The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Lee White. He discusses his childhood and education and what led him to join the US Air Force. He describes his experiences during training and fighting in the Pacific Theatre during World War Two.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Travis Smith. Smith joined the Army Air Forces in September 1942. He qualified as a pilot trainee and began training in San Antonio. In May, 1944, he graduated and received his commission. Smith went overseas to the Philippines, arriving in March, 1945. Later, he moved to Okinawa and flew bomber escort for bombing missions to China and Japan. He flew over 50 combat missions before the war ended and then went to japan on occupation duty. Smith was discharged in 1946, but stayed in the reserves.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Robert Lee Thomas. Thomas joined the Army in December 1944. He describes his training in intelligence and reconnaissance. Thomas was sent to the Philippines as a replacement and details going through a typhoon en route. He arrived in Manila after the city had been recaptured and was assigned to the Military Police. Thomas discusses some of the incidents he encountered during his duties including looking for a murder suspect and raiding a house of ill repute. He also served as a guard for General MacArthur in Manila and mentions how well he was fed in the kitchen during his shifts. Thomas returned to the US and was discharged in December of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Leo Bowden. Bowden joined the Army Air Forces in October of 1943. He served as a B-29 gunner with a replacement crew in the Pacific. He traveled to Saipan, Tinian and Guam, and shares his living conditions on the Pacific islands. Bowden flew around 15 missions from May of 1944 through August of 1945. He conducted several bombing missions over Japan. He received his discharge in March of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Bill Dean. Dean joined the Army in September of 1944. He served with the 283rd Combat Engineers and was assigned to Lauf, Germany. He assisted in building a pontoon bridge across the Rhine River. After the war ended, Dean served on guard duty atop the bridge. He was later trained on purifying water for the troops. He returned to the US and was discharged in August of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Craig. Craig was born in Freeport, Pennsylvania in 1918. Following graduation from high school he was employed by Allegheny Steel Corporation. He was drafted into the United States Army Air Forces in May 1942 and completed basic training at Miami Beach, Florida. He was then sent to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama as a clerk in an Army Airways Communications System (AACS) unit. He describes the unusual living accommodations during that period. He recalls being transferred to Casablanca, North Africa to the 4th AACS Wing in 1944. He returned to the United States during 1945 and was discharged.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Lile Springs. Springs was born 14 April 1925, in Hope, Arkansas. He worked on a farm with his father until 1943. He received a draft notice, though after his examinations he received a 4-F classification, unfit for military service. Springs went on to welding school in Little Rock. He later worked on welding war ships in Mobile at the Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation, and in Bremerton, Washington at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. In 1945, he joined the Washington State Guard, and in November Springs was accepted into the Army Air Forces. He made the Air Force his career for the following 30 years. He retired in November, 1975 from the 12th Air Force at Bergstrom AFB in Austin, Texas. During his military career, Springs served as Base Sergeant Major and Cofounder and Commandant of the NCO Leadership School at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. He also served as the Senior Enlisted Advisor to Major General Davis, Headquarters 19th Air Force, Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina. Springs also served in the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Julius Erdos. Erdos joined the Army Air Forces in April, 1943. After basic, he went to Biloxi to train as an engine mechanic. In January 1944 Erdos went to Tinian to be a B-29 mechanic. He returned to the US in December. Erdos shares several anecdotes about his time in the service.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Alex Moskowitz. Moskowitz was drafted into the Army in January 1943. After basic training in Virginia, he was assigned to the 284th Ordnance Heavy Maintenance Company and headed overseas. He recalls experiences from the invasion of Leyte and hauling supplies and men ashore aboard DUKW vehicles and LVTs. He also went to Okinawa. When the war ended, his unit went to Kyushu. Moskowitz relates several experiences during his time in combat and during the occupation. He was discharged in January 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Charles Meacham. Meacham was born in Roanoke County, California in 1925. At the age of 17, he dropped out of high school and joined the Marine Corps. Upon completion of boot camp, he volunteered for the Marine Raiders. In 1943, Meacham was assigned to Company K, 3rd Marine Raider Battalion. He tells of serving in combat on Bougainville, Guam and Okinawa and the use of Navajo Code Talkers and war dogs during various operations. He suffered a debilitating injury that led to a lengthy hospitalization and a medical discharge in November 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Fred Harvey. Harvey was born in Memphis, Texas on 29 October 1923. He relates some of the hardships the family of eight children endured during the Great Depression. Upon quitting high school, he joined the United States Marine Corps in 1942. Following boot camp, he was selected for the Paramarines and relates his experiences during his training as a Marine paratrooper. He remembers the conditions aboard the transport ships, the mission to Vella Lavella and incidents on Bougainville and New Caledonia, including an overdose of Atabrine. He recalls landing on Iwo Jima and his experiences there including being severely wounded.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Yvonne Goodier Charles. Charles was born 10 September 1926 in Silver City, New Mexico. In November of 1933, her father was offered a mining job in Manila, Philippines and their family moved. In early 1942, after the outbreak of WWII, Charles and her family were imprisoned by Japanese forces in Santo Tomas Internment Camp, where they remained until their liberation in early 1945. Charles shares intimate details of their experiences in the camp.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Elizabeth L. (Liz) Irvine. Irvine was born 5 July 1927 in Baguio, Philippine Islands, where her parents were teachers. They lived most of the time in Manila, until the outbreak of WWII, at which time they were imprisoned in 1942 by Japanese forces in Santo Tomas Internment Camp for the next three years, until liberation in early 1945. After the war ended in 1945, she and her parents moved to the United States. Liz shares intimate details of their experiences in the camp.