756 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/69c0eec712275fa5f158d6dfa06b5e19.m4v 2474cf52e618daf68182a74ecff884c5 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5e96e06d6348ece2cbe26ce861da9553.pdf 8c76cbc7719ee28ba4c799eb3607e8be PDF Text Text O’Rear, Nancy Grand Valley State University All American Girls Professional Baseball League Veterans History Project Interviewee’s Name: Nancy O’Rear Length of Interview: (46:51) Interviewed by: Frank Boring Transcribed by: Chelsea Chandler Interviewer: “If we could begin, what is your name, where were you born—” Nancy Kellogg O’Rear. Interviewer: “And when and where were you born?” Ivanrest, Grandville. Really it’s part of Grandville, but in Ivanrest. They used to call it that. (1:03) Interviewer: “Okay, and am I going to get a date of the birth by any chance?” Sure. 1/7 of ‘38. Interviewer: “Okay. What was your early childhood like growing up in that area?” It was great. It was great. My father worked for the railroad. My mother was a stay-at-home mom. I had just one sister a year older than I, so we had a wonderful, wonderful growing up. Interviewer: “Were you in a farm area, or where you had people around you? Or what was the environment? Give us an idea visually of what it was like to be growing up in that area.” Well, in that area—My father had chickens, but that’s about it. Just chickens. He made a little doll—a little house out there on the chicken feed. My mom, Wendy, would take—after the feed is gone—would make us girls blouses. But nothing else. 28th Street at that time—Of course, it wasn’t 28th Street, but it was busy. It was busy, but there was a great, big field in front of us. The house. And the main—The big 28th Street. (2:15) Interviewer: “Did your father get the newspaper? Did you have a radio?” We had a radio. Yes. And my father had newspaper. Interviewer: “Okay. So he kept up on at least the local and what was going on around and…?” Yes, yes. �O’Rear, Nancy Interviewer: “Okay. Did you get a chance to listen to the radio as well?” Us girls—He would let us girls hear a few programs. Sure, sure. Interviewer: “Okay, and where did you go to school?” Well, after we lived in there, my father moved into town, and we moved up to Burton Heights. And us girls went to the elementary school there. Burton Elementary. Then we went to South High. Interviewer: “Okay. Now what were the types of things you were studying?” Well, geography. I loved that. My sister loved history. But math and all your kind of common grades, you know. Interviewer: “Yeah. This is a trick question. We’ll get to it later, too. Any sports?” Oh, brother. Sports. I was my dad’s boy, and my sister was all girly. But for Christmas I wanted nothing but a mitt and a ball and a basketball. And ever since I can remember. Interviewer: “Wow. But at school were you able to play any sports?” No. Nope. They didn’t have any—They had no sports in school. No summer sports. Once in a while out for recess us girls would get in a—like a kickball, and we’d run the bases. But that’s far as that would—that is. (4:07) Interviewer: “Okay. Now did you get a mitt at all?” Oh, certainly. My father made sure on Christmas I got a mitt. A small mitt because I was younger then and a small ball. And my dad would play catch with me. He didn’t have a mitt, but—Until later that I got a nice, big mitt, you know. Interviewer: “Sure. But your first introduction was, as a very young girl, you’re playing catch with your dad.” Right, right. Interviewer: “Okay. Did your—Your sister wasn’t interested in doing this?” No, no. Interviewer: “Okay. Were there other girls in the neighborhood that you played with?” There was one. Just one girl that—But she kind of lived a little far away, so she didn’t come over too often. �O’Rear, Nancy Interviewer: “Okay. All right. Was there any boys’ teams around you?” As I got older there were but not that I remember. There was any boys’ teams neither. Interviewer: “Okay. When did you first hear about this group of women baseball players?” Well, I got an uncle that—He tried out for Tigers. Detroit Tigers. And we were at my grandparents’ house, and him and I were playing catch. And he was throwing the ball pretty hard. And my grandfather says, “How come, Nancy, you never went down to a Chick game?” “A Chick game?” I says. “Wow. Yeah.” And he says, “And it’s right down the street from me but not far from you.” He says, “Would you like to go tonight?” And I said, “Oh, you betcha.” Interviewer: “So tell me how the day went.” So we went that night. My recollection, they lost, but oh my gosh, my world is opened up. I wanted to play with them. I wanted to be a ballplayer like them. (6:08) And so that’s when we started going every single night. I wouldn’t miss a night. Away games. At first I had to read it through the newspaper, but it wasn’t long that I could—I got on the buses with the girls. Interviewer: “Okay. We’re getting ahead of ourselves here. All right. So you go to your first game, and when you came home, what was your…?” Oh, I was just lit up like a candle. My dad said, “How did you like that?” And I went, “Oh, Dad. How come you never told me about the Chicks?” Well, he’s busy working at the railroad, and that night, you know, you come home. And he just never thought of it, I guess. And he says, “Is that something you like?” And I—“Oh my goodness. That’s something I love.” I loved to play the ball. Interviewer: “Well, it’s wonderful your father encouraged you. So from that point on, he made it a point to let you know that they were going to play somewhere?” Yes, yes. Yes, he did. And my grandfather. They’d say, you know, “Got a game tonight.” “Okay, Grandpa.” And Dad would say, “Yep. You can go.” You know. So we would meet every home game and then away games. And my dad would say, “Better read this in the paper, Nancy.” You know. “See what they did.” And oh, I—That’s what got me started reading. I read that sports section every single day. Interviewer: “Wow. So let’s walk through this slowly. Your first game and then you started going at first to the home games because you’re not traveling yet. I don’t want to travel yet. We’ll get to that. Okay? So your first home game. Then, roughly, when was the next home game? Within a month? Within a week?” (8:10) No, I think it was the next night. It was the next night, but I think they played three games if I can remember. Three games home. I went to every one of them. Yep. �O’Rear, Nancy Interviewer: “And this was the Chicks playing against—Do you remember who they were playing against?” No, I can’t remember back there. I don’t remember. Interviewer: “That’s okay. About what year was this?” I think 1951. Well, I started—I think Grandpa took me in ‘50, but I really think it was the end of the—going towards the end of the season. So it was ‘51 that I really made sure I was there every day. Every game. And yeah, I thought that was really fantastic. “We’ve got a girls baseball team right here that close.” Interviewer: “And how old were you? You’re already a teenager by this time?” I might have been thirteen, fourteen. Fourteen. And then I asked my dad if I could watch them practice because it wasn’t far from school. And I said, you know, “I’ll get my homework done when I get home, but could I go down and watch the girls play practice? During, you know, their practice?” Well, he—“Sure.” He encouraged all of that. Yes. So then I started going down from school and watching the girls practice and kind of got close to the field and kind of start talking with them a little bit. Interviewer: “Ah, now we’re getting somewhere. Okay. So let’s try to remember what you’re feeling like when you actually made that first—” (10:06) Oh, that was—That was just—It was just fantastic, you know. It was fantastic. Interviewer: “Well, what happened? You were sitting there in the bleachers. They’re playing.” And they were playing. They’re practicing. Now they’re practicing, you know, and they’d come in after a while. And I’ve got to get a little bit closer to the game, and I, you know. You get down by the field and, you know. “Hey, Ziggy. That was a pretty good catch you had out there.” And Sadie Satterfield, you know. I’d say, “Boy, you’re doing great out there in that field, you know. Let’s get a home run tonight.” You know. So they got to know, you know—And then they, you know—Pretty soon it was, you know. “What’s your name?” And I told them my name. Just a couple of them, you know, and it was—It was just—Oh, gosh. I didn’t want to go home. I wanted to stay right there with them, you know, which I did. I did see the game that night and the next night. Interviewer: “Was there a point where—You’re going to the practices now. That they started to recognize you?” Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, they, you know—I don’t remember if there was a shortage or what happened, but they invited me out on the field. And, of course, I took my glove to school every day, so I could have it ready in case there was a ball come my way, you know. Yeah, I liked to �O’Rear, Nancy play catch, you know. I think I wanted—“Can I play catch with you?” And I—They said, “Why, sure.” I can’t remember why, but—“Yeah, you can play catch.” Interviewer: “Were there more people in the stands during practice?” There were a few. Interviewer: “Okay. So you kind of stood out.” (12:01) Yeah, yeah. There was a few that come down to watch the practice, you know. That’s—So that, you know— Interviewer: “But they were adults?” Oh, yeah. Mostly adults. Yeah, mostly all adults. Interviewer: “Okay, so you pretty much stuck out because you were the young kid.” Oh, yeah. Young kid, you know. “What’s she doing?” And it seemed to me that I can really— Liked it was—I don’t know if it was Ricketts. I know it was one of the girls threw, and I jumped as high as my little legs would jump. And they had said, “Wow.” You know. “You ought to play with us tonight.” And I said, “Boy.” I wished I could, you know. Well, then after that night and the next night, you know, and then it was—I’d go down by the field again, and then it was like, “You coming out here, or are you going to sit in the bleachers?” Well, I thought, “Boy. Come on, Dad. You ought to come down just to practice to watch your daughter.” You know. But I knew that I couldn’t play with them. It was off the field when the game started. But I played catch with quite a few of them. I kind of watched how they did their things. And yeah, one day the manager, you know, he says, “Oh, why don’t you—Kid.” I think he called me “kid” for a while. “Why don’t you get out in outfield?” Well, I liked third base and catching, and going out in outfield was like, “Oh my gosh.” And, of course, the first one I missed, and I’m thinking, “Oh my goodness.” Well, then he hit a couple more, and pretty soon then I caught them just like the girls did. You caught them, you know. And I’m thinking, “Oh my goodness. I’m out here playing catch with the big girls.” You know. (14:03) So that’s—I really—How I really got to go there, to get in with them, and then at—My dad—They asked me if I wanted to go to some of their away games, which my father kind of frowned at first. But I think it was the next year he said, “If you want to go, you can go.” So I went to Kalamazoo. I went to Muskegon. South Bend, Indiana. Interviewer: “Well, what was it like—All right. First of all, they’re all in uniform. They’ve got those skirts and all that. What were you wearing?” Well, I took shorts to school. Yeah. Just put on some shorts at the end of school when I—After school. Put on my shorts and just a top and walk down there. Begged my dad for some cleats, you know. But the first year he didn’t say anything, but pretty soon I’d say, “Dad, I’ve got to have some cleats when I’m out there.” And you know. And I think he was a little proud, too, you know. So I got cleats. I got a bigger glove, and then I had to oil it and get it all fixed up so I could get out there on the field with those girls. �O’Rear, Nancy Interviewer: “Now we found out—Dr. Smither and I found out in our interviews with the All-Americans that several of them started out fairly young—as early as their teens—and they were recruited in different ways as you know. Okay. Was there any talk about your being recruited?” Well, the manager had said to me, you know—He asked me my age and what—And had I been graduated from high school. No, I wasn’t graduated yet. “Well, as soon as you graduate, you’ll be on the field. You come down here.” But that doesn’t really mean I was going to be with the Chicks. (16:01) Of course, that was my preference. But he said, you know, “You be here.” He said, “As soon as you graduate from high school.” Of course, that made me so happy. So—Oh my goodness. Couldn’t wait to tell Mom and Dad about that, you know. Interviewer: “What was their reaction?” Oh, they were thrilled. Yeah. Even Mom, and Mom never went to a game. But then Dad started going more to games with Grandpa, and, of course, Grandpa was on cloud nine. And they were—They were happy about that. They were really happy. Interviewer: “I’m just curious. Because they made good money. In some cases, some of these women were making more than their own father was making. Was that at all part of the discussion, or was there…?” There wasn’t nothing really discussion about money to me. I didn’t need any money. If I could just play, that was the big thing. No, nothing was really mentioned about—Just the manager, you know, asking me all the questions, and he said he’s been watching me. And a couple times he’d say, you know, “Get down here.” If I’m just getting back there from school, I had things I had to set down, but—“Get out here on this field.” Which it surprised me because—Of course, there wasn’t any other young girls, or there wasn’t—I don’t even think there was young boys that were out there, but I thought, “Gosh. Here I stood out with all these—” There was—A lot of elderly would, you know, come there to watch the game, but I was happy. Oh my gosh, was I happy. Interviewer: “What were the crowds like at the actual game, not the practice?” Oh, they had four to five thousand people. They had a big crowd. They had a big crowd. (18:02) Interviewer: “And there’s a lot of sense of excitement.” Oh, definitely, definitely. Interviewer: “So, as a kid, you’re in the middle of all that yelling and that noise and you knew that you’d actually been practicing out there. Now you’re standing—sitting there in the stands with all of them.” Yes. Right. And then you had some of these guys come out, you know. “Well, when are you going to get a chance to play?” You know, they had been there watching the practice. “Well, I �O’Rear, Nancy haven’t graduated from high school yet, so I will be there as soon as I graduate.” Well, then they start asking, “Well, how old are you?” You know. And you get to kind of meet some of the people that were out in the crowd, you know. Interviewer: “At that point—Let’s take you to the point where these things are happening. People are asking you questions like this. The managers have. Did you seriously think that you could actually make a career?” Oh, certainly, certainly. Interviewer: “So you wanted to be a professional ballplayer?” Ballplayer. You betcha. I took balls on the dime. I did everything. Yes, I was going to be a professional baseball player. Girls baseball player. You betcha. Interviewer: “Now your father finally agreed to let you go on a road trip. You mentioned Kalamazoo as an example. What was that like? I don’t want just, ‘I got on the bus, and they were talking.’ I want—Bring us to that little girl getting on that bus. What was that like?” Oh, that was such a thrill. You don’t care if you eat, drink. And there was some of them—And maybe I did, too. Complained about the heat because they weren’t air-conditioned in those days. And I would sit with maybe this one, you know, and we’d yak away. And then I’d go across the—If there was a seat across there, I’d go over there and talk to them. And I says—I wanted to get their ideas about the ball games and about—and a little bit about them, too, because I know a lot of them come from farms from different places. And we talked a lot, you know, about them. And yeah, it was a—It was a thrill. Oh my goodness. (20:15) Interviewer: “What was their reaction to you? You’re not a ballplayer.” Right. At first, I was—I wondered the same thing, you know. “What are they going to say?” Because I had this girlfriend. She went once in a while with me, too. And, you know, none of them—Couple of them asked me, “Are you going to play someday?” “Why, certainly.” “What positions do you like?” They didn’t seem to mind that I was in—I figured interfering with them getting on the bus while they’re, you know, going to their ball game that—And a few asked me my age and positions I like. And, “Did you ever try outfield?” And, “If you’re catching, you know, and you see this girl coming towards you, you know, it’s like—Do you get nervous? You going to get her out?” And, you know, and then—Just baseball talk, really. And I didn’t see any of them—If they did, they didn’t show it. Interviewer: “Do you remember any in particular that you kind of got a special liking to?” Well, yes, I did. I did. I kind of think I favored Renae Youngberg, third base. Gabby— Interviewer: “Because you wanted to be a third base person. Aha! Yeah, yeah, yeah.” �O’Rear, Nancy Yeah, right. Yeah. I wanted all the pointers, you know. Gabby Ziegler was a second baseman, Lefty Voyce was on first base, and—But Gabby Ziegler and Connie Wisniewski out in the field and Sadie Satterfield out in the field, you know. You kind of—Renae and Gabby I think were a little bit, but I tried to talk to all of them, you know. I wanted to be—hear from all of them. (22:04) Interviewer: “Well, you mentioned that there’s no air conditioning on the bus. What else? What else was going on on the bus? Was there singing? Was there talking? I mean, there’s talking, obviously, but—” Lot of talking, and there were some that were napping. And there were some that were just kind of peeling an apple and kind of eating a snack or whatever, you know. Interviewer: “What was the bus driver like?” Oh, he was fun. Funny. He was funny. He was—He was great. Interviewer: “Do you remember who he was?” And I don’t remember. Yeah, I don’t remember his name. Nope. Interviewer: “But he was just part of the group?” Oh, yes. Right. Yeah. And he made sure all the baseballs and the bats and their uniforms all got out of the bus and everything, you know. Interviewer: “So once you arrived at a field, whether it was in Kalamazoo, what was the procedure? When we did the interviews with the different girls, we were so much concentrating on the games, but the bus trips they talked about. But what was it like for you to—You’ve arrived. You’re going to go play—They’re going to go play a game. You’re going to be part of it. What was—What were you thinking when you were getting off the bus, and what did you expect?” Well, just, you know, to see the different fields is one thing you learn right away, and some of the fields you knew that the Chicks liked better than the others, of course, you know. Interviewer: “And they would talk about that?” Oh, yeah. They would talk about that. Interviewer: “‘Oh, we’re at Kalamazoo.’ Or, ‘We’re at—’ Okay. Yeah.” Yeah. “Oh, goodness. We’re going to have to play there in Fort Wayne.” And, you know. And, “They got those slugger sisters on there.” And oh, yeah. You could hear all them talking. We’d get to the field, and, of course, I’d always get my pop. And I always could sit as close to the— Actually, there weren’t even seats. We kind of sat on the ground to the bleacher that the girls �O’Rear, Nancy were on, and there was never any complaints about that. (24:10) I always thought, “Boy, I hope I don’t get hit with a ball because then they’ll probably kick me out of here.” But yeah. It was. It was a thrill, you know. And I’d run right out on that field after the game if they had won, and I’m thinking, “Oh, boy. Is this going to be allowed? Because I’m not even a player yet.” You know. But they didn’t complain much. No, nothing. None of them did, you know. Just—I guess they just figured I was a girl learning how to play baseball and come along with them, you know. Interviewer: “Well, some of them started out at the same age you were at, you know. We were surprised. Dr. Smither and I were surprised to find that some of them were thirteen, fourteen years old. I mean, that’s—Had no idea.” Yeah, that was quite a few years before I was in that. Interviewer: “Now these away games in Kalamazoo, for example, did you just drive back to Grand Rapids?” They did. They would drive back to Grand Rapids. South Field. My dad would kind of know, listening to the game if he could, that—about what time we’d get back. And then he’d pick us up. He’d pick me up. Make sure I didn’t walk home. Interviewer: “Would he know—Well, he would listen to the radio, so he knew how the game turned out, right? But could he tell by the way you looked whether you won, or…?” Oh, certainly. Oh, certainly. I’d jump all over the place, you know. “Okay. Calm down, Nancy. We know they won the game today.” Definitely. Interviewer: “So what happened if they lost?” Well, he didn’t really say a whole lot. I’d get in the car, you know, and—“Well, they didn’t do so good tonight.” “Yeah, I know, Nancy. I hear they lost, but there’s always another game.” You know. He alway said there was always another game. Interviewer: “Your dad sounds like quite a guy.” (26:02) Oh, he was, he was, he was. He didn’t get married until he was thirty-six, you know, and then by—In his forties, they had my sister and I. And oh, yeah, we were his pride and joy. Interviewer: “Yeah. My grandfather worked for the railroad. I still have his watch.” Oh, yeah. I had his watch, but I turned it over to our oldest son. Interviewer: “Ah, okay. Yeah, yeah. Did you go to any away games that required overnight?” No. No, I couldn’t. If they did, I couldn’t have gone. My dad wouldn’t allow that. No. �O’Rear, Nancy Interviewer: “Because we got great stories about how they stayed with other people and whatnot. Yeah, it makes sense that your dad wouldn’t want you to do that.” Yeah, my dad wouldn’t like that. No. Interviewer: “So you’re going to these games now. You’re considered almost like their mascot. You’re the one that—You’re always allowed on the team, and so when they do the practice and whatnot, you could play with them as well. Did you get any sense—We’re talking ‘51 now, right? ‘51, ‘52. We know that it ended in ‘54. Were you going with them all the way through that period? ‘51, ‘52, ‘53?” Yes. Oh, yes. Interviewer: “Did you notice any sense either through them talking or just a sense? Because people—When you’re in a bus together, or you’re on a field together, there’s a sense you feel. That things were changing?” Well, no, I can’t really say I did. Maybe it was because I didn’t want it to happen, so you just kind of—“Oh, that’s just talk.” You know. “That’s just talk.” No, I didn’t until my mom said, “You’ve got to hear the radio this morning.” Interviewer: “Okay, but you said, ‘Talk.’ There was talk.” There was talk, but it’s something that you—“Oh, yeah. That’s way down the line. Way down the line.” You just—Something you didn’t believe. You didn’t believe it. (28:06) Interviewer: “One of the things that the women told us—the girls told us—was that there was a point where they noticed that not as many people were coming to the games. Did you notice that?” Yes, yes. Yes, we did. Yes, they did. Interviewer: “And so what was your—I know we’re going back a long ways, but can you remember your emotions? You went to a game, and you knew there’s a lot of people there. You’re going to a game, and there’s a lot of people. And at some point there’s not as many people. Did you notice that?” Yes, we did, and we kind of talked about it, too. What was going on that there wasn’t as many spectators in the seats, you know? Well, no, we—You talked about it, but that was, you know—I didn’t really put it that there was anything coming to an end to it. Interviewer: “Yeah, yeah. Did you follow Major League male baseball?” I did as I got—Last couple years as I was with them. Oh, definitely. Yeah. Interviewer: “Okay. Because you had newspaper, and you had radio.” �O’Rear, Nancy Yes, my dad always was listening to the Tigers. Always. Interviewer: “All right. So at what point did you realize that things were not going to be the way you thought it was?” Well, that last year a couple of girls had said something, and I says—And I think it was Renae, too. Said something about—“You know, we’re not going to be playing much longer.” “Well, why not? I want to keep playing.” “Well, the war’s ending, you know, and there’s been talk that the girls will be done.” Oh my gosh, that broke my heart. Oh my goodness. What could we do now? “I’m not even on there yet. Don’t tell me that.” You know, I—“That ain’t what I want to hear.” Broke my heart. (30:08) Interviewer: “You were convinced—from what you’re saying—that—And you had a better reason to believe you could actually get on the team. Some of the girls that we talked to knew about girls that wanted to get on the team but couldn’t get on the team. But they didn’t have that kind of intimate relationship. So I can’t even imagine what it must have felt like to realize—Because you really thought that at some point you were going to get hired, and you’re going to get your uniform, and you’re going to actually play.” Right, right, right. I even talked to some of the girls about—“What number could I—am I getting? You girls got this number, and you got that number. I wonder what number—You know, do they just give them out? Do they ask you?” I didn’t even think about money because money—I didn’t care, right? I wanted to play ball. That was my big—My main thing was to play ball. Interviewer: “Yeah, yeah. So when did it actually come to an end?” Well, my mom said one morning, “Nancy, you’ve got to listen to the radio.” And at that time for some reason I thought it was about the Chicks. It was about the girls playing ball because otherwise she never really pointed out anything on radio. And I heard it, and I cried. And I cried. And I went to the ballfield, and I wasn’t the only one. There were some of them that were crying, too, you know. But that was the way it was going to be. I didn’t know what was going to happen. I didn’t—I think I cried a week. My mom or father—One of them said, “There’s other things.” “What other things is there than playing baseball? I can’t go join the men’s team.” Well, you know. “What can I do?” (32:05) “Well, you can, you know—You’re going to graduate from high school, and then you’ll figure on from there.” That was our— Interviewer: “Yeah. Was there a goodbye to the team? Did you get a chance to say goodbye?” Well, we—We had a—what the ladies called a—What did they call it? Where we got together at one of the ladies I met there. To her house. Like a slumber party more or less. To her house. And the Chicks. Pretty near all of them were there. And we all hugged. We all cried. I think some even cried because I didn’t make the team. I had a feeling that they’re thinking, “Nancy, you didn’t even get on our team, and look at—Now it’s ending. And you would’ve been such a good �O’Rear, Nancy player.” And you know. And I think that even the manager had even mentioned that, you know, he was going to make sure he got me on the team. I felt I would have made that team. I knew I was going to make that team. But we had a farewell. We had a—what we kind of called it a slumber party. It was a—Everybody was there. And we had a luncheon. We ate, and then we cried. And that was it. They still had a few more games to play, but it was hard going after knowing there wasn’t going to be anymore ball—girls’ ball games. It was hard going. I went naturally because that’s where I lived. That’s where—My mom used to say, “Nancy lives at the ballpark.” My sister, Donna, lives home, but Nancy lives at the ballpark. And it was true because you know. (34:05) Interviewer: “So once the league ended, and there was no more games there, did you still play ball with anybody?” Mostly just catch with my girlfriend. We’d get out in the street. Play catch. If we’d seen some boys over at school playing, we just went in and started playing. I don’t know if they liked it that we did, but we did. Interviewer: “You probably were better than they were.” Yeah, yeah. Some of them—“Get home. Get out of here.” They used to call me Muscles when I was younger, you know. I don’t know why, but—“Oh, Muscles. What are you doing over here? Get on home.” Yeah. Better than some of them that were playing. But we wanted to play. But we’d just end up playing catch out in the streets, you know. That’s all we could do. There was nothing else. I wrote to a lot of the girls. After the end of the season, I got all of their addresses. I’d write letters. I would receive letters. For a long time. Of course, that gradually stopped after a while. I even know who bought that bus. I don’t even know her name. From Jenison. I’ve got her letter with me yet. Interviewer: “You have the letters?” Letter from her. She bought the Chick bus, you know. And I was always going to go over there, or ask her if I could. But, you know, would that bring back too many memories? I just didn’t go. Didn’t go. Interviewer: “Do you know if that bus still exists?” Well, this has only been maybe four or five years ago that she wrote me. It was after—I had that article in the paper that she wrote me and said that they had bought the bus. But I don’t recall— I’d have to read it again—if she still had it, or they had just bought it after the Chicks sold it. I don’t know. (36:17) Interviewer: “Okay. Yeah. So what did you do after it was all over with?” Well, started dating, you know. You don’t date when you’re in there. And there were a few that had husbands, and their husbands would come to the games, you know. Some had children. I started working at Oven Fresh Bakery there on 28th Street, and later on I met my husband. He �O’Rear, Nancy was my foreman, so I probably shouldn’t say that. But I met him, and we started dating. And pretty soon after a few years we got married. Had our children. Watch every one of our children play ball. Watched all of our grandchildren play ball. And living out in Jamestown, so that’s— They went to Hudsonville High School. All the kids. I’ve got a grandson that right now—He’s— He just got married a year ago, but he calls me when there’s any change in the Tigers. “Oh, Grandma. Have you heard this? Did you know they traded away this one?” And him and his wife—I know they go to every game. And he used to take me to a lot of the opening day games. Lagging grandma along with them. I was the slow one behind, but he would wait for me. He was a wonderful kid. He still is. Interviewer: “My father was a very good baseball player, and he taught me in Little League to do something that most little kids didn’t know how to do, and that was to lift your leg and actually throw it like a professional. So I became very good. Did your kids know your passion and your love for baseball?” (38:14) The older ones. I think they did. Now our oldest one—He played all through, and he was even coach to one of my younger sons. And then he moved up. Got married and moved up to East Jordan, and he was a coach of the eighth graders. And for quite a few years. And then now he lives in Alaska, and he’s still coaching the grandkids. Interviewer: “One of the things we found out from several of the girls that we interviewed is they never even told their kids they played professional ball. Did you tell your kids early on that you actually played?” I don’t remember. I don’t remember. I do remember one time we were at a picnic, and the kids were playing ball in the field. And the ball came to me. Well, it rolled over by me. And I picked that ball up, and I threw it back to the field. And my kids was like, “Where did you learn to throw a ball like that, Mom?” “Well, you know, I’ve got a story I’ve got to tell you.” And then that’s when the kids learned that—Most of it. That I played ball. And then I started showing my craft books to the kids and everything, and they were very interested. And you know. “Boy, I didn’t know—” Some of them didn’t even know they had a girls’ team. “Baseball?” You know. And softball like at school. “But baseball?” You know, and, “Like the Tigers?” And, “Baseball.” You know. And, “What were they wearing?” “Well, these are the uniforms. Your mom would have had one.” You know. “Oh, Mom. Would you have worn one?” I said, “You betcha. You betcha. I would have worn one in a minute.” (40:09) Brings tears to my eyes. You don’t know what number you might have had. You don’t know your uniform, you know. You knew the colors and that sort of thing, but yeah. You don’t know if you would’ve played for a year or two and been traded. Yeah, those are things that is a question in my mind for quite a few years, you know. Interviewer: “Yeah, but you got the opportunity to play with them, though, and that’s very unique.” Right, and that was—Oh, that was such a thrill then. And to be right—rubbing shoulders with them in the buses and you know. “Oh, we’re going to get a hamburger.” Well, you know, when you’re on a bus, you know. “I’m going to stop and get a hamburger.” “I’m going to get one, too.” �O’Rear, Nancy You know. “Hey, I’m one of you.” You know. And they didn’t treat me any different. They just knew I was too young, but they just—They didn’t really treat me any different except when a game came, I had to get off the field. Interviewer: “Did you have any idea that this was something