Oral History Interview with Garvin Kowalke, January 23, 2001 transcript

Oral History Interview with Garvin Kowalke, January 23, 2001

Interview with Garvin Kowalke, a pilot during World War II. He discusses joining the Army Air Corps, going to Air Cadet training to become a pilot, and training on various aircraft (AT-17, UC-78, P-36, P-33, T-6, BT-13, B-17, B-29) before becoming a B-29 pilot; he shipped out to Guam and flew standard and fire bombing runs over Japan. He discusses having to ditch the plane on the way back to Guam once when the engines failed, seeing another B-29 crew have to bail out over Toyko Bay and get picked up by a U.S. submarine that was in the Bay, getting pulled down to the fires when they were trying to hide in the smoke to avoid Japanese fighter planes, and getting caught in a storm by Mount Fujiyama, as well as collecting data such wind direction, speed, and temperature over Hiroshima for future bombing runs, which turned out to be for the bombers who dropped the atomic bomb. He also talks about flying over Hiroshima two days after the bombing and gauging how high the radiation levels were at different altitudes. He also talks about being in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, becoming a B-57 pilot, and adopting a …
Date: January 23, 2001
Creator: Cox, Floyd & Kowalke, Garvin
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with H. L. Obermiller, April 30, 2004 transcript

Oral History Interview with H. L. Obermiller, April 30, 2004

Interview with H. L. Obermiller, a Pharmacist's Mate during World War II. He discusses his involvement in the Battles of Tarawa, Saipan and Tinian, where he served as a Pharmacist's Mate. He remembers having Spam for Thanksgiving, meeting Navajo code talkers, and writing letters home.
Date: April 30, 2004
Creator: Metzler, Ed & Obermiller, H. L.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with James William Harrison, January 27, 2005 transcript

Oral History Interview with James William Harrison, January 27, 2005

Interview with James William "Bill" Harrison, a serviceman in the U. S. Navy during World War II. He explains how he joined the navy in San Diego without going to boot camp. He worked on an oil tanker that shipped out to Pearl Harbor a month after the attack there and transported fuel out of San Diego to various ships at sea. He was then transfered to Admiral Nimitz's public relations department. There he and two others wrote stories about the action in the Pacific theater, particularly about the Battle of Midway. They also contributed to a radio show and worked with the national press corps. He then worked at the Naval Air Station in Seattle before traveling to Hilo, Hawaii to meet with soldiers who had returned from Tarawa. In Texas, he attended officer training school and college at Southwestern University. After the war ended, he studied at the University of Texas and University of Oklahoma for law school. He recalls an incident in which his office released a story about a cat that had kittens on board a cruiser; they reported this good news from the Pacific prior to the Battle of Midway. He also met Admirals Nimitz …
Date: January 27, 2005
Creator: Parish, Brainerd & Harrison, James William
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Jack Kleiss, September 29, 2000 transcript

Oral History Interview with Jack Kleiss, September 29, 2000

Interview with Jack Kleiss, a pilot during World War II. He discusses training for carrier landings on USS Enterprise; the arrival of VMF-211 aboard Enterprise and their delivery to Wake Island; and the attack on Pealr Harbor on 7 December 1941. Kleiss was in a dive bomber and attacked Japanese carriers at the Battle of Midway, where he earned the Navy Cross.
Date: September 29, 2000
Creator: Nichols, Chuck & Kleiss, Jack
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Gilberto S. Trevino, February 18, 2005 transcript

Oral History Interview with Gilberto S. Trevino, February 18, 2005

Interview with Gilberto S. Trevino, a U. S. Marine during World War II. He attended Texas A&M before serving in the Marine Corps. He was in the 28th Replacement Battalion when he was assigned to the 3d Marine Division and deployed to Iwo Jima. He discusses his first impressions of landing on the island. He describes the constructed Japanese defenses on the island and the use of Japanese Nisei interpreters to convince defenders to surrender. He returned to Texas A&M where he was in the Corps of Cadets (ROTC) and accepted his commission in the Army in time to serve in Korea. He eventually earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Texas A&M and a doctorate degree in pathology from Michigan State University. He retired from service in 1976 with the rank of colonel.
Date: February 18, 2005
Creator: Atkinson, Scott & Trevino, Gilberto S.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with E. R. Dolinar, April 5, 2003 transcript

