor he served as a carpenter, building new officers’ quarters. He talks about military life and provides some stories. He left for the South Pacific in March of 1944 aboard the USS General G. O. Squier (AP-130). He was part of the 123rd Construction Battalion. They went to Midway to empty bunkers of shells and build docks for submarines. He describes these experiences and the island. They also travelled to Samar, Philippines and built runways and Quonset huts. They built a causeway from Samar to Calaguan. White was discharged in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with William Furrer. Furrer joined the Navy in November of 1940. He completed Aviation Structural Mechanics School, and was assigned to Utility Squadron 1 at the Naval Station on Ford Island in mid-1941. He conducted aircraft maintenance. Furrer witnessed the first Japanese planes bomb Pearl Harbor. He later served as a Barrier Operator aboard the USS Altamaha (CVE-18) in late 1942, traveling to Funafuti, and continued his service in the South Pacific through mid-1944. He was then assigned to Jacksonville, Florida, continuing aircraft maintenance work, where he remained through the end of the war. Furrer continued his service in the Navy, retiring in 1961.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Ross Lowell Kastor. Kastor joined the Navy in the spring of 1944. In September, he was assigned to pre-flight School at Hensley Field in Dallas. He completed flight training in a Boeing-Stearman NS2. He was then transferred to Cuddihy Field in Corpus Christi, and trained aboard a Consolidated PB2Y. He graduated in June of 1945, and served as a flight instructor until December. Kastor was made second lieutenant in the Marine Corps and transferred to a Curtiss R5C Commando transport squadron at the Marine Corps Air Station at Ewa in Oahu. He worked as a command pilot, and delivered cargo from the Ewa base, to smaller Pacific islands, from which he transported military personnel back to Hawaii. Kastor served 14 months in the Pacific.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Wells. Wells joined the Army Air Corps in December of 1940. He provides much detail on his training and received his wings in December of 1941. He was assigned to the 18th Reconnaissance Squadron, attached to the 22nd Bomb Group. He was stationed in Muroc Lake, California and served as co-pilot in the B-26 planes. In January of 1942 he traveled to Hawaii on the USS U. S. Grant (AP-29). He describes Pearl Harbor at that time, after the December attack. He then traveled to Australia in March with a detached service, serving as a co-pilot. He was later transferred out to be a commanding officer of the Army Air Forces detachment at Dugway, Utah, where they tested chemical warfare.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Pierce. Pierce registered for the Army in 1942, working as a machinist in a defense plant until he was called to active duty. He deployed to Leyte with the 284th Ordinance Company and set up a mobile machine shop for the repair of amphibious tanks. His unit was unarmed, as they were told they would be far from the action. But he was warned by nearby soldiers to dig a foxhole as quickly as he could, to take cover from snipers. The next day, he found bullet holes in his truck. He also restored equipment after the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Transferring to Okinawa, his company sought refuge in their trucks to survive a typhoon. At the end of the war, Pierce boarded the same ship as Admiral Nimitz for his return trip to the States and had the pleasure of shaking his hand. Pierce was discharged into the Reserves, but the Army misplaced his papers, so he was not recalled to the Korean War. He attended night school on the GI Bill and contined working as a machinist.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Albert Wakeman. Wakeman joined the Navy in 1944. The son of a machinist who fashioned guns for the Navy during WWI, Wakeman advanced to diesel school upon completion of basic training. He was assigned to PT-175 with Squadron 11 at Emirau, New Guinea, as a machinist's mate. At Morotai, as Wakeman manned his battle station against a Japanese barge, an officer rushed over to help him load the 40mm and was immediately shot in the forehead and killed. Wakeman later sustained third degree burns during an accidental explosion while lighting a fire on the beach in an effort to launder his clothes. The end of his service was uneventful and pleasant; in the Philippines, he attended church and enjoyed Sunday dinner with the locals. Wakeman returned home and was discharged, earning two master's degrees on the GI Bill to become a professor of English and Greek.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Thomas ""Tom"" Maloney. Maloney joined the Naval Air Reserve in Ocotber, 1941. Upon earning his wings, Maloney was assigned to Air Group 98 aboard the USS Princeton (CVL-23). He flew combat missions against targets all over New Guinea before being transferred to Air Group 6 aboard the USS Hancock (CV-19) in July, 1944. Aboard the Hancock, Maloney struck targets on Okinawa. He also sank a few Japanese ships near the home islands and earned two Navy Crosses.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Merkel. Merkel was born in San Antonio in 1926 and was drafted into the Navy in 1944 and sent to San Diego for boot camp. Soon after completing his training he was aboard a ship bound for Guam. At that time, he was assigned to a Naval Construction Battalion. Soon after his arrival he was assigned to a dredge ship. He tells of some of his experiences while aboard the vessel. He vividly recalls witnessing a kamikaze crashing into a hospital ship. He also remembers being aboard his ship during a typhoon in 1945.