Interview with Maurice Stamps, a serviceman in the U. S. Army during World War II. Stamps discusses growing up on a farm in Iowa, joining the army, going to Hawaii and staying at Schofield Barracks. He was assigned to the Classification/Assignment section at Fort Shafter without ever having basic training. He was later assigned to the Message Center at Ft. Shafter. He remembers his correspondence with his girlfriend Enid, whom he married upon his discharge in 1946.

Interview with Carl Peltier, a U. S Marine during World War II. He begins by discussing his reaction to the attack on Pearl Harbor. He then joined the Marines when he was old enough. He trained in San Diego before shipping out to Hawaii where he joined the 2nd Marine Division. Further training included heavy weapons and mortars. Later, he landed on Saipan and describes his small arms and rations. He witnessed General Simon Buckner getting killed on Okinawa. He was later wounded on Okinawa. After the war ended, Peltier served in the Pentagon during the Korean War.

Interview with Arwin Bowden, a marine during World War II. He begins by discussing his training in San Diego and New Zealand before the Battle of Tarawa. He describes being wounded in the battle, the casualties he saw, and being shipped back to Pearl Harbor for treatment before joining the battle of Saipan. He describes ancedotes about Japanese killing themselves rather than surrendering, eating food from a garden watered from rainwater running down from outhouses, the wages he made, and the time he had leave.

Interview with Bill Graham, a Marine during World War II. He begins by discussing joining the Navy and becoming a corpsman, then being transferred to the 2nd Marine Division after the Pearl Harbor attack. He also talks being in the first wave on Guadalcanal and various things that happened during the six months there, as well as contracting a severe strain of malaria, getting shipped back to the States and stationed near his home in Fort Worth, then returning to training in Virginia to prepare for an invasion of Japan.

Interview with Joseph Brown, who was in the Marine Corps during World War II. He discusses going to Guadalcanal, various guns and artillery he used, the battle of Tarawa and getting malaria just before it, then going to Hawaii for more training before returning to the South Pacific and fighting on Saipan and Tinian. He also discusses being wounded on Saipan, having a bayonet run through his forearm and keeping the bayonet as a souvenir after the war, and he talks about some of his experiences and travels after the war.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Rufus Johnson. He begins the interview with a summary of his life. Rufus Winfield Johnson was born in Montgomery County, Maryland in 1911. He was in the ROTC at Howard University. He earned his undergraduate degree in 1934 and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Reserves. In 1939 he received his LLB degree from the Howard University School of Law. He shares stories from his time working in the White House as lifeguard and personal butler to Franklin Delano Roosevelt prior to entering the armed forces. He served in the 92nd Infantry Division. He shares an anecdote about receiving a ten thousand dollar reward for shooting a bandit that preyed on American sailors in North Africa. He describes the campaigns of Sicily and North Apennines. He recounts an altercation with General Almond after which he was transferred to the 442nd Infantry Division. He describes his role in rescuing Company K of the 71st Infantry. He also recounts his capture and escape from German soldiers. He discusses the treatment of African American soldiers. He also served during the Korean War. He retired from the Army Reserves …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Rufus Johnson. He begins the interview with a summary of his life. Rufus Winfield Johnson was born in Montgomery County, Maryland in 1911. He was in the ROTC at Howard University. He earned his undergraduate degree in 1934 and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Reserves. In 1939 he received his LLB degree from the Howard University School of Law. He shares stories from his time working in the White House as lifeguard and personal butler to Franklin Delano Roosevelt prior to entering the armed forces. He served in the 92nd Infantry Division. He shares an anecdote about receiving a ten thousand dollar reward for shooting a bandit that preyed on American sailors in North Africa. He describes the campaigns of Sicily and North Apennines. He recounts an altercation with General Almond after which he was transferred to the 442nd Infantry Division. He describes his role in rescuing Company K of the 71st Infantry. He also recounts his capture and escape from German soldiers. He discusses the treatment of African American soldiers. He also served during the Korean War. He retired from the Army Reserves …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Richard Paine. Paine joined the Navy Reserves soon after 7 December 1941. He served as a photographer’s mate in charge of a photo printing lab in Washington DC. Paine briefly discusses the equipment he used. He was discharged in 1944 when he contracted a serious case of tuberculosis and took several years to recover.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Raymond Heller. Heller joined the Army in September 1944 and received basic training at Camp Hood. Upon completion, he was assigned to the 40th Infantry Division as a rifleman. In March 1945 he travelled to Leyte and was camped beside survivors of the Bataan Death March. He made patrols along various islands, to protect villagers from Japanese raids. While in the Philippines, he bought fresh fruits from natives. He recalls that although his unit prepared for a full-scale landing on Mindanao, it was unopposed, save for a lone Japanese soldier who charged with a sword. At Panay, Heller was treated by a medic for jungle rot. He then survived a typhoon on the way to Inchon. On V-J Day he saw USS Missouri (BB-63) break away from his convoy to celebrate by firing ammunition. Heller patrolled the 38th parallel, opposite the Russians. Heller returned home and was discharged in October 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Cecil Carlisle. Carlisle served in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M, and graduated in January of 1943 as a Corporal. He went on to complete Officer Candidate School and became a second lieutenant. He joined the Army, the Coast Artillery, working with automatic weapons including .50-caliber machine guns and 40mm antiaircraft cannons. He was first assigned to Camp Hahn in Riverside, California where he served as a platoon commander, conducting antiaircraft gunnery and field training. From there he was transferred to complete pilot training through the Army Air Forces and received his wings in the fall of 1944. He did not go overseas, as flights were halted to England as the war was scaling down. He then flew as copilot for Navigation Training School, back and forth from Texas to Florida. He was discharged in December of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Mr. Leslie Brandes. Brandes served in the Corps of Cadets and graduated from Texas A&M in 1941 with a commission in the infantry, though he did not begin active duty until June of 1942. He was assigned to the 8th Air Force as a second lieutenant. He traveled to Scotland aboard the Queen Mary. He completed flight training school as a Flight Control Officer in September of 1943, and was stationed in England with the 91st Bombardment Group. He worked as an Air Traffic Controller, and provides details of his work, room and board accommodations at his base, witnessing casualties and his travels to London. He participated in D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge, and shares his experiences through these fateful battles. He was discharged as a major in September of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Clinton Jennings. Jennings joined the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1937. He joined the Army in the spring of 1941. He completed training on the Island of Corregidor and served as Battery Clerk with the 59th Coast Artillery, K Battery. He describes how his unit responded to the attack on the Philippines in December of 1941, enduring bombings and raids by Japanese fighter planes. Jennings and his unit surrendered on 6 May 1942, and were taken to the 92nd Garage for sea planes, and then on to the Bilibid Prison. They traveled by French cattle cars on the railway to a prison camp called Bongabon, northeast of Cabanatuan. He remained there for several months, then moved to Cabanatuan prison camp for two and a half years, helping bury the dead, setting up a small hospital and planting a farm. Jennings shares vivid details of life in the camps, his work, their living and food accommodations, illnesses amongst the prisoners and interactions with the guards. In 1944 he was transported to Japan where he worked in a coal mine. He was rescued in September of 1945 and returned to the US.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with William Hewson. Hewson joined the Navy in April of 1943. He went to Alameda Naval Air Station and formed Composite Squadron 68 (VC-68), comprised of 12 TBMs and 16 Wildcats. He worked as a storekeeper striker. Beginning in spring of 1944 Hewson served as Storekeeper 2nd Class aboard the USS Fanshaw Bay (CVE-70). He oversaw all aviation mechanical supplies. They traveled to Pearl Harbor and Saipan. They participated in the Battle of Samar in late October of 1944, which Hewson provides vivid details of this event. They returned to San Diego in November. He was discharged in April of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Harry Hill. He was born at Fort Washakie, Wyoming on the Wind River Indian Reservation on 14 September 1920. Upon graduation from Texas A&M College in May 1942, he received a commission as a 2nd lieutenant in the Army Air Corps. He was immediately sent to Page Field, Fort Meyers, Florida and assigned to the B-24 Aircraft Maintenance Division. Soon thereafter, he underwent three months of advanced B-24 maintenance training at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Upon completion of the training he returned to Fort Meyers and was assigned to the 93rd Bomb Group. In September 1942 the maintenance personnel of the 93rd Bomb Group went by ship to Glasgow, Scotland. They then traveled by train to Hardwick Air Base, Norwich, England. Hill tells of repairing the aircraft upon their return from bombing raids. He remained in England until June 1945 when he returned to the United States aboard the RMS Queen Mary.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Homer Dean. Dean completed law school in 1940 at Baylor University. He joined the Texas State Defense Guard in 1941. Right after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Dean served as a contracting officer with the US Army Ordnance Department at Rock Island Arsenal in Davenport, Iowa. He was assigned to tour various Arsenals around the US. He was inducted into the Army as a private in San Antonio in January of 1943 and assigned to serve as an instructor in the repair, assembly and disassembly of the 75mm Pack Howitzer. He graduated Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia in November of 1944. He was then assigned to an Infantry Replacement Training Center in Fort McClellan, Alabama, instructing servicemen how to use the Browning Automatic Rifle and prosecuting soldiers who had committed various infractions. Dean was then sent to the University of Beijing in California to learn Chinese. He did not make it overseas before the war ended. He was discharged in December of 1945, though continued his service in the Reserves until 1970.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Mike C. Dillingham. Dillingham was born in Commerce, Texas 18 February 1912. Upon graduating from Texas A&M University in 1935, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Coast Artillery reserves. Called for active duty 19 April 1941 he reported to the 69th Coast Artillery (anti-aircraft) at Camp Hulen, Texas where he was assigned to Search Light Battery A. In November 1941 the battery went to Midland, Texas to practice using aircraft sound detection and search light equipment. Radar was not available and aircraft detection was made with large horn acoustic receiving devices. On 9 December 1941 the unit moved to San Diego to defend the aircraft production plant. In 1942, Dillingham was sent to Camp Davis, North Carolina to search light school. Upon completing the training he was sent to Fort Bliss, Texas to help establish the 233rd Search Light Battalion (anti- aircraft). In 1943 the battalion was provided with a radar (SCR268) receiving set and went to Fiji in September. In 1944, Dillingham was sent to New Caledonia as executive officer of the 518th Gun Battalion. The battalion arrived at Lingayen Gulf two days after the initial …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Foley. Foley joined the Marine Corps in September of 1942. He completed Scout Sniper School, and provides details of his training. Foley served with the 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division. He was deployed to Auckland, New Zealand, where he continued combat training, in preparation for operations. Foley’s first battle action was at Guadalcanal. He subsequently participated in three major beach landings, during the battles of Bougainville, Guam and Iwo Jima. He was discharged in September of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ernest Botard. Botard was born on a Texas ranch 28 December 1916. Graduating from high school in 1935, he attended Texas A&M University. He was called to active duty in February 1942, reporting to the Army’s 4th Calvary at Manhattan, Kansas where he received intensive training with horses. He was then sent to Fort Meade, South Dakota where his unit began training with vehicles. After spending six months training in the desert at Blithe, California the unit was sent to Camp Maxey at Paris, Texas. Here they prepared for overseas duty. Botard was placed in charge of D company and he describes the type of equipment the unit had. Departing the US in a large escorted convoy, they arrived in Portsmouth, England and began preparation for the invasion of Normandy. Botard landed at Utah Beach on 7 June 1944 and describes the problems getting the tanks and other equipment ashore. He describes in detail the battles in which he was involved and the difficulties presented by the hedgerows in the movement of his tanks. He recounts an incident where his column of tanks was proceeding down a road …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Richard Roper. Roper was born in Atchison, Kansas in 1922. He left college in 1941 and joined the United States Marine Corps. Upon completing boot camp he was sent to Parris Island and assigned to heavy artillery of the 5th Defense Battalion. He landed on Funafuti in the Ellice Islands on 2 October 1941. The only contact with the outside world was with a Navy boat that would come from Samoa weekly. He remembers there were two pontoon airplanes based on the island used for reconnaissance. During one evening patrol the pilot spotted a raft containing Eddie Rickenbacker and two others. The plane picked up the three men and taxied 40 miles before they were put aboard a small yard patrol boat. Others who had been with Rickenbacker when their plane went down were recovered from another atoll. Roper also tells of his life after leaving the Marine Corps, which included writing a book about 37 chaplains who were prisoners of the Japanese.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jimmy Tiller. Tiller went to A & M right out of high school in May 1943 and when he was 18 they all went into the military (December 1944). He took basic infantry training at Camp Hood and then went to Fort Ord, California for more training, climbing out of ships and onto landing barges. They were put on Liberty ships in July 1945 that sailed out of Seattle, Washington for Pearl Harbor. His ship joined a convoy there and they ended up on Okinawa (August 1945) where they joined the 27th Infantry Division. After a short time on Okinawa, they flew to Japan (Adsuki Field) where they started their duty as occupation troops. Tiller was a member of an Intelligence and Reconnaissance platoon on Okinawa and in Japan. When the 27th Infantry was shipped home, Tiller was transferred to the 519th military police (MP) outfit in Yokohama. While in Japan, Tiller escorted the Emperor and was the Sergeant of the Guard of MP's that were guarding the war crime trials. Tiller was on occupation duty in Japan for one year and provides many interesting stories of his …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Bill Sheehan. Sheehan joined the Navy in June of 1933. Beginning October of 1943, he served as Quartermaster aboard USS Porterfield (DD-682). In February of 1944, they provided shore bombardment in the Marshalls. In April, they screened escort carriers during the Marianas invasion, and participated in the Guam Campaign in August. Sheehan provides details of their invasion of Saipan in June and Okinawa in April of 1945. He returned to the US and was discharged in late 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Charles Ramsey. Ramsey joined the Navy in 1941 and attended aviation radio school in Alameda, California. Upon completion, he was assigned to the Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station, where he served as radioman in Patrol Squadron 1 and then Patrol Squadron 11. He describes the special treatment given to radiomen so that they could be well-rested and alert. During the attack on Kaneohe, Ramsey helped to shoot down the attack force's highest-ranking officer, Lieutenant Fusata Iida, commander of the Japanese 3rd Air Group. Ramsey was sent to San Diego eight months later to pick up a new plane, but his records were lost, and he was instead sent to the South Pacific on the USS Denver (CL-58), captained by Robert Carney. Ramsey flew night patrols at the Solomon Islands and covered the invasion of Bougainville. On the way to the invasion of the Philippines, his ship became lost in a typhoon. Ramsey used his aviation training to give the ship’s bearings to the radio officer. When the Denver arrived at Leyte, Ramsay witnessed the HUMS Yamashiro sink. The Japanese refused to be rescued by American lifeboats. Ramsey saw …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ray Bowden. Bowden joined the Navy in November 1938 and received basic training in San Diego. He went aboard the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) and was made coxswain of a liberty boat. During the attack on Pearl Harbor, he ran to his battle station. By the time he arrived, the ship had already been torpedoed seven times and was beginning to roll. He was hit by a piece of shrapnel that killed the men next to him but left him with only a broken rib. After the attack, he searched for his brother, who was also aboard the Oklahoma. He was safe at a nearby Marine encampment. Bowden participated in one diving mission as part of the effort to clean up the harbor, assessing damage and closing water-tight doors. Late in the war, he was transferred to the USS Santee (ACV-29) as a chief boatswain’s mate. He encountered kamikazes near Okinawa. At the end of the war, Bowden had enough points to be discharged but chose to remain in the Navy until 1947.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with John Tucker. Tucker joined the Navy in January of 1945. Beginning in the spring, he served as Storekeeper Third-Class aboard USS Remey (DD-688). They went through a typhoon close to Okinawa and provided shore bombardment in Alaska. They were docked on the coast of Japan when the Japanese surrendered. Tucker recalls Japanese officials from the city of Ōminatoa surrendering aboard the destroyer, and signing a peace treaty. They returned to the US in October of 1945, and Tucker was discharged in mid-1946.