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Paul Scott Medley. Medley joined the Navy around the spring of 1943. In late summer, he deployed to Tulagi in the Solomon Islands. He then served as Seaman First Class aboard USS Crescent City (APA-21), and traveled across the equator, where he shares his pollywog hazing stories. His battle station aboard the ship was loading ammunition in the anti-aircraft and five-inch guns. He shares combat experiences in shuttling Marines aboard a Higgins boat at Guadalcanal and for the invasions of Peleliu and Leyte. Medley shares experiences of kamikaze planes trying to attack the Crescent City. He returned home in late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Barret (Bud) Payne. Payne joined the Marine Corps in June of 1943. He completed boot camp in San Diego. He completed Radio Gunnery School, and served as a Private First-Class Radio Gunner aboard a Curtiss SB2C Helldiver. For a short time, he was assigned to Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 141 (VMSB-141) at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, California. They were transferred to Hawaii, and later to Majuro in the Marshall Islands. In early 1945, Payne completed 7 missions from Majuro, including over the Mili and Watje atolls. He was stationed in Majuro when the war ended. He worked in occupied China from October through April of 1946, returned home and received his discharge.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with David Glenn Cooke, Jr. Cooke joined the Marine Corps in 1943. He completed boot camp in San Diego, then was assigned to the Naval Air Station in Norman, Oklahoma, where he trained as an ordnance ground crewman. Additionally, he serviced F-4F and F-6F airplanes at Pendleton. He provides details of his training, serving as Corporal of the Guard (COG) and completing all three of his service years stateside. He was discharged in July of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Clift Price. Price graduated from high school in 1940, at age 16. He completed pre-med at the University of Texas at Austin, graduating in 1943. While in college and throughout medical school, Price was in the V-12 Navy College Training Program. Price was enlisted from September to November of 1943, 4 weeks, at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station as an apprentice seaman. He was assigned to hospital corps duty, and assigned to retrieve the deceased from airplane crash sites. Price began medical school the first part of 1944, and graduated in March of 1947 at UT Medical Branch. He received 3 years of military duty from his time in the V-12 program. Price later served as a Navy medical officer on a troop carrier and one of only two doctors on a battleship during the Korean War. His tour in the Navy ended in March of 1953.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Luther Azel Bookout. Bookout joined the Marine Corps in July of 1941 to attend Officer Training School, and was called to active duty in 1942. He was assigned to Field Artillery School and joined C Battery, 1st Battalion, 12th Marines, 3rd Marine Division, and was promoted to first lieutenant. He landed in Auckland, New Zealand on early 1943, then redeployed in July to Guadalcanal. Luther participated in the battles of Bougainville, Guam, and Iwo Jima. Bookout resigned his commission on 7 June 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Maxine Flournoy. Flournoy received her pilot’s license through the Civil Pilot Trailing at Joplin Junior College, Missouri in 1941. Beginning in 1943, she served as a pilot with the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), furthering her training in Sweetwater, Texas. She then transferred to an Army base in Hondo, Texas for Navigation School, where she lived in the barracks with other female pilots. Flournoy notes that she trained aboard an AT-7 and a C-60, receiving the same training as her male counterparts, except for combat training. They were later sent to Officer Training School in Orlando, Florida. When the WASPs disbanded in December of 1944, Flournoy went on to serve as a commercial pilot in Alice, Texas. She shares numerous details of her life experiences in WASP.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Edith Scott. Scott graduated from high school in 1942. She began nursing school in October of 1943 at John Sealey College of Nursing (now the University of Texas Nursing School) in Austin. She joined the US Cadet Nurse Corps and graduated in 1946, after the war ended. She describes in detail her experiences through nursing school and corps training. Scott also notes that there were several Japanese ladies going through training with her. She goes on to share her life pursuits after graduation.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Archie W. Scott. Scott joined the Marine Corps in 1942. He entered the V-12 Program, and was sent to Georgia Tech to train further as an engineer. He transferred to California, and attended Field Telephone School. He was then assigned to USS Rochambeau (AP-63), and served in communications, and on the 8-inch gun. They traveled to Pearl Harbor, where he joined the Third Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment. They participated in the Guadalcanal, Eastern New Guinea, New Britain, Peleliu and Okinawa campaigns. He shares details of his combat experiences, injuries and receiving two Purple Hearts during the battles on Peleliu and Okinawa. Beginning in April 1946, they participated in the occupation of North China. Scott returned to the US and received his discharge in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Frank J. Nemec. Nemec joined the Marine Corps in early 1942. He received light and medium tanks training, and served with Company B of the 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division. He participated in the invasions at New Britain, Peleliu, and Okinawa. Frank also served at Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Pavuvu, and the Goodenough Islands. He spent 28 months in the war zone, plus a 3-month occupational duty in China after the war. Nemec’s unit was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for the Guadalcanal and the Okinawa operations. He was honorably discharged on 3 July 1946.

The National Museum of the pacific War presents an oral interview with William Gregory. Gregory finished high school in 1938 and qualified for the Army Air Corps aviation cadet program. Gregory earned his wings in mid-1942 and was assigned to England, arriving in late 1942 where he joined the 49th Pursuit Squadron. He then traveled to North Africa. He also escorted bombers during the invasion of Sicily. He flew a P-38. He completed 50 missions by October 1943 and returned to the US, where he remained until the war ended. He stayed in the Air Force, working as an operations officer within a U-2 reconnaissance squadron in Japan.

The National Museum of the pacific War presents an oral interview with Nicholas Fedesma. Fedesma joined the Navy when he was 17 in 1942. After training, he was assigned to Composite Squadron 21 (VC-21) and went aboard USS Marcus Island (CVE-77) in March 1944. He specialized in aviation hydraulics. Fedesma recounts several anecdotes about his experiences aboard the Marcus Island. After he left the Navy in 1848, Fedesma studied mechanical engineering in Chicago on the GI Bill.