The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Fred Moore. Moore entered the Army Air Force as an Aviation Cadet in March 1943. He was sent to Nashville, Tennessee for classification (pilot, navigator or bombardier training) and uniforms. Moore was selected for pilot training and was sent to Santa Ana, California for pre-flight training and Tulare, California for primary flight training. From there he went to Chico, California for basic flight training and to Stockton, California for advanced training. He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in February 1944 at Stockton. Moore was selected for B-25 training (transition) and went to Mather Field. Afterwards, he was sent to Louisville, Kentucky where he was given minimal C-47 instruction. They were then flown to Morrison Field, West Palm Beach, Florida where he was issued a brand-new C-47, got a crew and received sealed orders. They were told they were going overseas but not told where...90 C-47s were going to India. They ended up in Sylhet (eastern India). It took them two weeks to get there. Moore's class had been picked out of B-25 training and thrown into C-47s because Churchill had asked Roosevelt for help; the Japanese had invaded …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ralph Simoneau. Simoneau went into the Marines in November 1943 and went to boot camp in San Diego. After some home leave and time in the brig (he was AWOL, coming back late from leave), he was sent to Camp Pendleton where he trained with the Raiders for a while until they were disbanded and became part of the 5th Marine Division. Simoneau was put in the 2nd Battalion, 27th Marines. He volunteered for a 60mm mortar section and they were attached to D Company. They were sent to Camp Tarawa (Hawaii) and continued training there. They boarded ships and after a stop in Eniwetok, they were transferred to LST's which sailed for Iwo Jima. After they were onboard the LSTs, they finally found out where they were going; they studied relief maps and models, found out what their objectives were, etc. After being loaded in amtraks, circling and waiting until all the vessels that were going to make the attack were in position, they headed for shore as part of the first wave. The ramp on their amtrak didn't come down so they had to climb over …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Dale R. Walker. He joined the Marine Corps in 1944 and was trained in mortars at Camp Pendleton, California and then went on to Camp Tarawa at Hawaii for further training with the Fifth Marine Divison. Walker landed with the sixth wave on D-day at Iwo Jima. While working with mortars supporting the infantry, he was called on to be a stretcher bearer on occasion. Walker spent 36 days on Iwo Jima. After the Japanese surrendered, Walker served in the occupation of Japan.

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 …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Carl Amundson. Amundson joined the Navy in September 1942 and received basic training at Great Lakes. Upon completion, he was assigned to an APD at Pearl Harbor that transported Marines throughout the South Pacific. He returned to the States and became a plank holder aboard the USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73). After abandoning ship at the Battle of Samar, he survived 40 hours in the water despite not knowing how to swim. Amundson returned home safely, to the shock of his parents, who believed everyone aboard the Gambier Bay had been lost at sea.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Murray Brown. Brown dropped out of high school and joined the Navy in November 1941. He was assigned to the ammunition ship USS Pyro (AE-1), on which he served for two years as a boatswain’s mate. Brown sailed throughout the Pacific, from the Aleutian Islands to Espiritu Santo. After two years on the Pyro, he was transferred to the USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73) as an officer in charge of the second division. In the fall of 1944, when the Gambier Bay was attacked in the Battle off Samar, Brown ordered his men to abandon ship. He was afraid that he would go down with the ship, but he carefully climbed down the monkey lines while the ship was at a forty-five degree angle. It would be two days and nights before he was rescued, and men all around him were going mad from dehydration. For their safety as well as his own, Brown confiscated their knives and tossed them away. Following his rescue, Brown was reassigned to the USS Knox (APA-46), but he developed a leg malady that put him in sick bay until the end of the …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with George Feliz. Feliz was drafted into the Navy in 1943. Upon completion of signal and radio school, Feliz spent a month on an aviation crash boat before becoming a plank owner of the USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73), as a signalman striker. He initially sailed to Pearl Harbor and recalls anchoring directly above the sunken USS Arizona (BB-39). The Gambier Bay earned its first battle star at Saipan, where Feliz observed the action from the starboard catwalk, prepared to provide emergency steering as needed. Later, while sailing to Hollandia, Feliz spotted a ship on which his cousin was a quartermaster and managed to communicate with him by light and semaphore. In the fall of 1944 when the Gambier Bay was struck, Feliz abandoned ship on an empty stomach, feeling extremely queasy when he hit the water. As time went on, he was surrounded by delirious sailors who had consumed too much salt water. After two days and two nights, he was eventually spotted floating in an airplane tire innertube. Feliz was reassigned to the USS Siboney (CVE-112), where he remained until the end of the war.