Resource Type

Oral History Interview with Donald Boots, May 17, 2001

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Interview with building contractor and Marine Corps veteran Donald Boots. The interview includes Boots' personal experiences about the Pacific Theater during World War II, childhood, boot camp, camouflage school, training in beachhead organization with the 4th Pioneer Battalion, mopping-up operations on Kwajalein, rest and retraining on Maui, being assigned as a BAR man, invading Saipan, and assaulting enemy caves on Saipan. Boots also talks about the stress of battle, returning to Maui for rest and retraining, the invasion of Iwo Jima, Japanese resistance on the Iwo Jima beaches, the rescue of his friend, his role in organizing the beach operation at Iwo Jima, establishing beach defenses on Iwo Jima, evacuating and returning to Maui, retraining and refitting for the invasion of the Japanese home islands, and the dropping of the atomic bombs.
Date: May 17, 2001
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Boots, Donald
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

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

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
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 Elliott Ross, May 1, 2001 transcript

Oral History Interview with Elliott Ross, May 1, 2001

Interview with Elliott Ross who joined the U.S. Navy during World War II. He discusses being a landing craft coxswain carrying troops and supplies from ships to the shore in seven invasions: Guam, Leyte, Luzon, Santacristo, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and as an occupation force in Japan after the surrender. He talks mostly about Guam, Leyte, Luzon, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Japan, but also mentions burials at sea and on the beachs, seeing his brother's ship get hit by torpedoes, and the emotional toll of the war.
Date: May 1, 2000
Creator: Cox, Floyd; Misenhimer, Richard & Ross, Elliott
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Cleatus A. LeBow, May 2, 2006 transcript

Oral History Interview with Cleatus A. LeBow, May 2, 2006

Interview with Cleatus A. LeBow, a serviceman in the U. S. Navy during World War II. LeBow joined the navy in 1943 and went from Lubbock, Texas to San Diego for recruit training. He shipped out to Pearl Harbor aboard an LST from San Francisco. At Pearl Harbor, he was assigned to a work detail aboard the USS Oklahoma, which had just been righted. Shortly thereafter, he boarded the USS Indianapolis to serve as a range finder operator on one of the gun turrets. Upon leaving Hawaii, the Indianapolis went to Tarawa and then the Marshall Islands. LeBow witnessed Japanese civilian suicides on Saipan. He also witnessed the flag-raising on Iwo Jima from his range finder position aboard the ship. LeBow describes being hit by a kamikaze off Okinawa. He also discusses delivering atomic bomb components to Tinian and being torpedoed on the way to the Philippines. He describes abandoning the ship and spending five days in the water, including his faith in God, hallucinations, rescue, and his recovery.
Date: May 2, 2006
Creator: Misenhimer, Richard & Lebow, Cleatus A.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with O. R. Sparkman, May 6, 1971 (open access)

Oral History Interview with O. R. Sparkman, May 6, 1971

Interview with O.R. Sparkman, a Marine WWII veteran and POW from Dallas, Texas. Stationed in China before the war, Sparkman was captured in December 1941 by the Japanese in Beijing and interned at various camps in occupied China and Korea before finishing the war at Hakodate, Japan.
Date: May 6, 1971
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Sparkman, O. R.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with William G. Adair, May 27, 1971 (open access)

Oral History Interview with William G. Adair, May 27, 1971

Interview with Major William G. Adair, an Army WWII veteran and POW from Birmingham, Alabama. Stationed in the Philippines when the Japanese invaded in December 1941, Adair was captured, survived the Bataan Death March, and interned at Cabanatuan before going to Osaka and Zentsuji, Japan for the remainder of the war.
Date: May 27, 1971
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Adair, William G.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with Henry B. Stowers, May 25, 1973 (open access)

Oral History Interview with Henry B. Stowers, May 25, 1973

Interview with Henry B. Stowers, a Marine WWII veteran and POW from Searight, Alabama. Stowers discusses his deployments to China in the late-1930s; duties of the Marines in China before the war; the surrender of the North China Marines in December, 1941; his experiences in internment at Woosung; internment at Kiangwang and working on the "Mount Fuji" project; and internment as coal mining labor at Hakodate.
Date: May 25, 1973
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Stowers, Henry B.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with James L. Kent, May 11, 1972 (open access)

Oral History Interview with James L. Kent, May 11, 1972

Interview with James L. Kent, a Marine WWII veteran and POW from Duncanville, Texas. Kent discusses joining the Marine Corps, being AWOL, his judicial punishment, his deployment to the Philippines at Cavite Navy Yard, the Japanese attack, his experiences in the Battles of Bataan and Corregidor, his capture, and his internment at Bilibid Prison, Cabanatuan #1 & 2, and Mitsushima.
Date: May 11, 1972
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Kent, James L.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with Marvin Robinson, May 25, 1982 (open access)

Oral History Interview with Marvin Robinson, May 25, 1982

Interview with Marvin Robinson, a veteran of the United States Marines from Handley, Texas. Robinson discusses his experiences as a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese during World War II after his cruiser, the USS Houston, was sunk off the coast of Java in the Sunda Strait in 1942.
Date: May 25, 1982
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Robinson, Marvin
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library