historic at the time?” No, no. Interviewer: “They didn’t either.” No, no. Did you know that they moved from South Field out to Bigelow Field and then had a fire? Had a big fire? And gosh. My dad then did take us out there because we couldn’t walk there. And I got all the pictures of that and going over the gloves and everything, and it was so sad. But then they got to come back to South Field, so that was really good for me. But I felt sorry for the girls, you know. Their gloves, their shoes. Everything was there. Yep. (42:10) Interviewer: “And you actually were there when they saw all that devastation?” Oh, definitely. Yes. Yep. I helped them kind of go through the debris and stuff, you know, that they had there, you know. And you couldn’t see the sizes of shoes, so you don’t—Or some would recognize that— “That’s my shoe there, but I don’t know where the other one is.” Or something like that, you know. And I tried what I could, and yes. Oh, yes. I was part of them. I was them. I was them until that day. Until that day. Interviewer: “When did you first realize that you were part of something really quite extraordinary in American history?” Well, I guess I didn’t. I didn’t know. Interviewer: “What about when the movie came out?” Oh, that was one thing. Gosh. I picked up my girlfriend in Grandville, and we went and seen that. And oh, we couldn’t wait until that movie came out. And we went, and I picked her up. Went down there. And I think since then I’ve seen it about twelve times. Interviewer: “I’m up to about fifteen, so I’ve a couple on you.” Yeah, and you’ve got some on me. Look at there. But yes, it was awesome. God, they got— “They’re going to make a movie out of that. Oh my gosh.” You know. That was phenomenal. That was great. I thought it was great. Interviewer: “What did you think of the movie?” I thought it was pretty good. Yeah, I thought it was—You know, it was good. �O’Rear, Nancy Interviewer: “Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Once we started—Once Dr. Smither and my—you know, our team started working on the project, we realized how many historical inaccuracies were in it, but it didn’t matter. I mean, they didn’t start off with hardball and—But it still captured the spirit of it.” Yes. Of the girls and of the playing and of the—Yes, yes. Yep. (44:07) Interviewer: “I really enjoyed it, too.” Yeah, I enjoyed it. I just wish my dad would have lived long enough to have seen it, but he didn’t. But all my kids did, and I’m sure most of all the grandkids. Oh, yes. Interviewer: “Did you find out at some point that they’d been finally inducted into the Hall of Fame?” I heard they were. Yep. I would like to go down there. I’ve never been there. Gosh, I’ve been to Alaska, but I haven’t been down there. Interviewer: “Oh, you should go.” Oh, I want to go so bad. I’ve told my husband, and then when we start vacations, we kind of forget that. And we shouldn’t. And we shouldn’t. I want to go down there so bad. Interviewer: “Well, now you have this on tape. You can show it to him, and say, ‘Look. Wait until the last part. I got something here at the last part I want you to see.’” You’re right. “Fred, you can’t turn it off now. I want to go down there.” Interviewer: “Yeah. Looking back on that experience—And I want you to know from me personally that whether or not you played or not, the fact of the matter is you were there.” I was there. Interviewer: “You were there in a way that very few—I don’t even know of any other girl that I know of that actually had that kind of experience. Looking back now, what was that experience like to you?” Oh, it was wonderful. It was wonderful. We talk a lot about at the house now and with the kids, and now they’re asking questions, you know, and different things. And it was wonderful. It was just wonderful. I just wish it could’ve went a couple more years, but it didn’t. I’m happy that you’re doing this. I really am, and I’m so happy for that. That you’re doing it. Interviewer: “Well, we’re happy that you’re doing it, too. It takes a lot, and I just want you to know that I’ve interviewed several of the girls myself. And the things that they said, the passion they had for the game, how much they loved it, and how much it affected it. And I don’t know how you’re going to take this, but I can tell you from my own personal �O’Rear, Nancy experience of dealing with an interview—with Dolly Konwinski and all the different girls that I interviewed—you have the same passion. You have the same, exact—Everything that you’ve been talking about is very much the same as what I got from talking to the other girls. Yeah. I think you were part of them.” I was. Thank you. Thank you. I was. Interviewer: “Thank you so much for coming in.” Thank you so much. Grand Rapids Chicks. � 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 All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Interviews Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was started by Philip Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs, during World War II to fill the void left by the departure of most of the best male baseball players for military service. Players were recruited from across the country, and the league was successful enough to be able to continue on after the war. The league had teams based in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, and operated between 1943 and 1954. The 1954 season ended with only the Fort Wayne, South Bend, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Rockford teams remaining. The League gave over 600 women athletes the opportunity to play professional baseball. Many of the players went on to successful careers, and the league itself provided an important precedent for later efforts to promote women's sports. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/484">All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Collection, (RHC-58)</a> 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 Sports for women World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American All-American Girls Professional Baseball League--Personal narratives Oral history Baseball players--Minnesota Baseball players--Indiana Baseball players--Wisconsin Baseball players--Michigan Baseball players--Illinois Baseball for women--United States Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-58 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Language A language of the resource eng Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-10-02 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) 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 RHC-27_ORearN1915V Title A name given to the resource O'Rear, Nancy Kellogg (Interview transcript and video), 2016 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-01-21 Description An account of the resource Nancy O'Rear was born on January 7, 1938 in Grandville, Michigan. She grew up in Grandville and Grand Rapids, Michigan, and in 1951 she started following the Grand Rapids Chicks, an All-American Girls Professional Baseball League team. From the 1951 season through the 1954 season she practiced with the Chicks, befriended the players, and traveled with the team to away games in Michigan and Indiana. There were plans for Nancy to join the team once she graduated from high school, but with the team's disbanding in 1954 those plans were scrapped. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource O'Rear, Nancy Kellogg Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Boring, Frank (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Baseball players--Michigan Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text 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> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/x-m4v application/pdf https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2bdfa38aa9cabb86e95122aa07e03bc3.jpg 693af1055ad00363bbc4a2c1e38f9842 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 Faces of Grand Valley Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource University Communications Description An account of the resource A non-comprehensive collection of photographs of Grand Valley faculty, staff, administrators, board members, friends, and alumni. Photos collected by University Communications for use in promotion and information sharing about Grand Valley with the wider community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960s - 1990s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copryight Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University College administrators College teachers Colleges and universities -- Faculty Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-03 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 OSullivanElizabethAnn Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource O'Sullivan, Elizabeth Description An account of the resource Elizabeth O'Sullivan, Public Service Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History College teachers Universities and colleges – Faculty Michigan Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1a576a6e12e2b078dfd929b4622107bd.jpg 9ed450a32d76f8b3184d99423849a7bc 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 Ronald Oakes collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Description An account of the resource Collection of photographs by Ronald Oakes, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, and in the U.S. National Guard in the Iraq War. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968/2005 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/628">Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq war photographs (RHC-80)</a> 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 Iraq War, 2003-2011 Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Veterans Photographs Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Relation A related resource Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-80 Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 RHC-80_Oakes-Vietnam-BUNKONUSSREPOSE Title A name given to the resource Oakes aboard the hospital ship U.S.S. Repose in November 1968 after he contracted dysentery in the Khe Sanh Valley Subject The topic of the resource Vietnam War, 1961-1975 United States--History, Military Marine Corps Military life Soldiers Photographs Description An account of the resource Oakes aboard the hospital ship U.S.S. Repose in November 1968 after he contracted dysentery in the Khe Sanh Valley. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq photographs (RHC-80) Relation A related resource Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Vietnam War 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> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg 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/37fdf31122e662ee3c253861d899036d.JPG d0c0d3681eb4ccbdd3618ef3975d40e6 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 Ronald Oakes collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Description An account of the resource Collection of photographs by Ronald Oakes, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, and in the U.S. National Guard in the Iraq War. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968/2005 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/628">Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq war photographs (RHC-80)</a> 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 Iraq War, 2003-2011 Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Veterans Photographs Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Relation A related resource Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-80 Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 RHC-80_Oakes-Iraq-DSCF0884 Title A name given to the resource Oakes and his men preparing for their first convoy from FOB Q-West to Balad in April 2005 Subject The topic of the resource Iraq War, 2003-2011 United States--History, Military United States. National Guard Military life Soldiers Photographs Description An account of the resource Oakes and his men preparing for their first convoy from FOB Q-West to Balad in April 2005. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005-04 Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq photographs (RHC-80) Relation A related resource Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Iraq War 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> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg 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/d5954ca8a26264a9ebd79a4b7cfd11dd.jpg 80763e49f046d03d49cfa2d5d7dac90a 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 Ronald Oakes collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Description An account of the resource Collection of photographs by Ronald Oakes, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, and in the U.S. National Guard in the Iraq War. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968/2005 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/628">Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq war photographs (RHC-80)</a> 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 Iraq War, 2003-2011 Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Veterans Photographs Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Relation A related resource Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-80 Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 RHC-80_Oakes-Vietnam-Scan-090618-0016 Title A name given to the resource Oakes and LCPL Lamphere with the platoon radios just before Oakes began working with the company Subject The topic of the resource Vietnam War, 1961-1975 United States--History, Military Marine Corps Military life Soldiers Photographs Description An account of the resource Oakes and LCPL Lamphere with the platoon radios just before Oakes began working with the company. Lamphere was the man Oakes chose to replace him as platoon radioman. The day after this picture, Lamphere tripped a bobby-trapped hand grenade that took him out, Kirkpatrick and O'Rourke as well. Oakes was part of the relief party the arrived on the scene to take care of the wounded. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq photographs (RHC-80) Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Vietnam War 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> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg 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/d52bf7a5833bd8a60cd885e461b40966.jpg d5efed1ebeb7cad3139995d986884acc 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 Ronald Oakes collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Description An account of the resource Collection of photographs by Ronald Oakes, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, and in the U.S. National Guard in the Iraq War. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968/2005 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/628">Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq war photographs (RHC-80)</a> 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 Iraq War, 2003-2011 Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Veterans Photographs Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Relation A related resource Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-80 Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 RHC-80_Oakes-Vietnam-CHINATOWNESCORT1-7-68 Title A name given to the resource Oakes and three other soldiers acting as an escort for a Chinese couple in Chinatown, San Francisco Subject The topic of the resource Vietnam War, 1961-1975 United States--History, Military Marine Corps Military life Soldiers Photographs Description An account of the resource Oakes and three other soldiers acting as an escort for a Chinese couple in Chinatown, San Francisco. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq photographs (RHC-80) Relation A related resource Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Vietnam War 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> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg 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/f7c1848dc07762ea8f078399299d521f.JPG 17aea14928fce67abcc14cbfc918f388 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 Ronald Oakes collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Description An account of the resource Collection of photographs by Ronald Oakes, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, and in the U.S. National Guard in the Iraq War. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968/2005 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/628">Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq war photographs (RHC-80)</a> 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 Iraq War, 2003-2011 Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Veterans Photographs Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Relation A related resource Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-80 Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 RHC-80_Oakes-Iraq-PDR_0158 Title A name given to the resource Oakes at a refueling stop in Iceland on the way to Kuwait Subject The topic of the resource Iraq War, 2003-2011 United States--History, Military United States. National Guard Military life Soldiers Photographs Description An account of the resource Oakes at a refueling stop in Iceland on the way to Kuwait, the day after Thanksgiving 2004. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2004-11 Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq photographs (RHC-80) Relation A related resource Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Iraq War 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> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg 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/99f6a88e23fa78412f71770c6bf4eb4c.jpg 9183ec077fbafe688e8f33db04a89dda 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 Ronald Oakes collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Description An account of the resource Collection of photographs by Ronald Oakes, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, and in the U.S. National Guard in the Iraq War. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968/2005 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/628">Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq war photographs (RHC-80)</a> 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 Iraq War, 2003-2011 Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Veterans Photographs Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Relation A related resource Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-80 Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 RHC-80_Oakes-Vietnam-Scan-080808-0092 Title A name given to the resource Oakes at Camp Hansen, Okinawa on his way home from Vietnam, April 1969 Subject The topic of the resource Vietnam War, 1961-1975 United States--History, Military Marine Corps Military life Soldiers Photographs Description An account of the resource Oakes at Camp Hansen, Okinawa on his way home from Vietnam, April 1969. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Relation A related resource 1969-04 Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq photographs (RHC-80) Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Vietnam War 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> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1969-04 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/98686d573706d535ab88b6f3b4784198.jpg 01ead0fb209bf50ca39eb6891f077fb2 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 Ronald Oakes collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Description An account of the resource Collection of photographs by Ronald Oakes, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, and in the U.S. National Guard in the Iraq War. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968/2005 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/628">Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq war photographs (RHC-80)</a> 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 Iraq War, 2003-2011 Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Veterans Photographs Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Relation A related resource Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-80 Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 RHC-80_Oakes-Vietnam-1-27READTOGOONPATROL Title A name given to the resource Oakes preparing to go on a night patrol Subject The topic of the resource Vietnam War, 1961-1975 United States--History, Military Marine Corps Military life Soldiers Photographs Description An account of the resource Oakes preparing to go on a night patrol in March / April 1968 from Camp Dong Son. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968 Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq photographs (RHC-80) Relation A related resource Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Vietnam War 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> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg 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/8ee8db6c324b173525ebf2b424f34722.jpg d9ddf889ed7fad2f1accbe9229402eba 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 Ronald Oakes collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Description An account of the resource Collection of photographs by Ronald Oakes, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, and in the U.S. National Guard in the Iraq War. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968/2005 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/628">Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq war photographs (RHC-80)</a> 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 Iraq War, 2003-2011 Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Veterans Photographs Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Relation A related resource Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-80 Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 RHC-80_Oakes-Vietnam-Scan-090618-0071 Title A name given to the resource Oakes resting after going from Camp Doung Son to a platoon patrol base in August 1968 Subject The topic of the resource Vietnam War, 1961-1975 United States--History, Military Marine Corps Military life Soldiers Photographs Description An account of the resource Oakes resting after going from Camp Doung Son to a platoon patrol base in August 1968. Oakes had collapsed from heat exhaustion due to the intense heat. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Relation A related resource 1968-08 Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq photographs (RHC-80) Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Vietnam War 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> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968-08 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/9127ff570453a2d361eb7b48241aab4f.jpg 38c06db9656bf03363cb863c46b6a80a 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 Ronald Oakes collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Description An account of the resource Collection of photographs by Ronald Oakes, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, and in the U.S. National Guard in the Iraq War. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968/2005 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/628">Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq war photographs (RHC-80)</a> 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 Iraq War, 2003-2011 Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Veterans Photographs Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Relation A related resource Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-80 Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 RHC-80_Oakes-Vietnam-Scan-080729-0004 Title A name given to the resource Oakes spent the last 30 days in county as the NCOIC in charge of the transit tent of B Co 1/4 Marines Dong Ha (rear area) Subject The topic of the resource Vietnam War, 1961-1975 United States--History, Military Marine Corps Military life Soldiers Photographs Description An account of the resource Oakes spent the last 30 days in county as the NCOIC in charge of the transit tent of B Co 1/4 Marines Dong Ha (rear area). Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq photographs (RHC-80) Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Vietnam War 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> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg 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/83b92eb7c9e58b5431d9bdaa7f27c127.jpg 621868d21c8f80159eb8d5cd393b9000 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 Ronald Oakes collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Description An account of the resource Collection of photographs by Ronald Oakes, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, and in the U.S. National Guard in the Iraq War. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968/2005 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/628">Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq war photographs (RHC-80)</a> 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 Iraq War, 2003-2011 Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Veterans Photographs Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Relation A related resource Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-80 Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 RHC-80_Oakes-Iraq-SFCOakes1sttripMosel Title A name given to the resource Oakes standing in front of a Blackhawk helicopter Subject The topic of the resource Iraq War, 2003-2011 United States--History, Military United States. National Guard Military life Soldiers Photographs Description An account of the resource Oakes standing in front of a Blackhawk helicopter. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq photographs (RHC-80) Relation A related resource Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Iraq War 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> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg 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/563fbbb7c14efb3a6d4f3d1069aae589.mp4 123b03f1b87aa02330988f0959c7fbe0 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1d1900e4538ae99e1dd421719a864a19.pdf a9ef340de5c801a198c5a27ca580ef61 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Vietnam War Ron Oakes Length of interview: 01:52:08:00 Pre-Enlistment (0:00:20:00)  Born in Grand Rapids, MI on March 21, 1949; grew up in Grand Rapids and graduated from Grandville High School in 1966 (0:00:20:00)  Father worked for Sears and Roebuck for over 30 years (0:00:33:00)  5 kids in the family, 3 girls and 2 boys (0:00:45:00)  After high school, he went to Grand Rapids Junior College for a year and at that time, Vietnam was going on and all his friends going off to war, either through the draft or enlisting, he was the last one left (0:00:57:00)  In June, 1967, he went to Detroit for what he thought was a physical and as it turned out, he raised his right hand and was on a plane going to San Diego for boot camp; thought he was going home that night and instead he was going West (0:01:12:00)  He enlisted and was not drafted because he felt it was the right thing to do (0:01:35:00) o He is a volunteer person and when Vietnam was there, he would not wait (0:01:42:00) o He had a high draft number because of college but college was not working out and he could not keep his mind on his studies and he enlisted in June (0:01:48:00) o Rough on his parents because at the time, his father was only 38 or 39 at the time and when Oakes turned 38 or 39 and his son turned 18, he knew how his father felt at the time when Oakes took off (0:02:00:00)  When he enlisted, he knew Vietnam was in Indochina and we where fighting the communists who were trying to take over the country and we where helping a smaller country, much like South Korea (0:02:23:00)  In the back of his mind he knew it would be dangerous, but being 18, he did not view it as such (0:02:53:00) Enlistment / Training (0:03:15:00)  Basic training was in San Diego, California at the Marine Corps recruit depot, where he went through boot camp and then he went up to Camp Pendleton for the rest of his training (0:03:15:00)  Went out to California on a commercial airline from Detroit to Chicago and the aircraft was late getting into Chicago, so they held the next flight waiting for the 12 men going to San Diego, although the other people on the plane were understanding because they did not get upset (0:03:38:00) o In Detroit they gave them airline tickets and picked someone to be in charge and make sure everyone got on the plane (0:04:03:00) o Recruit depot had a bus at the airport to pick everyone up and the Marines knew who was coming and they checked everyone’s name off a list; from that point on, they belonged to Uncle Sam and they did not go anywhere without a check list (0:04:15:00) �       At that point in time, the arrival was different from today; there was a lot of screaming and hollering, such as “you're in the Marine Corps, you're not at home anymore, and you belong to me” (0:04:29:00) In boot camp, they went through a lot of training, such as how to use a rifle and how to maneuver, and a lot of physical training, as well as classes on how to put on battle dressings and sanitation and hygiene (0:04:50:00) The drill instructors were Vietnam veterans that already had a tour or two in Vietnam and returned and went to DI school and at that time, the drill instructors could be abusive and harsh depending on what their attitude was (0:05:23:00) o Oakes grew up saying “yes sir” or “no sir” to anyone older than him, and this made it so he had no problem with authority while going through boot camp but some of the people he was training with could not get the grasp of “yes sir” / “no sir” and they paid the price for it (0:05:50:00) If someone was overweight, the DIs placed them in a separate platoon to lose weight and they had one instance when they were training, the fat platoon came by and one straggler collapsed (0:06:23:00) o They put him against a tree and being the middle of summer in southern California, it was hot and he was suffering from heat stroke but they did not call medical attention for the man and instead went on their 4 mile march and when they returned, he was dead (0:06:40:00) o Oakes's unit left and when they came back, all they saw was some people carrying a body away (0:07:06:00) In boot camp, they learned hand-to-hand combat using pogo sticks (0:07:16:00) o Two guys would start and when one was knocked down, another would step in and the man at the end had the best chance to be number one (0:07:25:00) o Pogo sticks were long sticks with padded ends used for fighting and training for using a rifle with a bayonet (0:07:44:00) The original training was basic because they received more input from the instructors in the Infantry Training Regiment at Camp Pendleton (0:08:24:00) o Received their heavier training there, such as rifle qualification (0:08:38:00) o Had staging battalion where they put the soldiers through a mock-up Vietnam village which showed them how the bobby-traps were developed and what to look for and what not to do (0:08:47:00) o What they normally did, the American way of doing things, they changed, because they enemy learned to use them against the American soldiers (0:09:12:00)  If there was an opening in the forest, that was where they would go because it was easiest and the Americans did not want to take a machete and hack a new path (0:09:24:00)  However, most of the time the opening was bobby-trapped and if you wanted to get through a tree-line safe, you cut a new path and made sure it was away from the opening (0:09:30:00) Boot camp was 8 weeks and about 8 weeks in infantry training and after about 16 weeks, they were allowed to go home on leave (0:09:54:00) o Went home on leave in October and at that time, they went home in their Class-A uniforms because the anti-Vietnam sentiment was not strong yet in 1967 (0:10:03:00) o Being the first time he had ever been away from home, he was glad to get back and he went around and visited family, slept in and ate a lot of good food (0:10:44:00) �    The food in the mess hall was not bad and they could eat all they wanted and while in boot camp, Oakes had to serve the officers and the DIs their meals which caused him to miss out on the really dirty jobs in the mess hall (0:10:59:00) o Already knew where he was going because his orders already told him that he was returning to Camp Pendleton to a staging battalion (0:11:38:00)  In boot camp he trained on the M1 and qualified on the M14 and in the staging battalion, they trained on the M16 (0:11:46:00) o On his last Saturday at home before returning, a buddy from junior college asked Oakes if he would go on a blind date; Oakes agreed and went on the date, a canoe trip in the Pine River with a woman named Cathy and they got along well, he took her home that night and the next morning, at 7 o’clock, he was on a plane for Chicago then on the Camp Pendleton (0:12:02:00) Normally the staging battalion lasted 2 or 3 weeks but they had only been there for a week before a list of people came out (0:13:02:00) o Every morning they would fall out for formation and roll call and one morning, they said that the following Marines step out and stand aside (0:13:13:00) o Oakes was one of the six or eight chosen; they dismissed everyone else and told them to get on the trucks