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Bob Floyd. Floyd was on track to become as a ship builder, but was drafted into the Navy before graduating from high school. He was assigned to the USS Midway (CVE-63), which was renamed the USS St. Lo (CVE-63) one year later, without the sailors even knowing it. Floyd’s early voyages were to Australia and Pearl Harbor, and he recounts becoming a shellback. Upon joining a large task force at Pearl Harbor, he sailed to Saipan, Tinian and Guam. Floyd observed the Marianas Turkey Shoot, which felt to him like watching a movie. In general quarters, he was a gun captain on two 20mm guns, passing orders from the bridge to his gunners. Otherwise, he was a 40mm gunner. In the Philippines, Floyd was hit by shell fragments, earning him a Purple Heart. During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Floyd and crew abandoned ship after a kamikaze strike. Upon being rescued, he felt fine apart from having no appetite, and he consequently lost thirty pounds. During recovery, Floyd was reassigned to an ammunition depot, where he remained until the end of the war.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Vernon E. Tucker. Born in 1919, he joined the Coast Guard in July 1942. He served on Galveston Island, Texas where he was a motor machinist. He was transferred to New York where he was assigned to the USS Might, an escort ship operating between New York to Cuba. As a Machinist Mate, he was in charge of the engine room. He describes the living conditions on the ship. He and his wife, Ethel Tucker, discuss life and entertainment in New York City. He shares anecdotes about ?the black gang? and food in the engine room; a general quarters drill; a near-collision with an ammunition building; assisting with an impromptu appendectomy at sea; and experiencing a storm en route from Cuba to New York. After twenty escort trips, he was transferred back to Galveston Island. He relates stories about a German submarine near New Jersey; a Japanese submarine on Bolivar Peninsula, Texas; and four German soldiers coming ashore in Galveston, Texas. He also describes rescuing stranded civilians during a hurricane. He was discharged in 1945. The interview also contains information about his parents and siblings.

Transcript of an oral interview with Ethel Tucker. She discusses life prior to and on the homefront during the World War II. She gives a detailed portion of her history of going to New York City to work while waiting for her husband to return to port. Her husband was in the U.S. Navy at the time, and she shared an apartment with some of the other wives.

Transcript of an oral interview with Nila Jackson Alderson. Born in 1925, Alderson describes life before and during the war in rural Texas as well as in the town of Burnet, Texas . Her husband, Joe Alderson, served in the military in Europe. They both discuss the mail service during the war. The interview includes information about her parents and siblings.

Transcript of an oral interview with Joel Alderson and his wife Nila. He discusses going to boot camp in Texas, shipping off to France in early 1945 and working as an engineer, constructing bridges and demolishing German fortifications for the Army as it made it's way through Germany, blowing up Hilter's bunker in Salzburg, Austria and using bulldozers to cover piles of dead Jews the Germans left in the open (likely at Dachau). He ancedotes about meeting Eisenhower, carrying fuel up to Patton's limo when it ran out of gas, seeing Bob Hope, soldiers getting poisoned from confiscated alcohol, and getting met by his family and the town sheriff when he came home after the war.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Charles Bast. Bast joined the Navy in January of 1942. He completed courses in seamanship, gunnery, navigation, and attended the Submarine Chaser Training Center in Miami. He was assigned to the USS Anoka (PC-571), of which he was a plank owner. He provides some details of this patrol craft. They were assigned to Port Townsend, Washington protecting the Bremerton Naval Base from enemy submarines. From the fall of 1942 to April of 1943 they were stationed in Alaska, participating in the Aleutian Island Campaigns. In January of 1944 he was assigned as Commanding Officer of the USS LST-677, which was converted into a supply ship and named the USS Yolo (APB-43). In April of 1945 they traveled with a convoy to Okinawa and provided supplies to hundreds of ships in the Philippine Sea. Bast describes the process of supplying these ships. He was discharged in November of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with L D Cox. Cox joined the Navy in 1944 and served aboard the USS Indianapolis (CA-35). He was assigned to a deck division, and later the Navigation Division. He describes some of his job functions and life in general aboard the ship. In the spring of 1945 they launched an attack on Tokyo to cover the landings on Iwo Jima and participated in the Battle of Okinawa. He provides details of these events. They traveled back to the States for repairs. Cox then describes their secret mission of picking up the wooden box in San Francisco which carried parts for the Little Boy atomic bomb and delivering it to Tinian. En route from Guam to Leyte Gulf, in July of 1945, a Japanese submarine struck the Indianapolis with 2 torpedoes, and the ship sank within 12 minutes. Of the 1,197 crew members, Cox was one of the 317 who survived the sinking and five nights and four days in the Philippine Sea. He provides vivid details of this horrific event, his injuries and the court-martialing of Captain McVay. Cox was discharged in March of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Larry Delewski. Delewski joined the Navy around 1942. He attended gunnery school in Newport, Rhode Island and completed a program at the Naval Gun Factory for Advanced Hydraulics in Washington, D.C. In early 1944 he was then assigned to the USS Laffey (DD-724). He provides some details of the destroyer, including its weaponry. Delewski served as Mount Captain and was in charge of gun mount number three, located on the stern. They traveled to Normandy, France and were present for D-Day in June of 1944, supporting ground troops by firing over 1,000 rounds at targets including bridges, tanks and troop concentrations. They continued their support at Normandy through the Battle of Cherbourg. Upon receiving some damage to the ship, they traveled back to the United States. In late 1944 they traveled to the Philippines and participated in the Battle of Ormoc Bay. In April of 1945 they were involved in the Battle of Okinawa, where they were heavily attacked by Japanese kamikazes. He was discharged some time in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Devoe Hedrick. Hedrick joined the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1940. He joined the Navy in April of 1941. He served aboard the USS Corry (DD-463) as a Fire Control Technician. Their ship served on anti-submarine and escort duty in the Atlantic. Hedrick???s battle station was the five-inch gun director where he served as pointer and later as range finder operator. They participated in the North Africa invasion in September of 1942 providing anti-submarine patrol. He was later transferred to the USS Sangamon (CVE-26). In January of 1944, during the Battle of Kwajalein, they landed Marine and Army ground forces. In October of 1944 they participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, where they first encountered kamikazes. In March of 1945 they participated in the Battle of Okinawa, launching planes, support strikes and patrol groups. During this battle they were hit by a twin-engine kamikaze aircraft. Hedrick participated in the Korean War and retired from the Navy in 1967.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Roy Goedeke. Goedeke joined the Navy in 1940. Beginning September of 1941, he was assigned to the deck force aboard the USS Fulton (AS-11), a submarine tender. They were in Panama on 7 December 1941. Their ship transported aviation gasoline to Nicaragua and Ecuador, where they built seaplane bases. In early 1942 they worked in Pearl Harbor assisting with asbestos clean-up. Goedeke describes the damage on the island. In July of 1942 they picked up survivors from the sunken USS Yorktown (CV-5) after the Battle of Midway. They supported ten subs traveling to Brisbane, Australia, and Goedeke describes their initiation of the pollywogs. In December of 1943 Goedeke was assigned to the USS Dennis (DE-405). In September of 1944 they provided support for the landings on Morotai Island, and continued during the invasion of Leyte in October. He describes his experiences through the battles, including casualties of fellow servicemen, attacks made upon the ship and rescuing survivors from the USS St. Lo (CVE–63). In February and March of 1945, the Dennis participated in the Battle of Iwo Jima and then the invasion of Okinawa. Goedeke was discharged in 1947.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Jaeger. Jaeger joined the Navy when he was 18 and received basic training at Farragut. He developed pneumonia and upon recovering was too weak to complete physical training. He was assigned to the USS St. Lo (CVE-63) as an orderly to the captain, whom he greatly admired. At Saipan his battle station was at a 20-millimeter gun, and he was noted as the faster loader aboard ship. He found friendly fire to be inevitable, as inexperienced pilots flew too close to enemy aircraft above their ship. At the Battle off Samar, his captain expertly dodged enemy shells for two hours. Jaeger was sure they would be sunk, but the Japanese fleet suddenly departed. However, when the St. Lo was struck by a kamikaze soon after, Jaeger was indeed ordered to abandon ship and found his life jacket had been rendered useless by shrapnel. When he was rescued by the USS Butler (DD-636) several hours later, he was too exhausted to climb the cargo net, so two sailors swam to his aid and pulled him aboard. His nerves were shot by the time he arrived back at Pearl …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Kana. Kana joined the Navy in April