Oral History Interview with Bennie G. Snider, June 10, 2002

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Interview with banker and Navy veteran Bennie G. Snider. The interview includes Snider's personal experiences about the Pacific Theater during World War II, youth and education in Denton, Texas, joining the Navy, and boot training and electrical engineering school. Snider talks about duties aboard the USS Hancock, his assignment to Task Group 58 and the invasion of the Philippines, as well as the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, kamikaze attacks and the Hancock being hit by a kamikaze, burials at sea, and his postwar duties aboard the Hancock as part of Operation MAGIC CARPET.
Date: June 10, 2002
Creator: Lane, Peter B. & Snider, Bennie, G.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with Dolphus Compere III, June 9, 2009

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Interview with World War II veteran Dolphus E. Compere III as part of the Tarrant County War Veterans Oral History Project. The interview includes Compere's personal experiences of childhood in Dallas, Texas, medical school at Baylor College of Medicine in Dallas, and interning at the University of Michigan prior to his enlistment in the Army Air Corp as a surgeon with the Third Air Commando Group. Additionally, Compere discusses his experiences in the Philippines providing medical care to military personnel and local civilians, his post-war medical career in Fort Worth, Texas, and his experience of returning a war souvenir, a Japanese ceremonial sword, to its ancestral family. Photographs are included throughout the interview.
Date: June 9, 2009
Creator: Hegi, Benjamin P. & Compere, Dolphus E., III
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with Frank H. Bigelow, June 13, 2002

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Interview with Navy veteran Frank H. Bigelow, survivor of the siege of Corregidor. The interview includes Bigelow's personal experiences about being a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese during World War II, boyhood in North Dakota, various jobs during the Great Depression, and enlisting in the Navy. Additionally, Bigelow speaks about volunteering for duty in the Philippines and his assignment to the submarine tender USS Canopus, pre-war military life in the Philippines, the Japanese bombing of Cavite Navy Yard and the destruction of the Canopus, retreating to Bataan and to Corregidor, the fall of Corregidor, his confinement in the 92nd Garage area, the forced march down Dewey Boulevard in Manila and confinement at Cabanatuan, hell ship to Japan, coal mining for Mitsui Heavy Industries, the amputation of his leg by fellow prisoners after a mining accident, liberation, and the destruction in Nagasaki due to the atomic bomb. The interview includes an appendix with an article titled "A Soldier's Story."
Date: June 13, 2002
Creator: Alexander, William J. & Bigelow, Frank H., 1921-
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with William L. Archer, June 10, 1986

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Interview with William L. Archer, an employee of Caltex Petroleum Corporation from Prosperity, Pennsylvania. Archer discusses his education and hiring by Texaco, assignment to the Philippines in 1938, work as a lube engineer, mining operations in the Philippines, distribution, relations between the Philippine and New York offices, marketing strategies, company policies, World War Two and hiding on Negros Island, liberation and the reestablishment of company operations, the post-war market, reorganization, production, security issues, trade with Arabia, and various other businessmen in the industry.
Date: June 10, 1986
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Archer, William L.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with John C. Reas, June 23, 1998

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Interview with John Reas, a Navy WWII veteran and POW from New Albany, Indiana, who survived the sinking of the USS Houston (CA-30). Reas discusses his assignment to the Houston and prewar operations in the Pacific, the start of the war and convoy duty, being bombed by 54 Japanese planes, the Battle of Sunda Strait, the sinking, capture by the Japanese, experiences in internment at Bicycle Camp in Batavia, transfer to Thanbyuzayat, work on the Burma Railway, the USS Houston Survivors List, liberation, and life after the war. In appendix is the USS Houston Survivors list, letters of his regarding the list, brief accounts written by Reas of different experiences in the war, a letter by Lanson H. Harris confirming how the list was given to OSS officers, and a photo of Reas' wallet that he carried through the war.
Date: June 23, 1998
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Reas, John C.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with Fred Vogel, August 8, 2001

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Interview with Fred Vogel, a Army WWII veteran from Austin, Minnesota. Vogel discusses his family and upbringing, football and college, working as a lawyer, joining the Army and basic training, attending Officer Candidate School, infantry training, deployment to New Guinea with the 33rd Infantry Division, the invasion of Morotai, combat around Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines, and occupation duty in Japan.
Date: June 13, 2001
Creator: Alexander, William J. & Vogel, Fred
System: The UNT Digital Library