77 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cb6e26c4bef6ad6829df1c01368464b8.jpg be2992a4875191daf4d66fc0167e1c7a https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/18551a02a2121b16319e26c5cf6c7946.jpg 1b972fbaec1c62a8dc2b580615c79b85 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 Adriana B. and Peter N. Termaat collection Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Termaat, Adriana B. (Schuurman) Termaat, Peter N. Description An account of the resource Collection contains genealogical, personal, and family papers and photographs documenting the lives and interests of Adriana and Peter Termaat. The bulk of the materials are related to family history and genealogical research carried out by the Termaats, including research notes and materials about places in the Netherlands that were significant to the Termaat and Schuurman families, such as the city of Alkmaar. Other materials in the collection are related to the Termaats' experiences on the eve of and during the Second World War, especially the German occupation of the Netherlands and the Termaats' participation in organized resistance to the Nazis. Also included are materials that document the family's post-war life in the United States, including their public efforts to recognize, commemorate, and honor people and events significant to World War II. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1869 - 2012 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/719">Adriana B. and Peter N. Termaat collection, RHC-144</a> Subject The topic of the resource Netherlands Netherlands--History--German occupation, 1940-1945 World War, 1939-1945 World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements -- Netherlands Dutch Dutch Americans Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-144 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Text Image Type The nature or genre of the resource application/pdf image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng nl 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-144_Termaat_PHOT_1904-Barend-Harms-recto-img720 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Unknown Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1907 Title A name given to the resource Berend Harms (b. 1898), circa 1907 Description An account of the resource Portrait photograph of Berend Harms (b. 1898), circa 1907. Subject The topic of the resource Dutch Portrait photographs Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/719">Adriana B. and Peter N. Termaat collection (RHC-144)</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 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/3a0e81a3526b49cfce02b1fd72d1409e.jpg 21051d24ebaa7bdd3f51c36c3ef80c18 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 BergDorothy Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Berg, Dorothy Description An account of the resource Dorothy Berg, University Counseling Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History Student counselors 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/2cf8f8878e332da6c7967d0f59f67440.mp4 e282cac6652f71e49682d9ff1021320e https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/35ca14acb54013b9e929d04dd8dd9ea2.pdf d0b09e03a13d41376bd9af7586026725 PDF Text Text Bergeron, Christopher Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Name of War: Iraq War Interviewee’s Name: Christopher Bergeron Length of Interview: (2:03:40) Interviewed by: James Smither Transcribed by: Lyndsay Curatolo Interviewer: “We’re talking today with Christopher Bergeron of Rockford, Michigan and the interviewer is James Smither of the Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project. Chris, start us off with some background on yourself and to begin with, where and when were you born?” I was born in 1972 in Anniston, Alabama. My father was a–– recently back from his third tour in Vietnam–– soldier and my mom was Women’s Army Corps, and that’s how they met, at Anniston. Got married and I was there a year later. Interviewer: “And now, was your father’s stay in the Army–– was he a career guy?” Yeah. My dad stayed in the Army. He had a 26-year career, retired out of Fort Benning. My entire childhood we bounced between Germany and different locations in the Alabama/Georgia area. Final place we bounced to, right before I was going into high school, was Fort Benning [in] Columbus, Georgia. Dad got out and then went right back to work for ‘em as a DA Civilian and did another 24 years working with the 75th Ranger Regiment out of Benning. Interviewer: “DA Civilian?” Department of the Army. He did all of their cryptologic communications and deployed with them. He actually deployed more as a DA Civilian than he did when he was on active duty. Interviewer: “How much time did you spend in Germany?” So we were there [for] two tours. First one was when I was really young, we did three years. But the second tour was more those formative years. I was there from the time I was nine till fifteen, so pretty good second tour. My parents loved Germany so we kept extending. We extended until the Army made us go home. (2:11). �Interviewer: “Where in Germany were you living?” The second time was Baumholder, which is a tiny town probably about 60 miles due east of Trier–– that area in Luxembourg. Interviewer: “I guess I’ve heard people talk about Baumholder not always in favorable terms.” There’s always been a running joke that people would rather go to Vietnam–– when Vietnam was on–– than go to Baumholder and it has to do with where the location of it is. For me as a kid, I loved it. There were castles, there were bomb shelters by train stations to play in. We played “War” constantly on the Military reservation because we were right there in the housing area. So that was a good childhood and it was kind of, a little bit, Normal Rockwell because it was a small German town so you actually went to the market each weekend and when you bought a Christmas tree, you drug the Christmas tree home in the snow. So that was the reason my family wanted to stay there. There were a lot of people that didn’t like it just because there wasn’t a lot of–– it wasn’t Americanized at all like home. It was a very small German town and it’s up on the top of a hill where it rains constantly so it’s kind of gloomy. But like I said, it’s different strokes for different folks. I loved it there. Interviewer: “Did your family travel around a lot?” We were really fortunate, yes. My mom was Assistant Dean for one of the student colleges over there by that point and so we had an expendable income that we traveled all over Europe as children. I mean we were–– I’d say every other month we were on the train going somewhere and so. Italy, France, my parents loved Holland so we were constantly in the Holland area. Interviewer: “Did you learn German?” No. A typical ugly, American on a military base. Nobody learns a foreign language. I know enough to get around in a bahnhof, order a beer, count to a hundred, that kind of stuff but that’s just what we learned in school, but no conversational German. (4:07). Interviewer: “Then where did you finish high school?” Came back and went to Columbus High School in Columbus, Georgia and entered the Marine Corps right after high school. Interviewer: “Your father had been in the Army.” �Yep. Interviewer: “So how do you wind up in the Marine Corps?” I had been raised around the Army my entire life and I just–– I knew I wanted to go in the Military, but I wanted to do something different, and the Marine Corps was different. Parents weren’t big fans of me going to the Marines when I entered. They really expected me to go into the Army but after a couple years they were like, “Yeah, he fits in that hole better than he would have in the Army.” Interviewer: “So when do you actually join the Marines?” So July of 1990, I think it was three weeks after I graduated high school. I joined the year prior but it was in the delayed entry program waiting my entire senior year until I graduated to go to boot camp. Interviewer: “Now, when you enlisted at that point in time and we’re now in the era of allvolunteer military, were you able to request any kind of training or assignment, or was that all on hold” No I had requested–– they used to do what’s called a QEP contract, which is if you signed for six years you basically got to pick the exact job you were going to do, and I signed up to be a tanker when I went without my father to the recruiting depot and I’ll never forget coming home and telling my dad I was going to be a tanker. He–– I mean–– darn near picked me up by the scruff of my neck and took me back to the recruiting