The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Bernice Shafer. Shafer was born in Ackley, Iowa 26 December 1926. She began nurse training at Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Des Moines in 1941. Upon graduating in 1944, she entered the US Army Nurse Corps and began basic training at Camp Carson, Colorado. When she completed basic, she was assigned to Leonard General Hospital, Topeka, Kansas. After a period of time, she was shipped to Camp Pendleton, California in preparation for an overseas assignment. Shafer was assigned to the 311th Hospital Unit and boarded the USS Monterey (CVL-26), bound for Manila. She tells of the primitive conditions encountered in setting up the hospital. Designated as an operating room nurse, she describes working up to forty hours straight and the various types of battle casualties that were treated. She recalls that patients were transported to the hospital by ambulance, jeep and helicopter. In February 1946, Shafer returned to the United States aboard the USS West Point (AP-23), arriving at New York City after passage through the Panama Canal.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with J.R. Closs. Closs was born in Edge, Texas 9 March 1926. In 1944 he was drafted and entered the US Marine Corps boot camp at San Diego. After boot training he was selected to attend Marine Corps Sea School at San Diego. Upon completion of Sea School, he was assigned to the USS Yorktown (CV-10) as an orderly to the executive officer for a period of time and then he was assigned to a 20 millimeter gun. He tells of the Yorktown participating in the invasion of Okinawa and the ship being hit by a Japanese bomb. He also recalls seeing a kamikaze hit the USS Missouri (BB-63) during the invasion. Soon after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, the Marines on board the various ships were brought together on a transport ship, where for several days, they practiced beach landings. Between the Japanese surrender and the signing of the peace accords, the contingent of Marines landed at Yokosuka, Japan. Closs describes the bomb damage he observed and the physical condition of and attitude shown by the Japanese people.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Walter Tucker. Born in Amherst County, Virginia in May 1925, Tucker was a freshman at the Virginia Military Institute when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Graduating with a civil engineering degree, he entered the Navy in November 1944. When he completed boot camp he was sent to Midshipman’s school. Upon graduating in May 1945, he was commissioned. During a rail trip with a group he was escorting from Providence, Rhode Island to Camp Shoemaker, California word was received that Japan had surrendered. He remained in California for a month and then received orders to report to the 94th Naval Construction Battalion stationed on Guam. He remained on Guam until August 1946 when he returned to the United States.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Walter Crafford. Crafford was born in Bridgeport, Nebraska in 1919 and graduated from high school in 1937. He was employed at a Consolidated Aircraft plant making B-24 bombers until 1942 at which time he joined the US Army Air Forces. Upon completing his pilot training he was sent to Pueblo, Colorado for crew selection and training. In December 1943 the crew was sent to Herrington, Kansas to pick up a new B-24 which they ultimately named Salty Sal featuring the picture of a (Alberto) Vargas girl as the nose art. Flying from Hawaii they joined the 7th Air Force, 30th Bomb Group at O’Hara Airfield on the island of Abemama. Crafford flew thirteen bombing missions over the heavily fortified island of Truk. Returning to the United States during November 1944, he was attending engineering school at Chanute Field, Illinois when Japan surrendered. He was discharged shortly thereafter.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Harold Brushwein. Brushwein graduated from North Dakota State University ion 1939 and accepted his commission in the Army through the ROTC. When he was with the Third Infantry Division, he was a battalion adjutant working for Lieutenant Colonel Dwight Eisenhower. In 1940, he went to Hawaii and joined the 25th Infantry Division. He describes his experiences during the attack on Pearl Harbor. After more training in Hawaii, he embarked for Guadalcanal in January 1943. Brushwein provides many details of the activities of the 25th ID on Guadalcanal. Brushwein even drank beer at the officer’s club on Tulagi with John F. Kennedy.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jack Cook. Cook joined the Marine Corps in September 1941 and received basic training in San Diego. In January 1942, he was assigned to the USS Helena (CL-50) as an orderly to the captain. His battle station was below deck, hoisting powder cases for six-inch guns. He describes in detail the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, which he believes could have been fought more effectively had the fleet taken advantage of readings from state-of-the-art radar equipment aboard the Helena. In March 1943, Cook was transferred to the States and began flight training. He joined the Black Sheep aboard the USS Rendova (CVE-114) in San Diego before being discharged in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Norma Cook. Cook was born in England in 1932. During the war, she and her family lived in a village outside of Liverpool. Because they were located near an antiaircraft battery, they endured a period of constant bombardment. During air raids they hid in their living room under a steel frame provided to civilians for protection. On the mornings following bombardments, the streets were lined with children whose homes had been destroyed. Her family took in as many as they could, but rationing made difficult every aspect of their lives. They wanted for food, clothing, and coal. The Cook family was still living under rations at the time they left England, in 1952, and immigrated to Canada.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Harry Ferrier. Ferrier joined the Navy in January 1941 and received basic training in Newport. He attended aviation radio school in Jacksonville was and assigned to an Avenger crew as a radioman. On 4 June 1942 his plane was attacked at the Battle of Midway by enemy fighters while targeting the Japanese fleet. His turret gunner was killed, his pilot wounded, and all five accompanying airplanes were shot down. He was reassigned to Torpedo Squadron 3 on the USS Enterprise (CV-6) and then to an SBD squadron attached to the USS Yorktown (CV-10). After attending Aviation Electronics Officer School, he participated in nuclear weapons tests and taught nuclear weapons firing. He served in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars as an aircraft maintenance officer. At the time of his retirement in 1970, he was overseeing 2,000 maintenance personnel. Ferrier is also known for his involvement in finding the Titanic and searching for the Yorktown (CV-5) and other sunken Japanese carriers.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Graff. After graduating from Harvard with an Economics degree in June 1941, Graff entered the Navy's V-7 Program. The Program was on board the Prairie State, a converted Spanish-American warship whose supersturcture had been removed and replaced with a barn; moored to the shore of the Hudson River at about 135th Street. After finishing the 90-day crash course, Graff opted for destroyers and was assigned to Communications School in Connecticut. After graduating from there, he was sent to the USS Atlanta, a light cruiser being built in Kearny, New Jersey. Capt Jenkins (CO of the Atlanta) made Graff the ship's Signal Officer. Atlanta was the first of a new class of ships; an anti-aircraft ship and the first ship designed to shoot down planes (eight turrets of twin five-inch 38 caliber guns). After launching, the Atlanta was towed to the Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York in early December, eighty percent finished. After commissioning, outfitting, test runs, sea trials, etc the Atlanta got underway with orders to go to Pearl Harbor. The Atlanta was assigned to the Third Fleet and was involved in the battle of Midway. …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Frank Guidone. In 1940, Guidone was kicked out of his family’s home for wanting to join the Navy; his father was staunchly anti-military. When the Navy told Guidone there would be a three-week waiting period, he joined the Marine Corps rather than be homeless. He reported to Guantanamo Bay and joined the 1st Marine Division. After training, he volunteered for the 1st Raider Battalion. His first assignment was the invasion of Tulagi, where his unit was separated from its company at the bottom of a ridge in enemy territory, something Guidone felt he had not been trained to handle. He waited for the right moment to launch a grenade attack and successfully led his group to safety. At the start of the campaign for Guadalcanal, despite lacking artillery and naval support, and running low on rations and ammunition, his unit held off the enemy at Henderson Field. At Cape Esperance he captured enemy plans and supplies, including General Kawaguchi’s white dress suit, and dug in at Bloody Ridge before engaging in hand-to-hand combat at Matanikau. On a trip back to New Caledonia, his unit discontinued Atabrine, and many …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Hank Hise. Hise attended the University of Texas and began flight school in 1941. He joined the Marine Corps when the war began, flying SMJs at El Toro. He was assigned to VMSB-232 in Hawaii, where he piloted TBMs and TBFs. When he first arrived at Guadalcanal, landings were hazardous on the short and narrow gravel strip flanked by palm trees. His squadron was bombed daily, and he was the only surviving pilot, though he suffered a broken pelvis. Treatment aboard the USS Solace (AH-5) was agonizing; he spent a month suspended from his bunk by a sling, unable to move his legs. When he recovered, he was promoted to captain, making strikes over Rabaul. Hise returned to the States as a squadron commander after a bout of malaria. He was sent back to the Pacific and flew missions against Japan off the USS Cape Gloucester (CVE-109). After the war ended he saw a Japanese airfield covered with brand new planes, their propellers removed as required by the surrender. He flew over Nagasaki, where everything was flattened, save for a stadium that had been turned on its side. …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Otis Kight. Kight was born in Georgia in 1924 and joined the Navy in July, 1941. Prior to the attack on Pearl harbor, Kight was assigned to the USS Yorktown (CV-5) as a plane pusher. Kight was aboard during the Battle of the Coral Sea, was wounded, and describes the damage done to the carrier. He also describes the hurried repair job done at Pearl Harbor prior to heading for Midway. Kight was present when the Yorktown was damaged at Midway and recalls abandoning ship and being rescued by the USS Astoria (CA-34). While at gunnery school at Kaneohe, he overheard some chiefs at a club telling jokes to each other in Morse code. Kight was an amatuer radio operator before the war and knew the code, so the chiefs recruited him for radio school. He seemed not to need to go to radio school, so he was sent to radar school, instead. Kight also went to parachute school where he learned to rig and pack parachutes. He eventually was assigned to the USS Cowpens (CVL-25) where he was a member of Torpedo Squadron 22 (VT-22). He served …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Willie Roesler. Roesler joined the Navy in June 1940 and received basic training in San Diego. He was assigned to the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) at Pearl Harbor. He was transferred to Midway just before the December 1941 attack. When men gathered at the mess hall to watch the shelling, one man was killed by shrapnel, causing everyone to scatter. Roesler led children from the hospital to safety. He then proceeded to fight fires along the island, where gasoline tanks rigged with explosives and buried in the sand as defenses had erupted. During the Battle of Midway, he expected to be captured by the Japanese, but he remained there until July when he was transferred to Pearl Harbor. He remembers the water was polluted with refuse from the ships and had a foul odor. As the harbor was gradually cleared, he was impressed by the mechanics involved in raising the Oklahoma.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with S M Sullivan. Sullivan joined the Navy Seabees in May of 1942. In the fall, he deployed to New Caledonia to help build a hospital, and later served on Guadalcanal building airfields. He contracted malaria while on Guadalcanal. In early 1945, he transferred to Saipan. He returned to the US and was discharged around late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Otis M Scott. Scott joined the Army in October of 1944. He served as a Browning Automatic Rifle gunner with the 23rd Infantry Division. In early 1945, Scott deployed to the Pacific, participating in the Cebu offensive against the Japanese during the Philippines Campaign. After the war ended, he served in the occupation of Japan. Scott returned to the US and was discharged in September of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Chester Spaw. Spaw began working for the post office in Austin after graduating high school. He visited Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson at his downtown office to discuss an inclination to enlist. Johnson replied that he had similar plans, so Spaw joined the Navy in 1942. He received basic training in Virginia and was then stationed at Camp Parks as a postal clerk. He shipped out with the 14th Seabees and made a brief stopover in Saipan, where he saw Japanese soldiers being buried in a common grave. He arrived on Okinawa in 1945 as the battle was winding down. A kamikaze attack during one of his daily trips to retrieve mail led Spaw to seek cover in the nearest foxhole. He was turned away, as there was no room for him. As he ran to other foxholes, he was turned away again and again. By the time the plane hit its target ship, Spaw was still without cover. But he was prepared later, when a typhoon hit, having securely tied down his tent. Spaw was discharged in November 1945 and resumed his career as a letter carrier in …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Leavelle. Leavelle graduated from high school in May 1944 and on July 8, 1944 he was sworn into the US Navy in Amarillo, Texas. His high school had offered a special course in radio operating, so he enrolled in the course and learned basic radio theory as well as how to copy Morse code. On 18 July, he reported to the Navy Recruiting and Processing Station at Lubbock, Texas where he was officially sworn into the Navy for a second time and enlisted under the Navy Reserve V-6 program. After boot camp at the San Diego Naval Training Station, Leavelle went to Navy Radio Operator School, graduating in May 1945 as a Seaman First Class Radioman. From there, he went to Camp Shoemaker (outside Oakland, California) for ship assignment - the USS Tamalpais (AO-96), reporting on May 23, 1945. The Tamalpais was new construction, just built in Sausalito, California at the Marin Ship Yards. After shakedown exercises off San Diego and loading five million gallons of potable water in San Pedro, the Tamalpais sailed for Eniwetok Island in the Marshall Islands on June 23, 1945. The Tamalpais …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Sam Laser. Laser was born in Clarksville, Arkansas on 22 December 1919. He enlisted in the Navy in September 1941, and was assigned to the USS Yorktown (CV-5) at Norfolk, Virginia, as a yeoman in the gunnery division. The ship departed Pearl Harbor as part of Task Force 17 and Laser recalls participating in the Battle of the Coral Sea during which the ship was damaged by a Japanese bomb. After being repaired in Pearl Harbor the Yorktown participated in the Battle of Midway and Laser describes the action and damage that resulted in the order to abandon ship. He vividly describes the actions he took while abandoning the ship. He was picked up by a destroyer and transferred to the USS Portland (CA-33) by breeches buoy. After being transferred to the USS Fulton (AS-11) he was taken to Pearl Harbor. After he recuperated, he went to San Francisco where he was assigned to United States. Navy. Carrier Air Service Unit 6 (CASU-6). In early 1943 Laser became a direct commission officer with the rank of ensign. He was sent to Naval Air Station Bunker Hill, Indiana and …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Emil Matula. Matula left the Dust Bowl in 1937 with nothing more than a seventh-grade education and enlisted in the Army. By 1940, he was a machine gunner with the 35th Infantry Regiment at Schofield Barracks. On 7 December 1941 he was awakened by the shaking of his bunk and a sounding alarm. With his sergeants missing and unable to unlock the weapons locker, Matula took an axe to the door. By March 1942, Matula was the youngest buck sergeant in his company. After amphibious training, he landed at Guadalcanal, reinforcing the 43rd Infantry Division at Henderson Field. In the Battle of Mount Austen, he marched deep behind enemy lines, cut off from supplies for 10 days. Afterward, at Bougainville, he survived hourly air raids; his tent was bombed just after he vacated it. He earned a Bronze Star at Vella Lavella and went on to train replacements in New Caledonia. He then went to Luzon, spending 145 days in the mountainous jungles around Lingayen Gulf. In a barrio, despite easily overcoming a banzai charge, he was faced with a force of 32 tanks. After the barrio was …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Chalmers Miller. Miller attended Rice University for one semester before joining the Navy. He received basic training in San Diego. Upon completion, he was assigned to the motor pool of CASU-9 at Port Hueneme. In November 1944 he was sent to the Philippines, where he drove a dump truck on the Tacloban air strip, which was small, crowded, muddy, and full of bomb craters. He became the engineer of a boat transporting supplies and personnel from the USS Currituck (AV-7) and Jinamoc Island. He creatively employed canvas from a cargo truck to protect his passengers from rain. In January Miller was sent to the air strip at Puerto Princesa, which was in much better condition than Tacloban. He returned home and was discharged in April 1946. He soon decided to reenlist for another two years and joined the Seabees. After his final discharge, Miller completed his education on the GI Bill.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Hetty Walker. Walker was born in Holland in 1935. Her family took shelter from air raids by hiding under their kitchen table, the children wearing pots on their heads. During severe bombing, they spent an entire month in their basement. In May 1940, the sky was so full of planes that it looked dark. Her mother salvaged parachutes from downed aviators and used the silk to make clothing for her family. Food was scarce, and they subsisted on potatoes and black bread. As a professional musician, her father was forced to entertain Germans; he listened to their conversations and passed information to the Dutch resistance. Walker witnessed brutality against the Jews in her village, but she also knew German soldiers who were kind enough to bring her family food. When the war ended, there was a big celebration, with dancing in the streets. Walker and her family immigrated to North America, sponsored by Canadian soldiers they had hosted during the war.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Charles Walker. After completing his second year of college, Walker was mobilized as a member of the North Dakota Army National Guard in February 1941 and became second lieutenant of a machinegun platoon with the 164th Infantry Regiment. He felt that his training left much to be desired, due to alcoholism among his superiors. The night before they deployed to Guadalcanal, the majority of the officers in his battalion reported to hospitals. Cowardice, entitlement, and substance abuse ran rampant in the upper ranks around Walker. Whenever he tried to speak out against it, he was discredited for having humble roots in the National Guard. At Koli Point, he was given the dangerous task of closing the gap, which he accomplished. He endured countless brushes with death and developed a macabre sense of humor to cope with stress. He was promoted to company commander and deployed to Leyte, where in Valencia he lost 17 men. The responsibility of having to send condolence letters home to their families rested heavily on Walker, though he also saved the life of one wounded man. Walker was then promoted to executive officer of …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jim Teague. Teague was drafted into the Navy during his freshman year of college. Upon completion of aviation radio school, he was assigned to a torpedo bomber crew with Carrier Air Group Five (CVG-5). In late 1944, he boarded the USS Franklin (CV-13) and headed toward southern Japan to eliminate kamikaze bases. Teague’s particular task was to jam radar-controlled guns, which were rumored to have been acquired from Nazi Germany. After finding the right frequency, he watched the gun’s aim drift away. During one mission, while in the middle of a dive, his plane was hit in the wing. His aircraft moved to the front of the landing order, allowing them to return safely. After some overnight repairs, the plane was back in action. When the Franklin was hit by two 500-pound bombs, Teague was blown overboard. He was one of a dozen survivors of the hundreds of men in his air group, many of whom were close friends. Teague was sent to Lake Tahoe for R&R and was interviewed extensively by mental health specialists. As the war wound to a close, he passed up the opportunity to …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with George Gray. Gray enlisted in the Marine Corps and went to boot camp in San Diego. After boot camp, he went to a little boat basin just out of Camp Pendleton by Oceanside, California where they formed the first amphib battalion, the Fourth Amphibian Tractor Battalion. His company was involved in the filming of 'Guadalcanal Diary' while they were in Oceanside. They broke the Fourth Battalion up and formed several more battalions; Gray ended up in the Tenth Amphibian Tractor Battalion. They left the States right after Christmas 1943 and went straight to Roi-Namur, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands. During this operation, Gray's platoon took a platoon of Marines on down about 35-40 miles, checking all the islands there for Japanese. He noted that the natives were real friendly. After Roi-Namur, they went to Maui, Hawaii where they were trained, reorganized and received new supplies. From there, they went to Saipan and he made four landings on June 15th. After Saipan, he was involved in the landings on Tinian. After Tinian, they went back to Maui where they received new tractors, supplies, reinforcements and additional training as well as …