for training and they then told the small group to get their gear because they were returning to the main part of Camp Pendleton (0:13:24:00) o Told that their named had been pulled and they were going to language school to train to be interpreters, which got them out of training (0:13:39:00) Went back and spent two, almost three weeks waiting for the Marines to get enough people in because they need 150 men with the right test scores and when they had enough, they bused the men up to Monterey, California (0:13:54:00) o On the way to Monterey, some motorcyclists saw that it was military people and they began gesturing and messing with the bus drivers but they eventually made a mistake and getting in front of the lead bus, they slowed down too much and the bus driver floored it and the last thing Oakes remembers was seeing the 3 motorcycles going into the sand and the riders going flying, to which all the men on the buses cheered (0:14:37:00) Was not really great on language (0:15:39:00) o At that point in time, they had cassette records with 8 inch tapes that they would listen to and their instructors were 18 year old Vietnamese girls who trained in the traditional clothing and who could speak enough English and naturally, very fluent in Vietnamese (0:15:41:00) o They went through the 12 weeks, had a good time in school, and everyone graduated because at that point in the war, everyone passed (0:16:06:00) o They were told by the Marines that the more they used the language in country with the dialect, the better they would get and the Marines were right (0:16:18:00) o While they were at the school, they were adopted by a Chinese family in Salinas, California, who had four of the soldiers over for Thanksgiving (0:16:31:00)  A lot of families in the area were adopting military people for the holidays and one weekend, the family took the 4 soldiers to San Francisco, where they went to a very fancy restaurant and the soldiers played the roles of “guards”, with two in the front in their Class-A uniforms and two in the back, also in their Class-As (0:16:56:00) o Language school lasted until early 1968 (0:17:45:00) �Deployment (0:17:51:00)  Flew from Travis Air Force Base, north of San Francisco, to Okinawa, where they were for four of 5 days getting shots (0:17:51:00) o The only gear they were carrying was their clothes and the gear they would normally be issued; they were not issued any combat gear or rifles (0:18:08:00) o The time in Okinawa was getting their paperwork and shots done and because they had to work on typewriters, the process took a long time and whereas nowadays, a person will normally receive their orders with only their name on it, then, they might put 200 names on an order because they would only type it once and then make copies for everyone else and they always carried multiple copies of their orders because they did not know when they would need to show someone their orders (0:18:17:00)  One day, the Marines took the men out to a Continental airlines jet, which was contracted at the time, and flew them on a short flight to Da Nang and when they landed in Da Nang, as soon as they opened the door there was a stairway down and they hurried the men off the plane because Da Nang airfield was always getting hit with mortars or rockets (0:18:55:00)  When they were off the plane, they were taken to transit barracks, two story, wooden barracks which were not air conditioned and only had screen windows, where they spent a day or so there while the commanders decided where they would go as replacements; Okinawa was just processing and the Marines did not know where they would send him until he was actually on the ground (0:20:47:00)  Every morning, they had a formation in the rear-area to make a head count and keep track of people (0:21:17:00) o One morning in formation, they began calling names off, Oakes was one, and they told them to get their gear and be in formation at another spot in 30 minutes (0:21:26:00)  They got on a truck and started heading south on Highway 1 (0:21:41:00) o Around 20 minutes passed and they arrived at their new position at Camp Dong Song Two, a Vietnamese village that was replaced by the Marine camp along Highway 1, just south of a bridge south of Da Nang (0:21:45:00) o The compound was the rear-area for the 27th Marine Regiment, as well as the 1st Battalion of the regiment, with Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta companies (0:22:02:00)  Once the soldiers were off the truck, the commanders divided them up amongst the companies and some of the guys were the same guys Oakes had gone to language school with (0:22:15:00)  The base was rudimentary (0:22:40:00) o Some of the buildings were a 2x4 frame with canvas sides and others were a frame with screen windows and wooden flaps that would come down at night and all had corrugated roofs (0:22:48:00)  These were the offices, mess hall, barber shop, and med center (0:22:58:00) o Living quarters were GP medium tents and they had bunkers, wire, and claymores on the perimeter and 50 meters behind that was the living area (0:23:05:00) o There was also a berm which made it harder for the enemy to shoot at the tents (0:23:24:00) o If they incoming fire, they had bunkers that they could jump in, most of which were made out of sandbags and some had corrugated metal or railroad ties (0:23:34:00)  Assigned to 3rd Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Marines (0:23:54:00) �       Was there as a regular rifleman that knew Vietnamese, but at that point, they were short of radio operators (0:24:03:00) The 27th Marines had just gotten to Vietnam themselves just a couple of weeks before and they were short handed, which was why a lot of replacements were going to them (0:24:16:00) o They were on a float out of Hawaii and the President diverted them to Da Nang and they were understrength, so they were building back up because they did not have the critical MOS jobs: the radio operators, squad leaders, or machine gunners and as replacements are coming in, they were filling in the positions to get up to full strength (0:24:23:00) o They never got to full strength; they were always around half (0:24:44:00) The morning after he arrived, the platoon Lieutenant came out with the platoon sergeant and asked who did not know how to operate a radio and four guys, including Oakes, raised their hands, which was a mistake that Oakes learned, because they were now radio operators, even through Oakes had never even seen a military radio before (0:24:54:00) o They put them through on the job training; telling him to report to a corporal and he would show them how to use a radio and they had a little class that showed them the radio, how it worked, how to operate it, what to do and what a radio report was, all for about an hour (0:25:20:00) The next day, they were out on patrol and Oakes had eight or nine other guys out there and he was the only one with communication and the others were in trouble because he did not how to operate the radio (0:25:37:00) o However, it only took him a couple of days to learn how to use the radio because his and the other guys' lives depended on it and every chance he got, any question he had, he asked somebody about how to use the radio properly (0:25:55:00) Was a squad radio operator for two or three weeks and they would have two patrols a day, one in the morning and one at night (0:26:03:00) They were in what was termed “the rocket belt”, the area where the Viet Cong and the NVA would shoot 120 mm rockets at Da Nang (0:26:23:00) o All they needed was a mound of dirt to lay the rockets on a shoot it; they did not aim it, they just pointed it at the airfield and hoped that it hit something and it was mostly HI (Harassment and Interdiction) fire to keep the people awake (0:26:32:00) The Marines’ job was the patrol and at night, they would go out just before dark and set-up a position with a perimeter and would rotate as guys ate their C-rations (0:26:46:00) o After dark, they would move from the position because the enemy saw they dig in and the Marines had to keep it in the back of their mind that they were always being watched, especially around Da Nang because of its civilian population (0:27:02:00) o They would move around 100 meters and set up an ambush site because if the enemy knew where the Marines were in the day, then they would be coming at night and the Marines would set up on a likely trail down which they would come so instead of the enemy ambushing the Marines, the Marines would ambush the enemy (0:27:24:00) o Some nights they did not set up ambushes and they would just have a two to three hour patrol in the dark (0:27:39:00)  They always had check points to report back to the company commanders and the radio operator had a map, knew right where everyone was going and in his log, he would report where everyone was and then everyone knew where the patrol was (0:27:47:00) �     o Did it day and night mainly to keep their presence in the area and to keep the enemy off guard (0:28:02:00) o At night, they would go down set paths but they never went down the same route two nights in a row (0:28:10:00) o On a map, it was divided into 1000 meter quadrants and they tried to have a patrol in every quadrant, every day, so they could be on one side of the base patrolling at night and be on the opposite side the next day (0:28:23:00) o Occasionally, they would have movement and the point man would alert everyone else, who promptly “hit the ground” (0:28:41:00) o During the first couple of weeks, he does not recall much in the way of contact; other units had contact but Oakes’ patrols did not and it was not unusually to have something going on every night (0:28:52:00) Was with the squad for a couple of weeks and was then promoted to platoon operator because their original platoon radio operator had tipped a bobby-trap and was medevaced out and Oakes was the next in line (0:29:20:00) o When they had a platoon operation, then he would go wherever the platoon leader went, whether it was to inspect a patrol base or the lines and he stayed with his original platoon leader until the Lieutenant tripped a booby trap (0:29:37:00) o Oakes became the platoon radio operator at the end of March (0:30:11:00) In the first part of April, they moved up to Hue to take over some territory formerly held by the 3rd Marines and they were still doing a lot of clean up from the battle of Hue during the Tet Offensive (0:30:21:00) o There were still a lot of North Vietnamese in the area and they did not care about getting into firefights with Marines (0:30:34:00) o Over the years, they had built a lot of heavy bunkers and a lot of fortifications in the villages and the fortifications could not be seen from the air because the vegetation quickly overgrew it (0:30:46:00) They were in Da Nang for a couple of weeks and the first week of April, they were moved by truck convoy to the Huế area, to a position south of Huế by about 6000 meters (0:30:58:00) o They were still along Highway 1 and Oakes’ platoon was assigned the job of guarding a bridge and part of the oil line that went from Phu Bai to Hue and their main patrol base was across Highway 1 about 500 meters (0:31:16:00)  The base was built on one big mound of dirt, almost 100 meters tall, from which they could see a long way and everyone knew that they were there (0:31:36:00) While they were at Huế, they did a lot of “no-name” operations when a couple of companies in line would push the enemy towards another company, essentially catching them in a net (0:32:04:00) During one of the operations in the 2nd week of April, around the 13th, Oakes’ platoon was detached to stay behind and protect the company area and the other two platoons went with Bravo and Charlie companies to sweep through a Vietnamese village (0:32:30:00) o The units swept through the village and got ambushed and Oakes was on radio watch at the bridge and he could hear the ambush over the circuit (0:32:52:00) o They had 26 killed and 46 wounded on that operation alone (0:33:24:00) o Was in more combat in his seven months with the 27th Marine Regiment than in the rest of his tour with the 4th Marines (0:33:29:00) �o They could hear the fighting on the radio, as wells as screaming and hollering and they could vaguely hear gunfire because, although the ambush was a ways away, it was flat, so the sound echoed (0:33:41:00) o Reinforcements eventually arrived and they managed to pull the Marines back during the night but Oakes’ company was totally decimated (0:34:20:00)  They left 3 or 4 bodies on the battlefield because they could not get to them at night and the next morning, they went to retrieve the bodies, which had been stripped, mutilated, and had their equipment taken by the Viet Cong (0:34:30:00) o In the days following the battle, they took a third of Oakes’ platoon and put it into the other companies and pulled the rest of Oakes’ company out of the area and into a safer area to regroup (0:34:49:00)  They transferred people in from other companies to beef up Oakes’ company because they were half the strength that they should have been before the battle and after, they were even worse (0:35:02:00) o That was the worst time because being in the hooch and hearing the battle and not being able to help their friends was hard (0:35:17:00) Close Calls (0:35:36:00)  There were few times when he got into dangerous situations while with the 27th Marines, such as having his radio antenna shot off twice (0:35:36:00) o One instance, they were on a patrol, it was raining and they started taking sniper fire and there were only eight men in the patrol (0:35:50:00)  They hit the ground behind some logs and when Oakes went to use the radio, he could not; the Viet Cong had a captured radio on the same frequency and they kept flicking the microphone and when Oakes heard that, he knew that they had been compromised (0:35:59:00)  He went to go to the secondary frequency and he heard the same thing; the NVA were effectively jamming the radio signals (0:36:15:00)  The 8 men were in a circle, in the rain, taking sniper fire and they sat there for two hours and because the NVA did not know the Marines’ true strength was, they did not rush them (0:36:21:00)  After about 2 hours, the sniper fire stopped and they retraced their steps and got out of the position (0:36:34:00) o That was the first time that Oakes was a little leery of how long he was going to be in Vietnam (0:36:42:00) o Another time, he stepped on a booby-trap 105 round that did not go off and Oakes was very fortunate because it would have taken out four of the Marines (0:36:50:00)  They were on a patrol in the 327 area because the Marines had moved them back to a desert / sandy area near the coast and they were keeping fifteen to twenty feet apart (0:36:58:00)  Oakes was always behind the Lieutenant, either to his right or his left, so that he could get the radio to the Lieutenant as quickly as possible of they got attacked (0:37:18:00)  They were walking and the Lieutenant must have just missed stepping on the bobby-trap (0:37:35:00)  They never walked on the paths because that was where the Viet Cong placed the punji sticks and trip wires (0:37:43:00) � Oakes was on one side and the Lieutenant was on the other and Oakes’ side was where the hole was and Oakes stepped on the trap, a C-Ration sleeve, a 105 round, and a board with a nail in it, and if he pushed down in the cone, the round would have exploded (0:37:54:00)  He stepped on the edge and pushed the round away and as he felt himself going into the hole, he instinctively fell to his left because he had the radio on his back and as soon as he fell, he crawled away as fast as he could in case the trap had a delayed fuse (0:38:25:00)  Oakes made a noise and Lieutenant, seeing what was happening, dived as well and soon everyone else on the patrol was diving for the ground (0:38:52:00)  The Lieutenant and Oakes crawl back to the hole and seeing what was in the hole, move away because they feared a Viet Cong would be waiting nearby with a detonator but as it turned out, nobody was around (0:39:07:00)  Oakes took a couple of pictures of the trap with a camera that he carried and an engineer with the patrol had some C4 with him and he put C4 around the cone (0:39:32:00)  Nearby was a trench that a bulldozer had dug because whenever they had finished a firefight, a small bulldozer was helicoptered in to dig a trench for the Viet Cong bodies (0:39:56:00)  There was nothing in the trench and after setting up a perimeter with soldiers look in every direction, they yelled fire in the hole to alert everyone to what would be happening (0:40:15:00)  While they were in the trench, someone suggested that it would be funny if the Viet Cong had rigged the trench to explode when the booby-trap did (0:40:34:00)  Everyone got out of the trench and after lying flat on the ground, the Lieutenant had the engineer explode the booby trap and luckily, the trench did not explode as well (0:40:56:00) o Booby-trapping the hole would have been something that the Viet Cong did because they knew the patterns of the American soldiers (0:41:06:00)  Americans always took the easiest way and this got a lot of people killed in Vietnam because either they were not think or they were thinking Stateside, i.e. the easy way (0:41:27:00) o Had a B-40 rocket impact a wall near him (0:41:50:00)  During Operation Allenbrook, they had a unit in the middle of the rice paddies with a perimeter and some amtraks and the unit got hit during the night and Oakes unit was about 500 meters away in a hamlet (0:41:57:00)  A Viet Cong fired a B-40 at an amtrak and the rocket went over the top of the Am-Trac (0:42:19:00)  Oakes’ unit was watching fighting because the commanders feared that the Americans in the rice paddy would mistake them for the enemy and shoot at them and they watched as the rocket came towards them and impacted on a wall behind them (0:42:23:00) o Within twenty-four hours after the rocket incident, after the battle in the rice paddy, Oakes’ unit received intelligence from a village that about fifty NVA were moving south and since they had not been in a battle, it was their job to sweep the battlefield and move south and attempt to capture the fifty NVA (0:42:42:00) �  About Ninety minutes after they started, they were two klicks south and they had contact with an aerial observer who tells that he sees the NVA moving in the open and he says that he is calling in some fixed wing aircraft (0:43:05:00)  They were watching at the edge of rice paddy dike and Oakes is listening to the observer, who gives him the coordinates of the NVA, which Oakes showed to his Lieutenant, who told him that those are the unit’s coordinates (0:43:26:00)  The unit turned and watched as a pair of A-4 Skyhawks came around and towards them and the Lieutenant yelled for everyone to get down and the first A-4’s bombs impact in the woodlands beyond the dike and the men can hear the shrapnel sailing over their heads (0:43:51:00)  As the second A-4 came around, Oakes was yelling into the radio and everyone else was popping their smoke grenades (0:44:25:00)  The pilot must have got the word because he did not drop the bombs and he began wiggling his wings (0:44:46:00)  The flyboys would protect the infantry and the infantry would do anything to protect them (0:45:25:00) On Go Noi Island, his platoon was in a company perimeter for the night during another “noname operation” an at about 1 o’clock in the morning, he got a radio call from one of the squads saying that they saw campfires to the north (0:46:02:00) o The Lieutenant and Oakes went out the perimeter and got into a foxhole with one of the soldiers and sure enough, about 1000 meters out, they could see the campfires and it was obviously not Americans (0:46:31:00) o Right off the bat, the Marines know it is a ruse because the NVA knew where the Marines were and they would not build campfires; the NVA were just trying to get someone’s attention to see what was going on (0:46:43:00) o First, the Marines alerted the other units at the south end of the perimeter to keep their eyes open because there was something going on and it might have been heading their way (0:46:56:00) o Meanwhile, the Marines called in “Puff the Magic Dragon”, who saturated the campfires and if anyone was building the campfires, they did not survive (0:47:05:00)  “Puff” could put down one round every square foot and could cover the area of a football field in four seconds (0:47:12:00)  At that point, “Puff the Magic Dragon” was a C-47 converted with Miniguns in it that would fly at a bank and in such a way that all the firepower was concentrated in one position (0:47:21:00)  They could see a red line from “Puff” to the ground, this was from tracers, but in between every tracer were four other bullets and from a distance, all they heard was a “whirring” noise (0:47:41:00) o “Puff” fired for about 10 minutes and there was no chance that anyone was alive down by the campfires, if there was anyone to begin with (0:48:01:00) o Believes that the NVA knew what the Marines would do, so they lit the fires and got the “heck out of Dodge” and they knew that the Marines would retaliate with artillery, aircraft, or something (0:48:10:00) o The whole perimeter was then on alert and nobody was sleeping and around three o’clock, they received a call from the squad on the south end; they had movement in from of them (0:48:25:00)  They figured that something would happen somewhere and here came the movement (0:48:39:00) � o The squad on the perimeter kept watching as the movement got closer and they started seeing crawling bodies in the moonlight and at three o’clock, someone blew a whistle or a horn and the enemy all stood up and charged (0:48:48:00) o The Marine M60 gunners were ready for them and all the Vietnamese had homemade grenades wrapped around their waists, so as soon as the first Vietnamese stood up, the machine gunner hit him in the belly and exploded the grenade and started a chain reaction and they later learned that the first Vietnamese was blown in half (0:49:02:00) o As Vietnamese were attacking, Oakes was sitting in a bomb crater holding two radios because the other radio operator went with the Lieutenant to the line and leaves were falling around him from the bullets flying over him (0:49:45:00)  Had one radio in each hand talking to both the company and the battalion to let them know what was going on and he was trying to be as calm as he can while ducking into his flak jacket (0:50:03:00)  Looking back, it was slightly comical how he was able to be so calm in the middle of the fight (0:50:24:00) o While the fighting was happening, the battalion was preparing a reaction force to come at first light, 5:00-5:30 in the morning and the firefight continued for the rest of the night (0:50:50:00) o The NVA never got into the perimeter and apart from a few scratches on some guys, Oakes’ platoon came out of the fight okay and the next day, they counted 24 dead NVA (0:51:05:00) o The tragic part about the fight was near the tail-end of the fight, they called in their own 81 mm mortars and the first round dropped inside the Marine’s perimeter (0:51:25:00)  The unit’s corpsmen had been moving around the whole night and when they returned to their position, the mortar round struck the tree above them and blew both their heads off (0:51:37:00)  Oakes knew them and he collected their bodies (0:52:04:00) Does not think that they ever got use to what they saw; they buried it, which is why there are a lot of soldiers are with problems, and they did not have time to think about it, only time to react (0:52:28:00) Go Noi Island / Operation Allenbrook (0:52:52:00)  During Go Noi Island, they were at another base / patrol area with a perimeter, it was raining heavily and 81 mm mortars were shooting illumination rounds out because there was movement outside the perimeter (0:52:52:00) o Oakes was on radio watch with the platoon sergeant and they had dug a small hole for 2 people that had begun filling up with water and all of the sudden, a mortar misfired and the round went straight through the poncho covering the hole and landed between Oakes and the sergeant and although it threw mud into the ears of the sergeant, causing him to be medivaced out, it did not detonate (0:53:07:00) o When the round landed, both men said a few quick words and they got out of the hole, leaving everything behind, even the radios (0:54:01:00)  Go Noi Island was south of Da Nang during Operation Allenbrook (0:54:24:00) o All companies from all battalions in the 27th Marine Regiment eventually rotated in and out of the island (0:54:34:00) �    o Was an NVA staging area for attacks on Da Nang, with the 36th and 38th NVA Regiments there, hardcore regulars not apt to run away like the Viet Cong; they would stand and fight, which cost the Marines a lot of battles (0:54:38:00) o The NVA would wait until the Marines were right on top of them and then ambush them (0:54:57:00)  They knew that the Marines could not call in air strikes and were reluctant to call in supporting fire and they would envelop the Marines and come around the sides (0:55:03:00) During Operation Allenbrook, the company radio operator was wounded and Oakes was chosen to replace him (0:55:19:00) o The next day, the man that Oakes chose to be his replacement in the platoon went out on a platoon patrol and they were not gone more that 30 minutes before they heard an explosion; the replacement had tripped a booby-trap (0:55:32:00)  The trap exploded behind him and the radio absorbed most of the shrapnel, but the back of soldier’s legs and arms were torn up and the trap also took out the platoon Lieutenant and the corpsman (0:56:04:00) Operation Allenbrook was an effort to eradicate the NVA from Go Noi Island, what intelligence called a “second Tet” (0:56:53:00) o The Marines rotated units in and out if the area, with the 3rd Marines going first, followed by the 27th Marine Regiment, who at one point, had all the battalions in the regiment in the area because the fighting was so heavy (0:57:26:00) o There was fighting almost every day (0:57:47:00) o The “island” name was kind of bogus; it was in the rice paddies south of Da Nang and a river went around one side and canals went around the other (0:58:01:00) o There was easy access to the island and NVA troops had been on the island for a while because during the Marines’ search and destroy mission, they found hospitals, R&R centers, barracks, mess halls, caches of rice and weapons (0:58:32:00) o Eventually, the Marines finally sent in engineers with bulldozers to flatten the island because all the villages on the island were fortified with a fort underneath and the huts on top (0:58:54:00) “No name” operations were hammer and sickle operations when two companies would sweep in different parts of the island that intelligence said had a large force of movement of NVA or Viet Cong in an area (1:00:36:00) o They would move a company in behind the NVA, either with helicopter or marching at night and the other two companies would march and sweep (1:00:55:00) o On Go Noi Island, just about every sweep was successful; they had contact on all of them and everyday on Go Noi Island they heard gunfire; somebody on the island was fighting somebody (1:01:11:00) o Has pictures of his unit in a tree line watching as F-4 Phantoms dropped napalm in assistance of another unit (1:01:22:00)  They did not know who the other unit was because they were on their own radio frequencies (1:01:33:00) o The only frequency he had was with battalion and he could hear the other companies calling in and asking for assistance (1:01:35:00)  He could also hear the platoons talking to the company and the squads talking to the platoon (1:01:47:00) They had good coordination although occasionally, in the heat of battle, there would be misidentification of units (1:02:21:00) � o More than once, friendly fire would take someone out, whether it be an aircraft, as what almost happened to Oakes at the rice paddy, or 81 mm mortars (1:02:34:00) o More than once, they heard “cease-fire, friendly fire; your firing on friendly troops”; it did not happen all the time but it was not unusually to hear about it (1:02:44:00) o When they put in a call for support, the response from the air depended on who was on station; most of the time it was not hard to get because it seemed like the air was full of aircraft (1:03:21:00)  The only problem was that artillery could not fire if aircraft were in the area (1:03:32:00) o Any operation they had, they were covered by artillery (1:03:44:00)  They could be within 20 miles and still cover the Marines (1:03:48:00)  They were attacking a tree line one time in Huế and they were taking fire from a pagoda and they called in artillery, which was the first time Oakes had seen their artillery firing (1:03:54:00)  The artillery was firing air burst rounds and some of the rounds were detonating behind the Marines, instead of in front of them (1:04:08:00)  Any time they had artillery firing over them, the Marines got flat on the ground (1:04:16:00)  Artillery had several different rounds (1:04:23:00)  Air burst rounds looked like fireworks with a puff and the shrapnel was away (1:04:25:00)  Rounds that detonated 3 feet off the ground and acted like daisy cutters (1:04:31:00)  Hard rounds that just dug a hole in the ground and exploded (1:04:38:00)  They were never denied fire, although sometimes, it was really quick and sometimes it took a bit because the artillery might have been supporting another mission and they were never told that the artillery was out of ammo (1:04:51:00) At Da Nang and Go Noi Island, the camaraderie was always there (1:05:17:00) o Did not matter if it was Marines or Navy flying the aircraft, there was always something up there, whether it be jets or helicopters (1:05:19:00) o If helicopters were making supply runs and the Marines called in for medivacs, the supply helicopters came in (1:05:37:00) o One time during Allenbrook, they called in for a medevac and the helicopter that came in had the highest ranking Marine Corps general in the theater on it (1:05:58:00) o If there was a medevac, everything stops and they got the wounded soldiers out (1:06:21:00)  Believes this was why the casualty rate was a lot lower than World War II, because they did have good medevac capabilities (1:06:24:00)  When he was on a hospital ship, he would see medevacs come in every hour with Every kind of helicopter, from the old Korean era to Hueys to Chinooks to C-46s (1:06:31:00) o Depended on whether the medevac call was routine, priority or emergency (1:07:03:00)  Routine was when they got a chance, stop; such as the platoon sergeant with the mud in his ears who was not critical and in danger of death (1:07:08:00) � Priority was when the soldier was not in danger of dying then but their was a possibility i.e. getting shot in the leg (1:07:22:00)  Emergency was when the soldier was in dire straits i.e. sucking chest wound and if they did not get the soldier out immediately, he was gone (1:07:37:00) o The fact that the helicopters were always there gave the Marines a sense of safety and it took the edge off of being alone cause they knew that they always had someone to help them (1:07:58:00) o When he first got to the squad, he was in a foxhole one night and the platoon sergeant came up and Oakes asked when they would be getting more people in the foxholes (1:08:10:00)  The sergeant said to just remember that for every 1 Marine, there were 16 others in the supply chain to supply them with everything that they needed and Oakes said that all he needed was about 3 of them in the foxhole with him (1:08:27:00) 4th Marine Regiment / Khe Sanh (1:09:01:00)  On September 12, 1968 the 1st Battalion of the 27th Marine Regiment folded their flag and went home as part of President Johnson’s de-escalation (1:09:01:00) o Everybody that still had a long time to go on their tour in Vietnam transferred to the 1st Marine Division at Quảng Trị (1:09:13:00) o Everyone on their second tour and the short timers went home with the 1st Battalion but only twenty men from the battalion went home with the flag (1:09:25:00)  However, as they stopped in Hawaii and Okinawa, the Marines added more people to the battalion so that when the battalion was on parade in San Diego, hardly anyone was originally from 27th Marine Regiment (1:09:42:00) o On the 12th, they flew to Quảng Trị, specifically Dong Ha Air Force base and they were trucked into Quảng Trị (1:10:01:00)  Quảng Trị was the rear-area for the 4th Marine Regiment and Oakes was assigned to Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, where he stayed for the remainder of his tour (1:10:14:00)  In Da Nang, it was a lot of rice paddies, villages, and interactions with villagers; in Quảng Trị, it was the North and any villages in the jungle had been evacuated and the area was a free-fire zone (1:10:34:00) o If they saw somebody, no matter who they were, the soldiers shot them and all the villagers knew that the areas were free-fire (1:10:49:00)  After they landed, they spent the first couple of days getting acclimated and being assigned to units and Oakes had to take a convoy up to his unit at LZ Stud, Vandergrift Combat Base, on Highway 9 and he happened to get into a truck carrying artillery rounds (1:11:18:00) o LZ Stud was the jump-off point for the relief mission to Khe Sanh to break the siege (1:11:54:00) o The trip to LZ Stud was through the mountains and on dirt roads and every so often, they would see a squad protecting a bulldozer that was repairing a hole in the road (1:12:08:00)  When they got to LZ Stud at twilight, the unit Oakes was assigned to was a mile further down Highway 9, right where Highway 9 made a direct turn to the west and at the turn was a platoon base camp with wire surrounding it and a heavy communications bunker (1:12:46:00) �  o Right away, Oakes was assigned to the radio section because radio operators were high priority targets and they were short and he ended up working with the platoon radio operator (1:13:45:00) o They never got hit in the camp because there were no NVA units in the area (1:14:06:00) o The second night Oakes was in the camp, he was on radio watch and a Marine came into the bunker with a loaded weapon, intending to kill everyone in the bunker (1:14:16:00)  Oakes was in his bunk while the Marine raved about how he was not going to do it any more, that he was not going back out and that they could not make him (1:14:35:00)  Oakes fell off his bunk and crawled out the door with the man next to him and they went around and got the platoon sergeant who was checking the perimeter and brought the sergeant to the door behind the crazy Marine to jump him (1:14:49:00)  They eventually disarmed the man and sent him to the rear and when Oakes went to the rear in February, the man was still there (1:15:06:00)  How the man survived Oakes does not know because there was more than one fragging incident with men who put other men in jeopardy in the field (1:15:38:00) The platoon eventually got pulled back to LZ Stud with the rest of the company and a few days later, they were out on a combat mission south of Khe Sanh, doing a search operation looking for ammo dumps, mass graves, or current troop locations (1:15:52:00) o Did tours like this for the rest of his time in Vietnam (1:16:31:00) o The first time the Marines hit they did not have any contact (1:16:42:00) o They were helicoptered into a cleared hilltop and after setting a perimeter and receiving more troops, they would single file through the jungle on a certain path (1:16:53:00) o One day, the 60 mm mortars were lobbing rounds down the hill in case someone was forming and they hit at an enemy ammo dump; they sent a patrol after the explosions ended and they found a hut with 60 mm mortar rounds lined up on shelves and they had hit it (1:17:0:00) Eventually, they were pulled off those operations and back to LZ Stud for a couple of days (1:18:14:00) o There were three fire bases in the area: (1:18:24:00) o LZ Russell, which they closed (1:18:26:00) o LZ Gurkha, which was as far north and west as they could go in South Vietnam (1:18:28:00)  From LZ Gurkha, they could look to the west at night and see the NVA troops moving down the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos, however, they could not attack them, even though they were supplies and troops going south to the enemy (1:18:39:00)  This did not sit well with the Marines and one time, they decided to run an ambush to the west, so in the early morning, they went out past the claymores and as it was, to a knoll that they though was hay but turned out to be elephant grass (1:19:01:00)  When the Marines were walking through the grass, they could not be more than 10 feet apart or they would lose contact (1:19:32:00) �    Going along a trail in the grass, one of the other Marines alerted, “beware of hole”, a three foot diameter hole that they could not see the bottom of and that they surmised was an undetonated bomb dropped from a B-52 (1:19:45:00)  Someone suggested that they drop a grenade down the hole in case it was an enemy hole but when Oakes suggested that he could not out run the explosion if it was a 2000 lb bomb, the man changed his mind (1:20:11:00) They always tried to make levity of the dangerous times just to break the ice (1:20:30:00) While he was with the 4th Marines doing the searching, resupply was hard and they were going days without getting resupplied and they eventually ran out of water and halizone tablets (1:20:44:00) o If they came across a fast running mountain stream, they could drink it because it was pure; Oakes came across a stream that he thought was moving fast enough to be pure and he filled his canteen and a few weeks later, he had dysentery (1:20:59:00) o After doing their searches, they put the Marines into a firebase rotation; they would be at one base for a while then move to another (1:21:37:00) o They were in the later part of October / beginning of November and Oakes remembers having “bloody shits”; he could not eat or drink anything because it would go straight through him and he lost a lot of weight (1:21:57:00) o Oakes knew something was wrong and the only thing that the corpsman could suggest was taking his malaria pills along with his salt pills (1:22:21:00) o Went for a month to 6 weeks and it ended before Thanksgiving (1:22:32:00) Mid-November, Oakes received orders to report to the rear because he has been chosen to be the mail orderly and Oakes was glad because the job got him out of the bush and the rain (1:22:49:00) o He went to the rear and while waiting for the supply helicopter, he told the men that he will get them their mail (1:23:02:00) o After spending the night in a tent, Oakes reported to sick call because he was still not feeling well and when he walked in, there were twelve people already there, so he got in line (1:23:15:00)  After being examined, the corpsman handed Oakes a form, told him to sit on a bench and told Oakes that he had dysentery and that he was going to a hospital ship (1:23:28:00) o Oakes did not know the Americans even had hospital ships (1:23:48:00)  The ships would rotate with one up near Hue taking casualties for three days and then returning to Da Nang for fuel while the other took its place (1:23:58:00) o The next helicopter that came in, they put Oakes and a couple of other men on it and it took them out to the U.S.S. Repose, where they checked Oakes in, took his clothes, made him take a bath, gave him a hospital gown to wear and made him go to sleep (1:24:13:00) o For the first 3 days, he was fed in bed and he did not get out of bed, but eventually, he became ambulatory so that he could help feed the other guys in the ward (1:24:51:00) o Spent 4 weeks on the hospital ship, including Thanksgiving, and he saw an Australian USO show (1:25:11:00) o While he was on the hospital ship, his platoon was pulled out of the bush and was put on the U.S.S. New Jersey with 3 days liberty and they were on the New Jersey waving �  at Oakes on the Repose and he was waving back, although he did not know it was them at the time (1:25:24:00) Was on the hospital ship for thirty days, was left out in Da Nang and eventually returned to Quảng Trị where the regimental rear-area was, but before going back to his unit, the regiment was in the middle of an operation and they were grabbing everyone that could fire a weapon and putting them into an ad hoc group (1:26:09:00) o They were going to circle a village that they had reports of deserters in a village with Viet Cong and NVA and in the middle of a rainstorm during the night, they got off their trucks some led the soldiers around the village, which had a perimeter at least a mile long (1:26:44:00) o When daylight came, they had tanks plus the soldiers, who had dug holes when they first arrived and improved them during the daylight and they stayed for three days (1:27:21:00) o It was neat watching the tanks fire, which had Starlight scopes on the tank, meaning that they could fire at night and one night, Oakes, who had gotten to know the tankers, was called over to a tank and they showed him the Starlight screen (1:27:41:00)  On the screen, Oakes could see a log about a mile out from which behind enemy heads would pop up and telling Oakes to continue watching the screen, the tankers maneuvered the turret and fired, destroying the log (1:28:04:00) When the operation was over, the Marines were sent back to the rear and Oakes rejoined his unit, where he served as platoon operator again (1:28:45:00) o Rejoined his unit on Firebase Gurkha, where they went on the patrol in Laos and from Firebase Gurkha, they returned to LZ Stud for rest, recuperation, and resupply then went to LZ Neville, which, while at the north end of the Khe Sanh valley, was further east and just south of the DMZ by maybe three or four klicks (1:28:59:00) o Spent the rest of his time at LZ Neville, his last 3 weeks in the field in March (1:29:26:00) o Whereas LZ Gurkha was on a grass knoll and on the slope to the east was a trail that went down to water, LZ Neville was on a mountain that was all rock that came up like a shoe where one side was really steep and the other was sloped (1:29:44:00)  They built a command bunker when they got there, although it was only empty ammo boxes, steel rails, ponchos and rope and whenever a resupply helicopter came in, the bunker blew over because the firebase itself was so small (1:30:21:00)  If they did not come in right, the pallet of C-Rations would go down the cliffside (1:30:55:00) o At night, they would drop grenades to deter anyone from crawling up the side of the cliff (1:31:16:00) o They thought that they had activity one night, but they never got hit and only after Oakes left did the LZ end up getting hit (1:31:42:00) o On the sloped part, they put out listening posts out at night, much like every night he was in Vietnam and one night, they heard noises and threw some hand grenades (1:31:47:00)  The next night, about a dozen rock apes came up and started throwing rocks at the men in the post, who could not fire back, lest they give up their position (1:32:15:00) o They did a run a patrol into a ravine and up a hill, and halfway up, the point man signaled; they had run into an NVA bunker complex (1:32:45:00) �     The complex was older and no one was there but they had walked passed and did not notice it, thus indicating how well they were concealed; they reported the complex, turned around, and returned to base (1:33:11:00) Around March 1st, he got pulled off of LZ Neville because he was a short-timer with thirty days left and the Marines took him out of combat and placed him in the rear and he spent his last thirty days as the NCO in charge of transit (1:33:31:00) o Every other night he had perimeter guard duty and during the day, if someone new came in, a replacement, Oakes took them to supply to get their weapon, flak jacket and everything to get them ready to go and when they time came, he took them down to operations so that the replacement could get on the next resupply helicopter (1:33:44:00) o One night when Oakes was not on guard they got hit by 82 mm mortars (1:34:35:00)  Oakes heard the first round thump and explode and he then stuck his head out the bunker flap and the next round landed in front of an Army bunker in front of Oakes’ bunker (1:34:51:00)  Oakes went looking for some new soldiers at the other end of his bunker and he could not find them and he eventually finds them huddled in another bunker shaking (1:36:04:00) o Another time, when Oakes was on guard duty, they kept hearing movement in front of them, so one night they reported it and the next night, they had an Army “Duster”, a tracked vehicle with four 40 mm cannons, clear all the trees off of the bank (1:36:38:00) o Another night, they heard more noise and Oakes told the M79 soldier to fire a couple of rounds onto the bank, as well as their machine gunner and when they do, someone on the radio demanded to know what the firing was (1:37:29:00)  Oakes told him that they heard noise, fired and he asked what the man was going to do about it (1:37:49:00)  Oakes was short, so he did not care (1:37:54:00) o As a parting joke, on his last night on perimeter, he took out an eight man patrol with him on point and they just went around the perimeter and returned in thirty minutes (1:38:02:00) The Marines flew him and a couple of others down by C-130 to Da Nang and in Da Nang, Oakes met up with some of the men he had come in with (1:38:22:00) o They figured out what happened to the other guys they came over with and they spent 2 days in Da Nang waiting for transport out (1:38:42:00) o Went back through Okinawa for more shots and from there, some of the men went to El Toro Naval Air Station in Los Angeles (1:38:57:00) o Because Oakes was a short-timer, if he had gone home on thirty days leave and come back, he would have only had two weeks left; instead, if someone had less than two months less, they just discharged him (1:39:09:00) Once Oakes got on the radio, he used his language training once; the rest of the time was used learning how to use the radio and how to call in reports, air strikes, and artillery strikes and they did have an interpreter with them and they used him most of the time (1:39:36:00) He had a lot of contact with the civilian population in Da Nang but when they were in the Khe Sanh area, they did not see any civilians (1:40:05:00) o In Da Nang, the relations depended in the area; on Go Noi Island, they could sense the hostility (1:40:17:00) �   o In Hue, it was totally different; when they were guarding the bridge, Oakes went to check on the guards and when one took a break, Oakes took his place (1:40:25:00)  Oakes heard screaming and hollering coming from the village and a lady walked up on the roadway and came running towards the bridge carrying a baby, that was blue and ice cold (1:40:46:00)  The baby was dead, it had fallen into a bomb crater filled with water and drowned, and this was Oakes’ first encounter with death and although he felt bad, there was nothing he could do except explain in his broken Vietnamese that there was nothing he could do (1:41:12:00) o There were times when they would sweep through a village and everyone would be waving and when they turned around, the Marines would trip all the bobby-traps (1:42:00:00) o They never went through a village where they did not find booby traps (1:42:23:00) o When they surrounded the village looking for the deserters, the children would come out the perimeter looking for candy, although looking back, Oakes realizes that they were just scoping out the location of the soldiers (1:42:35:00) Whenever they had an operation with the Vietnamese Army, they never found anything, and if the ARVNs suddenly disappeared, the Marines knew that they were going to be in combat (1:43:12:00) o Oakes met some good officers in the ARVN but for the most part, their commanders were bad (1:43:41:00) o Worked with ARVN mostly around Da Nang and Hue (1:44:03:00) At the time that Oakes was in Vietnam, the morale of the units was high, partly because they were isolated from news about back in the United States, with no newspaper and radio and they had to rely on people coming in, although they did occasionally receive Stars and Stripes and there they read about the riots (1:44:31:00) o For the most part, the morale of the troops in the field was good, apart from complaining about the lack of food or water, the muddy conditions (1:45:03:00) o As far as fighting in the war, there was very little, if any, anti-war sentiments (1:45:14:00) He got more worn down with the 4th Marines because it was always wet and subdued and they were always walking and climbing (1:45:32:00) o In Da Nang, it was not as intense, although they were under fire all the time and in the DMZ, they were fighting mother nature more and picking up the remnants of the battle of Khe Sanh (1:45:53:00) Going Home (1:46:35:00)  Landed at El Toro Naval Air Station and got discharged out of there and he went with 5 other guys that he went with through Chicago, where they split (1:46:35:00) o The bus driver recommended that they take off their uniforms and travel in civilian clothes because of the strong anti-military sentiment (1:46:52:00)  Got home and his whole family was waiting with a big sign on the house (1:47:16:00) o He was in Vietnam and in combat one day and a couple of days later, he was at home, so there was not a lot of transition time; the family could be sitting talking about less important things and he could still be think about Vietnam and the patrol and the firefight from the night before (1:47:24:00) o Was lucky because he came home to a stable family (1:47:53:00) �   o His father was a deacon with the Baptist church and being in the Marines had changed Oakes’ vocabulary, so he had to watch himself and he was very cautious about what he said (1:47:58:00) Getting back to normal took a while (1:48:26:00) o During a church softball game, a friend who had only been back from Vietnam a few weeks was on first base and Oakes was on third and a car backfired in the parking lot; instinctively, both men hit the ground while everyone else laughed (1:48:30:00) Got back to dating girls (1:49:03:00) o One time, he asked one girl out whom he had dated before leaving, but her father, meeting him at the door, said that he did not trust Oakes anymore because they had heard the stories about returning soldiers and how they treated girls (1:49:05:00) While he was in Vietnam, he would have to write to someone about everything that was happening and he would write to the girl he went on the blind date with before leaving for deployment (1:49:37:00) o Never wrote anything to his parents because they would worry (1:49:43:00) o Eventually met up with her when he got home and they dated off and on and eventually, they were at his parent’s house with another couple and they were going for pizza when Oakes asked if she wanted to get married (1:50:05:00) o She thought he meant go for pizza and he said “no”, and she said, “yeah okay” and they got married eighteen months after he returned from Vietnam and they have three children and five grandchildren (1:50:41:00) � 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 OakesR Title A name given to the resource Oakes, Ronald (Interview outline and video, 1 of 2), 2010 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) WKTV (Wyoming, Mich.) Description An account of the resource Ron Oakes was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in March 1949. After briefly attending junior college, he enlisted in June 1967 and received training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot and Camp Pendleton, California. He then received instruction in the Vietnamese language before being sent to Vietnam. Once he arrived, he was trained as a radio operator and assigned to a squad in the 27th Marine Regiment in the Da Nang area, soon becoming his platoon's radio operator, and saw extensive combat experience. When the 27th was rotated home, he was reassigned to 4th Marines at Quang Tri, and operated between Quang Tri and Hue before being sent inland toward Khe Sanh. While in this area, he contracted dysentery and was sent to a hospital ship where he spent a month aboard a hospital ship before being returned to his unit. When his tour was over, re was sent home and discharged in 1969. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010-06-15 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> 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 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. Marine Corps Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Language A language of the resource eng 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/1cb72cf92e54854a1f616403ff9b2dd9.mp4 a0f2eeb38469c8a4dda61c0ae6b50c64 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e13ea8082a486e1eb34fa8979552ee6d.pdf ceb907f610dcb61de1ac9273a713b1fe PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veteran’s History Project Iraq War Ron Oakes Interview Length: (02:10:09:00) Joining the Guard / the 1996 Summer Olympics (00:00:23:00)  Oakes returned from Vietnam in April 1969 (00:00:23:00) o He went back to Grand Rapids Junior College and began looking for a job; although he did find a job work at a GM plant, it only lasted two months (00:00:34:00)  Oakes found that he was not an inside worker; the day-to-day grind of working inside a factory after being in Vietnam did not appeal to him (00:00:48:00) o Oakes went back to working for Herpolsheimers, a department store in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan and going to school (00:01:01:00)  Oakes had worked for Herpolsheimers before serving in Vietnam (00:01:09:00) o He also went back to dating and meeting people; his wife had been a blind-date the day before Oakes had shipped out to Vietnam in October 1967 (00:01:27:00)  He looked her up when he came back because they had corresponded while he was in Vietnam and eighteen months later, they married (00:01:47:00) o Eventually, by using his GI bill, Oakes went to United Electronics Institute for ninety-nine weeks and earned a degree in electronics (00:02:13:00)  After getting his degree, Oakes was hired by Montgomery Ward and his first job was down on the South Side of Chicago, where he worked for the better part of five years (00:02:28:00)  Following Chicago, Oakes transferred to Grand Ledge, Michigan, worked there for another three or four years, then transferred to Davenport, Iowa (00:02:38:00)  The company went through some downsizing and in 1985, Oakes lost his job, so he and his family moved back to Grand Rapids (00:02:51:00) o Oakes tried several different jobs and eventually got into computers working for his brother, who he worked for five years before a position opened up at Grand Rapids Public Schools doing computer repair; he took the job and worked with the school system for seventeen years before retirement (00:02:59:00)  During his first thirteen years of marriage, Oakes and his family moved ten times; however, when they moved back to Michigan, they settled, bought a house and after about a year, Oakes decided he needed a little extra income when he retired, so he considered joining the Michigan National Guard (00:03:34:00) o In December 1985, he joined the Michigan National Guard in Grand Rapids, specifically the 46th Infantry Brigade Headquarters as a truck driver for the Brigade commander (00:03:56:00) �  o Because he had already been in the service, when they sent him to MEPs in Lansing, Michigan, it was a walk-through; they put him at the front of every line and he went though the process quickly (00:04:09:00)  MEPS = the medical evaluation prior to join the Guard (00:04:30:00) o Oakes had the choice of either Army or Air National Guard, although the Air National Guard was primarily prior-service Air Force personnel (00:05:01:00) o The difference between the Guard and the Reserves is that in the Guard, they mobilized the entire unit, whereas in the Reserves, they could take individuals to back-fill someone who went on leave (00:05:09:00)  If they were needed, then the Guard mobilized the entire unit (00:05:39:00) The first few years in the Guard consisted of weekends drills and two weeks at Camp Grayling, Michigan (00:06:01:00) o After joining in 1985, Oakes went through a cold-weather school in 1989 and in 1991, during the Gulf War; Oakes unit was put on alert to be mobilized (00:06:07:00)  However, when the President shut the operation down after one hundred hours, all the mobilizations and alerts reversed (00:06:21:00)  Had they needed to go, the unit would have gone to Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, where they would have spent six weeks getting additional training before shipping out (00:06:31:00) In 1996, Oakes and his unit provided security for the 1996 Summer Olympics, a experience a lot of the people in the unit enjoyed (00:06:53:00) o Oakes’ unit’s headquarters company did not go, but most of their companies did, so Oakes served as backfill with them (00:07:04:00) o It was a fun experience; Oakes enjoyed meeting people from other countries and seeing how the Olympics ran from the inside (00:07:19:00) o Oakes’ unit provided security for a lot of venues, including marksmanship and badminton, and their last few days were spent guarding the Marriott in downtown Atlanta, which was the headquarters of the Olympic Committee (00:07:27:00)  They inspected vehicles for bombs and contraband; they found two concealed weapons while they were there and there was one person who was unfamiliar with the packing garage layout and came out the wrong way (00:08:01:00) o They used a lot of different facilities to house the Guard units, including an old Delta hanger at the airport, as well as public schools on the outskirts of the city; Oakes’ unit stayed at Peachtree Elementary in the city of Peachtree (00:08:40:00)  In the school, they took all the desks out of most of the classrooms and put about sixteen cots and a hanging rack in the room, converting the classroom into a squad bay (00:09:05:00)  They used the kitchen and gym floor for eating around the clock because there were always people leaving (00:09:25:00)  The soldiers’ days usually began at three in the morning and ended around six in the evening; after getting up, cleaning, eating and getting dressed, the soldiers got on a bus that took them to their venue (00:09:34:00) �   The soldiers arrived at the venue an hour before the competition started so they could receive different security briefs before they got to their position; when they were leaving, the soldiers had to brief the people coming to replace them (00:09:46:00)  It was typically fourteen hour days, plus an hour and a half bus ride from the barracks to the venue (00:10:06:00)  The city contracted with the local schools and used their buses to move the soldiers; naturally, traffic in the city was heavy (00:10:28:00) o All the soldiers had to wear name-badges, large placards with their name and picture on them (00:10:38:00)  If the soldiers took the subway on a day off, the badge got them free transportation on the Atlanta subway system (00:10:49:00) o The soldiers did try and get in to see the diving competition; there were tickets reserved for the security forces but they were seven to eight hundred dollars, discounted, so not a lot of the soldiers bought any (00:11:04:00) o The soldiers did walk around, including going through the park where the bomb went off about two hours before the explosion (00:11:24:00)  They woke the soldiers up that night and did a headcount to make sure everyone was accounted for; after the headcount, Oakes called home and his whole family was up watching the Games, so they knew about the explosion before he did (00:11:30:00)  Oakes let his family know he was fine; he was in the park but he got out before the explosion (00:11:49:00)  The troops’ concern was they were going to have to stay a little longer because they were going to beef up security; however, the next morning, the unit was due to rotate back to Michigan and the next day, the unit went down to the airport and back to Michigan (00:11:54:00) Oakes was thirty-five years old when he joined the Guard in 1985 (00:12:38:00) o There was a range in the ages of the soldiers in the unit; there were a few Vietnam veterans, including Oakes (00:12:46:00) o A person’s entry into the Guard depended on when they could retire and Oakes made it in by seven months; they took a person’s age and added twenty to it and that number had to be less than fifty-five (00:12:54:00)  The mandatory retirement age in the Guard is sixty and when Oakes turned sixty, at the end of the month, he was retired (00:13:06:00) o Oakes entered the Guard as an E-4, a specialist; he got out of the Marine Corps as an E-4 Corporal and in the Guard, he went from an E-4 to and E-8 (Master Sergeant or First Sergeant) before he retired (00:13:21:00) There were people in the unit who were just out of high school and the people with higher ranks were generally people who had been around longer because it took a long time to reach those ranks (00:13:53:00) o A lot of people who joined were also the veterans because at that time, Vietnam had only been over for about twenty years (00:14:06:00) �  o On the other hand, there are a lot of soldiers in the Guard who have never been in combat or deployed, through no fault of their own; because of the field they had chosen, such as logistics, there is not combat requirement (00:14:15:00)  There are presently even one-star generals in the Michigan National Guard who have never mobilized because their job has never called for it, despite them being excellent leaders (00:14:35:00) The Michigan National Guard currently has some really good leadership and had Oakes not been forced to retire, he would still be in the Guard; presently, he does contract work with the state logistics department (00:14:51:00) The standard commitment for anyone in the Guard is one weekend a month, both Saturday and Sunday with the possibility of Friday depending on the circumstances, and fifteen days of annual training at Camp Grayling (00:16:14:00) o Because of the on-going conflicts, the Army has changed the process to the point that some units have annual training three or four times a year, cutting down on the amount of time they need to spend at another base, allowing a unit to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan in half the time (00:17:04:00) o Any problems are solved before the unit deploys to its advanced base (00:17:29:00) Post-9/11 Operations / Iraq Deployment (00:18:05:00)  When the attacks on 9/11 happened, things “really started popping” (00:18:05:00) o Not much happened in Oakes’ unit specifically, apart from being command and control for the entire brigade; however, a lot of their infantry units were called up as well as some of their support units, such as: engineering units, transportation units and maintenance units (00:18:09:00)  At that time, the brigade also had some armored units and they were called up along with the infantry battalions, many of whom ended up in combat zones overseas (00:18:23:00) o Every day, the soldiers in the unit were waiting for the phone call saying that the orders had come down and to stand-by for mobilization (00:18:39:00) o In the Guard, different components of a brigade can be called up at different times and after 9/11, the transportation units were called up first, just a matter of days after the attacks (00:19:22:00)  The brigade’s support units went first because the Army needed transportation and maintenance before the infantry arrived (00:19:50:00)  The last two units in the brigade were the last two units that the Army needed; a lot of the units in the Guard were support units that the Army did not need during peace-time on a base because there were civilian contractors already doing the jobs (00:20:04:00) o Once a unit was called up, after a certain amount of time, the brigade was no longer in command of them; they could still communicate with the unit but the unit now belonged to the U.S. Army (00:21:09:00) o In the beginning, the units were typically going for thirteen months with the knowledge that it could increase to eighteen months depending on the requirements (00:21:44:00) �    If it was going to be a long, drawn-out war akin to World War II, the commitment could be open-ended (00:21:55:00)  Oakes’ orders when he want to Iraq in 2005 said he was activated for up to seven hundred and sixty-five days, well over two years; the Army could have kept him and the other soldiers in his unit for that long but a normal mobilization was for twelve months (00:21:57:00) A few years ago, Oakes’ old brigade deactivated and its units moved to other brigades throughout the state; different Guard units are constantly moving from different commands (00:22:51:00) o A unit would deploy, come home for two or three years at the most, then deploy again; just about every Guard unit in Michigan has served time in Iraq at least once and some as many as three times (00:23:06:00) o Presently, most of the Guard units preparing to deploy are deploying to Afghanistan instead of Iraq (00:23:22:00) o On occasion, the Guard does move a single soldier from unit to unit based on his or her commitment (00:23:42:00)  One time, there was a transportation unit in Kansas that could only field one platoon out of three, so Guard units in Michigan and Massachusetts each sent a platoon; when the unit deployed overseas, the unit had three platoons from three different states (00:23:53:00)  Guard units in different states all training on the same equipment, so it was not difficult to insert the out-of-state platoons (00:24:22:00) Following 9/11, the number of people attempting to join the Guard increased (00:24:42:00) o Even now, there is still higher levels of enlistment; a few years ago the Guard had to shut down enlistments sixty days early because they had completed their yearly quotas (00:25:01:00) o Enlistments had stayed up because a lot of kids coming out of high school join because of the educational benefits; a lot of colleges end up giving discounts to military personnel apart from the regular GI bill (00:25:46:00)  When Oakes attended college, his GI bill paid for part and the college had a program that paid for the rest; Oakes joked with his wife that he did not pay more than two thousand dollars for his education, although on the flipside, it took him eleven years of a single course a semester to obtain his degree (00:26:09:00) Eventually, Oakes was called to active duty to assist in shuffling units around throughout the state (00:26:48:00) o However, because he needed additional training, Oakes went to a base in Helena, Montana and trained at an Army Reserve course in the end of July / beginning of August for two two-week classes (00:27:04:00) o He came back to Michigan on a Wednesday, went back to working at the National Guard Armory, and as he was leaving on Friday, a soldier ran out and told him he had been mobilized, although Oakes did not believe him (00:27:43:00)  Oakes went back into the armory and read the e-mail, which told him and another soldier to stand-by (00:28:04:00) �    Oakes started driving back and forth to Detroit