The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Eugene Conklin. Conklin was born on 4 December 1923 in Chanute, Kansas. After graduating from high school he attended junior college and participated in the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he entered the Naval Aviator Cadet program. After taking primary training at Norman, Oklahoma he was sent to Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, Texas for advanced training. Upon graduation he was sent to Daytona Beach where he began flying the SBD dive bomber. After six months of training in the SBD he was assigned to Air Group sixteen aboard the USS Lexington (CV-16). He tells of attacking various islands in the Pacific and his participation the Battle of the Philippine Sea. He admired for Admiral Mitscher for turning on the carrier lights, thus allowing many of the returning pilots, including Conklin, to make a night landing. He began flying an F6F Wildcat on photo missions over assigned targets, before and after bombing raids, to ascertain the damage. After a cessation of hostilities was announced, he and three other pilots were assigned the responsibility of photographing Tokyo to facilitate dropping supplies to …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Eugene Conklin. Conklin was born on 4 December 1923 in Chanute, Kansas. After graduating from high school he attended junior college and participated in the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he entered the Naval Aviator Cadet program. After taking primary training at Norman, Oklahoma he was sent to Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, Texas for advanced training. Upon graduation he was sent to Daytona Beach where he began flying the SBD dive bomber. After six months of training in the SBD he was assigned to Air Group sixteen aboard the USS Lexington (CV-16). He tells of attacking various islands in the Pacific and his participation the Battle of the Philippine Sea. He admired for Admiral Mitscher for turning on the carrier lights, thus allowing many of the returning pilots, including Conklin, to make a night landing. He began flying an F6F Wildcat on photo missions over assigned targets, before and after bombing raids, to ascertain the damage. After a cessation of hostilities was announced, he and three other pilots were assigned the responsibility of photographing Tokyo to facilitate dropping supplies to …

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 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.