The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Archie Norman. Norman was drafted into the Army soon after high school. He was sent to the 32nd Infantry Division and traveled to New Guinea. Norman then took part in battle for Leyte and describes surviving a nearby explosion and a time when he shot a Japanese soldier. He also discusses how he was wounded when a rifle was accidently discharged in camp. Norman describes his treatment and evacuation back to the US. He was discharged after his recovery in December 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Andrew Firm. Firm joined the Navy in June 1942 and only received 28 days of training before boarding the light cruiser USS Montpelier (CL-57). As a gunner’s mate, his first duty was greasing the guns while the Montpelier patrolled The Slot around Guadalcanal. During island bombardments, he added special tips to shells that would clear trees from the beachheads. In the blazing heat of the Marianas, he was stunned to see a warmly dressed Japanese corpse float by. Returning home in September 1944, Firm transferred to the USS Gilbert Islands (CVE-107), where he maintained a quad-40mm and a 5-inch gun. At the end of the war, he sailed to Okinawa and Tokyo Bay, ultimately leaving the service with six battle stars and a Good Conduct Medal.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Vernon E. Tucker. Born in 1919, he joined the Coast Guard in July 1942. He served on Galveston Island, Texas where he was a motor machinist. He was transferred to New York where he was assigned to the USS Might, an escort ship operating between New York to Cuba. As a Machinist Mate, he was in charge of the engine room. He describes the living conditions on the ship. He and his wife, Ethel Tucker, discuss life and entertainment in New York City. He shares anecdotes about ?the black gang? and food in the engine room; a general quarters drill; a near-collision with an ammunition building; assisting with an impromptu appendectomy at sea; and experiencing a storm en route from Cuba to New York. After twenty escort trips, he was transferred back to Galveston Island. He relates stories about a German submarine near New Jersey; a Japanese submarine on Bolivar Peninsula, Texas; and four German soldiers coming ashore in Galveston, Texas. He also describes rescuing stranded civilians during a hurricane. He was discharged in 1945. The interview also contains information about his parents and siblings.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Leo Itz. Itz was given a one-year exemption in order to help his father on the farm before he was drafted into the Army in March 1945. He was trained in demolitions at Fort Lewis and sent to Luzon to join the 395th Infantry Regiment. Before shipping out to the Philippines, he was assigned to work at Del Monte Foods in California, due to the labor shortage. During his voyage overseas, the war ended. Itz was tasked with guarding an ammunition dump outside of Clark Field. Armed only with an unloaded rifle, he came under fire when Japanese holdouts were raiding the dump. He returned safely to his bunk, only to discover a putrid smell. In the ground beneath him was a shallow grave. In August 1945, Itz was granted a dependency discharge upon learning that his father had suffered a heart attack. He returned to the States in December.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Wilburn Laas. Laas joined the Navy in April of 1944. He provides details of his boot camp in San Diego. He completed submarine school, and provides details of his training. Beginning in late 1944 Laas served aboard USS Aegir (AS-23), a sub tender, in Midway with Submarine Squadron 45, Division 292. They provided refitting and tender services to Submarine Squadron 24, including diving to string degaussing cables around the subs and clean barnacles from the sonar equipment. Laas provides vivid details of his experience through a severe typhoon on the way to Subic Bay. He was discharged in May of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Alva Hudson. Hudson joined the Navy in January of 1942. He served in the Armed Guard, using the 20mm gun aboard the tanker SS John Archibald. They transported oil to Halifax, Nova Scotia, across the North Atlantic to Glasgow, Scotland. They traveled with a convoy of around 40 ships. Beginning November of 1943 Hudson served as a gunner on the 40mm gun aboard the USS New Jersey (BB-62). They traveled to Ellice Island. They participated in battles at Majuro Island, Palau, Saipan, Okinawa, Formosa and the Philippine Islands. Hudson completed 36 months sea duty and provides vivid details of his experiences aboard the ships and in the battles. He was discharged in January of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Sally Morgan. Morgan was born in Tientsin, China. Her father was in the 15th Infantry, stationed in China in the 1920s when he met Sally’s mother. He died of tuberculosis when Sally was 3 months old. At 11 years old, her mother attempted sending her and her two brothers to the US to escape the Japanese occupation of China. The children only traveled as far as Manila before the Japanese invaded the Philippines. Sally and her brothers were imprisoned in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp and later, the Los Baños Internment Camp until their liberation in 1945.

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 Wesley Plummer. Plummer joined the Marine Corps in February 1943 and trained at San Diego. After boot training, he volunteered for the Marine paratroopers and trained at Camp Gillespie. Then he was assigned to the 3rd Marine Parachute Battalion and went to Guadalcanal and Vella Lavella before landing on Bougainville in December, 1943. Plummer details some of his experiences in the jungle at Bougainville. He returned to the US for some leave before being assigned to H Company, 28th marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division. From there, he went to Iwo Jima, landing on D-day, and recalls a lot of details about operating there. Plummer was eventually wounded on 24 March and evacuated. Plummer had enough points to opt for discharge and spent only a few weeks in Japan before returning to the US. He was discharged in November, 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Joe Mason. Mason entered the Navy in September of 1944. He completed storekeeper school at Samson, New York. He trained and served on a PT boat throughout the war. They traveled to Samar, Philippines on 1 September 1945, which he describes his experiences. He was stationed at PT Base 17. The war was over by the time he traveled overseas. He discusses his time in Samar and witnessed the burning of the PT boats. He traveled to other Philippine Islands and was discharged in June of 1946.

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.