because it was September and the unit’s activation date was Oct. 8th and its movement date was Oct. 11th to Fort McCoy, Wisconsin (00:28:13:00) o Realizing he did not have much time before he deployed, Oakes spent three days at home organizing his personal affairs and four days in Detroit with the Guard unit; Oakes knew what his MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) was within the new unit but he needed time to get to know the other soldiers (00:28:33:00) o The new unit was around sixty members strong and Oakes and two others ended up leaving on Oct. 8th as an advanced team to Fort McCoy, while the rest of the unit came over on the 11th (00:29:04:00)  Going away at the airport was better than when Oakes left for Vietnam; he had around fourteen family members at the airport when he flew from Grand Rapids to Chicago (00:29:18:00) Oakes flew from Grand Rapids to Chicago, meet the other two advanced team members from Detroit, and all three flew to an airport near Fort McCoy (00:29:30:00) o While the unit was at the base, they received additional soldiers and equipment, packed their equipment and received extended training, which included “liveconvoy training”, when the soldiers used live ammunition against the targets (00:29:46:00) o The unit was at the base for Thanksgiving, although Oakes’ family ended up visiting the weekend before Thanksgiving (00:30:15:00) On Dec. 1st, the unit’s advanced team of twenty soldiers, which Oakes was part of, took off from Wisconsin on a Miami Air commercial airline that the government had contracted (00:30:30:00) o The flight had to land early because the battalion commander had a heart attack, so the plane landed in Buffalo, New York; the commander and a sergeant stayed behind and both eventually got transportation from Fort Drum and arrived in Kuwait about three days after the rest of the soldiers (00:30:55:00)  Because he was the First Sergeant, Oakes ended up carrying the commander’s 9mm pistol over to Kuwait (00:31:41:00) o The flight also stopped in Iceland for refueling around one or two o’clock in the morning and in Budapest, Hungary (00:31:53:00)  Normally, the plane is allowed to taxi to the ramp for the terminal and the soldiers allowed to deplane, walk around the terminal, and buy souvenirs, etc. but for some reason, in Hungary, that was not the case (00:32:08:00)  They left the plane on the tarmac and had a cleaning crew come out to clean the plane, as well as restock it with water and food, before the plane took off again (00:32:20:00) o The route of the flight took the soldiers over Iraq and they flew over Baghdad in the dark before landing at the Kuwait International Airport (00:32:33:00) At the airport, the soldiers boarded buses that took them to Camp Virginia, which was a staging area for all soldiers going into Iraq; even foreign soldiers from NATO traveled through the camp before going into Iraq (00:32:47:00) o The soldiers could tell the NATO soldiers because of their uniforms and like the Americans, they had their nation’s flag on their sleeve (00:33:03:00) �  o The advanced team stayed at Camp Virginia for two weeks before heading into Iraq proper (00:33:12:00)  While at the camp, the soldiers went through live-fire training again, although this time they spent the night in the desert (00:33:20:00)  The first night the soldiers spent in the field, there was a rather powerful thunderstorm and they were all worried because they were sleeping on cots under ponchos next to the trucks made out of metal (00:33:36:00)  Before the storm happened, the soldiers saw light darting around in the sky and at first, they thought the lights were long-distance aircraft but several years later, Oakes deduced that they were small, unmanned observation drones used for security along the Iraqi border (00:34:06:00)  They made it through the training and on Dec. 15th, “went over the berm” and into Iraq (00:35:16:00) There were four soldiers, Oakes included, in the unit called “the crusty four”, who were the four oldest members of the unit; everyone else was much younger than them (00:35:35:00) o Three of the four had been Vietnam veterans and they all managed to take everything that was happening in stride (00:35:43:00) o Once the soldiers finally got to their base and got settled, it became just like any other day-to-day living routine; they got up in the morning, ate breakfast, worked for most of the morning, ate lunch, worked during the afternoon, ate dinner, and if they were off-duty, went back to their quarters and either watched TV, exercised, etc. (00:35:59:00) o The four older soldiers hung together and did their physical training together, mostly a lot of walks (00:36:23:00) The name of the base where the unit was stationed was “Q-West” and the base was on an old Iraqi jet fighter base (00:36:31:00) o After the 1991 Gulf War, the base fell under the imposed no-fly-zone and although it had been the most modern base the Iraqis had, no aircraft could fly from it (00:36:41:00)  During the 1991 Gulf War, the Americans had cratered the runway so nothing would fly and those craters still existed when Oakes first arrived there and caused problems later on (00:36:56:00) o When the soldiers arrived at the base, it was late in the day and they expected it to be a functional base; instead, they were told to keep their weapons handy because the perimeter was full of holes and although there were guard towers, they were manned by the Iraqi National Guard (00:37:07:00)  The perimeter was fourteen and a half miles long and encompassed the entire base (00:37:32:00) o The base had a ten thousand foot, heavy-duty runway, thirty-three clamshell hangars with doors two feet thick to withstand bomb blasts, and various support buildings, including a computer building and a personnel center (00:37:36:00) �  The soldiers later discovered several bomb-manufacturing buildings on the base and there was also an Iraqi ammo dump outside the base itself that took up two or three square miles (00:37:59:00) o The base was pretty much self-sufficient, although nothing worked at that time; when everything did work, the base had its own sewage treatment plant as well as underground power and communication lines (00:38:15:00)  For the power and communication lines, the Iraqis had buried between eight and sixteen six-inch PVC pipes and ran the wires through them, with the only way to access them through manhole covers (00:38:52:00)  The soldiers could drive along the perimeter road and every fifty meters was a manhole and inside every manhole was a conduit running in one direction and a conduit running in the opposite direction (00:39:10:00)  When the base was shut down in 1991, there was nobody there, so Turkish Kurds came over the border and stripped everything, including the copper from the wires in the manholes (00:39:23:00)  They even tipped over power transformers about the size of a VW Bug, took the copper from inside, and left the shell (00:38:49:00)  Anything that was too big to carry they left and stripped out of it what they could (00:40:02:00)  The Iraqis also left a handful of MiG-21 fighter jets and soldiers from the 101st Airborne, which had occupied the base before Oakes’ unit, had drug the planes, parked them in front of various buildings they had renovated and used them as war trophies (00:40:17:00) o The base had an underground power plant buried under twenty-four feet of sand, although the fuel tanks were aboveground (00:40:48:00)  The Americans took the fuel tanks out in 1991, effectively shutting off power to the base (00:40:56:00) o None of the bunkers were damaged and outside of the bomb damage to the runway, only two buildings on the base suffered damage (00:41:24:00)  One of the buildings was two stories tall, had an elevator in it, and was used as a VIP building; the building had taken a cruise missile strike because on one side, the roof had fallen on the second floor, causing the second floor to collapse onto the first (00:41:32:00)  The other building was what Oakes assumes was the communication center and it too took a precision-guided strike on it; the soldiers could tell because there was pieces of rebar but the concrete had been blown off (00:41:55:00) o By the time Oakes’ unit arrived, all the buildings on the base had been gutted by one group or another (00:42:10:00) When the unit first arrived on the base, Oakes’ main duty was, because he was the First Sergeant, maintaining personnel and taking care of day-to-day issues; however, there was really not a lot of work at the beginning because everyone was trying to get settled (00:42:38:00) o The unit had a TOA (Transfer of Authority) with the unit who had occupied the base in which the units exchange flag and the older unit board airplanes and goes home (00:42:51:00) �  The previous unit had started renovating one building but stopped because they ran out of building supplies, so Oakes unit worked to get the supplies and they built new desks and cubicles (00:43:07:00) o In terms of living quarters, some of the soldiers had to double-up because there were initially not enough personal quarters to go around; the individual quarters were built in Turkey then trucked down to the base (00:43:33:00) o It took the soldiers a few weeks to get everything organized to the point that they were able to work properly (00:43:49:00) Convoys eventually started steadily arrived at the base, coming down from Turkey and up from Baghdad (00:43:53:00) o They were rebuilding the American Embassy in Baghdad and some of the supplies were coming out of Turkey (00:44:00:00)  One day, Oakes went for a drive and on one of the side roads was a convoy with massive spools of wire, all bound for Baghdad and the Embassy (00:44:05:00) o Most of the convoys coming out of Turkey were fuel (00:44:26:00)  They were civilian convoys of tanker trucks and although they were all the same model truck, each truck was painted a different color and the convoy looked like a circus coming down the road (00:44:33:00)  The soldier designated these “white convoys” because they were civilian and were guarded by NATO soldiers (00:44:57:00) o There were convoys at all of hours of the day, both day and night, and the convoy arrivals were irregular so that the insurgents could not pick out a set time when a convoy would be on the base (00:45:06:00) o There were also line convoys that came from the south and brought the soldiers supplies, such as food (00:45:20:00) o Once the fuel arrived from Turkey, it went into a four million gallon fuel farm on the base, which consisted of large fuel bladders buried under the sand (00:45:28:00)  A tanker would pull up to the bladder and pump its fuel through a filter; the people in Turkey had a tendency to fill the tankers with both water and fuel figuring they could get more money (00:45:42:00)  At that time, the black market for fuel was very high because the civilian Iraqi population needed fuel; even though the country had a large number of oil wells, all of the refineries had been knocked out (00:46:02:00) o The soldiers had to watch the convoys carefully because the drivers would have hidden compartments and they would try to smuggle in weapons, booze, or drugs (00:46:26:00)  All the trucks drove in front of a side-scanning x-ray the soldiers had set up and they were able to see everything within the trucks, even the smuggled items (00:46:52:00)  The soldiers checked all the trucks for bombs, as well as the IDs of everyone in the truck and if they found contraband, they simply told the driver to leave, which often scared them enough because the drivers were Turks and there was animosity between them and the Iraqis (00:47:07:00) �     It only happened a couple of times, but that did not deter others from trying to smuggle goods in (00:47:35:00)  Later on, more booze was confiscated than anything, including entire cases of Jack Daniels whisky, because all of Iraq was a dry country (00:47:42:00)  In the mess hall, the soldiers generally drank pop, Gatorade, and non-alcoholic beer (00:47:52:00) Oakes’ unit was attached to the 917th Support Group, which was then attached to a Division, which in turn was attached to the Theater and finally the Southern Command in Kuwait and Miami (00:48:29:00) o A normal battalion ran between three and four companies but Oakes’ battalion eventually reached eleven (00:49:05:00) o About four weeks into the operation, the battalion commander re-organized the command structure (00:49:12:00)  Oakes’ unit was three people short when they left Michigan, so the commander ended up bringing twelve soldiers from the different companies to “beef-up” Oakes’ unit (00:49:20:00)  Over time, the commander moved the experienced soldiers around and put them into positions that maximized their particular skill sets (00:49:52:00) Around the end of February, Oakes became the property-book NCO for all eleven companies in the battalion, which meant he had to get all their information transferred from the States to his system (00:49:57:00) o The system was an Internet system out of Birmingham, Alabama and over time, Oakes had to get everyone into the system; however, not all the units used the same software and as the other units converted, Oakes transferred the information into the existing system (00:50:12:00) o Oakes ended up getting all the units except the unit working in the ammo dump because they were not going to convert their software until after the unit had returned home (00:50:35:00)  At some point, the unit converted early and when all the units were preparing to leave, the unit came to Oakes asking for help (00:50:51:00)  At the time, serialization accountability about sensitive materials was high priority and some of the unit’s serial numbers did not match with what was in their books (00:51:01:00)  However, Oakes could not help them because he did not have their paperwork (00:51:16:00) As time progressed, the soldiers slowly improved the base and made things better for themselves (00:51:24:00) o The Airborne forces had already built a repair center and started using some of the bunkers; the base served as the rear-area for all the helicopters stationed in Mosul (00:51:35:00) Over time, more and more units arrived on the base; when Oakes and the advanced time first arrived, they were told that there was around eight hundred people on the base; by the time their unit left, there were around five thousand soldiers per meal (00:52:06:00) o The perimeter security changed over time as well; the Iraqi National Guard eventually became the Iraqi Army (00:52:31:00) �  Iraqi forces manned the guard posts during the day and at night, American forces guarded the perimeter (00:52:42:00) o A single man, nicknamed “the Mayor”, had the task of strictly running the base and he acted as a liaison between the base and the various civilian support units (00:52:51:00)  The mayor already dictated which units would receive which buildings and if a unit wanted another building, they had to talk with him as he assigning buildings (00:53:19:00)  Although there were only two damaged buildings on the base, all the other buildings had been gutted; even the underground power plant had been wrecked (00:53:31:00)  After each unit received a building assignment, they moved their living quarters near it and built dirt berms and as part of this, each unit received its own generator (00:53:49:00)  The generators were maintained by a civilian company, KBR, and once a day, they would turn each machine off and check to make sure it was running properly (00:54:01:00)  The generators were huge because they had to supply power for around one hundred living quarters apiece (00:54:07:00) o The soldiers eventually improved the front gate security (00:54:34:00)  At first, it was just a straight drive through the gate and the soldiers modified it to create lanes divided by walls of sand so that if a truck was a suicide bomber and it went off, the explosion would not affect the trucks on either side (00:54:37:00)  They also angled traffic barriers so that a vehicle had to go around each barrier (00:54:59:00) The soldiers did not have any incidents with insurgents apart from a couple of rockets; one rocket exploded in the sand in the middle of the base and the other was a dud and it landed in the sand as well (00:55:17:00) o In the beginning, each unit was assigned a guard tower at night; however, because there were not enough units to man each tower individually, each unit had to man two or three towers (00:55:42:00)  Part of the Sergeant Major and Oakes’ job was to take hot food out to the soldiers in the guard towers and check on them (00:55:55:00)  One night, the two men went out to a tower where there were two young females standing guard; both the Sergeant Major and Oakes were Vietnam veterans, so they were cautious whereas the two females were sitting in the guard tower, smoking by flashlight (00:56:03:00)  However, neither had been trained properly in the manning a guard post because they were both clerks, so the Sergeant Major and Oakes showed them what they were doing wrong and explained that if they wanted to smoke, do it in the corner with the flashlight pointed down (00:56:35:00)  They never wanted to fully expose themselves in the guard tower because if someone came through the wire, the guards could easily be seen (00:57:06:00) � On the way back to the compound, the radio rang out “shots fired” and both men realized that it was close of where they were currently driving (00:57:26:00) (00:58:33:00) - (01:00:15:00) Technical Difficulties  In the beginning, there was an Iraqi training battalion on the base, so there were already Iraqi soldiers on the base (01:00:32:00)  The night that the Sergeant Major and Oakes had delivered food to the two female clerks in the guard tower, Oakes thought he heard gunfire when he was walking down from the tower (01:03:39:00)  There was an Iraqi village a few miles away from the base and Oakes initially assumed the gunfire was someone in the village firing into the base (01:03:47:00)  All of the sudden, news came across the radio that there was a wounded soldiers at the fuel dump, about one hundred yards from where the Sergeant Major ad Oakes were driving (01:04:09:00)  They turned around and went back to the guard tower to make sure the two females were aware of the situation and to look out the back of the tower, not the front (01:04:31:00)  The two sergeants stayed at the guard tower with the two clerks for a while, watching as vehicles moved around looking for whoever fired the shots (01:04:48:00)  They never did find the person who fired the shots although the soldiers knew it was an AK-47 based on the sound it made (01:05:39:00)  The next morning, the soldiers found an empty C-Ration container and several empty AK-47 shells on top of a bunker (01:05:46:00)  They could not track anyone in the desert if they wanted to unless the had a dog, which the base did not have (01:06:03:00)  As best anyone could figure, a soldier in the Iraqi training battalion did not like the Americans being there and had decided to take some potshots then sneak out through the wire (01:06:12:00) o The base’s rear gate was not that far from where the shooting occurred and was manned twenty-four hours a day by Iraqi soldiers, so the shooter could have easily slipped out of the base (01:06:22:00) o Several years later, Oakes learned that the same bunkers the men were investigating for souvenirs had trapdoors in them and the base was lined with underground tunnels that none of the soldiers knew about (01:06:50:00)  A soldier Oakes had trained with was going around taking pictures on the inside of a bunker when he noticed a wooden chair; a couple of days later, the soldier went back and the chair had moved (01:07:09:00)  The soldiers put someone up on one of the other bunkers with night vision to watch the bunker and sure enough, after two or three days, there were people coming out of the bunker (01:07:34:00) �  As it turned out, one the cooks at the mess hall was supplying the people hiding in the bunker with food (01:07:45:00)  The cooks working the mess hall were neither Iraqi nor Americans, they were foreigners (01:09:08:00) On Dec. 30th, a Special Forces C-130 landed on the base’s airstrip; although the airstrip was not yet operational, planes could land on parts of it (01:09:28:00) o The plane had come straight from Baghdad and just landed on the airstrip (01:09:43:00) o Normally, a pilot was supposed to circle the runway and observe it through his or her night vision goggles to check the condition of the runway and to make sure there were not obstacles on the runway (01:09:49:00)  Special Forces did not act that way; they just came in and landed without waiting (01:09:58:00) o However, there was hole in the runway about one hundred yards from where the plane touched down; the engineers had cleared away debris but there was still a hole three feet deep, the width of the runway and one hundred and fifty feet long (01:10:04:00) o The plane landed and although the pilot tried to brake, the front wheel went into the hole, hit the three-foot bank, and sheered off the front wheel as well as part of the fuselage before continuing for another one hundred feet (01:10:26:00)  Part of a wing came off and caught fire but there was only a single small Iraqi fire truck on the base; other men were hauling handheld fire extinguishers to put the fire out (01:10:41:00) o There was between seven and nine people on board the plane and in the back was a “sterile” HUMVEE without identification (01:10:55:00)  The C-130 was also “sterile”; the numbers had been subdued to the point that anyone could not tell who operated the plane (01:11:04:00) o Naturally, the plane was totaled and out of the people who were on board, a chaplain lost both his legs and died before he got to hospital in Baghdad while the others were taken up to Mosul for injuries (01:11:13:00) o The next day, the higher-ranking personnel were able to look at the wreckage and as it turned out, a firefighting unit who had come from Mosul to watch against flare-ups was from the Michigan National Guard out of Grayling (01:11:31:00) o The wreckage sat on the runway for a couple of weeks although no one could land on the runway anyway because it still had not been repaired (01:12:18:00)  When they finally decided what to do with the wreckage, they first destroyed what remained of nose and the front end, where all the sensitive equipment was, and then dug a large hole, pushed the remaining wreckage into it, and buried it all (01:12:26:00) Operations in Iraq (01:13:13:00)  Once Oakes became the PVO NCO, he began flying up regularly to Mosul for meetings with the Theater property books; his job involved keeping track of all the equipment coming in and out off of the base (01:13:13:00)  There was a constant stream of trucks going south from the base to another jet fighter base at Balad (01:13:28:00) �  When the trucks left Oakes’ base, they were unarmored and some independent contractors had begun armoring trucks a the base in Balad; when the armored trucks returned to the base, Oakes had to re-identify them (01:13:32:00) o FOB (Forward Operating Base) Diamondback was basically the Mosul Municipal Airport, which American soldiers had turned into a military base (01:14:14:00)  There were not many units assigned to the base itself, apart from a medivac squadron and a MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) (01:14:28:00)  The helicopters were always coming and going, bringing people in and out of the hospital (01:14:39:00)  After a while, Oakes also noticed that remote-controlled drones also operated out of the base (01:14:45:00)  One evening, Oakes and some other soldiers are sitting around and a man was guiding a drone on a tether out to the runway; on the runway, the man unhooked the tether, walked away, and the next thing the soldiers knew, the drone was moving (01:14:52:00) Most of Oakes’ trips around were done by helicopter, although he did travel with a couple of convoys (01:16:02:00) o During the first convoy, the soldiers took some equipment down to the military junkyard in Balad (01:16:06:00)  Oakes and two other men rode in a truck together; one man manned the gun turret, one acted as the truck commander and the other drove (01:16:17:00)  Oakes’ smaller convoy ended up linking up with a much larger convoy heading south carrying vehicles for rebuild, empty containers, and a couple of damaged vehicles (01:16:28:00)  The trip took around six hours and on the way down, the convoy passed another convoy of HETs (Heavy Equipment Transport) carrying tanks and artillery pieces headed north (01:16:48:00)  While the men were in Balad, they turned in all their old canvas, including their tents, because they could sleep in the bunkers (01:17:06:00)  However, all the canvas stayed in-country and was given to the Iraqi Army because the Americans would not risk bringing anything back due to the bug infestations (01:17:19:00)  Even the soldiers’ uniforms were checked very closely when they left the country and returned home (01:17:33:00)  The men also turned in some inoperative refrigerators and computers left by the pervious soldiers who occupied the base (01:17:44:00)  The junkyard in Balad was massive, everything from broken computers up to tanks that had been hit by land mines, as well as wreckage other damaged and destroyed vehicles (01:17:51:00) o Oakes also went on a couple of convoys to Mosul because they needed lumber for building (01:18:13:00) o Going out on convoys broke up the repetition of the day-to-day routine, which would occasionally wear on Oakes (01:18:23:00) �     He would wake up in the morning, eat his breakfast and then sit in front of the computer, do paperwork, wait for an e-mail, repair something, or send e-mails back home (01:18:29:00) Oakes was thankful that they had computers on the base because unlike Vietnam, he and the other soldiers were able to communicate easily with home (01:18:38:00) o He used the computers on Sundays to call his wife at home; Oakes was eight hours ahead of Michigan, so he waited until around four in the afternoon before calling (01:18:43:00)  Occasionally, Oakes called his daughter at her work as well as his other daughter and son periodically just to talk with them (01:19:05:00) o One of the soldiers had set up a web-cam to talk with people at home but the others did not condone that because they had a very limited bandwidth in Iraq and it had to be routed through the Netherlands (01:19:33:00)  The soldiers could tell when there was a lot of people using the Internet because the system bogged down (01:19:57:00) o If someone was wounded or killed on the base, the commanders immediately turned the Internet off because they did not want the information leaking out before the next-of-kin were notified (01:20:05:00) There was not just the eleven companies in Oakes’ battalion on the base and they had to be sensitive to those units as well (01:20:24:00) o One of the units was an infantry unit and every night, they would go out on patrols of half American / half Iraqi soldiers looking for insurgents and every morning, they would come back with somebody (01:20:05:00) Oakes was in Iraq before the much-publicized “surge” began (01:20:54:00) o He was in the country when the Iraqis had their first vote and has pictures of all the ballots traveling through the base to be counted; all the villages in the area brought their ballots to the base, where they were loaded on a helicopter then flown to Baghdad for counting (01:20:57:00) In some places, traveling in a convoy was very dangerous (01:21:31:00) o The route down to Balad took the soldiers past the city of Tikrit; they had to build a wall between the city and the road running around it because the inhabitants did not like the Americans (01:21:32:00)  The convoy did not stop or slow down there because Iraqis would throw hand grenades over the wall, although the grenades would not do much damage to the vehicles (01:22:01:00) o The highways were dual-lane expressways designed to have trees on both sides and in the middle; however, since the war was over, the locals had cut down some of the trees for firewood (01:22:28:00)  On the way back from the trip to Balad, the convoy received word that another convoy in front of them had been hit with an IED (Improvised Explosive Device), although the convoy was on the other side of the highway (01:22:50:00)  Oakes’ convoy had come down that side the day before, which meant the IED was either planted in between or had been planted much earlier; sometimes, an insurgent would plant an IED and let it sit for a couple of days (01:23:03:00) �  o After awhile, the soldiers began looking for signs of something being out of place, like a pile of dirt and/or rocks, an abandoned vehicle on the side of the road, etc. (01:23:20:00)  If they saw something suspicious, the lead gun truck would call back to the convoy so the convoy would either move cautiously or stop all together while the gun truck investigated (01:23:40:00)  There might be something else a mile down the road and they would do it all over again (01:23:57:00) o However, the insurgents began to adapt to the tactics; they realized that a convoy would swing to the side to avoid an abandoned vehicle, so the insurgents would place the IED across the road from the vehicle (01:24:05:00)  The insurgents knew what was happening and were watching the soldiers all the time (01:24:16:00) o Along the convoy routes, the soldiers could see where the power lines had been destroyed (01:24:33:00)  The Iraqi infrastructure was very similar to the American infrastructure, including power lines on the steel towers (01:24:37:00) On occasion, there were black patches on the ground and Oakes initially assumed they were where a vehicle had crashed or burned; however, as the patches got closer to the road, he saw that it was oil seeping up through the ground and pooling (01:25:02:00) o They were digging water wells on the base and had to dig five or six before they found water; they kept finding oil (01:25:26:00)  The majority of the base’s water came through a pipeline from the Tigris River and went through purification (01:25:41:00)  However, the problem with the pipeline was that it was old and every village it passed through tapped into it so that by the time water got to the base, there was barely anything left (01:25:48:00)  One time, the pipe cracked and water was spraying up in the desert like a fountain (01:26:02:00) The convoys that Oakes went out on were during the daytime, although the base had convoys going in and out scattered throughout both day and night (01:26:56:00) o Each vehicle in a convoy had a GPS locator in it, so the people back on the base knew where the convoy was at all times (01:27:06:00) o If a convoy got hit, they would hit a panic button, turning their icon on a television screen back at the base red and the base would get the reaction force to the convoy as fast as they could (01:27:12:00)  There were smaller bases all along the MSR (Main Supply Route), each had its own reaction force and they would send the reaction force from the nearest base to help a convoy (01:27:27:00) o It threw the insurgents off a little bit not knowing when the base would send out convoys but generally, at night they could not see the vehicles in the convoy (01:27:57:00)  The Americans could see any insurgents because they had night vision goggles, which the insurgents did not (01:28:08:00) � o During the day, the soldiers might see someone walking around but could do nothing about it, whereas if they saw someone walking around at night, that person might be a free-fire target and the Iraqis knew this (01:28:15:00) o There was so much supplies and fuel on the base that the soldiers had to run convoys all the time (01:28:31:00)  The soldiers could also only put so much traffic on the MSR; they did not want it wall to wall with trucks because then it is akin to “shooting ducks in a barrel” for the insurgents (01:28:41:00) o The base also built up supplies for various operations (01:28:53:00)  On one occasion, the Army moved into an area near the Iranian border; one day, there is nothing there and the next morning, there is a fullyfunctioning combat base (01:28:57:00)  All the supplies for the base had been built up at Oakes’ base, which was sending convoys every five minutes (01:29:04:00)  Once the convoys reached the desert, they drove side by side, causing some of the Freightliner trucks, designed only to run on hardtop roads, to get stuck in the sand (01:29:13:00)  Oakes’ base supplied almost all the coalition forces stationed north of Baghdad and they moved fuel to Balad, which supplied all the forces within Baghdad itself (01:29:36:00) The IEDs employed by the insurgents could do major damage depending on what they hit (01:30:10:00) o The devices that exploded around Oakes’ convoys tended to put holes in the vehicles or destroyed engine compartments (01:30:15:00) o At the time, most of the devices were ordinance left by the Iraqi Army but as Oakes now understands it, the insurgents are employing more fuel and fertilizer bombs (01:30:23:00)  When the Iraqi Army disbanded, they left ordinance everywhere; every week, the soldiers destroyed all the ordinance they had captured for that week in an explosion, although sometimes, not everyone received word that the explosion would be happening (01:30:36:00)  In Vietnam, if someone heard an explosion, they hit the ground; in Iraq, if someone heard an explosion, they turned and looked at it (01:31:11:00) o In the beginning of the fighting, a lot of the IEDs were 155 mm artillery shells and the insurgents had a knack for putting them behind guardrails on the highway, which added shrapnel to the mix (01:31:21:00)  When Oakes went on his first convoy, someone had gone through and cut down all the guardrails; the post were still there but the metal was gone, even on some of the bridges (01:31:32:00) o There were holes just outside the main gate where early on, someone had snuck in and planted an IED (01:32:10:00) o In two of the guard towers later on, the units had LRADs, which were high quality night vision devices normally mounted on tanks (01:32:21:00)  The “mayor” of the base had been a tanker in Baghdad and brought the two devices to the base for security (01:32:37:00) �     Where the LRADs were located, in a two-story guard tower and on top of a repelling training tower, the soldiers could see the road leading into the base and if anyone was out there (01:33:02:00)  More than once, someone alerted someone else that there were three people on the road, two carrying weapons and one carrying a shovel, and they were about a mile away from the base; the base would send out the infantry (01:33:05:00) The insurgents also launched mortar strikes into Mosul itself (01:33:36:00) o When Oakes’ unit first arrived in Iraq, they sent a four-man team to the FOB next to the Mosul airport and another team to a different FOB (01:33:40:00) o The team at the FOB in Mosul had not been there for more than tens days when a suicide bomber attacked the mess hall (01:33:54:00)  The bomber had worked in the mess hall but was let go; the next day, he went to the mess hall wearing a bomb suit, sat down to talk with someone, and pulled the detonator, wiping out an entire group of people (01:34:08:00)  Luckily, although there were some American casualties, none were from Oakes’ unit; they had already eaten and left (01:34:20:00)  The bomber had used a lot of ball bearings and the soldiers could tell exactly where he was sitting because the ground is peeled back and everything around it has holes in it (01:34:33:00) Even as late as 2005 when Oakes unit first arrived, most of the bases where still being built; Oakes’ unit and similar units were taking the bases over from the active-duty forces that had occupied them since the war began (01:35:05:00) Out of the entire time they were there, Oakes’ battalion only lost six soldiers, three to IEDs and three to traffic accidents (01:35:26:00) o During one the traffic accidents, a tanker truck went off the side of the road, and rolled; the door of the truck had been pulled opened and the driver flung partially out and when the truck rolled, the door closed and killed the driver (01:35:33:00) o In the other traffic accident, two soldiers in a HUMVEE went to avoid an overpass over railroad tracks being repaired by going down the hill, over the tracks, and back up; however, it was dusty and they ended up rolling, killing the gunner and the driver (01:35:54:00) o The IED deaths were cause mainly from shrapnel that took out the truck (01:36:55:00) o There were other times that IEDs exploded but no one was killed, although the vehicles tended to be destroyed (01:37:01:00)  Oakes has pictures of a tractor trailer that was full of holes from shrapnel and even when they got it back to the base, it was still leaking diesel fuel (01:37:08:00) The base was removed enough from any settlements, with the nearest village being three miles away, that they did not receive a lot of incoming enemy gunfire (01:37:37:00) o When they watched the villages through the LRADs, Oakes commented to another Sergeant that it looked like a game on Atari because all the buildings were green blocks (01:38:03:00) �    o Another time, Oakes was in the guard tower and a soldier told him to look through the LRAD, which was pointed at a village five miles away from the base; someone in the village had started a bonfire and seven Iraqi men armed with AK47s were standing around it for warmth (01:38:25:00)  The soldier told Oakes to keep watching a nearby bush and he saw a rabbit, which a dog near the fire chased away (01:38:57:00)  The soldier wanted to know what to do about the Iraqis carrying weapons but there was nothing the soldiers could so (01:39:19:00)  All the Iraqis carried weapons, including those who worked on the base; they had to check the weapon into a vault at the front gate and when left, the Iraqis got their weapon out (01:39:27:00) Every Iraqi drove a white vehicle, both cars and pick-up trucks, although taxi cabs were white with an orange roof (01:39:40:00) In the middle of August, Oakes looked at a thermometer outside their building and it read 130° in the shade (01:40:01:00) o The facilities that had living quarters in them were air-conditioned, as well as working space; there first things the soldiers did when the arrived was to put window air conditioners in the buildings they were using (01:40:16:00) o The soldiers did not care about the cosmetics of an installation; if it worked, then it worked (01:40:25:00) The morale in Oakes’ unit was good, although some of the units they supplied did have different problems (01:40:41:00) o Oakes believes part of the unit’s high morale came from the food that the soldiers received in the mess hall, which was great (01:41:14:00)  Every Sunday was surf’n’turf; the soldiers spent a lot of taxpayers money eating lobster and t-bone steak on Sunday (01:41:16:00)  The soldiers still kept MREs in the vehicles for convoy duty as well as some snack food from home but the mess hall in general tended to serve really good food (01:41:32:00)  The soldiers drank bottled water everywhere, never the local water (01:41:44:00) In early April, Oakes got an infection near his throat (01:41:58:00) o When he went to see the doctor, she said she was not going to touch the infection because it was near his throat; instead, she had her assistant wake the medi-vac helicopter crew to fly Oakes to Mosul (01:42:21:00) o While the helicopter crew was waking up, Oakes went back to his area, got his overnight bag, got on the helicopter and flew up to the hospital in Mosul; after dropping Oakes off, the helicopter crew made it a worthwhile trip and picked up some supplies they needed back at the base (01:42:37:00) o Oakes had anticipated that he was only going to be in Mosul overnight but it took the doctors three times to lance the boil on his neck (01:42:54:00)  When he finally got back to his base, he had to have the area checked every day for two weeks (01:43:23:00)  They made him were a large bandage over the wound, even when he was promoted from E-7 to E-8 but luckily, the doctors got everything out before he left for leave (01:43:47:00) �   On May 6th, Oakes left for leave to meet his family in Ireland (01:44:01:00) o From his base, Oakes went to Balad, took a C-130 down to Kuwait, were he went through the process of turning all his equipment in for storage, flew from Kuwait to Frankfurt, Germany, spent the night there, then finally flew to England and on to Shannon, Ireland (01:44:06:00) o Oakes’ family ended up landing in Ireland forty-five minutes before he did (01:44:50:00)  Oakes stayed in Ireland for two weeks; his kids stayed for the first week before returning to the United States, while Oakes and his wife spent the second week (01:45:16:00) o On the way back, the route reversed but when he got back to Balad and tried to arrange from transport back to his base, no one knew the base Oakes was talking about (01:45:24:00)  He ended up getting a flight on a Sherpa aircraft, a small aircraft used to transport freight around (01:45:42:00)  The Sherpa pilots flew along the knap of the earth, about one hundred feet of the ground; when they came to a power line, they simply flew up and over (01:46:26:00)  Oakes had flown on a Sherpa aircraft going down to Balad when he started his leave and the pilot warned the passengers that if they heard a snap-pop, it was just a flare; there was a short somewhere on the plane and it was causing the plane to release anti-missile flares (01:46:34:00) o Sure enough, the passengers heard a pop and looking out the window, saw flares all over the place (01:46:50:00) o Oakes finally did get back to base, although it took him a couple of extra days because of the complications with arranging a flight (01:47:03:00) o Oakes had been promoted from E-7 to and E-8 just before he left to go on his leave to Ireland (01:47:17:00) When he returned, the soldiers were still building different parts of the base, cleaning out and renovating buildings, etc. (01:47:22:00) o They eventually destroyed the damaged VIP building and buried it and they knocked down only the part that was damaged (01:47:34:00) o On some of the buildings, they simply dropped canvas down to act as the wall, which did nothing during dust storms (01:48:01:00)  The base would get dust storms that made visibility near zero and because the sand was so fine, it caused a lot of maintenance and respiratory problems (01:48:07:00)  When it rained, all the sand turned to muck (01:48:35:00) Luckily, the soldiers arrived in the winter season in November and December, which meant it was cool (01:48:42:00) o They actually received snow in Mosul the first weekend they were there; the team located in Mosul sent back pictures of them having snowball fights (01:48:48:00) o A couple of mornings, the soldiers would wake up and find ice covering the various mud puddles around the base (01:48:57:00) �  o It would get up to 70° during the day but at night, the temperature might go as low as 20°; thankfully, all the living quarters already had heat/cool units installed (01:49:11:00) The living quarters were converted conex containers; they put a floor down, linoleum on top of that and paneling up the walls (01:49:32:00) o All the electrical outlets were 120 volts and the soldiers had to buy transformers for some of the equipment that was 110 volts so they could work (01:49:44:00) o The generators all put out 120 volts and most were covered with a canopy to keep the hot summer sun off of them (01:49:56:00)  Oakes also noticed that all the buildings had a parking area covered with a canopy to keep the sun off the vehicles (01:50:04:00) Oakes did not meet too many Iraqis apart from those who worked on the base and ran little shops near where he worked but in general, they were glad that the Americans were there (01:50:36:00) o Oakes had dinner with an Iraqi general who had spent seven years in prison because he had been considered unfriendly with Saddam’s regime; the general was in charge of the Iraqi training battalion and on time, the battalion invited Oakes’ entire unit up to eat with them at their mess hall (01:50:50:00) o Oakes does not recall running into anyone who was upset with the Americans being in the country because the soldiers were helping them and the Iraqi economy (01:51:16:00) o They had been a country without leadership for an extended period, which led to a lot of black market activities, such as stealing water, gasoline, etc. (01:51:25:00) o The economic structures along the highway were similar to those in the United States, meaning the soldiers could travel down a highway and see a strip mall; however, the strip mall might not be up to the same standards as those in the United States (01:51:36:00)  None of the stores in the mall would have run on electricity because there were no power lines running to the building (01:51:55:00)  The fuel stations consisted of nothing more than the hoses and a meter device with a hill behind the station, on top of which was a storage tank (01:51:58:00)  A road led up above the storage tank so that a only gravity was needed to get the fuel from the tanker truck into the tank and to get from the storage tank to the vehicles (01:52:11:00) o All of the homes had high walls around them because of the Muslim belief that the women are not to be looked at by anyone but the husband (01:52:28:00) o They had houses, apartment buildings, etc. (01:52:56:00)  Their building material was different because they had to building in the desert and was built to withstand both the high heat of the summer and the wetness of the rainy season (01:52:59:00)  Believe it or not, the desert turned green during the rainy season (01:53:09:00) o Gypsy farmers would go through the desert and harvest wheat they had planted in an area before (01:53:17:00) �  o Closer to the Tigris or Euphrates, there were farms along the both rivers with irrigation ditches; the Iraqis elevated the plants and the let the water run alongside the mound (01:53:35:00)  They did not want to spray water because the water would immediately evaporate (01:50:04:00) o Even cities such as Balad, watering was done with irrigation ditches (01:53:52:00) o The only time Oakes saw water being sprayed was at the one car wash he saw (01:54:09:00) o On one convoy returned from Balad, the soldiers passed three kids dressed in Western-style clothing waiting for the school bus, which surprised Oakes (01:54:20:00) o A lot of the shops on base were run by people from Turkey (01:54:49:00)  The shop keepers sold a lot of pirated DVDs; the soldiers might get three DVDs for a dollar (01:54:55:00)  They could tell a DVD was pirated because they would be watching it and all of the sudden, someone would stand up and leave the movie theater (01:55:02:00)  Other shops would sell sandwiches and pop always in sealed bottles and cans; the soldiers never drank anything out of a fountain (01:55:12:00) The government spent some money trying to make some things similar to the United States (01:55:28:00) o In Mosul, there was one little square that a restaurant that sold chicken, one that sold hamburgers, another that sold fish and a final one that sold pizza (01:55:36:00) o Even in the mess hall, a major ice cream company came in and supplied ice cream to the base (01:55:56:00) o The soldiers did not pay for any of the food; there was tons of food in the mess hall and the soldiers could eat all they wanted (01:56:14:00) The soldiers eventually built a center for the convoys where everyone going on a convoy could congregate and receive a security briefing as a group (01:56:37:00) o They showed where the last attacks, gunfire, IEDs, etc. had occurred in the past twenty-four hours or if there was a major battle occurring, an alternate route the convoy would take (01:56:54:00) o There were also refrigerators and freezers of ice, as well as cases of various food and bottled water the soldiers could take with them on the convoy (01:57:08:00)  The soldiers could only take so much because the vehicles tended to be full of equipment; between ammunition and communications gear, there was not a lot of space to move around (01:57:23:00) Return Home (01:57:36:00)  The soldiers arrived on the base on Dec. 15th and left on Nov. 10th (01:57:36:00) o When the soldiers left the base, they went back to Camp Victory in Kuwait to wait for transport (01:57:58:00) �o Eventually, the soldiers were picked up and transported on buses to the Kuwaiti International Airport; once they arrived at the airport during daylight, the soldiers sat in the buses in a parking lot for several hours (01:58:05:00)  They did not put the soldiers on a plane during daylight; the 747 airliners were parked on the tarmac but nobody was in them (01:58:19:00) o The soldiers eventually loaded up with five hundred people to a plane; one plane was going west and landing in Dallas and the other plane was going east and landing in Atlanta (01:58:34:00)  Oakes’ plane ended up making a special trip and went to Fort McCoy, unload the around one hundred soldiers from his unit, then continued on to Fort Lewis, Washington to unload the rest of the soldiers (01:58:51:00) o From Kuwait, the plane stopped in Shannon, Ireland for refueling and while in Shannon, they opened the bar for the soldiers and everyone went there (01:59:13:00)  It took about an hour to refuel the plane, after which everyone got back aboard and they did a headcount to make sure everyone was there; once they were sure, they closed the door and continued the trip (01:59:31:00) o The plane stopped next at JFK in New York City at four in the morning and again, the soldiers open a bar (01:59:39:00) o Finally, the plane arrives at Volk Field, a Wisconsin Air National Guard base near Fort McCoy (02:00:01:00)  It was getting cooler outside the further west they went and by the time the plane landing in Wisconsin, it was snowing; however, all the soldiers’ gear was packed and all they were wearing was the desert fatigues, which did not offer a lot of warmth (02:00:09:00)  They eventually walked to a hangar through the snow and turned in their weapons; there were soldiers there from Michigan and they took the weapons, boxed them up, and shipped them back to Michigan so the other soldiers did not have to carry them any more (02:00:34:00) o Once the soldiers get to Fort McCoy, they are placed in barracks and the next day, they go through medical inspection and then waited for transport (02:01:06:00) o Two days later, the soldier get on buses around midnight on the 18th and as the buses left, most of the soldiers fell asleep (02:01:33:00)  Around daylight, they reached the Michigan state line and stopped at a McDonalds to get breakfast; some soldiers went to a gas station next door to get some food and the workers told them to take as much as they wanted, it was on the house (02:02:11:00)  When the buses got back on the road, a state trooper had his lights going and he saluted the soldiers as they passed (02:03:53:00) o When they got back, Oakes wife had rented a stretch limo HUMVEE that Oakes did not know about (02:03:26:00) o The reception the soldiers received was a lot better than the reception Oakes received when he returned from Vietnam (02:04:04:00)  The same four who hung out together in Iraq were all Vietnam veterans and three were on the bus; one stayed at Fort McCoy because his wife had a new job working in Kansas as a librarian (02:04:13:00) �    o A few months after returning home, the unit had a ceremony and handed out flags, trophies and plaques; a month after the ceremony, Oakes transferred out of the unit (02:04:38:00) o The Guard had a new job lined up for Oakes, so he went through more training for a month and then began working as an Equal Opportunity Advisor, which meant he made sure soldiers did things appropriately (02:04:54:00) Oakes left active duty for a year but was called back in Apr. 2007 and was active duty for twenty more months, until Dec. 2009 (02:05:26:00) o He left the Guard and went back to his civilian job and retired from that job in July; Oakes retired from the Guard on March 31st 2009 when he turned sixty years old (02:05:43:00) After Iraq, Oakes initially went back to the 1225th in Detroit for a month then transferred to Jackson, Michigan as an equal opportunity advisor (EOA) (02:06:04:00) o He needed training to be an advisor, so Oakes spent thirty days at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida; EOA training is some of the most difficult in the military because the soldiers were dealing with people emotions and feelings (02:06:20:00) o After coming home for a month, the unit in Jackson transferred to Grand Rapids, Michigan and the commander wanted Oakes to come with him, so Oakes did so (02:06:38:00) o However, Oakes had not been home a month when he transferred out of the job and into the logistics section for the state of Michigan (02:07:01:00) o In Apr. 2007, Oakes was re-activated to do the property book duties for the 177th MP Brigade that had been mobilized (02:07:18:00) o The 177th came home a year later but Oakes stayed with the unit because their property book officer for whatever reason could not perform the job; Oakes stayed with the unit until Dec. 2008 before going back to his civilian job working for a local school system in January (02:07:30:00)  When the school year ended in July, Oakes retired from the school system (02:08:01:00) o When Oakes reached the age of sixty in Mar. 2009, the Guard forcibly made him retire (02:08:08:00) While Oakes was in Iraq, he would have liked to have seen more people, including going to their homes and becoming friendlier with them (02:08:22:00) o The hardest part was not being able to get to know any Iraqis and what their lifestyle was like; very few of the soldiers were able to do this (02:08:32:00) o On a couple of occasions, they sent out teams to distribute soccer balls, supplies, etc. but Oakes’ job kept him from being able to do that (02:08:42:00) o He also would have simply liked to get out more; in the beginning, it was a little more hazardous to go out but in the last two or three months, it was probably safer (02:08:59:00) The biggest response Oakes receives when people find out he had served in Iraq is they thank him for his service, although Oakes does not advertise that fact (02:09:38:00) � 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 OakesR2 Title A name given to the resource Oakes, Ronald (Interview outline and video, 2 of 2), 2010 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Description An account of the resource After returning from Vietnam in 1969, Ron Oakes married, earned a degree in electronics and traveled around the Midwest working. Eventually, he and his family moved back to Michigan, where Oakes joined the National Guard. As part of the Guard, Oakes helped provide security for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia and deployed to Iraq in 2005 for eleven months. While in Iraq, Oakes performed a variety of jobs, including being a property book manager for his entire brigade stationed at FOB "Q-West", a former Iraqi Air Force base between Balad and Mosul. After the eleven-month deployment, Oakes returned to the United States with the rest of his unit and continued serving in the Guard until March 2009, when he retired at the age of sixty. 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 Iraq War, 2003-2011--Personal narratives, American United States. National Guard 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 2010-06-15 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/988021398f273e4f7a360e6ee34e9db9.JPG 06b0c0cc6ef631001d8c0a535fdef08d 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 Ronald Oakes collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Description An account of the resource Collection of photographs by Ronald Oakes, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, and in the U.S. National Guard in the Iraq War. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968/2005 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/628">Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq war photographs (RHC-80)</a> 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 Iraq War, 2003-2011 Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Veterans Photographs Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Relation A related resource Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-80 Language A language of the resource eng Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 RHC-80_Oakes-Iraq-DSCF1295 Title A name given to the resource Oakes' superiors and Iraqi commanding general with assistant Subject The topic of the resource Iraq War, 2003-2011 United States--History, Military United States. National Guard Military life Soldiers Photographs Description An account of the resource Oakes' superiors and Iraqi commanding general with assistant at a dinner at FOB Q-West in September 2005 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Oakes, Ronald Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2005-09 Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Ronald Oakes Vietnam and Iraq photographs (RHC-80) Relation A related resource Veterans History Project interviews, RHC-27 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Iraq War 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> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg 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/827de09b8f1ece6c277c050957bf2228.jpg adb616ed7f32588dcc9f0e4a33dff407 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 Naval Recognition Training Slides Subject The topic of the resource Slides Military education Airplanes, Military--Recognition Warships--Recognition World War, 1939-1945 Description An account of the resource Slides developed during World War II as a training tool, for top-side battle-station personnel on board ship and for all aircraft personnel, by the US Navy. In 1942 a Recognition School was established by the Navy at Ohio State University where the method of identification was developed. In 1943 the school was taken over by the US Navy. The importance of training in visual recognition of ships and aircraft became even more evident during World War II. Mistakes resulting in costly errors and loss of life led to an increased emphasis on recognition as a vital skill. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides (RHC-50)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-04-04 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-50 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1943-1953 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Source <a href="http://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides, RHC-50</a> 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 RHC-50_804 Title A name given to the resource Oakland Class US light cruiser USS Fresno Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Description An account of the resource Oakland Class US light cruiser USS Fresno, October 1, 1947. Subject The topic of the resource United States. Navy World War, 1939-1945 Military education Warships--Recognition Slides Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Naval recognition slides (RHC-50) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1947-10-01 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/dc61855db865e7dd05e0f7c2f70d85a3.jpg e753368b8ffc35159817abf8a1cf23e8 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 Naval Recognition Training Slides Subject The topic of the resource Slides Military education Airplanes, Military--Recognition Warships--Recognition World War, 1939-1945 Description An account of the resource Slides developed during World War II as a training tool, for top-side battle-station personnel on board ship and for all aircraft personnel, by the US Navy. In 1942 a Recognition School was established by the Navy at Ohio State University where the method of identification was developed. In 1943 the school was taken over by the US Navy. The importance of training in visual recognition of ships and aircraft became even more evident during World War II. Mistakes resulting in costly errors and loss of life led to an increased emphasis on recognition as a vital skill. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides (RHC-50)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-04-04 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-50 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1943-1953 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Source <a href="http://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides, RHC-50</a> 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 RHC-50_796 Title A name given to the resource Oakland class light cruiser Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Description An account of the resource Oakland class, US CL (light cruiser), October 1, 1947. Subject The topic of the resource United States. Navy World War, 1939-1945 Military education Warships--Recognition Slides Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Naval recognition slides (RHC-50) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1947-10-01 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/1282f9b25125123cb617b40c7f8ef557.jpg 8c174fb0c0f9802d7e4052b2aa25599e 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 Naval Recognition Training Slides Subject The topic of the resource Slides Military education Airplanes, Military--Recognition Warships--Recognition World War, 1939-1945 Description An account of the resource Slides developed during World War II as a training tool, for top-side battle-station personnel on board ship and for all aircraft personnel, by the US Navy. In 1942 a Recognition School was established by the Navy at Ohio State University where the method of identification was developed. In 1943 the school was taken over by the US Navy. The importance of training in visual recognition of ships and aircraft became even more evident during World War II. Mistakes resulting in costly errors and loss of life led to an increased emphasis on recognition as a vital skill. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides (RHC-50)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-04-04 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-50 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1943-1953 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Source <a href="http://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides, RHC-50</a> 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 RHC-50_797 Title A name given to the resource Oakland class light cruiser Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Description An account of the resource Oakland class, US CL (light cruiser), October 1, 1947. Subject The topic of the resource United States. Navy World War, 1939-1945 Military education Warships--Recognition Slides Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Naval recognition slides (RHC-50) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1947-10-01 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/e68637c0052beae528ca55072da1dbcd.jpg a928724b16f1dffb6bc274e985b94f0f 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 Naval Recognition Training Slides Subject The topic of the resource Slides Military education Airplanes, Military--Recognition Warships--Recognition World War, 1939-1945 Description An account of the resource Slides developed during World War II as a training tool, for top-side battle-station personnel on board ship and for all aircraft personnel, by the US Navy. In 1942 a Recognition School was established by the Navy at Ohio State University where the method of identification was developed. In 1943 the school was taken over by the US Navy. The importance of training in visual recognition of ships and aircraft became even more evident during World War II. Mistakes resulting in costly errors and loss of life led to an increased emphasis on recognition as a vital skill. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides (RHC-50)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-04-04 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-50 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1943-1953 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Source <a href="http://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/477">Naval recognition slides, RHC-50</a> 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 RHC-50_799 Title A name given to the resource Oakland class light cruiser Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource United States. Navy Description An account of the resource Oakland class US CL (light cruiser), October 1, 1947. Subject The topic of the resource United States. Navy Military education Warships--Recognition World War, 1939-1945 Slides Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Naval recognition slides (RHC-50) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1947-10-01 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/2bd678d7c295b76828d55c0bb0a9f3dc.jpg b5c6c54be2b41ca119717b39ea790768 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 Grand Rapids Boat and Canoe Club collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Rapids Boat and Canoe Club Description An account of the resource Scrapbooks of newsclippings, photographs, postcards, and ephemera of the Grand Rapids Boat and Canoe Club. Photos were taken at regattas on Reeds Lake; the Grand River; Peoria, Illinois; and in Chicago of club members, and events. Historical articles, reports of regatta events, and articles featuring members Charles McQuewan and Jack Corbett are included. Programs include the First Grand Regatta on Great Salt Lake 1888, and Peoria Rowing Festival, and banquet and music programs and the GR Log, a publication of the Grand Rapids Boat and Canoe Club. Materials from the Central States Amater Rowing Association, and the National Association of Amateur Oarsmen are also included. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource circa 1980s to 1940s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/481">Grand Rapids Boat and Canoe Club scrapbooks, (RHC-54)</a> Subject The topic of the resource Grand Rapids (Mich.) Outdoor recreation Boats and boating Racing shells Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-54 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 RHC-54_Photographs-GRRC03 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Rapids Boat and Canoe Club Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource no date Title A name given to the resource Oarman in Single Event Description An account of the resource Herbert Heinrich in single rowboat. In the background, a docked doubles rowboat with male spectator on left side. Subject The topic of the resource Grand Rapids (Mich.) Outdoor recreation Boats and boating Racing shells Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/481">Grand Rapids Boat and Canoe Club scrapbooks (RHC-54)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/">No Known Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng 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/ee193e984bf8ae72e76b123d2db13787.jpg e5402edab2150d1610609de0f4766205 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 Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History Description An account of the resource Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1910s-2010s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Various Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Michigan, Lake Allegan County (Mich.) Beaches Sand dunes Outdoor recreation Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Text Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 DC-07_SD-Misc_Oars Title A name given to the resource Oars Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of a group of eight women in a rowboat. Each has a long oar. In the boat next to them are several men. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Allegan County (Mich.) Boats Women Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of History as part of the Stories of Summer Project. Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg 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/a446b8f3124852dd3b8d9ca7c8de44a3.pdf 14caa5948a92766b2ce18af8dd9b04c7 PDF Text Text Young Lords In Lincoln Park Interviewee: Obed López-Zacarias Interviewers: José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez Location: Grand Valley State University Special Collections Date: 3/2/2012 Biography and Description English Obed López-Zacarias is founder of the Latin American Defense Organization (LADO) that operated primarily from the late 1960s until the mid-1970s, organizing for a caseworker union and for the dignified treatment of welfare recipients at the Wicker Park Welfare Office of Chicago. LADO was also instrumental in helping to develop the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, the longest standing Puerto Rican Cultural Center in the city of Chicago. Mr. López-Zacarias worked closely with the Young Lords, including the protest at Fat Larry’s real estate office at Armitage and Bissell Streets, in various demonstrations at the Wicker Park Welfare Office, and many others. To give one example, Fat Larry’s Bissell Realty was well connected with the local neighborhood Lincoln Park mafia and the old patronage boss system of Paddy Bauer and on at least one occasion, Fat Larry pointed a sub machine gun at a Puerto Rican restaurant tenant who was late on his rent. The Young Lords were informed about the incident and marched in a snowstorm accompanied by members of LADO to picket in front of his office. When some representatives of the picket entered the real estate office, Fat Larry pointed his gun at José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez. Then he ran and locked himself up in a back office until the police arrived. The police arrived and immediately searched Mr. Jiménez for �weapons. Meanwhile, a LADO photographer documented the entire event and published many of those photos in the LADO newspaper the following week. 20,000 copies were circulated widely by the Young Lords in the Latino section of Lincoln Park. Mr. López-Zacarias became the official envoy sent to the Presbyterian Conference in Texas by the Young Lords and the Lincoln Park Poor People’s Coalition, during the McCormick Seminary occupation in 1969. When the occupation was over and all the demands were won, LADO received $25,000 to open up a free community clinic where many of the Latin Kings volunteered. The clinic was located on North Ave. near Western in the Wicker Park neighborhood. Spanish Obed López Zacarias es el que fundió el Latin American Defense Organization (LADO), que empezó desde los 1960s hasta los medio 1970s, organizando para una unión de asistente social y por tratamiento digno con los quien reciben ayuda del Estado en la oficina de Wicker Park Welfare en Chicago. LADO también fue instrumental en el desarrollo del Segundo Ruiz Belvis Centro Cultural, que es el Centro Cultural Puertorriqueño más viejo en chicago. Señor López-Zacarias trabajo cerca con los Young Lords, incluyendo el protesto en la oficina de Fat Larry en Armitage y Bissell Street, igual que otros. Para dar un ejemple, Fat Larry’s Bissell Realty era buen conectada con la mafia de Lincoln Park igual que Paddy Bauer, y por lo menos una ocasión Fat Larry directo un pistola al rentero puertorriqueño porque estaba tarde en pagar la renta. Los Young Lords se informaron de la ocasión y marcharon con miembros de LADO a la oficina de Fat Larry. Cuando un representativo entro a su oficina, Fat Larry directo su pistola a José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez. Luego corrió y se encerró en una parte de su oficina hasta que la policía llego. La policía inmediatamente cacheó a Señor Jiménez por armas. Un fotógrafo capturo todo la ocasión y publico muchas de las fotos en el periódico de LADO la próxima semana. 20,000 copias fueron circuladas por los Young Lords en la sección Latina de Lincoln Park. Señor López-Zacarias fue a la conferencia de Presbyterian en Tejas para ser el ministro público para los Young Lords y la Lincoln Park Poor Peoples Coalition, durante la McCormick Seminary ocupación en 1969. Cuando la ocupación termino y las exigencias ganadas, LADO recibió $25,000 para abrir una clínica que es gratis para la comunidad donde muchos de los Latin Kings volantearon. La clínica fue construida en North Ave, cerca de Western en el vecindario de Wicker Park �Transcript JOSE JIMENEZ: Okay, do you want to give me your name? OBED LOPEZ-ZACARIAS: I am -- in English, right? JJ: In English. (inaudible) OL: Okay, yeah, right, right. I am Obed Lopez-Zacarias. Obed, O-B-E-D, LopezZacarias. Zacarias is my mother’s last name, and Lopez is my father’s name, of course. I was born in San Luis Potosí, which is a state and city in the central part of Mexico. San Luis Potosí, it has a reputation of -- well, has played an important role several times in the history of Mexico. [00:01:00] One of the documents of the revolution is -- the 1910 revolution was called the Plan de San Luis Potosí. San Luis Potosí is a very conservative city. I suppose you could say that Catholicism is the main religion, and it was, again, very conservative. So, for me, it was the first experience of really being in the minority because my parents converted to [00:02:00] Protestantism when they were young, when they got married. So that all of us were raised in a non-Catholic setting. I believe that is one of the things that began to shape my personality because we felt -- we were outsiders. I mean, when there were Fiestas patronales, we were not part of that. (laughs) And I don’t know if it was my imagination or not, but I have a recollection of from time to time our house being the object of stones thrown at us. I don’t know. Maybe it’s my imagination. But that gives you a sense of our feeling of not being part of the culture of San Luis Potosí. JJ: So, how many siblings? Because you said ours, how many siblings? [00:03:00] 1 �OL: I’m sorry? JJ: How many siblings, brothers and sisters? OL: In all, there were eight brothers and sisters, three sisters -- [Omar Naum?], the youngest, and I have another brother called [Asael?], only Biblical names. After Asael came, I came, and then, [Ephraim?], and then our three sisters, [Naomi?], [Prisilla?], and [Deborah?]. My oldest brother was [Hector Javier, Hector Javier?]. Hector was the first one in the family that came to Chicago. [00:04:00] Sometime in, talking to him -- JJ: What year did he come? OL: Actually, it was towards the middle ’40s, I think maybe the end of the ’40s. But he mentioned that, while he loved the university life, the only thing is that, you know, when you’re in the university, there all kinds of cultural activities or social activities. And very soon he realized that, well, that he didn’t have the means to fully participate because even though my father was employed, he was a railroad worker, which at that time was a very -- one of the few jobs that were well paid. JJ: Here, or -- OL: In Mexico, in Mexico. [00:05:00] JJ: And your mom? What did she do? OL: My mother -- she raised us. That was a full time job for her. (laughs) You know, (inaudible). And my mother came from a place called Santa Maria del Rio in San Luis Potosí, and my father from a rancho called San Francisco del Rincón in Guanajuato. So, they met -- my father soon -- I don’t know how, but he got connected with a missionary, [Francisco H. Soltero?], who was the founder of our 2 �denomination in San Luis Potosí. And it was called Iglesia de los Peregrinos. [00:06:00] But then, again, my brother very soon saw that he could not really afford university life. He didn’t have the means to participate in all these things. So, at one point, he and about -- I suppose about 10 other friends of his that were going to the university decided to come to Chicago. And so, that’s how we began. He was in Chicago for several years before my oldest sister, Deborah, joined him. Deborah was a private accountant, contadora privada, privada. [00:07:00] So, she came. When she came to Chicago, she found employment with -- I think he was a Cuban editor of Spanish ancestry. I remember his last name was [Radelat?]. So, that’s how they established themselves in Chicago. Then eventually -JJ: This was in the ’40s? OL: I think it was more in the ’50s, yeah. So, it was finally -- JJ: In what area? Do you know what area of Chicago? OL: They always lived in the North Side, in fact on Humboldt Boulevard. Well, Humboldt Boulevard, as you know, has gone through cycles. They were the first Mexicans that came to live in that area. [00:08:00] JJ: In the Humboldt Park area? OL: Yeah. And the people that rented to them were Lithuanians, also immigrants. I think that’s why they were kind of sympathetic to them. Then they were fortunate. When they came, they came with all their documentation. They didn’t have to go through the pain and suffering of people who have to cross without any documentation. And then, they brought the whole family. I remember that 3 �when I came I must have been about 17 years old. And I was interested in continuing my education. And I remember that one day -- I think I answered some ad for English classes. And a man that was selling whatever method they had came. [00:09:00] And then, Hector said, my oldest brother said he might as well take me to a day school, that happens to be [Wells?] High School. So, he took me there. At that time, the principal was -JJ: This was what year? OL: Probably it was ’57 or ’58. At that time, the principal of the school was a very fine gentleman. I think he lived for many years in Spain, and I think also Puerto Rico. His name was [Dr. Edwin Goodrich?]. He was a very [00:10:00] kind man. And when I came for -- I think I wanted to be in the music class, and they gave me a test on my ability to vocalize, I guess. And the teacher -- also very kind woman -I suppose she was very impressed because she got the principal to come to listen to me. And that led to at least one or two school assemblies I was given the opportunity to sing. So, it was quite a nice experience. Also, I appreciated the fact that being one of the first Mexican students, they gave me an opportunity to [00:11:00] participate, and that gave me a bit of prominence. I really appreciated that. JJ: What type of song? I mean, what were you singing? OL: One of them was (singing in Spanish). And so on and so forth. Ay-Ay-Ay, and then, another song I cannot recall which one it was. But I had very good memories of that experience of going to school. I was already, again, older than most of the students in my class. 4 �JJ: So, did they put you down a grade or anything like that? OL: No, I never had that experience. [00:12:00] Fortunately, I came with a sense of self confidence. I was not intimidated by the new setting. And I think this is due to the fact that from very early age, I had the urge to organize, and that is because we lived in the -- there were three barrios or neighborhoods that were -on the other side of the tracks now they say -- on the other side of the tracks. These were made up of people that were workers in the railroad or some other field. But it was a -- JJ: So [what were they?] organizing for at that time? [00:13:00] This was in San Luis Potosí? OL: Yeah. Well, see, what happened is that -- I remember that at a very early age, I participated in a footrace in the Alameda Central which was contiguous to -- on this other side of the tracks, the good side of the track, so to speak. And from there, I got to say, “Well, if they have these kinds of activities, we should have one ourselves.” So, that was the first time that I decided that I was going to organize a race for the people in our neighborhood. So, I developed the idea of developing what I called “Maratón de los Barrios.” Los barrios mean industry, la colonia San Luis, which is where I lived, la colonia Ferrocarrilera, and la colonia Industrial. [00:14:00] Those were three neighborhoods that I felt I would like to organize something. And they were successful. There was the newspaper at the time, El Heraldo de San Luis Potosí had a good sports writer. And he encouraged me. In fact, he’s the one that, I guess was our padrino because he began to write about these events. So, it was very good, the way in which we 5 �were able to make connections with him. [00:15:00] Then also, I have recollection that when we were in high school -JJ: In Wells? This is in Wells? OL: No, back in San Luis Potosí before I came to Chicago. La Asociación de Estudiantes Normalistas, the Normalista school -- the student association. And that was the first time that I had my first taste of organizing because traditionally the people that are in charge of the association of students would be the people in the professional grades, third, fourth, and -- no, fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. [00:16:00] Those were the ones that were ready to become teachers. But then, the people in high school -- there were three groups of high school for first year and then two more for second year and then one group for third year. So that in terms of numbers, the lower grades were the ones that had the numbers and more students. So, we developed a slate, the slate mainly us, the estudiantes de secundaria. And we had two or three from the professional grades so that we would have a balanced ticket. [00:17:00] And we won. We won those elections. JJ: And this was just passing flyers out or (overlapping dialogue; inaudible)? OL: It was mostly mouth to mouth, especially each classroom -- well, we had our groupings. JJ: So, you went classroom to classroom. OL: Yeah. So, we participated in the elections, and we won. Then the secretary of the school, the secretaria de la escuela, whose last name was [Alderete?], his brother was, I think, the secretary of the local branch of the official party, the PRI, Partido Revolucionario Institucional. So, I think he gave us the idea to come and 6 �visit his brother. [00:18:00] And then, his brother, when we met with him, he arranged for us to have a meeting with Don Gonzalo N. Santos who was a former governor but was in fact el cacique. He was the political boss of the state. And he was not only the political boss of the state, but also, he was prominent in the national politics. JJ: He (overlapping dialogue; inaudible) cacique. OL: El cacique, right, Gonzalo N. Santos. So, he arranged for us to go and meet him at his home. He lived in a part of San Luis Potosí called La Huasteca, Huasteca Potosina. La Huasteca was a region, very kind of -- more like [00:19:00] tropical. Huasteca Potosina included the state of San Luis Potosí, the state of Guanajuato, and the state of Veracruz, I think. It’s an extensive region. So, we went. And through is intervention, we were able to secure the use of El Teatro de la Paz. El Teatro de la Paz, that’s only for really big functions. But as students, we were able to use it for our yearly activity. Another time, [00:20:00] another brother of mine, Ephraim, was a part of a group that a teacher had that put in a -performed una zarzuela, a Spanish kind of operetta called “La Marcha de Cádiz.” JJ: La Marcha de Cádiz? OL: La Marcha de Cádiz. JJ: And what does that mean, the Cádiz? OL: Cádiz is a region in Spain. JJ: Of Spain? OL: Right. And so, it was a very unusual year when we were in charge of the association of students because nobody ever had used El Teatro de la Paz for 7 �the activities of the students. And to the best of my understanding, afterwards nothing like that every happened again. So, I think we left somewhat of a mark. When we left our city, San Luis Potosí -JJ: So, the whole family came? [00:21:00] OL: The whole family came, actually. JJ: Including your mother and father? OL: Exactly, yeah. JJ: You said everything was up and up, legal and everything so you didn’t have to (overlapping dialogue; inaudible). OL: Oh, yes, yes, yes. It wasn’t that difficult then. And I think the only thing -- if you were over 18 you had to have a carta de trabajo, a letter of employment. JJ: (overlapping dialogue; inaudible) legal channel, legal process. OL: Yeah. So we were able to come, all of the family really, all at once. When we came, my brother and my sister were living at 1829 North Humboldt Boulevard. [00:22:00] It was beautiful. Again, it seemed like we were the only Mexicans. Around the corner from where we lived, there used to be another Mexican family. But the man in the family was a teacher. So, that -- JJ: And even at that time, this was, what around -- in the ’60s or ’50s? OL: Late ’50s. JJ: Okay. So, there were also -- there were Puerto Ricans also at that time? OL: I got to meet some -- there might be one or two families, I think because I remember -- JJ: It was still a Polish community? 8 �OL: Polish, German, I think, and I guess Norwegian too because Norwegian Hospital close by and there were one or two other institutions that had Norwegian [00:23:00] in its title. JJ: Because this was more like on Humboldt Boulevard, like you said, it wasn’t -- you know, Wicker Park, there [was?] Puerto Ricans living there at that time? OL: I believe -- there might have been families, but it was not predominantly Puerto Rican. No, no, no. I think that happened much later. So, that was my recollections of the first years that I was in Chicago. JJ: And how did people get along? You said people got along pretty well because they were immigrants too, new immigrants? OL: Yeah, and I guess also because there were so few of us. I think the overt racism came to the floor when we were crowding in. [00:24:00] And especially -- I mean, the Puerto Ricans were more assertive, could you say, or louder? I don’t know how you would call it. (laughs) But I think Mexicans -- we tended to be subdued and not make any waves. And also because at that time, you’re trying to learn, you’re not trying to assert your identity. You’re trying to learn the language, learn the customs. JJ: So, you were like 19, 17, around there? OL: Well, I came at the age of 17. So, I was 18, 19. JJ: Then you went to Wells High School you said? OL: Right, right. JJ: So, you weren’t working at all? [00:25:00] 9 �OL: No, no. Well, I worked for a few months in a little shop in the South Side of Chicago. They made batteries. And that was when my brother told me to go to school. And then, after that -- I don’t know exactly when, but I found a job. I always liked to dress very well at that age. My suits were always from -- there was a store downtown called [Baskins?]. I didn’t have many suits, but the ones that I bought were really -- now that I think of it, they were very good suits. So, I don’t know exactly how it was [00:26:00] that I went to visit a store. I don’t think that I was responding to an ad. Somehow I went to that store on -- it was Halsted and la doce, 12th, Roosevelt Road, you know. And somehow -- I don’t know how, but I got -- JJ: It was where they had the open market, you mean? OL: No, it was a big store. I think that was one of the two big stores in the area, right. And I don’t know how, but I got employed there. And I think maybe because -- I mean, again, I always liked to dress well. I didn’t know what the sport dudes were -- you know, the [la ropa de descanso?]. So, most of the time, I was wearing a suit. (laughs) So, that’s how I got that job there. I was there for probably two years. [00:27:00] And I think after that, that’s when I got drafted, like everybody else. I was drafted into the Army. And then, I went into the Army and I was there for two years. Those two years were also very, very interesting because of the fact that by that time, I had become -- I don’t know how -- I became involved with the people from the 26th of July Movement. There was a man that was more or less the head person. JJ: What was that movement about? 10 �OL: The 26th of July Movement was the movement of which Fidel Castro was part. [00:28:00] I think the name comes from a time -- I think the time when Fidel Castro was first arrested and spent some time in jail. JJ: The trial, [they had the?] big trial?]. OL: And I think out of that came the 26th of July Movement. And I had a friend -- I think I had a friend -- his last name was [Franklin?]. His father was a Communist, and his father was one of a group of Communists that at one point were jailed. He spent time in jail. So, getting to know him -- it was good, and he was a good - JJ: So, he went to jail here in Chicago, though? OL: Yes, in Chicago. I think that was at the [00:29:00] height of the witch hunt when Communists were, I suppose what they called card-carrying Communists were persecuted, put in jail. So then, I was drafted. And when I was drafted, one of the things that I knew was that you never tried to hide anything in your record. (laughs) So, my list was fairly long because I became associated with people that were part of a local bunch of the 26th of July Movement. The head of that group was a man, [Manuel Sanchez?]. [00:30:00] He lived on Fullerton, by the way, Fullerton close to Humboldt Boulevard, I think. And, let’s see. So, when I was in the Army, I had to fill out all my affiliations, so the 26th of July Movement, all the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. That was a group that -- I don’t know if you recall the name of a man that was the owner of theaters, Spanish theaters. JJ: [Jan Rosen?]. OL: Jan Rosen, yeah. It was through him that I got involved in the -- 11 �JJ: He had fought in Spain, also, the -- OL: Oh, yes, correct, correct. He had fought in the -- with the Republican side in Spain. [00:31:00] That was when Franco came to power, I think. JJ: (inaudible) He owned the 3-Penny Cinema, the Biograph. OL: Exactly, exactly, Teatro de las Americas also. Teatro de las Americas. He was a very good man. He was a very good man. But then, again, when I went into the Army, I had to put all those affiliations. And then, the intelligence service of the Army tried to interview me. But I had found -- when I came into the Army, they put me in what they called flagging action, F-L-A-G-G-I-N-G, a flagging action, which meant that you [00:32:00] -- I guess they put you in a state of suspense. You could not be put in the regular activities of the Army. So, I was put on the flagging action. And while I was there, there was another young guy that was connected to another very good family that I used to know. [Dick Criley?] was his name, C-R-I-L-E-Y, Dick. And his wife was an organizer for U.A., for one of the progressive locals at that time. JJ: Was it against war and fascism? OL: I’m sorry? JJ: Youth Against War and Fascism? OL: No, no, it was -- I cannot recall the name. [00:33:00] But through this couple -well, Mr. Criley was the head of a group called Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights. And so, through them, I met these men who were also in the Army and also was put on that flagging action status. And so, with him, I was able to develop a -- our strategy was based on the fact that before they put you in a 12 �flagging action, the Army has to let you know that they are going to put you in that status [00:34:00] to give you an opportunity to say whatever you need to say. But since they didn’t do that with us before they put us in the flagging action, then every time the intelligence service tried to interrogate me, I said, “Well, I refuse to participate,” on the grounds that they had not followed the Army procedures, and the fact that we had put in a complaint with the Inspector General of the Army against that kind of action on the part of the Army. So, every time they tried to interview me, I would go back to the fact that I considered all this illegal and that I had a complaint with the Inspector General and until such time as that complaint was acted upon, I was not going to participate. [00:35:00] And so, that’s how I avoided being interrogated, because once you open yourself up to interrogation, they can trick you into all kinds of things. So, that’s basically my experience in the Army. So, by the time -- when I came out of the Army, I had to go through these pruebas de fuego, I had been tested. JJ: So, you came out when? What year? OL: In ’64. So, it took two years before the riots. And when the riots came, well -- JJ: So, the riots -- when you say the riots, you mean -- OL: The June of 1966, what is called the [00:36:00] -- JJ: The riot in Division Street. OL: Yeah, the Division Street riots of 1966. JJ: And what was that about? What was that about? OL: Well, my understanding is that at the end of the first Puerto Rican festival, which was in June of ’66, on that Sunday, the day after -- 13 �JJ: You mean the Puerto Rican parade, the first Puerto Rican parade? OL: Right, the first Puerto Rican parade. That Sunday afternoon when people were celebrating in the park, there was an incident where a police officer shot this guy, [Jose Salin?] Cruz was his name. And that led to the people in the park that observed that to begin to [00:37:00] react spontaneously. And they could not quell the riots. Well, they began on Sunday, but then, on the two following days, the riots continued and the police were -- I guess they didn’t know how to handle it. My understanding is that at one point, Monday or Tuesday, the whole police force throughout the city -- they were brought into the area, but still they did not have the ability to put down the demonstrations. JJ: So, all these police cars are on the street? They’re driving through the street and people see that? And that brings more people. [00:38:00] OL: Well, in fact, I think that when it began to happen -- again, the cars would pass by and they would throw stones at them. It wasn’t like the police was in charge of the situation. The people was in the middle of the situation, but they were not in charge. JJ: So, they’re just driving by like targets because they’re getting thrown rocks at them? They’re getting pelted? OL: I guess the idea was to take control of the situation, but there wasn’t, again, something they could do because, again, they were not prepared for that kind of eventuality, not for a riot. I think in the following years they developed -- they were able to do that. JJ: So, it lasted about a week or -- 14 �OL: I think it was two days of actual fighting, Sunday and then Monday and Tuesday, to the best of my recollection. [00:39:00] JJ: How did it stop? OL: I guess -- I wouldn’t say people run out of steam, but I think the police slowly began to assert themselves in the area. JJ: Did any organizations play any role at all? OL: No. Well, at that time, there were no organizations. The first organization that came out of the riots was the Spanish Action Committee. JJ: That came out of the riots? OL: Yeah, Spanish Action Committee. And the head of that group was [Juan Diaz?]. My understanding is that Juan Diaz was on the staff of the Cardinals Committee. I believe the Cardinals Committee had already been activated before the riot. [00:40:00] JJ: Yeah, they were active (overlapping dialogue; inaudible) San Juan. OL: I think it was mostly with the Caballeros de -- JJ: San Juan. OL: De San Juan, right. That was the -- I suppose Caballers de San -- JJ: They organized in the ’50s. They were kind of like -- that was at the point when they were beginning to go downhill and new groups were coming in. OL: Right. Yeah, because first of all, they were controlled by the church. And when the riots happened, the church wasn’t going to endorse the riots. They were part of the people that tried to stop it. JJ: But people were angry, you’re saying. 15 �OL: Oh yeah. JJ: How were they acting (overlapping dialogue; inaudible) besides the riot? [00:41:00] OL: They just began to fight with the police, throw rocks at them. JJ: So, the Spanish Action Committee came out of that. Did LADO come out of that? OL: To the best of my understanding, yeah, the Spanish National Committee came out of that. Now, because of my orientation and also because I was Mexican, I wanted to support the Puerto Rican community and support the group that seemed to be the main group. But even after several months, I know that at [00:42:00] one point in some conversation that Juan Diaz was having -- you know, [just having?] conversation in the street, you know -- that he mentioned divisively, kind of (Spanish), that he said words to the effect that, “Well, Obed Lopez doesn’t know that the reason he’s not admitted to SAC is because he’s a Mexican.” So, I said, “Well, okay.” (laughs) I just assimilated that. So, it was then that I thought, “Well, if I cannot be in SAC because I’m Mexican, I still want to do something.” So, that’s when the idea began to germinate that we had to have a different organization. And by the name -- [00:43:00] I think the name give it quite the definition. It was a Latin organization, Latin American organization. It was a defense organization. It was aggressive in the political sense. And it was an organization. JJ: But it came out of SAC. OL: Well, no, it did not come out of SAC because I wanted to be part of SAC but I couldn’t be part of SAC because I was Mexican. 16 �JJ: It was a reaction to SAC. OL: That’s the best way to put it. It’s a reaction to an organization that was not Latin, open to others but Puerto Ricans. That’s how we came and established the Latin American Defense Organization. JJ: But later on you did work together (audio cuts out). [00:44:00] Did you march (overlapping dialogue; inaudible)? OL: There were marches. We also participated -- right. Well, let me see, I think there was -- I don’t know exactly, but I think a few days after the riots, I think there was an attempt to march to city hall. And in fact, the march to city hall took place. But I remember [Father Headley?] and another father -- I can’t remember his name priest. JJ: [Leo T. Mahon?]? Those were the two leaders that (overlapping dialogue; inaudible). OL: Yeah, him. They tried to change the -- to the police station, that [00:45:00] was the first march, to the police station. And they were trying to stop us from going to the police station. So, I’m watching how they wanted to get people back into the Humboldt area. But people just kept going until we ended up at the -- was that 13th district police station, I believe? JJ: Fourteen. OL: Fourteen district police station. JJ: [Wood Street?]? OL: Yeah. So, that was the first march that I recall being part of. I was not in a leadership position. I was just part of the group. 17 �JJ: Okay, so then, LADO forms at that time. OL: So yeah, so it took some time because we were trying to see if we could be part of and supportive of the Puerto Rican organization. [00:46:00] But when that didn’t happen, then we decided to establish the Latin American Defense Organization. JJ: Besides admitting other people, what were some of the main issues that the Latin American Defense Organization were looking at? OL: At the beginning, I wanted to get a hold of some issues. The first issue that I thought I wanted to see if I could get something going was in reference -- the colmados versus National Tea food stores. I remember that there was a National Tea food store on Division and Washington, I believe. [00:47:00] And one day, I went and I asked, “Do you have any” -- I think Puerto Ricans working -- and they didn’t have any employees that were Puerto Ricans. So, I took that as a basis to develop a campaign “Compra al Colmado,” no to national food stores. It was short lived. JJ: Like a boycott. OL: Right. It was short lived because by that time, Jesse Jackson already had “Operation Breadbasket.” And I remember I went at least to one of their meetings. But I said, “This issue is already in the hands of the Black leadership.” [00:48:00] JJ: So, you were moving right away, organizing from the very beginning. OL: Right. That’s right. Exactly, exactly. JJ: (inaudible) But you didn’t come for that reason. You came for school. 18 �OL: Say that again? JJ: When you came from Mexico, you came to go to school? OL: When I came from Mexico, we came to live here. We were immigrants. JJ: And right away, you got involved? OL: No, actually no, because, again, for two years -- we came in ’57, I believe. Fiftyeight and on, we -- I was just adjusting myself to the new JJ: (overlapping dialogue; inaudible) OL: Then in 1962, I was drafted into the Army. JJ: Right, the Army. So when you came out of the Army -- OL: So, I came out of the Army in ’64. So, it took two years [00:49:00] between the time that I came out of the Army to the time the riots took place. JJ: But were you dissatisfied within the Army while you were there, or no? OL: I was not dissatisfied. I went because I had to go because I was called. But again, when I went into the Army, when I had to fill out all my information, I had to list all the organizations that I was part of. And that’s where the Fair Play for Cuba came, the 26th of July Movement, especially those two. So, imagine in 1962 to be pro-Cuba and being pro-Castro -- so, that’s already a flagging -- that’s when the red light came up. [00:50:00] They had to initiate an investigation. JJ: So, there was an investigation? OL: Yeah, right. But then they did not follow the Army procedures in the investigation. Again, according to the Army procedures, they had to give me a chance to explain myself, and since they did not do that, that was my basis for not cooperating with them. And then, I put my complaint to the Inspector General. 