station and said, “He is way too smart to be a tanker. I know how he did on the ASVAB.” He made the recruiter basically pull the paperwork up and he says, “If you want me to sign that paperwork, we’re going to renegotiate what he’s going to do.” Dad picked that I was going to go into logistics. So he says, “There’s a future in logistics, there is not a future in tanks.” It was kind of good to have a father that was–– knew how the military worked. Interviewer: “So now where do you gotta go for boot camp?” I went to Parris Island and it was fascinating being in boot camp. I was there when Saddam invaded Kuwait, so the first four weeks was like normal boot camp. I guess that had been going on for many years and then it was–– they rolled the TVs into the squad bays, “We’re going to war” was the big thing, and boot camp kind of changed overnight. It became a little bit more of an intense experience. We were hearing the stories that we were all going to be made Infantry and that we were going back to the Vietnam times and it was kind of surreal, I guess is the easiest way to say it. (6:39). �Interviewer: “Let’s wind back and go back to that first thing. Describe the Parris Island facility a little bit. Kind of where is it, what’s it look like?” Kind of funny because we used to [go] to Holiday Inn, Hunting Island–– which is right next to Parris Island–– when I was a child. I had no idea those two things were so close. But, I can tell you that Hunting Island where I used to camp and being ten miles away from that is nothing like Parris Island. [Parris Island] is kind of like you get on the bus at Charleston Airport, they tell you to shut-up and put your head down, you get to the gates at Parris Island and the drill instructor comes on and is like, “Life as you know, it’s ended. You’re all going to be Marines and put your heads down.” It’s almost like they don’t want you to see how to get off the Island. Then you arrive at, you know, forming, and you run out to the yellow footprints and boom you’re there. It’s such a small place but at the same time, you’re confused the whole time you’re there. You really don’t understand the layout of the thing until you're about to graduate. Sometimes I think that’s probably by design. I didn’t know where the causeway was off the Island until I graduated. Interviewer: “Because if you visit as a tourist it’s a little bit different because you’re driving up the causeway, you can see all of that. So, what time of day do you arrive?” Almost always at night and we showed up, I think it was, ten o’clock. About ten o’clock at night. Interviewer: “And do they keep you up all night or most––” We were up all night. We hit the yellow footprints, we immediately went into the forming section, waited in a room for about four hours until they got a couple more bus loads there, formed us into platoons, and we immediately started drawing equipment and dragging our seat bags to a forming barracks and at the forming barracks you just basically waited until the entire platoon was together. Took us–– I think–– two days, and once that happened we were turned over to the drill instructors and training began. (8:30). Interviewer: “Now, for people who don’t know, explain the yellow footprints thing.” When you come into Marine boot camp, they immediately want to get you in the idea of forming into platoons and forming into lines, so the second you get off the bus you’re told, “Find a set of yellow footprints and put your feet on those footprints.” Ten seconds after you get off the bus, you’re learning the position of attention and how to stand at attention and how to talk to your drill instructor, how not to talk to your drill instructor. And it’s a pretty intense, very immediate indoctrination. So they don’t waste any time getting you turned into Marines. Interviewer: “And what sort of mix of people did you have with you? Were they all pretty much your age, were there older ones?” �For the most part it was, I’d say that 18 to 22 year old demographic. There are a couple old guys and that’s what you call them, “the old guys.” Each platoon seemed to have one or two guys that were that odd bird that was 27/28 years old. Usually called “Pops” or something like that, but yeah. It was pretty much everybody and when it came to–– you had every ethnicity, every bodytype. You had the big guys, the little guys, I mean you had everything. The only thing you didn’t see there was there was not–– the Marine Corps just doesn’t allow a lot of heavy set people in there. So it’s pretty much a bunch of in-shape, you know, pre-in-shape, young males. Interviewer: “And the first four weeks what do they have you do? Before things got crazy, what happened?” (9:59). The first four weeks is all marching. It’s basically learning how to work as a team. Mainly through close drill, understanding how to field-strip a rifle, cleaning the squad bay, it’s just a lot of marching. I mean that’s just the easiest way to explain it. You march, you march, you march, and that’s what you do that first four weeks. After those four weeks is when you transition into rifle range. You usually do two weeks of rifle range to get your basic qualification down with the M16, then you do like a week of mess and maintenance. Mess and maintenance is they take platoons off the line, out of training, for a week and they do all the things that need to operate the base for the other recruits. We went to weapons company–– actually, we were already there for rifle range and we ran the chow hole for a week. So we were the guys that were the backbone of running the chow hole for an entire week. That was our maintenance. Interviewer: “How long was the whole bootcamp?” It was 12 weeks in all. After mess and maintenance we did–– it was a four week–– they call it basic combat training, and that’s all out. Basically you’re camping the entire time, you’re out in a two-man shelter or fighting holes and it’s your introduction to Marine Corp combat. Interviewer: “Now, did your own military background kind of help you at all, adjust to that bootcamp?” It did and it didn’t. I did three years of high school ROTC and also just growing up around the Military, so from an understanding how the Military did things, to understanding basic combat stuff, I was already there. But, at the same time I had already “led” I guess, a little bit, from ROTC, so I had to erase some of that and go back to just being a straight follower because I got out over my skis, we’ll say a couple times, with drill instructors, trying to be more than I was. So that led to some of that–– but that’s just normal growing pains. I mean different people–– everybody has a different experience at boot camp. (12:08). Interviewer: “And at that point in time, how did they discipline people who got out of line?” �Everybody’s gonna tell you it was like Full Metal Jacket, you know? I can honestly say there were moments that were similar to Full Metal Jacket in my platoon, especially after we knew we were going to war. Not trying to hype it or exaggerate it but there were people that were punched, there were people that were slammed into the stanchions. My drill instructor–– my heavy drill instructor–– you usually have three drill instructors. You have your senior drill instructor, you have your basically everyday drill instructor–– who’s a young, learning drill instructor, and then you have what’s called a heavy [drill instructor]. The heavy is the guy that, he’s just kind of like–– he’s the mean guy and he gets everything done. Our heavy ended up relieved the following platoon and kicked off the drill field for abusing the recruits. Interesting story, he went to be the CG’s driver, they liked him so much, he told the story of why he was thrown off the drill field. The CG reinstated him the following year, he was promoted up the Gunny and I ran into him right before I retired and he was a Master Gunnery Sergeant. So he had found a loophole to get out through the backdoor because they loved him so much. He actually ended up pushing recruits up at Quantico on the officer side of the house, later in his career and retired a Master Gunnery Sergeant out of–– I called him up one day. So I’d heard his name and it’s one of those things, you hear your drill instructor's name, years later it freezes you. One of the guys was talking–– he was Motor T Chief–– and one of the guys who said, “Hey I’m talking to Master Guns–– I was talking to Foshi yesterday.” And I froze. I was a Major and I froze and I said, “Drill instructor Sergeant Foshi?” They said, “Yeah.” He was on the drill field. I said, “Yeah. I know he [was] on the drill field.” And I picked up the phone and I called