Transcript of an oral interview with Arthur Bohus. Born in Philadelphia in 1917, he enlisted in the Navy (Communications Reserves) in 1939. He went through Recruit Training at Newport, Rhode Island followed by Radioman School and then was assigned to the Fourth Naval District, Philadelphia. His next assignment was at Cape May, New Jersey, where his duties involved recovering blimps which had been launched from Lakehurst, New Jersey. During this assignment he became proficient in Morse Code. His next assignment was at the Naval Gun Factory in Washington, DC, where the 16-inch guns were manufactured. He recounts several ancecdotes during his time in Washington, DC prior to receiving orders to Karachi, India under the Office of Naval Intelligence. He describes how repeated attempts at catching a flight from Anacostia Naval Station to San Francisco, where the troop ship was located, were aborted due to higher priority passengers. Eventually, he was provided with a train ticket to San Francisco. He describes some of the events during that rail ride to Chicago, enroute San Francisco. He describes the transit from San Francisco to Karachi where he received orders to Chungking, China. He recounts the landing in Chungking in late Spring 1942, where …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with B L Pettit. Pettit joined the Navy in 1942, at the young age of thirteen. From April of 1943 through March of 1944, he served as First-Class Electrician’s Mate aboard USS Tallulah (AO-50), providing support through the Guadalcanal Campaign and invasion of the Gilbert Islands. From June of 1944 through October of 1945, Pettit served aboard the USS LCI(L)-750 participating in the Leyte operation. He was discharged in November of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Bill Sheehan. Sheehan joined the Navy in October of 1942. He was trained as an aviation machinist mate and became a flight engineer on a PBM Mariner. Sheehan discusses engine maintenance and the challenges of minimizing the constant corrosion that threatened the plane. He briefly discusses flying anti-submarine missions along the East Coast and later in the Pacific. Sheehan also describes weathering a typhoon on the water. He returned to the U.S. and was stationed in California at the end of the war. Sheehan left the Navy in November 1945, but returned to the reserves and retired in 1966.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Bob Addobate. Addobate joined the Navy in June of 1941. Beginning in August, he served as a Signalman Second-Class aboard the USS Solace (AH-5), arriving in Pearl Harbor in October. They were docked in the Harbor when the Japanese attacked. From March to August of 1942 they traveled through the Pacific to Australia, and discharged patients. From August of 1942 through May of 1943, they cared for fleet casualties and servicemen wounded in the island campaigns. From June through August, they operated as a station hospital at Noumea, New Caledonia. In April of 1945, during a typhoon, Addobate had his leg crushed by a crane, which had to be amputated. He returned to the US and was medically discharged in January of 1946.

Transcript of an oral interview with Carl Hecht. He was born in St Louis, Missouri in 1920 and joined the Navy Reserves in October, 1940. In early 1941 he was assigned as a Signalman aboard USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37). He recalls sailing to Argentia, New Foundland in August 1941 in company with USS Augusta (CA-31) (President Roosevelt embarked) and Henry Hopkins and the remainder of the President's staff embarked on Tuscaloosa. He recalls that the two American war ships met up in Argentia harbor with HMS Prince of Wales (Winston Churchill embarked) and that, on 11 and 12 August, Churchill and staff met with Roosevelt and aides on the Augusta for conferences and their first of several meetings in order to form the Atlantic Charter. Later he recalls three instances when Tuscaloosa was assigned convoy duty between the United Kingdom and Murmansk, Russia. Upon return to the US he was assigned as part of the commissioning crew aboard USS Monrovia (APA-31), which became the flagship of Admiral Hewitt, Eighth Fleet Commander, in charge of training for the invasion of Sicily. He recalls General Patton and his staff were aboard, in addition to army troops being prepared for the invasion and how …

