Oral History Interview with George Medcalf, December 27, 2000 (open access)

Oral History Interview with George Medcalf, December 27, 2000

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Geroge Medcalf from Greensville, South Carolina. He discusses his experience in training in Camp Mcoy in Wisconsin and meeting his wife there. He also discusses his time in the Second Infantry Division with the 38th Regiment, Company C, preparing for the Normandy Invasion. Mr. Medcalf also relays how he had to take over command of his Company during the invasion when he was injured by flying shrapnel and sent back to England for recuperation. He shares a story of how while advancing on Leipzig, Germany he was saved from German artillery fire when his sergeant offered him a piece of candy moving him away from the line of fire. The war ended while Mr. Medcalf was in Czechoslovakia, and after the war he received a purple heart and a cluster.
Date: December 27, 2000
Creator: Medcalf, George
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with George Medcalf, December 27, 2000 transcript

Oral History Interview with George Medcalf, December 27, 2000

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Geroge Medcalf from Greensville, South Carolina. He discusses his experience in training in Camp Mcoy in Wisconsin and meeting his wife there. He also discusses his time in the Second Infantry Division with the 38th Regiment, Company C, preparing for the Normandy Invasion. Mr. Medcalf also relays how he had to take over command of his Company during the invasion when he was injured by flying shrapnel and sent back to England for recuperation. He shares a story of how while advancing on Leipzig, Germany he was saved from German artillery fire when his sergeant offered him a piece of candy moving him away from the line of fire. The war ended while Mr. Medcalf was in Czechoslovakia, and after the war he received a purple heart and a cluster.
Date: December 27, 2000
Creator: Medcalf, George
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with John Reas, November 17, 2000 (open access)

Oral History Interview with John Reas, November 17, 2000

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Reas. Reas grew up in Indiana and Ohio and enlisted in the Navy in 1938. After training, he boarded the USS Houston (CA-30) at Charleston, South Carolina. He was assigned to the aviation unit. On February 28, 1942, he survived the bombing and sinking of the ship. He and other survivors in life rafts were picked up by the Japanese the next day and taken to Java as a prisoner of war. He was taken to a ship and then back to an island, where he met survivors of the Australian ship HMAS Perth (D29). They were moved from Serang to Batavia. He was told to record the POW's occupations and those idenitified as skilled were sent to Japan. Inspired by this, he kept a detailed and complete list of the survivors that he kept hidden. From Java, the survivors are put on a cargo ship to Singapore. Then they went to Pynang by train. He then boarded another ship to Burma. Allied forces bombed a ship next to Reas. He describes living in bamboo huts while building the railroad. During one of the routine abuses in …
Date: November 17, 2000
Creator: Reas, John
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with James H. ""Herb"" Macia, July 21, 2000 (open access)

Oral History Interview with James H. ""Herb"" Macia, July 21, 2000

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James H. ""Herb"" Macia. He discusses being a navigator/bombardier on the 14th plane in the Doolittle Raid, including the training leading up to the raid, the trip on the USS Hornet, the raid itself, bailing out over China, the weeks spent there before making it out through India and Egypt and stories about other men in the Raiders. He also discusses meeting with Generalissimo and Madam Chiang Kai-Shek, seeing the Egyptian pyramids, crossing Africa then to Brazil before getting back to the US, landing in Miami, his later deployments in North Africa and Europe, his work after the war and reunions the Raiders have had since the war.
Date: July 21, 2000
Creator: Macia, James H. ""Herb""
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History