Oral History Interview with Marjorie Rae Lutkins Babcock, March 31, 2013

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Interview with Marjorie Rae Lutkins Babcock, Women's Army Corps Enlisted, Keypunch Operator, and Korean War-ere Veteran, for the Women Veterans Oral History Project. The interview includes Babcock's personal experiences of childhood in Michigan, basic training at Fort Lee, Virginia, duty assignments at Governor's Island, New York and Hanau, Germany, her temporary duty assignment at the Pentagon, her placement in the Veterans of Foreign War's Women's Auxiliary despite veteran status, and her brother's experience in the Merchant Marines during World War II. Additionally, the interview includes her reason for enlisting, her family's reaction to her enlistment, impressions of post-war Germany, advice for future women service members, her views on service and women in combat, and her daughter's views of the military and the military service of her mom and other family members. The interview includes an appendix with photographs and a list detailing Babcock's military career.
Date: March 31, 2013
Creator: Hedrick, Amy & Babcock, Marjorie Rae Lutkins
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with Lisa Jane Lachance-Skier, March 14, 2013

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Interview with Lisa Jane Lachance-Skier, a Air Force veteran from Phoenix, Arizona. Lachance-Skier discusses growing up, participating in Junior ROTC, enlisting in the Air Force in 1976, experiences as a woman in a newly integrated Air Force, sexual harassment and assault in the military, service in England, attending ROTC and becoming an officer, her marriage, service in Germany, her work during the Gulf War, being forced out as part of a personnel drawdown, transitioning to the civilian world and her post-Air Force career, her involvement in the Grace After Fire program for assisting female veterans, problems facing female veterans and lack of support, the 2014 lifting of the combat ban on women in the US armed forces, the WASPs, and advice for servicewomen. In appendix is a summary of Lachance-Skier's USAF career, three photos of her Meritorious Service Medal certificates, and a Grace After Fire booklet.
Date: March 14, 2013
Creator: Hedrick, Amy & Lachance-Skier, Lisa Jane
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with George B. Andrews, March 5, 1999

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Transcript of an interview withGeorge B. Andrews, Army Air Forces veteran (526th Fighter Squadron, 86th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force), concerning his experiences as a fighter pilot in the European Theater during World War II. Appendix includes thirty-six pages of recollections from the interviewee.
Date: March 5, 1999
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Andrews, George B.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with Gail Halvorsen, March 21, 2016

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Interview with Col. Gail Halvorsen, a Air Force veteran from Salt Lake City, Utah, who took part in the Berlin Airlift. Halvorsen discusses his family background, growing up, learning to fly, joining the Air Corps and flying various missions around the Atlantic during WWII, experiences in the Berlin Airlift, and relationships with Germans he affected. In appendix are various photos of and by Halvorsen from throughout his career, and letters he received from German children.
Date: March 21, 2016
Creator: Moody, Kimberly & Halvorsen, Gail Seymour
System: The UNT Digital Library

Death and Life in the Big Red One: a Soldier's World War II Journey from North Africa to Germany

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Joe Olexa enlisted in the US Army in December 1940, figuring that if he was going to be in a war, he might as well start training. Assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, nicknamed “The Big Red One,” he served in Company L of its 26th Infantry Regiment for the next four years. Along the way he trained with the division in maneuvers in the United States; shipped to England in 1942; landed at Oran, Algeria, in the Operation Torch landings of November 1942; and fought in Tunisia, Sicily, Normandy, Belgium, and Germany. Olexa was one of the first group of enlistees that brought the division up to full strength in the buildup prior to Pearl Harbor, and was a sergeant by the time he went overseas. He served as a squad leader, platoon sergeant, and acting platoon leader, outlasting nearly all the men in his company. His memoir features accounts of unusual adventures in Tunisia when his battalion was detached from the rest of the division, and presents a detailed and intense account of his platoon’s experiences at El Guettar. Later, Olexa became a “Sea Scout,” going ashore on Sicily the night before the invasion to provide signals to …
Date: March 2023
Creator: Olexa, Joseph P. & Smither, James R.
System: The UNT Digital Library