The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Louie Sullivan. Sullivan was married with a son on the way when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He was placed on the draft, with a 3-A exemption. He completed mechanics school at Kelly Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. He was sent to Love Field in Dallas to work as a machinist. He joined the Navy in 1942 and completed basic engineer school and provides some details of basic training and learning how to swim for the Navy. In 1944 Sullivan traveled to Hawaii and provides details of his trip over. Aboard the same ship, they traveled to Ulithi and Eniwetok, where he was assigned to the USS Franks (DD-554) and served as Fireman First Class. In 1945 they traveled to Wake Island and Japan. He describes some of his liberty travels in Tokyo. He was discharged in early 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Harold Scott. Scott was born in San Antonio, Texas on 17 April 1922. Upon joining the Navy on 8 December 1941, he went to the San Diego Naval Training Station for three weeks of boot training. When completed, he was assigned to the USS New Orleans (CA-32). He was assigned as a gunner on a 20mm deck gun even though he had not received any gunnery training. He experienced various combat situations including participation in the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Tassafaronga in which the bow of the New Orleans was blown off. He tells of the efforts put forth that allowed the ship to go to the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Bremerton, Washington for major repairs. After being repaired the ship returned to the Pacific and participated in several invasions. In 1944 the ship was part of a force that endured a typhoon in which several ships were sunk and Scott describes the experience.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Thomas Schoolcraft. Schoolcraft joined the Army Air Forces in 1942. He completed technical aircraft maintenance school and became an aircraft mechanic, working on B-29s. Schoolcraft became a hangar chief and an inspector. When he received the rank of staff sergeant in early 1944 he was promoted to flight engineer aboard a B-29. He completed training at the Boeing factory in Seattle and attended flight engineer school at Lowry Field in Denver, learning also about fuel control. He details the job function of a flight engineer. Schoolcraft provides great detail of the bomber and of a number of his missions. He flew 27 missions over Japan as a B-29 flight engineer in the 504th Bomb Group. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with 3 oak leaf clusters.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Maurice Rindskopf. Rindskopf graduated from the Naval Academy in 1938. He completed submarine school in 1940. Beginning November of 1941, Rindskopf served as Commanding Officer aboard the USS Drum (SS-228). He completed 11 war patrols around Japan, Truk, Tulagi, Marshall Islands and the Philippines. He continued his service after the war ended, retiring in 1972 as a rear admiral and the Director of Naval Intelligence.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Max Duncan. Duncan was born in Avondale, North Carolina on 17 June 1921. After graduating from high school he attended The Citadel, in Charleston, South Carolina for a year before entering the US Naval Academy. He graduated from Annapolis in December 1941. He points out that, at that time, every newly commissioned officer had to go to sea before they could specialize. Duncan was assigned as a gunnery officer on the USS Milwaukee (CL-5). In 1943 he was ordered to New London, Connecticut for three months of submarine training. Upon completing the training he went to Midway Island as part of a refit crew. While there, he was assigned to the USS Barb (SS-220) commanded by Eugene Fluckey. He recalls that on his first patrol the crew picked up allied survivors from the Japanese prisoner of war ship, SS Rakuyo Maru. The crew also sank two Japanese ships during this patrol. After completing the patrol, the Barb went to Majuro for refit. There they formed a wolf pack with the USS Queenfish (SS-393) and USS Picuda (SS-338) and patrolled in the East China Sea. He discusses the differences …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with David Frazier. Frazier was born in Franklin, Pennsylvania on 19 May 1927. Upon joining the Navy in 1945 he went to boot camp at Samson Naval Training Base in New York. Upon completing boot training, he was sent to Iwo Jima where he went aboard the USS Susanville (PC-1149). He developed an ingenious method to make ice cream on board the ship. He recalls that after providing shuttle services for several months the ship went to Guam where they began the decommissioning process. They returned to the United States in 1947 and Frazier was discharged having spent seventeen months in active service.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ray Christensen. Christensen was born in Henry, South Dakota in December 1917. He joined the Navy in September 1941 and went to Great lakes Naval Training Station, Chicago, Illinois for boot training. Upon completion he reported aboard the USS Colorado (BB-45) at Bremerton, Washington. He tells of the ship taking part in the bombardment of Tarawa. After returning to the United States for overhaul, the ship took part in the invasion of several islands including Tinian. While bombarding Tinian, the ship was hit by Japanese shore batteries resulting in numerous casualties. Christensen recalls that after being repaired in the United States the Colorado participated in the invasion of Leyte. During this time the ship was hit by two kamikaze aircraft, which resulted in numerous deaths and injuries. After repairs at Manus Island the ship participated in the bombardment of Lingayen Gulf. During this operation the ship was hit by accidental shelling by the USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) resulting in many casualties. The ship also participated in the invasion of Okinawa and Christensen saw people jumping off cliffs to avoid capture during this operation.