him, and he said, “Master Gunnery Sergeant Foshi.” I said, “This is recruit Bouganville.” They called me Bouganville because they didn’t like pronouncing Bergeron. And he says, “Bouganville. How are you doing?” I said, “I’m a Major now.” He goes, “Huh, did pretty well for yourself.” So it was rough. I mean boot camp was no joke, especially after there was this idea that we were no longer a peacetime Marine Corp–– we were training for war. (14:36). Interviewer: “Now at this point, 1990, were there any of these drill instructors left who had been to Vietnam or were they all––” No. No, in fact on the entire Island only people I can remember that were in Vietnam were some of the senior officers. You saw some Vietnam campaign ribbons but–– and the Sergeant Major of boot camp was a Vietnam veteran. In my first unit we had a couple of Vietnam veterans, but it was getting to the point where they were Master Gunnery Sergeants or Sergeant Majors. [Those] were the guys left from Vietnam. Interviewer: “As it was we took most of the Marines out of Vietnam earlier than most of the Army unit so there’s––” Yeah. �Interviewer: “–– that pushes the clock back that much further. But at the same time you’ve got–– but you know once Saddam goes into Kuwait now you have this sense of urgency now. So when do you finish your boot camp?” I finished boot camp, a three month process, immediately left. We got I think three days or four days leave and then we had to report for MCT–– Marine Combat Training–– at Geiger. Every Marine goes through basic Marine Combat Training. Basically they take the first four-weeks of the basic infantrymen scores and everybody does it. Then the people that are going to be Infantry, they stick around and I think they do another eight weeks. We go on to whatever our job speciality is gonna be. Interviewer: “So where is Fort Geiger?” Camp Geiger is right next to Camp Lejeune. So it’s attached to that complex on the other side. Interviewer: “Because you’re in North Carolina now?” North Carolina. Interviewer: “So how does that–– the combat training you're getting–– now, how does that differ from what you had at Parris Island?” Parris Island was kind of throw hand grenades, learn how to climb under wire, learn what to do when a flare goes off, that type of stuff. It’s very, very basic stuff. When you got to MCT you were integrated basically like a Marine rifle company is. You had squads. You–– for the first time–– had squad automatic weapons, so you were being formatted with the weapon systems that a standard Marine rifle platoon has. So, one guy had a 203 grenade launcher and when you’re at boot camp everybody’s got an M16 there. You go to the range and you shoot all these other weapons, but they’re not integrated into the unit. Everybody’s carrying an M16, so that was the big shift. You’re also starting to learn the heavy weapons systems, Marine Corps does a really good job of the “every Marine is a rifleman” concept. So it doesn’t matter what you’re going to be, you will know basic infantry information. Are we as good as Infantry? No. But you can always turn to a Marine and say, “Get on the line, dig a fighting hole, and get ready to repel the enemy.” Every Marine can do that, so they do a really good job with it and that’s what MCT was. (17:22). Interview: “So then how long is the MCT?” Four weeks. �Interviewer: “That’s because four weeks there and if you were doing infantry, then if you were Infantry then you’d stay a lot longer. But now you move onto your more specialized training.” Yeah. Exactly. I went out to Norfolk to the Amphibious Embarkation School and that’s where I became a Logistics Embarkation Specialist. It was a four-week school. That school, at the time, was abbreviated by a week because there was a real need in units because we were getting ready to do a major movement to get more of us logistics and embarkation kids out into the units and into the field with existing units. Interviewer: “So what do logistics and embarkation people do?” Logistics guys do everything. You’re kind of a jack-of-all-trades. You’re in charge of organizing–– from the organizational side–– all of the movements. You’re in charge of–– everything kind of falls under you that doesn’t fall under a combat role. So we could say, “Beans, bullets, and band-aids.” If it fits in one of those categories, it falls under logistics. You’re in charge of doing those things and doing the movement piece of it. So, chow halls, medical, all that stuff falls underneath logistics. Interviewer: “So what did you do actually? Three weeks of training––” We did four. We did four weeks but it was supposed to be five, but we did four. Everything that we did in school, is not that. All the logistics stuff you’re gonna learn is kind of OJT once you get out of there. The things they taught us were the specialized movement piece. How do you interface with the air force and load an airplane? How do you load a train? How do you load flatbed trucks? How do you plan the loading of ships? We learn basic trim, stress, and stability. You know, we’ve got to put the tanks on the bottom and got that type of stuff. You’re gonna spread load the decks and with airplanes you learned how to load aircraft so that you had a center of balance. So there was a lot of–– I wouldn’t say advanced math but a lot of heavy math. Basically, trying to figure out moments in an airplane so that based on the weight of all the equipment the airplane is balanced as it takes off, that type of stuff. (19:21). Interviewer: “They’re sort of orienting you so that when you join a unit, you’re coming in at the bottom and they pretty much show you what to do.” Yeah. They’re giving you all of the base skills that the unit is not going to have time to teach you, that are also skills that have to be formalized. The Air Force piece of it–– there’s a requirement before you’re allowed to do Air Force load plans, where you’re certified to do them. And we were actually–– we received our certification there at the school that–– we were �certified, signed a load plan–– that, yes, this is a legal load plan to give the Air Force to load the airplane, that type of stuff. Interviewer: “So when do you finish that?” Finished that in December–– it was mid-December. When we were done, they gave us–– I think–– two days to get everything together there at Norfolk before they sent us directly to our unit, so we didn’t give any leave there. I was sent to H&S Battalion Second for Service Support Group at Camp Lejeune and that was another–– [I] show up at my unit and showed up with four guys that had been–– two of ‘em had been in my platoon at boot camp, two others were at the same time at boot camp. We all went through school at the same time and when we all showed up there they looked at the four of us and said, “Go to supply, draw everything you need, you’re gonna get four days of leave, get your butt back here because we leave on the 31st of December for Saudi Arabia.” So, it was kind of like–– it was like whiplash shock. I mean, none of us expected that a bunch of, you know, brand new Marines coming to the fleet–– we we’re like, “Okay, yeah. We’re going to go to some unit, we’re gonna wait around for a while, they’ll all be gone when we get there or they’ll be getting ready to go out the door and they won’t take us.” But no it was, “Welcome to the show.” (21:08). Interviewer: “Let’s start the show. December 31st––” December 31st went to the airfield in Cherry Point, got on a civilian airliner and flew for 16 hours to an airport right next to Jebel Ali, Saudi Arabia. Landed there, got there–– we got into our tent on New Year’s Eve or–– no–– New Year’s Day now. Within 48 hours we were in the port starting to download ships that had been sent months earlier. So that first whole four weeks was getting everything, organizing all the equipment, getting it ready to push forward, figuring out where we were going forward, and honestly, being just thrown directly into the fire as a logistics guy, you know. Immediately executing everything you’d learn in school and trying to learn on the fly and we had good Sergeants, we had good NCOs, but we were used as what we were capable of doing. So a lot of standing around with a clipboard counting… counting humvees or going down into the ships and when we–– when you send gear over in civilian ships that aren’t designed for military gear, you do a lot of blocking and bracing which is basically two-by-fours and four-by-fours everywhere to stabilize the deck so when you pull into port all that stuff has to be ripped out. And it’s just one big working party–– guys swinging sledge hammers and tearing mountains and mountains of wood out to free up all of the stuff to get out of the ships. Interviewer: “So do you take your turn with the manual labor?” �Yeah. That was basically eight hours of manual labor, or four hours of working on the port doing other stuff and then repeat that each day. So usually a 12-hour day is what–– Interviewer: “Now what were the physical weather conditions like at that point in time?” Beauty of being in the desert in December is that it wasn't that bad. During the day we were getting up into the 80s but during the evening it was nice and cool, and a lot of guys preferred to be on the night shift because it was just a really nice working condition. You weren’t dealing with the Sun, it was really buggy there–– which was really strange, you know. You get to Saudi Arabia, you’re expecting just desert and you don’t understand that parts of of the world that you’ve always thought of–– you know you get this Omar Sharif view of what Saudi Arabia is, and then you get to a coastal area in Saudi Arabia and realize this is kind of a swamp, it kind of stinks, and it’s full of mosquitoes and bugs. So that was an awakening but it wasn’t bad. I mean it’s–– we’re getting three square meals a day, got a place to sleep, got guys with you that you’ve been with since boot camp, but there was that apprehension of what the heck’s gonna happen. What are we going to do? And I think at that point when you’re at the low rungs of the Marine Corps, you have no idea what’s coming down the pipe. You’re just kind of doing what you were told to do, so it was interesting too. (24:06). Interviewer: “Were there kind of rumors about what the Marines were going to do? Were you going to go land some place?” There were rumors that we were going to get back on ship and we were all kind of confused by that. Why would they–– why did we bring everything here to get back on a ship? You always get that the corporals running around that are in the know, you know, “We’re doing this, we’re doing that.” We were told we were doing everything from invading Iraq and going straight to Baghdad, we were going to be the lead force going into Kuwait City, you name it. I think I heard every rumor that you could hear and you didn’t know what to believe, and quite honestly I don’t think anybody probably below the rank of captain knew what was coming down the pipe. Everything was pretty close hold at that point. What we knew was, you’d know when you got there–– that was kind of the feel. We were going to push north and we were going to go into cantonment sites right along the border, and that was the process that first couple of weeks in there–– and that’s what we did. We–– after–– we got everything off the ship, we started pushing gear north. The main MSR from Jubal Ali went up to a place known as Mashab and then from Mashab you push out into the desert and there was DSC [something], and what we were doing was working our supplies. Now that I’ve seen the postmortem–– you know–– what happened, years later, being able to study and understand finally exactly what we were doing. It was a huge logistics push, we worked for General Krulak when he was a one-star, he was in charge of us. Ended up becoming a commandant years later, but we were doing a huge logistical push that had not been done–– it was a style of warfare that we hadn’t seen before where we were gonna push the logistics �basically up to the front line, because we weren’t worried about them coming across that front line. That way when the Infantry and the Amor moved forward we would be that much closer with the fighting support that they were going to need for that initial push that was going to go. And I think that’s when we figured out that we were going to be the guys that went into Northern Kuwait and Southern Iraq is basically where the push was for the Marine Corps. The Army moved farther out west and swept into more of Central Iraq during the fighting. (26:28). Interviewer: “Now one thing–– what was the infrastructure like? Did you have functional roads or did you have to build roads?” No that–– well the road going to Mashab was a functional road. It was a highway that went upnorth but as soon as you punched west it was a road that we were basically in the process of building., which is another thing that made it really interesting. We were doing–– a lot of the convoy operations that were being done were being done with civilian tractor trailers and with foreign labor. So I know me, personally, the night the air war started I was–– I remember being in the bunker and the next morning I was leaving and taking my own convoy. So here’s a PFC being given three trucks, three guys that don’t speak English, told “Drive north to get to this spot, and then when you get there you’re going to go west until you see ‘this.’” Honestly, that was the way it was there. There was so much gear being pushed forward that the manpower that you were able to assign to it was shoestring. I mean a 19-year-old kid in a truck, three guys who don't speak English, and saying, “Drive north.” That’s honestly what they were doing. So the night the air war started we were all in the bunkers because they’d fire a couple scuds. We all got in the bunker, turned on the radio, and listened to George Bush’s–– the President’s–– speech about how the air war had begun. The next morning I got into my truck, went north, and I can still remember we got all the way north we started–– I found–– we found the turn. There were actually Marines there that we’re guiding you go that way, so kind of pushed out into the desert and then one of my trucks went off the road about ten miles down the road and got stuck in the sand. So it was kind of like, “Okay.” There were flares going off out in the distance–– didn’t know what that was, 19-year-old kid, I have nobody I can talk to. So it was kind of like, “Okay, we’re just going to sit tight until the morning until somebody else comes by, flag somebody down, and we’ll get towed up the road.” (28:27). Interviewer: “So you had no radio yourself?” No. No radio. No, the neat thing–– not neat thing, the bad thing–– that worked out too is I had been assigned two Pakistani drivers and an Indian. And they were not big fans of each other–– they wouldn’t even eat together. The Pakistani guys kept giving the Indian guy a hard time and it got to a point where I was basically trying to just calm them down, because it was the Indian guy that [had] driven off the road so there was this just national tension between them. It was just a bad thing. Finally got everything calmed down and next morning I noticed that there was a small �DSC, a small camp, that was pretty close to us, pretty close in the deserts. Not real close, but I realized that after I started walking, but I walked about three-and-a-half miles to a small medical outfit that was out there and they got me into a humvee, drove me all the way down to where my unit was which was another 40 kilometers down the road. I was able to get a wrecker to come back and get my truck towed out and get [it] up the road to the DSC. You just don’t think of things like that, but that’s what would happen with a 19-year-old kid. Interviewer: “So basically they–– you weren’t even missed?” No. But I think it was because we had so much going on, that it was like, “Okay.” You can’t get lost, you might get stuck, but you can’t get lost. It’s–– there’s only two roads, so eventually you will get there, we will find you, and we will come along and recover. (30:03). Interviewer: “Now you had mentioned, or you talked about scuds, and those were ground to ground missiles that the Iraqis were launching at us and they were doing that before the start of the air war?” So they did it as soon as the air war began. So that night, as soon as we started attacking them, they started lobbying scuds. So we didn’t–– we heard a Patriot go off from the area we were in, I didn’t see anything but we could hear that something had launched. Interviewer: “Yeah and the Patriot's the American anti-missile system.” Yeah. Interviewer: “A lot of that was famous at the time in the news coverage but if you didn’t watch it or were too young, you wouldn’t know. So that’s all going but most of that–– most of those guys were kind of firing at major bases and larger targets and so once you’re kind of out towards the desert someplace–– not your problem?” No. Interviewer: “So you get your convoy out to join the unit, now do you bring more convoys or––” No. It was kind of like a one-way thing. You were going to where you were going, so you each were assigned to bring a piece of it up there. There were units–– my unit wasn’t–– my unit was kind of like we were the headquarters unit. So we were supposed to get where we were going. The motor transport units, those units, they were kept shuttling back to bring stuff up. �Interviewer: “So once you were out there, how long did you sit there?” About a month before the grand rush started. So we were out there in the desert for about a month. We had been there in time, kind of, don’t remember exactly when–– it all kind of bleeds together–– but we did have the–– there was one time where the Iraqis launched a small thrust into the Mashab area which was pretty close to us. We were close enough to see the flares going up from the units that night. We were all thrown in our fighting holes, told that we were gonna get gassed so everybody was putting their gas masks on. We were a support unit so our fighting holes were terrible. They were all about two-and-a-half feet deep and we never thought we were going to have to use them, so that was interesting. I can still remember we were sitting in the fighting hole–– it was me, and PFC Carney–– he was one of my friends from boot camp–– and General Krulak and a sergeant major went walking fighting hole, to fighting hole in the perimeter and he says, “Well we heard there’s enemies,” telling all of us what was going on and he got to us and he said, “We’ve been told some tanks have broken through.” The Army Tiger Brigade was working behind us out west at the time, they ended up moving that unit out in front of us so that we were never in any danger. I remember Carney looking and saying, “Yes sir. What am I supposed to do to a tank with this?” And the General says, “Don’t worry about it. We’re going to figure it out before they get here.” So that was pretty interesting. It was one of those funny moments in a war where a PFC says something that’s–– in hindsight–– that’s really, really funny. (32:56). Interviewer: “Now, Krulak–– I mean there was a Krulak who was high-ranking in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War.” Major Krulak was his father. Yeah. We had Chuck Krulak and Chuck Krulak is a really interesting dude. He’s one of those guys that knows everybody underneath his command down to the smallest guy and remembers your name. He was really able to really interface with all the way down to the young Marine level, probably the reason he made it all the way to commandant in the Marine Corps. Yeah, he was a stellar guy, but he had his quirks too. Krulak was about as tall as I am, so he was one of those Marine generals that was–– you know–– right at the fivefive/five-six height, and he would have a platform built wherever he was. Even out in the desert, he has his office in a conex box and he actually had a platform that his desk was set up on, so that when he stood up he was as tall as–– taller than–– everybody in the room. We all said that he had a Napoleon Complex. But he was a really, really good officer. Interviewer: “Now aside from that one little bit of excitement, how did you spend your time sitting out there in the desert?” (34:03). I mean day-to-day operations was organizing all of the things that were coming up and down the MSR. So supporting the G Units–– the General Shop Units–– we were just below the general’s �headquarters, and what our job was basically was to take care of the general’s headquarters. So anything the general’s headquarters needed we were the ones that supplied them with it. From supplies to movement, all of the motor transport assets that they needed–– that type of stuff. We ran the channel haul, everything there on the DSC. So we were basically the housekeeping agency for the facility that the general staff was using. Interviewer: “Now, did you have problems keeping dust out things or were––” Oh yeah. Dust was everywhere. In fact, it wasn’t just the dust. We had been up there about a week-and-a-half and we got one of the worst torrential rain storms that the area had seen, even the weather guys were like, “This just doesn’t happen, this is like biblical.” What we had done is we had–– because of the worry about artillery and not having concrete to build concrete barriers– – everything was in pits. So we would dig these huge pits with dozers and we’d put everything at the bottom of the pit. Well when you dig pits in the desert and you get a torrential rainstorm–– I can still remember waking up morning, we’re hearing the rain, but waking up and opening your eyes and seeing your shower-shoe–– your flip-flop–– float by and realizing that there’s a foot of water in the tent. That type of stuff, so we lost–– I can’t tell you how many computers, what that did to the electrical grid because we had wires that were just open wires that were running everywhere. It was chaos for about a week just trying to put things together after the rainstorm. The mud was worse than the dust. Interviewer: “Now eventually, the fighting actually starts. The Americans launched their attack, so what happens with your unit at that point?” (36:01). At that point–– that was interesting too because we were close enough to the frontlines that we could hear the carpet bombing that was taking place on the frontline. It was every night for several days before the big attack started, and when they went through–– on the breach line–– they dropped a 10,000 pound fuel air-vapor bomb right before they pushed through and that was something else. We knew–– we had actually gotten word that that night they were gonna drop the big bomb. It’s–– the fuel air-vapor bombs are really good at basically destroying things that are dug in, so it blows up your mines, it blows up your barbed wire, and they dropped one of those right on the breach line. And once everyone pushed forward, we started punching convoys right behind them, supporting those units. So basically running ammunition, running all those types of supplies that they needed to go up there. The farthest my unit ever got was, was just right there at that breach line, but we were constantly sending convoys into the breach and following the combat units that were pushing forward. All the way up–– I took several convoys up to the Northern area of Kuwait and one convoy into Kuwait City. Interviewer: “Now, as you’re doing this are you still using these civilian trucks or use––” �No. By that point we were using all military equipment, so we weren’t–– all our, the same trucks are basically just to get us there in the desert quickly, but from that point it was–– all our maneuvering was done with military assets. So mainly LBS is logistical vehicle systems–– look like big heads–– so we still use them today, really good trucks. Five tons, that type of stuff. Interviewer: “What do you remember about going into Kuwait?” I still remember–– I think the thing you can’t forget is the oil fires. There’s really something crazy about being in the Sun in the desert and then hitting that line of smoke and having everything go to what it’s like to be outside at midnight, within a matter of minutes when you get underneath it. And the sound, the roaring sound the burning wells make is just something that's really fascinating. I’ve got some really good pictures of all of us sitting on the back of the truck with the oil fires behind us before we punched into it. It was–– it was fascinating Now Kuwait City, that was a real experience. So getting in there, seeing a city for the first time–– that was a major metropolitan city–– before the war started and seeing it completely just tumbleweed kind of. It was like an apocalyptic–– there was nothing going on. A couple fires burning here and there, very few people in the streets. We were running our convoys up to a unit that was right on the outskirts. We actually had–– the Kuwaiti Army took Kuwait City, the Marines didn’t, but we were directly supporting the Kuwaiti troops that were taking Kuwait City. We did get into the City some, supplying them and supplying our troops that were on the outside. And we actually had an afternoon after we pushed up there, and because everything had happened so fast, the City wasn’t–– there weren’t people. There weren’t security checkpoints everywhere yet, it had just fallen and we had an old man that came out and invited us in for tea. [He] introduced us to his family and I’ve got pictures where we actually sat down with this Kuwaiti family and they brought everything they could to us. There were American flags everywhere, they were so happy to see us, they wanted to feed us, they wanted to give us tea, introduce us to all of his sons, you know. And his daughter was there, and I still remember that he was talking about how they had kept her hidden the entire time because they were worried the Iraqis would get their hands on her. So that was neat. I’ve got a picture of her with the hat on and she’s holding the rifle and she’s got one of the guys flak jacket on, and got some just really cool keepsakes from them. (40:04). Interviewer: “Did you see anything of the Kuwaiti Army?” Just them walking. They had pushed to the northern side of the city, we were kind of in the southern side of the city at that point. The fighting was over by that point, it was over and I think 48 hours in Kuwait City and that was about it. That was as far as I got in and then within three weeks we were already starting to move stuff back. Interviewer: “Because there’s already a cease fire pretty quickly” �Yes, yeah. I mean once the Iraqi Army tried to push itself out of Kuwait City and the air power hit it and that was the end of the Iraqi Army. That was the end of the offensive, they were done from a military perspective. Interviewer: “So then you basically–– so you went into Kuwait City and when you go back out to your base camp again from there and then you just kind of sit there?” Sit there for a couple weeks while they figure out how they’re going to phase everybody out–– who is going to get phased out. So we were there for a couple more months and I think we left in May–– basically the reverse of everything we had done. We went down to Kuwait, checked all of our equipment in and put it in big lots, got everything packed up, went through the whole agricultural process of washing everything and then started back loading everything on ships. Then, once all of the majority of our unit was loaded onto the ship, it was kind of like just waiting in the queue for a flight back home. Interviewer: “Now, when you went home did you do another non-stop or did you––” So, yeah. We did non-stop–– well, no. We popped into one place for fuel but it was literally a pop-in for fuel and got off the airplane, and then right back on. I think we stopped in Ireland so– – which was nice. I do remember getting a beer. First beer we had had in a long time. Interviewer: “Now you’re back in the States, where do you go from there?” I was with that unit for another seven/eight months, then they put me with a brigade service support group for which was going to do a Norway operation. So I went through cold weather training up at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. Learned how to walk around on skis and snow shoes and haul sleds and basic infantry stuff in mountain warfare. Did that for about a month, then we went to Norway. Did Teamwork ‘92 with the Norwegians and the Brits, which was fascinating being above the Arctic Circle. I mean one year you’re in Saudi Arabia, the next year you’re training and above the Arctic Circle in Northern Norway. [I] did that operation for about a month and I was really fortunate in that because I was a logistics embarkation guy. Everybody else had to go back on the Navy ships, I got to go back on a civilian roll-on/roll-off freighter and actually drive through the Fjords and come on the RORO ship which was–– it was good living, so it was a civilian ship. Life was good. And it was just beautiful to sail through the Fjords. (42:56). Interviewer: “And what time of year were you in Norway?” We were in Norway in February/March. Interviewer: “Okay, so it’s still pretty dark a lot of the time but there is light by there?” �Yeah there is some light. Interviewer: “Were you near a town or anything?” Bardufoss, Tromsø, and Bodø were the three towns we operated out of. Interviewer: “Kind of–– sort of in a very far North Atlantic coast of Norway up there.” Yep. Interviewer: “And was that an area with–– did you have–– was the water warm enough that it was open or was it––” Yeah, it was. The Fjords, because of the salt water, they don’t ice as much and the Fjords are so deep that I think it stabilizes the temperature some. But yeah, it was free sailing for everything. We actually did amphibious assault above the Arctic Circle in March. So, when we actually–– you know–– LCU’s whole nine yards, just like Marines do but doing it in Norway. Interviewer: “And what impression did you have of the NATO troops you were with?” Really good people, the Norwegians especially. Norwegians are one of the most proficient, welltrained armies I’ve ever worked with, especially when it comes to mountain warfare. They’re just awesome at what they do. We were playing OP four–– we were the good guys, they were playing the aggressors. I can still remember us just getting set up and having–– they used little snowcats basically, like a snow machine painted white and they came pouring out of the tree line on snowcat. Shooting us up with blanks so it was–– they were really good at what they did. And it was an interesting military to work with too because at the time they had females integrated in their infantry units, but their platoons would be an all-female platoon and an all-male platoon. So that was interesting being around female infantry because it was something that wasn’t even an idea at that time, in the Marine Corps. The Brits were always great. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with the UK many times in my career and they’re really professional soldiers. (44:59). Interviewer: “Then you get back again and–– we made it into 1992 at this point you’re there–– from there where do you go?” I left there–– it was time for me to rotate out–– so I left my first unit and I went right across the New River there from Camp Lejeune, basically across the street, [to] New River Air Station. I became the embarkation NCO for 263, which is a CH-46 echos water, sea nights–– which is what the Osprey replaced and [it’s] a great unit for a young guy to be in. I’m a really good swimmer, always have been, so immediately upon getting there the CO of the unit came in and �said, “Welcome to the unit. Can you swim?” I said, “Yeah, I can swim.” He goes, “Get to the pool tomorrow because we’re gonna make an aircrewman.” I was like, “What do you mean?” He was like, “You’re gonna fly on a helicopter.” So you know, shoot machine guns and I was like, “Yes, sign me up. Yay, flight pay.” Even though I had my job that I was doing for the unit in logistics, I was able to get trained up, become an observer and a gunner on the 46th. By the time I was done–– several hundred hours–– had over a hundred hours on MDGs, so flying at night and then did two deployments with that unit as a logistics guy and then my secondary job being an observer/gunner. (46:26). Interviewer: “Now the CH-46, that’s an old model helicopter. They used those in Vietnam, right?” In fact, we had helicopters in our unit that we were able to track the history back to Vietnam. Then we had planes that still had bullet patches in them, from Vietnam. So yes, they were very, very old airplanes. The running joke on just about any Marine helicopters [was] if it isn’t leaking, get off because something’s wrong, it has run dry. It was–– in fact, I got one chance in my career to go to HMX-1, which is the helicopter unit for the President because I had a friend up there and actually walked through their line and [saw] some of their helicopters. And just looking at the press versions of the 46s that were flying, it was a night and day difference. I mean ours–– everything was exposed on the inside of the skeleton of a 46 that was actually in the fleet, so every wire you could see. You went on the press versions and they have these nice white covers over everything and it was totally different, but yeah it’s a fascinating airplane–– very old airplane. Interviewer: “And you talk about–– you had two deployments, talk about those.” First deployment was in Somalia. We went out on the USS Wasp, went down, got to do a crossing the line ceremony and become a Shellback so that was really cool–– with the Navy. Interviewer: “So the Wasp is an aircraft carrier?” Yeah. It’s an LHD which is a miniature amphibious aircraft carrier. It has a well deck so they can do landing ships and has an air complement on top of it. Interviewer: “Okay, so was the air complement helicopters?” Yes, helicopters. We had four heavy-lift helicopters–– the 53s. 12 of us, which were troop movers, and then we had three Huey’s and I think four Cobras. Then we also had six Harriers on the back of the.. 6 jump jets. (48:10). Interviewer: “So that’s a jet–– the regular aircraft, but it makes a vertical takeoff.” �So they take off forward on that platform because if you take off forward, you can carry a lot more ordnance up there. You burn a lot less fuel but they do come back and recover vertically, so there’s no need for arresting wires. Interviewer: “So you have a fairly substantial flight tech but it’s not as long as on a fleet.” No, I think they’re 250 feet shorter than I think it’s 840 feet, roughly the size of a World War II battleship–– I mean not a battleship but a World War II aircraft carrier, Essex class. Interviewer: “So that’s a pretty good size––” It is a good size. Interviewer: “And what were you doing in Somalia?” This was when Somalia was going through its civil war period. We were the second Marine force that had been there. We had relieved the West Coast guys that went in there first. Lowintensity type stuff, making sure the Embassy was taken care of, getting stuff in and out of the Embassy. Most of our runs were in and out of the Embassy compound. We had reconnaissance elements when we were first starting to look for Farrah Aidid and try to bring him in. I remember there was movement afoot. I remember the MEU commander said that we want to get a deed and put him in our brig, so that was kind of the mindset we had when we were down there, was that we were gonna take some of these bad elements out of the country. We never did it. We also did a lot of training with foreign troops there. The Dutch rank were in Kismayo--we would go down and train with the Dutch, just integrate them with our helicopters, us with their Infantry. We also used Kismayo–– the southern airfield–– so our pilots could do a lot of training. It was a controlled airfield so we were able to go in there at night and do night-flight operations–– that type of stuff. It was really, really low intensity stuff. Couple bullet holes in a couple airplanes during the entire tour so nobody was ever injured. No, it was kind of funny. You’d go out and fly in Mogadishu and just be flying the night pattern, just getting pilot hours and as your planes would go towards the shoreline you would come back [and] you’d see tracers come out from the coast and just go in the water. They were shooting at the lights but we were so far out to sea that there was–– it couldn’t hit us. But–– just not like they understand trajectories or anything like that. (50:28). Interviewer: “Now, did you have any dealings with any of the Somalis yourself or were you always––” �I got into Mogadishu a couple times but not–– no. In my capacity being with the Air Wing, there was no integration. We had some infantry troops that were in there that were holding the port facility and reinforcing the Embassy–– those guys did a lot more of that type stuff but we didn’t. We were supporting getting them in-and-out mainly. Interviewer: “How long did you spend there?” We did two-and-a-half months there and then it was decided that we were going to go up and do a major operation in Kuwait–– just a training operation [to] show force. We got up there, we started our offload. I think we got about a day into our offload and that was when the Pakistani nationals who were working in Somalia were ambushed the first time. They lost–– I want to say– – they had 30 or 40 killed in an ambush in Mogadishu. We did an emergency backload immediately and went, basically, back down to put a stability [like] presence in that area again with the Marines. We stayed down there about another month-and-a-half and then we were relieved by the Army units that came in. Interviewer: “Now, do you go home from there or––” We went home. We stopped at a port call in the Mediterranean on the way out, to just kind of unwind and then we straight back to Camp Lejeune. So we’re there for about a year-and-a-half and it was basically repeated back on the Kearsarge this time, which is just a different name, same class as the Wasp. We went straight to the Adriatic–– that was when Bosnia was first kicking off–– and we basically poured it in the Adriatic and spent almost the entire deployment in the Adriatic. The only thing our unit really did there was–– we had Captain O’Grady from the American F-16 Pilot that was shot down. We were the squadron that went in and grabbed him in the evening. (52:23). Interviewer: “What do you remember about that incident or how much of that did you know at that time.” I was actually working the flight deck at the time, so the 53s–– it was their mission, they have much longer legs than the 46 do. They were the guys that were gonna go in. They went in, did everything, we had 46 waiting in case something happened to them basically as a recovery force for the recovery force. We always planned in depth and secondary plans, but of course none of that was needed. I remember him getting to the fight flight deck and I can remember he was pretty beat up when he got to us. He was with us for about–– it was like 24 hours before they flew him off and took him back to Aviano. It was the big–– you know, you always trained to do all these things. I mean one of the major operations for MEU is what we called TRAP: Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Pilots. So you train this stuff all the time, it was neat to get to see it get �executed and see it executed at that level with that level of success for one of our down aviators. So it was a big feather in the cap for the unit. Interviewer: “Now when you’re back home–– when you’re in the States and you’re in the Camp Lejeune complex, what’s life like there for enlisted Marines?” It’s really good. I mean, by that point–– Jacksonville is a huge town. You’re close enough to Wilmington that you’ve got a little more of a laid-back, non-military town that’s really easy to get to. It’s a great place–– beaches are everywhere, the beaches are beautiful. So, really enjoyed it. (54:04). Interviewer: “Did you live on-base or off-base?” I lived on-base then. I didn’t get married until I got down to–– till I met my wife on the Bonhomme Richard years later. So, I was in the barracks most of the time. Interviewer: “Did you have a car at that point?” Oh, yeah. Driving back home to Georgia pretty regularly and that type of stuff. It was pretty laid back, it was just normal military life. Being in the Air Wing was a lot easier than being in an infantry unit, you know. We aviators–– they–– really stick to this many hours of work, this many hours of rest because of crew rest and because I was a crewman, that was another good benefit of being a crewman, you know. I was expected to get an eight-hours sleep at night and it was that kind of stuff, so it was a good life. Interviewer: “Now how do you–– when you were on these deployments–– how much of your time were you spending as a crewman as opposed to doing logistics?” It was about 50/50. It was–– not everybody in the unit could be crewmen because of the swimming requirement. Getting through the swimming requirement, especially back then, was really tough and a lot of guys wanted to be crewmen but they just couldn’t swim. By becoming a crewman you were, kind of, set a part in a way. You weren’t expected to do as much of the other work. You were–– you had kind of an elevated status, so that was a good thing too. I still did everything I could in the unit and I was still integrated in the unit, but it was different when you were a person who was a crewman and had a day-job. That’s what we kind of called it, “My day job is… but I’m a crewman.” Probably about 50/50 workload wise. Interviewer: “So what rank were you at at this point?” Sergeant by that point. I had picked up Sergeant shortly after getting to 263. �Interviewer: “Okay, and so now when does this assignment come to an end?” Right after that second deployment. I was back home about two months and I was sent to Beaufort Air Station to join the Marine Wing Support Squadron 273, which is a groundside unit. But when I got there the monitor had messed up. They already had two sergeants there, so my boss said, “Don’t unpack your stuff. You’re moving somewhere else.” He called around and there was a unit that was getting ready to deploy to Aviano. There was a F-18 squadron and they were really interested in having me, so they transferred me over. I went right back to an active squadron and started getting ready to do an Aviano deployment with them. So to Aviano, Italy right back to the Bosnia AOR. (56:47). Interviewer: “Now you’re with F-18s?” Yeah, but I got my aircrew wings but I’m not flying. I did a little bit of flying while I was at Beaufort with the search-and-rescue unit that was down there because it was 46s and I came and I was already qualified, but that–– back to my regular logistics job. Interviewer: “So what was life at Aviano like?” The most beautiful freaking deployment that I did probably in my entire career. The pilots went out and flew in Bosnia. We went and skied at Corcovado everyday. It was good living. Because Aviano, being where it’s located, the Air Force didn’t want to rotate units through