730 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e4ca77ca03a1e4a712c8c1ab2f6fca79.mp4 3d98d435d9e344e2154fbf6d966ae65b https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/604714ca510988edcbe02bccdd90c09a.pdf 40273a357f858c9d97da1ac2b6907a97 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Notes Length: 54:00 William Ewing World War II Veteran Air Force; 1941:Oct. to 1984 3rd Attack [i.e. Bombardment] Group [ Ed. note: Mr. Ewing suffers from Alzheimer’s and his answers are often repetitive and sometimes unclear.] Introduction (0:25) • Ewing was born in Vicksburg [Michigan] and grew up in Grand Rapids. He attended college at Grand Rapids JC and Western Michigan U and earned a B.S. degree. Entry into Military Service (1:23) • Ewing joined the Reserves in fall of 1941. He had gotten his private pilot’s license and wanted to fly in the military. Before he could get into flight training for the military he was called up by the draft board but was sent home. • Ewing was then transferred to the Air Corps. He took military flight training, earning his wings in and later assigned to the 3rd Attack Group, a light bomber group and flew the A-20 Avenger. (3:17) [Ed. note: The 3rd Attack Group was redesignated 3rd Bombardment Group (Light) in 1940, 3rd Bombardment Group (Dive) in 1942, and 3rd Bombardment Group (Light), in 1943.] Training (4:26) • Ewing was sent to California for basic training and to Arizona for flight training, earning his wings in 1943. After graduation he was sent east to the Carolinas, then to Oklahoma City. • In California Ewing underwent training in the B-25 Mitchell in an outfit under James Doolittle. (7:13) [ Ed. note: Ewing mentions that his recollection may be flawed. General Doolittle was assigned to the Eighth Air Force in 1942, originally headquarter in Savannah, Georgia and later that year took command of the Twelfth Air Force in North Africa] A-20 Avenger (8:18) �• Ewing describes how the A-20 was his dream plane, since there was no co-pilot, the aircraft was his responsibility. He also describes sometimes flying with a navigator and up to three gunners. Also mentions that the waist gunner would sometimes use his turret to strafe ground targets. • Most of the people in flight school wanted to be fighter pilots and were disappointed to be assigned to bombers. Ewing initially didn’t know anything about the A-20, but was happy when he learned more about it. (9:30) New Guinea (10:10) • Was stationed in New Guinea and the Philippines. Wanted to island-hop the A-20 to New Guinea as a few did, but was shipped there by boat. • Ewing talks about his first mission, his squad leader, and the practice of “skipbombing” (12:10) • Ewing describes the types of missions flown, mostly in support of the infantry, also against Japanese shipping. Almost all were flown at treetop level, which Ewing enjoyed, making target acquisition and damage assessment easier. (14:20) • Ewing discusses casualties caused by dropping ordinance too close to friendly positions and gives a figure of 1,500 friendly troops killed. Ewing attributes this to faulty communications and talks about the observer flying in a loitering aircraft giving co-ordinates on the map that weren’t always accurate. Ewing says communications improved as they got experience, and didn’t blindly follow instructions (15:15) • Ewing describes in detail being hit and ditching his aircraft in the sea, hiding from the Japanese in the jungle for a night, his attempts to destroy the downed aircraft, and being rescued by a flying boat the next day. (18:18) [Ed. note: Ewing mentions towards the end of the interview that his gunner was also with him the entire time when he was shot down and rescued] • Ewing describes New Guinea and going on leave to Sydney, Australia. (28:40) • Ewing mentions that there were a lot of Japanese aircraft when he first arrived in New Guinea and that his second mission was against enemy airfields at Wewak in the north. • He also mentions that his favorite contact with the enemy was when they attacked during a dress parade on the airfield. Ewing also describes enemy fighter cover, anti-aircraft fire, and night attacks on his airfield. (29:56) �• Ewing mentions that on shorter missions, they usually had fighter cover, but not on longer missions. He also recounts an incident when low on fuel, he missed his initial landing, and had to circle around again, after landing, while taxiing off the runway, he ran out of fuel. (32:25) Philippines (35:17) • When Ewing and his unit moved to the Philippines, they loaded all their belongings into their aircraft. Ewing first arrived at an island south of Luzon, and ended up being stationed within visiting distance of Manila. • Ewing talks about the differences between people in the Philippines and those in New Guinea. He also tells about visiting Manila shortly after it had been liberated, and the Army’s takeover of a local brewery. (36:51) • Ewing talks about the Japanese being well dug-in and supplied. When they were hungry they would sometimes take a uniform and stand in the mess line. (31:22) After the War (39:17) • Ewing earned his points and left before Formosa fell. He returned home to Grand Rapids, and recalls being at his parents when the war ended. Recalls feeling good about the bombing of Japan. • Attended college for one more quarter, then worked as an insurance adjuster for thirty years. (40:52) Additional Wartime Recollections (43:35) • Ewing talks more about being shot down, and trying to keep his gunner calm. Speaks about a lot of gunners being mutilated or killed when ditching the A-20. • Ewing states that his squadron suffered a loss rate of ten or twenty percent overall. (46:33) • At the news of the bombing of Pearl Harbor was happy to be going in. Talks about anti-shipping missions and that a lot of the Japanese shipping consisted of converted merchantmen. Describes the armament of the A-20 and an incident where he sank a ship with gunfire. Mentions that he only attacked a Japanese tank once. Comments on communication with the Army on the ground. (47:35) • Considers the war a learning experience he was lucky to survive. Couldn’t recall the rank at which he left active service. Retired as a lieutenant colonel [in guard] in 1984 after 43 years of service. (51:58) �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ewing, William (Interview outline and video), 2007 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ewing, William Description An account of the resource William Ewing enlisted in the Air Force Reserves before the beginning of WW II and remained in the Reserves until 1984. During WW II he flew the A-20 Avenger out of New Guinea and later the Philippines before returning home after completing his tour. In this interview Ewing discusses basic training and flight training, combat experiences and procedures in the A-20, and being shot down and rescued. Mr. Ewing also discusses hearing about the end of the war and his feelings about the bombing of Japan, and what he did after the war. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Air Force Veterans Video recordings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-07-09 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EwingW Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/41a057d7ad6bbfe4ad786db778c789bc.mp4 a4e7c1612255c9057919f7097231afca https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/83c2da3e6777538e61535ec0955ec375.pdf 716581d00de400c474d446bc88b53942 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview World War II Jane Evans Length of Interview: 31:59 (00:37) JS: We’re talking today with Jane Evans, who had two husbands in the war. Not at exactly the same time. And she’s going to tell us a bit about both of them, and their experiences as well as her own experience being married to a soldier. To start with, could you tell us when you married your first husband and what you and he were doing then. (01:04) JE: At the end of three years of college, I left the college and went and married him. I married him in San Antonio. With my mother and mother in law along. We didn’t expect to have anybody watch us, see us at the, where we were supposed to have our wedding. But the whole church was filled with people. They were going to meet later on, to have another service, so they came to watch us too. JS: And what were you doing in San Antonio? JE: He was there in the flight school. And he was there, well, I guess it started out at Kelly, it was already beyond that. And he was at Randolph Field and Brooks Field. Which he graduated from. (02:15) JS: So maybe let’s back up a little from then. Before you were married, when did you meet him? What year, roughly? JE: Well, I’d known him for years because he was caddying at Silver Lake. And I went out there. And he went to school with me. He was five years older, but he went to the same school. So we knew each other for years. JS: And what year did you get married? JE: You would ask that. (laughs) 1941, I think. JS: Okay. Was he in the service at that time? JE: Yeah. He’d been in the service for two years, maybe. JS: Had he volunteered? JE: No. He was drafted. �(03:08) JS: And what do you know, or what did he tell you about his initial experience, in being drafted and being trained? What did you learn about that? JE: Well, not a whole lot. He was at Camp Livingston to start with and they went on patrol more than once. And I know that one time, there was a man behind him who was killed because he had a coral snake kill him. And needless to say, Roy wrote and told me about that. And I really, I didn’t think that there was anything down there that could bother him, you know? Ha ha. He also told how all the boys had chiggers. They had trouble with them. And he, being a chemist and an engineer, at Wolverine, went and had the doc prepare a substance that he could use down there. And he took a lot of it down there. Sold it off for cost. (04:33) JE: So, let’s see, what else. I know both men had the same experience of living in the south. They didn’t like it, either of them. JS: What did they not like about living in the south? JE: The heat. The people were not very friendly. They would take periods of time to go into town, you know? And the nearest town to Camp Livingston, I can’t remember the name of it. But they found that people were not very friendly to them. And I can understand that easily. We had the weather school here that time and most of the boys felt that we were pretty friendly. That we tried to have them come out to our houses and eat, and that kind of thing. And I know that more than one gal got engaged to some guy from that. (05:35) JE: So…but that was their feeling about that, that it was not very friendly and it was hotter than hell. And they got everything you can think of in the way of diseases. JS: And how was it that your husband switched from being in an infantry division to being in the Air Corps? (06:02) JE: I guess he just looked at it and decided that it was not for him. And that he wanted to fly planes instead. And he did. He passed everything and he got his wings. I know a couple of other guys went with him at the time. Woody Bacheholder for one. And they ended up not piloting but bombardiers or whatever. But Roy was in the pilot seat. I went flying with him, when we were down at B-25 school. He took me up one afternoon, on his plane. I don’t know whether that was permitted or not, but he never said much about it, so I assume it was okay. (07:07) JS: After you were married, did you live together off base, or how did your living arrangements work? JE: Well, I was living off base. In fact, over there in that one album, is all the pictures of all the places I stayed. All the things I had to deal with. I was never homesick though. Just having him �there. There was Mrs., oh, gosh, what was her name? Anyway, she was a heart patient. And she didn’t have too good of a heart, evidently. She spent a good bit of time in bed. But she rented out the house to three of us gals, I think. And we could use the kitchen down there, for kitchen privileges. JS: Were they all married to men… JE: I knew nothing about cooking, of course. At that time. But I learned. And one of the gals went right away, soon, with her husband, somewhere else, but the other gals stayed with me, pretty much. I have a picture of us, in there. (08:32) JS: And how long were you living there before your husband shipped out? JE: Oh, he didn’t ship out at all really. He never went overseas. He was killed right here in Michigan. Up at Glennie. He was towing targets for the French guys who were coming over to learn it, I guess. I know he said it was on their radio, they had this chatter in French thing. But I stayed with him down there in San Antonio for maybe four or five months. And then we were transferred someplace else. And we bought a convertible, a used convertible. And we enjoyed the life down there pretty much. And then we were transferred to, gosh, I can’t remember. (09:49) JE: I think we were transferred first to some place in Pennsylvania, and then we were sent to B25 school down in South Carolina. And we lived in Florence, South Carolina, for a while. Then we went to Cape Cod. We got through with that and then we went to Otis Air Force Base, I think it was called. And some of the same people went with us. So we had a little gang, you might say. Then, after he got through there, we went to Delaware. And John was born in Delaware. At the field. We were trotting around New York all that day, trying to find him a pair of shoes, without too much success. My mother was with us by that time, too. She had come to be with me for the baby. And so we three were all trotting around New York. And we got into Delaware that night, early that evening, 6, 7, and I had the baby that night. So strange. (11:34) JS: Was the Army providing medical care for you? I mean, was there a base hospital that you were using, or… JE: Well, no. There wasn’t any Army base hospital there. I did have an Army doctor, however, who delivered the baby. ‘Cause I can remember him saying, what’s this gal’s name again? (laughter) So they put me on the…they didn’t have the arrangements to have anybody there, really. And so they put me right on the operating table, and there I laid. Thank God it wasn;t too long, no more than four hours from start to finish. Which for a first baby is pretty fast, I guess. And then we went to, after we were done in Delaware there, my husband was sent up to Oscoda Air Force Base, up here in Michigan. And so we rented a cottage on that lake that was there. What, Lake Huron. Then of course it got cold and so we had to leave the cottage. (13:01) �JE: Find a place in town. He was killed up there. JS: And then, what did you do after he died? JE: Came home, again. I’d been home, too, before. After he left Delaware, I came home for a little while, until he knew what he was going to do and where he was going to go. And he had sold the car and got another car. Thought it was better for a baby, I guess. And so we went up there for maybe seven, eight months. I don’t know how long. I know that he was killed when Johnny was seven months old. And I expected him to take me to the doctor that day and he didn’t come, and didn’t come, and I was thinking, good god, where is he? Next thing, the captain and his wife were at the door and I thought, oh, geez. (14:19) JS: Did they explain to you what happened? JE: They told me he’d been killed. Three others with him. Just along for the ride. ‘Cause he was trying out a plane that had come in from Selfridge Field. And they did that quite frequently, tested them out to go back to overseas. JS: So that was his regular assignment? To test fly aircraft and to tow targets? JE: Yep. His group went overseas. And I was due to have the baby right then, and the captain was very very nice to us and let him stay until the baby came. I thought then he’d be sent over with the others, but he wasn’t. So I came home and stayed a couple of years. And we went down to Florida once and took the kids and another wife, who had been widowed, with Roy, and we all went down there and stayed for a few months. (15:49) JE: And I rented the house, so we couldn’t go back into it until…I can’t remember what the dates were now. JS: And how did you meet your second husband? I’d known him. I’d gone to school with him. Not to school with him, but he was in the same grade as I was. And I dated him, before the second marriage ever took place. And he went to Culver. We went down there. I went down there with his folks for graduation. And he asked me to marry him, before I could finally take a deep breath. JS: And when was that, then? Was that still during the war or was it after? (16:59) JE: No, that was after the war. In fact, right after. Vern was in Munich. In Munich as a fuel allocator. He was expecting to go to Japan, of course, like everybody else, and they didn’t have to, of course, because of the bomb. JS: What do you remember about his time in the service? �JE: Well, he was overseas in the service. From the time he finished college, he finished and went to Fort Belvoir, to get his officer’s training. And then he was sent overseas. Actually, he was at Normoyle, in San Antonio, when we were down there. Because we got together with him one night. And took him out some place, I don’t remember where now. (18:21) JE: Took him out then. But he went to Fort Belvoir and then overseas. JS: And what area did he serve in? JE: He served in the Eastern, whatever you call Eastern. He was at Africa first. In fact, he said everybody got sick over there, that Thanksgiving. Everybody got sick at the Thanksgiving dinner. I don’t know what they did wrong but they did something. And he said everybody was sick, not a soul missed it. Including him. And then he was on [NZO/Enzio] as a just a soldier. Which he wasn’t, cause he belonged to the engineering corp. And he was an engineer. He graduated from Carnegie-Mellon. Carnegie Institute of Technology, in those days. (19:49) JE: So he built bridges after that. All along the…was it Patton that was supposed to be coming along? JS: Well, if he was in…did he switch from Italy up into France? Or did he stay in Italy? JE: He went from Italy right to the Rhone River. JS: Okay. So he would have been with the 7th Army and landed in the South of France and gone north. So that wouldn’t be Patton, but… JE: Whoever it was. JS: So he was basically rebuilding the bridges in France, just to support the Army? (20:27) JE: France, and in Germany, too. ‘Cause I know he said he built every bridge in that area, I think. With his team. JS: Well, the Allied Forces had destroyed all the bridges, so we needed to rebuild them in order to ship any supplies, so he had a lot of work to do. JE: He had a lot of work to do. I know that he and his group…it was a Company, so called. And he was in charge of that Company. As he said, he was the youngest person in the Company. He was all of twenty-one at the time. He said, it’s a good thing they took care of me, cause I didn’t know from nothing. JS: So what did he tell you about the guys that he was with? They were older than he was? Or they were construction workers, or…? �(21:22) JE: No, I think they were pretty much, had to have some experience with construction work, yeah. Of some sort. His sergeant was the one who kind of took care of him. He was new in the group, you know. And somebody had been killed, I guess, and they moved him in there. And he said he built bridges from then on. Sometimes they were getting shot at, too. JS: And you mentioned…did he tell any particular stories, or… JE: I can’t remember any. I know he did, but I can’t remember ‘em. JS: And what did they have him do when the war ended? (22:18) JE: They then took him into Munich. And made him…cause he didn’t have enough points to go home. And he thought he would go to Japan, but of course, nobody went to Japan. Except the one guy who flew it all over. And, so he worked there for a better part of a year, I think, before he came home. I know Roy had been killed quite a while before he came home. JS: Did he tell you anything about what it was like living in Germany after the war? What kind of an experience that was? (23:02) JE: Well, there wasn’t much. We went back, years and years later. In Munich. He ate in the Art Museum, and he ate there. He didn’t sleep there. I don’t know where he slept, he didn’t say. But they ate there. And he said everything there was torn down or destroyed pretty much, except for the one building that they left. And it was the building that had the little people that came out. Um, I can’t think of what it was called. I used to know it, too, but I… and he said that everybody was anxious to go to the United States. He said he could have had any girl over there, right then. (laughs) And I remember he got a letter from this Renee, after he got home, and she was his secretary I guess. And she was asking him to help her get over. (24:44) JS: How did the, aside from wanting to get to the United States, did he have a sense that they accepted the Americans or were there still people who were hostile? What kind of relationship did they have? JE: I don’t know, for generally, they were friendly. All friendly. It was kind of a situation where you have to do the best you can, you know? And for some guy to come in a take over the fuel allocation for that area… JS: And what did that involve? What did that fuel allocantion, what was he allocating and who did he allocate it to? JE: Well, he was allocating fuel for individual houses and everything. I mean, everything in the town. Such as it was. I know that he said there were people, when they were on their way to �that town, that there were people who came out of the woods, holding a white flag. They wanted to be taken as prisoner. (26:00) JS: so was the war over at that point and they didn’t know it or was it just toward the very end? JE: It was at the end. And they had decided…(break in recording)… about that. I know he said, going into Munich, they stopped the car and wanted to surrender. And there was quite a crowd of them, evidently. So the guy that was with him was higher in rank than he was and he seemed to know what he was doing, I guess. And so he had those guys go into some area. I know my husband, he never talked about it. You know, that was the thing. You never got anything out of him. Was that he liberated one of those concentration camps. I don’t know which one it was. (27:19) JS: Well, Buchenwald was near Munich, so that’s possible. Or Bergen-Belsen. JE: I don’t know. But he never talked about it. I could ask questions and he’d just grunt. So, never talked about it. Never talked about any of the stuff, except just casually through the years. JS: How do you think his wartime experience sort of affected him, or affected his later life? (27:52) JE: Oh…well, he became a controller for Reynolds Metal Corporation. And then he was sent from Grand Rapids to Phoenix, his boss wanted him to stay with him. He was going to Phoenix. He had us come out to Phoenix to take a look at it. As if you could see anything that way. (laughs) So we decided we could see the whole west and let’s do it. So we did. By then we had another baby. Well, we had two more, actually. And the fourth one was born out there. So, when we were living out there. Rick was the one who brought all this stuff in, in fact. (points over her shoulder) He’s the one that has my house, now. (29:01) JE: And so, he went through all that stuff and brought it in. I was amazed, that he could find that much. I said, get a picture of Roy in uniform and Vern in uniform. That’s all I really wanted. And this is what he brought. He said, I thought you’d enjoy seeing it, Mom. So, he’s 46 now. I have a daughter whose 59 and another son whose 62. And I had a daughter, the middle one, who committed suicide. Post-partum. There again, she went down to Florida and she didn’t like it, she had to live in a hotel. She didn’t like the house she got there. She was leaving a brand new house here in Muskegon that she was very happy with. They really had a hard time building it, they built it themselves. They had the base of it brought in, but they went from there, lived and learned. (30:40) JE: We built our own house here at Silver Lake, too. Lived there twenty five years and Rick has it now. �JS: Well, there the engineering experience may have come into play. He had some idea of what he was doing. JE: It did. The genes have passed down, too, because my grandson out in Arizona, or not in Arizona, but California, wrote and said, I fixed up so and so. I did so and so to my new house. I guess the genes are there to do it. So Rick has done a wonderful job, wonderful. He’s taken my house and changed it completely. The rooms are still pretty much the same but, he has completely re-done every touch of it. The house next door became a Parade of Homes house, after they finished it. Dr. [Kloistra] and his wife built that one. (31:52) JS: I think we’re probably done with the interview part… (31:59) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Evans, Jane (Interview transcript and video), 2007 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Evans, Jane Description An account of the resource Jane Evans is the widow of two WW II Veterans. Her first husband, whom she met in school before the War, died in a plane accident during a training mission in Michigan. Her second husband, whom she also met in school, was an engineer during the war. They married after he came home from his service building bridges throughout Europe and staying a year after the war was over, allocating heating fuel to homes in Germany. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Military spouses Veterans Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American Video recordings Women Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-05-29 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EvansJ Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ccaa27aa2a2b26c00a1429b59489aff5.mp4 2f55a1b9e54168b24470eccf70414bde https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b0566a448dc07b20cfa3fced68fc3499.pdf 05a9ae46f2acb0557a25e2036c17313e PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Name of War: Korean War Interviewee Name: John Erickson Length of Interview: 1hr.19mins Pre-Enlistment (00:38) • Childhood (00:40) o Erickson was born on November 26, 1929 in Hastings, Michigan. (00:46) o Growing up he lived in Alto, Michigan, working on his father’s farm. Describes growing up here and the various duties he was responsible for. (01:10) • Education (01:17) o Was in school until the 5th Grade when he left since he decided to stay home. Finished his schooling in the Army. Otherwise, he taught himself how to read and write by reading the newspaper and the Bible. (01:22) o Some of his brothers had already joined the Navy. (03:00) Enlistment/Basic training (03:26) • Why he joined (04:12) o After discussing the possibility with his dad who was a WWI veteran he agreed to it. Upon firmly deciding that he wanted to join the Army Erickson promptly went to the recruiting office in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and signed up in November, 1949. (04:12) o From there he went to Fort Knox, Kentucky where he was selected as a replacement to someone else who did not qualify for that particular Army post. (04:46) • Where he went (04:51) o Fort Knox training (05:10) ƒ Was then sent here for 13 weeks of tank battalion and infantry training. (05:21) �ƒ Describes his training at Fort Knox in some detail. Among other things he dug fox holes, learned how to pitch a tent, to march and eat K-rations. (05:33) ƒ Mentions his impressions and thoughts on the Army’s discipline and focused lifestyle. (07:21) Went through the standard infantry training. (09:16) ƒ Went home by train for about a week. Afterwards he took a bus to Fort Lewis, Washington. He describes the journey there in some detail. (10:08) o Fort Lewis, WA (10:55) ƒ Started training there in March, 1950. He mentions that he was assigned to the 4th RCT combat team and remained with them during his stationing in the states. (11:03) ƒ Among the training he received here was training with snow shoes and skies while trudging up Mt. Rainier and later in his time in Alaska. (12:07) ƒ Briefly mentions living conditions here. (13:07) o Alaska (13:45) ƒ Geographically, the place he was stationed was 26 miles north of Fairbanks in a place in which he could not remember but somewhere where he could see the Russians [presumably not near Fairbanks—maybe Nome?]