The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with William McLemore. McLemore joined the Navy in March of 1934. Beginning in November he served aboard the USS Augusta (CA-31), with Chester Nimitz as the Commanding Officer. McLemore???s job was swabbing down the decks and serving as twin 50mm gunner. They traveled to Chang Jiang, China, Shanghai, the Solomon Islands, the Philippines and Australia. He provides some details of his experiences in China and Australia. He was discharged from the Navy as Seaman First Class in 1938 and reenlisted as a coxswain in May of 1942. He was assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 8 aboard PT-121, and operated on the south coast of New Britain. Their boat was destroyed by Australian aircraft on 27 March 1944. He later served aboard the liberty ship SS John B. Floyd as a coxswain. They traveled to Cairns, Australia. He was discharged in December of 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Michael Natt. Natt joined the Army Air Corps in April of 1941. He served with the 95th Bomb Group as a waist gunner in a B-17. In August of 1944 on a bombing mission over Romania his plane was shot down and Natt was wounded. He was taken prisoner by German soldiers and survived an 8-month imprisonment in Stalag Luft III and a 90-day forced road march during the bitter cold winter. After being liberated, he was honorably discharged in October of 1945. Natt re-enlisted in the military in August of 1948 and completed a 30-year career with the U.S. Air Force, retiring in 1974.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Frederick Gilsinger. Gilsinger joined the Army Air Forces in August of 1943. He completed basic training in Biloxi, Mississippi and navigation at Butler University, Indianapolis. He was a second lieutenant and served as a B-26 pilot. He provides vivid details of the various planes he flew during wartime, including the B-26, B-25, A-26, Piper Cub, PT-19, BT-13 and the AT-17. Gilsinger remained stateside throughout his service in the war. He was discharged in September of 1945.

Concert performed at the UNT College of Music Murchison Performing Arts Center.

Transcript of an oral interview with Dr. Glenn Ivy. Ivy was attending Texas Tech University when he was inducted into the Army in 1943. When he entered the service, Ivy trained in the Signal Corps to send and receive encoded messages. In Jaunary, 1944, Ivy was sent to India where he was flown over the Himalaya Mountains to Kunming, China. He eventually served as a message courier delivering messages between Chiang Kai-shek and the US 14th Air Force in Kunming. Ivy discusses a situation he was involved in that featured lost plans calling for an invasion of the Chinese coast. When the war ended, Ivy was sent with much Signal Corps equipment to Shanghai to set up a facility to send and receive messages from there. He then shares a few anecdotes about occupation duty in China before being called home due to an inllness suffered by his mother.

Early music concert presented at the UNT College of Music Organ Recital Hall.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Edwin Knight. Knight was drafted into the Army in 1943 and received training in anti-tank warfare. He was assigned to the 43rd Infantry Division, 169th Infantry Regiment. In late 1943, while stationed in New Caledonia, Knight was selected for medic training. In the spring of 1944, he sailed to New Guinea, where he had interactions with natives. To deal with the heat, he lined the inside his helmet with gasoline, which cooled when it evaporated. In January 1945, at Lingayen Gulf, he tried his best to stay silent as a rat crawled into his shirt while Japanese forces marched by. During combat, Knight tended to a wounded soldier who was then shot and killed while receiving treatment. He also treated distressed soldiers who had self-inflicted wounds. Upon returning home, Knight suffered from PTSD but dedicated himself to international charity work, even working in Japan.

Transcript of an oral interview with Jack Puryear. Puryear went into the Navy in 1943 and wound up in aerial photography, training at Pensacola, Florida. Upon completing training, Puryear shipped out to Guadalcanal and joined Fleet Aerial Photo Squadron One. He describes photographing Guam, Tinian and Saipan prior to the invasion of the Mariana Islands. He relates a stroy in which Admiral Halsey gave him a ride on Guadalcanal. Puryear tells a story also about photographing the Palau Islands prior to the invasion. His unit was recalled back to the US for refitting, and when they returned to the Pacific Theater of Operations, they were stationed at Guam. Once the airfield at Okinawa was secure, elements of Puryears photo reconnaisance squadron moved there to photograph the main Japanese Islands in advance of the planned invasion. He also tells about flying out of Okinawa ahead of a typhoon and getting caught in it on their way to Guam. Puryear went back to the US in March, 1946 and went into the Naval Reserve. He was commissioned and served as a supply officer and was recalled for the war in Korea. He then went to supply school in New Jersey before serving …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Edgar E. Howard. Howard was born 26 April 1924 in Nashville, Indiana. After one year in ROTC at Indiana University, he was drafted into the Army in April 1943. He was assigned to the 69th Infantry Division at Camp Shelby, Mississippi as a tech sergeant. His duties during the year that he was stationed there involved training replacement personnel. His division shipped to Cheltenham, England in February 1944 where he was reassigned to a clerical position in the 29th Machine Records Unit and trained in the operation of IBM punch-card machines being used to keep track of replacement personnel in the European Theater of Operations. Following D-Day, in July or August 1944, he was transferred to Paris with his unit. Howard describes several anecdotes recalling his time in Paris, including meeting Jimmy Doolittle at Allied Headquarters and sightseeing in the city. He embarked on a ship in Marseilles, France in January 1946 for the return to the States and was discharged in February.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Luther Sagebiel. Sagebiel completed the Civilian Pilot Training Program at Texas Lutheran College in Seguin around 1941 and acquired his pilot license. He joined the Army Air Forces in January of 1942. He volunteered to take glider pilot training, which he provides vivid details of his experiences. He did not pass the test though and did not serve as a glider pilot. He worked in California as an air inspector, checking the mess halls, squadron barracks and officers??? quarters, identifying discrepancies and reporting them. He completed his service as Staff Sargant. Sagebiel was discharged in July of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with James Bond. Bond joined the Navy in early 1943 and received basic training in San Diego. Upon completion, he was assigned to USS Callaghan (DD-792), where he ran the handling room, sending ammunition up the hoist. He also was coxswain of a 26-foot gig that would be sent out from the main ship periodically. On night voyages he would communicate with the ship using a bell. He endured a perilous typhoon in the China Sea that lasted three days and caused the ship to roll 62 degrees. At Okinawa he traveled 40 miles in heavy fog to retrieve mail; when he returned, the ship was gone, and he had no choice but to wait for its return. He captured prisoners of war from a sunken Japanese patrol boat; upon returning to the Callaghan, Bond placed the prisoners in a mail bag and sent them across a line to USS Ticonderoga (CV-14). Within an hour of the Callaghan’s anticipated departure for the United States, the ship was damaged irreparably by a kamikaze attack. Bond leapt overboard and was rescued by USS Prichett (DD-561). He suffered extensive injuries from the …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Robert Cooper. Cooper was drafted into the Navy in 1943. He served aboard the USS Callaghan (DD-792) as an electrician. He describes life aboard the destroyer. They participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea in June of 1944, and he describes his experiences through this event. They were in Task Force 39.3 and traveled throughout the Pacific. In October of 1944 they participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. He describes going through a typhoon and the overall morale amongst the captain and crew. In early 1945 the Callaghan screened carrier strikes shelling Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the Tokyo area and Cooper provides some detail of these events, including rescuing seven Japanese off a sunken boat, shooting down kamikazes and picking up a Japanese officer. The officer, named Hasegawa, became a prisoner in the Hawaiian Islands and Cooper provides some detail of this officer???s experiences and their meeting at a 50-year reunion. In July of 1945, the Callaghan was struck by an enemy aircraft and sank. Cooper provides some details of this fateful event. He was discharged in January of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ronald Jones. Jones joined the Navy in 1943 and received basic training in Illinois. He received advanced sonar training in San Diego and preliminary radar training at Mare Island, in case he would be needed as a replacement aboard ship. Upon completion, he was assigned to the USS Callaghan (DD-792) as the captain’s talker. His ship provided fire support at the Marshall Islands, Saipan, and Guam, protecting against enemy submarines and airplanes, and also firing at Japanese positions on land. He recalls running short on supplies when taking over the patrol of a damaged sister ship, and that the food shortage wasn’t remedied until there was a change of command some months later. At Okinawa his ship was sunk by a kamikaze, and Jones was nearly sucked into the propellers of the rescue ship, which fortunately reversed its propellers and washed him out at the last minute. While he was in the Philippines awaiting new orders, the atomic bombs were dropped. Jones returned home and was discharged in 1946. Jones returned home and was discharged in 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Wallace Brunton. Brunton was born in Glouster, Ohio in 1924. Drafted at age 18, he went into the Navy and attended boot camp at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. He was then selected for training in sonar. Upon completion of the sound school he received training in both surface and air search radar. He tells of going aboard the USS Callaghan (DD-792) and being seasick during four days of the shakedown cruise. He recalls the ship being involved in bombarding Okinawa in early 1945, where it fought off a kamikaze attack. Brunton also tells of a Japanese two-man submarine surfacing and being destroyed by the guns of the Callahan. During July 1945 the ship was on picket station off Okinawa when it was hit by a kamikaze and sunk. He was picked up by the USS Crescent City (APA-125) and eventually returned home on the USS Warren (APA-53). He was discharged 17 December 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Michael Giroski. Giroski was born Luplow, Pennsylvania in 1922 and graduated from high school in 1940. Joining the Army Air Forces 28 February 1943 he was sent to Miami, Florida for basic training. He qualified for flight training, but washed out due to a medical condition. Giroski was approved for flying status, however and went to Harlingen, Texas for gunnery training. He was then selected for radar training and went to Clovis, New Mexico and Harvard, Nebraska for training and practical application in B-17s and B-24s. His crew went to Kearney, Nebraska where they picked up a new B-29, which they flew for several weeks on shakedown missions to insure that all equipment was performing adequately. On 24 December 1944 they left March Field, California for Tinian with stopovers in Hawaii and Kwajalein. After their arrival they flew practice missions over Iwo Jima and Truk. Giroski flew thirty-three missions and recalls his first mission, a fire bombing over Kobe during which seven aircraft were lost. General Curtis LeMay flew with his crew on five occasions and complimented their abilities. He recalls one incident during which their B-29 flipped …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John McKillican. McKillican was born in Burbank, California. Quitting high school, he worked at a ranch until he joined the Navy at seventeen years old. He was sent to Farragut, Idaho for eight weeks of boot training followed by sixteen weeks at the Navy Signal School at San Diego. He then reported to Oceanside, California where he joined a ten man communication team assigned to the 5th Marine Division. After three months of simulated landings along the California coast the team was sent to Hawaii where they trained with the Marines. In December 1944 the unit boarded the USS Rutland (APA-192), bound for Iwo Jima. He graphically describes landing on Red Beach 1 with the Marines amid the Japanese artillery and mortar fire as death and destruction unfolded around him. McKillican’s unit set up a ship-to-shore communication center in a captured enemy pill box. After eight days ashore the unit went aboard ship and proceeded to Espiritu Santo for R & R. Soon thereafter, the unit proceeded to Okinawa. While there, Japan surrendered. He tells of the ship being in Tokyo Bay during the signing of the Peace …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with P T Allison. Allison joined the Army in June 1942 and received basic training in Virginia, having spent three years in the Civilian Conservation Corps prior to enlisting. He was assigned to the 1470th Engineer Maintenance Company, where he procured parts for a group of mobile machine shops and welding shops. He arrived in France during the Battle of the Bulge, where his unit repaired tractors, chain saws, and anything else that was brought in. After V-E Day, he returned to the States and was preparing for deployment to the South Pacific when the atomic bombs were dropped. Allison was discharged and returned home; he and his wife spent the next 17 years as campground hosts for the National Park Service at Yellowstone.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Joseph Eggebeen. Eggebeen was born 29 November 1917 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. One of nine children and tells of family life during the Depression. Graduating from high school in 1935, he held various jobs until drafted into the US Coast Guard in 1942. After undergoing basic training at Curtis Bay, Maryland he attended diesel electrician’s school in New York City. He was assigned to the crew aboard a yacht commandeered by the Coast Guard owned by a Milwaukee businessman. The boat, stationed at Greenport, Long Island, did anti-submarine patrol at the entrance to New York Harbor. He mentions the boat’s crew compliment and armament. After serving aboard the yacht for thirteen months, he was sent to the Coast Guard Academy at New London, Connecticut. After graduating as an ensign in 1944, he was sent to the 9th Naval District in Chicago. While there, he was ordered to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania to pick up USS LST-886. The crew took the new LST through the Panama Canal to San Diego. The ship, loaded with supplies, set sail to participate in the invasion of Leyte. They were recalled and went to Guam. The …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Robert Amstutz. Amstutz joined the Marine Corps in November of 1943. He provides some details of his training, including shooting machine guns and the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR). Amstutz served with C Company, 9th Marines, 3rd Division. In March of 1944 he traveled to Pearl Harbor, then on to the Marshall Islands, participating in the Battle of Eniwetok in February of 1944. In July of that same year they participated in the Battle of Guam, invading the Mariana Islands. After the battle they trained on Guam, about 20 months altogether, before the Battle of Iwo Jima. He provides some details of his time living and training on Guam. They arrived in Iwo Jima on the 3rd day of the battle in February of 1945. He provides details of some of his combat experiences at Iwo, using the BAR. In March he was wounded by shell fragments and sent back to Guam on a hospital ship. He received a Purple Heart and Three Battle Stars. He was discharged in March of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Gino Cianflone. Cianflone was drafted into the Navy in 1942. He served as a machinist mate aboard an LST. His battle station was first loader at a 20mm cannon. They traveled to the Hawaiian and Marshall Islands. At the Marshall Islands they prepared for invasion, supporting LVTs and the 4th Marine Division. They also participated in the invasion of Saipan. He was involved in the West Loch disaster at Pearl Harbor in May of 1944 and provides some details of this event. He was discharged around 1945.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Richmond Garrett. Garrett was inducted into the Army in November of 1943. He completed Officer Candidate School. He was selected to join Company A, 1252nd Combat Engineer Battalion. In November of 1944 they were sent to England. He describes his travels overseas and accommodations on the ship Tamaroa. While there they built bridges, removed mines and built a roadway. In December 1944 they traveled to La Havre, France, to serve in Patton???s Third Army. In February of 1945 they took part in breaching operations against Siegfried Line. They advanced into Germany. He provides vivid details of these experiences, including dropping TNT-filled tomato cans down chimneys. They traveled to Bastogne, Belgium, completing road work and removing mines. Garrett received a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. He was discharged in April of 1946.

Transcript of an oral interview with Lewane D. Herring. He discusses working at Corpus Christi and Kingsville Naval Air Stations in south Texas before being assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La and the destroyer USS Barton during his naval career. He also discusses his time spent in the Air Force during the Korean War. Mr. Herring then read a letter about his brother's service during the Korean War.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with James C Chandler. Chandler joined the Marine Corps in the spring of 1943. He was assigned to the 1st Armored Amphibian Battalion. Chandler participated in the battles of Guam and Okinawa. He returned to the US and was discharged in December of 1945

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Edward Cumbie. Cumbie joined the Army in January of 1943. He completed Officer???s Candidate School in May of 1943, earning a commission as a second lieutenant. He began training in the Army Air Forces in November of 1943. He provides details of his pilot training, including glider training in Lubbock, Texas. He graduated in the fall of 1944. Their glider pilot training was in preparation for an airborne crossing of the Rhine River in Germany. He was assigned to the 313th Troop Carrier Group. They traveled to England in November of 1944. On Christmas of 1944 they hauled the 17th Airborne Division up near the front lines in northern France, during the Battle of the Bulge. Cumbie provides details of this experience. He also transported supplies and wounded soldiers. He was discharged in July of 1946, though stayed in the Air Force Reserves until 1952.