19 �So, anytime they wanted to interview me, I said, “Well, I decline,” on the basis that the investigation was illegal and that I had a complaint pending with the Inspector General. So, that’s how I protected myself all the time that I was in the Army. [00:51:00] JJ: Okay. And so, now you have LADO, the Latin American Defense Organization, and they’re working on -- what other issues are they working on? OL: Well, when we established LADO -- and again, I think it was maybe around ’68 -- JJ: So, it was after the riot of ’66. OL: Yes, it was after the riot. JJ: So, during the riot of ’66, you were just trying to -- OL: I was simply an observer, like an interested observer. I stayed in the periphery of the action. I recall placing myself in by 11th and -- the corner were the Latin Kings -- JJ: Oh, 11th and Schiller? OL: 11th and Schiller. That was the first time that I observed [00:52:00] -- what’s his name? The head of the Latin Kings. JJ: [Phil Juarbe?]? OL: Phil, yeah. Phil Juarbe. Juarbe. Phil Juarbe. And simply observed -- that was when I became aware of him and I became one of the Latin Kings. I think there were other groups, but the Latin Kings were the ones that -- JJ: The Young Sinners, were there the Young Sinners? Was another group that was there? But the Latin Kings -- that was the (overlapping dialogue; inaudible). So, did you start working with them? 20 �OL: No, because, again, at that point, I wasn’t -- I mean, I wasn’t anybody in a leadership position. [00:53:00] JJ: So, in 1968. OL: But then, I think it was ’67 when there were some -- the political campaign I think either for the election or reelection of Paul Douglas. And that’s what gave us the opportunity to hook up with labor because I don’t recall exactly how we came to know that there was a labor group that needed to work in the elections but needed to hook up with an organization. So, with the organization -- so that’s when we had -- [00:54:00] the first time that we had a place. That was 2322 West North Avenue. That’s the first place. The labor group rented the facility, and then, we came in as the, quote-unquote, the community organization. So, that’s how we began. We had the advantage over any other group that we had a place that we could call our own. And that was when -- I think it was because one of the founders of LADO is [Olga Pedroza?]. Olga Pedroza already was a college graduate. And I think that she began to work as a caseworker. So, it was [00:55:00] through her that we more or less began to see the work in the welfare department and how the Puerto Rican families had to be part of the welfare. They had to receive welfare benefits since the family was not employed. That’s how we established our connection with the first families. JJ: [Community with the family?]. So, that’s how you kind of build the base. OL: Right. It was mostly the women. The women would go to the welfare department. 21 �JJ: So I understand, was there also a union that you were trying to (overlapping dialogue; inaudible)? OL: Oh, that’s right. The [00:56:00] welfare employees were trying to form what became, I think, an independent union of public aid employees. So, we had a good working relationship with them, and that was helpful because they were trying to organize their union so the case workers were very cooperative with us. They helped us, in a sense, to be more effective. JJ: Did you have any demonstrations or anything? OL: Well, that was when we began to have demonstrations -- I don’t remember, to be truthful, how we began to -- well, first we would come to the welfare office to help on a day to day basis. [00:57:00] And that’s, I think, how we began to build a nucleus of people on welfare that related to us. Then when the elections for -when the efforts to elect Paul Douglas came, labor needed a group. They had a facility. We became the group, and that’s how we began to really begin to develop a base of members and supporters. JJ: Was it -- one time, I believe, that the Black Panthers and Young Lords were also marching together with LADO? OL: Oh, yeah. I think it was by ’69, I believe. Yeah. We had already been there for some time. [00:58:00] And that was when -- I don’t know exactly how we -maybe you can help me -- how we got to work together. Well, you were in Lincoln Park. We were in -- JJ: Right. I think you started supporting us in Lincoln Park, and we had a coalition, the Rainbow Coalition with the Black Panthers. So, whoever the Black Panthers 22 �supported, we supported, and whoever we supported the Black Panthers supported. And so, you asked the Young Lords if they could support the welfare case workers, so we invited the Panthers. And I believe all three of us were arrested, myself, you, and Fred Hampton. It happened twice (inaudible) because the [00:59:00] -- some of the women took over the welfare office, and so we got arrested at that time. That’s what I remember. But I believe there was even -Chris Cohen was in there. That guy that later on -- I don’t know what his job was, Chris Cohen. OL: Chris Cohen. I remember the name, but I don’t recall exactly. Was he with the welfare department? JJ: I think he was with the welfare department. Later on, he became alderman of the 46th Ward and we ran against him. Now, what about -- do you remember Corky Gonzales and the “Crusade for Justice?” OL: Oh, right. [01:00:00] Well, Corky -- it was had the time when Dr. King was based here in Chicago. And Corky Gonzales -- let me see. Corky Gonzales, at one point, came to Chicago, I don’t know if specifically because he wanted to meet Dr. King or he had something for another event. And then, I took him to meet Dr. King. But the same happened with Reies López Tijerina. He also came to Chicago, and also, he wanted to meet with Dr. King. So, I took him to meet Dr. King. I remember Reies López Tijerina had the issue of the land grants movement. His movement was based on claims that preceded even Mexico because they claimed that the lands that were taken from them were granted to 23 �them by the [01:01:00] Spanish crown. And it was on that historical basis that Reies López Tijerina developed his movement. JJ: And his movement did what? What did they do? OL: Well, again, they were trying to regain control of the territory that was part of the initial land grants. They were not successful, of course. JJ: But I mean, what kind of things did they try to do? OL: What do you mean? JJ: I mean, what kind of actions did they do? OL: Well, I think mostly it was organizing the people that [01:02:00] could have a claim to that. In those years at one point, the wife of Reies López Tijerina burned, as a symbolic act, burned some signs of the -- what is the name of the forest? JJ: Forest Rangers? OL: Yeah, Forest Rangers, [I would suppose?]. That got her in trouble, and I think that she spent some time in jail after. JJ: This was Reies López Tijerina’s wife. And did he do anything or spend any time in jail? OL: Tijerina? JJ: Yes. OL: I mean, he was a leader. The wife is the one [01:03:00] that committed that action that landed her eventually in jail. JJ: (overlapping dialogue; inaudible) take over a courthouse or -- 24 �OL: To be truthful, now I remember that incident. But I don’t know if Tijerina himself was involved. Possibly he was. But what the outcome of that, I do not remember. JJ: Okay. But anyway, you started working together with the Young Lords at that time, when the Young Lords were beginning, right at the very beginning. I think there was a thing about Fat Larry or something like that. Do you recall that? OL: (laughs) Oh yeah. I remember. JJ: What do you remember about that? OL: Well, I remember that -- I don’t know if it was directly Fat Larry, the one that told - I think you guys, the [01:04:00] Young Lords words to the effect that that neighborhood had been Italian. It had been German before and they were going to make it that again. They were going to get rid of the Puerto Ricans in the area. And I remember I think one day there was some demonstration that you had against him and he came out with his weapon. JJ: Submachine gun. OL: Submachine, right. And I think it was for [Dolores Valera?], the one that took that -- captured that moment. And that was very -- JJ: How did she capture it? What did she do? OL: I’m sorry? JJ: How did she capture it, [01:05:00] the moment? Was it -- OL: She was with us and she was a photographer. JJ: When we confronted Fat Larry? OL: Yeah, so she was there. 25 �JJ: Taking pictures. OL: Yeah, she took pictures. JJ: And then, we put the pictures in the newspaper? Is that what you’re saying? Is that what I’m saying (overlapping dialogue; inaudible)? OL: Yeah. I know that picture was very useful. It was used to make -- so that people could see what it was that you were up against. JJ: Because he represented the local real estate office and the local mafia. He was a local mafia (overlapping dialogue; inaudible). OL: Yeah, exactly. JJ: And actually, the police came in. Didn’t they? At one point, he called the police (audio cuts out) machine gun, but he’s calling the police. [01:06:00] OL: (inaudible) Also, I think he had a phone. JJ: That was (inaudible) picture. He had a phone calling the police. OL: Right. “Come and save me.” (laughter) JJ: Even though he’s got a submachine gun. And so, those were the pictures that Dolores Valera put -- OL: And they would use them in the -- JJ: Where is Dolores now? OL: We don’t know. She went to New Mexico, and the last time that -- [Omar?] has tried to keep in touch with Olga Pedroza who was one of the founders of LADO. I think at one point he asked her if she new -- she was in touch with Dolores, but I think she said [01:07:00] she had lost touch with her. 26 �JJ: But that kind of was one of the pivotal points of the Young Lords in Lincoln Park. We were working together with the Latin Kings. OL: Yeah. And I remember a lot of -- I think the way in which we came to support the Young Lords was that some of the mothers that were involved with LADO were from that area. That’s how we kind of -- JJ: Exactly. The (inaudible) covered that area. Okay, so now, we’re working together, and then, we go to the youth conference? [Do you remember?]? OL: Yes, I think we hired two buses. JJ: We had buses full of Young Lords and (inaudible) and we went there. [01:08:00] OL: That was quite an event, traveling together. JJ: All the way to Denver, Colorado. And this was around ’68, 1968 was the first year. And then, later on the next year there was another one. OL: Yes. JJ: Okay. And what do you remember of that day, up in Denver, at that event? What do you remember? OL: Well, actually that it was an exhilarating event because of the fact that we brought so many people that were activists with us and with the Young Lords. It was something that had never happened. [01:09:00] And I remember that it was very good, because for the local people from LADO to be exposed to a national movement, I think, also opened up their understanding and their perception of themselves, because I think at that point they were able to see it was not just an isolated group, but there was a larger movement that they could identify with. I think that was the -- 27 �JJ: So, it impacted your members? OL: Oh, definitely. JJ: What did they do after that? OL: Well, we kept doing our -- the welfare department had not changed. I think it renewed determination. I think that’s the one thing about it, that people knew they were not [01:10:00] crazy. It wasn’t that they were asking for anything that they were not entitled to receive. So, I think it was a very good influence. It expanded their world, expanded their consciousness. JJ: What other events did the Young Lords and LADO work together? OL: Well, I think basically we were kind of a single issue organization. At one point, we [01:11:00] thought we would get into the things with the stores, with the national chains. But then, again, we saw that Jesse Jackson was covering that field, and we didn’t feel that by getting into that issue we wanted to become just adjunct to the personality of Jesse Jackson. So, we said, “Well, that’s not an issue where we can create our own --” JJ: Now, the Young Lords took over McCormick Seminary, Theological Seminary. And then, you went to the -- as part of that takeover, [01:12:00] you went to San Antonio, Texas. OL: San Antonio -- the Presbyterian National Convention, right, yes. JJ: What happened there? We don’t know what happened there. OL: Well, what happened there was that at one point I was able to address the general assembly. JJ: How did you address -- you just -- 28 �OL: Written. JJ: I mean, you talked to the people that -- and they gave you permission? OL: Oh, yeah, to all the -- JJ: They had to give you permission because their seminary was taken over. (laughter) OL: Kind of. They could not ignore my presence because I was not there by myself. I was there as a representation of people that had taken over -- JJ: A seminary, the administration building. OL: That’s right. Yes. The one thing [01:13:00] that we have learned very late through the meetings that we have been having with clergy is that the takeover also had quite an impact inside the leadership. JJ: Of the clergy? OL: Of the clergy, right. I don’t know how -- JJ: Why do you say that? I mean, why do you say that it had an impact? OL: Because they told us. They told us how within -- I think within the faculty of McCormick -- within the student group, the ones that seemed kind of -effervescence. There was this kind of -- as part of the times, the ’60s, every level of [01:14:00] our communities -- there were -- well, the spirit of the time, so to speak, was present there too so that our addressing the national convention also had within the clergy -- there was also that kind of -- JJ: And how were you received? Were they quiet? Were they bitter at that time? Not now, but I mean, at that time. 29 �OL: At that time? Well, I don’t think they were bitter. It was, again, very unusual [01:15:00] that a convention of clergymen -- that it would have the presence, the visit of people representing a community. I think that we had a positive experience and that they were not -- we never sensed any kind of hostility because it was not like if we were -- we were a miniscule group. Our presence was not overpowering. I think the message that we gave, the message that we conveyed had an impact then and had an impact as they continued their -[01:16:00] JJ: What was the message that you conveyed? OL: Well, that there was a community that held grievances against the power structure and that they were part of the power structure. I think that basically that’s what it was. The way I understand it, they heard it, and it was a new voice. We were a new voice, and I don’t think they resented us because, again, we were nobodies. But the fact that we were coming with a message from my community -- I think that’s what was new. JJ: And we had a list of demands. And you were speaking. OL: Correct. [01:17:00] And basically, as I recall it, I just made a brief introduction and then read the demands and that was it. JJ: And that was it. No more speaking? I mean, that was it? You just said, “This is who I am and I’ve been sent here to tell you that these are the demands we want”? OL: Who I was and who I represented and what kind of grievances we had. And then, I read them. 30 �JJ: Then you walked off the stage? OL: Yeah, basically, yeah. The idea was not to keep hold of the seminario. JJ: Were they quiet, or did they just clap or boo? OL: No, there were no boos. I think they just listened and listened respectfully because there was no [01:18:00] sign of hostility. JJ: Okay. But then you came back from the conference by Sunday. By Sunday, it was over. By Sunday night it was over, we negotiated. OL: Once we finished our presentation, I think that I didn’t stay much longer maybe. JJ: So, were you at the negotiation then with [McKay?] or not at that time? OL: I don’t have a recollection of that. But I think the negotiations -- JJ: They were in his apartment, the night that we negotiated. [01:19:00] OL: I might have been in the negotiations, but I don’t have a recollection of that. JJ: Okay. So then, what happened after that? Because one of the demands was a clinic for LADO and a grant for the Young Lords also. OL: I think eventually we got a grant. JJ: For the Young Lords clinic. OL: That got us going for, I suppose at least a year. It was good because we didn’t have any sources of support. So, that helped us get going until the money ran out. JJ: And basically, what was the clinic? What did you do in your clinic? OL: Well, I think basically it was like [01:20:00] -- I remember one of the services that were very effective for maybe two to three years was the physical examinations that were required for students to be admitted in school. I know that the kind of -- 31 �if they would go to a private doctor, it was -- I don’t remember exactly how much, but it was quite an expense, especially if you had a family with three, four, five kids, a lot of them having to have that examination before they could enter into school. [01:21:00] When we set up ourselves to give the physical examinations, that was a great economic contribution to the families, because I think that even the doctors had to lower -- the private doctors -- they had to lower their fees because we had quite a good number of families that received those services. Then of course, the ones that would get primary care -- we also were able to refer. That was the other important thing. Through the doctors that were part of the faculty of Northwestern, we were able to refer them to specialty services, I think, when they needed more. JJ: At Northwestern? OL: At Northwestern, yes. JJ: And Northwestern was located where? Do you recall? Oh, that’s [01:22:00] Northwestern University. OL: Here on Chicago and [by the lake?]. JJ: So, people came to you and they -- OL: Right. And the ones that needed -- JJ: Did they pay any money? OL: No, no. JJ: So, they didn’t pay any money? OL: No, they didn’t pay any money. 32 �JJ: And then, you also referred them to Northwestern, and there they didn’t pay any money either? OL: Most likely not because I think all of them, even at that time, were eligible to get some form of economic help to cover their services. So, the important thing is that we -- that through the referral system, we were able to get people to receive services in that facility. JJ: And that happened for a year, at least a year. OL: At least three years, I think. JJ: So, a lot of people went to the services. [01:23:00] OL: Oh yes, uh-huh. JJ: So, that was that was a good organizing vehicle, or what -- did look at it like that? OL: The interesting thing is we didn’t see it as an organizing vehicle. We saw that that was a service that we could provide to people that didn’t have it, so we gave it to them. JJ: (inaudible) community. Okay, and then what about after that? How did you feel about the Young Lords? This is another group. OL: Well, we felt, of course, solidarity, a sense of solidarity. I think we admired the fact that -- I mean, you were very young, and you had, in a sense, a big -- even if we didn’t quite understand it yet. But when you went up against [01:24:00] the powerful power structure, local -- when we talk about the Italians and we talk about the mafia. Hey, they were there. The good thing is that we -- you were not intimidated. I mean, it didn’t -- the name of the mafia didn’t instill fear in us, in you. So, that was -- 33 �JJ: So, we were, as a group of people, not just Young Lords, but LADO (overlapping dialogue; inaudible). OL: There were other groups. What was the name? JJ: SAC was marching with us also. We were not afraid of the mafia. OL: I think ABC came one or two years later, right? [01:25:00] JJ: (inaudible) OL: That was a time when -- JJ: (overlapping dialogue; inaudible) OL: When there was people felt the need to organize, and they organized in different groups, but they were organized. JJ: So, it was a time of people getting in a lot of different groups. OL: Right. JJ: Some of the groups were more prominent, (inaudible). Okay. Has that happened? What happened that those groups died out? OL: Well, there was a point when we -- I mean, not exactly run out of steam -- but I think we had a sense that things were closing in on us. [01:26:00] JJ: What gave us that sense? OL: I don’t know exactly how to say it. But first of all, I knew that we could not keep the same degree of intensity in organizing. Then also, at one point, we said that we didn’t really have any powerful people backing us up. And then also, at one point, I sensed that we had more -- that there were other forces around us that even we couldn’t quite define them. But we knew that we were not -- it’s not like everybody agreed with us. I think people that were [01:27:00] part of the 34 �structure -- I think they saw that we were harming them. In my perspective, what -- the end of that period of organizing was when -- I don’t know if you recall the takeover of Association House. There were some people that were not part of our group that presented, I think, a kind of more or less following the method of taking over. I mean, we took over McCormick Place. (audio cuts out) People that were not part of our group but that [01:28:00] they also wanted to take over so they took over Association House. JJ: A different group took over Association House? OL: Yeah. That’s where people like [Oscar Lopez?] and brother -- that spent so many years in jail. They were not part of our group, but they saw that there was nothing competition with us. So, they were not part of the McCormick takeover, but they are the ones that, at one point, took over Association House. But it was at the time when already Association House had responded to an earlier demand about participation of the community in the board of directors. So, by the time they took over, it was already when we had a good number of people from LADO in the board of directors so that there was no reason for their demands because we already had -- [01:29:00] we were the only group that responded to the request to submit names to be in the board. So, that’s when we got [Mel Moreno?] and the wife Mrs. Moreno and the daughter. They were on the board as well as other people. So, that’s more or less what happened. (break in video) OL: You, for your initiative to capture moments in our history that [01:30:00] were and are important. I think that’s -- it is because of people with the vision that you 35 �have to capture that that we’ll be able to tell the story to other people that maybe they lived the same period, but they were not involved. This is going to be good for descendants of the activists, that they see how the generation of the parents had to fight the good fight. We didn’t have any representatives in local politics, either at the city or at the county or the state level. Now, there is quite a good number of people that are of Latin origin, not [01:31:00] that it is helping us much, their presence there. But at least they are there. But it is due to the efforts of the generation of the -- I call it generation of the ’66 because the Division Street riots of June ’66 to me marked the beginning of the political power for our communities. In fact, the riots are the ones that gave us the power. The riots are the ones that gave the community the power. It took then some time before people actually began to take representative positions. But it was because of the riots that the doors were opened. That’s how I would like to finish [01:32:00] and again by saying that you are making a great contribution in capturing the remembrances of people. So, I congratulate you and wish you the best. (laughs) JJ: Thank you. END OF VIDEO FILE 36 � https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5154c94d61585d8a5045b2fa73e5ed14.mp4 6034611065d2b1e1b5267a81329c02c1 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 Young Lords in Lincoln Park Collection Subject The topic of the resource Young Lords (Organization) Puerto Ricans--United States Civil Rights--United States--History Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.) Personal narratives Social justice Community activists--Illinois--Chicago Description An account of the resource Collection of oral history interviews and digitized materials documenting the history of the Young Lords Organization in Lincoln Park, Chicago. Interviews were conducted by Young Lords' founder, José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez, and documents were digitized from Mr. Jiménez' archives. The Young Lords in Lincoln Park collection grows out of the ongoing struggle for fair housing, self-determination, and human rights that was launched by Mr. José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez, founder of the Young Lords Movement. This project is dedicated to documenting the history of the displacement of Puerto Ricans, Mejicanos, other Latinos, and the poor from Lincoln Park, as well as the history of the Young Lords nationwide. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jiménez, José, 1948- Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/491">Young Lords in Lincoln Park collection (RHC-65)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-04-25 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng spa Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-65 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 2012-2017 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Título Spanish language Title entry Obed López-Zacarias vídeo entrevista y biografía Descripción Spanish language Description entry Obed López Zacarias es el que fundió el Latin American Defense Organization (LADO), que empezó desde los 1960s hasta los medio 1970s, organizando para una unión de asistente social y por tratamiento digno con los quien reciben ayuda del Estado en la oficina de Wicker Park Welfare en Chicago. LADO también fue instrumental en el desarrollo del Segundo Ruiz Belvis Centro Cultural, que es el Centro Cultural Puertorriqueño más viejo en chicago. Señor López-Zacarias trabajo cerca con los Young Lords, incluyendo el protesto en la oficina de Fat Larry en Armitage y Bissell Street, igual que otros. Para dar un ejemple, Fat Larry’s Bissell Realty era buen conectada con la mafia de Lincoln Park igual que Paddy Bauer, y por lo menos una ocasión Fat Larry directo un pistola al rentero puertorriqueño porque estaba tarde en pagar la renta. Los Young Lords se informaron de la ocasión y marcharon con miembros de LADO a la oficina de Fat Larry. Cuando un representativo entro a su oficina, Fat Larry directo su pistola a José “Cha-Cha” Jiménez. Luego corrió y se encerró en una parte de su oficina hasta que la policía llego. La policía inmediatamente cacheó a Señor Jiménez por armas. Un fotógrafo capturo todo la ocasión y publico muchas de las fotos en el periódico de LADO la próxima semana. 20,000 copias fueron circuladas por los Young Lords en la sección Latina de Lincoln Park. Señor López-Zacarias fue a la conferencia de Presbyterian en Tejas para ser el ministro público para los Young Lords y la Lincoln Park Poor Peoples Coalition, durante la McCormick Seminary ocupación en 1969. Cuando la ocupación termino y las exigencias ganadas, LADO recibió $25,000 para abrir una clínica que es gratis para la comunidad donde muchos de los Latin Kings volantearon. La clínica fue construida en North Ave, cerca de Western en el vecindario de Wicker Park Sujetos Spanish language Subject terms Young Lords (Organización) Puertorriqueños--Estados Unidos Derechos civiles--Estados Unidos--Historia Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.) Puertorriqueños--Relatos personales Justicia social Activistas comunitarios--Illinois--Chicago Puertorriqueños--Illinois--Chicago--Vida social y costumbres Pobreza--Illinois--Chicago Discriminación en la vivienda--Illinois--Chicago Housing--Illinois--Chicago Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/491">Young Lords in Lincoln Park (RHC-65)</a> 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 RHC-65_Lopez-Zacarias_Obed Title A name given to the resource Obed López-Zacarias video interview and transcript Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource López-Zacarias, Obed Description An account of the resource Obed López-Zacarias is founder of the Latin American Defense Organization (LADO), that organized for a caseworker union and for the dignified treatment of welfare recipients at the Wicker Park Welfare Office of Chicago. LADO was also instrumental in helping to develop the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, the longest standing Puerto Rican Cultural Center in the city of Chicago. Mr. López-Zacarias worked closely with the Young Lords and became the official envoy to the Presbyterian Conference in Texas by the Young Lords and the Lincoln Park Poor People’s Coalition. When the occupation was over and all the demands were won, LADO opened a free community clinic located in the Wicker Park neighborhood. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jiménez José , 1948- Subject The topic of the resource Young Lords (Organization) Puerto Ricans--United States Civil Rights--United States--History Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.) Puerto Ricans--Personal narratives Social justice Community activists--Illinois--Chicago Puerto Ricans--Illinois--Chicago--Social life and customs Poverty--Illinois--Chicago Discrimination in housing--Illinois--Chicago Housing--Illinois--Chicago 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 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-03-02 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/3caeb740021954e9fbfbe11b9d941b2b.jpg c8efe258c03f80a5c0b53fe09e75dc51 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 Robert H. Merrill photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1909/1950 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-222 Description An account of the resource Photographs, negatives, and lantern slides digitized from the papers of engineer and archaeologist Robert H. Merrill. A Grand Rapids native, Merrill held an accomplished career as a civil engineer. He founded the company Spooner & Merrill, which held offices in Grand Rapids and Chicago. From 1919-1921, Merrill lived in China, working as Assistant Principal Engineer on a reconstruction of the Grand Canal - the oldest and longest canal system in the world. Merrill became fascinated by archaeology, and among other projects, he traveled to the Uxmal Pyramids in Yucatan, Mexico, with a research expedition from Tulane University. Merrill's photo collection includes images of his travels and projects, friends and family. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 Merrill_ProcessFilm_P_274 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1940-07-17 Title A name given to the resource Oblique of ladder and grids on sand Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of a ladder with two adjustable legs over a measuring grid square on sand. Part of a camera ladder rig system developed by Merrill for taking overhead photographs of archaeological excavations. A cottage is visible behind the ladder. Subject The topic of the resource Macatawa, Lake (Mich.) Michigan Archaeology Photography Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 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/f7aef70627147932b61ca1169db58667.jpg a8b52158a80926f6e2e9eef5d4ba1c12 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 Robert H. Merrill photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1909/1950 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-222 Description An account of the resource Photographs, negatives, and lantern slides digitized from the papers of engineer and archaeologist Robert H. Merrill. A Grand Rapids native, Merrill held an accomplished career as a civil engineer. He founded the company Spooner & Merrill, which held offices in Grand Rapids and Chicago. From 1919-1921, Merrill lived in China, working as Assistant Principal Engineer on a reconstruction of the Grand Canal - the oldest and longest canal system in the world. Merrill became fascinated by archaeology, and among other projects, he traveled to the Uxmal Pyramids in Yucatan, Mexico, with a research expedition from Tulane University. Merrill's photo collection includes images of his travels and projects, friends and family. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 Merrill_ProcessFilm_P_275 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1940-07-19 Title A name given to the resource Oblique of ladder and grids on sand Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of a ladder with two adjustable legs over a measuring grid square on sand. Part of a camera ladder rig system developed by Merrill for taking overhead photographs of archaeological excavations. A cottage is visible behind the ladder. Subject The topic of the resource Macatawa, Lake (Mich.) Michigan Archaeology Photography Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives