The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Milton Seacord. Seacord joined the Coast Guard in 1943 and received basic training in Oakland. Upon completion, he was assigned to the Coast Guard station at Coos Bay, Oregon, manning the lighthouse and helping fishermen who ran aground. He transferred to Point Loma, California, standing guard as ships were loaded and unloaded in the harbor. After a brief time aboard the USS Admiral W. L. Capps (AP-121), he traveled throughout the South Pacific aboard the USS Murzim (AK-95). Seacord returned home and was discharged in the fall of 1945.

Transcript of an oral interview with Lewane D. Herring. He discusses working at Corpus Christi and Kingsville Naval Air Stations in south Texas before being assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La and the destroyer USS Barton during his naval career. He also discusses his time spent in the Air Force during the Korean War. Mr. Herring then read a letter about his brother's service during the Korean War.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Edward McCreary. McCreary was born in Spain in 1928 and attended school in the Philippines beginning in 1935. He was a high school sophomore in Baguio when the Japanese invaded, and he managed to escape to the mountains, where he hid for three months. After he was caught, he was imprisoned for one year in a small camp. As guerillas began to recapture parts of the island, prisoners were transferred to Santo Tomas University. There American prisoners organized committees to serve as a form of self-government. Thanks to them, McCreary completed his high school education while there. By the spring of 1944, starvation was setting in, causing death and illness. In September 1944 a Navy air raid brought hope to the prisoners, but it was several weeks before American troops landed. Soldiers broke into the prison and spent three days barricaded there beside the prisoners; together they shared military rations and food that had been smuggled to them by Dominican priests. Upon being liberated, McCreary was evacuated to the States and enrolled in Harvard University.

Transcript of an oral interview with Glenn McDole. McDole begins with some anecdotes about homesteading in Nebraska with his parents and siblings in the 1930s. In 1940, after finishing high school, McDole enlisted in the Marine Corps. He trained in San Diego and then shipped out to the Philippines aboard the USS Chaumont (AP-5). When he arrived in the Philippines, McDole was assigned to a security detachment at Cavite Navy Yard. McDole describes his experiences during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. He ended up on Corregidor manning a machine gun and was present for the surrender. McDole describes being taken back to Manila by the Japanese before being transported to the POW camp at Cabanatuan. After a while, McDole went to Palawan with a large group of POWs to build an airstrip. He also relates the story about when his appendix ruptured while a prisoner of war, the surgery and his recovery.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Victor Nanadiego. Nanadiego was born in the Philippines and was a private in the Philippine Army at the time of the Japanese invasion. He was captured and participated in the Bataan Death March. He describes insect infestations, rampant disease, and the lack of food and water. Nanadiego also discusses the duties POWs performed including burying the dead. He was released after four months and joined the guerillas when he had recovered from his captivity. Nanadiego describes how he was promoted to the rank of captain and how he worked with an American named Lieutenant Townsend to move weapons. He continued to serve in the Philippine Army after the war and eventually became a general. Nanadiego also discusses how Philippine veterans were not given the same benefits as their American counterparts.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Mrs. Tula Augusta Hickman Shook. Born in 1929, she discusses life on a farm in Texas during the Great Depression and the war. She talks about learning of the attack on Pearl Harbor. She describes rationing, scrap metal drives, war bonds, and blackouts. She recounts how she met her husband, Leon J. Shook, as the result of corresponding with him while he was serving as a Machinist?s Mate on the USS Colorado. She shares the story of her underage elopement. She talks about leaving high school at age fifteen to travel to San Diego where her husband was stationed. After the war, the couple returned to Texas.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Eleanor Schneider. Schneider was born in November of 1932 in New Braunfels, Texas. She grew up in a German-American community, and speaks on some of the difficulties she faced on the homefront during World War II. She speaks about her family history, education and the impact of war on her town. She recalls her family being questioned by the FBI regarding communications they had with relatives in Germany. Schneider speaks of other families of Lebanese, Mexican and Czech descent living in New Braunfels and how discrimination played a role in her community.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Jim Tuttle. Tuttle joined the Army in October of 1940. He served as an infantry Sergeant with Company G, 127th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division. He participated in the New Guinea Campaign and the Philippines Campaign. He was discharged in August of 1945.

Transcript of an oral interview with Jack Ward. Ward moved quickly through school and enlisted in the Navy at 17 in March, 1945. He caught scarlet fever in training and was held back. As a result, the war ended while he was still in training. Ward recalls working in an office in the San Francisco Bay Area where orders were typed out. He implies that he wrote his own orders to get aboard a refridgerated merchant vessel hauling cold supplies to various points in the Pacific. Ward recalls several anecdotes about serving aboard his merchant vessel. One was a stroy about smuggling booze aboard to sell to sailors at an inflated price. Ward finished by speaking about his post war careers.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Keith Wells. Wells was in the cavalry at Texas A&M when the war broke out. He joined the Marine Corps and attended officer’s school. There he learned parachuting, completing his final jumps with a broken leg, which he never sought medical care for. He received further training at Camp Pendleton and became the executive officer of his company. Landing on Iwo Jima in the third wave, he remained there for the duration of the campaign. While crossing the island, he received multiple shell fragment wounds to his leg and head. As a member of the 3rd Platoon, E Company, 28th Marine Regiment, he witnessed both the first and second flags atop Mount Suribachi. By the end of the war, he was on a first-name basis with a general, who was impressed by his grace under fire. Wells retired from the service as a major, earned a degree in geology and entered the oil industry.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ken Wiley. Wiley was born in Hillsboro, Texas 18 July 1925 and joined the US Coast Guard in 1942. He underwent basic training at St. Augustine, Florida for six weeks before being sent to landing craft school at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina for training in LCVPs. Upon completion of the training he was assigned as a coxswain of a four man boat crew. After arriving in Hawaii he began making practice landing with the 22nd Marine Regiment in preparation for the invasion of Kwajalein. He tells of participating in the invasions of Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Saipan, Leyte and Okinawa. He describes the various landings and tells of seeing men killed. In recalling landing in the Philippines, he tells of the landing craft being met by Filipinos in their outrigger canoes and of the joy they had in meeting the Americans. In recalling the invasion of Okinawa he mentions attacks by kamikazes. He also describes an incident involving Jack Dempsey that took place on the beach of Okinawa after the initial invasion. Soon after the Okinawa invasion, Wiley returned to the United States and was discharged.

Transcript of an oral interview with Ronald DeWitt. In 1943, he joined the Navy when he was 17. He went to Newport, Rhode Island for basic training and then went to radar operator school at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. From there, he was assigned to Port Hueneme, California for more radar training. He evetually volunteered for sea duty and was posted to the USS Algol (AKA-54) in August, 1944 as a radar man. He describes the function of and gear aboard the attack cargo ship; being the ranking radar man; traveling in a convoy. After entering the Pacific, he participated in the invasion of the Philippines and was present for the landing at Lingayen Gulf. From there, they delivered cargo at Leyte, then headed for Okinawa. Th eAlgol ws there for the first nine days of the invasion before heading for Guam and then the US. toward the end of the war, the Algol was back in the Pacific, where, after the war, it delivered its boats to China. From there, it returned to Seattle and DeWitt left the Navy in March, 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Harry Akune. Akune was born in Turlock, California. He served as a translator and interrogator for the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Service in the Pacific Theater. The Akune family had 4 brothers, all of whom served in World War II, though two served with the U.S. and two served with Japan. Upon their mother???s death in 1933, the brothers and their father moved to Japan to live with relatives. Once old enough, Harry Akune and his brother Ken returned to California to work. Shortly thereafter, the war started. In 1942 Harry and Ken were relocated to an internment camp in Colorado, where they were recruited by the U.S. Army, using their Japanese language to provide translations, question Japanese prisoners and create propaganda used to encourage opposing forces to surrender. Harry was assigned to the 33rd Infantry Division, 503rd Parachute Infantry Regimental Combat Team. He traveled to New Guinea, Leyte, Corregidor and Mindoro in the Philiippines. Unbeknownst to Harry and Ken, their younger brothers Saburo and Shiro were serving in the war for Imperial Japan. Harry was discharged in January of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Raymond Reestman. Reestman was drafted into the Army in August 1942 and trained at Fort Bliss before joining the 531st Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion. After training, he headed overseas to England in February 1944. On 15 June, his unit landed at Omaha Beach. He provides details about his experiences at the Battle of St. Lo. Reestman describes action at the Battle of the Bulge and then recalls moving into Germany before the war ended. When it was over, Reestman found himself on occupation duty. He returned to the US and was discharged in November, 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Wesley Plummer. Plummer joined the Marine Corps in February 1943 and trained at San Diego. After boot training, he volunteered for the Marine paratroopers and trained at Camp Gillespie. Then he was assigned to the 3rd Marine Parachute Battalion and went to Guadalcanal and Vella Lavella before landing on Bougainville in December, 1943. Plummer details some of his experiences in the jungle at Bougainville. He returned to the US for some leave before being assigned to H Company, 28th marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division. From there, he went to Iwo Jima, landing on D-day, and recalls a lot of details about operating there. Plummer was eventually wounded on 24 March and evacuated. Plummer had enough points to opt for discharge and spent only a few weeks in Japan before returning to the US. He was discharged in November, 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Tim Ashcraft. Ashcraft joined the Army in October of 1943. He was assigned to the Medical Department. He worked at Ashford General Hospital in West Virginia. He traveled to Europe in 1944, including Germany and France. He was discharged in 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Earl Kling. Kling joined the Army Air Forces and received basic training in St. Louis. He was trained as a B-17 pilot before being transferred to the Northern Mariana Islands as a B-29 pilot. He did not engage in battle during his service, and he retired with 35 years combined active and reserve duty. Kling notes that while many of the troops were against serving beside African American soldiers, he felt camaraderie with everyone who fought for America.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Howard Steward. Steward was born in Waverly, Illinois. After enlisting in the Army Air Corps, and spending four weeks in basic training, he went to aircraft maintenance school. In 1944 he went to the South Pacific and was stationed in the Philippines. One night Japanese paratroopers attacked, killing a number of Americans in their tents. On another occasion at Clark Air Base, the Japanese, under cover of darkness, put time bombs on some of the aircraft. The bombs were discovered by the maintenance crews before they exploded.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Harrold Weldon. Weldon joined the Navy in 1943 and received basic training in San Diego. Upon completion, he was assigned as a coxswain to the USS Neville (APA-9) for the invasion of Saipan. He was transferred to the USS Brookings (APA-140), which was loaded with Marines in anticipation of the invasion of Japan. When the war ended, the Marines were delivered instead as occupational forces. Weldon was in Tokyo Bay for the signing of the surrender and visited both atomic bomb sites, noting in particular the devastation at Hiroshima. Weldon returned home and reenlisted for four years; he was discharged in 1949.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Lin Williams. Williams joined the Army in November 1942 after spending a year in the Civilian Conservation Corps. He received basic training at Fort Meade and joined the 4th Cavalry. He was sent to California for desert training but sailed to England in February 1943. He landed on an island off the coast of Utah Beach before dawn on D-Day. There was no German opposition, but 19 men were killed and 55 injured by land mines. Williams was at Oppenheim on V-E Day and began preparing for deployment to the Pacific. When the war ended, Williams instead returned home and was discharged.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Wallace Ashwood. Ashwood joined the Navy in 1943 and boarded the USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) as a seaman. In the Bering Sea, Ashwood stood watch in freezing winds. But later, at Makin Island, it was so hot that sailors around him collapsed from heat exhaustion. Ashwood often worked as an ammunition handler but happened to be working in the food storage locker on the day that a 200-pound can of gunpowder exploded, killing several members of the gun crew. He was then reassigned to the turret as a replacement, becoming a third-class gunner’s mate. Near Saipan and Tinian, he survived the Pennsylvania colliding with loaded ammunition ship USS Talbot (APD-7). After shooting down a record number of planes in the Philippines, he returned to San Francisco, where the ship was modernized in preparation for bombardment of Japan. When the war abruptly ended, Ashwood was discharged in Wallace, Texas.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Caposella. Caposella left his studies at Ohio State University to join the Navy in March 1944. He received basic training at Great Lakes and attended radio school in Bedford Springs. After completing amphibious training at Camp Bradford and Fort Pierce, he was assigned to the USS Ostara (AKA-33) where he rode in LCVPs transporting troops and supplies throughout the Pacific. Although it was not well-armored, it survived floating mines that bounced off the ship. Arriving at Manila toward the end of the war, Caposella witnessed great devastation and poverty. He recalls the hesitation of Japanese citizens when his ship brought the initial occupation forces ashore. After the war ended, he brought Marines to China, where he noticed the local population had very few women, presumably a result of kidnapping comfort women. Caposella was discharged in June 1946 and resumed his studies at Ohio State University.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Theodore Anderson. Anderson was drafted into the Navy in April of 1943. He graduated from the hospital corps in San Diego and worked at Long Beach Naval Hospital. As a hospital corpsman Anderson was assigned to the 13th Marines, 5th Marine Division artillery group H & S Battery in the fall of 1944. They traveled to Saipan in preparation for the Battle of Iwo Jima. Anderson provides details of his experiences at Iwo Jima, including serving as a roaming hospital corpsman on the island, how he was severely wounded by a mortar and witnessed the raising of the American flag on Mt. Suribachi. He was discharged in October of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Frederick Coffee. Coffee was born in Decatur, Indiana 16 August 1923 and graduated from high school in 1942. Upon joining the Navy, he underwent eight weeks of boot training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, Illinois before entering Aviation Machinist School. He was then sent to Memphis, Tennessee for radio and radar training. After that, he attended gunnery school at Hollywood, Florida before going Ft. Lauderdale where he was assigned as a crew member on a TBM. The crew was assigned to VT-85 on the USS Shangri-La (CVE-38). He supported the invasion of Okinawa and participated in raids over Japan. On 29 April 1945 his plane was shot down while on a bombing mission over Kikai Jima. Coffee was severely burned before he and the pilot bailed out. The pilot did not survive. Coffee was picked up by a seaplane from Rescue Squadron VH-3 and taken to the USS St. George (AV-16) for treatment. He was put on board a hospital ship and taken to Oak Knoll Naval Hospital where he was treated for gangrene on his severely burned legs. He was then taken to the Naval …