Kuiper, George (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
George Kuiper was born in February 1926 in Holland, Michigan. He grew up in Holland and in February 1944 he received his draft notice. In June 1944 he reported for duty at the draft board in Holland, was processed at Fort Sheridan, Illinois and was sent to Camp Roberts, California for basic training and field artillery training. After sixteen weeks of training he was sent to Fort Meade, Maryland for an additional week of training and then left the United States out of Camp Myles Standish, Massachusetts. He sailed over, stopping in England, and arriving in Le Havre, France. He was sent to Paris where he was assigned to the 191st Field Artillery Battalion attached to the 4th Armored Division. He joined the battalion in Belgium in mid/late December 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge and was assigned to #1 Gun in A Battery and also laid down field telephone wire for the gun batteries. After the Battle of the Bulge they advanced into Germany, crossing the Rhine River at Worms, going south and seeing the Ohrdruf Concentration Camp, and entering Czechoslovakia on April 29, 1945. After the war ended on May 8, 1945 he was reassigned to the 405th Infantry Regiment and then 4th Armored Division before being sent home in early 1946 and getting discharged at Camp Atterbury, Indiana.
Kuiper, George
Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
In Copyright
Kooyman, Harry (Interview outline and video), 2012
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American
United States. Navy
Harry Kooyman was born in the Netherlands in 1944 and his family moved to the United States when he was four years old. He grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan and after high school he enlisted in the Navy in 1962. He received basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois and naval aviation electronics training in Memphis, Tennessee and Naval Air Station Glynco, Georgia. He was assigned to a patrol squadron at Naval Air Station Barber Point, Hawaii from June 1963 to March/April 1965 where he flew patrols from Midway to the Aleutian Islands in search of Soviet aircraft. In April 1965 he was assigned to the USS Bennington (CVS-20) and served with VS-38 an antisubmarine patrol squadron. He flew observation missions over the Mekong Delta and along the Vietnamese coast until he was discharged from the Navy in August 1965.
Kooyman, Harry
Klingeman, Ryan A (Interview outline and video), 2016
Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American
United States. Marine Corps
Ryan Klingeman was born on November 2, 1981, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 2002 he enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve, and in summer 2003 he went to boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California. He volunteered to be a rifleman and went to the School of Infantry at Camp Pendleton, California. Upon completion of training he joined the 1st Battalion 24th Marines in Saginaw, Michigan and went to Poland for a multinational training exercise. In mid-2005 the unit received orders to deploy to Iraq. They trained at Camp Pendleton and 29 Palms before deploying to Iraq in 2006. Ryan and the rest of his unit was stationed at Camp Baharia near Fallujah, Iraq, and they operated out of a forward operating base north of the city. He spent his nine-month tour in Fallujah. He went on patrols, conducted raids to capture insurgents, and stood watch at outposts in the city. They left Iraq in April 2007 and returned to Michigan. He participated in a joint-training exercise with the Haitians before going inactive reserve in 2009, and in 2011 he was discharged from the Marines.
Klingeman, Ryan
Keatley, James (Interview outline and video), 2016
Jim Keatley was born in Bremerton, Washington, in 1945. In the summer of 1966 he received his draft notice and received his basic training at Fort Ord, California. Upon completion of basic training he was sent to Fort Polk, Louisiana, for Advanced Infantry Training and completed that after eight weeks. After a month of leave he was deployed to Vietnam, arriving at Cam Ranh Bay. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, of the 1st Cavalry Division in An Khe. He was assigned to Headquarters Company and worked in Battalion Supply insuring the men in the battalion received enough supplies. For six months he worked in An Khe and Landing Zone English. The 12th Cavalry Regiment relieved the 4th Infantry Division at Dak To, and he stayed there for three or four weeks. From Dak To the unit moved to Quang Tri and he spent the remaining five months of his tour at that base. Upon returning to the United States he received a month of leave and spent the last six months of his enlistment at Fort Carson, Colorado, working in battalion supply. He was discharged at Fort Carson (most likely in late 1968) with a Bronze Star and the rank of sergeant.
Keatley, James G.
Jonker, Cornelius Richard (Interview outline and video), 2015
Cornelius Jonker was born in September 1924 in Rusk, Michigan. When he was young his family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan and he grew up there. After turning eighteen he received his draft notice and was sworn into the Army on March 18, 1943. He was processed at Camp Grant, Illinois and was sent to Camp Butner, North Carolina where he received basic training and driver's training. While at Camp Butner he served as a clerk and then as a truck driver for the 78th Infantry Division. In October 1944 the 78th Infantry Division left for the European Theatre, and by the end of November 1944 he was in Belgium. While in Europe he and his division saw action at Simmerath, the Schwammenauel Dam, and the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen. After the war, he was stationed in Bad Wildungen, Germany; Maastricht, Holland; and Berlin, Germany. He was eventually sent home and was discharged from Camp Atterbury, Indiana in January 1946.
Jonker, Cornelius Richard
Jones, Frank (Interview outline and video), 2015
Michigan--History, Military
Frank Jones is a Vietnam War veteran that was born on February 15, 1950 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After graduating from high school in June 1970 he was drafted into the Army in August 1970. He trained at Fort Knox, Kentucky; Fort Polk, Louisiana; and Fort Benning, Georgia. He was stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and was deployed to Vietnam in October 1971. In Vietnam he was assigned to Headquarters Company for the 101st Airborne Division in Phu Bai. He worked as a clerk for a captain, but also went out into the field on a few patrols. In February 1972 he received an early out and his tour in Vietnam ended.
Jones, Frank
Johnson, Antonio Earl (Interview outline and video), 2016
TJ Johnson was born in Chicago on October 19, 1952. Due to growing up in a challenging and often dangerous environment he decided to enlist in the Army (most likely August 1972). He received basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and field artillery training at Fort Hood, Texas. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion of the 92nd Field Artillery Regiment at Fort Hood, Texas. He served as the acting staff sergeant in his unit and also served as a surveyor (gathering coordinates for artillery batteries) and the race relations non-commissioned officer. He served in West Germany for six months of field maneuvers. TJ completed his enlistment at Fort Hood, but remained in the Army Reserves (most likely until the late 1970s).
Johnson, Antonio Earl
Jamison, Dwight Carson (Interview outline and video), 2015
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Dwight Jamison was born in Big Rapids, Michigan on February 15, 1928. He served in the Michigan National Guard as a teenager and enlisted in the Army in 1946. He received his basic training at Camp Polk, Louisiana and after that was deployed to Japan. He served at a hospital in Japan during the Korean War, helping with supplies and bringing wounded soldiers from a nearby airstrip to the hospital for treatment. He was also sent to an area near Pusan, Korea to help establish a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. In 1951 he returned to the United States after four and a half years in Japan and served at Camp Stoneman, California.
Jamison, Dwight Carson
Ivkovic, Franjo and Etela (Interview outline and video), 2015
Franjo and Etela Ivkovic are a Yugoslavian couple that fled Yugoslavia during the Yugoslavian War. Franjo was born in Yugoslavia on March 19, 1964, and Etela was born there as well on May 24, 1967. The two of them left for Hungary temporarily when the War drafting was intensifying. A later attempt to enter Sweden was rejected. They managed to leave Yugoslavia on a train to Vienna, Austria where they stayed in a UN refugee camp. For the next five years they struggled to work in Austria. Eventually they saved enough money to come to the US with a sponsorship and they are now full US citizens
Ivkovic, Franjo and Etela
Elliott, Robert (Interview outline and video), 2015
Bob Elliott was born in Hart, Michigan on November 22, 1948. He enlisted in the Marines in March 1966 and began basic training in late July 1966. He received his basic training in San Diego and Infantry Training at Camp Pendleton, California. He remained at Camp Pendleton for Radio Training then was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay on Oahua, Hawaii with the 1st Battalion of the 27th Marine Regiment of the 5th Marine Division. In late January 1968 the unit sailed to Vietnam and went ashore near Danang. They operated out of a base near Bong Song and conducted patrols in the area. He participated in Operation Allen Brook near Go Noi Island and helped clear an area for the establishment of Camp Eagle. In September 1968 he returned to the United States and was briefly stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He voluntarily redeployed to Vietnam and arrived there in February 1969. He was assigned to the Headquarters Company of the 3rd Marine Division and helped with artillery operations around Quang Tri and Con Thien. At the end of his second tour he was stationed at a base near Laos. He returned to the United States at the end of that summer and was discharged from the Marines at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, California.
Elliot, Robert
Billingslea, Thornell (Interview outline and video), 2016
Thornell Billingslea was born in Detroit, Michigan, on June 29, 1947. In 1966 he was drafted and received his basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky. He volunteered to be a paratrooper and received his Advanced Infantry Training at Fort Gordon, Georgia, and his Airborne Training at Fort Benning, Georgia. He went home on a short leave before being deployed to Vietnam. Thornell landed at Tan Son Nhut Airbase and was assigned to Alpha Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. He joined his unit at Bien Hoa and was assigned to 1st platoon. He went on patrols out of Bien Hoa, Pleiku, and Dak To. While at Dak To he fought in the Battle of the Slopes (Hill 1338) and after getting separated from his unit walked for three days to get back to Dak To. Thornell was awarded the Bronze Star for his actions at Hill 1338. He was wounded on a patrol on July 9, 1967, and after recovering was stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky until he was discharged in August 1968.
Billingslea, Thornell
Bielecki, Thomas G (Interview outline and video), 2014
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
United States. National Guard
Tom Bilecki served in the Army National Guard in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. He did two tours, one in 2004 and another in 2012. He was stationed at Forward Operation Base Frontenac 26 miles north of Kandahar. He served as an operations sergeant in the command post helping plan missions and call in air support for units in the field. Once a month he accompanied patrols to nearby villages and helped distribute books and toys to Afghan children and also got an idea of what the Afghan civilians needed in the way of aid or supplies. After 17 and a half years in the Army National Guard he retired with rank of sergeant.
Bielecki, Thomas G.
Caledonia High School (Caledonia, Mich.)
DiLorenzo, Joseph James (Interview outline and video), 2015
United States. Air Force
Joseph DiLorenzo was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on September 3, 1948. He enlisted in the Air Force in April 1967 and reported for basic training on August 2, 1967. He received his basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, and for two and a half years was stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana guarding B-52 bombers and KC-130 tankers. In December 1969 he received orders for Vietnam and in the spring of 1970 he was deployed to Vietnam. He was stationed at Phu Cat Air Base with the 12th Security Police Squadron. For the first six months of his tour he stood guard in a tower outside of the base's perimeter, and for the second six months he was part of a mobile Security Alert Team patrolling the base's perimeter and dealing with any security breaches. At the end of his tour he returned to the United States and was discharged in Seattle, Washington.
DiLorenzo, Joseph James
Bulkley, Kathryn (Interview outline and video), 2016
Kathryn Bulkley was born in Muskegon, Michigan, in 1919. During World War II she worked in the Continental Motors factory in Muskegon for a few years building aircraft for the war effort. In 1948 she enlisted in the Air Force. She received her basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, then went to Chanute Field, Illinois, to wait for her assignment. She was assigned to Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, to work as a mechanic on flight simulators for pilots to learn how to fly by instruments. She stayed at Langley for the duration of her enlistment and was discharged in 1950.
Bulkley, Kathryn
Brock, Willard M (Interview outline and video), 2015
Willard Brock was born on June 8, 1936 in Gaines Township, Michigan. Around the time that he turned 18 years old he enlisted in the Army. He received basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and medical training at Fort Sam Houston, Texas and Fort Riley, Kansas. He was deployed to West Germany in 1956 and served 18 months at the 20th Station Hospital in Nuremberg, Germany for 18 months where he worked in the maternity ward. At the end of his time in Germany he returned to the United States and was discharged from active duty at Fort Sheridan, Illinois and served for two years in the Reserves.
Brock, Willard M.
Bluem, David Michael (Interview outline and video), 2015
David Bluem was born in Saginaw, Michigan on December 13, 1944. He was drafted into the Vietnam War while attending grad school at Central Michigan University. In basic training he was sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky for the US Army. Thereafter he was flown to Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. He was then sent to Long Binh he was assigned to the Aviation Brigade to take care of the helicopters. At his highest ranking he achieved the rank of E5.
Bluem, David Michael
Bloye, David C (Interview outline and video), 2016
David C. Bloye was born on September 2, 1940, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In September 1957 he enlisted in the Navy Reserve and began his active reserve duty while still in high school. After graduating from high school he received two weeks of basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois. In early 1959 he applied for his two years of active duty and on March 17, 1959, he reported for active duty. He served aboard the USS Norfolk (DL-1) and went on anti-submarine exercises on the Pacific Coast, the Caribbean Sea, and in the North Atlantic. His active duty ended on January 19, 1961, and his inactive reserve duty ended two years after that. In March 1974 he reenlisted in the Navy Reserve, and after applying for a direct commission became a lieutenant junior grade. He served at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Michigan, for 20 years with a Navy Intelligence unit. In August 1994 he became the commanding officer of an intelligence unit and did that until his retirement on July 1, 1996.
Bloye, David
Bashford, Lindon L (Interview outline and video), 2016
Lin Bashford was born in Scott’s Bluff, Nebraska, on August 20, 1946. He was drafted in April 1969 and went to Fort Ord, California, for basic training and later advanced infantry training. He was selected for Non-Commissioned Officer School and went to Fort Benning, Georgia, to receive that training. He was stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, in early 1970 before deploying to Vietnam in early spring of that year. He joined D Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 506th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division in April 1970. He went on patrols around Firebase Ripcord and was in the area when the Battle of Firebase Ripcord began on July 1, 1970. Shortly before the fall of the firebase he was reassigned to Camp Evans to serve as company clerk. In early spring 1971 he returned to the United States and was discharged at Fort Lewis, Washington.
Bashford, Lindon
Akines, Margaret (Interview outline and video), 2016
Margaret Akines was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on August 18, 1938. She married Bill Akines in 1978. He was one of the 317 men that survived the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, and in this interview she tells about his experience surviving that catastrophe. Bill was active in the USS Indianapolis survivors’ group, and since his death in 2011 Margaret still attends the annual reunions and maintains contact with the other survivors.
Akines, Margaret
Hurbanis, Emil (Interview outline and video), 2012
Emil Hurbanis served in the U.S. Army from approx. 1969-1971 in the latter half of the Vietnam War. Emil spent 1 year in country. He was first assigned to the 1st Infantry Division where he worked with unattended ground sensors on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia. He was later transferred to the 9th Infantry Division. He retained his same job but had to perform it in rice paddies. He was awarded 3 Bronze Stars. After service Emil continued his career as an accountant working to the U.S. Treasury Department.
Hurbanis, Emil
Hortman, Annemarie (Interview outline and video), 2016
Annemarie Hortman was born in Rangsdorf, Germany, on April 14, 1939. When she was only a year old she moved to Ingolstadt and stayed there until September 1940. At such a young age and that early in the war she remembers getting off a train during an air raid, and going into a community bomb shelter in Ingolstadt. For the rest of the war, Annemarie lived in Rangsdorf. During the last six months of the war she experienced daily bombings due to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Germany and final push toward Berlin. After Germany’s surrender, she and her family stayed in Rangsdorf during part of the Soviet occupation enduring the random and often arbitrary brutality of the Soviet troops. In 1947, Annemarie, her mother, her brother, and sister fled Rangsdorf on foot and sneaked across the East/West German border. They walked to Ingolstadt where she lived until she got married to an American serviceman. Annemarie and her first husband had a child and moved to the United States in 1960. Due to her husband’s infidelity the first marriage failed, and after moving around the country and a second divorce, she met Bill Hortman and settled down with him in Walker, Michigan.
Hortman, Annemarie Boettner
Homrich, Ernest Q (Interview outline and video), 2016
Ernest Homrich was born in Alpine Township, Michigan on April 13, 1925. He was drafted in late 1944 and went to Texarkana/northeast Texas for basic training. After 17 weeks of basic training and a short leave home he went to San Francisco to board a troopship. En route to their destination they experienced boiler trouble and had to stay in Pearl Harbor for a month for repairs. From Pearl Harbor they sailed to Okinawa and were offshore for a week then the atomic bombs were dropped. They went to Inchon, Korea where he helped unload material and discard Japanese weapons. He injured his hand and after recovering in a hospital was assigned to work with an amphibious engineers unit then at a PX where he worked for nearly a year. Upon completion of his time in Korea he returned to the United States and was discharged in Chicago.
Homrich, Ernest Q.
Herring, Kyle (Interview outline and video), 2016
Kyle Herring was born in Frederick, Maryland on October 11, 1987, but grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He enlisted in the Michigan National Guard when he was 17 years old in spring 2005 and drilled during his senior year. In January 2006 he received basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia then went to Fort Gordon, Georgia for signal training. He joined C Company of the 156th Signal Battalion at the Grand Valley Armory in Wyoming, Michigan. In early 2008 a medic slot opened and he volunteered for it. He received medic training at Parks Reserve Forces Training Area, California. In early 2009 they received deployment orders and spent most of 2009 training in Vermont; Camp Atterbury, Indiana; and Fort Polk, Louisiana. He was attached to 1st Squadron of the 172nd Cavalry Regiment of the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. They deployed to Afghanistan in March 2010 and he was stationed at Forward Operating Base Vulcan (Ghazni) for three months working with local police in Waghaz and Qarabagh. He suffered a concussive injury in Ghazni. He was also stationed at FOB Lighting (Gardez) and at the police station in Charikar for six months. In December 2010 the deployment ended and he returned home. After three months he joined the 126th Cavalry Regiment and went on full-time, active duty as the medical readiness non-commissioned officer.
Herring, Kyle
Henry, Earl O. Jr (Interview outline and video), 2016
Earl O. Henry Jr. was born in Mayfield, Kentucky, on June 19, 1945. He attended Vanderbilt University and the University of Washington, and while in college was in the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. After graduation he was commissioned as an officer in the Army and received Quartermaster and Officer Basic Training at Fort Lee, Virginia. He was assigned to manage the officers’ club at Fort Knox, Kentucky. He served from 1969 to 1971. Earl’s father, Earl O. Henry Sr., was born in Clinton, Tennessee, in 1911. He served as an officer and a dentist in the Navy. With America’s entry into World War II, he served at Parris Island, South Carolina then joined the Dental Corps at the Naval Academy. In 1944 he volunteered for sea duty and was assigned to the USS Indianapolis. He joined the ship on July 25, 1944 at Saipan. He participated in the invasion of Iwo Jima and survived the kamikaze attack near Okinawa on March 31, 1945. Earl Sr. was aboard the USS Indianapolis when it delivered the atomic bomb components to Tinian, and was killed in action when the I-58 sank the Indianapolis on July 30, 1945.
Henry, Earl O Jr