Oral History Interview with Wiliam Wayne Kitts, May 13, 2009

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
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.
Date: May 13, 2009
Creator: Hegi, Benjamin & Kitts, William Wayne, 1921-
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with Glenn E. McDuffie, January 21, 2008 transcript

Oral History Interview with Glenn E. McDuffie, January 21, 2008

Interview with Glenn E. McDuffie, an Armed Guard in the U. S. Navy during World War II. He discusses lying about his age in order to join the navy at 15 and his experience in boot camp. He served as an Armed Guard on merchant ships that transported supplies across the Atlantic and remembers being in London while German bombers flew overhead. He transported German prisoners out of Marseilles and Naples shortly after the liberation of those cities. He remembers going to Times Square upon hearing that the Japanese had surrendered. He claims to have been the sailor in the iconic photo of the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square on V-J Day. He describes how he proved he was the sailor in the photo, what he did after the war, and how he learned that his brother survived the Bataan Death March.
Date: January 21, 2008
Creator: Misenhimer, Richard & McDuffie, Glenn E.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Lewis R. Hopkins, January 15, 2004 transcript

Oral History Interview with Lewis R. Hopkins, January 15, 2004

Interview with Lewis R. Hopkins, a pilot during World War II. He describes growing up on a farm in Georgia, going to college at Berry, and working for Sears, Roebuck, and the Royal Typewriter Company before joining the U. S. Navy. He tells an anecdote about joining the navy so he could go to New York to see the World's Fair, since he had heard the Atlanta Reserve would be making a trip to the Fair. He began flight training in Florida in December 1940, finished the next September, then drove cross-country to San Francisco after the Pearl Harbor attack. He eventually joined the USS Enterprise in April 1942 and saw the B-25 bombers in the Doolittle Raid take off. He was part of Bombing Squadron Six and trained under Commander Best to learn how to do scouting flights, navigation, and dive bombing. He then describes his participation in the Battle of Midway, the hours before take-off, his first view of the Japanese fleet, and his bombing mission. He was later assigned to the USS Hornet and had to fly off to a little island so that planes from the USS Wasp could land on the Hornet after their ship …
Date: January 15, 2004
Creator: Cox, Floyd & Hopkins, Lewis R.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History

Oral History Interview with Robert Hoe, September 20, 2003

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Interview with Robert Hoe, a Navy WWII veteran of the China-Burma-India theater from Le Roy, New York. Hoe discusses growing up, the reaction to Pearl Harbor, attending college, enlisting in the Navy, training and becoming an officer, joining the Navy Scouts and Raiders, deployment to China and assignment to the Sino-American Cooperative Organization, supplying their forces, operations with guerilla fighters against the Japanese occupation, intelligence gathering, his reaction to the atomic bomb, the end of the war, service in China and discharge, and life as a civilian.
Date: September 20, 2003
Creator: Alexander, William J. & Hoe, Robert
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
[Letter from Teal Krech to Charlyne Creger, June 10, 2003] (open access)

[Letter from Teal Krech to Charlyne Creger, June 10, 2003]

Letter from Teal Krech to Charlyne Creger in regards to their recent conversation and requesting an interview to further discuss her love story.
Date: June 10, 2003
Creator: Krech, Teal
Object Type: Letter
System: The Portal to Texas History

Oral History Interview with John J. Clemens, May 13, 2003

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Interview with John J. Clemens. The interview includes Clemens' personal experiences about childhood and early adulthood in Houston, Texas, World War II-era service in the U.S. Navy, serving aboard USS Wren in the Pacific Theater, and piloting a ship into Tokyo Bay immediately following the Japanese surrender. Clemens speaks about convoy missions across the Atlantic Ocean, the January 4, 1944 sinking of the USS Turner while moored in New York Harbor and the court of inquiry regarding the sinking, actions in the Aleutian Islands, Attu, Okinawa, and Philippine campaigns and anti-kamikaze warfare while aboard the USS Wren, and the effects that Allied bombing had on Tokyo.
Date: May 13, 2003
Creator: Alexander, William J. & Clemens, John J., 1921-
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with Boyd K. Miller, January 21, 2003 transcript

Oral History Interview with Boyd K. Miller, January 21, 2003

Interview with Boyd K. Miller, a draftsman and pilot during World War II. He discusses being drafted out of college and working as an artist and draftsman. Since he studied art in college, he worked on diagrams and charts. He then transferred to the Air Corps to become a pilot and trained in Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Alabama, New York, Georgia, Florida and Texas.
Date: January 21, 2003
Creator: Misenhimer, Richard & Miller, Boyd K.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Jerell E. Crow, August 24, 2002 transcript

Oral History Interview with Jerell E. Crow, August 24, 2002

Interview with Jerell E. Crow. He entered the Coast Guard in 1940 and trained in Florida and New York City. He served aboard a Landing Ship, Tank (LST) when those ships were first introduced. He traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to the Neville Island Shipyard operated by the Dravo Corporation as part of a crew that brought an LST down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. From there, the crew practiced operations at Biloxi, Mississippi. Eventually, Crow travelled to San Diego aboard the LST through the Panama Canal. From there, he went to Guadalcanal and unloaded tanks. Eventually, his ship was hit at Saipan and he was wounded. He also served aboard an LST during the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Afterwards, Crow's LST was present in Tokyo Bay for the surrender. He visited Hiroshima while on occupation duty after the atomic bomb was dropped. Eventually, his LST made its way back to San Francisco where he was discharged.
Date: August 24, 2002
Creator: Rabalais, Larry & Crow, Jerell E.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Richard Bennett, November 15, 2001 transcript

Oral History Interview with Richard Bennett, November 15, 2001

Interview with Richard (Dick) Bennett, a pilot during World War II. He discusses his enlistment in the Army Air Corps, basic training and flight school. He then went to a base in South Carolina to learn to fly B-25s. At Fort Myers, Florida he flew B-26 bombers and trained to fly them off of aircraft carriers so they could drop torpedos on the Japanese fleet during naval battles. He traveled across the Pacific to Brisbane only to be told that they didn't have B-26s for the crews; the colonel there knew nothing about the plan to launch B-26s from aircraft carriers, so they were sent to New Guinea to fly B-17s and supplement the crews for those bombers. From there they made bombing runs or "Washing Machine Charlie"-type runs to keep people awake at night on various Japanese targets in the islands, particularly the base at Rabaul. In fall of 1943, the Army grounded the B-17s due to the damage they had incurred and replaced them with B-24s. The men received manuals and were given only a few days to familiarize themselves with the new planes. They were then sent on bombing runs. He finished his tour of duty at …
Date: November 15, 2001
Creator: Cox, Floyd & Bennett, Richard
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Albert Bouley, June 27, 2001 transcript

Oral History Interview with Albert Bouley, June 27, 2001

Interview with Albert Bouley, a U. S. Marine during World War II. He discusses his enlistment in the Marines just after Pearl Harbor; his assignment to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Division; the battle of Guadalcanal; malaria and dysentery; the battle of Cape Gloucester; the use of Pavuvu as a base; the battle of Peleliu; his return to the United States; guard duty at the Brooklyn Naval Yard and his service as an instructor in a heavy weapons school before the end of the war. He joined the Air Force 2 1/2 years later to be able to fly and work on planes, then retire to become a teacher in California, and finally settled in Texas.
Date: June 27, 2001
Creator: Cox, Floyd & Bouley, Albert
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Ethel Reisberg Schectman, March 24, 2001 (open access)

Oral History Interview with Ethel Reisberg Schectman, March 24, 2001

Interview with Ethel Reisburg Schectman of Fort Worth, Texas, who was born in New York City during the Great Depression to Jewish Polish immigrant parents. The interview includes Hill's personal experiences of World War II on the home front, including memories of D-Day, iron metal scrap drives, victory gardens, rationing, V-E and V-J Days, and what it was like being Jewish in Dallas during that time.
Date: March 24, 2001
Creator: Cox, Floyd & Schectman, Ethel Reisberg
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History
[Clipping: Sites Honor Women Pioneers in Aviation] (open access)

[Clipping: Sites Honor Women Pioneers in Aviation]

Newspaper clipping listing several websites that provide history of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (U.S.) along with a brief description of the content posted on the sites.
Date: August 10, 2000
Creator: Pollak, Michael
Object Type: Clipping
System: The Portal to Texas History