Degree Department

Oral History Interview with John J. Clemens, May 13, 2003

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Interview with John J. Clemens. The interview includes Clemens' personal experiences about childhood and early adulthood in Houston, Texas, World War II-era service in the U.S. Navy, serving aboard USS Wren in the Pacific Theater, and piloting a ship into Tokyo Bay immediately following the Japanese surrender. Clemens speaks about convoy missions across the Atlantic Ocean, the January 4, 1944 sinking of the USS Turner while moored in New York Harbor and the court of inquiry regarding the sinking, actions in the Aleutian Islands, Attu, Okinawa, and Philippine campaigns and anti-kamikaze warfare while aboard the USS Wren, and the effects that Allied bombing had on Tokyo.
Date: May 13, 2003
Creator: Alexander, William J. & Clemens, John J., 1921-
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with Earl E. Ambrose, October 6, 2007

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Interview with Earl E. Ambrose, Korean War veteran, as part of the Tarrant County War Veterans Oral History Project. The interview includes Ambrose's personal experiences of childhood, basic training, volunteering for service in Korea, and attending Arlington State College using GI Bill benefits. Additionally, Ambrose discusses family experiences in military service, the decision to join the Marines, assignments to Quantico and Yorktown, Virginia, his brief combat experience and assignment to the Main Line of Resistance near the Imjin River, his discharge from the Marines, and his career with Bell Helicopter.
Date: October 6, 2007
Creator: Ball, Gregory & Ambrose, Earl E.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with Mary Franklin, October 18, 2013

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Interview with Mary Franklin, an activist in the Dallas LGBT community from Riverhead, New York. Franklin discusses her family background, the neighborhood she grew up in in, dyslexia and struggles in school, her sexuality and coming out, the LGBT scene on Long Island, "gay" as a term, her first girlfriend, Anita Bryant, applying for a marriage license on National Coming Out Day, feminism and activism, moving to Dallas, the decriminalization of homosexuality in Texas, the HIV-AIDS epidemic, threats, involvement with the Unitarian Church, working at the Food Pantry, and changes in societal attitudes towards LGBT.
Date: October 18, 2013
Creator: Castillo, Vogel Vladimir & Franklin, Mary
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with Richard Bennett, November 15, 2001 transcript

Oral History Interview with Richard Bennett, November 15, 2001

Interview with Richard (Dick) Bennett, a pilot during World War II. He discusses his enlistment in the Army Air Corps, basic training and flight school. He then went to a base in South Carolina to learn to fly B-25s. At Fort Myers, Florida he flew B-26 bombers and trained to fly them off of aircraft carriers so they could drop torpedos on the Japanese fleet during naval battles. He traveled across the Pacific to Brisbane only to be told that they didn't have B-26s for the crews; the colonel there knew nothing about the plan to launch B-26s from aircraft carriers, so they were sent to New Guinea to fly B-17s and supplement the crews for those bombers. From there they made bombing runs or "Washing Machine Charlie"-type runs to keep people awake at night on various Japanese targets in the islands, particularly the base at Rabaul. In fall of 1943, the Army grounded the B-17s due to the damage they had incurred and replaced them with B-24s. The men received manuals and were given only a few days to familiarize themselves with the new planes. They were then sent on bombing runs. He finished his tour of duty at …
Date: November 15, 2001
Creator: Cox, Floyd & Bennett, Richard
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Albert Bouley, June 27, 2001 transcript

Oral History Interview with Albert Bouley, June 27, 2001

Interview with Albert Bouley, a U. S. Marine during World War II. He discusses his enlistment in the Marines just after Pearl Harbor; his assignment to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Division; the battle of Guadalcanal; malaria and dysentery; the battle of Cape Gloucester; the use of Pavuvu as a base; the battle of Peleliu; his return to the United States; guard duty at the Brooklyn Naval Yard and his service as an instructor in a heavy weapons school before the end of the war. He joined the Air Force 2 1/2 years later to be able to fly and work on planes, then retire to become a teacher in California, and finally settled in Texas.
Date: June 27, 2001
Creator: Cox, Floyd & Bouley, Albert
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Lewis R. Hopkins, January 15, 2004 transcript