Transcript of an oral interview with David Van Fleet. Mr Van Fleet graduated from high school in 1941, went to A&M on a football scholarship, staying there until midterm when the war broke out and he joined the Marine Corps. After boot camp in San Diego, he joined the 4th Marine Raiders Battalion, D Company. After additional training with the Raiders, his outfit went overseas in February 1943, ending up in Espiritu Santo. They went to Guadalcanal in June, stayed there for a month, and then landed on Vangunu Island, New Georgia. Van Fleet provides a very good description of landing on the island and the fighting there under deplorable conditions. Then they crossed over to Gatukai island because the natives said there were Japanese there too. The outfit then went back to Guadalcanal for a few days before heading back to New Georgia (Bairoko Harbor). Van Fleet states this was the only battle he knows of that we lost. Included as an appendix to this oral history are a few pages from a history of that battle by Major General Peatross. He understood that this was about the end for the Raiders so he asked to be transferred to …

Transcript of an oral inerview with Doctor Dayton L. Alverson. He was born in 1924 in the San Diego Naval Hospital. He joined the Navy and received training in radio interception. Went to Washington, DC where he volunteered for assignment to the Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO) as a Radioman First Class. Left Newport News in July 1944 and sailed to Bombay, India and took the train to Calcutta. He was flown on a DC-3 over "The Hump" and into Kunming, China. He volunteered for duty near Amoy Island, which was occupied by the Japanese and was flown to Zhangping and traveled to a small encampment 25 miles north of Amoy. He recounts his time intercepting Japanese code and sending it to Chungking and provides details about breaking the code. He next describes taking 38 days to travel 18,000 miles on foot, in sampans and on trucks to reach the camp. He describes the methods by which the Chinese moved the sampans up and down the rivers. He was then assigned to a group making a raid on a small island adjacent to Amoy. He traveled by sampan down the river to Shima, China in order to deliver two 50-caliber machine …

Transcript of an oral interview with Dean Warner. Born in Geneva, Illinois, June 30, 1922. He went to boot camp in San Diego in 1941. After boot camp he attended Radio School at the University of Colorado followed by training at Signalman School. Upon completion he was assigned to an Armed Guard crew on a Merchant Marine ship as a radioman. He spent a year and a half on merchant vessels and recalls an incident when two nearby ships in his convoy were sunk by submarines. He was next assigned to the Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO) and sent to Calcutta, India, from where he was flown over "The Hump" to Kunming, China. From Kunming he flew to Zhenzghou, China and SACO's Camp Six where Chinese weathermen and guards were being trained for the SACO mission. From there he was sent in company with the trained Chinese soldiers and weathermen to Pinghou on the Eastern Coast of China. He described his duties as "Coast Watcher. " The Chinese were gathering weather data, which Warner transmitted to Chungking for dissemination to the US Fleet. When the war ended, he traveled to Shanghai and sailed on a troopship back to San Pedro, California …

Transcript of an oral interview with Elliott Ross. He discusses joining the Navy, 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.

Transcript of an oral interview of Elmer Batschelet. Born in October 1918, near Spencer, Iowa he joined the Navy in October, 1942. Upon completion of Boot Camp at Great Lakes, Illinois he was transferred to Bremerton, Washington in February, 1943. He was assigned to the USS Mission Bay (CVE-59) as a Fireman in the Engineering Department. He recounts his duties on the Mission Bay and transiting the Panama Canal to Norfolk, Virginia and then across the Atlantic in convoy with other vessels to deliver supplies to North Africa. On his next deployment, the Mission Bay transported Army P-40 aircraft to Karachi. In June 1944 he was transferred to the newly commissioned USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) which then deployed to the South Pacific and joined the US Third Fleet engaged in retaking the Phillipines. During those battles he recounts two kamikaze hits on the Ticonderoga in January 1945. He recalls a typhoon in the South China Sea. He recalls being aboard the Ticonderoga in Tokyo Bar during the signing of the Japanese surrender. Soon after the surrender, the Ticonderoga was converted into a troopship and in December 1945 6,000 men were embarked for the return to the United States. He recounts the …

