Gallert, Fred (Interview outline and video), 2015
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army
Fred Gallert was born in Winnipeg, Canada on July 17, 1921. When he was two years old his family moved to Saint Joseph, Michigan and he grew up there. After the U.S. was dragged into WWII in 1941 he was drafted into the Army in June 1942 and received basic training at Fort Custer, Michigan. Due to a proficiency in the German language he was selected to work as an interpreter for German prisoners at prisoner of war camps in the United States. He was stationed at the prisoner of war camp at Fort Custer and later at the prisoner of war camp in Santa Anna, California. He was discharged in Santa Anna in November 1945.
Gallert, Fred Sr.
Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)
Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan
In Copyright
Gabrosek Jr., Joseph (Interview outline and video), 2014
United States. Army Air Forces
Michigan--History, Military
Joseph Gabrosek Jr.was born in 1924 in Barberton, Ohio. He grew up there and graduated from high school there. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in December 1942 and went through the multiple stages of flight training at different bases, and finished his training in C-47 transport aircraft at Sedalia, Missouri. In June 1944 he was deployed to Europe and was stationed primarily at Capodichino Air Field near Rome, Italy. He was attached to the 35th Squadron of the 64th Troop Carrier Group of the 12th Air Force. On August 15, 1944 he took part in Operation Dragoon, the liberation of southern France, in that mission he dropped paratroopers and supplies into the area. Over the course of the war he flew supply missions to the Army in northern Europe and to partisans fighting the Nazis in northern Italy. In May 1945 he returned to the Americas and until September 1945 he ferried troops from British Guiana back to the United States.
Gabrosek Jr., Joseph
Franzen, Alvena (Interview outline and video), 2014
Alvena Franzen was born in Salamanca, New York, in 1919 and grew up there. Prior to the war she attended nursing school in Bradford, Pennsylvania and graduated from that in 1941. She enrolled in the American Red Cross Nursing Service and was subsequently drafted into the Army Nurse Corps. She reported for duty on May 1, 1943 and received training at Pine Camp (now Fort Drum), New York. She was deployed to the European Theatre in March 1944 and was stationed there with the 62nd General Hospital until crossing over to mainland Europe after D-Day. She was stationed in the French Countryside near Paris, on the Belgian border, and saw the results of the Battle of the Bulge. After suffering a lung injury while receiving treatment for pleurisy, she was sent back to the United States in spring 1945 and was discharged later that year.
Franzen, Alvena
Farris, Kenneth T (Interview outline and video), 2005
United States. Army Air Corps
Kenneth Farris was born in Pernell, Oklahoma in 1923. He grew up there and after graduating from high school in 1942 he worked as a civilian worker at an airfield in Texas. In January 1943 he received his draft letter and he was inducted into the Army Air Force at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He was sent to Miami, Florida for basic training, and from there was sent to Salt Lake City, Utah. Due to his father dying in April 1943 he was separated from the men that he trained with and wound up at Scottsbluff Army Airfield, Nebraska training on ordnance with the B-17. After ten months he was transferred to transportation and was assigned to the 461st Bombardment Group. He served with them at Hammer Field, California and deployed with them in January 1944. He was stationed at Torretto-Cerignola Airfield, Italy from February 1944 to August 1945. His duty was to transport crews around the airfield from their quarters to the flightline. He was sent home in August 1945 and was ultimately discharged from Camp Chaffee, Arkansas shortly after VJ Day.
Farris, Kenneth T.
DeYoung, Ralph (Interview outline and video), 2014
Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American
Hank DeYoung born in 1928 in Spring Lake, Michigan. He left high school in the tenth grade and worked with his father in his father's construction business as a business partner. In the summer of 1950 he received his draft notice and on December 15, 1950 he reported for basic training at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. After completing his basic training he got married to his wife on February 6, 1951 and was also in Cook School training to be an Army cook at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. He served with the Headquarters Battery of the 194th Field Artillery Battalion of the Iowa National Guard back at Camp McCoy. In July 1951 he was deployed to Germany with the 194th Field Artillery Battalion and served at Wurzburg. From Wurzburg he was reassigned to the 272nd Field Artillery Battalion at Nauheim and then went into the field with them patrolling the East/West German border. In November 1952 he returned to the United States and was discharged.
DeYoung, Ralph
DeYoung, Nelson (Interview outline and video), 2014
World War, 1939-1945--Personal Narratives, American
Nelson DeYoung is a World War II veteran who was born on November 11, 1924. He grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was drafted on March 4, 1943. He started off training to go into the Medical Corps until he became a cook in the Army. He served at Camp Bradley, Texas
and in Florida. At the end of the war he was sent to India to aid with the removal of American wounded from India out of Karachi. He was discharged in 1946.
DeYoung, Nelson
DeVos, Richard (Interview outline and video), 2011
Richard DeVos was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1926. He grew up in Grand Rapids and graduated from Grand Rapids Christian High School. After graduating he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, and after being processed at Fort Sheridan, Illinois was sent to Sheppard Field, Texas for basic training and glider mechanic school. He was then sent to a base near Winston-Salem, North Carolina to aid in the training of glider pilots. From there he received orders to be deployed to the Pacific Theatre. He shipped out of Portland, Oregon shortly after the atomic bombs were dropped and Japan surrendered. He was stationed on the island of Tinian aiding in the effort to bring material back to the United States as well as the transportation of food to the various mess halls on the island. From Tinian he was sent to Clark Field in the Philippines where he continued to load supplies onto ships bound for the U.S.
DeVos, Richard
DeBoer, John (Interview outline and video), 2014
United States. Navy
John DeBoer was born in 1924 in Paterson New Jersey and before the war he worked as tool and die apprentice. He enlisted in 1943 and trained in Sampson New York. He was sent to radio school and was assigned to the destroyer USS John D. Edwards as a radio technician. The ship did convoy duty and anti-submarine patrols throughout the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and participated in the sinking of a German U-Boat. He left the ship in 1944 to began flight training, and was based near Memphis Tennessee. He left the military in 1946 before finishing flight training.
DeBoer, John
Corradetti, David (Interview outline and video), 2014
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
David Corradetti was born in Woodbury, New Jersey on January 1st, 1950. He graduated high school in 1968 and decided not to pursue college because he had a feeling he was going to be drafted. David was drafted in April of 1969 and did his basic training at Ft. Dix, New Jersey. He did his AIT at Ft. Lewis in Tacoma, Washington and was sent to Vietnam after that. He joined up with the 101st Airborne Division. David received a purple heart medal after he was injured in Vietnam and was sent home.
Corradetti, David
Cole, Jack (Interview outline and video), 2008
Jack Cole was born on August 23, 1948. He joined the Army as a light vehicle driver and drove trucks in a convoy that traveled and brought supplies to the battle at Dac Tho. Jack occasionally drove the gun trucks while traveling in the convoy. While in Viet Nam, Jack was injured.
Cole, Jack
Caledonia High School (Caledonia, Mich.)
Clark, James (Interview outline and video), 2014
Dr. James Clark is a veteran of the Cold War who was born on September 7, 1939 in Oak Park, Illinois. He attended college at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and joined the Navy Reserve Officers' Training Corps there. When he graduated in June 1961 he was also commissioned and went to report for duty at the USS Purdy DD734 based out of Newport, Rhode Island. He took part in several voyages to the Caribbean Sea, including one during the Cuban Missile Crisis as well as a Mediterranean Cruise with the 6th Fleet. In May 1963 his two year commitment ended. In 1964 he joined the Active Naval Reserves and stayed with that until he was informally retired in the 1980s and then was finally officially retired in 1991 with the rank of captain.
Clark, James
Le, Lan Chi (Interview outline and video), 2010
Ms. Le was born in Saigon in 1970 to an American father and Vietnamese mother. Her father had to leave, and her mother struggled to make a living, especially when the communists took over. A program called ODC allowed them to leave Vietnam, go to the Philippines for orientation for 6 months and then move to America. Mastering the English language was a struggle at first, but Ms. Le worked hard and became very successful. She said she is grateful to the ODC program.
Le, Lan Chi
Childress, James Harold (Interview outline and video), 2015
James H. Childress enlisted in the Navy in October 1943. He trained in Spokane, Washington
Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois (for Quartermaster School)
and Little Creek, Virginia for amphibious training. He joined a Landing Ship, Medium crew in Houston, Texas and trained with them before sailing out into the South Pacific. He took part in the invasion of Iwo Jima and after that the invasion of Okinawa where he survived the sinking of his ship. He was sent home later that summer and was home during the dropping of the atomic bombs and Japan's subsequent surrender on August 15, 1945.
Childress, James Harold
Chaffee Jr., Donald (Interview outline and video), 2014
Don Chaffee was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1939 and grew up in Birmingham, Michigan. He attended Middlebury College and completed the Army ROTC program there, graduating in 1960 and taking his commission. He trained as a supply officer at Fort Lee, Virginia, and went to South Korea in 1961. He served first in a headquarters unit as a quartermaster, and then went to the 1st Cavalry Division along the DMZ. He served the rest of his enlistment at Ft. Devens, Massachusetts. He left the service in 1965 rather than re-enlist in part because he did not want to go to Vietnam, but while in graduate school in 1966, he volunteered for a State Department program that sent volunteers to Vietnam as aid workers, and spent several months in Song Be Province.
Chaffee Jr., Donald
Carr, James (Interview outline and video), 2011
James Carr grew up in Chicago and joined the Navy in 1945 at age 17 as a first class seaman. He received raining at Great Lakes Naval Station, and worked there as a dispersing clerk handling payroll for sailors being discharged after World War II. He then went to college and served in the reserves. He was called up when the Korean War started and was sent to Amchitka in the Aleutian Islands to work on a secret project for Atomic Energy Commission.
Carr, James
Kentwood Historic Preservation Commission (Kentwood, Mich.)
Byrd, Edward (Interview outline and video), 2014
Dr. Edward Byrd was born in 1940 in Birmingham, Alabama and grew up in Washington, D.C. He attended George Washington University and was accepted into the medical school there graduating in 1965. All medical school graduates at the time were expected to enter the service, so he joined the Navy,completed a short training at Annapolis Naval Academy, Maryland and served aboard the USS Chikaskia, USS Altair, and USS Truckee and took a cruise to the Mediterranean Sea taking part in aiding the USS Liberty during the Six Day War in 1967. In 1967 he volunteered to go to Vietnam to gain some experience with neurosurgery. In August 1967 he arrived in Vietnam and was assigned to the USS Repose off of Da Nang. He was originally in charge of his own ward aboard the ship treating tropical diseases until he began to assist neurosurgeons. In Vietnam he aided in treating a myriad of casualties from minor wounds to fatal wound and saw the immediate effects and aftermath of the Tet Offensive in late January 1968. He returned home and trained and worked as a neurosurgeon. After retiring he took art courses in Charleston, South Carolina and graduated with a degree in art history and studio art. He created a bronze sculpture in memory of one Dennis Lobbezoo, a soldier he treated in Vietnam that died in 1968, that was placed in the Richard M. DeVos Center of Grand Valley State University.
Byrd, Edward
Burkholder, David A (Interview outline and video), 2015
David Burkholder was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on September 21, 1926. He grew up there and on August 24, 1944 he enlisted in the Navy Hospital Corps. He received basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois. He received further medical training in Sampson, New York and at Balboa Park, San Diego, California. He received X-ray technician training at Bethesda Naval Hospital, Maryland and was stationed there until he requested assignment to a ship. He served aboard the USS Cadmus off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia as an X-ray technician until he was discharged on November 18, 1947. Due to his X-ray technician training in the Navy he worked as an X-ray tech after the war.
Burkholder, David A.
Browne, Robert Warner (Interview outline and video), 2015
Dr. Robert Browne was born in Coldwater, Michigan on November 12, 1924. He grew up in Coldwater and Lansing, Michigan and attended the University of Michigan prior to enlisting in the Aviation Cadet Program of the Army Air Force in November (or December) 1942. He received training in Miami Beach, Florida, Xavier University, Ohio, San Antonio Aviation Center, Texas, and Cimarron Field, Oklahoma. He completed training in early 1944 and was qualified to fly multi-engine planes. He was sent to Hollandia, New Guinea where he joined the 41st Squadron of the 317th Troop Carrier Group. He flew C-47 transport planes and participated in supply drops, airborne missions (particularly the dropping of the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment on Corregidor), and napalm bombing missions in the Philippines. He was stationed in Okinawa after the war ended in 1945 and was eventually sent home and placed in the Reserves in March 1946. In 1953 he retired from the Reserves.
Browne, Robert Warner
Boyer, Robert (Interview outline and video), 2015
Robert Boyer was born in Conway, Arkansas, in 1918. He moved around with his parents growing up before settling in Saginaw, Michigan. After graduating from high school in 1936 he attended the University of Michigan and graduated with a master's degree in history in 1941. He taught in Clyde, Ohio for a year before getting drafted in June 1942. He received basic training and medical training at Fort Totten, New York City, New York and was assigned to the 62nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment. He was sent to the European Theatre on August 30, 1942 and would not see home for three years. During his time in the service he was stationed in England, Algeria, Tunisia, Sicily, mainland Italy, Marseilles, France and Heidelberg, Germany until the end of the war. He witnessed the invasion of North Africa, Sicily, and southern France, as well as the final Allied push into Germany. After the war ended he returned to the United States and was discharged from the Army in Evanston, Illinois in 1945.
Boyer, Robert
Bowers, Susan (Interview outline and video), 2014
Susan Ryan Bowers is the widow of Vietnam War veteran Steven Ryan. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee and then grew up in Florida. She met Steven in 1963 after a deployment to Europe. He was in the Navy as a bombardier/navigator for an A5 Vigilante in RVAH 5 Squadron (reconnaissance). They were married in January 1964 and in June of that year he was deployed to Vietnam where he saw action flying bombing missions along the coast of Vietnam. During his time in the service she was an active member of the Sanford Naval Air Station community in Florida and ardently supported his involvement with the military and with the Vietnam War. After his tour ended in June 1965 he decided to leave the Navy and they moved up to Grand Rapids, Michigan where he worked for Lear-Siegler, an aerospace company, which allowed him to still be involved with the military, specifically the Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
Bowers, Susan
Bouwkamp, Wilbur (Interview outline and video), 2007
Wilbur Bouwkamp served in the US Army between 1941 and 1945. After basic training, he was assigned to the 10 Armored Division, where he served on a recovery vehicle, a tank adapted to tow damaged tanks back to friendly lines where they could be repaired. He was wounded in action in Europe but returned to his unit, and received orders to ship home shortly before V-E Day.
Bouwkamp, Wilbur
Bouchard, Wallace Joseph (Interview outline and video), 2015
Wallace Bouchard was born on July 1, 1927 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He enlisted in the Army Air Force Reserve in 1944, but was ejected from that in spring 1945 due to the Second World War ending. Shortly after his eighteenth birthday on July 1, 1945 he received his draft notice and reported to Fort Sheridan, Illinois in mid-August 1945. He went to Keesler Field, Mississippi for basic training and stayed there for Aircraft & Engine Mechanic Training. He was sent up to Chanute Field, Illinois for Specialist Training with the P-47 Thunderbolt then was assigned to Biggs Army Airfield, Texas. While in Texas he was assigned to Headquarters Squadron of the 9th Air Force and worked on the squadron's C-47 as well as the 9th Air Force's P-51s. In November 1946 he was discharged from the Army.
Bouchard, Wallace Joseph
Bosserman, Willard (Interview outline and video), 2010
Willard Bosserman served in World War II as a mechanic in the Army. He was drafted in 1943 and worked in a maintenance company attached to the 87th Division, and then to the 66th Division. His company shipped to Europe in December, 1944, and took part in the final campaign in Germany.
Bosserman, Willard
Byron Area Historic Museum (Byron Center, Mich.)
Borey, Robert (Interview outline and video), 2014
United States. Marine Corps
Robert Borey was born in Flint, Michigan in 1920. He finished high school in 1938 and went to work, and enlisted in the Navy right after Pearl Harbor. He trained at Great Lakes, Illinois, and became a hospital corpsman. He was assigned first to a Navy hospital in San Francisco, and then went to San Diego to train with the Marines. he deployed to Guadalcanal in 1943, and then his hospital moved into the Northern Solomon Islands. He served as a surgeon's assistant and helped treat many sick and wounded soldiers. He got leave home in 1945, and was on his way back when the war ended. After a brief stay in Sasebo, Japan, he came home and was discharged.
Borey, Robert