. (13:53) ƒ Stayed here for 3-4 months and then returned to the states. (15:43) o Back in the states (15:45) • ƒ Mentions how his service time was extended by a year because of Truman. (16:45) ƒ Was at Fort Lewis, Washington with the 4th RCT combat team when the Korean War started. Soon afterwards he was transferred to the 23rd Regiment and 9th Regiment both regiments in the 2nd Division. While in Korea he was with the 23rd Regiment. (17:25) Active Duty (18:15) o Background (18:20) �ƒ While en-route to Korea aboard a boat he couldn’t name he mentions receiving further training exercises. He furthermore, describes the journey over there. (18:50) o Korea (21:25) ƒ Landed at Pusan where a few months earlier the 2nd division had forced the North Koreans to retreat northward off the line of the Pusan Perimeter. (21:31) ƒ Coming in as a replacement he relates how his first days were of encountering snipers. (22:20) ƒ Briefly describes what sort of weaponry and guns they used. (22:35) ƒ On the march north in pursuit of the North Koreans he mentions going up many different hills all the way up to the Yalu River. Briefly describes the Korean landscape. (23:18) • ƒ As a machine gunner, Erickson describes what a typical shift looked like. (24:45) Typically, when marching northward their flamethrowers went first clearing the way of North Koreans who were well hidden in their underground bunkers. They rounded up large amounts of ammunition on their way north. (25:53) Conditions on the battlefield (26:50) • To move forward, American soldiers would have to pile the bodies of their dead comrades to avoid being hit by N. Korean bullets. (27:24) • Erickson briefly describes several encounters where South Korean soldiers worked with American units on their way north. (28:05) • While taking his turn at the machine gun on one encounter, Erickson called his superiors informing them that the Chinese Red Army were crossing the Yalu River of which his superiors couldn’t believe because the very thought of that possibility was impossible. Four hours later American soldiers were fleeing back towards the South Korean border from Chinese forces. It was during this time that he was captured. (28:25) • Erickson mentions that despite continuing to fire and picking Chinese soldiers off they just kept coming. At about 3pm that day �his unit began to retreat. Around 10pm while still waiting to receive orders to fall back he and a few others were captured. (31:10) o In the minutes before being captured, American units in the area had been warned by the Koreans that the Chinese were coming. While trying to contact HQ for orders Erickson was trying to jam his radio so that when captured it would be useless to the Chinese. (32:57) o Just as they received orders to retreat the Chinese Red Army overran them and began firing into the line of American soldiers nearby and eventually into the building that Erickson and a few other Americans had retreated into. In that encounter three Americans including himself surrendered. (33:30) • ƒ After his unit had been lined up, Erickson saw the devastation of the Chinese advance with burning tanks and dead men in the background. (35:58) POW days (36:30) • Erickson with a few of his comrades was then hauled into a pig pen where they stayed the night and then given millet the next morning. (36:36) • American POWs were treated like pigs by the Chinese who threw their food into pig troughs for the men to use chop sticks to grab their food. (37:08) • Following this, the Chinese divided the POWs into groups. While this was occurring Erickson describes how Chinese commanders treated their own soldiers. What happened next was that a Chinese soldier opened up an American soldier from the 24th Inf. Division so the rest of them could see his heart. (38:58) • Erickson describes his thoughts on this experience. (45:07) • Following this encounter, Erickson mentions that the Chinese marched the POWs unto trucks which took them to a school. Ended up walking the POWs to a cave with lots of lights. (49:17) �• During another experience, he relates how a few Chinese soldiers dropped sake down a man’s throat while digging shrapnel out of his body. Afterwards they sent the man back to the American lines with a white flag. (50:19) • Stayed in a cave enclosure for a month and then took a 23-day death march north to the Yellow River. (52:01) To scare the American POWs they would shoot their guns into the air. (52:12) • After the POWs made it to Camp 5 the Chinese began to interrogate them. (52:42) o During his interrogation, the Chinese asked him if he would write something against his country in exchange in for cigarettes and sake. He told them he couldn’t write and so his friend volunteered to write for him. As things got better, Chinese soldiers would read to them. (53:12) ƒ 23-Day Death March (55:46) • ƒ Erickson backs up and mentions how American POWs were not given winter attire until they were in the camps. (56:10) Camp living conditions (57:00) • Many American soldiers died in the camps and often when the Chinese soldiers came around they asked who was dead and if not the POWs were sent to collect brush. (57:17) • Erickson briefly mentions how they buried the bodies. (58:47) • While in camp, Erickson came down with worms in his stomach and was given garlic as a treatment. Describes this experience in some detail. (1:00:37) • During one encounter, he was sent to get bamboo strips. Describes how it was his job while out on brush detail to load brush onto to boats. He did this for a brief time. (1:03:07) • While in the camp POWs lived 20 to 30 men per mud house. They slept on the ground. He mentions where the sick were taken. (1:06:41) �ƒ • One day, he was loaded onto a truck headed back to Liberty Village. (1:07:15) • When the Chinese moved Erickson to Camp 3 he was thrown into a mud hut with b/w 50 and 70 other guys. (1:08:11) • Erickson goes on to mentions that the biggest killers of POWs were malnutrition and sickness. (1:08:51) • From Erickson’s POV his opinion of the Chinese was higher than that of the Japanese. Briefly compares the Japanese and Chinese’s treatment of POWs. (1:11:03) • Once all the POWs were gathered up, the Chinese took them back to the American lines to be reintroduced. The Americans separated the sick from the healthy after they were repatriated. (1:12:10) Going home (1:12:37) • Erickson was sent home aboard a helicopter to the states from Korea. Stopped briefly in Hawaii and then went onto California. (1:13:10) After the Service (1:13:46) • Readjusting to Home (1:13:55) o Upon being discharged, he had the choice of staying in the Army but decided to go home instead because he had had enough. (1:14:05) o Describes the different career paths that he took. (1:14:35) • Reflection (1:15:10) o Wraps up by discussing how his service changed him and impacted his life afterwards. (1:15:23) o Gives some brief details of how his service helped him to be a good soldier and survive. (1:15:55) o End (1:18:45) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Erickson, John (Interview outline and video), 2009 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Erickson, John Description An account of the resource John Erickson is a Korean War veteran who served with the U.S. Army from November 1949 to 1953. Erickson discusses his training and service in Washington and Alaska before he was sent to Korea. He joined the 2nd Division on its advance from Pusan to the Yalu River, and was taken prisoner during a counterattack by the Chinese Red Army, and spent the remainder of the war different Chinese POW camps, and provides detailed descriptions of his experiences as a POW. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) WKTV (Wyoming, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Army Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2009-04-30 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EricksonJ Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7ab5fbf2401f4d096f36a855d1f171dc.mp4 233fb504b9fed2c8e48c1df03101ca67 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9b91c6feaf4078b4fce020e3c4168726.pdf e2c3bb8e2a1291bd52ff9d4b7d1ed9d3 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview World War II Spud Ensing Length of interview (50:23) (0:08) Background Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on December 31, 1926(0:35) Lived in Grand Rapids until 8th grade then moved to Cedar Springs (0:41) Father worked as a furnace installer during the Great Depression (0:54) Fascinated with airplanes starting at a young age (1:50) Had followed war since beginning and wanted to join military (2:30) Joined Michigan State Guard at 17 which was a local militia unit (3:00) Learned basic infantry skills but did not like to sleep on ground (4:00) (5:00) Enlistment/Training Joined Navy in December of 1944; told recruiter he was interested in aircraft (5:00) Took train from Grand Rapids to Memphis, Tennessee for boot camp (5:15) On train there was a sailor with another sailor in handcuffs for deserting (5:51) Assigned barracks and did a lot of drilling and specialized training for aircrew (6:25) Only 6 weeks of training; included rifle shooting and ship recognition (7:30) Went to aircraft mechanic school for 6 months (7:45) About 100 men in a training squad with about 6-10 squads at camp (8:40) Trained by veteran Navy personnel; had advantage from working with father (9:35) Was in gunnery school when the Japanese surrendered (11:48) Went to gunnery school to learn air-to-air combat (12:16) (13:00) Active Duty Primary job was a mechanic and secondary job was aircrew (13:37) Contracted malaria while in Florida looking for crashed plane in Everglades (14:36) Undiagnosed until Navy captain from South Pacific recognized it as malaria (15:52) Reenlisted in Navy because he missed aircraft; stationed in Glenview, Illinois (16:45) Had the rank of 3rd class petty officer (17:00) Was married living off base but worked every day at 8 am (17:30) Stationed at Glenview until May of 1957(19:19) (19:38)Korea Had to train pilots and mechanics to work on jet engines (20:06) Navy and Air force were going to be split into separate branches (20:30) Left Navy and joined Air Force to stay with the aircraft (21:04) Started as a tech sergeant in the Air Force (22:15) Sent to Korea as an occupation force (22:34) Flew in a charter commercial plane with several stops in between (23:24) There was a lot of war remains in Korea (building rubble, burnt trees) (23:50) Worked on F-86 Sabre jet-fighters (24:02) �Did not have a lot of contact with the Korean people (26:00) Stationed in Korea for 9 months then went to Okinawa for 3 months (27:10) Okinawa was rebuilt to be similar to USA; worked on T-33 jet planes (27:30) After year of service overseas, sent to Lincoln, Nebraska to work on B-47 jet (29:48) Lived here from 1958-1963 before the base was closed down (30:40) (31:00) Vietnam Shipped to Mactan, Philippines on Christmas Eve 1965; family stayed in Nebraska (31:10) In Philippines worked on C-130 aircraft in the 463rd troop carrier wing (33:09) Rotated back and forth between Vietnam and Philippines every couple months (33:40) Had to train on C-130s because he did not know the plane (35:15) Job as a line chief, which kept everybody on track working on the planes (35:34) Lived off base because he was a senior Non-Commissioned Officer (36:18) Viet Cong attacked almost every night with firefights (37:07) First mortar attack was day after he went back to Philippines for last time (37:30) After Vietnam was sent to New Mexico in service for 22 years at this point (42:00) (42:00) Post Service Discharged due to sickness in July 1946: did not re-enlist (16:00) Went to work with father, but did not get along (16:14) Became movie projectionist for 8months inn Rockford, Michigan (16:30) Retired in 1968 because he was going to be sent back to Vietnam (42:50) Moved back to Grand Rapids, Michigan with his family (43:45) Worked for Northern Air as mechanic for 10 years (44:10) Worked for Herman Miller in flight department for 10 more years (44:18) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ensing, Eugene "Spud" (Interview outline and video), 2012 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ensing, Eugene "Spud" Description An account of the resource Spud Ensing was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan late in 1926. He enlisted in the Navy in 1944 and trained as an aircraft mechanic, but the war ended before he got in it. After contracting malaria while on assignment in Florida, he was given a medical discharge, but soon reenlisted and trained on jet aircraft, and eventually served in Korea after the end of the fighting there. In 1957, he transferred to the Air Force, and did a tour in the Philippines in 1965-66, where he serviced C-130 transport aircraft and made regular trips to Vietnam, and retired in 1968 rather than return to Vietnam. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) WKTV (Wyoming, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Navy Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-08 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EnsingS1434V Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e9b0dbcbb8be561e3723c7e8eb199cb9.mp4 d77ccdf46941f3b33243078245862eb4 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b890f473e993d3ce4373ce76768d5436.pdf c504d380a655bc4e5b9f851d2e7617d8 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Albert Engel (Part 3&4) (2:00:53) *Note- time code restarts Service in Court Martial Cases (00:32)         One of the men he defended, Robert Wagner Jr. was also a politician’s son. (2:18) The officers in the Court Martial were equally as confused on the proceedings of the court as any other soldier. (3:10) His first case tried was for drunken buffoonery and swearing at an officer. (3:52) Albert served in 3 Court Martial cases. (6:09) The first man he represented got off with what Albert thought was too light a punishment. (6:50) At this time (summer of 1944) Albert worked in a traveling office. (7:32) The second man he represented was accused of driving a car unlawfully and crashing it. The client said, however, that he was not driving that it was actually a lieutenant that Albert worked in the office with. (8:20) He represented 2 AWOL cases. These cases were cut and dried, the defendant was almost always found guilty. (11:15) Service in France (12:00)        Albert stayed in a Countess’s castle in France while traveling across the country. The castle had been used by the German officers while under Nazi occupation. (13:04) The countess ran a convent for young unmarried mothers. She asked Albert for help defusing bombs and ammunition that had landed in the area of the convent. (14:55) The women who stayed at the convent were terrified of the ammunition that was on the premises. (16:48) The men were served bread and wine, and the men shared their K rations as a celebration for cleaning up the convent. (17:41) His commanding officer had already seen action in Africa before serving in France. (21:21) At this time (summer/fall of 1944) officers were in short supply due to misconduct of some in the field. (22:27) As a result of the officer shortage, Albert applied to be an officer of a bomb squad. He was assigned to the 80th Bomb Squad. (23:12) Service in the 80th Bomb Squad     The Bomb Squad was stationed at Laval, France The 80th Bomb Squad was much better than his first, the 86th Bomb Disposal Squad. (26:20) Albert stayed with the 80th Bomb Disposal Squad until the end of the war in June of 1945. (26:48) His bomb squad followed the Tactical Air Team were his task was to keep all air fields operational at all times. To do this the men required many tools including stethoscopes and a multitude of wrenches. (27:00) �      As the Squad traveled across the eastern side of France, there were a lot of bombs discovered. (28:15) The bombs and munitions that the men defused were U.S., French, and German. (29:24) While working at air fields in France and Belgium, the Squad dealt with munitions that did not deteriorate due to age. (30:30) U.S. bombs were the most likely to be found by the squad due to Allied carpet bombing. (32:48) Most bombs that were too close to homes or cities, had to be taken to a bomb site before they could be detonated. (34:14) When bombs were detonated they were buried in a 15 foot hole, filled with explosives. (35:15) Service in Belgium (36:55)                       On December 19th 1944, Albert left for Zwartburg Belgium where he spent the next 6 months. There was already 1 bomb disposal crew there. (37:15) At this time (winter of 1944) the men did mostly detonation work. There was so much ammunition that the men had to prioritize what to detonate. (38:52) This job was dangerous. There were casualties on occasion. (39:45) The Bomb Squad traveled north through France and Luxembourg toward Belgium on December 18th. The squadron did encounter Germans in the Ardennes Forest. (41:20) There was a British Air Base and an American Airstrip (Y-32) in Zwartburg Belgium. (43:53) The Belgium people treated the soldiers very well. (46:24) The soldiers and the Belgium people in the town the squadron was in decorated a Christmas tree in December of 1944 using tinsel bombers had dropped in order to confuse anti-aircraft radar. (49:00) The soldiers and the townspeople would commonly exchange goods. (49:45) Before the Battle of the Bulge, the amount of munitions the bomb squad had was so great that Albert was given clearance to drop the bombs into the North Sea. This was later halted by HQ. (51:41) In the winter of 1944 Luftwaffe attacked almost every night. (53:35) Early in the morning on December 31st 1944 the German air forces launched their final offensive. 36 of 50 German aircraft were shot down. (56:03) No jet fighters were used in the final aerial assault. (56:55) The Luftwaffe spent much of their time shooting up the runway. (57:12) There were not a lot of bombs dropped in this final offensive. (59:28) The morning following the offensive there were many German plane wrecks on the ground near the airfield. (1:00:45) Albert’s squad was also attacked on December 24th 1944 by German aircraft. (1:02:40) The Belgian civilians assisted in cleaning up some of the wreckage that resulted from battles. (1:03:30) On December 31st 1944, Albert received a call about a German aircraft that was shot down on the outskirts of town. When he arrived there, body parts from the pilots could be found scattered about the sight. (1:04:15) The Soldiers were treated very kindly by the Belgium civilians (1:05:25) In April of 1945 while in the Limburg province, Albert met a Belgium man (Mr. Groenen) who he became close with. He was welcomed into this man’s home and even ate with him. (1:07:00) The man had several younger sisters who were all able to speak English. (1:10:05)\ The man and his family had housed German officers while they occupied Belgium. (1:10:35) �    The family that Albert was close with was told that they were still under investigation due to their housing of German officers. (1:13:00) The family was very wealthy. The women’s husband had many hunting trophies and furniture carved from bone. (1:17:40) Several years after the war while Albert was in law school, he visited the family he had grown close to. (1:18:44) While visiting, Albert went with one of his friends, Bob. This man was not trusted by the family because they didn’t know him. (1:21:40) Service after German Surrender (1:22:55) (June 1945)                    Albert and his squad traveled to Nuremburg German in 1945 after the surrender. (1:22:45) While still in Belgium, Albert and his squad traveled to some of the battlefields to see what they looked like. (1:23:20) After the German surrender in 1945, bomb squads were combined. This meant Albert would command several squads simultaneously. (1:24:50) He was first sent to an old palace in Nuremburg Germany then to an airfield at Montdidier where he stayed from June-October 1945. (1:25:15) Albert in and his men had little to do in Germany in 1945. The bomb disposal squads were quickly sent back to France to carry out more munitions work. (1:25:52) On June 21st 1945 while in Nuremburg Germany, Albert was made a captain. He was much younger than other captains and because of this he was in Europe for almost a year after the surrender before being sent home. (1:27:56) While in Nuremburg Germany Albert saw an opera. The opera house was bombed out so bad it looked like it was going to fall over. (1:28:32) Albert’s father visited him while he was in France in mid to late 1945. His father was to meet with Eisenhower. (1:30:12) Albert was met at the Frankfort Airport by General Begley who helped Albert find his father. (1:32:19) For 8 days Albert traveled with General Begley before meeting his father at another airport. (1:33:12) For the next 19 days after his father’s landing, Albert traveled with his father and meet Eisenhower in Frankfort, Germany, in September of 1945. (1:34:51) Albert than landed in Tempelhof Airport, Berlin. Here he visited Hitler’s Bunker (1:35:27) His father was happy to see him. He talked often about the Christmas tree farm that Albert was intended to run after his military service. (1:37:40) Albert and his father than ventured to Paris. (1:38:56) His father came to Paris with other congressmen. There were other soldiers who were ordered to come and meet their fathers. (1:41:26) Albert and his father than ventured to London. (1:42:58) His father spent much of his time in London in meetings. (1:44:45) Three of the soldiers Albert was with on the trip were related to congress men and were treated with the same political favoritism as Albert. (1:45:18) A high ranking officer in the 9th Air Force came to see Albert. He was given the choice to stay in the military as a commander in a bomb squad and a position as a commander. He did not like this because he expected political influence. Albert turned the offer down. (1:47:06) �End of Service (1946)(1:48:00)       Albert was sent to a camp near Antwerp, Belgium before being sent home. (1:49:48) He was very anxious to go home. (1:51:07) Albert ventured home aboard a troop ship. He arrived in at New Jersey. (1:51:40) He traveled by train back to Washington D.C. (1:52:30) Albert was so anxious to get out of his uniform after return home, one of the first things he did was go down town and purchase a Zoot suit. (1:52:47) He was discharged in New York in 1946. (1:55:26) Thoughts on Service (1:57:30)  As much as he hated politics influencing his life he was eventually able to get out of it and commanded his own bomb squad which he liked. (1:58:29) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Engel, Albert (Interview outline and video, 2 of 2), 2012 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Engel, Albert Description An account of the resource Albert Engel, son of U.S. congressman Albert J. Engel, served in the U.S. Army from February 1943 to April 1946 in the European Theater during World War II. During basic training, Albert applied for OCS school, but due to his young age did poorly, but did receive his commission. Before being sent to England, Albert was assigned as commander of the 80th Bomb Disposal Squad. However, shortly after arriving in France Albert was transferred to the HQ for the 19th tactical air command. Here he was assigned to represent defendants in court martial cases. Albert than applied to be the commander of the 86th Bomb Disposal Squad. He stayed commander of this squad until his discharge in 1946. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Air Corps Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-02-14 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EngelA1345V2 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b153b66b24f0fb83baabd5e578334d99.mp4 094a2bc13d3f81c5959a30af6f2bc294 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/37208b8ee03a19642d87553ef2adbc4b.pdf c4e8adaa18ca3d69b5f7b3688aeb0563 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Albert Engel (Part 1&2) (2:05:53) Background Information (00:20)   Born in Lake City, Michigan, in 1924. (00:29) He grew up in Michigan and in Washington D.C. the relocation was due to his father’s work as a congressman. (1:50) Summary of his Father (2:18)          His father worked as a farmer when he was a boy. (2:19) At the age of 14 his father ran away from home and began working in a lumber yard. (6:25) His father was 1 credit short of graduating from Northwestern University in Illinois. (8:29) His father also served in the Army. He lied about his age in order to go to officer training at Fort Sheridan. (9:30) His father ran a Christmas tree business. (10:45) Due to his German name, his father’s tree business struggled. (11:25) His father became a lawyer and latter Prosecuting Attorney. (13:56) He had to give up his position as a Prosecuting Attorney during World War I. (15:09) His father practiced law in Lake City at the time of Albert’s birth. (18:29) Background Information (cont.) (19:25)               Albert has 1 older sister. (19:30) Albert had one brother who died at birth. (25:37) In 1933, his father ran for congress. He was elected and served 8 terms until he retired. (26:06) He graduated from Western High School in Georgetown, D.C. (27:44) His father’s work is what brought Albert to Washington (29:11) Albert heard of Pearl Harbor while upstairs in his room doing homework. At the time he was studying at the University of Maryland. Albert attended the University of Maryland due to it being less expensive than his out of state favorite, the University of Michigan. (30:30) Because his father was in congress, Albert saw a copy of The Day of Infamy speech before Roosevelt gave it. (33:06) Albert had a seat in the house gallery when Roosevelt gave The Day of Infamy speech. (34:53) He did not have an immediate desire to enlist in the military after Pearl Harbor. (35:50) At the time of Albert’s enlistment he had 2 years of college and 3 years of military training while in high school through the ROTC. (38:20) His junior year of college, Albert transferred to the University of Michigan. He was at the institution for 1 year before going into service. (39:24) Albert was in the ROTC. (43:04) He did poorly at the University of Michigan. Part of the reason was due to apathy. So many men were being drafted he believed it hopeless to study because e too would be drafted. (45:06) Albert enlisted in the U.S. Army in Washington D.C. in 1943 at the age of 18. (46:40) �Basic Training (47:20)      Albert received orders to report in downtown Washington where he and others would be transported to Fort Lee, Virginia. (47:24) For infantry training Albert was sent to Camp Wheeler. (50:01) In training he was able to learn quickly. (50:49) His clothes and other military supplies were issued at Fort Lee. (51:18) After getting back to the house, his father told Albert that he already knew where he was going to serve. He was to be transferred. This angered Albert. He believed he was being transferred for political purposes. (54:57) Training at Fort Aberdeen                 Albert was transferred to Fort Aberdeen, Maryland. Here he began the same basic training he had at Camp Wheeler. (57:02) Albert did not tell the men he was training with that he was a congressman’s son. However the men alongside him knew regardless. (58:34) Albert applied for OCS (Officer Candidates School). (1:00:02) At one occasion when Albert met his commanding officer, he could tell the man was frightened by the power his father had. (1:30:00) Albert thought he was too young to do well in OCS. He also felt depressed due to the fact that he was being used due to the position of his father. (1:02:37) Albert was then transferred to Ordnance Company. (1:03:28) During this time in his training, Albert met many other men who were sons of politician. Many had the same bleak outlook of the political influence on their lives as Albert did. (1:06:31) Many of the drills that Albert did in basic training were ones that he was familiar with from ROTC in high School. (1:07:36) Albert did not do well in OCS. His officers who trained him however, were very good. (1:12:58) He scored as one of the lowest in his class in OCS. He was, however, given one of the highest scores of a single man. (1:14:27) After Albert graduated from OCS, he had the choice of where he wanted to go. Albert volunteered for bomb disposal. (1:16:09) Bomb disposal was a job Albert liked. In 1944 he was sent to bomb disposal school. (1:16:40) Albert trained both at Army and Navy bases for bomb disposal. (1:17:17) During training, Albert worked on defusing both American as well as German bombs. (1:18:18) Half way through his education, Albert was assigned commanding officer of the 80th Bomb Disposal Squad. (1:19:30) After training, his unit was sent to Fort Dix, New Jersey to be sent to Europe in April 1944. (1:19:30) Voyage to Europe (1:20:20)    He sailed in a convoy. (1:20:30) The ship carried 24 officers and 240 men. (1:22:09) Albert was the youngest person on the ship. He was made sanitation officer while on the voyage to Europe. (1:22:58) �      The commander of the convoy was on Albert’s ship. Because of this, the ship sailed in the center of the convoy. (1:24:48) The ship hit storms fairly quickly. Many men became sea sick. (1:25:04) The ship traveled on a northern course. While approaching the Arctic Circle, the convoy was attacked by a submarine. (1:26:37) One of the 3 destroyer escorts of the convoy was hit by the submarine and disabled. (1:27:20) In response to the submarine, the convoy than turned south toward the Canary Islands. (1:28:11) The ship than turned north and eventually landed in Wales. (1:29:19) Service in England (1:29:55)                Albert did not believe the men he commanded in his squad were very bright. (1:30:00) The Squad than moved to Headcorn, England. Once arriving, the men waited there for their supplies. (1:31:00) When first arriving in Europe, Albert was still very naive. (1:32:56) While waiting for his equipment in Headcorn, Albert received orders that he was transferred to the Headquarters of 19th Tactical Air Command. (1:34:35) This position meant that he would be following the 19th Air men into the continent. (1:35:36) Albert was furious to hear of his transfer. He had been excited to lead the men he had trained on bomb defusing. (1:36:40) While in England, Albert served as ammunition and Bomb Disposal officer. This, Albert says, is a title that meant nothing. Because of his lack of responsibility, he spent much of his time visiting sights. (1:38:19) On June 26th 1944 Albert was given the chance to travel across the English Channel. He was out ranked, however, and did not get a spot on the boat to go to France. (1:40:29) During the invasion on June 6th 1944, Albert served as a pencil pusher. He did not like this. (1:41:58) While in England Albert did visit London several times. (1:42:27) There was little to do at night. Albert liked to watch the English Bombers fly over head. (1:44:27) The first time he saw a buzz bomber, it was frightening and confusing. He had never seen anything like it before. (1:45:45) Albert boarded a ship in Southampton and then traveled to Utah Beach on August 1st 1944. Here he stayed for several days after arriving. The voyage took 3 day. (1:47:00) He crossed the channel on a coal ship. The ship was very dirty. (1:48:00) The ships landed on portable docks set up on the beachheads. (1:49:04) Service in Europe (1:50:35)     When arriving on Utah Beach there were tents set and the area was secured. (1:51:04) The men than headed south and west to a headquarters unit based at St. James, in the southwest corner of Normandy . At this time they received word that they would be giving air cover and support to Patton’s 3rd Army. (1:52:03) While in England, Albert was assigned to an experimental program on the Thames estuary that was to develop a new rocket. (1:53:40) The rockets would carried by aircraft and used to destroy buzz bombs. (1:57:14) �   While working on this special project, Albert lived in a farmhouse. He did very little and mostly was there just to observe. (1:59:19) Due to the bit of law education that Albert had while in college, he was appointed to be the defense counsel for a man who was to be court martialed while moving inland in France. (2:01:06) One man he was defending was court martialed for conduct of drunken buffoonery while in a town. (2:03:05) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Engel, Albert (Interview outline and video, 1 of 2), 2012 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Engel, Albert Description An account of the resource Albert Engel, son of U.S. congressman Albert J. Engel, served in the U.S. Army from February 1943 to April 1946 in the European Theater during World War II. During basic training, Albert applied for OCS school, but due to his young age did poorly, but did receive his commission. Before being sent to England, Albert was assigned as commander of the 80th Bomb Disposal Squad. However, shortly after arriving in France Albert was transferred to the HQ for the 19th tactical air command. Here he was assigned to represent defendants in court martial cases. Albert than applied to be the commander of the 86th Bomb Disposal Squad. He stayed commander of this squad until his discharge in 1946. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Air Corps Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-02-14 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EngelA1345V1 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1e060c896987c5cf9c980d0fa622f03f.mp4 d5549e219fcf1c2c051cc1b5ccf2a655 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/912217ff0aa6f7c78d54a9c167df7914.pdf 3be4cab6c228e54ff738bd7265547f8d PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview World War II Duane Endres Length of interview (1:34:31) (00:00:08) Family Background               Duane Endres was born in Carlton Township, Michigan on February 19, 1924 (00:00:11) His father was a farmer of 40 acres, which was split 50/50 with the landowner (00:00:23) There were 8 people in the family. Any cash revenue came from the cream and cows they had, which allowed them $.70 a week to live on. In the summer, Mr. Endres father worked a thrash machine for a $1 a day. It was very lucrative for the family (00:02:04) Duane completed the 8th grade. His parents could not afford to send him to high school. He wanted to get more education and it upsets him today when kids do not take advantage of the opportunities offered them (00:03:11) During this time, the state required an individual to complete 8 grades. If one lived in a district with a high school they could attend for free; however, if one lived outside of the district they had to pay tuition, supplies, and transportation fees (00:03:15) The family had a car, but they could not afford the gas. Gas was $.10 a gallon at the time (00:03:48) His sister attended school because his parents wanted her to have an education to support herself. They figured that Duane and his brothers could use their hands for work (00:04:03) The performed numerous chores on the farm. Duane goes into detail about specific aspects of the farm (00:04:41) Duane stayed on the farm after he completed school until he received an offer to work at Michigan State University in an experimental sheep and cow barn (00:08:05) He worked at MSU for 2 years and then he joined the Navy (00:08:40) He was at a cousin's house near Lowell, Michigan, when he heard the news of Pearl Harbor on the radio (00:09:10) He received a draft notice 2 or 3 months prior, but was granted a deferment due to his work at MSU. There is a point here where Duane discusses in detail maple syrup and his revenues (00:12:10) His 3 brothers were in the Army and served overseas (00:12:50) Duane was in the Navy and never went overseas, but he did spent 18 hours on a ship at one point (00:13:01) (00:13:12) Basic Training  At Great Lake Training Center, Duane and 12-14 other men were lined up asked if anyone wanted to volunteer for Marines. No one volunteered and �      the last two men in line were chosen for the Marines. Duane told the command he always wanted to be in the Navy when asked (00:14:25) His training was not organized, because the officer in charge of his unit had to leave. They participated in training when someone was available to train them (00:15:42) Finally, eight companies of men were given a review of drill instructions for the final review. They did not have the necessary training and did not pass the final review; however, they did advance beyond basic training (00:17:25) Duane related that the Army concentrated on cleaning rifles; whereas, the Navy focused on uniforms (00:18:06) He learned how to row and they had some training with anti-aircraft guns (00:18:33) Duane enjoyed learning how to use the machine gun and wanted to use the double barrel anti-aircraft guns. The National Guard was chosen for this task and Duane was given guard duty. He was upset, but soon realized no one got to train on the guns (00:20:45) After basic training Duane spent 3-4 days at Great Lakes before he received orders to Oklahoma. He could not believe it and thought maybe there was some secret mission going on there (00:21:42) (00:22:00) Active Duty Norman, Oklahoma           Once in Oklahoma, Duane realized it was a large airfield and he was assigned to the mess hall (00:22:20) He learned to cooperate with others and did was he told (00:22:34) Within a few days, he got an easy job slicing bread. He has told everyone who went into military service to ‘act like you enjoy the job even you do not. It will pay off’ (00:22:55) His duties included slicing bread and taking care of the vegetable locker. He was then transferred to a new mess hall, where he became the Master of Arms. This job entailed supervising the cooks and maintaining order in the food line. He got the job because he had a good attitude (00:26:00) The Germans surrendered before he left Oklahoma. He jokingly says that the Germans and Japanese surrendered because they knew he joined the service (00:28:00) He left Oklahoma, where the majority of his service time was spent, in 1946 (00:28:04) He became a storekeeper and kept inventory (00:28:45) Tell a story about gate guards helping themselves to food (00:29:16) There was a North and South base in Oklahoma. The South base was where secret operations took place, which was primarily focused on radar technology. The North base was where pilots were trained (00:31:30) A storm hit the base and over 100 planes were lost. There were no weather forecasts on the radio, but an officer saw the storm coming, Duane was ordered to the airfield to help tie everything down (00:32:25) �       He talks about the different planes damaged during the storm. The war was over so the loss was not a big deal (00:34:02) The size of the base was being reduced and Duane was in one of the last men to leave. Everyone received a souvenir cigarette lighter, but Duane did not smoke (00:35:44) Duane and his friend were not heavy drinkers, so they visited places in Oklahoma and took a lot of pictures (00:37:00) He kept in touch with this friend until 2 years ago. Duane believes he either passed away or moved into a nursing home (00:37:57) Speaks about sailors who joined the service under assumed names. They were zoot suitors (00:38:40) Shared barracks in California with a man who was difficult to get along with (00:40:00) While in Oklahoma, there was a record set for the number of men who drowned in the Navy. He speaks about a lake where 5 men drowned to lack of attention by lifeguards (00:41:05) (00:43:00) Active Duty California             Duane was ordered to California after his time in Oklahoma. He traveled on a troop car. It was a rugged ride and they did not eat very often. The men complained a lot, but the food they were given was good. Also, they stayed at Harvey Houses along the way (00:43:05) Duane had a mild mannered friend in California, who was picked on by his barracks mates. This led to an altercation for Duane (00:48:37) He was at Livermore Airfield, which was an atomic base (00:51:09) Firemen on base responded to fires in the nearby town (00:51:56) Duane was assigned to refrigeration and worked in a locker plant (00:53:35) One person stayed on overnight duty to take care of any emergencies. He also kept water coolers serviced. This was his only job (00:54:15) There was not much use for the skills he learned in California after his service (00:55:07) He visited Oakland, California, often and was amazed by the hills and trolleys. He said he never saw so many pancake houses as he did in San Francisco. He tried to take in as many sites as he could (00:56:02) He took buses to Oakland and then hitchhiked to other places. Relates a story about hitchhiking in Oklahoma during a blizzard. Hitchhiking was relatively safe, but he suggests he was naïve about it, too (00:57:57) Cigarettes were a common item to be traded for a ride. Most people smoked and it was un-American to not smoke (01:01:00) At one point in California, the farmer’s fields caught on fire and spread into the hills. The sailors tried to help put it out. Duane tells a story about a captain’s van being stuck in the hills and helicopters were used to locate it (01:02:10) The smoke from the fire carried poison oak or ivy, which affected Duane badly. His face was raw and fluids had to be drained. He had to go to the sick bay regularly for cleanings (01:04:12) �(01:05:00) Post Service Experiences               He decided to hitchhike home from California, because his family was poor and it was an opportunity to make some cash (01:06:31) He stayed in motels, which were a $1 a night and he got discounts, too (01:07:25) He got a ride from a Japanese man, who had been in an internment camp. This was one of the few men he remembered on his trip home (01:08:13) Duane relates a time when he volunteered to clean the mess hall with DDT. He received 2 days of leave to visit his brother in Texas. They sprayed utensils, food containers, and numerous other things in the hall. It killed all the pests (01:08:49) It took Duane 5 days to get home to Michigan from California. Hitchhiking was much better than the troop train; however, he did get stuck in the desert near Cheyenne, Wyoming for a night (01:10:37) He returns to some stories about basic training (01:12:00) Damaged Disc/ Would not play Duane liked the service and says it was the only vacation he has ever had. He went from doing hard work to soft living (01:20:47) He decided not to stay in the service, because he thought the U.S. was going to war with Russia (01:21:20) He thought about volunteering with atomic testing for 3 months. He is glad he did not (01:22:51) Overall, Duane believes the service made him more independent. He was strongly affected by the changes immediately after the war (01:24:01) He speaks about the Army Air Corps and the glamour boys (01:26:38) He relates a story from his brother’s experience at the Battle of Bulge (01:29:16) Gives some opinions about generals in WWII (01:31:00) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Endres, Duane (Interview outline and video), 2011 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Endres, Duane Description An account of the resource Duane Endres was born on a farm in Michigan in 1924. He was drafted into the Navy 1945. Prior to this he received a deferment due to his work at Michigan State University. He remained on the home front during his service and was stationed in Norman, Oklahoma, and Livermore, California. He was a seaman 2nd class, worked in the mess hall in Oklahoma, and was assigned to refrigeration in California. He was discharged from the Navy in 1946. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Navy World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-04-26 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EndresD1105V Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a835e5ed602e5746400d875c7e240ba8.pdf 694919c3de46d9cd1ee043f73a3a9cd3 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Vietnam War Roger Elliott (16:07) Background Information (00:18)        Born January 9th 1949 (00:19) He served as a Sergeant E5 in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. (00:20) Raised in Indiana. (1:00) Roger played football while in High school. (1:20) He finished high school in May of 1967. In October of 1967 he had already enlisted and was sent to basic training. (1:26) He hoped he would not end up in Vietnam. The family did have some military history. (2:04) Roger’s siblings were ineligible for the draft due to age. (2:40) Fort Leonard wood Missouri. (2:50)     Roger completed basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri . the program lasted 10 weeks. (2:50) The men spent much time on physical training to get the men in shape for combat. (3:10) He took advanced training in supply at Fort Lee Virginia, for another 8 to 10 weeks after basic. (3:30) The men were sent to Vietnam by aircraft. The plane traveled from California to Alaska then to Vietnam. (4:09) Service in Vietnam (4:43)        Roger was stationed in Cam Ranh Bay. (4:45) He served as a supply sergeant. Aside from night patrol once a month, Rodger managed the income an outgo of supplies and delivered supplies to various units. (5:15) Most men spent spare time sleeping or trying to relax. Most men always had their guard up. (5:56) There were Vietnamese civilians taking care of the base's laundry. (6:32) Roger believed, when he was there, that the Vietnam War was unwinnable. But he still felt bad for the Vietnamese when the U.S. pulled out. (7:13) Roger used letters to communicate back home, but wasn’t as diligent about it as other men. (8:12) The extent to which men were moved around inhibited Rodger from making close friends. (9:22) End of Service (9:25)   Roger was in Savannah, Georgia when the Vietnam War ended. (9:25) The men were flown from Saigon to California aboard a commercial jet. Roger was not informed of how bad the attitude was back at home was about the war. The lack of respect for the soldiers was very sad. (9:43) �      He is not a member of any veterans’ organizations. (10:58) It was difficult to adjust to the peace of home. (11:20) Roger is happy that training and military strategy has improved sense Vietnam. He is worried, however, when he looks at the conflicts in the Middle East. (12:10) He doesn’t believe that his service has affected him too much. (13:23) Service did help Roger grow and mature. (14:34) He believes that Americans are very fortunate for what they have. (15:31) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Elliott, Roger (Interview outline), 2012 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Elliott, Roger Description An account of the resource Roger Elliott, born in 1949, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1967 and served in Vietnam as a supply sergeant at Cam Ranh Bay. After his tour in Vietnam, he completed his enlistment at Fort Lee, Virginia. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Grider, Joelle (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-05-24 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context ElliottR1425V Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9d9bb883bd03697548903d009236b5ea.mp4 57686d7c23bcc14ee76efa9a9c71cf5e https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b5e0c9ca2dfbed7823fdb599199ba13d.pdf a1f140491c00b6038da6b86ea0101ec0 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History ProjectWorld War II Albert Eitel (57:03) Background Information (00:10)             Born in Scottsdale, Nebraska, on December 25th 1926. (00:14) At the age of 4 in 1928 he and his parents moved to Flint, Michigan. The parents moved to work for General Motors. (00:30) In 1944 his father retired. He did not lose his job during the Depression. (1:00) He had 5 other siblings. (1:30) He attended high school but did not graduate because he enlisted at the age of 17 prior to his graduation. (1:45) Albert was familiar with the conflicts in Europe but he did not have any idea of the conflicts occurring in the Pacific. (2:12) Albert heard of Pearl Harbor during church on a Sunday afternoon. (2:28) Most young people Albert knew were very anxious to serve in the war. (3:35) Albert enlisted in the Navy on May 2nd 1944 at age 17. (4:30) He had an older brother in the Air Force. (5:12) After enlisted the men were required to have a physical done in Detroit Michigan. (6:05) Albert was sent to Great Lakes Naval Base for his basic training. (6:23) Basic Training (6:30)          Training entailed rigorous physical exercises. (6:50) Discipline was highly emphasized. (7:25) Most of the men Albert trained with were from the mid west area of the U.S. (7:55) After completing his basic training Albert was sent to Camp Bradford, Virginia, where the men practiced landings in LSTs. (8:16) At this time (November 1944) Albert was also being trained on the twin 40mm guns. (9:25) Albert was at Camp Bradford for several weeks. (9:49) The men were allowed to leave the base while at Camp Bradford on a weekend pass. (10:19) After his training at Camp Bradford, Albert was sent back to Great Lakes Naval Base in Illinois for several weeks. At this time the men were training as a crew. (11:05) He was sent by train to Southern Indiana to pick up the ship he would serve on, an LST. The ship was than sailed down the Mississippi to New Orleans Louisiana. (11:19) Voyage to the Pacific (11:30)     At this time Albert was a Seaman First Class, Deck hand. (11:45) It took approx 1 week to travel down the Mississippi River. When arriving in New Orleans the men were given leave. (12:40) The civilians in New Orleans treated the men very kindly. (13:00) The first captain of Albert’s ship was only about 45 years old. His second captain however had been in the navy for about 30 years and was much older. (13:50) �      When in the Gulf of Mexico the men did more practice on guns and running the ship. (14:35) The ship traveled through the Panama Cannel. (15:08) There were about 2-3 LSTs with Albert’s ship while crossing the Pacific. (16:11) The travel across the pacific had bad weather. The LST was tossed around. Half the crew got sick. (17:40) LCTs (a small landing craft) were chained down on the deck of the LST. (18:40) There was an initiation for the Pollywogs (new sailors) to Shell Backs (experienced sailor) after crossing the equator. (19:45) Service in the Pacific (21:30)         The ship first stopped at the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific. (21:48) Albert took a journal in spite of the fact that sailors were not supposed to keep one. He did this by using the back of the log on the ship that was intended for recording when excess batteries were last charged. (22:48) He was given the job of assistant to the Storage Keeper. Albert was also given the title Store Keeper Third Class in early 1945. (23:40) He recalls that water and fuel were picked up at one location, tanks and men were picked up at another island and then they were dropped at yet another island. (25:07) Over all, the men were traveling to the Philippians. (26:05) After some fights (such as that at Manila Bay) in the morning, sunken ships could be seen after the battle. (27:23) Manila had been heavily bombed when Albert arrived there. (27:58) Albert did contact the civilians in the Philippines. These civilians were at time used to acquire intelligence. (28:22) Service after Surrender (29:59)           Albert was in the small village of San Fernando in the Philippines when he heard of the end of the war in August of 1945. (30:25) They did not tell the men of the Atomic bomb, only the Japanese surrender. (30:58) On September 20th 1945 the ship was in Okinawa. (31:57) On September 24th 1945 the ship docked in Korea. Albert thought the weather was cold. (32:54) There were still Japanese Soldiers in Korea. They were not unkind to the American Soldiers. (33:50) After the war ended the ship’s primarily task was to ferry soldiers back to their home country. This included Japanese and Chinese soldiers. (34:30) Albert talked with these soldiers. They did not wish to talk about their service but they were very smart. (35:20) The ship also carried captured Japanese civilians in China back to Japan. (37:38) Albert met Chinese people, but because they did not know English, communicating was difficult. (38:10) Once while going ashore to get mail in French Indochina, Albert was required to take with him an armed guard. (39:05) Life in Service (40:10) �        He remembers the culture shock of seeing a society that had only huts to live in and did not regularly wear shoes. (40:20) For actives aboard ship most men played cards and occasionally watched a movie. After the war was over the men had beer on board the ship. (41:38) The food aboard ship was good. (42:20) When the men were aloud off the ship, the men were typically aloud of at night and had to be back on the ship by 12 AM at the latest. (43:40) Albert received mail approx every 5-6 days if they were by a larger island. (45:40) While scanning the horizon the men often spotted Japanese mines. These were hit and destroyed from several miles away. (46:45) Sighting of Japanese aircraft was frequent. (47:46) While the ship was at sea near Okinawa there was a typhoon that lasted about 4 days. (49:23) End of Service (49:54)    The trip back to San Francisco, California, took about 40 days. (50:00) Once arriving in California, the men were placed in a camp and given a few days leave. When he came back he was placed on a train to Great Lakes Naval Base Illinois. (50:55) Albert was discharged at Great Lakes Naval Base in approx 1946. (52:00) Life after Service (52:05)      He attended Baker Business College in Flint, Michigan, and received a business degree after 1 year. (52:15) He began work as a truck driver. (52:40) He owned a party store for 30 years. (53:40) Albert’s service was a good educating experience. (54:50) At times his service was frightening. (56:35) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Eitel, Albert (Interview outline and video), 2011 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Eitel, Albert Description An account of the resource Albert Eitel, born in Nebraska in 1926, served in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1946 in the Pacific theater during World War II. Albert enlisted at the age of 17. He did basic training at Great Lakes Naval Base in Illinois, and then trained on LSTs at Camp Bradford, Virginia. He then joined the crew of a new LST at its shipyard in southern Indiana and sailed with her to the Pacific, where he participated in the campaign in the Philippines. Albert started out as a deck hand, but soon became a storekeeper. After the Japanese surrender in August 1945, the ship spent several months ferrying Japanese and Chinese soldiers from Korea, China and Indochina back to their home countries. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Navy World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-04-26 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EitelA1114V Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ba362fe33a49cbd5e07020d50ca99fcd.mp4 32849bd13ec3a6b7d7dfcbda388dc961 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/63560dff04c6f82d42b4f4dbb16040a7.pdf e7f5e29442770dad6088b3c852a6216a PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veteran’s History Project Keith Edmondson World War II Interview Length: (00:54:54:00) Pre-enlistment / Training (00:00:17:00)  Edmondson was born in May 1924 in Wheaton, Illinois, but spent all his early years in nearby Glen Ellyn, Illinois (00:00:17:00) o While Edmondson was growing up, his father worked as a tailor in Chicago, which involved commuting two hours a day, one hour to Chicago and one hour to get home (00:00:30:00)  However, during the early part of the Great Depression, Edmondson’s father was unemployed for a year-and-a-half (00:00:47:00) o While Edmondson was a child, his grandfather, an immigrant from Norway, lived with Edmondson’s family, having retired from his job of working as a sailor for thirty years (00:00:55:00)  Edmondson’s grandfather did not have anything to do except play with Edmondson, so he taught Edmondson how to tie all the naval knots and told Edmondson sailing stories (00:01:05:00) o Edmondson had two siblings, an older brother who died when he was five or six years old and an older sister (00:01:19:00)  Edmondson graduated from high school in 1942, when he was eighteen years old, then started attending Purdue University the following fall (00:02:01:00) o On the Sunday the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Edmondson was at home and he heard of the radio that Pearl Harbor had been bombed (00:02:16:00)  The attack did not make too much of an impression on Edmondson at the time, although looking back, it probably should have (00:02:43:00) o While in high school, Edmondson worked as a paperboy and he remembers reading articles talking about the fighting in Europe, particularly the Fins fighting against the Russians (00:02:54:00)  However, Edmondson was not too invested in following the war in Europe, mostly because he had other things that occupied his time, such as picking colleges (00:03:13:00) o After the Japanese attack, Edmondson remembers being in a group of students that the school principal was addressing, explaining about the war in Europe and the attack on Pearl Harbor, and at one point the principal remarked that he thought few in the audience would end up serving in the military (00:03:27:00)  In November 1942, while at Purdue, Edmondson heard about a program called the Aviation Cadet Program, which interested Edmondson because the program offered him a deferment on serving in the military until the end of college (00:04:13:00) o Edmondson took the test for the program, did quite well, and was admitted into the program (00:04:36:00) o Unlike most of the other students in the program, Edmondson was not interested in becoming a pilot (00:04:58:00) �   However, only four months after Edmondson joined the Aviation Cadet Program, in February 1943, the program changed and Edmondson was enlisted into the military and sent to San Antonio, Texas (00:05:13:00) o Because Edmondson was still only eighteen years old, the entire experience was all sort of a big adventure (00:05:26:00) o To get to San Antonio, Edmondson first went to some place in Chicago, where he boarded a train that took him to San Antonio; by the time Edmondson and the other new recruits arrived in San Antonio, they were all pretty dirty because the trains were not kept very clean (00:05:33:00) o Once in San Antonio, Edmondson was assigned to a barracks located on an airfield; the barracks were a classification center, so Edmondson and the other recruits had to chose between the different occupations, such as being a pilot, a bombardier, a navigator, etc. (00:05:58:00)  Edmondson looked at the pilots training and saw the training would take fourteen months, as opposed to only six months for training for a bombardier; the pay difference between the two groups was small, so Edmondson elected to go through bombardier training (00:06:17:00)  A lot of the men who went through bombardier training with Edmondson were men who had washed out of the pilot training program (00:06:36:00) o While at the classification center, Edmondson and the other recruits also went through some physical training (00:06:51:00) Shortly after choosing the bombardier classification, Edmondson went to Ellington Field outside of Houston for pre-flight bombardier training (00:07:01:00) o Once at Ellington Field, Edmondson and the other recruits in pre-flight bombardier training went through more physical training, as well as book work, with instructors explain about different aspects of the Air Corps (00:07:26:00)  During the pre-flight training, Edmondson and the other recruits were able to travel into Houston (00:07:56:00) After the pre-flight training at Ellington Field, Edmondson went to Midland, Texas for the actual bombardier training (00:08:03:00) o During the bombardier training, Edmondson primarily learned how to operate an Norden bombsight, first on a trainer aircraft, then later aboard another aircraft, where Edmondson dropped legitimate practice bombs (00:08:13:00)  During practice bombing runs on the trainer aircraft, Edmondson would be aboard the aircraft with an instructor while on the ground, someone else would move a target; Edmondson objective was to get the crosshairs of the bombsight on the target for a certain amount of time (00:08:59:00)  The instructor kept track of everything Edmondson did, including where a bomb would have landed had the flight been a legitimate bombing run (00:09:28:00) o Edmondson stayed at Midland until August 1943, when he graduated from the bombardier training (00:09:43:00) o While at Midland, Edmondson and the other recruits had access to go into Midland, which was an interesting town because of the large number of cattle ranches in the surrounding (00:09:57:00) �   The recruits could go into town on the weekends and hear men talking about four thousand of this and four thousand of that; as it turned out, the men were talking about cattle (00:10:08:00) o Later in the training, Edmondson did bombing runs over “actual targets”, which were rings and he would drop 100 lb. bombs filled with sand, which would illustrate where the bombs landed (00:10:38:00)  Normally, these practice bombing runs happened around 10,000’ and were pretty useful in the training (00:11:07:00)  From his own estimation, Edmondson dropped almost all of his bombs within 50’ of the target, which was considered very good; good enough to become an instructor in the bombardier training (00:11:32:00) After leaving Midland, Edmondson was assigned to the Fourth Air Force, which was stationed along the west coast of the United States; initially, Edmondson was stationed at Mountain Home, Idaho as an instructor bombardier in a B-24 squadron (00:11:51:00) o Being an instructor bombardier consisted of Edmondson flying with bomb crews over targets and see how well the student bombardier could do in dropping bombs on targets (00:12:07:00)  Most of the practice bombs were the sand-filled 100 lb. bombs, although there were a few legitimate bombs dropped as well (00:12:23:00) o Edmondson spent a few months in Mountain Home before transferring to Tonopah, Nevada, which was also part of the Fourth Air Force, where he continued working as an instructor bombardier (00:12:32:00) o By this time, Edmondson is barely nineteen years old and although he found working as a bombardier interesting, the extracurricular activities at both Mountain Home and Tonopah were pretty grim (00:13:09:00)  In particular, aircraft taking off from the runway in Tonopah had to pass through a mountain pass and several aircraft ended up crashing into the mountains (00:13:26:00) o Eventually, a senior pilot at Tonopah, a major, wanted to form an air crew to deploy overseas, so he asked some of the more senior instructors and personnel working at the airfield, including Edmondson, to join the crew (00:13:58:00)  All the men who the major asked to join the crew said “yes”, so the air crew was formed for deployment overseas (00:14:35:00) o For the most part, at both Mountain Home and Tonopah, Edmondson was younger than most of the other instructors (00:14:58:00)  During the fall of 1942, the Air Corps began expanding in anticipation of what might happen during the war, which included building more airfields and pushing more men through training (00:15:25:00) After the major had successfully formed the air crew at Tonopah, the entire crew went to an airfield near Fairfield/Suisun City, California, picked up a new B-24 Liberator, and flew the bomber to Hawaii (00:16:06:00) o Once in Hawaii, the entire air crew went through gunnery training, which was in preparation for the crew heading into the combat area (00:16:28:00)  On most B-24s, the bombardier was the armament officer, although Edmondson did not take that job to seriously because all the other men on the bomber knew what they were doing (00:16:44:00) � During the gunnery training, the B-24 would fly out and strafe various locations, mostly around a deserted island and a location south of Maui (00:16:56:00) o For the couple of months that gunnery training lasted, the crew was stationed at an airfield near Kahuku, which was on the north side of Oahu (00:17:24:00)  On one side of the airfield was a pineapple plantation and on the other side was the cannery; it eventually reached the point that Edmondson could not stand to look at a pineapple (00:17:35:00) o Edmondson and the rest of the B-24 crew spent two or three months in Hawaii for the gunnery training, leaving in March 1944 (00:18:04:00) Deployment (00:18:44:00)  After leaving Hawaii, the B-24 first flew to Johnston Island, then continued to the base on Kwajalein Island, which was located in the Marshall Island chain (00:18:44:00) o Kwajalein was a circular atoll, which meant the “island” was essentially a sandbar that was big enough for an airfield to be built on it; the highest point on the entire atoll was only ten feet (00:19:01:00) o The 11th Bombardment Group, which the 98th Bombardment Squadron, which was Edmondson’s squadron, was a part of, had moved to Kwajalein from Tarawa a few weeks before Edmondson’s B-24 arrived (00:19:26:00)  Therefore, most of the other men in the squadron were experienced pilots that had done numerous operations (00:19:43:00) o During the first few missions Edmondson’s B-24 went on, his B-24 would “fly wing” as the squadron would attack the Japanese-held island of Truk (00:19:54:00)  During the attacks on Truk, the entire squadron of twelve bombers would fly in four flights of three bombers, with each flight having one bomber as the lead bomber and the other two bombers as his wingmen (00:20:20:00)  Until a crew had enough experience in combat, they would normally fly as the wingmen in a flight (00:20:54:00) o When the bombers would make their bombing runs, the bombardiers on each individual bomber were allowed to operate independently from the other bombers; the bombardier would set up a specific target and bomb that target while still keeping the bomber in formation (00:21:17:00)  Later in the war, the bombing method used in the European theater of only having the bombardier on the lead bomber using the bombsight spread over to the Pacific theater (00:21:28:00)  Once that method started being used, all the other bombardiers would drop their bombs based on the actions of the lead bombardier (00:21:38:00)  Although it probably was more difficult to make a bombing run against an actual target as opposed to what he had been doing in the United States, Edmondson was not really conscious of it (00:22:01:00)  Edmondson should have been more worried than he was but he was still just a kid and the entire experience was all still sort of a big adventure (00:22:07:00) � o o o o o o Once Edmondson became squadron bombardier, his claim to fame was he was good enough that he only had to do very short bombing runs; this meant the bombers were not flying straight and level for more than twenty or twenty-five seconds, which was considered very good (00:22:17:00) When the bombers did bombing runs against Truk, they encountered Japanese anti-aircraft fire, as well as some enemy fighters; however, because it was 1944, there was not much in the way of enemy fighters (00:22:39:00)  Before attacking Truk, the bombers would stage the attack from the island of Eniwetok, which was a short flight away from Truk; on Eniwetok, the bombers would re-fuel (00:22:51:00)  The attacks against Truk were largely meant to destroy Japanese airfields on the island or, at the very least, disrupt the Japanese Air Force’s ability to launch aircraft from those airfields (00:23:08:00)  The airfields on Truk were large, which meant the bombers did not have to be absolutely precise in their bombing runs (00:23:21:00)  During one of the missions against Truk, there was a radio station and small airstrip located on a nearby island and Edmondson’s B-24 dropped several 1000 lb. bombs, which managed to destroy both the airstrip and the radio station (00:23:28:00)  Normally during the bombing runs, the B-24s carried between twelve and sixteen 500 lb. bombs (00:23:53:00) Most of the attacks Edmondson was a part of consisted of one squadron making a bomb run at a time (00:24:02:00) Apart from Truk, the 98th Bombardment also attacked Wake Island and often, those missions were less than the entire squadron; in fact, during on of the missions to Wake, it was only Edmondson’s B-24 (00:24:07:00) On some of the missions, the B-24s had fighter escorts, although it did not happen too often; there was a squadron of P-38 fighters in the area and those fighters had enough range to stick with the B-24s during the bombing runs (00:24:34:00) However, most of the time, the bombers were by themselves and they would encounter a lot of enemy flak; by the time Edmondson’s B-24 was taking part in the attacks, flak was a significant danger to the bombers (00:24:43:00)  It was not often another bomber in the squadron was shot down during a mission; regardless, the bombers still took a lot of damage (00:25:01:00)  At one point, Edmondson received a Purple Heart, when during a mission, the bomber was approaching the target and a 20mm round from a Japanese Zero came into the bombardier compartment; luckily, the round wedged into the forward tire before detonating, otherwise, Edmondson might not have survived (00:25:07:00)  On a couple of occasions, the Norden bombsight was destroyed by flak, with Edmondson kneeling behind it (00:25:31:00)  During the missions over Truk, the squadron only lost one or two airplanes total (00:25:47:00) At a certain point during the bombing run, there was an automatic pilot component to the Norden that allowed Edmondson to take directly control of the bomber (00:26:13:00) �  However, Edmondson’s pilot was good and sometimes, he would maintain control of the bomber while following direction indicators mounted in the cockpit; other times, Edmondson would take direct control (00:26:21:00)  There was a significant amount of variance between what the bomber crews did during missions in the Pacific Theater as opposed to what the bomber crews during missions in the European theater (00:26:47:00) o Edmondson is unsure whether the major who formed Edmondson’s bomber crew knew about the differences in bomber crews between the two theaters and specifically managed to get the crew assigned to Pacific (00:26:54:00) o After about fifth or sixth mission, Edmondson’s bomber became the lead bomber for the squadron (00:27:13:00)  Whenever a specific bomber did a good job, the crew received letters of congratulations from the colonel commanding the 11th Bombardment Group; Edmondson’s bomber received about half-a-dozen of the letters (00:27:16:00)  Around the tenth or fifteenth mission, because Edmondson’s pilot was a major, he was promoted to squadron leader; at the time, the promotion was unusual because normally, a pilot with such little combat experience would not have been promoted to be a squadron leader (00:28:05:00) o Normally, the bombers would go on a mission every third day and in-between the missions, the men lived a very bachelor life (00:28:32:00)  Edmondson played a lot of volleyball and did a lot of swimming; all in all, Edmondson thought it was a relaxed, interesting life (00:28:46:00)  As the men flew more and more missions, they became more and more superstitious, such as only eating certain foods, always sitting a certain way during take off, etc. (00:29:07:00)  Some of the pilots were in their late 20s and Edmondson believes living on the island was tougher for them than it was for him (00:29:33:00)  When the squadron moved to Guam, the officers spent some of the time building an officer’s club (00:29:47:00) o Edmondson’s bomber was stationed on Kwajalein from March 1944 until October 1944; by the time his bomber left Kwajalein, Edmondson had gone on around twenty different missions (00:30:04:00) In October, Edmondson’s whole squadron moved from Kwajalein to the island of Guam, which was much bigger than Kwajalein (00:30:37:00) o Guam was located in the Marianas island chain, near the islands of Saipan and Tinian; Guam had previously been an American possession but was occupied by the Japanese and won back by the Marines before Edmondson’s squadron arrived on the island (00:30:43:00) o The airfield on Guam was a little bit longer than the airfield on Kwajalein, which was good for the take-offs (00:31:0:00) o From Guam, the bombers primarily attacked the Japanese-held island of Iwo Jima, mostly destroying the Japanese airfields on the island (00:31:26:00) �     A couple of days before the Marines’ invasion of the island, the bombers dropped incendiary bombs on the island’s beaches (00:31:38:00)  While flying over Iwo Jima, the bombers mostly encountered enemy flak, although there were some enemy fighters (00:31:59:00)  At the time of the bombing missions, the Japanese had two airfields already constructed and operating on Iwo Jima and they were in the process of building a third (00:32:24:00)  Once the Marines launched their invasion, the bombers stopped their bombing missions against the island, out of fear of accidentally hitting friendly forces on the ground (00:32:45:00) o After the bombers switched from bombing Iwo Jima, Edmondson cannot really remember where their bombing missions were, although he does remember doing some missions against the island of Palau (00:33:10:00) o When the men were not on duty, they could go swimming, go into a small town nearby, take classes, etc. (00:34:03:00)  For the most part, the men were counting missions and trying to get to forty, which meant they could go home (00:34:31:00)  At one point, the officers got a couple of bottles of liquor and a couple truckloads of lumber, so they began building an officer’s club; once the club was complete, the officers spent their time there (00:34:47:00)  There was a hospital on the island and on some occasions, nurses from the hospital would come to the club (00:35:01:00)  Because he was the squadron bombardier, Edmondson had additional, clerical work to do when not on duty; however, he does not remember it be too much of an effort (00:35:11:00) Different men in the squadron reached the forty mission plateau at different times, and once they reached the plateau, the men would rotate home; however, Edmondson’s crew was given the chance to rotate home after only thirty missions (00:35:35:00) At several different times, the men were able to take R&Rs back to Hawaii (00:35:54:00) o Aircraft would frequently fly back and forth from Guam to Hawaii and whenever someone was on R&R, he could just hop aboard on of those to get from one island to another (00:36:23:00) o The whole system of R&R did not seem very organized to Edmondson; to him, it seemed the system was “catch as catch can” (00:36:41:00) On both Kwajalein and Guam, the officers lived separate from the enlisted personnel, in barracks on Kwajalein and tents on Guam (00:37:06:00) o However, during the missions, there was camaraderie amongst the men and everyone respected everyone else and the job they were doing (00:37:23:00)  Edmondson himself became good friends with most of the enlisted men serving on his bomber (00:37:33:00) o Edmondson’s nickname amongst the crew was either “junior” or “kid” because he was young; however, the men respected Edmondson’s ability to make short bombing runs, so it was a mutual respect between he and other men (00:37:50:00) During a bombing run, the first thing Edmondson did, before the bombers even reached the target, was take wind readings using the bombsight, which was then feed into the �  bombsight, along with information about the size of the bombs being dropped and how high the bombers were (00:38:25:00) o Normally before a bombing run, the bombers would be flying at around 10,000’, which meant the crew did not need separate oxygen supplies (00:38:44:00) o The bombing missions were usually around ten hours long and once the bombers were about half-an-hour from the target, the bombardier would start timing and the bombers themselves would climb up to around 30,000’ (00:38:51:00) o The bombers would normally have a pre-selected approach to the target and each bombardier would know what his specific target was, based on the pre-mission briefings (00:39:04:00) o As soon as the bombers reached the desired approach, they would slowly turn as a squadron onto the approach, after which the bombardiers would pick up the targets and being adjusting the speed and altitude of the bomber (00:39:19:00) o Each bomber needed to be at a certain point in space at a certain time for the bomb to drop on the intended target; the problem is that enemy flak gunners on the ground can work the situation backwards and figure out exactly where the bombers needed to be to hit a specific target (00:39:37:00) o Once the bombardiers were prepared to drop the bombs, the bombers would continue on the approach and as they got closer to the target, the bombers would open their bomb-bay doors (00:39:58:00) o Once the bombers were over the target, the two sections of the bombsight would come together and instantly release the bombs (00:40:07:00)  There was a small wire on each bomb that kept the arming device from spinning, so that the only way the bombs would armed was when they were a couple 100’ outside of the bomber (00:40:18:00) o The bomber crews knew exactly how long it would take for the bombs to reach the ground, so they would watch to see what happened; however, most of the time, by the time the bombs impacted the ground, the bombers were already turning for the flight back to base (00:40:33:00) o The advantage of a short bomb run was that it gave the enemy gunners on the round less time to target the bombers (00:40:51:00) In late spring / early summer 1945, Edmondson’s squadron left Guam and moved to Okinawa (00:41:21:00) o When Edmondson’s squadron arrived at Yontan Airfield on Okinawa, the American ground forces had not yet fully wrested control of the island from the Japanese defenders (00:41:35:00)  For the most part, Yontan was secure, except for when a nearby ammunition dump was destroyed (00:41:52:00) o By the time his squadron had transferred to Okinawa, Edmondson had flown the majority of his missions; he ended up flying only one mission over Japan and was stationed on Okinawa for only a couple of months (00:42:27:00) While the squadron was still stationed on Guam, the co-pilot on Edmondson’s bomber was given command of a new bomber, which was subsequently shot down; the co-pilot managed to ditch the bomber and although the Navy was sent in to find the co-pilot, they never did (00:42:45:00) �   Apart from the Japanese 20mm round coming into the compartment and the destruction of a couple of bombsights, one time, Edmondson’s bomber was over a target when the bomber’s hydraulic system was shot out (00:43:22:00) o Once the bomber returned to base, the pilots could not lower the landing gear; although the crew was able to lower the landing gear via a crank, they had done that before and someone had forgotten to rewind the crank (00:43:39:00) o Ultimately, the bomber ended up having to land without wheels (00:43:56:00)  Before attempting the landing, the crew threw everything that was unnecessary out of the bomber and then everyone, save the pilot and copilot, gathered in the waist of the bomber and secured themselves as best they could (00:44:07:00)  Once the bomber was on the ground, it skidded for about 1,500 yards before coming to a stop; the crew, worried about the potential of a fire, quickly moved away (00:44:24:00) o Luckily, the landing did not disturb any of the propellers and within a week, someone was using the bomber to fly back to Hawaii (00:44:35:00) Edmondson does not remember the one mission he flew over Japan; it was close to the end of his tour and he was just hoping that something would not happen (00:44:56:00) o The mission took place in the latter part of July and Edmondson does remember that during the briefing, the crews were told to avoid bombing Hiroshima, which was near Kobe (00:45:09:00) While on Okinawa, the bomber crews slept in tents with small bomb shelters built next to them (00:45:31:00) o At one point, a Japanese bomber flew over the base at night to drop bombs and Edmondson remembers thinking how bad it would be to be killed at night, during a Japanese bombing run (00:45:41:00) End of Deployment / Post-Military Life / Reflections (00:45:56:00)  Once he completed his forty missions, Edmondson got transportation back to Hawaii; while Edmondson was at Hickam Field on Hawaii, the Americans dropped the two atomic bombs on Japan, which ended the war (00:45:56:00) o During his service, Edmondson had accumulated enough “points” from medals and missions that when he returned to Chicago, he was discharged from active duty, although the military did make an effort to get him to join the Air Force Reserves (00:46:11:00) o In September 1945, Edmondson returned to Chicago, was discharged from the military, married, and started back at Purdue (00:46:26:00)  Around the time his squadron moved from Kwajalein to Guam, Edmondson was able to come back to the United States for a couple of weeks on leave; the train from California to Chicago ran through Des Moines, Iowa, which was home of the University of Iowa, where Edmondson’s future wife was going to school (00:46:56:00)  When the train passed through Des Moines, Edmondson got off and proposed to his future wife; he and his future wife had gone to the same high school together, she a year younger, and they lived within three or four blocks of each other (00:47:07:00) �     o While Edmondson was deployed overseas, he wrote a lot of letters to her (00:47:33:00) o In hindsight, Edmondson did not know her too well when he proposed and vice versa; she had changed going while attending Iowa and he had changed from being in the service (00:47:39:00) While Edmondson was stationed on the various islands, he does not remember ever seeing any USO shows (00:48:15:00) While stationed on both Guam and Okinawa, Edmondson did see some of the local population, Guam in particular (00:48:34:00) o During the day, the men would take showers using 55 galleon drums and as local civilians would walk along a nearby road, the men would wave (00:48:41:00) o The civilians on Guam disliked the Japanese and were friendly to the men than the civilians on Okinawa; however, Edmondson was not on Okinawa long enough to really interact with the civilian population (00:49:14:00) Edmondson feels that his time spent overseas helped mature him; when he returned to Purdue, he was a lot better student (00:49:47:00) o Edmondson came out of the military neutral in his perception of the war; he did not have any great love of the war but on the flip side, he did not resent or object to what he went through (00:50:07:00)  Edmondson did not really experience the major losses of personnel that men serving in Europe did; all totaled, Edmondson’s squadron only lost two or three bombers the whole time he was there (00:50:22:00) When Edmondson returned to Purdue, he was not exactly sure what he would study; during his high school graduation, he had heard a science award, so he decided to look at science-related studies (00:50:54:00) o Edmondson eventually became interested in chemical engineering, so about six months after he returned to Purdue, he enrolled in the chemical engineering program at the university (00:51:08:00)  Ultimately, enrolling in the chemical engineering program turned out to be a good choice for Edmondson (00:51:18:00) o Edmondson’s wife had spent two years at Iowa and had changed her major several times before becoming pregnant, which caused her to not graduate from the university (00:51:24:00) o After Edmondson finished his undergraduate degree, he went through the graduate-level chemical engineering program; while he was a graduate student, Edmondson ended up working for the head of the program (00:51:56:00)  Edmondson finished his undergraduate degree in February 1948 and stayed for an extra year to finish his graduate degree (00:52:19:00)  Although Edmondson knew it would have been better to attend a different school for his graduate studies, there were enough things at Purdue to keep him there (00:52:28:00) After Edmondson finished his graduate degree, he met up with another student who had been a year ahead of him and who worked for the Upjohn Company, a large pharmaceutical company (00:52:52:00) �o The other man convinced Edmondson to apply at Upjohn; at the time, Edmondson had job offers from several different companies, including Upjohn, because at the time, there was a demand for chemical engineers (00:53:13:00) o Edmondson managed to get into Upjohn at a very good time and he has worked with the company for several years before transferring to International, where he eventually became head of the company’s chemical division (00:53:31:00) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Edmondson, Keith (Interview outline and video), 2011 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Edmondson, Keith Description An account of the resource Keith Edmondson was born in 1924 in Wheaton, Illinois, and grew up in nearby Glen Ellyn. After graduating from high school, Edmondson began attending Purdue University the following fall, which was where he heard about the Aviation Cadet Program, which offered a deferment from military service until the end of school; however, in February 1943, the government changed the program and Edmondson enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He trained in Texas, Idaho and Nevada and was sent to the Pacific in 1944 as a bombardier on a B-24. After receiving additional training in Hawaii, Edmondson's crew deployed to the island of Kwajalein, located in the Marshall Island chain. While stationed on Kwajalein, Edmondson's B-24 participated in bombing attacks against the Japanese-held island of Truk. Eventually, Edmondson's squadron moved from Kwajalein to Guam, where they began launched bombing attacks against Japanese-held Iwo Jima. From there, he went on to Okinawa, where he completed his requisite forty missions and rotated home. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Army Air Corps World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-04-14 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EdmondsonK1184V Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5c2a462476ea8638c11d70dc8007ed9f.mp4 168746d21012e3268ca7d5600909e934 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f478de82f55bcc74daf53cc17da9da88.pdf 734cb68c40a653476e521945647bca16 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview World War II, Navy WAVs Margaret Edema Length of Interview: 20:02 (00:21) JS: We’re talking today with Margaret Edema of Byron Center, Michigan. The interviewer is James Smither of Grand Valley State University. Okay, Mrs. Edema, can you start by telling us a little bit about your own background. For instance, where were you born? ME: I was born in Cicero, Illinois. JS: Okay, and what did your family do? ME: My dad was a farmer. JS: In Cicero, Illinois? ME: Yes. JS: Now, that dates you a little bit. (laughter) ME: Yes. JS: I grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago and Cicero was already surrounded by city. ME: Yes. Ogden Avenue and Central Avenue. And there was a farm there. JS: I can remember a farm stand in Hindsdale, in the early ‘60s. So I guess Cicero broke up a few decades earlier. Okay, all right. And then, did he stay in that business then, through the ‘30s? (01:03) ME: My dad was a farmer all his life. He came from Holland as a farmer. JS: And what’s your family name? ME: Postma. JS: Postma. A good Dutch name. Okay, so then, did you go through high school in Cicero? ME: No, we moved to Hinsdale, Illinois, on another farm, and I went to high school in Hinsdale. JS: And, out of curiosity, where was that farm located? �ME: On Ogden Avenue, again. Same road. Same street, yeah. JS: Okay. And was it near Ogden and York Road, or was it farther off than that? ME: It was further south…further west than York Road. JS: All right. Cause I grew up there, and there were still farms and fields out there, that side of Ogden. Okay, a little aside there, for people not from Michigan, I guess. Okay, so then, you attended high school in Hinsdale. Was the high school kind of in the downtown of Hinsdale, at that point? ME: Oh, yes. It was a big high school. We had a hundred in my class. (02:05) JS: All right. That was the building my mother tore down and replaced with the new junior high school, when she was president of the school board. And again, another aside from people not from Michigan. Ahh, okay. Now, do you remember how you heard about Pearl Harbor, and the beginning of the war. ME: Oh, everybody was war-minded. I worked in a defense plant. My sister worked at Douglas Aircraft. And we sort of joined forces and she went to work at [Electra-motive] and I went to work at a defense corporation that was building a plant for the Aluminum Company of America. JS: And where was that? ME: So we drove together. That was in LaGrange, Illinois. (02:53) JS: Okay. Now, let’s see, you start working there in ’40? ’41. Or was it… ME: Oh, it must have been ’41, I guess. JS: Okay. And when did you graduate from high school? ME: 1940. JS: Okay. Now, what kind of work were you doing then? ME: I was a secretary. Secretary to the project manager of the whole plant, which was a great big outfit. JS: About how many people do you think were working there then? ME: Oh, thousands. Building, of every trade. �JS: And so it’s an aluminum company. Were they making parts for things… ME: They were making airplane parts. JS: Parts. All right. Now, before Pearl Harbor, were you kind of paying attention to what was going on in the world or were you working, doing any kind of war-type work before Pearl Harbor? Before the end of ’41. (03:48) ME: I don’t exactly remember Pearl Harbor. I mean, I remember it happening, but I don’t know where I was then. (laughs) JS: Okay. But then certainly once the war is going, you’re actively involved in the war industry. And how long did you stay in that job? ME: I worked there two years. When the plant was finished, the jobs all ended. The secretarial jobs in the office. And that’s when I joined the service. JS: Okay. And then which branch of the service did you join? ME: I joined the Navy. JS: And why did you pick the Navy? ME: Well, they had the nicest uniforms and they had, I thought, the nicest… JS: Okay. And when did you enlist? ME: In 1944. (04:38) JS: And once you enlist, how did that process work? I mean, first of all, how did you find out about the opportunity? ME: Oh, we had signs all over. Everybody was very war conscious. JS: And then, take us through the process. Where did you go to sign up, and then… ME: Chicago, Illinois. I was downtown and walked past the recruiting office and thought, I better see what that’s all about. So I went in and before I knew it, I was signed up. (smiles) JS: All right. Now once you were signed up, then what did you do? Where’d you go, or what kind of training did you get? �ME: Well, I had training before, commercial training. I went to commercial school. I had worked three years as a secretary, so they were glad to get help before they offered me help in the Navy. JS: So, where was the first place the Navy assigned you? ME: Bronx, New York, Hunter College, boot camp. JS: Okay… ME: For six weeks, then I went to Stillwater, Oklahoma. JS: Now what, what kind of boot camp did they give you? ME: Oh, that was great. Marched all over New York, it seemed like. In the rain and in the snow. (laughter) It was February. JS: What sort of people did they have training you? ME: Very competent. I envied those girls who were in charge of us. JS: Do you have any sense of how they ended up being in charge there? ME: Oh, I suppose…I don’t really know that. (06:04) JS: About how old were they? ME: Probably my age. I think most of them were college grads. JS: And they had just gotten in before you, and… ME: And I was only a high school grad, so we got the lower edge. JS: All right. Aside from marching you around a lot in the rain, what else did they do? ME: Oh, we learned about the Navy. We had lots of Navy regulations to learn, and we were given clothes, and learned how to march. We did a lot of that. JS: Okay. Now, having been in the Chicago area and having been in the city, we were already more, even though you had grown up around farms, you already had more exposure to big cities than most people had. What did you think of New York when you got there? (06:55) ME: Well, I tell you, we didn’t get out of there for six weeks. We stayed right there. And, then, I had a friend who came from Chicago and who showed me New York. For one weekend, which �was great. He was on a ship that happened to be stationed in port in New York, and so he just happened to be there at the same time I was. JS: So what did you go and see on that weekend? ME: Oh, music. What do you call it, Music… JS: Radio City… ME: Yeah. Radio City. He took me up in the Empire State Building. Just downtown New York. JS: All right. So you finish boot camp. Where do you go next? ME: I went to Stillwater, Oklahoma, to yeoman school. JS: Now, why was the Navy in Stillwater, Oklahoma? ME: That’s where the yeoman school was. They took over A & M University. JS: So what became Oklahoma State, eventually. ME: That’s right. (07:58) JS: Okay. And what sort of place was that? ME: Oh, wonderful. We had girls’ dorms. It was a good place to be. JS: Okay. Now what kind of training did you get in yeoman school? ME: Same thing I took before. Shorthand, typing, some more Navy regs. And we marched, and I guess, mostly discipline. JS: And what kind of women were in there with you? ME: Same like me. Some with more education, some with less. I would say. I found some good friends. JS: And how long do they have you there? ME: Three months. JS: Now did you get much of a chance while you were there to get off the base? ME: Oh, yeah. I went to Oklahoma City, and I went to the little town of Stillwater. �JS: So what was there to do around there? ME: Well, not much. We played pool a lot. (laughs) But I went to Oklahoma City almost every weekend because we had a service home there from our church. (09:06) JS: And, so, what did that mean in terms of what you could do, or what you could see… ME: I took a bus. And I stayed overnight with Reverend Bradt and his family. And I helped her entertain the soldiers that came there. And we fed them and all that sort of thing. JS: Okay. Now do you remember anything particular events or things that went on there, things that you remember in particular about being out in Oklahoma? ME: It was windy. We’d stand on the parade grounds and the wind would blow the hats and away they’d go and we couldn’t do a thing about it but watch them go. JS: Okay. What time of year were you there? ME: I was there from, oh, probably April. JS: April til July, something like that? ME: April til June, I left there. JS: So they moved you out before it got really hot. (10:08) ME: Yes. It wasn’t hot there. It was good weather. JS: All right. Now, once you finish yeoman school, where do they send you? ME: Washington, D.C., to the Bureau of Ships. JS: Okay. And what kind of work did you do there? ME: Secretary. Same thing I did before. JS: Okay. But secretarial work can cover a lot of different things, so… ME: We did ship repairs. Every port that the ship’s came into, had to have a copy of whatever went on in another report, so that if that ship came in there, they knew exactly what was done before. And I typed a lot of ship alts. JS: Okay. And what kinds of repairs seemed to happen most often? �(10:52) ME: Well, when they were bombed, the ships were bombed. And they’d come in for repairs. They’d been out in the water a long time and they’d come in for repairs. JS: Okay. Now, what kind of set up were you in? The Bureau of Ships, was that in… ME: That was a very big, temporary office right next to the Washington Monument. JS: Okay. And what kind of combination of people, or personnel were working there? Who were you working with? ME: I think half were civilians. Civil service people. The other half was Navy. JS: And what proportion of men to women? ME: Oh. I think less women than men. JS: Okay. And then what kind of office set up were you in? ME: Well, we had three officers who were the head of our section, and we took care of the troop ships. That was our section. And two of us girls worked there. The other girls was a civilian, and I was a yeoman. And men came in, officers came in and out. Very fast. I started to work with a Commander and pretty soon, he got to be a Captain, and so out he went, back to sea some place. And then they sent another fella in to be the head of the section, and then, so whoever came in, I worked for them. (12:15) ME: And finally a Captain came, a Commander came in and he was immediately promoted to a Captain, and a month later he was promoted to the head of the whole section. And so I went with him, I was his secretary. JS: Okay. Do you remember his name? ME: Captain Brady. JS: Now, with these officers coming in, were these guys who had been at sea already? ME: Some were. Some were ninety day wonders. (laughs) (12:54) JS: And what does that mean, for people who don’t know? ME: That means they were college grads and because of their education, they just got a rank immediately. �JS: And then they were sent directly from that, into your office. Was there a difference as far as you could tell, between the ninety days wonders and the other guys? ME: Sure, yeah. Those fellas who had been out to sea were hard core guys. JS: And how easy were they to work with, or get along with? ME: Okay. Very good. I had a wonderful boss. JS: And did they tell you anything about where they had been, or what they had done? Anything like that? (13:29) ME: Not much. Captain Brady didn’t talk much about his past, but he was a graduate from a Navy… JS: The Naval Academy in Annapolis? ME: Naval Academy, yes. So he had been in the Navy all his life. JS: About how old was he? ME: Oh, by that time, he was probably forty five. Of course, I was only twenty, so you know… JS: Yes, that was old. (laughter) ME: Yeah. JS: Now, what was life like in Washington at that point? ME: Oh, lots of service people. The streets were crowded with service people. JS: Where did you live? ME: I lived in the barracks, right next to the Lincoln Memorial. Between the Lincoln Memorial and the Potomac River. Right near the bridge to the Arlington Cemetery. (14:20) JS: And did you have to share a room with people, or… ME: We lived in cubicle and I shared with another girl. A cubicle. All we had was a cot and a desk and a closet. And a place to get in and out, that’s all. JS: ‘Cause housing was certainly scarce in Washington at that point. ME: Oh, yeah. �JS: Some of the people I’ve talked to had to share an apartment with six people and things like that. I don’t know. Did you like living in the barracks, or… ME: Well, it was very convenient and very beautiful. I walked to work. I started a half hour later than everybody else because I could stay a half hour longer. Because when they dealt with the west coast time change, and those fellas needed help after the rest went home. So I always stayed late. (15:14) JS: Okay. But they didn’t have people there around the clock? ME: Well, I suppose they had guards. I’m sure they did. JS: Yeah, but it was not a twenty-four, seven office at the time, like now? ME: No. JS: Okay. What were you able to do when you were off duty? ME: Anything we pleased. We got in every facility free because we were in uniform. Washington Monument, we walked in several times just because we were in uniform. And I started to make friends with people who lived there, and went to their homes quite a bit. On weekends. We were free on weekends. JS: Okay. And, did you meet any interesting young men to go out with, anything like that? ME: Oh, yeah, a lot of them. (laughs) That’s before I dragged my husband home. (16:09) JS: Okay. Now, when did you meet him? ME: I don’t know. What year was that? About 1945? Husband: ’44. ME: ’44. JS: And he was stationed in Washington at that time? ME: No. He came from Aberdeen, Maryland. Sometimes he was in Pennsylvania. For a while he was in Georgia. But he always managed to come back. (16:41) JS: What do you think was your favorite part about living in Washington at that point? �ME: I think it was exciting to be there. We saw everything that went on. President Roosevelt died while I was there. That was an exciting time. And we marched for that funeral. And, oh, I think anything else that went on, we were right up there, front and center. (17:10) JS: Now where you were, did any of the higher up, brass types come through, or did you mostly deal with the middle man office in the Bureau of Ships? ME: Only my officer, Captain Brady. He was the only one I really dealt with. JS: Now, describe for us what a typical day was like for you, working in the Bureau of Ships. ME: Oh, I’d walk to work and make coffee for the guys. I don’t know why I was always elected to make coffee, so…wash the dishes. Took dictation. My boss told a lot of stories. I did a lot of listening. (17:57) JS: What’d he tell stories about if… ME: Oh, his life. His family. He had several children, and… JS: Okay. And was it mostly a pretty busy place? ME: Oh, yeah. Very busy. We had about fifty people in just that one section. JS: Okay. And then, how long did you stay in that job? ME: The whole time I was there. JS: And then when did you finish? ME: February of 1946. JS: Okay. And what kind of work was there to do, sort of after the war was over? ME: Oh, pick up the pieces, I think. They seemed to carry on pretty much as before. There wasn’t much difference. JS: There was less battle damage, maybe. ME: That’s right. (18:50) JS: But you still had a lot of ships out there, to bring back. Repairs and maintenance to do. ME: We did a lot of work with the troop transport ships. With a lot of boys coming home. �JS: Are there other things about this work, kind of distinctive things that you remember, that stick with you, that you think back to. What now comes into your head? ME: I don’t know. I never dreaded going to work. I was always anxious to go in the morning. It was interesting. I didn’t type ship alts anymore. That was one good thing. (laughs) That was done with the other echelon. I had moved up with this Captain and his work was different. JS: Well, what kind of work did he have you do, as opposed to just the ship reports? (19:37) ME: Oh, I did a lot of letter writing for him. And he did a lot of, I think, his memoirs, that I typed for him. JS: Okay. And then what did you do after you left the service? ME: After I left the service, I went home to Elgin, Illinois. My parents had lived in Elgin. Got a job, as a secretary for Motorola. JS: And how long did you stay in that? ME: Oh, not very long, because George came home in May and we were married two weeks later, so…then we moved away. JS: And when do you come to Byron Center? ME: Oh, not until this past July. Took him sixty one years to get me to Byron Center. JS: That’s basically what we need there, so thank you very much for talking to us today. ME: It’s been good. Been a pleasure. (20:35) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Edema, Margaret (Interview transcript and video), 2008 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Edema, Margaret Description An account of the resource Margaret Edema was born in Cicero, Illinois and grew up on a farm, graduating from high school in 1940. She remembered everyone pulling together for the war effort. After school, Margaret began working for Douglas Aircraft where thousands of people were making parts for planes. Margaret joined the Navy in 1944 because the factory had closed and she could not find other work. She went to boot camp in New York and then began working as a secretary for a naval officer in Washington DC. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Byron Area Historic Museum (Byron Center, Mich.) BCTV Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Naval Reserve. Women's Reserve World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Video recordings Women Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2008-02-05 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EdemaM Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5532e8dc660dab1118fd5e7476503377.mp4 61fcc2427d2f428f2279502cf72c4e1f https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/33d23be37ecbbed335845b0752df78df.pdf 914303833ba9bc0f2b3cb65a9b45715d PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project George Edema (00:37:56) (00:30) Background Information • George was born in Byron Center, Michigan and had six other siblings • His older had joined the service during World War Two before he had • His father was a farmer and they owned some land in Byron • George graduated in 1942 when he was 17 years old and then began working in a meat market • George received his draft papers and got a physical in January • He started his service in the Army in March of 1943 (3:10) Basic Training • George began training in Wyoming and had never been so far from home in his life • He took a troop train to Wyoming and stopped in Chicago on the way to take an aptitude test • Training consisted of calisthenics, marching at high altitudes, and running in cold weather with gas masks on • George also had rifle training and found that the physical work was not difficult for him • The drill sergeants acted like they were superior to the whole world • George trained in Wyoming for 13 weeks (8:20) California • Here the men lived in horse stalls, but the weather was very nice • George went to automotive school and was told that he had been in the wrong class after eleven weeks of training • He then had training in small arms school working with rifles and pistols for twelve weeks • George was asked to be an instructor in the small arms classes, but called into ASTP after instructing for only two weeks (10:00) Army Specialized Training Program • George attended engineering school in California for one month • He trained five days a week and had the weekends off • The locals in California were all very nice to the men in the service • George then went to the University of Indiana, but washed out after five months because the classes were too hard (13:45) Maryland • George was working with the engineering corps, learning about mechanics and working on everything except tanks �• • • • He then went to Georgia for six weeks and trained specifically with Jeep engines George went back to Wyoming for more training, but hurt his knee and was off his feet for six months He had surgery on the cartilage of his knee and then took some time off on leave to visit his family After his time on leave, George continued training in mechanics traveling to Pennsylvania and California (20:10) Overseas • George took a ship to India from California and found that the voyage was “not pleasant” • Everyone was sick and the weather was bad • They landed in Calcutta and it was a cultural shock for everyone • George had never seen so many poor people in his entire life • They took a train to Burma and then a plane to China to their headquarters • George got sick with Diphtheria and had to go to the hospital • When he was out of the hospital, he began working on repairing thing in a very dirty and unsafe area (31:20) Treatment for Diphtheria • George had been on duty when his legs started to feel weird and he found it hard to walk • He found he had a reaction to the Diphtheria treatment and that he was becoming paralyzed • He had to go to another hospital in Shanghai, and get massage therapy • After recovering, George traveled back to Washington • On May 12, 1946 he went to visit his soon-to-be wife and her family back in Wyoming • He then went to another hospital in Chicago for further recovery • He got married two weeks after he was discharged (35:50) Life After the Service • George began working on his wife’s brother’s farm • He then went into business with his father in law • George later spent 35 years in the garbage removal business • His time in the service allowed him to travel a lot • He had a good experience, but would never do it again � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Edema, George (Interview outline and video), 2008 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Edema, George Description An account of the resource George Edema was drafted into the Army in March of 1943. George traveled around the US for training and was then asked to be an instructor in small arms. He only taught for two weeks before he was called into the Army Specialized Training program. George then went to India, Burma and China for a short amount of time before he caught diphtheria and was sent back to the US. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Byron Area Historic Museum (Byron Center, Mich.) BCTV Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Army World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Video recordings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2008-02-05 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EdemaG Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c0920751d537d71c33155fa6fe11a7bd.mp4 c6049e0d57a7bdb2eae7f3286e24200b https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b14af11d257c8001ffad7de02b56d08e.pdf 26173d01631a433263c5fe91d7476ab2 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project August Edema (36:27) (00:13) Background Information • August was born in Byron Center, MI in 1920 • His family had a 60 acre farm and 6 kids • His father worked in a shop once in a while for extra money • August went to work on the farm after 8th grade • He was drafted when he was 20 in 1941 [1942?] after Pearl Harbor had been attacked (03:25) Training • On October 17, he was inducted in Kalamazoo, MI and then sent to Fort Custer • August then went to Camp Adair, OR, which was new • It took him 5 days to get there by train • He became part of the 96th Infantry Division • They trained in wheat fields, marching with rifles • August stayed there after boot camp to help train new recruits as a staff sergeant • He arrived on the west coast in 1942 and left in 1944 • August also trained people at Fort Lewis, WA and in California • He received amphibious training • Before he left for the Military he got married and while he was on the west coast he lived with his wife in an apartment off base (12:07) Deployment • August left from Oakland, CA in July, 1944 on a troop ship that held 3,000 people and had bunks 5 high • They went to Hawaii and trained for a couple months • After Hawaii they passed New Guinea and landed at Leyte, Philippines • By this time he was platoon sergeant • After arriving on the beach they moved into the jungle, which was hot and humid �• There were 2 regiments on the beach • They would call back for artillery when there were a lot of enemies • He landed on the beach on October 20 and left November 13 • August started with about 40 men and was down to about half in the end • The Japanese had bunkers and HQs with old communication equipment (25:20) Wounded • August was wounded on November 13, 1944 • He was hit in the hand, leg, and neck • August was moved to Guam for a month, Hawaii for a month and then to California for a month • The last hospital he was in was in Atterbury, IN • He had gangrene in his hand and they had to use maggots to fix it • August was discharged after the war was over (33:43) Discharge • After his discharge he went home and farmed for 10 years but the doctors told him he shouldn’t do it anymore because of his injuries • He then got a realtors license • August has a son and a grandson that went into the military � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Edema, August (Interview outline and video), 2008 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Edema, August Description An account of the resource August Edema was born in Byron Center, Michigan in 1920. He was drafted after Pearl Harbor was attacked when he was 20. He went to the west coast and trained in the 96th Division. They made him a staff sergeant and he trained new recruits for 2 years. After that he went to Leyte, Philippines and was a platoon sergeant. August fought in the jungle of the Philippines until he was wounded on November 13, 1944. He spent the rest of the war in hospitals in the Pacific and the US, and was discharged when the war ended. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Byron Area Historic Museum (Byron Center, Mich.) BCTV Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Army World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Video recordings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2008-02-19 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EdemaA Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0f266a22ccaced0b0f17b79d6d02c468.mp4 7f29efbf3640b887945d65d27c0f2564 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1b9d8ade96b01fa24b9fbd6511ac47bd.pdf 18fced3de2eb3e0476515d3c6031a081 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview World War II Don Eckman Length of interview (1:13:16) (0:00:00 – 0:08:11) Background      Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on April 25, 1925 (0:00:10) Grew up outside of Lake Odessa (0:23:00) Grew up with grandmother, due to mother’s health problems (0:37:00) Grandmother lived in the country, on an 80 acre farm, this is where he grew up, and “learned to work” (0:58:00) Had a sister, three years younger (0:01:10) Schooling (0:01:16- 0:04:27)        Went to country school for 8 years, a mile away from his home, and he walked to school High School was 4 miles away, and he was bused to the school Grandmother’s only income was from the farm (0:02:03) Was in high school when Pearl Harbor happened, heard about it on the radio (0:02:57) Reaction to Pearl Harbor was “too young to really know what was going on” (03:22:24) Could have avoided going to war because of farming, which was a deferment (0:03:54) Lost interest in farming, and his friends enlisted in the armed forces, so he joined, too (0:04:27) (0:04:11 – 0:07:14) Enlistment       Enlisted in March 1944 (0:04:17) Went to Detroit for a physical, was signed up for the Army Air Force to do bookwork, however the draft board said he had to join the Army (0:04:45) After passing the physical, was sent the next day to Fort Sheridan, Illinois, and stayed for 2-3 days (0:05:00) After Illinois, traveled to Camp Blanding in Florida by train (0:05:14) Camp Blanding was located on the east side of the state, located near the town of Stark and Silver Springs (0:06:26) Describes a big camp, the residential places the troops stayed were 8-9 man huts (0:06:54) Basic Training (0:07:14- 0:11:09)   Basic training consisted of learning the basics of the army (0:07:19) Learned a lot of discipline, “learning to do what you were told, rather than doing what you think is right” (0:07:34) �          The things that disgusted him the most was getting the shots in the afternoon on Saturday, which would spoil the afternoon (0:07:46) Couldn’t leave camp for 3 or so weeks when you first got there (0:08:11) Physical training included marches, hikes, and obstacle courses, weightlifting logs (0:08:33) Most guys were older than Eckman, many were married (0:08:42) Basic training was 17 weeks (0:09:09) On the weekends was granted liberty (0:09:16) Trained for use of the rifle, pistols, carbines, hand grenade, bayonets, bazookas, and the .50 caliber machine gun (0:09:40) Was at Camp Blanding when D-Day happened (0:10:25) Finished basic training in August, went home for 1 or 2 weeks and then was sent to Camp Shanks, New York (0:10:42) Stayed there until he was ready to move overseas (0:11:10) (0:11:09- 0:54:35) Active Duty                       Traveled on a ship called the Ile de France, one of the largest French liners (0:11:36) Was a passenger in the bottom deck, on the highest bunk (0:12:09) Was not part of a convoy, they were by themselves (0:12:41) Landed in Glasgow, Scotland (0:13:04) Once in Glasgow, they were sent on trains to southern England (0:13:16) Ended up in Sunbury, England (0:13:21) Stayed there several weeks and was put through basic training (0:13:35) Company was divided, one half sent to London, the other half sent to France (0:14:25) Eckman’s company was sent to a replacement depot by open top trucks (0:14:40) Stayed at the depot 3-4 weeks (0:15:20) Assigned to 3rd Division, Company B of the 15th Infantry (0:15:27) Joined the company in the town of Nancy (0:15:53) The company was refurbishing rifles, repackaging ammunition, resupplied equipment (0:16:02) Not very many men joined the company, maybe 3-4 men (0:16:23) No one knew anything about infantry at the time (16:37:19) The company had probably 50-60 men (0:16:45) Was part of the 3rd Platoon, there were 12-15 men in that platoon (0:17:05) After a few days, he felt accepted and part of the group (0:17:50) Was in Nancy for a few days, they were headed to Strasbourg (0:18:16) Strasbourg was occupied by the Germans, and the Germans intended to use it for the winter (0:18:39) Saw first combat in Strasbourg. Entered Strasbourg at night, entered with tanks. The first thing he remembers hearing was machine guns (0:19:07) Company moved into Strasbourg as the Germans moved back, never went into the city of Strasbourg (0:21:09) �                         The Germans harassed the company with mortar and other fire from across the river where their encampment was (0:22:28) After Strasbourg, headed south through small towns (0:23:15) Their job was to chase the Germans out of the small towns (0:23:35) Came to a building that was full of women and children (0:24:49) Encountered many German infantrymen (0:25:12) Spent most of their nights sleeping outside (0:26:46) Sigelsheim was a town that put up the biggest resistance (0:27:27) Company attacked Sigelsheim the day before Christmas, lost a lot of men (0:27:43) Hit in the leg, after 2 weeks sent back to the unit, and joined the same platoon (0:30:41) His job was to walk point, which he maintained since began with the outfit (0:31:59) He learned his job through experience, and learning what to be ready for (0:32:16) He walked out of combat with his injury and was sent to a hospital in Nancy for 2 weeks (0:33:12) Was sent back to his unit and were sent to a town with a wall around it (0:33:48) Joined same platoon , new platoon leader named Lieutenant Murphy and was men were given guard duty (0:34:48) Lieutenant Murphy was very compassionate (0:35:57) Platoon moved towards Colmar, the fighting got more intense as the troops pushed the Germans further against the Rhine River (0:36:57) While serving as point man, came to an opening in a field, a German fired at him with a machine pistol, then Eckman fired at him, shot the German in the rear, and the German turned around and said to him “You shot me fair and square” (0:38:32) Encountered SS troops, who liked overcoats and watches (0:39:54) Eckman took a SS soldiers watch, Lieutenant Murphy made him give it back (0:40:15) Never picked up souvenirs as he moved through towns, didn’t want to get caught with anything (0:40:42) While based in France, saw civilians in towns (0:41:34) Civilians were friendly towards soldiers, but still scared (0:41:51) Speaks of the mission in Holzwehr for which Lieutenant Murphy won the Medal of Honor (0:43:00- 0:0:50:23) Stayed with unit, near Neuf Brisach (0:53:26) Was serving bazooka duty, with .35 caliber pistol and a bandolier of ammunition while struck by artillery or mortar (0:54:35) Discharge (0:54:35- 1:02:22)    Was sent to a hospital for a few days, then flew to England and stayed in a hospital for a few months until the first of May, then took a boat back to the United States, injury prevented him from doing any further combat (0:55:56) Heard that the Germans had surrendered while on the ship back to the U.S. (0:58:45) Stayed in Iowa for 2 weeks to take care of paperwork (0:59:58) (1:02:22 - 1:13:16) Post Service �       Came back to Michigan, returned to farming (1:02:22) Did not go to college, went to local high school for farm mechanics (1:02:40) Went to work for the post office as a rural mail carrier in Lake Odessa for 30 years (1:03:04) His “folks says he was a different person when he returned” (1:03:29) Learned to be a lot more independent (1:03:34) Did not hold any grudges, tried to get along with anyone, would not care to go through it again (1:03:55) Had one son, who was in the Air Force (1:04:19) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Eckman, Donald (Interview outline and video), 2011 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Eckman, Donald Description An account of the resource Don Eckman, of Lake Odessa, Michigan enlisted in the Army in March, 1944. He was in basic training in Florida at the time of D-Day, and shipped to Europe in the fall of 1944. He was assigned to the 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Division, at Nancy, France, and participated in fighting at Strasbourg and other places in Alsace, regularly walking point for his platoon. He was wounded twice in the space of several months, and was already on a ship heading for home when the Germans surrendered in May, 1945. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Army World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-09-21 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EckmanD1256V Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b84cf284b1d55acb5298c445f9761e23.pdf 32f2e1bf6d12a77f60680c30a484c0f1 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Cold War Era Michael Eames Total Time – (07:15) Background    He was born in Buffalo, New York – May 14, 1959 (01:31) His grandfather was born in Ireland o He traveled to New York City where he became a policeman (01:48) He has one older brother Enlistment/Training – (02:25)      He decided to enlist into the Army because he wanted to become a chef (02:26) o He wanted to receive the G.I. so he could pay to become a chef He graduated in June, 1977 and was sent to Fort Dix, New Jersey in July (03:04) Basic training was extremely structured (03:11) o It had a lot of training – training with machine guns, grenades, anti-nuclear and anti-terrorist training It was much easier to learn how to cook than it was to do military training (03:32) He was able to learn a lot about hospital diets Active Duty – (03:50)     In January, 1978 he was sent to the Second General Hospital in Landstuhl, Germany (04:00) o It is the largest hospital in Europe The patient level was typically 150-350 patients (04:14) o They had to deliver hot meals 3 times a day He once served General Alexander Haig who commanded all of the troops in Europe He would talk to his parents on the phone (05:14) o When talking, he had to say “over and out” or the connection would not go through (05:18) o He was able to write a lot of letters After the Service – (05:05)   He was released from the service in June, 1980 (05:30) He attended the Culinary Institute of America Hyde Park (05:39) �   o The G.I. Bill was extremely useful He graduated in 1982(05:58) He was then hired in Sun Valley Resort in Idaho to become the head chef (06:03) The Army taught him a lot about life, people, and knowing himself � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Eames, Michael (Interview outline), 2012 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Eames, Michael Description An account of the resource Michael Eames was born in 1959 in Buffalo, New York. He decided to enlist into the Army so that he could utilize the G.I. Bill and eventually become a chef. Michael spent time in basic training learning how to use machine guns and grenades while also receiving anti-nuclear and anti-terrorist training. He was then sent to Landstuhl, Germany where he served in the Second General Hospital. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Beering, Ryan (Interviewer) Caledonia High School (Caledonia, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Army Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-05-28 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EamesM1414V Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a0e2fb6efc2e758b09a85b43f1fbf15d.mp4 63d96de2cb201b7a33020247ccf08645 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/91fb42150d57b30e18e2baa9f0abba6f.pdf f79fb89a76c83cc658f23d172ca425f8 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Name of Interviewee: Fred Bernhardt Name of War: World War II Length of Interview (00:36:31) Disc Two (00:30) Marine Photographer  There were picture sets available to all those in the division for a price [this was discussed because Bernhardt bought a set of photos from Saipan from a Marine photographer, and this set is included in his file for this project—Bernhardt also states that he was in one of the pictures, which was how he met the photographer]  Service men were not allowed to have a camera and there was nowhere to purchase film  Fred was able to purchase a nice German camera from a man in Japan  He patrolled Japanese towns all day and was then allowed to go sightseeing with his camera once his shift was up  They stayed in a nice Japanese hotel with great Japanese food (8:20) Unsen, Japan  This as a large, beautiful resort town  They had community baths that were very hot and large  Fred and others watched stage shows that were similar to American plays  There were about 35 men in the unit, but not a lot of other military police in the area (14:45) Former Soldiers  There were many discharged Japanese soldiers that were not friendly to the American soldiers  They would not talk to the American soldiers or even look them in the eyes  A civilian who had seen the bomb go off from in the mountains about 20 miles away told him that they had no idea what was going on and it was like the end of the world  Many Japanese men were trying to get American soldiers to date their daughters and take them back to America  Some men did bring back women to the US (18:20) Duties in Japan  Fred had been working with the military police and keeping an eye on American soldiers  The Japanese police watched the civilians and they were all pretty tough  Fred spent 9 months in Japan while Nagasaki was being rebuilt (24:00) Transport Ship back to the US  The ship was crowded and the men had to sleep on cots  They stopped in Hawaii to refuel and this time Fred did not get sea sick  They landed back in San Diego and he traveled to the Great Lakes Naval base in Chicago (26:20) Life after the Service  Fred went back to visit his friends and took some time off  He did not even look for a job for about two months � He began working at the American Seating Company for about a year  Fred was then an apprentice for four years doing iron work and he eventually got his journeyman papers (29:15) Photography  Fred joined the Grand Rapids Camera Club and became more interested in the subject  It had been a hobby, but everyone he knew had encouraged him to turn it into a career  He began taking other photography classes and joined the Professional Photographers of America �Left to right: Fred Bernhardt and Jeep; Joe Pannella, R. Summers, E. A. Spellman Fred Bernhardt as MP, Japan �Fred Bernhardt discovering native family in hiding on Saipan after the capture of the island. �Nagasaki ��������������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context BernhardtF2 Title A name given to the resource Bernhardt, Fred (Interview outline and video, 2 of 2), 2007 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bernhardt, Fred Description An account of the resource Fred Bernhardt enlisted in the Marines at the age of 17 in early 1944. He served in the Pacific Theater of WWII as an artillery observer for naval bombardments. He also served as a guard of the atomic bomb which was dropped on Nagasaki, and was part of the post-war occupation force as an MP in the Nagasaki area. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Marine Corps Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-11-13 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e79650c46df147a48da4e1bd93173b4f.mp4 7a4e924ed0c8075f8af2df00894ea208 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/357e5f0911edda2b4d47d31d6d96d505.pdf 15c7f5895cf6847a6200921c791f890c PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veteran’s History Project Korean War Laverne Bivens Interview Length: (00:19:53:00) Training and Service (00:00:27:00)  One day, he received a letter saying that his friends and neighbors had chosen him to serve in the military (00:00:27:00) o This was during the Korean War, when there was a military draft and because of the draft, the military ended up choosing the branch Bivens would serve in, the Army (00:00:34:00)  Following the letter, Bivens went to Battle Creek, Michigan and Fort Custer, where he was inducted into the Army; from Fort Custer, he went to Camp Atterberry, Indiana for his basic training (00:00:49:00) o After basic training, he was allowed two days leave, which Bivens used to get married (00:01:02:00)  Following the two-day leave, Bivens got on a train for Washington state, where he then got on a troop ship and head towards Alaska (00:01:13:00)  When the ship arrived in Alaska, it pulled off at Kodiak island, where it stayed for some time (00:01:24:00) o Once the men had disembarked and made their way to Fairbanks, they learned that they reason they stayed at Kodiak was that the original dock at which they were supposed to land had blown up (00:01:43:00)  While he was in Fairbanks, Bivens was part of the 4th Regimental Combat team, which served as ground defense for the Air Force (00:01:59:00)  They arrived in Alaska in June, 1953 and Bivens was assigned to the tank company, although he did not know anything about a tank, except what it looked like (00:02:18:00) o He was eventually detached from the tank company and assigned to headquarters, where he held security information material for the battalion commander (00:02:36:00) o During this time, his unit became quite acquainted with the native Alaskans, who used their dog sleds to take the men where they needed to go (00:02:53:00) o While in Alaska, the men had to set up a tent in the Alaskan cold, which would reach sixty degrees below zero at night (00:03:13:00)  While in the military, Bivens learned: authority, how to keep information secret and he gained many friends (00:03:34:00)  His wife was with him in Alaska because she was a registered nurse and they ended up having their first child in Alaska; his wife worked at a civilian hospital in Fairbanks (00:04:00:00)  When he and his wife left Alaska, they took a car that they had bought there and traveled down the Alcan Highway (00:04:29:00) �     o They eventually made their way to Chicago so that Bivens could be discharged (00:04:44:00) o Camp Atterbury, where he had done his basic training, was near Chicago and where he was discharged (00:04:48:00) While in high school, Bivens was the president of the local FFA (Future Farmers of America) chapter; he was preparing to be a farmer, a job that he wanted to do (00:05:09:00) When he came back from the military, Bivens still wanted to farm, so he went into partnership with his father at a dairy farm and after about eight years, he bought his own farm (00:05:28:00) o He and his wife eventually had five children, all who were involved in the farming (00:05:53:00) There was times when Bivens was somewhat afraid because the men were in Alaska to protect to coast from the Russians coming across, something that the men thought was a real possibility (00:06:21:00) o One time, he was out on a project and when he came back to base, one of the buildings in the battalion was burnt to the ground (00:06:40:00) o He later learned that the persons cleaning the building used gasoline to clean the floors and the gasoline ended up exploding on them and burning the cleaners alive (00:06:58:00) o There was no one shooting at the men but they still lost soldiers in the company (00:07:12:00) o In Bivens’ job, there was a spy in the outfit that was getting engineering plans for some of the unit’s equipment and sending the information over to the Russians (00:07:17:00)  Bivens was involved in the trial, which made his fearful because he did not know if the Russians would retaliate against him for what he had said at the trial (00:07:37:00) o It was not bullets bouncing around that made him fearful, but it was things that made him wonder what was next (00:07:54:00) The food was “tremendous” and consisted of C and K rations (00:08:10:00) o Even most dogs would vomit of they ate the rations, which were in truth, terrible (00:08:35:00) o Some of the jelly cakes and crackers, amongst other things, were edible but they still ended up eating the bad rations, because it was what they had to eat (00:08:43:00) o He would have much rather ate the jackrabbit and caribou that he hunted, which was delicious (00:09:04:00) On his spare time, Bivens would check and M1 rifle out from the supply department and go caribou hunting, or a shotgun and go rabbit hunting, or a tent and go out on a little trip with his friends (00:09:18:00) o For the thirty day leave that he had, because he was interested in dairy farming, Bivens worked on the largest dairy farm in Alaska, the Creamer Dairy (00:09:34:00) o He also played football with the Army team, specifically the team from his unit (00:10:14:00) �        There were not too many bases in Alaska, so the team ended up flying back to the continental United States (00:10:24:00)  Because the weather was so cold, grass did not grow, just dirt, and when it became the warm season, the dirt would dry, so that when they were playing football, the men were playing in sand banks and whenever they made or missed a tackle, their uniforms filled with sand (00:10:34:00) His wife did not come up to Alaska until she received her nursing certification and Bivens wrote to her every night (00:11:13:00) o Bivens’ grandmother ended up writing to him every night, so he ended up writing to her often also (00:11:18:00) At one point, following their service, Bivens and his comrades would get together every three years and over time, the group has begun to meet more regularly (00:11:50:00) o One time, Bivens’ best friend asked if he wanted to go to church, Bivens said that he did so they went do to a Presbyterian Church in Fairbanks, where the two joined with the Young Calvinist group, which constituted the bulk of the group that met after the war (00:12:28:00) While doing his job in the military, Bivens had to be very meticulous with his book work; everything had to be honest, correct and accurate (00:13:22:00) o Because of that, now, things have to be exactly right for him, a trait that sometimes annoys people (00:13:40:00) He is not a member of any veterans association, although he does support them (00:14:06:00) When the Korean War ended, he was still stationed in Fairbanks (00:14:33:00) He remembers when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese in 1941 specifically (00:14:56:00) o For the farm, they had two sets of dairy cows at different farms and they had an old flat bed truck to go between the two farms (00:15:01:00) o Inside the truck was a radio and they had just pulled into the drive of the second farm to do the milking and on the radio came the news that Pearl Harbor had been bombed (00:15:09:00) Something that please him while he was in the Army was that for a time, he was in Special Services and he learned leather crafting, which he taught to the other soldiers, who enjoyed it (00:15:39:00) o For a time, he was in charge of the Special Services purchasing and selling and one time, they questioned him on his bookkeeping (00:16:00:00) o They ended up taking his books to headquarters to make sure that Bivens handled all the money correctly (00:16:18:00)  The Army did not like the way that Bivens kept the books; he did it in an expense/income system and they wanted him to use a double entry system (00:16:25:00) o When they came back with his books, Bivens found out that he had more money than he thought he did (00:16:37:00) �   The bookkeeping incident showed that Bivens was honest, which helped him get jobs insecurity because the Army knew that he was honest and he would not do anything wrong (00:16:55:00) When he first went down to Battle Creek, he was a farm boy and a young Christian and he did not know about the world too much (00:17:22:00) o They gathered all the men together to issue their clothing and Bivens could not hear the sergeant too well and he asked, “Sir, could you repeat that again” (00:17:36:00) o The sergeant said, “Don’t you call me sir, I’m no officer” (00:17:53:00) o Bivens was trying to be respectful but that was the military (00:18:04:00) On the day of his discharge, Bivens and some friends from Alaska received the paperwork saying that they were discharged, which was what Bivens had been looking forward to (00:18:27:00) o They went home after that and that was it (00:18:40:00) o He had fulfilled his obligation to his country and he would gladly do it again, even at the age of seventy-seven; if he had to fight for his country, he would (00:18:50:00) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context BivensL Title A name given to the resource Bivens, Laverne (Interview outline and video), 2010 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bivens, Laverne Description An account of the resource During his military service, Laverne Bivens served in the 4th Regimental Combat team, which the Army had stationed in Alaska as part of the defense against a possible Soviet attack. Although he served during the latter part of the Korean war, Bivens never saw combat. Instead, his job was the defense of Alaska and the Air Force bases in the territory against any aggression. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Teusink, Susanna (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010-05-06 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/46bd2f4efdc57a35244c0aea21707d27.mp4 852923b0ba5baf813abe281a7840fded https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/20a086e3e3e611c0e04b24e68d42e7ef.pdf 0efabf29f31f00085207c316eb4a0fcf PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Nelson Birman (43:53) Background Information (00:30)            Born June 19th, 1936 in Battle Creek, Michigan. (00:39) Served in the U.S. Marine Corps, 1954-1957. (00:50) He joined the Marine Corps a few weeks after he graduated from high school. (2:19) His father worked as a tool and die maker. (3:25) He attended school in Battle Creek and went to high school at Hickory Creek High School. (3:35) He graduated from Hastings High School in 1954. He transferred there after he moved. (3:45) He has 3 brothers. (3:56) His younger brother committed suicide in 1951. (4:14) When he was young, Nelson wanted to become a pilot. (5:00) Nelson volunteered with 2 of his friends in 1954. (5:33) Nelson joined the Marine Corps due to its reputation and his interest in growing up and becoming independent. (8:00) Basic Training (8:22)      Basic training lasted 12 weeks. (8:25) He recalls how unpredictable and strict his drill sergeant was. He prepared the men to be ready at every moment to take an order. (8:35) Because Nelson did not make his bed tight enough one day, his rack was torn apart by his drill instructor. (9:29) Nelson was made an instructor later in his service. Because of this he became close friends with many of his fellow service men. (10:05) After basic training he Nelson was sent to Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay for electronics and radio training school from the Navy. (10:34) Service at Camp Pendleton (10:39)         After graduating radio school Nelson was sent to Camp Pendleton, California where he was given a jeep and made a radio operator. (10:40) 25-31 was his MOS. (11:00) He was at times asked to be a bodyguard for the commandant and a guide for celebrities that came to entertain the soldiers. (11:18) He served as an instructor at Camp Pendleton. He trained on rifles and hand grenades. (12:12) He served on a Marine Corps shooting team. (13:40) He was never based overseas. He did practice landings on beaches. (14:29) While crawling under barbed wire and live ammunition, Nelson was struck by a ricochet shot in the left hip. (15:23) Nelson was on a strike force, if the order came he could be overseas in less than 24 hours. (16:39) �     He was assigned to the 1st Marine Division, 1st Service Regiment. (17:20) Nelson was rapidly promoted to Sergeant while in the service. (17:55) The men Nelson trained on hand grenade would often panic when realizing the power of the weapon in their hand. There were some close calls with weaker men while in training. (19:10) Nelson also trained men on the flamethrower.(20:05) He was awarded the National Defense Service Ribbon and Medal, the Good Conduct Medal, and a High Expert for Shooting Medal. (20:56) Life in the Service (21:54)        Camp Pendleton had a rodeo. The stars of the television series Gunsmoke were brought in to appear at the rodeo. (22:00) On one occasion Camp Pendleton was surrounded on three sides by a fire. All Marines not on special duty were assigned to fight the fire. (24:00) Nelson was very impressed with the officers and instructors he had. (25:01) There were many Marines Nelson encountered that had half hearted outlooks on their military service. (25:25) He was somewhat disappointed that he was never served overseas. (25:50) Nelson married Ruth with one year left of his active service. (26:34) After he was married Nelson lived in Oceanside. (27:24) Life after Service (27:55)          He was discharged before his time was complete in 1957. (28:00) After being discharged from the Marine Corps. Nelson attended Western Michigan University under the G.I. bill and studied electronics and automation. He graduated with an associate’s degree in 1960. (28:20) Nelson and his wife lived in Battle Creek. (28:40) After college Nelson had several part time jobs. He then was employed by the postal service and retired after 40 years of service there. (30:03) He retired in 2004. (31:00) He was also on the Bedford Michigan Rescue Squad. (31:38) Nelson was a very skilled archery man and a member of the Michigan Bow Hunters. (32:35) Nelson was remarried in 1995. (33:25) His second wife died in 2010. (33:49) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context BirmanN1346V Title A name given to the resource Birman, Nelson (Interview outline and video), 2012 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Birman, Nelson Description An account of the resource Nelson Birman, born June 19th 1936 in Battle Creek Michigan, served in the U.S. Marines Corps. from 1954-1957. Nelson spent his military career as an instructor, instructing soldiers on rifles, hand grenades, flamethrowers, and bayonets. He also was a gifted rifleman who served on a Marine Corps. shooting team. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Erichsen, Wallace (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Marine Corps Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-01-25 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/aa37dd1a51956687017c4e7498ad0a54.mp4 cc540ff1dba92500cd66c5298a06a8bd https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/70148c7bde60817b17a403a975d1261a.pdf 22426a7e2e4fdaa16971491f33ba5379 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Iraqi War Jeremy Binder Length of Interview 1:55:38 0:00:11 Background • Born: October 30, 1978, in Benton Harbor, Michigan (0:00:15) • Moved to Bridgman, Michigan in 1989 (0:00:30) • Father worked at die cast shop, Mother worked as dental hygienist assistant (0:00:45) • Graduated high school with acting scholarship to local Community College (0:01:10) • Dropped out of college after first year to work (0:01:40) • Held various jobs before joining Marines (0:02:00) 0:07:20 Enlistment • Joined when he heard about young soldiers dying in Iraq (0:06:00) • Felt he could be a good leader to the young soldiers (0:06:31) • Enlisted June 17, 2003 at age 22 (0:07:04) • Went to Marine Corp Recruitment Center (MCRD) in San Diego, California (0:07:15) • Wanted to be demolition expert due to electrician background (0:08:30) • Put in infantry training Platoon 1006, Charlie Company (0:11.10) 0:13:00 Training • There for 13 weeks with 3 phases of basic training (0:13:45) • 1st phase tested mental toughness, taught discipline, got yelled at (0:14:25) • 2nd phase more physical workouts, hikes, night operations (0:18:20) • 3rd phase graduation, learned parade marches (0:18:50) • After basic training, shipped to Camp Pendleton, California (0:22:00) • Learned how to use more heavy weaponry (0:22:30) • Bit by a brown recluse spider and against doctor order completed 20 mile hike (0:23:27) • Assigned military enlisted job (MOS) to be demolition engineer (0:27:20) 0:30:00 Demolition Training • Assigned to 2nd Battalion 7th Marines, which was scheduled for deployment to Iraq (0:30:16) • Shipped to 29 Palms, California, for specialized training (0:31:06) • Desert environment prepared them for Iraq (0:31:20) • Most time was spent cleaning weapons (0:32:16) • Kept updated on events in Middle East (0:33:30) • One of original squads to protect battalion commander (0:35:56) • Weapons company used .50 caliber machine gun, grenades, and demolition equipment (0:36:20) • Feb 3, 2004 shipped to Iraq (0:39:00) �0:40:00 Active Duty • Took Delta jet to Prague, Prague to Kuwait, then to Iraq (0:39:15) • Drove to Al-Assad Air Force Base (0:43:32) • #1 concern is keeping Battalion commander alive (0:47:00) • Drove around a lot, change routine every time (0:45:44) • On the move all the time, hardly any downtime (0:46:30) • Enemy very clever, always new strategies (0:51:40) • Saw a lot of civilians, mostly stayed away from Americans (0:59:00) 0:48:00 Notable Events • Rear driver on convoy down Military Server Road(MSR) (0:48:07) • Night operation convoy on black out (no lights) (0:48:20) • Saw explosion in rear view mirror, pull over and ready for combat (0:48:37) • IED explosion that had missed mark due to blackout (0:50:14) • Enemy use firefight to keep you in position until RPGs and mortars come (1:09:39) • After a while firefights stopped and only IEDs were used (1:09:50) • Enemy was mostly farmers or locals who were blackmailed/bribed (1:10:24) 1:12:00 Injury • May 1, 2004 around 6am (1:12:25) • Local police colonel was informing insurgents of vehicle routes (1:12:40) • Mission to detain police colonel and appoint a new one (1:12:50) • Battalion commander and interpreter went inside to talk to colonel (1:13:30) • Incoming sniper fire caused unit to take cover (1:13:48) • About 30 min later explosion from behind (1:14:20) • Tried to raise weapons, but couldn’t move right arm (1:15:30) • Didn’t know he was wounded, comrade told him he was bleeding (1:16:07) • Hit by debris, Chunk of arm was missing, brachial artery was severed (1:18:50) • Felt dehydrated, arm felt on fire (1:20:00) • Comrade made tunicate out of sleeve, still wanted to fight (1:21:39) 1:22:00 Recovery • Sent to hospital at Al-Assad AFB (1:22:35) • Felt weak like he was ready to pass out (1:24:30) • Had to graft nerves and skin from leg to arm (1:25:50) • Sent to Baghdad hospital for 24 hours (1:26:50) • From Baghdad flown to hospital in Germany for 3 days (1:29:39) • While recovering in Germany met Arnold Schwarzenegger and Charlie Daniels (1:29:45) • Flew to California, wound was left open to heal itself (1:31:50) • Nerves never recovered fully, arm looks like turkey skin (1:32:00) • Lost 14cm of median nerve, 14.5 cm of ulnar nerve, 13.5cm of brachial artery (1:33:00) �1:36:00 Post service • Debilitating injury left him unfit to be a Marine (1:36:15) • Went back to school to earn college degree (1:41:25) • Marine Corps mentality stuck with him throughout life (1:41:47) • Associates degree in communication from Lake Michigan Community College (1:42:20) • Majored in Public Administration at Grand Valley State University (1:42:26) • Wanted to be a veterans service counselor, and now does this in Allegan County, Michigan (1:42:54) • Help veterans deal with demons and talk about their experiences (1:43:09) • Has the pair of boots he was wearing with blood stains on them(1:55:00) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context BinderJ1384V Title A name given to the resource Binder, Jeremy (Interview outline and video), 2012 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Binder, Jeremy Description An account of the resource Jeremy Binder was born in Benton Harbon, Michigan in 1978, and grew up in the area. After high school, he tried college briefly and then held various jobs before enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2003. After training in San Diego and Camp Pendleton, California, he joined the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines and took demolitions training with them at 29 Palms, California, while awaiting transfer to Iraq. They flew to Iraq in February, 2004, and he served as part of the squad that guarded the battalion commander. He was wounded in May, and was injured badly enough that he could not return to active duty. He now works as a counselor for veterans. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Byron Area Historic Museum (Byron Center, Mich.) BCTV Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Marine Corps Iraq War, 2003--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-05-22 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c996cff8027032a776dc72bf9d589ddf.mp4 232665d3ad075245087ba2d187d7c17b https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f647ffe2bdecaab4615625d2a1f39daa.pdf 5efa80c3542162d225a0b6da769da3fb PDF Text Text Interview Notes Ronald Biermacher Korean War (16:14) Pre- Enlistment Born February 8, 1932 (0:15) Served in the Korean conflict (0:40) Achieved rank of Petty Officer, First Class (0:45) Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan (1:00) Father worked for a large store that delivered to the hospitals (1:50) Had 6 siblings (1:55) Was a barber until he enlisted in the Army (2:20) Also worked in several restaurants (2:40) Enlistment Was drafted into the Army, but knew a high ranking officer in the Navy (3:15) Was then able to be enlisted in the Navy instead of being inducted into the Army (3:45) Sent through an 11 week basic training that covered fire fighting, load ammunition, load on supplies, and brass polishing (4:45) Navy found out he was a barber, so they stuck him in the barber shop on the first weekend he was there (5:15) Did not get an orientation of the ship because of that (5:30) Had 4 weeks a year of leave (5:50) Was able to take it 2 weeks at a time (6:00) Took regular guard duties (6:15) Served on the USS Mississippi in Norfolk, VA (6:50) Took all the big guns off of it and installed missile launchers instead (7:30) Test fired missiles at drones every day (8:00) Did not lose any friends due to war, but knew people injured onboard the ship (8:40) Met many shipmates he still talks to today (9:15) Stayed in touch with family through telephone and letters (9:50) Ran into a few people he graduated with who were in the Navy (10:15) Drank a lot of liquor for entertainment (10:40) Also watched a movie every night, and would swim in the ocean sometimes (11:15) Post Enlistment Was still in Norfolk when the war ended (11:30) It was very easy to adjust to civilian life (12:00) Found a job in another barber shop until he had enough money to buy his own shop, which he ran for 47 years (12:15) Was very glad to get out of the service (13:00) Had to learn how to get along with many different kinds of people (13:10) �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context BiermacherR Title A name given to the resource Biermacher, Ronald (Interview outline and video), 2005 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Biermacher, Ronald Description An account of the resource Ronald Biermacher served in the US Navy during the Korean conflict. He was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia aboard the USS Mississippi, where he was a barber. After the conflict was over, he returned to Grand Rapids, Michigan where he continued cutting hair until he retired. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Anderson, Brad R. (Interviewer) Caledonia High School (Caledonia Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Navy Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Video recordings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005-05-14 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d59d2d6f063a621cac907ae987a46e41.mp4 88d68974755756d6cd6851f9850e8b41 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/48d140352a00d8d1f6d4d65c2268d261.pdf 33f791231e8c67a07bc7c5d440882e08 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project John Beukema (31:50) Pre-Enlistment • Born in Chicago, IL (0:25) • Born on August 15th, 1924 (0:30) • Spent his youth in suburban Chicago and joined the war after he graduated from high school in 1942 (1:00) • Neighborhood was hit hard by the Depression (1:30) • Father was a jack of all trades, worked for a painting contractor mixing colors (2:25) • Mother did not work, had 8 children (2:45) • Attended J. Sterling Morton High School in Cicero, IL (2:55) • War was the main event in his high school (3:15) • All his friends were drafted or volunteered, and he volunteered for the Army Air Corps (3:30) • Worked all through high school in grocery stores and haberdasheries (4:45) Enlistment • Received notice in mail that he was accepted to the Air Corps (5:10) • Went from Chicago to Nashville, TN to the classification and conditioning center (6:30) • Had a battery of tests for about a month, and was accepted for pilots training (6:45) • Boarded a train to go to Santa Ana, CA (6:50) • This happened about the same time there was fighting in Africa, so the Army was training in the desert (8:00) • Santa Ana was a pre-flight school, which contained few classes, but learned the mechanics of flying, meteorology and physical training (9:00) • Pre-flight school lasted several months (9:35) • Then assigned to Rankin Field in Tulari, CA for primary flight school (9:40) • Was the second person in his class to fly solo (10:25) • Stayed at Rankin for two months, then transferred to Morana AFB, which was a basic flying school (11:30) • Flew different planes and learned different maneuvers at Morana for a few months (12:00) • Advanced to Williams AFB in Phoenix, AZ, learning to fly new airplanes (13:00) • During these months of training, he always wanted to go out and fight (13:30) • Received too many demerits, and washed him out of the program a week before graduation (14:15) • Had a hearing before he was washed out, and his instructors came to his defense and he was reinstated (15:00) �• War • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Had to take all his check rides in three hours. If failed, he would be a glider pilot (17:00) Was made a pilot, but was also made to be an instructor in Basic flight school (17:15) Was very difficult to leave his training buddies to instruct (17:50) After instructor school, he was sent to Gardner Field, in California (18:40) Spent a year there (18:45) Good duty because he got to fly for half the day, then got the other half of the day off (19:20) Still wanted to fly fighter planes (19:50) Had to wait until he could volunteer to be assigned to a B-17 (21:20) Went to Montana to be trained for bombing runs and flying formation (22:05) War in Europe ended before he could get out of Montana (22:20) Flew bombers in to Kansas to be mothballed for the next few months (22:30) Was accepted in to B-29 school, lasting several months, in Hobbs, NM (22:50) Dropped the bomb on Japan before he could get out the program (23:15) Decided to use the GI Bill to go to Western Michigan University (24:00) Parents moved to Grand Haven, MI, which influenced his decision to go to Western (24:20) Majored in Accounting and minored in Mathematics in 1950 (24:45) Found it difficult to get a job after college, started a family in Kalamazoo (24:50) Stayed in the Air Force Reserves after he got out of the Air Force (25:20) Still got to do some flying in Canberra Bombers (25:40) Post Wartime • Was in the Reserves for a year and a half (26:15) • Continued flying through rental (26:30) • Had a friend that owned an airplane, so he would go flying with him (27:00) • Would fly wherever his company wanted to him to go (27:20) • Was, at one time, the youngest B-29 commander in the Air Force (27:45) • Received a job in accounting, retired in 1989 (28:30) • Keeps busy with several hobbies, including computers and woodworking (28:50) • Stopped flying around 60 years of age (29:00) • Took a trip to Europe, to Market Garden in eastern Belgium (30:25) • Saw a wall that was a mile long of air crew whose bodies were never found (30:55) • Realized how fortunate he was that he never had to face that (31:00) • Always wanted to fly a P-51, kids bought him a ride in one (31:15) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context BeukemaJ Title A name given to the resource Beukema, John T. (Interview outline and video), 2008 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Beukema, John T. Description An account of the resource John Beukema was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 15th, 1924. He volunteered for the Army Air Corps during World War II, and was accepted as a pilot. After flight school, he was sent to be an instructor back at Basic flight school in Gardner Field, California for one year. He volunteered to be a B-17 pilot, but the war in Europe ended. He signed up to be a B-29 pilot, but the war in the Pacific ended, as well. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource McCauslin, Kelly (Interviewer) Spring Area District Library (Spring Lake, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) Video recordings United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Army. Air Corps World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2008-07-19 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/eff5c47c6ba6f21fadee4fa18e402ae3.mp4 c70ddb4066b856d350db9c45cc571534 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1bc69d0691db8bf4b215a13db50466d9.pdf fe82d19285a148574fa8520f874e0fa1 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Cornell Beukema (01:43:58:16) Childhood, Family, And Education • (00:24:13) Beukema was born on May 5, 1920 in Grand Haven, Michigan • (00:32:09) his father was a finisher in a piano factory; his mother had done some "clerking" for Herpolsheimer’s Department store in Grand Rapids, also in the Edison Department in Grand Haven • (00:54:22) he graduated from Grand Haven High School in 1938 • (01:01:18) Beukema had an ambition to go to college but when he finished high school, he had less than $50 saved; his parents, who gone through the Great Depression, had no money � his older brother and sister had the same problem � his brother graduated three years ahead of him, got a job, and went on to Michigan State University � his sister graduated a year after his brother, but she got a scholarship and went to Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo � his brother took civil engineering at Michigan State, and also ROTC • (02:23:20) Beukema himself went to college in 1939, enrolling at Michigan State, where he took two years of ROTC; after finishing the two years, he took advanced ROTC No Commission • (02:58:20) after graduating from Michigan State in 1943, he was "supposed to have gotten a commission," but the process had changed: � his older brother had gone to a camp during the summer and got a commission after graduation � by the time he came along, the government's policy had changed, and they were sending people to OCS camps; his group was sent to Camp McCoy in Wisconsin, in 1943 • (04:06:13) Michigan State ROTC people were not the only ones there, they were there from all over the country, from Texas A& M, from St. Louis • (04:25:00) after two weeks, he got called to Camp Davis in North Carolina; he was "coast artillery" which was "working itself into anti-aircraft artillery" at Camp Davis, it was called an anti-aircraft artillery school �� • it was supposed to have been a thirteen-week program, but to their "chagrin," the length of the program was changed to fifteen weeks, then to seventeen weeks; but they added still another two weeks "because they weren't ready for us at Camp Davis" (05:16:14) in December 9 of 1943, Beukema finally got his commission, he graduated from OCS; he picked guns as his specialty, but they put him on search lights instead � he was sent to Camp Edwards in Massachusetts; he arrived there right after Christmas in 1943, and was there until February of '44 Fort Belvoir And Camp Rucker • (05:58:05) then he was sent to engineer school at Fort Belvoir in Virginia � as it turned out, he was transferred from search lights to engineers � he was put into the engineer combat battalion, and after six weeks at engineer school, he was sent back to Camp McCoy, to the 76th Division of an engineer combat battalion located there • (06:51:090 in June of 1944, Beukema was selected to take a cadre of seventythree men and four officers to Camp Rucker in Alabama for the initiation of a new unit, the1298 Engineer Combat Battalion, this was "the start of the 1298" • (07:48:16) while he was at Fort Belvoir he was injured when another officer threw something that hit him in the head; [see timing frame 54:03:00, sections of photographs displayed later in the interview; this object was a “big heavy clamp”] he was "plagued" by headaches for the rest of his time in the service • (08:09:04) at Camp Rucker, he was sent to Second Army mine school where he took a course in mines and demolition; he returned to his unit and was promoted to first lieutenant • (08:44:07) a black battalion from Trinidad, a search light battalion, had moved to Camp Rucker; they all thought they were all going to get out of the service, and were "very despondent" when they did not—they were "ornery and troublesome" � he was one of several Caucasian officers who were sent "to take over this outfit"—all their officers had been transferred; “fortunately, the noncoms of that unit were real sharp" and they told the Caucasian officers not to worry; "it worked out fine" • (09:51:07) Beukema was then transferred to the 1015th Engineer Treadway Bridge Company; during the short time he was with them, he injured his left leg � there was a fire in the day room and he stepped outside onto a porch, but he stepped onto a rotten board, his foot bent upward and back, pulling the tendons in his leg �� he was sent to the hospital, where they gave him cortisone shots; he was not in the hospital long, but " in order to get around," he had to constantly go back to the hospital for more cortisone shots • (11:11:09) "all this time" he courted the girl that he "wanted to marry who was at Michigan State"; she was a freshman when he was a senior; she accepted his marriage proposal and "it seemed to be okay with her dad" • (11:42:24) they were getting ready to go overseas; many people from his unit had been pulled out individually and sent overseas already; finally they got the orders and prepared for shipment abroad • (12:16:28) in the spring of '44 they got called on flood duty—there had been a big flood in White River, Arkansas, and they were all sent there; a date had been picked for his wedding, however � "it just so happened that the water started receding" and they were shipped back to their unit Camp Shelby And Then On To Hawaii • (13:21:15) all those from Camp Rucker had been moved to Camp Shelby, near Hattiesburg in Mississippi; he got married; in July of '45 they went by train to Minneapolis, and then to Vancouver Bearings near Portland • (14:04:04) “all this time,” Beukema was back with the 1298, and they went by ship from Portland to Hawaii; during the trip to Hawaii, the first atomic bomb was dropped, on August 6 � engineers who had worked with explosives like himself were "fully knowledgeable of this"; he had taught several courses in mines and demolition for the Second Army mine school • (15:10:29) at Hawaii, they started loading their ships for the invasion of Japan; he was on an LST in a convoy of ships; they left Pearl Harbor on the day Japan surrendered Japan • (16:34:29) the captain of Beukema’s ship refused to go directly into Nagasaki without a mine sweeper ship in front of them; they anchored at Sasebo, where there was a major Japanese naval base; they picked up a mine sweeper and then went to Nagasaki • (18:01:03) there was school, which was in session at the time they arrived; the school master gathered the children in the back of a room and explained to them that the Americans had won the war; classes were moved into caves in back of the school, and the Americans took over the building, and "fixed it up" �• (19:46:23) in December Beukema was transferred to Fukuoka, farther north near Kitakyushu, where he was assigned to an engineer construction battalion � they were rebuilding a Japanese airfield, and he was with that unit for a while, not very long � about that time, headaches began to bother him, and he was put into a hospital for three weeks, until his "continuous" headaches stopped • (20:56:00) he was then reassigned to an engineer aviation battalion in charge of building the airport; he was appointed an S3, an assistant to the one in charge, and eventually he himself was in charge � he had several different army units working for him, Japanese contractors, and a huge pool of Japanese civilian labor • (22:07:09) he was suddenly given R & R [rest and recuperation]; the officer in charge of all the units in that area of Japan had to go to General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters the officer wanted to give him R & R, so he took Beukema with him; it turned out that they were not going to be disbanded yet; the officer told him he was "on his own" the rest of that week • (23:13:12) he contacted a cousin in Tokyo who was in a different unit, and they spent the week seeing Tokyo and Yokohama; they visited the Diet (government) building, a zoo, and climbed Mount Fujisan as high as they could, “’til the jeep got stuck," about three quarters of the way up • (24:23:30) back to his unit after a week, he was assigned to group headquarters as an S3 and eventually became the executive officer of his group; they were quartered in "the millionaire's mansion" of the Ishibashi family, who owned and still own the Bridgestone Tire And Rubber Company • (25:28:24) not long afterward, he received orders and he had enough points to get out of the service; he got on a ship at Yokohama and headed for Seattle, Washington � they crossed the International Date Line on July 4; the sailors on the ship felt they were entitled to two holidays; in a bulletin that they received when they left the ship, the date had been labeled as July 5 even though it had been plotted correctly � the sailors told them not to worry, we're slowing this ship down"; they went at "excessive speed" during the last couple of days to make up for it • (27:39:22) after arriving at Seattle, they spent a night at Fort Lewis, WA; they were then released from duty • (27:54:24) Beukema remained in the officer reserve until 1953; he spent that time in Lansing and trained incoming GI's; he got "disgusted" because he to fill out their pay vouchers and he was not getting paid; he asked for a discharge, got it in 1953, and that was the end of his career in the army �Civilian Career • (29:23:09) he got a job as soon as he returned to the States, in Lansing with the Michigan state highway department; he remained there until 1970 and retired after 34 years ***the date and number of years given here are questionable, because they conflict with his time in high school, college, OCS, his service during; his year of retirement was probably 1980, or it may have actually been 24 years with the highway department*** • (29:53:18) they moved "over here [Grand Haven] to a place that happened to be in the family," by the north shore and they rebuilt it Scrapbook • (30:45:00) Beukema presents a scrapbook from his OCS days and displays pages in it, commenting briefly on some of the written and printed items and photographs in the scrapbook. � OCS was “severe” and “rigid,” his school more so, he found out, than other OCS schools" � "every so often they would throw in an inspection on us and so we were forever "GIing" the barracks" No Athlete's Foot • (34:49:12) one of their classmates would get a couple of gallons of chlorine and throw it on the floor in his feet bare—"we didn't get any athlete's feet"; they “were puddling around in it" and cleaned the floor with mops The Rifle Inspection • (35:19:27) they had a "gold digger" in their class who was "forever trying to get out from doing things" � his name was Allen and it got to the point where everyone "detested" him because "he was gold bricking all the time and taking off at night and never around to do the GI in the barracks" • (35:43:21) one night they found out that they would have a rifle inspection the next morning; they all cleaned their rifles and they were locked in the rifle rack by the one in charge of locking up the rack � Allen would stay out in the evening until late and then come back; when he came in, they could hear him sneak in, someone called out to Allen and told him that there would be an inspection in the morning, and he begged the keeper of the rifle rack to give him the key, but the guy refused; Allen went over in the dark—they would not let him use the flashlight—and he poked the ramrod into his rifle in the dark while it was in the rack, trying to clean it �• (36:54:21) first thing next morning they had the rifle inspection; the “bird dog” got to Allen's rifle, looked through it, and "you should have heard him blow his top at Allen"; "he flunked out," "they flunked him out" • (37:17:25) in the last week, “the bird dogs got kinda human with us" and asked what they had against Allen; they told them it was because of "all the gold bricking" he did and he "would never be with us"; they understood, they had "already kicked him out of school" Highlights From The Memorabilia And A Photo Album • (38:04:26) Beukema’s diary, with entries made throughout his career in the “States” • (38:17:03) Beukema shows a letter from his brother who went to General Omar Bradley's headquarters; the letter was written on Adolf Hitler's stationary • (41:02:24) [photographs of the cadets in uniforms, regular and dress; the dress uniforms had prominent belt buckles in front] they had a military ball, he had a date, a girl who used to live in Grand Haven who was a student at Michigan State University; she had on "a nice frilly dress, real pretty"; his buckle "hooked onto her dress right here," and it was embarrassing; they had to go outside of the hall, in the dark, to try to get "disassembled"—getting apart ripped her dress, but it had to be done • (46:45:20) [photograph of 268 radar unit] he "got to a point" where he could put "that thing" together; at Camp Edwards in Massachusetts, he would lay in his bunk with the tent flap open and operate the search light—the radar used the search light • (48:13:24) “water problems” [pictures of bridges he built] • (50:02:16) flood duty, they had new equipment and they had to go to Arkansas with it [flood mentioned earlier]; they had people driving trucks who had never driven trucks before � a big truss bridge that carried a major highway over a big river was out, and “they [not Beukema’s company, however] had to build a roadway around there” • 51:09:14 then Beukema got married; he and his wife "walked the streets" looking for someone to be the best man at their wedding; he encountered a friend of his, fortunately, and met two other friends to be ushers—one of whom did not show up because Beukema neglected to tell him where the wedding was to be held [this man's daughter-in-law is now president of MSU] • (52:18:11) [photograph of his “sister's boy”] Beukema did not have any boys, but four daughters �The 90mph Train Ride • (55:42:01) the train out of Mississippi [Camp Shelby]: they started out with two sections on the train; in the section Beukema was in there was a captain who was a "very close friend" of his "all the way through the service" • (55:59:05) the captain obtained permission from the conductor for himself and Beukema to ride on the caboose and they watched for "hot boxes"--they stopped the train, they did see one, they had to put out the fire to stop the second section and warn them that there was a train was stopped in front of them • (56:30:10) the captain also "talked the conductor" into letting them sit in the engine; they rode about 800 miles “between the caboose and the engine, up to Minneapolis; there were "big Hiawatha engines hooked up to both sections, so it was a big long train now" • (57:10:19) Beukema and the captain were told to get off "right here on this side, the detective will be on the other side" [what they were doing was not allowed, of course]; they had to run up to where the engineer would be ready to get them � they had these "nice seats behind the engineer and the coal man," and "what a ride that was just watching that speedometer go up over 90 miles an hour" • (57:48:21) when the engineer told them "this is the end of my run," they had to jump out again � "now you go to get out this side," the engineer told them, "climb down the latter," and "I"ll let you know when to jump" � while the train kept moving, Beukema and the captain had to run to the first car back, where the conductor caught them—"sure enough there was the conductor with his hand out and he pulled us aboard" Portland To Hawaii • (59:24:23) they left Portland on "this one ship" and he was "in charge of seein’ that all the guys got on," and had to check them off; he was the last to get on before the ship took off, and as a result, he got the "lousiest bunk" directly under a steam pipe � he found out that lots of other guys "had it hot sleeping too," and all the way to Hawaii he slept on the top deck with "hundreds of other guys" � "you did not leave that few square feet that you had during the day to go to the bathroom or to go to eat but you had your neighbor look after your place and you took turns" • (01:00:40:23) “all this time” flying fish were landing on them: "the air was just full of these flying fish" • (01:01:12:20) Japan had not surrendered yet; there were no lights allowed— messages between ships were sent by special lights, not by radio; garbage was �"put out at night so that they'd never know where you were"; and they zig-zagged through the water[the ship] Hawaii To Japan • (01:01:48:08) they got to Hawaii, and it was "hotter than blazes" and "at nighttime it was all mosquitoes and so we had a mosquito bar," each bunk had one; they had to go to bed before it got dark because by then the mosquitoes were already in there • (01:03:14:13) then they "loaded on an LST"; they had eighteen ships and a destroyer escort; the food was good and they had fresh water • (01:04:05:09) a sailor showed Beukema where, on the prow of the ship, there was a hatch that could be opened; one could go down a ladder in there, and because the doors did not fit "completely tight," a "sheath" of water came in, making a pool about three feet deep at the bottom -"almost all the way to Japan,” he went down there every day and swam in the pool • • (01:05:38:09) they had gunnery practice one day; "the sailors showed our guys how they did their laundry": they tied there clothes to long lines and dragged those "maybe fifty to seventy-five yards behind the ship" through the water � they had gunnery practice, and "our guys" shot at the clothes while "the sailors were pulling 'em in like crazy"; for a long time after they landed at Nagasaki, sailors still ran around with holes in their clothes • (01:06:34:08) they had a movie every night; they exchanged movies with other ships in the convoy—that is how they knew when Japan surrendered Bomb Damaged Nagasaki • (01:07:16:13) where they were supposed to land [Beukema points to a map] in the invasion, they were supposed to go with the 2nd, 3rd and 5th Marine Divisions and the 1298 • (01:08:16:19) "we came in the harbor this way over here," approaching Nagasaki [Beukema points it out on a map in his collection] • (01:09:15:06) "this is really bombed, this is the worst, this is all knocked out right here, this is knocked out by the A-bomb" � "you could see the radiation, you could see the radiation lines on the ground"—"so you knew exactly where it went and where it went off" � "all these radiation lines went like this," like spokes in a wheel [Beukema points out areas of Nagasaki on a map to the interviewer, and puts a finger on the spot where the bomb landed and those "radiation lines"] �• (01:13:42:29) "the smell in Japan was terrible"—"human excrement smell was all over"; at each rice patty land there was a cistern and the farmers would collect the human excrement from the city, haul it out ever day and dump it into the cisterns; they "ladled" it on their crops • (01:15:23:22) "all around the mountains, let me tell you, the Japs had gun emplacements all around"—"it would have been suicide for the American forces to invade Japan"; besides that, there were "tunnels all the way through the mountains, all over" • (01:15:56:10) images of Japan, Beukema’s comrades, incidents and anecdotes in pictures • (01:27:10:19) General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters was across from the emperor's palace Memories Of The Bridgestone Mansion [photographs and anecdotes] • (01:28:33:27) "we had parties there all the time" • (01:29:20:19) when the general took over the Bridgestone mansion, there were thirteen servants, and most were Seventh Day Adventists; there was a Seventh Day Adventist Church a block away • (01:29:50:06) the number-one servant noticed a Bible that Beukema had laid on his headstand; the first night he was there, she came up to him with a Japanese Bible, and she wanted to talk to him; she could speak a few words of "American" and he could speak a few words of Japanese; she wanted to discuss passages in the Bible; "it was real nice" • (01:30:54:24) "they cried when we were gonna leave, we had such a rapport" [the number one and number two servants] • (01:31:02:19) “they [the Ishibashis] took us”: they inherited the Ishibashis’ three cars, a Cadillac, a Lasalle, and a Buick, "big seven-passenger ones,” and the Americans were taken on a tour across Kyushu one day • (01:31:53:22) every Thursday night the Americans invited the Japanese women to supper, and then they had a movie and dancing in "their house" • (01:32:23:11) photographs of the Bridgestone Mansion, the interior and the grounds outside How Beukema Obtained Hiroshiday Artwork • (01:35:03:02) while he was in Japan he got a letter from his wife, who was taking art at school; she wanted to know if he could get prints from the two most important Japanese artists at the time, Hokusai and Hiroshiday �� he hunted "all over"; walking down the street one day in Fukuoka, he saw in the window of an art store "this book" [Beukema displays this on camera] and he bought it • (01:36:51:09) he pointed at another print in the store, but the girl in the store did not want to sell it to him; the girl fetched her boss, who took him into the back room • (01:38:05:25) the "boss man" went to a drawer and "hauled out about twenty pictures"; Beukema indicated that he wanted to purchase them � the “boss man” rolled up the pictures, "tied a nice ribbon around them" and gave them to Beukema [these pictures are still in Beukema's home, and he displays a number of small prints on camera] More Memorabilia • (01:40:24:00) the kind of books he worked with teaching about demolition and explosives • (01:41:39:03) Stars & Stripes put out a newspaper for GIs in Europe and Japan; Beukema presents a scrapbook filled with cartoons he had clipped from Stars & Stripes in Japan. �Military Service Cornell D. Beukema Sep 1939 Entered Mich State College in Engmg 2 yrs Basic ROTC 15 Mar 43 Sworn into US Anny Serviceby Jake Fase Placed in Enlist Res Corps ROTC student MSC Private 36584695 Coast ArtilleryCorp Uniform provided Classesat Dem Hall Parades Spring term Tuesdays Chris Cadet Col Lived at Wells Hall Freshman Dorm Sep 1941 Jones House worked 3 jobs Jr yr 2 yrs AdvancedROTC Uniform purchased Classesat Dem Hall Col Stillman sand table model ships azimuth sightingsat gym level Data telephoned to plotting room data plotted Plotted location (range & azimuth) phoned to gunners Compressed air gun fires ball bearings Dress Parades as Cadet Officers "Pass in Review" MSC Band 7 Apr 43 Ordered to active duty as Private Live in Frat houses eat at Union 12 Joo43 Graduated from MSC 14 day furlough :2810043 To Camp McCoy disappointment When to OCS? Shots Basic training Low morale Calisthenics Close order drill Firing range Grenadeepisode General salute Military discipline entire Camp Week end leaves "'7 c. ,-' '?c, \AJ0. s \11 o ~5"~ C' \l r D'S \- ~1\G:.(G\l E Lansing, Sheboygan,Roy Correll Promoted to Corporal and sent to Wilmington,N.C. via train cattle trucks to Anti Aircraft ArtilleryOCS then to Camp Davis in OCS school not ready delay math test Course lengthened 13 to 15 to 17 wks Coat hanger episode Bird Dogs S.O.P. Course extremely rigorous ridiculous orders to us punishments March to classes Night mosquitos Citronella Hour ofCharm Obstacle course Close order drills in hot sun Barracks inspections Rifle inspections Allen Haircuts Week end passes after Drills Visit brother Meet brother in-law Wrightsville Beach Salv Ay usa swim write letters....proposemarr PHYL Bivouacs Target shooting Search lights, Automatic Weapons, or Guns To: f's 8 Dec 43 9Dec43 Hon Discharge Corporal CDB Grad AAA OCS as 2nd Lieut 0539350 ordered to Act Duty Camp Edwards, Mass 10 day delay en route Travel via trailoredbus nature call female passenger Problem with lights, or was it brakes on chartered bus approachingCincyOH 20 Dec 43 Asgd to 223Rl AAA Sean;hlightBn Boston visit Truck parkingEpisode Firing range SearchLight position Truck driving over Borne Bridge 12 Feb 44 Relvd from 223Rl SL Bn Sent to Fort Belvoir, VIrginia EngineersTraining Course MSC reunion hit in head accident visit Wash DC visit Pentagon Introduced to constr equip bridge bldg rigging 1 Apr 44 Relvd from AAA ORP Asgd to 76th Div Camp McCoy, Wise 9 Apr 44 Asgd to 30lit Engr Combat Bn at Camp McCoy �11 Apr 44 Asgd to CompanyB 301st Engr C Bn 26 Jun44 26 Jun44 Relvd from 301st Engr C Bn Asgd 1298 Engr Combat Bn Camp Rucker Ala Charge of Cadre 78 EM & 3 Off train lost one man at Birmingham Asgd CompanyB 1298th Engr C Bn 22 July 44 Special Duty with 338thAAA Search Light Bn fr Trinidad (negro) ??? 338th AAA SIL Bn deactivated 5 Aug 44 Relvd from SO with 1693rd EgtC Bn 7 Aug 44 SpecialDuty with 1015th Treadway Bridge Comp Accident left knee 27 Aug 44 1 Sep 44 Temp Duty~ Anny Mine School Camp Forest, Tenn week course travel time telegram home for money Promoted to I st Lieutenant 9 Sep44 Mine School Course graduation 21 Sep 44 Returned to 1298th at Rucker 1 Oct 44 5 Nov 44 Asgd to 2nd Armv Mine School as instructor two courses at Camp Rucker : , Back with 129Stf{ 9 Dec 44 !298th movesto Camp Shelby Miss 271 miles by convoy. 17 Dec 44 Phyl visits 27 Dec 44 Phylleaves for E. Lansing and college 3 Jan 45 Leave for Fort Jackson S Carolina to teach one week course on Mines and Demolitions 21 Jan45 Return to 1298th at Shelby... Phyl accepts my phoned marriageproposal. Her dad okays. 6 Mar 45 1298th leavesfor Arkansas by convoy:White River flooding. Temp duty 26 Mar 45 29 Mar 45 Granted 15 day Iv Fly to Mich for Phyl and My wedding. First flight for me MarriageLansing, Mich honeymoon Grand Haven wI Phyl's dad's Buick 30 Apr 45 In Hospita1leftknee problem re Aug 7 injury Kay Kyser . Released from Hosp Warren replaces Hoffman as Comp Cmdr Back with 1298th 1298th preparing for shipping out Packing Tests Lake Shelbyproject Phyl arrives rent room fr Barrios in Hattiesburg Biloxi weekends 11 May 45 16 Jun45 1693rd Engr C Bn activated Twelve day leave stays at Hoffma's in Hattiesburg New Orleans for Christmas 8 Jul45 Companyasgnmt exchange Beukema to Comp C under Capt John Howard; Walton to Comp B under Capt Warren 20 July 45 21 Ju145 Last night with Phyl in Camp Guest House Phylleaves by train for E Lansing With Lucile Flickinger 21 Jul4S 1298th Engr C Bn departs Camp Shelby via two trains for the West Coast and overseas caboose and engine riding and Hiawatha engine ride across Minn 2 �25 Jul45 30 Jul45 Arrive Vancouver Barracks, Oregon 3139 miles travel Portland visit Embarked on Liberty Ship SS George S Julian with Hawaii a guessed destination. Beukema last to board 10 day voyage with flying fish and deck sleeping 6 Aug 45 Aboard ship Heard news ofHiroshima A bombing skeptical of20,OO tons of TNT equivalent. 8 Aug 45 Arrived Honolulu, Hawaii Schofield Barracks Tents Mosquito netting swimming tests island tour Waikiki sailing Dole pineapp 3 Sept 45 Departed Pearl Harbor aboard LST 870 from Ford Island AWOL First Sargent too late to board not seasick, but. ... Sept 45 22 days aboard LST 970 Honolulu to Nagasaki, Kyushu, Japan Loaded quarters water supply food paint chipping clothes washing gunnery Movies (exchange) reading chess playing bridge letter writing swimming Cyclone tossed in bunk officer mess Bailey Bridge dammage dog birth Sasebo...mine sweeper nite noises 25 Sep45 dawn view of surrender flags on mtns Arrived Nagasaki harbor ... wait kids last meal aboard landing Maj Landry's booze Remaining Sep, Oct, Nov, and part of Dee School plateau one-way access-exit rice terraces odor Atom damage building accommodations play field latrines rats rebuild bridges Butler bldgs (warehouses) scrounging about gun implacements cave factory Movie theater reel unwinding pet monkey accident in sewage well Church PX 10 Dec 4S Trsfrd to 1393rd Engr Constr Bn at Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan as Asst S-3 via train tangerine bowling engagement ring near-disaster factory accommodations less desireable Christmas dinner slow mail 21 Jan 46 Hospitalized with excruciating headache over 3 weeks Trsfrd to 1876 th Engr Aviation Bn in Fukuoka as S-3 In charge construction! Itazuke (ex-Mushiroda) Airdrome Various Mil Engr units Jap Contractors mise Jap workers from Pool Negro Dump trucks Fire 19 Mar 46 lifted dump box through City local fire department action Trsfrd to 1777th Engr Constmction Bn in Fukuoka Asst S-3 no change in work Hunt for elevators for hospital Hospitalized for headaches 8 Apr 46 Trsfrd to 1113 th Engr Construction Group at Kurume, Kyushu as Asst S-3 assist in supervision of mise operations of Group command Shop for Hiroshege and Hoksai prints Living at Ishibashi mansion 3 servants Ichi ban and Bible pool parties �15 Apr 46 Temp Duty w/S th Anny at Yokohama with CO Major Redding I" Class rail travel a weekofR& R Tokyo with Cousin... tour City Diet Bldg... Fujiyama Easter Sunrise Service Meji Bowl 3 May 46 Asgd to 8-3 positionwith 1113th Thursdaynight get-togethers with Ishibashis trip across Kyushu 15 May 46 Asgd to ExecutiveOfficer position With 1113tb 21 JWl46 Relv'dfrom 1113th Engr Constr Group Asgd to 4lb Replacement Depot, Yokohama "Reppledepo" 29 JWl46 Boarded S8 Milford Victory ship in Yokohamaand set sail acrossPacific for Seattle Calm seas enroute Tiered hammocks five decksbelow main deck CrossedIntemat Date line on July 4th Captain, in Ship's Masthead publication. says July 5. I believe it as a purposeful miss-statement because the ships sailors were demandingholidaypay for two July 4ths. So they slowedthe ship to delay our voyage by one day. Sensing the slower 12 knot progress,the Captain correctedthe slow-downwith a record speed of 17.56knots the last two days. 10 July 46 Arrived Seattle... bussed to Fort Louis for the night 11 July 46 Left Seattle by troop trainfor Chicago and Fort Sheridan, Illinois, ola 18 July Promotedto Capt Off Reserv Corp Granted 47 days Lv of Absence 3 Sep 45 Released fr Active Duty Placed on Inact status ORC AsgdMich State ADM Serv Group left for home 28 May 48 Asgd to 1125OR Composite Gp Lansing, Mich 7 Sep 48 Relvd fr asgnmt. Asgd to 416th Engr Combat Bn Lansing 1 May 49 Designated CO Hq & Serv Company416th Engr C Bn 9 Oct 50 Relvd fr asgnmt, Asgd as CO Hq & Serv Comp 500th ORC Engr CombatGp Lansing 24 OctSO Relvd fr asgnmt. Asgd 5500th ORC Engr unit (trng) Lansing 19 Oct 51 Relvd fr asgnmt. Asgd 5949th ORC School STU Det Lansing 1 Apr 53 Recvd Honorable Discharge from US Armed Forces 16 Jun 53 Off Reserve Appointment expired 4 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context BeukemaC Title A name given to the resource Beukema, Cornell (Interview outline, video, and papers), 2008 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Beukema, Cornell Description An account of the resource Cornell Beukema graduated from Michigan State University in 1943, went through a series of OCS camps, engineer school, and the Second Army Mine School. He specialized in bridge building, mines and demolition. Sent to Japan after the war ended, he witnessed the destruction wrought by the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki as they rebuilt an airfield and built an airport. He remained in active reserve in the army for a number of years after WWII; he was finally discharged in 1953, and he spent the rest of his career with the Michigan state highway department. Military service timeline appended to outline. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource McCauslin, Kelly (Interviewer) Spring Lake District Library (Spring Lake, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) Video recordings United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Corps of Engineers--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2008-03-08 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d0b6448a973d88184cb7ec277dd3bcc5.mp4 2371be756937336f47c3cfc0c00fc507 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2ecf50b908c271b368b9b9ba80c0a815.pdf 8945f6111734960f3c272ce7657b9a25 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Kevin Bettinghouse (20:11) Background Information (00:21)       Born in Grand Rapids Michigan on February 13th 1960. (00:23) He enlisted in the Air Force. (00:43) His highest rank was Sergeant E4. (1:00) He served as a Ground Navigational Aid. (1:30) Kevin’s interest in electronics while in high school was what drew him to the Air Force. (1:54) He enlisted in 1977 but was not inducted until August of 1978. (2:31) Training (3:02)    He did 6 months of basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. (3:11) After basic, Kevin was sent to Mississippi for 8 months of training on landing systems and tactical air navigation. (3:25) He was also taught how to solder, though he already knew this from high school. (4:05) Overview of Service (4:15)            After training in approx. October of 1979, Kevin was sent to Warner Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. He was there for approx. 1 year.(4:18) Kevin wanted to go on tour but he did not want to be on tour for 2 years. As a result he went on a shorter remote isolated tour. In late 1980, Kevin was sent to the Aleutian Islands. (5:15) After 1 year in Alaska, Kevin finished his tour of duty in Ohio in 1982. (4:50) Kevin lived in barracks throughout his training and during his first year of service at Georgia. (6:00) The food served was often very good. (6:52) Being only 18 when he enlisted, Kevin enjoyed the freedom of being away from home. (7:36) Kevin tried very hard to keep in touch with his family. He wrote many letters and occasionally called home. (8:30) Kevin managed to make close friends. However, he found it difficult because the men were often transferred to other bases after Kevin grew close to them. (9:45) The biggest things that Kevin worked on were the interment landing systems. These interments told the pilot how close the aircraft was to the center of the runway. (11:40) He worked on C-130s, F-15s, and training aircraft. (12:41) Kevin was given the opportunity to fly in several of the aircrafts on “hops.” These were free trips that soldiers could hop onto to be transported between bases. (13:10) Exiting the Military (16:35)   He left the military at age 22 in 1982. He decided to leave because he had a girlfriend and he didn’t want to move around any longer. (16:38) He hoped that his experience with electronics would get him a job after his service. (17:20) �  He eventually got a job installing phone jacks and cable. (18:12) It took time an effort to adjust back into civilian life. He was not used to having every part of his day no longer structured. (18:50) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context BettinghouseK1353V Title A name given to the resource Bettinghouse, Kevin (Interview outline and video), 2011 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bettinghouse, Kevin Description An account of the resource Kevin Bettinghouse, born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1960, served in the U.S. Air Force from 1978 to 1982 as a Ground Navigational Aid. After his basic training at Lackland Air Force base in Texas, Kevin spent eight months receiving technical training in Mississippi. During his Service, Kevin was stationed in Warner Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, the Aleutian Islands, and Ohio. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Rowley, Elliot (Interviewer) Rowley, Scott (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Air Force Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-11-05 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cfa0bb69f314eb1b55c076ca823d04ed.mp4 54c73a1f330b2f5071aa3a66a4e9e770 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f86ad96612d1b5519403f075ebf78ed3.pdf d22d44913b6ca8a3d937a0c99dbb60be PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Name of War: World War II Interviewee name: Homer Berry Length of Interview: (00:13:59) (00:40) Pre-Enlistment  Background o Homer was born in Flint, Michigan on February 13, 1925. o He joined the service [Navy] because his brother had recently been drafted. (01:30) Enlistment and Training  Homer was sent through boot camp where he went through a lot of physical training.  After training Homer was a motor machinist mate, 2nd class petty officer. (02:00) Active Duty  Overseas o Homer was on a LST that left from the Gulfport, Mississippi and went through the Panama Canal. o The trip took 25 days and they stopped at the Solomon Islands. o While in the Pacific they went from island to island dropping off supplies for troops. o Homer felt lonely on the boat in the middle of the ocean and he was home sick. o They often wrote letters back home. o Food was always different depending on when they had received fresh supplies.  Memorable Moments (05:15) o Homer had been in Saipan unloading in the harbor when a bunch of Japanese planes flew over and attacked. o The men were able to shoot down 7 Japanese planes. o They had landed in Tinian and Homer grabbed a tennis shoe he found on the ground; there was a rotten foot still in the shoe. o They did not have many occurrences with Japanese because the Marines had always secured the islands before their ship arrived. (07:15) After the Service  Going Home o While leaving the Pacific they traveled around the Aleutian Islands on the way home. o Homer and the other men had all been really excited when they heard the news about the war being over. � Other experiences o After his time in the service Homer worked as a fireman. o While in the Pacific he traveled through the Marshall Islands, Guam, Saipan, Ten Yen, and Guadalcanal. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context BerryH Title A name given to the resource Berry, Homer C. (Interview outline and video), 2008 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Berry, Homer C. Description An account of the resource Homer Berry was born in Flint, Michigan on February 13, 1925. Homer decided to enlist in the Navy shortly after his brother had been drafted. After training Homer became a motor machinist mate, 2nd class petty officer. Homer was shipped to the Pacific on a LST and they began traveling all over the Pacific dropping off supplies to other troops. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Gilliam, Zach (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Navy Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2008-03-12 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives