The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Morton Harrington. Harrington joined the Navy in January of 1944. He completed Gunnery School and Aviation Ordnance School, learning about aircraft bombs, fuses, various caliber guns, rockets, flags, radio communication and Morse Code. Beginning February of 1945 Harrington was assigned to the USS Nehenta Bay (CVE–74), serving as a turret gunner aboard both TBF’s and TBM’s. Their ship qualified with F4-U Corsair squadrons for carrier work. They traveled to Eniwetok, bombing several islands that the Japanese still held. In April of 1945 they participated in the Battle of Okinawa, where they shot down three kamikazes. Harrington provides details of his experiences aboard the Nehenta Bay and throughout their battles. He was discharged in January of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Thomas McCrea. McCrea joined the Army in September of 1943. He completed an Army Specialized Training Program in Fort Benning, Georgia. He provides vivid details of his training. He served with the 3rd Army, C Company, 1st, Battalion, 376th Infantry Regiment, 94th Infantry Division. McCrea and his group qualified as an Expert Infantry Division. In August of 1944 they traveled to Scotland, then on to England. In September they landed on Utah Beach. They traveled to Brittany to relieve another unit. They endured much 88mm shelling from the Germans. From there they traveled toward Belgium and participated in the Battle of the Bulge, and traveled to the Siegfried Line. McCrea shares many details of his experiences in battle. In February 1945 he was sent to a hospital in England, suffering from frozen feet. He returned to the U.S. due to the condition of his feet and discharged in mid-1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert W. Meyer. Meyer was born in Olympia, Washington on 3 September 1924. After graduating from high school in 1942, he was drafted into the Army on 15 May 1943. He was placed into the Army Specialized Training Program. Following 13 weeks of basic training at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, he was sent to the University of Alabama for 3 months of specialized training. He was accepted for flight training, but returned to the infantry in April 1944. Assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 263rd Regiment, 66th Infantry Division, he went overseas in September 1944. Reassigned as a machine gunner to Company A, 109th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division, Meyer saw combat in Belgium, Germany, and Luxemburg. He was captured by the Germans on 18 December 1944 while fighting near Longsdorf, Luxemburg. He spent the next 4 months in various prisoner of war and labor camps, including Stalag IIA north of Berlin. In April 1945, as the Russians approached Stalag IIA, the German guards fled. Essentially free, Meyer first tried to avoid the Russians but finally advanced with them to the Elbe River where he was reunited with US forces. …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Keith Westphal. Westphal describes growing up during the Great Depression and how it affected his family. He joined the Navy in May of 1945. He provides some details of his boot camp. He completed signal school, though was assigned to Fire Control in the Gunnery Division where he served as Seaman First Class. In December of 1945 he began work overseeing the antiaircraft guns aboard the USS Pocono (AGC-16), an Adirondack class amphibious force command ship. They remained on the Atlantic coast and did not go out to sea. Westphal describes the ship’s interior and weapons on board. He shares his experiences of transporting Admiral Marc Mitscher, and general duties and life aboard the ship. Westphal was discharged in August of 1946, then enlisted in the Naval Reserves.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Walsh. Walsh was born in Wheeler, Indiana on 19 October 1926. He quit high school in 1944 and joined the Navy. He went to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Illinois for six weeks of boot training followed by six months of amphibious training and gunnery training at Norfolk, Virginia. Upon completion of the training he went by troop train to Portland, Oregon. In September 1944 he went aboard Landing Craft Support vessel USS LCS(L)(3)-51. He describes the ship’s heavy armaments. In November 1944, Group 7, consisting of Walsh’s LCS and five other sister ships, sailed to Saipan before going to Leyte. They remained at Leyte until 19 February 1945 before participated in the invasion of Iwo Jima. Walsh led the first wave of Marine onto the beach and describes clearing the beach of disabled landing craft. The ship then participated in the invasion of Okinawa. Walsh tells of the ship being on picket duty and being attacked by kamikaze aircraft. Walsh saw the USS Laffey (DD-724) hit by several suicide aircraft while LCS-51 sustained