Transcript of an oral interview with F. J. Whitlock. Whitlock was in 1923, in Columbia, South Dakota. He enlisted in the Navy in Los Angeles, California, in June 1942. He attended Basic Training in San Diego and then went to Diesel School. Upon graduation he was promoted from Seaman Second Class to Fireman First Class. He was then ordered to the LST program and proceeded to Treasure Island in San Francisco. His group of Dieselmen were assigned to the Southern Pacific Railroad "Round House" in Oakland in order to gain expertise on diesel engines. They worked on the train "City of San Francisco" which made the run from Chicago to Oakland. He was next assigned to the commissioning crew for USS LST-478. Over the following months the vessel practiced amphibious landings at Point Magu, Coronado and Monterey, California. Next they landed personnel at Attu and Kiska, where the Japanese had pulled out. In September 1943 the vessel embarked a company of Sea Bees. The vessel departed California and steamed to Tarawa via Pearl Harbor. The vessel joined the invasion of Tarawa. He recalls that the LST would open the bow doors, lower the ramp, and the Sea Bees would disembark …

Transcript of an oral interview with Francis D. Reynnett. Reynnet was in Oklahoma in 1925 and moved to East Lansing, Michigan during the depression, where he attended Michigan State University. Drafted into the Navy in 1944, he attended Boot Camp in Simpson, New York and Radio School in Holidaysburg, Pennsylvania, where he graduated as a Radioman Third Class. First assignment was to Fort Story, Virginia, an Army base, with Navy personnel controlling the harbor entrance. Sent to the Navy Department in Washington and began studies in basic weaponry as well as indoctrination on China. Then on to San Diego, where he shipped out to Calcutta, India in mid-1945. Received field training in weaponry at Camp Knox in Calcutta. He recounts that two sailors who shipped over to Calcutta with him were killed there, one in a training accident with live ammunition and the other drove a truck off the Burma Road. He was flown on a DC-3 over The Hump into China, and prior to reaching their destination the plane lost one of two engines and had to make emergency landing. He and a companion were then flown onto Kunming, China in another plane. He was in Kunming for only …

Transcript of an oral interview with Colonel (Ret.) Frank Gleason. He was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania on September 20, 1920. After graduation from Penn State, he was commissioned into the Army in 1942. His first assignment was to Fort Belvoir, Virginia as the leader of a platoon of African-American soldiers. In 1943 he was recruited into the Office of Stregic Services (OSS) and sent to a camp outside of Frederick, Maryland (later Camp David). His duties there included training agents in heavy duty demolitions, explosives and booby traps. His next assignment was temporary duty to London for six weeks and training in sabotage and underwater demolition. He recalls that, upon arriving in London, he delivered a crate of fresh fruit to Major General Dwight Eisenhower. He was subsequently assigned to the Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO) headquarters in Chungking, China where he spent several months training Thai troops. Captain Merry Miles assigned him as Executive Officer to the SACO unit at Camp 3 in Linju, China. The mission was to train guerillas in demolition, small arms, scouting, patrolling and other duties as assigned. He recounts one of those duties in January, 1944 resulting in the destruction of a bridge over the …

Transcript of an oral interview with George Allen Barrett. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in January 1922, he enlisted in the Navy in January 1940. He completed Recruit Training in San Diego and was transferred to the Hospital Corps School at the Naval Hospital San Diego in April 1940. Upon graduation in July 1940, he was assigned to the Naval Hospital, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In July 1941 he was transferred to the USS McDonough (DD 351) where he recalls that on the morning of December 7, 1941, the McDonough was in Pearl Harbor undergoing repairs. He remembers the crew reassembling the propulsion machinery and the ship getting underway to out of the harbor. He recalls that McDonough remained homeported out of Pearl Harbor and conducted various patrols into the South Pacific theater. He recounts that in February 1942 McDonough collided with the USS Colorado (BB-45) in heavy seas. Later in 1942 he was assigned to the Oakland Naval Hospital, where he recalls his duties and his subsequent marriage. He states that he requested reassignment and was transferred to a Combat Utility Battalion in San Bruno, California for training in anticipation of the upcoming invasion of a Pacific island (unnamed). He states …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Herman Weskamp. Born in Mansfield, Colorado on 30 December 1923, Weskamp enrolled at Loyola University under the V-12 Program. After one year he was sent to Midshipman School at Notre Dame in 1943. He volunteered for a program called Amphibious Roger. He was sent to Fort Pierce, Florida for guerilla training in preparation for assignment in China. Upon completion of the training, he was transferred to Long Beach, California where he embarked on the USS General LeRoy Eltinge (AP-154) for transit to Calcutta, India. Weskamp was assigned to the Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO) as a Transportation Officer. He met Chiang Kai-shek and his security chief, General Li Dai who headed SACO while he was in Calcutta. His unit was sent across the Hump in a road convoy with equipment to support the invasion of China. Before the convoy arrived in Kunming, China, the atomic bombs were dropped and the war ended. En route to Kunming on the Burma Road, he relates several harrowing incidents and an attack by Chinese insurgents. Weskamp was next assigned to a motor pool near SACO headquarters in Chungking. After the camp was decommissioned, …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Dodson. Dodson grew up in Pennsylvania and joined the Navy before being drafted. He managed to avoid boot camp and go straight into a Navy communictions school. He volunteered to go overseas for two years and ended up with SACO in China. In China, Dodson repaired radios and radio equipment. Dodson returned to the US and was assigned duty aboard the USS William R. Rush (DD-714) in mid-1945.

Transcript of an oral interview with James F. Kelly. Kelly was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1921. He recounts his experiences working in his father's grocery store during the Depression. He recounts his experience in 1941 working in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard as a civilian, until he received his induction notice from Selective Service in May 1942 and joined the Navy. He attended Boot Camp in Newport, Rhode Island and then was sent to Anacostia Naval Air Station in District of Columbia, where he attended Aerography School as well as in Lakehurst, New Jersey and graduated as a meteorological aide. He recounts several of the instruments and techniques used in that specialty and his experiences in planes observing cloud formations, and other phenomena. Eventually he volunteered for secret duty in China and was shipped on a troop train with 200 other sailors to San Pedro, California. He eventually boarded the USS Admiral E.W. Eberle (AP 123), an Army transport. He recounts an interesting story about the group's leader, Commander Marcus Goodrich, who had been a novelist and screen writer in Hollywood. He recounts his experiences on the ship as it transited to Bombay, India via Australia. He recalls that the …

Transcript of an oral interview with James H. Bash. He was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, June 28, 1924. He enlisted in the Navy on January 19, 1943. Enrolled in the V-12 Program at the University of Virginia but did not complete the curriculum. Subsequently sent to Storekeeper Class A School in Sampson, New York and graduated as Storekeeper 3rd Class. In October 1944 volunteered and assigned to Naval Group China. He recalls the transit from Norfolk on the USS General W. A. Mann (AP-112) in a convoy through the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal and on to Bombay, India. He recalls the living conditions on the transport, passing through two fierce storms and an incident in the Suez Canal. Next he took a troop train from Bombay to Calcutta. He describes the conditions on the train. After six weeks awaiting transportation, he flew from Calcutta to Kunming, China. He describes the flight in a DC-3 over the Himalaya Mountains (The Hump). In Kunming he was assigned to the Naval Air Freight Office. He describes the squalid conditions of the local populace. He was responsible for transporting cargo from the air terminal to the Freight Office. One day he was notified …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with James McDavid. McDavid joined the Navy in 1940. He worked as a draftsman and plane spotter aboard USS Pennsylvania (BB-38). McDavid was aboard the ship, located in Dry Dock No. 1 in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. After extensive repairs, the Pennsylvania conducted training operations along the California coast from April to August of 1942. McDavid continued his service as an Electronics Electrician First-Class, repairing some of the Navy’s most complex and secret technologies. They participated in the Aleutian Islands Campaign in 1943, the Marianas Campaign in 1944 and the invasion of Okinawa in 1945. Upon his discharge in late 1945, McDavid worked in the Naval Shipyard for 32 years.

Transcript of an oral interview with James Norman Price. He was born November 6, 1918 on a farm south of Bishop, Texas. He joined the Army Air Corps on November 1, 1941. He recalls spending 25 weeks training in BT-13s and AT-9s at Ontario, California as an Aviation Cadet, receiving his wings and commission followed by training in the B-17 at Seabring, Florida. He and his crew flew to Guadalcanal and to Espirato Santo, where they were assigned to the 11th Air Group. He was then assigned to the 431st Bomber Squadron as co-pilot on a new B-17E to fly reconnaisance and bomber missions for the Navy. He recalls that a journalist, Richard Tregaskis, accompanied them on a flight over Guadalcanal, even firing one of the machine guns. He recalls several of his 36 total missions flying out of Guadalcanal, including one in which his bomber sunk a Japanese cruiser. He recounts several humorous incidents during R&R in Auckland, New Zealand. He recalls that at the end of his duty he embarked on the SS Marmahawk for 18 days transit back to the US. He recounts his next assignment in Alexandria, Virginia training B-17 crews. He recalls next being assigned …

Transcript of an oral interview with Jim Yawn. Mr Yawn was born in 1918 and had two years of college by the time he was 20 which was the minimum age to get into the Navy flight program. He was sent to Miami, Florida for primary flight training; they had to fly thirty three hours before they were appointed as a cadet. They were transferred to Jacksonville for basic training and then to California after they got their wings. He asked for and received a transfer to the Marine Corps. After getting some time in PBYs, F-4Fs, SB-2Cs and a few other aircraft he had some crew training at El Centro and finished it up in Mojave, in the B-24. They were assigned an aircraft and left San Francisco at night so they could reach Hawaii in the daytime. Yawn talks about walking aboard the Arizona and it was still smoking; he said it was an eerie feeling. Yawn flew across the Pacific and ended up landing on Guadalcanal but most of the squadron was at Espiritu Santo; he was part of VMB-254. They did reconnaissance work over the New Georgia group, Rabaul and Bougainville. Then, they went to Bougainville …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jean Dunn and Terry Dunn. Dunn grew up in China during the Japanese occupation during WWII and discusses some of her childhood experiences. Terry Dunn mentions the family business - making soy sauce. They als soeak of Jean's grandparents: a doctor and a nurse in China. Jean and Terry eventually settle into speaking about the exploits of her husband (Terry's father) during World War II in China. This man worked as an interpreter for SACO.

Transcript of an oral interview with John H. Smith. Born in Summerville, Pennsylvania in 1915. He describes conditions during the Great Depression. After graduating from high school in 1934, he spent two years in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) where he describes building roads, fire roads, parks, and dams for water conservation and swimming areas. In 1936 he took a job at Bell Aircraft in Buffalo, New York at a steel foundry making parts for landing craft. He describes conditions during the war including rationing. In July 1945 he was drafted into the Navy and sent to boot camp at Sampson Training Base on Lake Geneva, in New York. When the war ended he was sent to the foundry at San Diego Naval Base. He provides detail about foundry work. After a month in the foundry he was sent to Electronics School. Soon he was discharged in San Diego and made his way back to Buffalo where he joined the Naval Reserves and was recalled in 1950 for the Korean War and assigned to the USS New Jersey (BB-62) for nine months. His wife got sick and he was given a hardship discharge.

Transcript of an oral interview of Joseph D. Keenan. Raised in Chicago, he spent two years at Notre Dame University and when the war started, volunteered for Naval Aviation duty. Following Pre-flight School at Iowa University, he attended flight training at Naval Air Station, Chicago, where he was later diagnosed with chronic air sickness. He was disenrolled and entered the V-12 program at the University of Wisconsin. Upon graduation in September 1944, he was commissioned and ordered to Fort Pierce, Florida for Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) training. He describes the nature of the training and conditions at Fort Pierce. Upon completing UDT training in December 1944 he was sent on a troopship to Calcutta, India. After traveling by train to a camp in Eastern India, he flew over "The Hump" in a C-47 to Kunming, China and then on to Chungking and headquarters of Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO). He relates that after four weeks in Chungking he was flown with a team to a location near Amoy. Leading the team was Lieutenant Phil H. Bucklew, a professional football player who later became known as the father of Navy Special Warfare. The team made its way to Chenchow with orders to …