A faculty and guest artist recital performed at the UNT College of Music Kenton Hall.

Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Voertman Hall in partial fulfillment of the Master of Music (MM) degree.

A senior recital presented at the UNT College of Music Voertman Hall.

Recital performed at UNT College of Music Concert Hall on October 19, 2004 at 8:00 pm.

Concert performed at UNT College of Music Concert Hall.

Percussion ensemble concert performed at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall

Concert presented at the UNT College of Music Winspear Performance Hall.

Composition recital performed at UNT College of Music Recital Hall on October 19, 2004 at 8:00 pm

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert W. Conner. Conner was born in Pennsylvania on 8 September 1914. He attended Duke University prior to joining the 93rd Construction Battalion in 1941. Initial training began in Williamsburg, Virginia, after which the unit moved to California where they were trained in the use of arms. The unit was then transported to Green Island where they built two airstrips and support buildings. He tells of his admiration for the New Zealand people who were also stationed on the island. Following the surrender of Japan Conner’s unit returned to the United States and he discusses the joyous reception upon their arrival in Portland, Oregon.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Charles Juliussen. Juliussen joined the Navy Seabees in March of 1943. He completed boot camp, gunnery school and additional Seabees training at Port Hueneme in California. Juliussen served with the 33rd Naval Construction Battalion. They traveled by freighter to the Russell Islands and had a Shellback initiation when they crossed the equator. They helped load an LST, and invaded the Green Islands, where they were attacked by Japanese Zeros. Their job was to build airstrips on the island, where Juliussen worked in the heavy equipment shop and in the crane and shovel repair group. From there they traveled to Hollandia, the Solomon Islands and Tacloban in the Philippines. They completed 4 airstrips and 1 Navy base. He provides vivid details of his work, the camaraderie with fellow servicemen and attacks made by the Japanese. He was discharged shortly after the war ended.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Art Rankin. Rankin was born in 1924 and joined the Navy after he graduated high school, around 1942. He completed boot camp at Camp Perry in Ohio. In the fall of 1943 he traveled to Noumea, New Caledonia and Russell Islands, off Guadalcanal. Rankin continued on to Green Islands where he was assigned to sanitation details and mess cook duty. He traveled on to Leyte Gulf, Samar and Guiuan in the Philippines. His unit built an airstrip and a sawmill. Rankin had numerous encounters with the Japanese, and saw active combat in the Solomon Islands, the Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea and the Philippines. He shares many anecdotes of his time in the service and interaction with natives on the various islands he visited. He was discharged in late 1945 as a carpenter’s mate, third class.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Harold Collins. Collins was born in Driftwood, Pennsylvania on 24 September 1920. In 1943 he joined the United States Navy and was sent to Camp Peary for eight weeks of boot training. He then went to Camp Parks, California where he was assigned to Company A, 93rd Construction Battalion. In October 1943 the unit boarded the USAT Perida, arriving at Noumea, New Caledonia on 1 November 1943. Just as the ship anchored in the harbor, Collins witnessed an ammunition ship explode at the docks. The accident resulted in many deaths. The battalion went to Banika Island where they built a hospital. They then went to Green Island Atoll where they built two air strips and a hospital. In January 1945, the battalion boarded the USS Cape Johnson (AP-172) and sailed to Samar, Philippines. He describes being under attack by Japanese aircraft. While on Samar, Collins’ unit constructed airstrips and warehouses. During October 1945, Collins returned to the United States and was assigned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard. He had developed a serious ear infection while overseas and was sent to a naval hospital. After receiving treatment for two …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Edgar Damour. Damour joined the Navy in September of 1939. His first assignment was aboard USS Chester (CA-27) traveling with the British in the Caribbean and the Atlantic. He volunteered for submarine service. Damour served as Radioman aboard USS S-35. From early 1942 through late 1943, they completed war patrols in the defense of the Aleutian Islands. Damour was then assigned to USS Pargo (SS-264). Their base was located at Pearl Harbor, and they completed war patrols to the Philippines and the Sea of Japan. He was discharged in October of 1945, though re-entered and served until his retirement in 1959.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Bill Wellman. Wellman quit high school in January 1943 (but had enough credits to graduate in June), joined the Marine Corps and went to boot camp in San Diego. After boot camp, he went to Camp Lejune, North Carolina for communications school (to teach him how to run a portable radar unit). After this school, they sent him to San Francisco where he boarded the USS Saratoga and went overseas in January 1944. After stopping in Kauai, Hawaii they were shipped to Midway and assigned to the 16th Anti-Aircraft Battalion. After Midway, they went back to Kauai. His unit was supposed to go to Iwo Jima, but their equipment was on ships (three) that blew up in Pearl Harbor so they missed that one. The next thing they did was go to Tinian. From Tinian, they boarded LSTs bound for Okinawa. They had a rough trip to Okinawa, encountering a typhoon along the way. At Okinawa, his unit was in the 3rd Amphibious Corps, 1st Marine Division. They went in with the first wave (as usual) on Easter morning, going inland four miles the first day and setting …

Transcript of an oral interview with Ernest S. Clifford. Clifford enlisted in the Army Air Force in late 1942. For training, he went to Miami, South Dakota and Virginia. There, he was attached to the 45th Infantry Division to facilitate radio communications between the Air Force and the infantry. They sailed for North Africa to train for the invasion of Sicily. Clifford describes his experience on Sicily and was evacuated with several hundred Italian POWs back to North Africa, where he was reassigned to a photo reconnaissance company based in southern Italy. His job was to send coded messages from the photo lab to th eair bases where bomb groups would decide which targets to hit. When the war in Europe ended, Clifford went home on leave and was there when the war in the Pacific ended. He was discharged in September, 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert P. McCoy. McCoy was working in the aircraft industry in Los Angeles when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. He was still a civilian on his way to Fairbanks, Alaska when the Japanese attacked Dutch Harbor. It took him a week to fly to Alaska as a result. After he returned, he went to work for the Lockheed Corporation and was employed building Norden bombsights. He spent some time installing the bombsights in aircraft in Ireland and England before joining the Marine Corps in July, 1944. In the Marines, he worked as an air traffic controller. McCoy was sent to China for six months after the war ended.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Melvin Shumake. Shumake joined the Marine Corps in September of 1943. He served as a rifleman in the 3rd Marine Division, 4th Marine Regiment, 2nd Battalion. In January of 1944, he deployed to Australia, participating in the Battle of Guam and the Battle of Okinawa. He served with occupation forces in Japan. Shumake returned to the US after the war ended.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Arthur Talmage. Talmage joined the Marine Corps around 1942. He served with the 4th Marine Division, 24th Marine Regiment, 3rd Battalion. Talmage worked as a runner and bodyguard for Alexander Vandegrift during each campaign. They participated in the battles of Kwajalein, Tinian, Saipan and Iwo Jima. Talmage was discharged in October of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Joseph F. Williams. Williams was born 7 December 1921 in New Orleans. After being drafted into the US Army on 23 February 1943 he took basic training at Fort McClellan, Alabama for three months. Williams was then sent to Fort Dix, New Jersey where he was assigned to a headquarters company in the Quartermaster Corps. There he received driver training for various vehicles. On 18 January 1944 he sailed to Belfast, Ireland. In July 1944 he landed at Cherbourg, France with the 4029th Quartermaster Truck Company, a segregated unit. There his unit joined the 3rd Army and transported infantry to participate in the battle for Saint Lo, France. He saw General Patton on a weekly basis and recalls witnessing an incident where he demoted a colonel to sergeant because he had stopped a column of trucks hauling gasoline to his tankers. He was subjected to strafing and shelling by German aircraft and artillery on a regular basis. Williams remembers as Allied Forces advanced, German soldiers, some as young as twelve years of age, surrendered. He transported loads of prisoners back to secured areas. He describes being in a …

New music concert presented at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Hotova. Hotova was born in November 1918. He describes conditions during the Great Depression. He left high school at 15 years of age and joined the National Guard in 1939. He was assigned to the 242nd Coast Artillery. Hotova applied for flight training in the Army Air Corps in 1942. He did not qualify for advanced flight training and was assigned to aircraft mechanics school at Keesler Field, Mississippi. After four months of training, he was sent to Laredo, Texas for gunnery training. He was assigned as a waist gunner on a B-24. While four members flew their plane to England, he and five other crewmen boarded RMS Queen Mary. Landing in Scotland they were assigned to the 8th Air Force, 389th Bomb Group, 567th Bomb Squadron based at Hethel, England. On his first bombing mission, in May 1944, he flew to Brussels and recounts the discomfort of being at a waist gun position at high altitudes. Having flown 29 combat missions during his tour, he describes several of the missions, during which German fighters and heavy flak were encountered. He also witnessed other aircraft being shot …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Guatemozin Garcia. Garcia was born in Alice, Texas 26 October 1923. Upon graduating from high school in 1942, he joined the Army Air Forces. Four of his brothers were also in the military during World War II. After completing basic training at Shepherd Field, Texas he was sent to Fort Myers, Florida for four weeks of gunnery training. He was then sent to Santa Ana, California where he joined the 34th Bomb Group as a nose gunner in a B-24. Garcia’s group flew to England during April 1944. In seven months, he flew thirty-two missions. He flew two missions over Normandy during the invasion not knowing that one of his brothers was in the ground forces hitting the beach. Later, he learned his brother was severely wounded and was in the Liverpool Army Hospital. Garcia visited him there. He recalls a bombing mission when their plane was so heavily damaged by flak it was doubtful they could make it back to England. He tells of the measures taken to keep their plane airborne until making an emergency landing at an English air field. Returning to the United States …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Wright. Wright was born on a ranch in Nebraska in 1921. He participated in the Civilian Pilot Training program while attending the University of Missouri and quit school to join the Navy on 1 June 1941. He was undergoing flight training at Pensacola when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Soon thereafter, he had his final check flight with Joe Foss, who was awarded the Medal of Honor. Upon graduation, Wright became a flight instructor at Pensacola. After a period of time he received orders to undergo B-24 flight training. He was eventually relieved of B-24 duties and was assigned as a carrier pilot and trained in using rockets. He was involved in combat at Guadalcanal and Peleliu. He recalls three instances where his plane was damaged and explains the procedure for disposing of severely damaged aircraft. He describes the effect of extremely high angle dives on both the crew and the plane. Wright describes an on board landing accident in which he was injured resulting in hospitalization at Noumea, New Caledonia. He spent eight months recovering from the injury. He also tells of sinking three Japanese ships …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Ernest Higgins. Higgins joined the Army in August of 1940. He was assigned to the 7th Infantry Division, 32nd Infantry Regiment. He participated in the battles of Attu, Kwajalein, Leyte and Okinawa. His job was to ensure that supplies were delivered on the beach within an hour of the beach landings. Higgins continued his service in the military, retiring in 1973 with rank of lieutenant colonel.