Interview with Raymond F. "Hap" Halloran, businessman and U.S. Army Air Force WWII Veteran (878th Bomb Squadron, 499th Bomb Group, 73rd Bomb Wing, 20th Air Force) concerning his experiences as a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese during World War II.

Transcript of an interview with Paul Hudgins, U.S. Army World War II Veteran, illustrator, and author. Hudgins discusses his childhood in Texas; family history; enlistment in U.S. Army as a medic; staged in France on V-E Day; stationed on hospital train running between Germany and France; post-war college; artistic career; writing career; Honor Flight trip. Appendix includes illustrations and short stories by Hudgins as well as photographs.

Transcript of an interview with William Wayne Kitts, U.S. Navy anti-submarine warfare veteran of World War II. Kitts shares concerning his childhood and family history in Sulphur Springs, Texas; college at the University of Texas during the Depression; musical background; enlistment in the U.S. Navy shortly after the attack at Pearl Harbor; midshipman school in New York City and selection for sonar school in Key West, Florida; assignment to USS Mason, the first ship in the navy with an integrated crew; post-war duty as commanding officer of USS Hollis and USS Tollberg; role in establishing Naval Reserve Training Center in Lubbock, Texas; reactivation to active duty during Korean War; and his post-military career at Vought Aeronautics.

Transcript of an interview with William Hatcher, a World War II Army veteran (29th Bomb Group, 20th Air Force). Hatcher discusses concerning his his childhood and education; family's experiences in the Great Depression; decision to attend University of Tennessee-Knoxville and major in mechanical engineering; memories of Pearl Harbor attack; decision to join U.S. Army Enlisted Reserve Corps in 1942; 1943 call-up; basic training at Ft. Belvoir, Va.; instruction in engineering, communications, and radar repair at City College of New York and Chanute Field, Ill.; assignments to Truax Field, Wis., and Boca Raton, Fla.; meeting future wife, Jean E. Sheppard, at USO Club in West Palm Beach, Fla.; transfer to B-29 unit and bases in Neb. And Kan.; deployment to Guam with 29th Bomb Group, 20th Air Force, March 1945; details of high-altitude radar repair work; aspects of daily life for American soldiers stationed in Guam; descriptions of devastation of Japan, including Hiroshima; transfer to base on Tinian; return to U.S. in February 1946; wedding; return to UT-Knoxville using GI Bill benefits; work at Oak Ridge; decision to transfer to University of New Mexico for Mrs. Hatcher's health; career with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Convair Corp. of Fort Worth; …

Transcript of an interview with Robert E. Yerger, a Navy veteran, concerning his experiences as a flying boat pilot in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Yerger discusses his decision to enlist in the Navy, May, 1942; basic flight training, Naval Air Station, Grand Prairie, Texas, 1942; advanced flight training, Naval Air Station, Corpus Christi, Texas, 1942; PBY flying boat training at Corpus Christi, 1942-43; his tenure as a flight instructor, Chase Field, Beeville, Texas, 1943; assignment as a base personnel officer at Chase Field, 1943-45; flying PB2Y flying boats with cargo and personnel in the Pacific, 1945; activities on Majuro Island; his experience flying the Martin Mars flying boat; mustering out of the service, August, 1946.

Transcript of an interview with Roy D. Much, Army veteran (987th Field Artillery Battalion), concerning his experiences in the European Theater during World War II. Much discusses his pre-war education and employment; basic training in the artillery, Camp Bowie, Brownwood, Texas, 1942; and general comments about his experiences at Normandy, Saint-Lô, liberation of Paris, Huertgen Forest, Remagen Bridge, Battle of the Bulge, and the liberation of Czechoslovakia.

Transcript of an interview with Daniel Thomas, a Navy veteran (4th Marine Division), concerning his experiences while attached to the 4th Marine Division as a medic in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Thomas discusses his decision to join the Navy in 1943; Hospital Corps School, San Diego, 1943; assignment to the Fleet Marine Force; Field Medical School, 1944; assignment to the 4th Marine Division, 1944; Iwo Jima, February, 1945; detailed description of casualties and their treatment during the battle for Iwo Jima; and the postwar effects of his Iwo Jima experience.

Transcript of an interview with Anne Pearsall Karr from Elgin, Illinois, concerning her experiences on the home front during World War II. Karr discusses her youth in Elgin, Illinois; effects of Depression on Pearsall family; college at Iowa State; courtship with Kenneth Karr, her future husband; reaction to Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor; changes on Iowa State campus after American entry into World War II; wartime rationing and Victory Gardens; effects on Pearsall family having a son and daughter in military service; her marriage to Kenneth Karr, early 1944; housing shortage in Corpus Christi, Texas, during World War II; birth of their daughter; wartime entertainment; experiences as a military wife; attitudes toward the Japanese; husband's training as a naval air cadet at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station. Appendix includes various photographs [5] pages.

Transcript of an interview with Ralph W. Nelson, a Navy veteran, concerning his experiences while aboard the submarines USS Batfish and USS Parche in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Submarine School, San Francisco, California, 1942; early torpedo problems; his responsibilities as a fire controlman; assignment to the Batfish, 1944; various patrols in the Luzon Strait and Makassar Strait; lifeguard duty off Palau for downed airmen; transfer to the Parche, 1945.

Transcript of an interview with Ernest A. Brown, an Army Air Corps veteran, concerning his experiences at Bellows Field with the 72th Bomb Squadron at Bellows Field during the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Includes appendix of various military documents.

Warren Whitson, Jr., a businessman and an Army Air Corps veteran (493rd Bomb Group, 860th Bomb Squadron, 8th Air Force), concerning his experiences as a B-17 pilot in the European Theater during World War II. Whitson discusses his pre-flight and flight training in 1943, his assignment to the 493rd Bomb Group, 860th Bomb Squadron at Stone, England, the characteristics of the B-17G, his first mission in Berlin, problems with flak, tactics to counter German radar, his engine trouble and crash landing in eastern Germany, his rescue by Russian troops, his trip by C-47 back to England via Poltava, Tehran, Cairo, Tripoli, and Dijon, his assignment to a new crew, being shot down by German fighter planes on his seventeenth mission, his brief experiences as a POW, and his liberation by British troops.

Transcript of an interview with William D. Whitson, a businessman and an Army Air Corps veteran (442nd Bomb Squadron, 8th Air Force), from Denton, Texas, concerning his experiences as a B-17 pilot in the European Theater during World War II. Whitson discusses flight training, his flight from the U.S. to Grafton-Underwood, England, his personal relationship with Curtis Le May, his missions and German defenses, his nineteenth mission and crash landing, and his twenty-fifth mission.

Transcript of an interview with John McVean, a Marine Corps veteran, concerning his experiences aboard the battleship USS West Virginia during the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Transcript of an interview with John Cowden, a Navy veteran from Missouri, concerning his experiences aboard the battleship USS West Virginia during the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Interview with Rudy Kiehne, a Navy veteran, concerning his experiences while aboard the battleship USS Maryland during the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Interview with Luther Strange, an Army Air Corps veteran, concerning his experiences at Hickam Field with the Headquarters Squadron during the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Interview with William E. Moore Jr., a Army WWII veteran from Temple, Texas, who was present at the attack on Pearl Harbor. Moore discusses his time in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M, assignment to 24th Division Artillery at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, training and alerts, the attack at Wheeler Field and taking defensive positions around Oahu, and service afterwards.

Interview with Charles M. Lagow, a Army WWII veteran from Dallas, Texas. Lagow discusses his family history, attending Texas A&M, joining the CCC, the lead up to war, activation and training with the 352nd Engineer Battalion, deployment to Khorramshahr, Iran, building roads, delivering supplies to the Soviets, crash landing in a B-17 in Palestine, returning to the States and transfer to the 1346th Eng. Bat., deployment to Okinawa, occupation duty and Japanese holdouts, thoughts on Hideki Tojo, attitudes towards the Japanese, shell shock and mental breakdowns, the atomic bomb, and life after the war.

Interview with General John Roberts, a Air Force WWII veteran from Arkansas, who served for over twenty years with General Roger Ramey of Denton, Texas. Roberts discusses Ramey's background and his own, Army Air Corps pilot training, the start of the war and assignment under Ramey, changing commands and transition to the B-29, Curtis LeMay, the atomic bomb, postwar work, Ramey's health and death, his relationships with various figures, Douglas MacArthur and Harry Truman, the racial integration of the Air Force, and the Roswell UFO incident. Some additional biographical information about Ramey is provided by Colonel Terry Garland.

Interview with Cleon Stewart, a Texas National Guard WWII veteran and POW from Tulia, Texas, who served and was captured with the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery (known as the "Lost Battalion"). Stewart discusses joining the National Guard, training and the Louisiana Maneuvers, deployment to the Pacific in November, 1941, diversion to Java after December 7th, Japanese air strikes and the invasion, the American surrender and initial internement by the Japanese, experiences in internment at Bicycle Camp in Batavia, transfer to Changi Camp, Singapore, and life in captivity there, and liberation.

Interview with Allen Stafford, a Texas National Guard WWII veteran from Kiowa County, Oklahoma, who served with the 124th Cavalry Regiment. Stafford discusses his early life, working in Texas oil fields, enlisting and training, deployment to the China-Burma-India Theater and reorganization as an infantry unit, combat operations with the Japanese around the Burma Road, and returning to the United States.

Interview with W. W. Hughes, a Texas National Guard WWII veteran from Grand Prarie, Texas. Hughes discusses growing up in the Great Depression, joining the National Guard and equestrian service in the 112th Cavalry at Fort Clark, the start of war and deployment to New Caledonia and Australia, preparations for combat, amphibious landings at Arawe Island off New Britain, scout patrols and combat, operations in New Guinea at the Driniumor River, Japanese POWs, actions in the Philippines at Leyte and Luzon, returning to the US as an instructor, and reflections on his service.

Interview with William Schiff, a Holocaust survivor from Kraków, Poland. Schiff discusses his family, antisemitism before the war, the invasion of Poland, being put into forced labor by the Germans and Poles, the ghetto and survival there, getting married, experiences in internment at Kraków-Płaszów, Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen, and Buchenwald concentration camps, liberation, returning to Kraków and finding his wife, and life afterwards.

Interview with Charles Kingsley, a Texas National Guard WWII veteran from Dallas, Texas, who served in the 112th Cavalry. Kingsley discusses his upbringing, joining the Guard, the Louisiana Maneuvers, deployment to New Caledonia, his troop's machine gun section/platoon, Woodlark Island, the Battle of Arawe, New Guinea and the Battle of Drinumor River, the Battles of Leyte and Luzon, his thoughts on the generals he served, and thoughts on the 112th.