Oral History Interview with Lewis R. Hopkins, January 15, 2004

Interview with Lewis R. Hopkins, a pilot during World War II. He describes growing up on a farm in Georgia, going to college at Berry, and working for Sears, Roebuck, and the Royal Typewriter Company before joining the U. S. Navy. He tells an anecdote about joining the navy so he could go to New York to see the World's Fair, since he had heard the Atlanta Reserve would be making a trip to the Fair. He began flight training in Florida in December 1940, finished the next September, then drove cross-country to San Francisco after the Pearl Harbor attack. He eventually joined the USS Enterprise in April 1942 and saw the B-25 bombers in the Doolittle Raid take off. He was part of Bombing Squadron Six and trained under Commander Best to learn how to do scouting flights, navigation, and dive bombing. He then describes his participation in the Battle of Midway, the hours before take-off, his first view of the Japanese fleet, and his bombing mission. He was later assigned to the USS Hornet and had to fly off to a little island so that planes from the USS Wasp could land on the Hornet after their ship …
Date: January 15, 2004
Creator: Cox, Floyd & Hopkins, Lewis R.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Ethel Reisberg Schectman, March 24, 2001 (open access)

Oral History Interview with Ethel Reisberg Schectman, March 24, 2001

Interview with Ethel Reisburg Schectman of Fort Worth, Texas, who was born in New York City during the Great Depression to Jewish Polish immigrant parents. The interview includes Hill's personal experiences of World War II on the home front, including memories of D-Day, iron metal scrap drives, victory gardens, rationing, V-E and V-J Days, and what it was like being Jewish in Dallas during that time.
Date: March 24, 2001
Creator: Cox, Floyd & Schectman, Ethel Reisberg
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History

Oral History Interview with David Taffet, November 12, 2013

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Interview with David Taffet, a Dallas-area LGBT activist from Yonkers, New York. Taffet discusses his education, coming out, anti-war activism at State University of New York at Albany, the SUNY Gay Alliance, moving to Dallas, the AIDS epidemic, police harassment and entrapment, working for the Custom Shop and the Dallas Voice, the "AIDS cocktail" and advancements in treatment of the illness, and grassroots politics.
Date: November 12, 2013
Creator: Graham, Celeste & Taffet, David
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with Nancy Lieberman, November 8, 2012 (open access)

Oral History Interview with Nancy Lieberman, November 8, 2012

Interview with Nancy Lieberman, a sports broadcast journalist. The interview includes biographical information about her life growing up in New York, her time on the first women's Olympic basketball team, and her career as a coach, author, and journalist on ESPN.
Date: November 8, 2012
Creator: Hale, LaJuana; Unger, Vivian & Lieberman, Nancy, 1958-
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with Rena Pederson, April 5, 2012 (open access)

Oral History Interview with Rena Pederson, April 5, 2012

Interview with Rena Pederson, a former journalist in Dallas, Texas. The interview includes biographical information about her life growing up, her educational background, her career with The Dallas Morning News and other newspapers, the books she has written, and her work in communications and public affairs.
Date: April 5, 2012
Creator: Harding, Anne; Dann, Lori & Pederson, Rena
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with Bertha Rosenzweig, November 15, 1979 (open access)

