The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Lyall Dean. Dean was born in Westchester, New York on 19 October 1918. He attended Deerfield Academy prior to attending Union College until June 1941. Joining the US Marine Corps 2 February 1942 he attended boot camp at Parris Island. He went to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina for additional training at which time he was assigned to the 1st Marine Division, H Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. He recalls boarding the USS George Elliott (AP-105) for a 21 day trip to Wellington, New Zealand. Upon their arrival the unit was put to work unloading the ship so it could be combat loaded for the landing on Guadalcanal. Upon landing on Guadalcanal on 7 August 1942 he was assigned to the headquarters company. While not directly involved in the 21 August 1942 battle of the Tenaru River he witnessed the sounds and sights of the battle. Several days later he was removed from the headquarters company and assigned to the 2nd platoon as one of the replacements for those lost in the battle. He tells of daily bombings and bombardment by Japanese ships. Dean recalls being relieved by …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Rhollie Nix. Nix joined the Navy in 1943. He completed schooling for welding, metallurgy and diving. He served as Second-Class Petty Officer and deep-sea diver aboard USS Cebu (ARG-6). He assisted with underwater welding repairs of LST propellers. They traveled to the Admiralty Islands, the Philippines, Okinawa and Japan. He was discharged around 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Wayburn Hall. Hall was born 9 May 1925 in Gandy, Louisiana. He describes family life during the depression. Joining the Marine Corps 9 February 1943 under the V-12 program he went to the University of South Louisiana in Lafayette. After one semester, Hall was withdrawn from the program and sent to San Diego for boot training. He recalls his training and experiences during boot camp, which included two weeks of firearm training. Upon graduating, he was selected for 81mm mortar training and went to Camp Elliott for training. He describes in detail the crew compliment of a mortar team and the training they received. During February 1944 the graduates boarded a ship for a fifteen day trip to Noumea, New Caledonia. After taking part in intense advanced training, he was sent to Gavutu and assigned to Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines. In September 1944 the division boarded USS LST-607 for a 1500 mile trip to Peleliu. Hall was in the first wave in the invasion of Peleliu. He was wounded soon after landing and was treated by a Navy corpsman prior to being taken to a hospital …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Stephen Boykin. Boykin joined the Marine Corps in August of 1940. In 1942, he was in the second wave entering the Guadalcanal Campaign, where he was severely wounded by a grenade. In early 1943, after being hospitalized, he was sent back to the US for one year of physical therapy. Boykin received a medical discharge in early 1944.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Whitney Jacobs. Born in 1922, he enlisted in the Marine Corps in January 1942. He was assigned to the First Division and sent to Wellington, New Zealand where they prepared to go to Guadalcanal. He mentions the dock workers strike. He describes his experiences as a machine gunner on Guadalcanal. He recounts his actions during the Battle of the Tenaru River for which he was awarded the Navy Cross. He shares an anecdote about the award ceremony in Australia. He also fought in the Battle of Cape Gloucester on the island of New Britain. He served in the Pacific for approximately two years and then transferred to assignments in the United States. He was discharged in October 1945. He used the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill) to attend Harvard University.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Leo Schmittgens. Schmittgens joined the Marine Corps in April of 1944. He completed training as an 81mm mortar man, and served with the 1st Marine Division. He traveled to Guadalcanal and Ulithi for additional training, and participated in the Battle of Okinawa. They remained on the island through the end of the war. He was discharged in April of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Arthur Pendleton. Pendleton joined the Marine Corps in 1940. In 1942, he deployed to Fiji and then New Guinea for additional combat training. They participated in the Guadalcanal Campaign. He provides vivid details of his time on Guadalcanal, including living, working and combat conditions. They also participated in the Battle of Cape Gloucester. He was discharged in January of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Harold Bond. Bond was drafted and entered the Navy in 1942. Upon completion of boot camp at Samson Naval Training Base in New York, he was assigned to the USS Cebu (ARG-6), which was in the Baltimore ship yard. He went to Pearl Harbor and describes the destruction he observed. Aboard the Cebu, Bond proceeded to Manus Island. While at anchorage there, the USS Mount Hood (AE-11) exploded and severely damaged the USS Mindanao (ARG-3), which was moored alongside. Five of the crewmen aboard the Cebu where killed by the blast. The ship then went to Leyte Gulf remaining there for seven months before proceeding to Okinawa where the crew weathered a typhoon. Bond recalls going to Japan before returning to the United States.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Tom Schicher. Schicher joined the Marine Corps in March of 1944. He served as a rifleman and mortarman, and deployed to Hawaii as a replacement. They traveled to the Russell Islands and Guadalcanal practicing maneuvers. He participated in the Battle of Okinawa. After the war ended, he was assigned to occupation duty in China. Schicher returned to the US and was discharged around 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Young. Upon completion of boot camp, Young was assigned to H company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Regiment, 1st Marine Division. He landed on Guadalcanal on 7 August 1942. He describes the slow progress through the jungle, the shortages of water and of being bombed, strafed and shelled every day. He describes the battle of the Tenaru River and the high casualties inflicted upon the Japanese as they made numerous banzai charges. Young relates the experience of being subjected to bombardment by Japanese ships. The unit went to Melbourne, Australia, after being relieved, for replacements and refitting. His unit then landed on Cape Gloucester and Young tells of contending with dense jungles, wind and rain. After a brief time on Pavuvu, where he describes the nuisance created by land crabs and rats they landed on Peleliu. He recalls various anecdotes involving the battle including the confusion, the damage incurred by enemy artillery, and the high casualties suffered by the landing force.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Harry Colson. Colson joined the Navy in December of 1943. He served as Watertender Third-Class aboard the USS Missouri (BB-63). They participated in bombardment support for the invasion landings on Iwo Jima and throughout the Okinawa Campaign. Colson was aboard the Missouri on 2 September 1945 in Tokyo Bay, when the Instrument of Surrender was signed. Colson returned to the US aboard the ship, and was discharged in January of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Dillon. Dillon entered the Navy in April 1942 before finishing high school. After basic training in Rhode Island, he went to radio operator school in New York City. From there, Dillon volunteered for submarines and headed for training in Connecticut. He was then assigned to the USS Sailfish (SS-192) in January 1943. Dillon shares several anecdotes of his time aboard the Sailfish during various war patrols with a lot of detail about daily life aboard a submarine. Dillon served in the communications department, monitoring the radio, radar and sonar.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with J. Kenneth Duncan. Duncan was born in Lowell, Indiana 12 February 1920. Upon completing high school in 1939 he attended Purdue University for two years. Drafted into the Army in 1942, he went to Camp Atterbury, Indiana for basic and medical training. He then went to Fort Benning and took charge of the base dispensary. Not caring for that job, he joined the 160th Combat Engineers. After finishing engineer training at Fort Meade, Maryland he went to Fort Ethan Allen for advanced training in bridge building. After maneuvers in Tennessee he went to Fort Rucker, Alabama for more reconnaissance and engineering training. In August 1944 the unit boarded HMS Queen Elizabeth bound for England. Upon arrival, they traveled to a temporary camp where they practiced building pontoon bridges, Bailey bridges and fixed bridges. On 1 August 1944 the unit was transported to Omaha Beach by LST. Duncan recalls completing their first bridge over the Seine River at Gironville, France. Duncan was wounded on five different occasions and he describes how each occurred. He had several personal encounters with General George Patton and met General Eisenhower in Le Havre …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Joe Fields. He was born in Benton, Kentucky on 29 June 1926. Upon graduation from high school in May, 1944, he enlisted in the Navy and was sent to basic training at Great Lakes, Illinois. Fields describes several of his experiences while in boot camp. He attended Radio Operator’s School and was assigned as a member of the commissioning crew of USS LSM-96. The vessel sailed to Pearl Harbor, embarked a radar intercept squadron (8th Air Warning Squadron) and landed them on a small island off of Okinawa on 1 April 1945. He describes the efforts made by his crew in assisting several American ships in distress over the ensuing days, including evacuating patients from the hospital ship USS Pinkney (APH-2), which had been hit by a kamikaze. Fields’ ship remained in the area over the ensuing months preparing for the invasion of Japan. In September 1945, his ship was diverted to northern China to deliver two companies of Marines and returned in March 1946 to Portland, Oregon where the vessel was decommissioned. He changed his rating from Radioman Second Class to Radarman Second Class near the end …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Hugh Fuller. Fuller was born in Rogers, Texas 17 October 1924. He was drafted into the Army in 1942 and received his basic training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. He recalls his time at boot camp and that he was assigned to the 69th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized), 69th Infantry Division upon completion. During training at Fort Knox, Kentucky he recalls meeting and speaking with President Roosevelt. Fuller was sent to England shortly after the Allied landing on D-Day. He landed in France from an LST, and then marched into Belgium and Germany. He describes several of the reconnaissance missions carried out by his unit while assigned to the First Army, including some during the Battle of the Bulge. He recalls the day his unit arrived at Buchenwald Concentration Camp and he remembers the horrific conditions encountered. He describes several USO shows while in Germany. Following the end of the war, he embarked on a troop ship in Le Havre, France and sailed back to the US where he was discharged.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Walden Franzen. Franzen joined the Navy in 1937. He became a plane captain with VB-3 and served on the USS Saratoga (CV-3) and the USS Ranger (CV-4). Franzen mentions life on board ship and the difference between the two carriers. He went on to serve as a crew chief on a PBY in the Caribbean and later as a maintenance supervisor for a utility squadron that served along the East Coast. Franzen remained in the Navy after the war, and retired in 1957.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William A. Gill. Gill was born on 6 April 1921 in Newark, New Jersey and enlisted in the Navy in April 1942. He relates several anecdotes from his time in Great Lakes, Illinois where he attended basic training and quartermaster school. He volunteered for motor torpedo boat training in Melville, Rhode Island. Upon completing his training he was assigned to the commissioning crew of PT-166, which was part of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Ten. He recalls that following training in Panama, the boat was loaded aboard a fleet oiler with other boats in the squadron, and delivered to the Solomon Islands in June 1943. He recalls operating out of Tulagi and a friendly fire incident in which PT-166 was destroyed by a B-25. Gill was then assigned to PT-171 and he recalls his boat’s involvement in supporting the American invasion of New Georgia in July 1943. He recalls searching for survivors the night that PT-109 was cut in half by a Japanese destroyer. In May 1944 he returned to the United States and, after recovering from a bout with malaria, he was sent to a PT boat base …

The National Museum of the pacific War presents an oral interview with Raymond Strohmeyer. Strohmeyer enlisted in the Marine Corps in October, 1942. He trained in San Diego. Once he was shipped to New Caledonia as a replacement, he volunteered for the Marine Raiders and was attached to the 2nd Raider Battalion. He was with them when they went to Bougainville in November, 1943. He left after ten weeks in combat. His unit went to Saipan, but was never called ashore from the floating reserve. They went to Guam, instead. Strohmeyer describes taking the airfield on Guam and other combat actions. He also participated in the invasion of Okinawa. He carried a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) in his squad. He was eventually wounded on 19 May and evacuated to an Army hospital, from which he was flown to Guam two days later. He rejoined his outfit in time to go to Japan after the surrender. Strohmeyer was discharged in November, 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Ward. Ward joined the Navy in June of 1940. He served aboard USS President Adams (APA-19) as a Higgins Boat Coxswain. They deployed to Guadalcanal, landing Marine forces ashore. He later served in a boat pool ashore in the vicinity of Henderson Field. In September of 1942, Ward served in the Gunnery Department aboard USS Saratoga (CV-3), working as a hot shell man. Ward was aboard the Saratoga during the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, the New Georgia Campaign, the invasion of Bougainville, the Gilbert and Marshall Islands Campaign and the Battle of Iwo Jima. In May of 1945, Ward was transferred to a repair base in San Diego for shore duty. He was discharged in October of 1947.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Cecil Young. Young was born in Bowie, Texas on 2 October 1919. After graduating from high school in 1937, he attended Abilene Christian College on a football scholarship. After graduating from college in June 1941, he began a coaching career. He entered the Navy in June 1942 as a Chief Petty Officer and went to Norfolk, Virginia for two weeks of boot training. He then went to Little Creek, Virginia for three months of amphibious training. Upon completion of the training he boarded a ship bound for Algiers. He spent one year as a member of the staff preparing for the invasion of Italy. At this time Young received notification of promotion to ensign and reported to New York to attend a school. At the end of three weeks he was sent to the University of Arizona for training in communications. Upon completion of the course, he was sent to Coronado, California where he trained in the operation of LCVP landing craft. In August 1944 he boarded the USS Carteret (APA-70) carrying eight LCVPs and combat troops for the invasion of Iwo Jima. He describes combat and observed …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Howard Williams. Williams joined the Navy at 15 years old after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He joined the crew of the USS Cushing (DD-376). Williams describes picking up downed airmen after the Hornet was sunk at the Battle of Santa Cruz. He also discusses being blown over the side of his ship when it was critically hit during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. Williams mentions seeing the Japanese shell Henderson Field and catching malaria while he was on Guadalcanal. He describes what happened when the Navy learned that he was under age and how he was assigned to shore duty. Williams was discharged when he had enough points in May 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Glen Holder. Holder joined the Army Air Forces in August of 1940. Beginning August of 1943, Holder served as a P38 pilot with the 35th Fighter Squadron, 8th Fighter Group, completing 153 missions in the Pacific. He completed combat missions over New Guinea, Cape Gloucester, the Philippines and Morotai. He recalls Charles Lindbergh flying with his squadron, teaching them methods to double their fuel over water. He returned to the US and was discharged in mid-1945. Holder continued his service after the war, retiring from the reserves around 1972.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Thomas Ruttan. Ruttan joined the Marine Corps in November 1942. He was assigned to the First Marine Division. Ruttan briefly discusses his combat experiences during the battles of Cape Glouster, Peleliu, and Okinawa. He then traveled to China after the surrender. Ruttan describes his journey home by ship. He left the service soon after his return to the US.