damage caused by debris from a plane they shot down. The …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Joseph Meyer. Meyer participated in ROTC in high school. While studying at St. Louis University, he enlisted in the Army Air Forces Reserves. In February 1943, after one semester of college, he was called to active duty and began flight training, earning his wings in March 1944. He was then sent to Karachi, India, to join the 33rd Fighter Group, 59th Squadron. After an unexciting period of time, due to a lack of planes to fly, he finally went on his first mission in the mountains between India and Burma, deterring Japanese planes from attacking transports to China. Later missions involved strafing and dropping bombs or napalm on photographed targets from a P-47. During one flight, he narrowly avoided getting hit as he flew underneath a friendly plane while it released its payload. Although Meyer never engaged in air-to-air combat, he was exposed to antiaircraft fire from the ground. In December 1944, he transitioned to the P-38, as he was preparing for involvement in an invasion of China, which never materialized. Afterward, he transferred to the 58th Squadron in Burma. After the war ended, Meyer had a chance …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Paul Platz. Platz joined the Army in July of 1944. He served with the 77th Infantry Division, 307th Infantry Regiment. He participated in the liberation of the Philippines in late 1944. In the spring of 1945, Platz was in the assault on the Kerama Islands and the Battle of Okinawa, where he was wounded. He returned to the US and received a medical discharge.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Russell Banwart. Banwart was born 16 March 1923 in Angona, Iowa into a family of nine children. He describes life during the Great Depression. Upon completing Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego, he entered radio school, after which he was assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Regiment. He describes boarding the USS Crescent City (APA-21) and participating in the invasion of Tarawa. Banwart describes the action around him including being wounded. He was taken to the Naval Hospital in San Diego. After he recovered, he was sent to Radio Repair School in Omaha, Nebraska then to Red Bank, New Jersey where he trained on the newly developed ANTRC rapid relay equipment. On 1 April 1945 he participated in the invasion of Okinawa. Once the island was secured, he was sent to Guam where he remained until he returned to the United States.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Eddie W Cook. Cook was drafted into the Army in June 1943. Despite being an experienced ship welder and foreman, he was assigned as a rifleman. When Cook deployed to India in December 1943, the troop ship was fitted with iron bars made to separate white from black soldiers. Upon arrival in Bombay, it was obvious the place had been recently bombed. The men then headed to a replacement depot in Assam. Meanwhile, one of Cook’s immunizations had backfired, and he came down with the measles. Upon recovery, he was assigned to the 475th Infantry Regiment, which had just finished 60 days of combat duty. After a short stint in Burma, Cook flew over The Hump to an Army depot in Kunming, China. There he was to search for Japanese holdouts; however, after six months of searching, his unit never found a single enemy. Cook returned home in February 1946 and was discharged early, returning to his wife and child.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with William Starke. Starke joined the Army Air Forces in March of 1942. He completed flight training and graduated at Williams Field, Arizona, in July of 1943 as a P-38 pilot. He provides details of his flight training and the various planes he flew. In November he traveled to Guadalcanal and joined the 44th Fighter Squadron, 13th Air Force. Starke served as a P-38 Lightning pilot and completed 121 missions throughout the Pacific, including Sansapor, Bougainville and Rabaul in Papua New Guinea, Borneo, Luzon and the Philippines. His squadron flew combat missions and escorted B-24 bombers. Starke provides vivid details of several missions and describes how they acquired the name “Vampire Squadron.” He was discharged in July of 1945. He remained in the Reserves for 20 years and retired as a lieutenant colonel.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Frank Mace. Mace was born in Carseland, Alberta, Canada on 27 May 1917 and graduated from high school in Washington 1937. In 1940, he joined Morrison-Knudsen, Inc. as a construction worker and group chaplain on Wake Island arriving on 9 January 1941. He began constructing runways and buildings. Mace tells of the Japanese invasion of the island, of the combat and of the casualties taken prior to surrender. He tells of the starvation and inhumane treatment while a captive. He describes the manufacturing process and the method of sabotage that the slave laborers employed while working in an Osaka, Japan shipyard and also of disrupting production while working in an iron smelting plant. He relates how a plane dropped a message that the war was over and how food and supplies were dropped by air. Upon liberation, he was put on board the USS Rescue (AH-18) and taken to Letterman General Hospital for recovery.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with William R. Smith. Smith was born in April of 1921 and served in the Junior Naval Reserve as a teenager, joining the Naval Reserves around 1937 with a forged birth certificate. He received basic training by volunteering aboard USS Texas (BB-35) and USS Brooklyn (CL-40). By 1939, Smith was serving as a Chief Fire Control Technician aboard USS Clark (DD-361). They were docked in San Francisco on 7 December 1941 and took up antisubmarine patrol off Samoa by February of 1942. Smith reenlisted in April. The Clark escorted a tanker to Midway, a convoy to New Zealand and assisted with landings on Guadalcanal by November of 1942. In November of 1943, Smith transferred to USS Newcomb (DD-586), participating in the Battle of Leyte Gulf and the invasion at Lingayen in January 1945. Smith also participated in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, where the Newcomb was hit by 5 kamikaze planes on 6 April. Smith recalls a brief and positive encounter with Admiral Chester Nimitz. Around August of 1945 he was transferred to USS La Vallette (DD-448) and traveled to San Diego where he was stationed through April …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Edwin LeBreton. LeBreton was born in Louisiana and was in the Army National Guard stationed in Texas when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He served in an engineering outfit before entering military intelligence. After the war, LeBreton was sent to an engineer depot in Japan. After leaving Japan, he was stationed in France at another supply depot.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Skirvin. Skirvin was born on a farm in Iowa on 26 January 1922. He dropped out of school after the eighth grade to work on the farm. In 1942 he was drafted into the Army and spent six week of infantry basic training at Camp Robinson, Arkansas. He then went to Fort Bliss, Texas where he was assigned to the Troop G, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. He recalls training as cavalry with horses until early 1943 when the horses were taken away and the unit became infantry. Trained as a Browning automatic rifle (BAR) operator, he boarded the USAT Maui with an advance detail bound for Brisbane, Australia. Upon their arrival they began four weeks of intensive jungle training. This was followed by four weeks of amphibious training. Skirvin’s unit went to New Guinea and the Admiralties where they were involved in combat. While there, Skirvin developed a severe case of Shingles, which hospitalized him for two weeks. Eventually, his unit boarded the USS La Salle (AGF-3) and landed on Leyte in October 1944. He recounts various experiences while there, including a banzai charge, loss …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Michael Kuryla. Kuryla was born in Chicago, Illinois on 10 September 1925 into a family of eight children. He describes his family’s living conditions during the Depression. Joining the US Navy in 1942, he underwent boot training at Great Lakes Naval Training Station, Illinois. Following boot camp, he was assigned to the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) as the fire director of a five-inch gun. He explains the job of the gun director. He describes the bombardment of Tarawa and tells of participating in battles at Kwajalein, Guam, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He shares a personal experience he had with Admiral Spruance. The Indianapolis was struck by a kamikaze and Kuryla describes the damage done and the lives lost as a result. Once the ship was repaired components for an atomic bomb were put on board for delivery to Tinian. After delivery the ship was bound for Guam when it was struck by Japanese torpedoes. Kuryla graphically describes his personal experience of abandoning the ship and what he witnessed during five nights and four days in the water. He recalls being taken aboard the USS Register (APD-92) and delivered to …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Sam Shelton. Shelton was born in rural Kansas on 18 August 1917. He participated in the Civilian Pilot Training Program while attending Fort Hays College. Upon completing the program in 1939, he joined the Navy. After completing flight training at Pensacola, he was sent to the Corpus Christi (Texas) Naval Air Station as a flight instructor. In 1943 he was assigned to VF-7, a fighter squadron, stationed at San Diego, flying F4F and F6F fighters. In early 1944 the squadron was assigned the FM2 (fighter) and put aboard the USS Santee (CVE-29). He returned from a combat patrol and found the Santee had been stuck by a kamikaze and a bomb. Unable to land, he was directed to land aboard the USS Suwannee (CVE-27). After landing, his plane was refueled and the ammunition replenished. Smith proceeded with another combat patrol, after which he returned to the Santee after repairs. The ship returned to Pearl Harbor and Shelton was assigned to Air Group 6 based at Los Alamitos, California. Following the surrender of Japan, Shelton remained in the Navy. He recalls various assignments including being aboard the USS Valley …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with J.D. Tanner. Tanner was born 20 August 1924 in Jasper County, Indiana. He quit school in the seventh grade and worked with his father on a dairy farm. In August 1944, he was drafted into the US Army and had basic training at Camp Wolters, Texas. After four weeks of training he went to San Francisco and departed on a twenty-one day trip to Leyte. There he was assigned as a rifleman in the 37th Infantry Division. He describes being on patrol and seeing a friend killed by a Japanese sniper. He was hospitalized with dysentery and recalls meeting General MacArthur’s wife, Jean, as she visited the hospital. After the surrender of Japan, he was assigned to the Military Police for a period of time and also drove a truck. He returned to the United States and was discharged 1 August 1946.

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 oral interview with Eugene Conklin. Conklin was born on 4 December 1923 in Chanute, Kansas. After graduating from high school he attended junior college and participated in the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he entered the Naval Aviator Cadet program. After taking primary training at Norman, Oklahoma he was sent to Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, Texas for advanced training. Upon graduation he was sent to Daytona Beach where he began flying the SBD dive bomber. After six months of training in the SBD he was assigned to Air Group sixteen aboard the USS Lexington (CV-16). He tells of attacking various islands in the Pacific and his participation the Battle of the Philippine Sea. He admired for Admiral Mitscher for turning on the carrier lights, thus allowing many of the returning pilots, including Conklin, to make a night landing. He began flying an F6F Wildcat on photo missions over assigned targets, before and after bombing raids, to ascertain the damage. After a cessation of hostilities was announced, he and three other pilots were assigned the responsibility of photographing Tokyo to facilitate dropping supplies to …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert de Jong. De Jong was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1922 and enlisted in the Navy in 1942. After boot training at the Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois he was sent to school in Boston for training as a yeoman. Upon completion of the training he was assigned to the executive officer aboard the USS Lexington (CV-16). Soon after he went aboard, it proceeded to Pearl Harbor via the Panama Canal. His battle station was as a loader on a 20mm gun. On 4 December 1943 the Lexington was hit by a Japanese torpedo and returned to Bremerton, Washington for repairs. Remembering various actions in which the Lexington was involved, he tells of the momentous decision by Admiral Mitscher to turn on the carrier’s lights to act as a guide for returning aircraft during the Battle of the Philippine Sea. He also recalls a kamikaze hitting the Lexington, which killed every man on the gun on which he had previously been assigned. The ship put into Ulithi for repairs. During February 1945 the Lexington returned to Pearl Harbor at which time de Jong was transferred to yeoman’s …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Walter Kindrick. Kindrick was born 23 May 1925 in Coffeeville, Kansas. Upon graduating from high school in 1943, he joined the Army. After completing nine weeks of basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky he was assigned as an assistant tank driver of an M-4 Sherman tank. His unit eventually boarded a ship and sailed to South Hampton, England. On 10 June 1944 he crossed over to Normandy on an LST landing at Omaha Beach. There he was assigned to the 2nd Armored Division, I Company, 67th Armored Regiment as the assistant driver on the company command tank. He explains the purpose of a command tank and the position of it in the battle plans. He participated in the breakout at Saint Lo, the Battle of the Bulge and the crossed the Rhine River on a pontoon bridge into Germany. After Germany surrendered, the company spent three months as an occupation force in Berlin. Kindrick was discharged upon his return to the United States in the fall of 1945.