Oral History Interview with Bertha Rosenzweig, November 15, 1979

Interview with Bertha Rosenzweig, co-founder of Tex-Glass, Inc. in Decatur, Texas. The interview includes Rosenzweig's personal experiences about her education in New York, and having a teaching career. Rosenzweig talks about her family background, her knowledge of her husband's family background and his life in Europe during the Hitler era, his technical training, work in glass factories, starting his own glass factory in Vienna, fleeing Nazis and migrating to Greece, the Jewish underground in Central Europe, fleeing to Egypt, Palestine, and his migration to the U.S. Additionally, Rosenzweig talks about their meeting and marriage, work in Canada and Mexico, opening a glass factory in Athens, Texas, moving to Decatur, employee relations, products and the production process, the distribution system, financing methods, her managing the business, sale of the business, and reparations from the Austrian government.
Date: November 15, 1979
Creator: Jenkins, Floyd & Rosenzweig, Bertha
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with Allen H. Benton, November 24, 2004

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Interview with Allen H. Benton, World War II-era veteran of the 112th Cavalry, Texas National Guard. The interview includes Benton's personal experiences about childhood in upstate New York and the Depression-era economy, education at Cornell University, drafting into the U.S. Army Infantry and service at several stateside bases, transferring to Cavalry and combat in the Pacific Theater, and having a career as an author of biological field guides. The interview also includes Benton's memories of the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay as well as his opinions on war in general.
Date: November 24, 2004
Creator: Johnston, Glenn T.; Benton, Allen H. & Johnston, Craig F.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with Janet Blair, June 25, 2001

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Interview with homemaker Janet Blair. The interview includes Blair's personal experiences about being a Red Cross volunteer in the European Theater during World War II, education in Europe, working with "Bundles for Britain," various assignments, rationing and air raids in England, D-Day, and serving troops during the Battle of the Bulge. Additionally, Blair talks about her patriotic motivation, her decision to join the Red Cross, her selection as a clubmobiler, the formation of a lifelong friendship with Diana Marvin and Peggy Bell, the use of Greenliners, relationships between Red Cross women and U.S. military personnel, leave time in Paris, living conditions of France, looting, and the end of the war and her return to the States.
Date: June 25, 2001
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Blair, Janet
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with Leigh D. Josephson, May 27, 1986 (open access)

Oral History Interview with Leigh D. Josephson, May 27, 1986

Interview with executive of Caltex Petroluem Corporation, Leigh D. Josephson, including his personal experiences related to employment with Standard Oil of California, his assignment to Bahrain and transfer to Caltex, the construction of Ras Tanura refinery in Saudi Arabia, and the bombing of the Bapco refinery in Bahrain. Josephson also talks about refinery operations in Bahrain during and after World War II, his various positions and responsibilities with Caltex and Bapco, work in Bahrain and the Philippines, his personal relationship with the Bahraini royal family, and the OPEC and Arab oil embargoes in 1967.
Date: May 27, 1989
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Josephson, Leigh D.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with David W. Peake, Sr., October 9, 1994

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Interview with Acting Sergeant David W. Peake, Sr., regarding his memories of the invasion of Iwo Jima and experiences as a member of the 3st Replacement Battalion, 27th Regiment, 5th Marine Division during the invasion and occupation of Japan.
Date: October 9, 1994
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Peake, David W., Sr.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with H. William Taylor, January 20, 1986 (open access)

Oral History Interview with H. William Taylor, January 20, 1986

Interview with William Taylor, an executive at Caltex Petroleum Corporation from New York, about his experiences working for the company in the Philippines and Thailand, the joint venture refinery in Thailand, expansion of the company, and the move of headquarters from New York to Dallas.
Date: January 20, 1986
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Taylor, H. William
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with William Tucker, September 25, 1985 (open access)

Oral History Interview with William Tucker, September 25, 1985

Interview with William Tucker, a business executive from Boston, regarding his experiences working for Caltex Petroleum Corporation, their refinery construction and expansion during World War II and after the war, the oil industry, and Caltex in India, Australia, Germany, Japan, Korea, and South Africa.
Date: September 25, 1985
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Tucker, William
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with Stephen E. Van Nostrand, April 20, 1987 (open access)

Oral History Interview with Stephen E. Van Nostrand, April 20, 1987

Interview with Stephen E. Van Nostrand, former executive at Caltex Petroleum Corporation. The interview includes Van Nostrand's personal experiences about service during World War II, employment with Caltex in China, the formation of Ryuku Oil Corporation, and holding various positions within Caltex. Van Nostrand talks about joint ventures with Nippon Oil Company and Koa Oil Company, increasing the refining capacity from 60,000 bbls. to 900,000 bbls. per day, crude oil contracts, the Nippon Petroleum Refining Company, refinery rehabilitation and construction, his role in Caltex operations in Japan, the Nippon Oil Staging Terminal Company, relations between Caltex (Japan) and New York headquarters, OPEC and its effects upon Caltex, character sketches of Neal Lilley, Alec Singleton, and James Voss, and various Japanese oil executives. The interview includes a personal history of S. Nomura.
Date: April 20, 1987
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Van Nostrand, Stephen E.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interviews with Howard Yergin, January 1986 (open access)

Oral History Interviews with Howard Yergin, January 1986

Interview with Howard Yergin, an employee of Caltex Petroleum Corporation from New York City. Yergin discusses his career with the company, including his education and Army service, hiring by Caltex, move to Shanghai in 1948 and business conducted there, businessmen who helped reestablish Caltex's Chinese market after WWII, fleeing China in 1949, attempts at recouping capital from the Chinese government, operations in Hong Kong, changes in the oil market over the years, corporate financing, internal reorganization, OPEC, Persian Gulf economies, South African operations, the tanker fleet, and the company's move from New York to Dallas.
Date: {1986-01-23,1986-01-24}
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Yergin, Howard
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with Glenn E. McDuffie, January 21, 2008 transcript

Oral History Interview with Glenn E. McDuffie, January 21, 2008

Interview with Glenn E. McDuffie, an Armed Guard in the U. S. Navy during World War II. He discusses lying about his age in order to join the navy at 15 and his experience in boot camp. He served as an Armed Guard on merchant ships that transported supplies across the Atlantic and remembers being in London while German bombers flew overhead. He transported German prisoners out of Marseilles and Naples shortly after the liberation of those cities. He remembers going to Times Square upon hearing that the Japanese had surrendered. He claims to have been the sailor in the iconic photo of the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square on V-J Day. He describes how he proved he was the sailor in the photo, what he did after the war, and how he learned that his brother survived the Bataan Death March.
Date: January 21, 2008
Creator: Misenhimer, Richard & McDuffie, Glenn E.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Boyd K. Miller, January 21, 2003 transcript

Oral History Interview with Boyd K. Miller, January 21, 2003

Interview with Boyd K. Miller, a draftsman and pilot during World War II. He discusses being drafted out of college and working as an artist and draftsman. Since he studied art in college, he worked on diagrams and charts. He then transferred to the Air Corps to become a pilot and trained in Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Alabama, New York, Georgia, Florida and Texas.
Date: January 21, 2003
Creator: Misenhimer, Richard & Miller, Boyd K.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Jerell E. Crow, August 24, 2002 transcript

Oral History Interview with Jerell E. Crow, August 24, 2002

Interview with Jerell E. Crow. He entered the Coast Guard in 1940 and trained in Florida and New York City. He served aboard a Landing Ship, Tank (LST) when those ships were first introduced. He traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to the Neville Island Shipyard operated by the Dravo Corporation as part of a crew that brought an LST down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. From there, the crew practiced operations at Biloxi, Mississippi. Eventually, Crow travelled to San Diego aboard the LST through the Panama Canal. From there, he went to Guadalcanal and unloaded tanks. Eventually, his ship was hit at Saipan and he was wounded. He also served aboard an LST during the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Afterwards, Crow's LST was present in Tokyo Bay for the surrender. He visited Hiroshima while on occupation duty after the atomic bomb was dropped. Eventually, his LST made its way back to San Francisco where he was discharged.
Date: August 24, 2002
Creator: Rabalais, Larry & Crow, Jerell E.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History