Oral History Interview with E. R. Dolinar, April 5, 2003

Interview with E.R. (Ed) Dolinar, a serviceman with the U. S. Navy during World War II. He discusses going to boot camp, torpedo school and submarine school. He was on the SSN Stingray as a torpedo crewman that offloaded supplies and guerillas in the Philippines. It picked up stranded Japanese sailors and transported them to Australia. The Stingray was then decomissioned. He was then part of a crew that studied and stripped captured German submarines, and he discusses the differences between the U-boats and the US submarines. He also discusses the Bolomen, Filipino guerillas who fought the Japanese during the occupation. He also talks briefly about his experience of being hit with depth charges and gives his opinions on General MacArthur and President Truman.
Date: April 5, 2003
Creator: Bryk, Clarence & Dolinar, E. R.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Peter Chu, November 1, 2003 transcript

Oral History Interview with Peter Chu, November 1, 2003

Interview with Peter Chu regarding his experiences in China during World War II. Peter's son Alan Chu also participates in this interview. Peter Chu discusses the Japanese occupation in Nanking (Nanjing), China in 1937 when he was 10 years old.
Date: November 1, 2003
Creator: Nichols, Chuck & Chu, Peter
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Norman Apelt, September 23, 2001 transcript

Oral History Interview with Norman Apelt, September 23, 2001

Interview with with Norman Apelt, an airplane mechanic during World War II. He discusses his service in the US Army Air Corps as an airplane mechanic in Pampa, Texas. After the war ended, Apelt was assigned duty in occupied Japan.
Date: September 23, 2001
Creator: Bryk, Clarence & Apelt, Norman
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with David Braden, September 30, 2000 transcript

Oral History Interview with David Braden, September 30, 2000

Interview with David Braden, a member of the U.S. Air Force during World War II. He discusses his training in the U.S. to become a navigator; his deployment to Saipan with the 870th Squadron, 497th Bomb Group, 73rd Wing; initial attacks on Tokyo in a B-29 bomber at high altitude (during which the jet stream interfered with the bombing raids); a low-altitude fire-bombing mission over Tokyo in March, 1945; living conditions on base at Saipan; a mission in which the B-29 he was on ditched in the ocean and his subsequent rescue; Victory in Europe (V-E) Day on Saipan; completing 35 missions; and going home.
Date: September 30, 2000
Creator: Johnson, Kep & Braden, David
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Al Flocke, October 22, 2000 transcript

Oral History Interview with Al Flocke, October 22, 2000

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.
Date: October 22, 2000
Creator: Nichols, Chuck & Flocke, Al
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with John Wilson, January 31, 2002 transcript

Oral History Interview with John Wilson, January 31, 2002

Interview with John Wilson, an officer in the U. S. Army during World War II. Wilson was born in Illinois but attended high school in the Philippines after his father accepted an engineering position there. He graduated from high school in 1939 and then enrolled in the University of Wisconsin, where he participated in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program. He graduated and took his commission in the Army in 1943. After Officer Candidate School (OCS), he was assigned to an engineering unit slated to participate in the invasion of the Philippines. He eventually landed on Luzon. On Luzon he was assigned temporary duty with a small Philippine Civil Affairs unit that was made up of officers and men who had relatives interned by the Japanese in the Philippines. His small unit made their way to Santo Tomas where he liberated many friends and old school mates. A few weeks later, Wilson liberated his father, a civilian internee at Los Banos. Wilson remained with his unit constructing hospitals in the Philippines in anticipation of the casualties expected from the invasion of the Japanese home islands.
Date: January 31, 2002
Creator: Pratt, Rick & Wilson, John
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Willie Higgs, September 21, 2001 transcript

Oral History Interview with Willie Higgs, September 21, 2001

Interview with Willie Higgs, a U. S. Marine during World War II. He joined the Marines in 1944 and trained at Camp Pendleton before being assigned to the 4th Marine Division. Higgs discusses arriving at Iwo Jima, making a grenade attack on a cave there, and subsequently breaking his leg. He then spent time aboard the hospital ship, USS Solace (AH-5). Upon returning home, Higgs finished his degree at Southwest Texas State in San Marcos, where he majored in music.
Date: September 21, 2001
Creator: Pickard, Kevin & Higgs, Willie
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with David Lee Hill, September 20, 2003 transcript

Oral History Interview with David Lee Hill, September 20, 2003

Interview with David Lee "Tex" Hill of San Antonio, Texas, a veteran from the United States Navy during World War II in the China-Burma-India Theater. The interview includes Hill's personal experiences while in the Navy, including memories of pre-war flight training in Florida, the Flying Tigers, and the Salween River Gorge attack.
Date: September 20, 2003
Creator: Cox, William G. & Hill, David Lee
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Floyd R. Thomas, February 18, 2009 transcript

Oral History Interview with Floyd R. Thomas, February 18, 2009

Interview with Floyd R. Thomas, a serviceman in the U. S. Army during World War II. He discusses his childhood and education at Peacock Military Academy. He then joined the army and spent time in Okinawa during and after the war. He recalls being a surgical technician and working with Japanese civilians after the surrender, meeting his wife, and working for saw mills as a salesman and a pilot. He remembers stealing pineapples on Hawaii and getting diarrhea, being treated for jungle rot, selling old Japanese army blankets to civilians, and shipping silk bolts and sabers back home.
Date: February 18, 2009
Creator: Misenhimer, Richard & Thomas, Floyd R.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Charles Pase, April 12, 2001 transcript

Oral History Interview with Charles Pase, April 12, 2001

Interview with Charles Pase, a marine during World War II. He discusses joining the Marines and training on New Zealand and other Pacific islands. He describes landing on Tarawa, the battle of Tarawa itself, and locating and burying the dead bodies after the battle. He also talks about going to Hawaii for more training before going to Saipan, various guns and artillery he used, encountering natives on Saipan and being in Nagasaki after the bomb was dropped. He relates ancedotes about having tonsillitis during the Tarawa attack, fights that some Marines got into with local Hawaiians while training there and prejudices against Japanese-Americans, mistaking a land crab that pinched the back of his neck for a bayonet, getting Dengue Fever, and faking a landing on April Fools' Day.
Date: April 12, 2001
Creator: Cox, Floyd & Pase, Charles
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Sam H. Snoddy, April 29, 2004 transcript

Oral History Interview with Sam H. Snoddy, April 29, 2004

Interview with Sam H. Snoddy, a U. S. Marine during World War II. He served in the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division. After training, he participated in the initial landing at Saipan where he was wounded in the knees and shoulder on the beach by shell fragments. He was loaded onto a hospital ship with several other casualties before going to Hawaii to recuperate. He participated in the Okinawa campaign and spent time at Nagasaki on occupation duty. After being discharged, he went to college on the G. I. Bill, and eventually settled in Texas, where he worked in the oil industry.
Date: April 29, 2004
Creator: Smith, Ned & Snoddy, Sam H.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with O. H. King, September 28, 2002 transcript

Oral History Interview with O. H. King, September 28, 2002

Interview with O. H. "Karl" King of Fort Worth, Texas, who is a World War Two veteran of the United States Marine Corps. In the interview, Mr. King recalls memories of his travels, the Japanese attack on Clark Field, the Battle for Bataan, and when he was a Japanese prisoner-of-war. He also talks about other experiences he had while serving in the Marines and his life before and after the war.
Date: September 28, 2002
Creator: Graham, Eddie & King, O. H.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Alan W. Saunders, October 8, 2004 transcript

Oral History Interview with Alan W. Saunders, October 8, 2004

Interview with Alan W. "Buck" Saunders, a pilot during World War II. He discusses joining the Army Air Corps, becoming an airplane mechanic, and going to flight school for pilot training. He was stationed in India and flew supplies into China over the Himalayas (known by pilots as "the Hump"). In China, he traded items such as jewelry or opium for information on Japanese troop placements in Burma. He also discusses his meetings with native Burmese and talks about later experiences he had after the war and during the Vietnam War.
Date: October 8, 2004
Creator: Cox, Floyd & Saunders, Alan W.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with William F. Graham, March 24, 2001 transcript

Oral History Interview with William F. Graham, March 24, 2001

Interview with Bill Graham, a Marine during World War II. He begins by discussing joining the Navy and becoming a corpsman, then being transferred to the 2nd Marine Division after the Pearl Harbor attack. He also talks being in the first wave on Guadalcanal and various things that happened during the six months there, as well as contracting a severe strain of malaria, getting shipped back to the States and stationed near his home in Fort Worth, then returning to training in Virginia to prepare for an invasion of Japan.
Date: March 24, 2001
Creator: Smith, Ned A. & Graham, William F.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Guinn Rasbury, April 30, 2004 transcript

Oral History Interview with Guinn Rasbury, April 30, 2004

Interview with Guinn Rasbury, a U. S. Marine during World War II. He discusses joining the Marines, being part of the invasion force at Florida and Tulagi Islands, having multiple malaria attacks, being transferred to Maine to cure his malaria, being transferred around the United States, and finally returning to the Pacific theater. He explains how being sick with malaria and getting bumped from a plane ride home saved his life. He shares anecdotes about sounding "Taps" at a memorial service for President Roosevelt and being chairman of the Second Marine Division Memorial Scholarship Fund Committee.
Date: April 30, 2004
Creator: Graham, Eddie & Rasbury, Guinn
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Joseph B. Brown, March 24, 2001 transcript

Oral History Interview with Joseph B. Brown, March 24, 2001

Interview with Joseph Brown, who was in the Marine Corps during World War II. He discusses going to Guadalcanal, various guns and artillery he used, the battle of Tarawa and getting malaria just before it, then going to Hawaii for more training before returning to the South Pacific and fighting on Saipan and Tinian. He also discusses being wounded on Saipan, having a bayonet run through his forearm and keeping the bayonet as a souvenir after the war, and he talks about some of his experiences and travels after the war.
Date: March 24, 2001
Creator: Cox, William G. & Brown, Joseph B.
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 James Phinney, July 15, 2010 transcript

Oral History Interview with James Phinney, July 15, 2010

Interview with James (Jim) Phinney, an aircraft electrician for the U. S. Navy during Wold War II. He discusses joining the Navy, going through boot camp and becoming an aircraft electrician. He was assigned to the USS Lexington but abandoned ship after it was hit by a torpedo. He was rescued and was then sent to San Diego to be reassigned to the USS Enterprise. He mentions being at Guadalcanal and later aboard a sub-chaser. The crew crossed the Equator and consequently participated in an initiation ceremony, during which time Admiral Halsey was nearly shot by one of the ship's pilots who forgot to lock his gun. He also recalls some of the food he ate while at sea.
Date: July 15, 2010
Creator: Cox, Floyd; Phinney, James & O'Konski, Susan
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Jessie Clark, June 6, 2002 transcript

Oral History Interview with Jessie Clark, June 6, 2002

Interview with Jessie Clark regarding her experiences during World War II. She discusses having to adjust to a lifestyle of rationing for food products and shoes as well as blackouts and scrap metal drives. Her husband worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad and was often absent while she stayed home to raise their children in Houston. She discusses the scarcity of toys during Christmas and hosiery.
Date: June 6, 2002
Creator: Loyd, Ms. & Clark, Jessie
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History