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Arthur deLarios. DeLarios was born in Oklahoma City on 24 October 1919. He joined the Navy 7 September 1940 and upon finishing boot camp, was accepted in the Hospital Corps training school. When he completed the course he was assigned to the San Diego Naval Hospital for additional training. This was followed by assignment to VMF-111 in the 1st Marine Air Wing, which was sent to Pago Pago, Samoa Islands. Soon after his arrival, deLarios was ordered to the Naval Hospital at St. Albans, New York. Shortly after reporting to the hospital in 1942, he applied for the Submarine Service. Upon his acceptance, he was sent to submarine school in New London, Connecticut for six months training. After graduating from the school he was assigned to the USS Hammerhead (SS-364) as a pharmacist mate. In early 1944 the Hammerhead proceeded to Midway where they began the first of seventeen war patrols. Delarios recalls various activities he performed aboard the submarine including treating a fellow seaman who suffered acute appendicitis. He also describes Japanese depth charge attacks. Following his six years of naval service, deLarios attended medical school and …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Tom Dowding. Dowding joined the Army in 1942 and received four weeks of basic training at Camp Lee. He was sent to Camp Stoneman for bakery training. Having been a baker in civilian life, he was already qualified to do the work and so was not required to attend classes. He was sent to Guadalcanal on a mail ship that couldn’t dock upon arrival, due to low tide. While waiting in the water, the ship was strafed by Japanese planes. Men standing on either side of Dowding were killed. He spent over a year stationed at the end of Henderson Field, trading baked goods as a commodity with troops. There was nothing he couldn’t have, and the Seabees even made a boat for him. He traveled to a small island and came across a native who spoke perfect English, as Australians had brought him to the Midwest to be a prizefighter. Dowding was transferred to Mindanao, staying behind with his baking company for three months as the troops were fighting. When the war ended, Dowding volunteered as a baker on the way home, which gave him access to …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Bill Edwards. Edwards joined the Navy in August 1942 and received basic training in Illinois. He received amphibious training in Virginia. Upon completion, he was assigned to the 8th Amphibious Force and sent to Italy, where he was coxswain of landing craft at the invasions of Sicily and Salerno. While the landing was unopposed at Sicily, Edwards’s experience at Salerno was much more frightening than what he remembers of Normandy and Okinawa. Edwards was under heavy fire while bringing troops ashore in the first wave of the invasion. He remained there for two weeks, shuttling troops and equipment back and forth. He recalls seeing the bodies of ambushed American soldiers lain across the beach as far as the eye could see. Edwards returned home and was discharged in 1945 as a boatswain’s mate, second class.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Hans Hanneman. Hanneman was born in Gillespie County (Texas) on 16 September 1916, the oldest of eight children. Although his mother was widowed, he was able to attend Texas Lutheran College for two years. Upon graduating he began working for a Fredericksburg (Texas) businessman. His employer decided that he and Hans would begin taking flying lessons at Stinson Field in San Antonio. They received their flying licenses in 1940. Hanneman’s employer then bought an airplane and they began training pilots enrolled in the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Hanneman concludes the narrative by telling of his wedding in the Nimitz Hotel Ballroom in 1944.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with John Alden. Alden was born in San Diego, California on 23 October 1921. While attending Cornell University he entered the US Navy V-7 Program. Upon graduating from Cornell he was ordered to attend Midshipman School at Columbia University. While there he was hospitalized for an extended period of time. Later, Alden was ordered to Midshipman’s School at Notre Dame University. Upon graduating in September 1943, he was sent to Diesel school at Cornell University. When he completed the course, he was selected for the Submarine Service and reported to the Naval Submarine Base in Groton, Connecticut. Alden received training aboard the USS Pike (SS-173) and the USS Cachalot (SS-170) before being assigned as communications officer on the USS Lamprey (SS-372). During January 1945 the boat arrived in Saipan where they began patrol duties. He describes encounters with Chinese junks during these patrols. During their third patrol they were notified the Japanese surrendered and they returned to Subic Bay. The USS Lamprey was then ordered to return to the United States where it was placed into the mothball fleet. Alden concludes the interview by telling of his various assignments …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Lyle Bradley. Bradley was born in Key West, Iowa on 22 November 1924. After graduating from the University of Dubuque, in 1942 he joined the Navy and went to Aberdeen, South Dakota where he began his initial pilot training. He was stationed at several airfields and flew various aircraft prior to going to Pensacola Naval Air Station, Florida where he received his wings in April 1944. After taking advanced training in the F4F Wildcat fighter he was sent to California where he began flying the F4U Corsair. Upon becoming carrier qualified Bradley reported VMF-123 aboard the USS Bennington (CV-20). On one combat mission, his flight received credit for destroying ten kamikaze aircraft on the ground. He also tells of a mission during which he shot down a Japanese fighter plane. He remembers being in a typhoon in 1945 in which a number of US ships sank. Following the Surrender of Japan, Bradley was discharged but remained in the Naval Reserve. He was recalled to active service during the Korean War and joined VMF-214 in Japan. He describes some of the actions in which he was involved including a …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Frank R. Strebel. Strebel was born in San Francisco 31 August 1919. He graduated from high school in 1938 and joined the Civilian Conservation Corps. Strebel joined the Army National Guard in 1937. His unit, Company F, 159th Infantry, 40th Infantry Division, was called to active duty in March 1941. The unit was sent to Camp San Luis Obispo for three months of training. Following maneuvers at Fort Lewis, the 159th was assigned to a coastal gun battery at Fort Cronkite, California. In May 1942, Strebel was assigned as a first sergeant in the 96th Infantry Division. From there, he attended Officer Candidate School and graduated with a commission. On 15 March 1944 he reported to Company F, 415th Infantry Regiment, 104th Division as a platoon leader. On 25 August 1944 the company arrived at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey and boarded the USS Lejeune (AP-74). They landed at Cherbourg, France 7 September 1944. On 15 October they boarded boxcars to Belgium where they joined the 1st Canadian Division in an assault. Strebel describes various combat situations in Aachen and Lammerdorf, Germany. His company suffered 60% casualties in their …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Gerald T. Parascandolo. Parascandolo was born in Brooklyn, New York on 7 January 1925. He was drafted into the Army in August 1943. After a brief period at Fort Custer, Michigan, he was sent to Fort Hood, Texas for 16 weeks of basic training. He initially trained for tank destroyer duty in North Africa, but when the fighting ended there, he was sent to Camp Hale, Colorado for mountain training with the 10th Mountain Division. In December 1944 Parascandolo’s unit, the 86th Mountain Infantry, I Company, 3rd Battalion, was sent to Europe, landing in Naples. They eventually went to Pisa and Livorno, joining the fight on the Gustav Line in the Po valley and the Alpine foothills. While in Northern Italy, the war in Europe ended and Parascandolo was sent back to the States in July 1945. After Japan surrendered, he was released from active duty on Thanksgiving Day 1945. Parascandolo subsequently joined the reserves and received a commission. He retired as a colonel with 40 years of active and reserve service.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Richard Blair. Blair joined the Merchant Marine in 1943. After training, he was assigned to the MV Pigeon Point, a sea going tug stationed on the West Coast. Blair worked in the engine room and made a few trips across the Pacific while aboard: one to Hawaii and another to New Guinea. After returning, he switched ships to the MV Saint Simon and made it to the Philippines during the invasion in 1944-45. Blair shares several anecdotes about being aboard ship and going ashore. He returned to the US in spring, 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with William Porter. Porter was born in Woburn, Massachusetts 1 May 1916. After graduating from high school he worked on his father’s farm until 1940, when he enlisted in the Army. After basic training at Camp Edwards, Mississippi for thirteen weeks he took part in maneuvers in South Carolina. On 16 January 1941 he boarded a troop ship in New York City bound for Australia. Upon arrival in Melbourne, he was assigned to 81mm mortars in the Americal Division. He then went to New Caledonia. In November 1942, the division went to Guadalcanal to reinforce the 1st Marine Division. There, Porter was subjected to Japanese naval gunfire and nightly raids by Japanese bombers. After the island was secured he went to Fiji and while there he contracted malaria as well as hepatitis. He was put aboard a hospital ship and sent to the United States where he was taken to Winter General Hospital in Topeka, Kansas. After being discharged from the hospital, he was sent to Indian Gap, Pennsylvania where he guarded German prisoners of war. He was discharged in 1944.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Philip Mounger. Mounger joined the Marine Corps in September 1942 and received basic training in San Diego. He was a field bugler before being reassigned to radio school. He received further training, specializing in a complex voice radio that was difficult to tune. Because it was used in tanks, he then went through tank school at Jacques Farm, where he befriended Navajo code talkers. Soon after, easy-to-use radios were installed in tanks, so Mounger was sent to the 27th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division, as an FM radio operator. The radio he carried weighed about 35 pounds and required Mounger to wear his field pack in the front, which ended up saving him from a direct shell explosion on Iwo Jima. The two men accompanying him were killed by the blast, while Mounger was wounded by shrapnel to his heart. He was declared dead at the station hospital but managed to survive until being transported to a hospital ship. Once at the Navy hospital on Guam, a doctor improvised a device to remove fluid from Mounger’s lungs, a procedure that would be repeated several times, even after he …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Thomas Lyons. Lyons joined the Navy around December of 1942. He served aboard the USS J. Franklin Bell (APA-16) beginning in April of 194. Lyons job aboard was to maintain everything from the superstructure of the ship forward to the bow. He provides vivid details of the Bell, including weaponry and personnel. He describes their first trip through heavy seas from California to Alaska. They participated in the Battle of Attu, landing troops and supplies. They returned to the States, then headed to Wellington, New Zealand arriving in September of 1943. They helped train the 2nd Marines, preparing them for the invasion at Tarawa. At the battle, they landed 3,500 Marines, then took on about 1,300 wounded Marines. Lyons describes this fateful event, and how their ship served as an interim hospital. Beginning in January of 1944 through mid-1945, they transported and landed troops and supplies and embarked casualties in Kwajalein, Saipan, Tinian, Leyte and Okinawa. Lyons provides details of each of these events. He was discharged in January of 1946.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with David Greathouse. During the war, Greathouse spent summers in the scouts and junior ROTC program. After making regimental commander at age 15, he became an unofficial member of the Texas State Guard, even providing marksmanship instruction. At home, food was in short supply and Greathouse worked various jobs to help support his family. He recalls the war effort went so far as to include propaganda printed on chewing gum wrappers. With the draft looming, Greathouse joined the Navy in February 1946. Following in the footsteps of his father, who was commanding officer at a Navy rifle range, Greathouse was designated as company commander, overseeing 180 men at boot camp. He went on to earn a Master's Degree in electrical engineering at the Naval Academy and retired after 26 years of service.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Victor Kuhn. Kuhn was born 1 August 1921 into a family of 13 children. He tells of living on a farm and growing up during the Great Depression. In July 1942 he enlisted in the Navy and attended boot camp at Great Lakes, Illinois. Upon completion of boot camp, he was selected to attend radio school at the University of Chicago where he learned Morse code and radio procedures. Before he graduated, his father became sick and was unable to work the farm. Through the efforts of the Red Cross he was temporarily released from the Navy to assist his father. In July 1944 he was called back to active duty. Kuhn went through boot camp again and went to radio school again, this time at Bainbridge, Maryland. Upon completion of the basic radio course he was assigned to Japanese Radio Intercept School at Cheltenham, Maryland. He learned to copy Japanese messages using a typewriter and recalls that the school was considered Top Secret and was heavily guarded by a contingent of US Marines. Upon completing the radio intercept course he was sent to Hawaii. His duty was …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with James Myer. Myer joined the Army Air Forces in December of 1942. He served as a flight engineer and waist gunner on a B-24 bomber in the 8th Air Force, 2nd Air Division, 489th Bomb Group, 846th Bomb Squadron. While in the European theater, Myer was stationed at Halton Field in Halesworth, England. On 31 July 1944, during his 31st and final mission, he was shot down and captured by the Germans. Myer was taken to Stalag Luft IV in Poland. From 6 February to 26 April 1945 he participated in a forced march for an estimated 550 miles back to Germany as the Russians advanced from the east, known today as the Black Forest Death March. He provides details of the POW camp and forced march. He was discharged in September of 1945.

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.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Jack Matthews. Matthews was born in Houston, Texas in 1925. Soon after graduating from high school, he joined the US Merchant Marine. In October 1943 he was sent to Pass Christian, Mississippi to begin three months of engineer training. After completing the course he was assigned to a US T2 tanker whose mission was to carry fuel oil for naval ships in the Pacific. His ship ran aground at New Guinea. Unable to be freed by other means, the ship was forced to transfer its cargo of fuel oil to another tanker thus allowing the ship to float free. Later his ship was sent to refuel the USS Boise CL-47). After being at sea for eight months, Matthews returned to the United States and attended the United States Merchant Marine Academy, graduating with a commission.