of 1944. He served aboard the USS Dennis (DE-405). He visited the Marshall Islands and the Philippines. He provides vivid details of a battle off Samar. He was discharged in February of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Kennann. Kennann joined the Navy in 1942 at age 21. The first time he saw the ocean was at boot camp in San Diego. He was selected for aviation machinist’s school in Chicago and went on to study hydraulics. After graduating in June 1943, he was assigned to Alameda Naval Air Station as part of Composite Squadron 65 (VC-65), which then boarded the USS St. Lo (CVE-63). There Kennann performed maintenance work in the hangar deck and checked planes on the flight deck for leaks. When the St. Lo was struck by a kamikaze at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Kennann climbed down a cargo net to abandon ship. After waiting in the water for an hour, he was rescued by the USS Dennis (DE-405). By that time, he was already so weakened that he could not pull himself out of the water without assistance. Kennann rejoined his squadron and headed toward Japan, ceasing operations after the first bomb was dropped. Following his discharge, Kennann surprised his family by returning home early.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Bobby Meyers. Meyers was drafted into the Navy in June of 1943. He completed boot camp in Farragut, Idaho. He was assigned to a service school in Wahpeton, North Dakota. Beginning in 1944 he worked in the engine room as a machinist mate aboard the USS Dennis (DE-405). They traveled to Pearl Harbor, and escorted carriers throughout the Pacific. They traveled to Iwo Jima, Eniwetok and participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The Dennis rescued 434 survivors from the escort carrier USS St. Lo (CVE–63), which had been sunk by a kamikaze. He shares his experience going through a typhoon. Meyers was discharged in late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Sam Palermo. Palermo was born in 1924 in Melrose Park, Illinois. His parents came from Italy in 1902. He was drafted into the Navy in June 1943 and sent to Farragut, Idaho for boot training. Upon finishing, he went to Wahpeton, where he studied engineering at the North Dakota State College of Science for six months. In March 1944 he reported aboard the USS Dennis (DE-405) as a motor machinist in the engine room. The Dennis was part of Taffy 3 and participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf off Samar during which the ship was hit five times by Japanese gunfire. After the battle, the Dennis picked up 434 survivors from the USS St. Lo (CVE-63) and Palermo describes burials at sea of five shipmates and a casualty from the St. Lo. After dropping off the injured at Peleliu, the ship returned to Alameda for repairs. Returning to the Pacific, the Dennis provided support during the invasion of Iwo Jima. After twenty-seven days on station at Iwo Jima the ship went to Ulithi for provisions and to prepare for the next invasion. After participating in the invasion …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Alfonso Perez. Perez was born in Maxwell, Texas 11 September 1923. After finishing the fourth grade he went to work in the agricultural fields as a laborer. In January 1942 he joined the Navy and entered boot camp at San Diego. Upon completion, he was assigned to the USS Midway/USS St. Lo (CVE-63) as a plane captain with VC-65. He recalls the ship taking part in the invasion of Saipan and Tinian and going to Eniwetok for replacements and provisions. On 25 October 1944 the St. Lo was involved in the Battle off Samar when the Japanese attacked as planes from the St. Lo were being launched for submarine patrol. Perez remembers the Japanese ships being so close he could see enemy sailors on deck as they passed. He recalls seeing a kamikaze diving toward his ship and crashing approximately thirty feet from where he was. Upon receiving orders to abandon ship he went overboard and remembers being taken aboard a raft. The survivors were picked up by the USS Dennis (DE-405) and he recalls the compassion shown by the crew. After being treated for superficial wounds he …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Thomas Petrillo. Petrillo was born 21 January 1917 in Methuen, Massachusetts. He received a draft notice in January 1942, but joined the Navy. He reported to boot camp at Newport, Rhode Island in April 1942. After five months of training, he reported aboard the USS Massachusetts (BB-59) as a five inch gun loader. The ship was damaged during Operation Torch in November 1942, and returned to Boston for repair. Soon after arriving, Petrillo reported aboard the newly constructed USS St. Lo (CVE-63) as a gunners mate. He recalls the battle off Samar. Petrillo was wounded after the fifth explosion aboard his ship and recalls the efforts of others to pull him from the water. Taken aboard the USS Reynolds (DE-42) he went to Leyte where he was transferred to another ship. He was operated on and put into a full body cast. Petrillo returned to the United States aboard a hospital ship, stopping at Iwo Jima and Brisbane. Upon arrival at San Francisco he was put aboard a train bound for the Chelsea Naval Hospital in Massachusetts. He describes the difficulty and special procedures needed to get him …