for the length of time that they really needed to be there. They considered it “austere conditions.” We had tents that had cement floors, that had air conditioners, that I mean–– sergeants–– we were living four to a GP tent, which is a pretty large tent. We basically had our own room, we had regular barracks furniture, we were getting hazardous duty pay because that AOR was hazardous duty at the time. We were in Italy but it was heavy duty, go figure. So life was good, life was really good. We weren’t in any danger of anything so we were basically just supporting the pilots that were there–– keeping our side of the airfield running. Life was awesome. Interviewer: “How long did you stay there?” Full six months. I would have gladly stayed longer. (58:12). Interviewer: “But now you also at some point get to Tunisia? Another deployment?” That was during that deployment. We went down to Tunisia for a month-and-a-half for a training exercise with the Tunisian Air Force. It’s a bilateral exercise that was done pretty regularly at the time–– not done anymore because we don’t have the same relationship with the Tunsian government we used to, but basically we would go down and fly up for them to help train their �pilots. So, we would come down and fly as aggressors and just a joint training operation. I loved it because it was a very small detachment out of the unit that went down–– we only took four aircraft. Once we got in there the Tunsians provided us with everything, so it wasn’t a whole lot to do once we were set up. Basically, let the pilots fly–– kind of like Aviano was–– but for me being a World War II buff, we were able to get in the car, drive down to Kasserine Pass, explore battlefields down there, see some of the World War II sites that most people don’t get to see there in Northern Africa. And there’s lots of Roman ruins all over Northern Africa–– in fact, I’d say some of the better preserved Roman ruins are there in Africa. It was a good history tour for me–– I got to see some fascinating stuff. Interviewer: “From there you go back to your––” From there I went back to Aviano and went back to the States. [I] was there for about three or four months, and that was when I got selected to Staff Sergeant. Because I was selected to Staff Sergeant, they were gonna move me and I’d gotten orders–– I wanted to go on embassy duty because I was single and you have to do basically another kind of tour when you’re at that rank level. You’d have to be a drill instructor, a recruiter, or go to embassy duty. I really wanted to go to embassy duty. I loved to travel, had been overseas as a kid so that’s what I wanted to do. [I] got sent orders to go to the Embassy duty staff at Quantico–– which is not embassy duty. That is sitting at Quantico and manning a desk for three years, and it was kind of a dead-end job for my MOS. So I pulled some strings, called some senior guys that I knew and said, “Look they’re shafting me. What can we do?” One of the Colonels–– I’d graduated under for the staff sergeant course for embarkation that I’d gone to that year–– I called him and he says, “Would you like to go sea duty?” I said, “I’ll take sea duty in a heartbeat over going to [Quantico].” So I went–– they assigned me to the Bonhomme Richard, which was another LHD that was being built in Pascagoula, Mississippi. And I was the first Marine that was sent down there in the detachment. So [I] went down to get the ship ready. Met my wife down there and just had a really good tour. We got the ship built, took the ship all the way around through the Straits of Magellan and back up San Diego. We got to port in Chile, we got to port in Brazil, and while we were going around Chile was when I was notified I was selected for Warrant Officer. It was kind of bittersweet because I really wanted to be a Warrant Officer because there’s a lot of privilege that comes with it, but it was kind of like I’m not gonna get to go to the Pacific for deployment–– because that was the whole reason I really wanted to go that ship is I’d been in the Marine Corps now for seven years and I was one of the Marines who’d been to Okinawa, still had not been to Korea, still had not been to all those famous Marine Corps places–– but that just wasn’t in the cards. (1:01:39). Interviewer: “Now explain the Warrant Officer business. First of all, what is a Warrant Officer?” �In my specific MOS–– in the logistics and embarkation MOS–– fields in the Marine Corps that require a speciality level of expertise that people consider on par with higher education, I guess is the best way to explain it. They want to pull people from the enlisted side out of those and make them officers–– give them the authority that officers have and that’s what the Warrant Officer program is. You take an enlisted man, you say, “We’re gonna put this bar on you because of your level of technical expertise,” but the one thing about that–– when you do that–– that’s what you’re going to be for the rest of your career. Kind of restricted to that one job speciality, but you really get all of the advanced training, [and] then comes with that is responsibility. It’s a really small fraternity within the Marine Corps. It’s smaller as you go up, but it’s a really unique group. They call us “Mustangs” because you’re prior enlisted–– there’s a level of respect that you get from the enlisted guys because you’re an officer but [also] because you come from where they come from–– that’s just different from the regular officer corps. It’s a great job, I mean you are now integrated in a staff at the officer level and it’s pretty amazing that overnight you go from being an enlisted guy [who’s] asking permission to do things to being on a staff, making decisions for other people to do things. So, that’s a pretty eye-opening–– that transition is really interesting for a lot of people. (1:03:12). Interviewer: “A side issue you mentioned, that you had met your wife when you were training for this crew and she was a sailor. So she had a lower rank than yours––” Nope, same rank. Well, she was one lower but [it] didn’t really matter. Interviewer: “Basically, were there rules about who could fraternize with whom?” In the Navy ship, back then, the rule was because E6s–– even though I was an E6 and she was an E5–– because E6s in the Navy are considered “non-chiefs,” below that rank. Because I was another service, even though I was on the same command, nobody cared. So as long as we weren’t messing around on the boat, doing things we weren’t supposed to do, that kind of stuff, nobody cared. And Christina was at the end of her tour anyway, so she actually ended up getting out of the Navy two weeks before I became a Warrant Officer, and we ran off to Vegas and got married right after she got out. She actually came back on the boat and pinned my bars on me as my wife, which was interesting. Interviewer: “So now you’re a Warrant Officer, do you get pulled off the Bonhomme Richard now and you’ve got to go to Warrant Officer school––” Got pulled off, sent to Quantico to go to Warrant Officer basic course–– which is a three-month course. It’s basically the three months of the six months course that the Lieutenants do. We don’t need to do the entire course, because they’re teaching Lieutenants about the Marine Corps–– we already know that stuff–– so everything we would already know as Marines, they basically take �all that out, but all of the officer stuff that we don’t know yet, we just get that portion of that. Just like boot camp and MCT turns you into a basic rifleman, the basic course at Quantico is supposed to turn you basically into a basic infantry platoon commander. So you’re supposed to be able to fight a Marine Corps platoon, so you’re right back to doing combat stuff and the majority of what you do is basic combat stuff. (1:05:05). Interviewer: “So how old were you at this point?” I was 27. Interviewer: “You were in good enough shape to do what they wanted you to do?” It was a transition, because that is the one thing when you start getting into the staff NCO ranks in the Marine Corps–– not all of us, especially me being an Air Wing so much. I wasn’t as fit as I probably should have been. That was probably the biggest hurdle for me when I got to the basic school, getting back into that level of shape. But, it comes pretty quick when you’ve got that peer pressure on you, you just grin and bear it and get back to it. Interviewer: “Then once you complete the training, now what do you do?” Went to my first unit as a W1. I went to Marine Wing Support Squadron 272 at New River to be the embarkation officer there. Interesting time also for the Marine Corps–– we were starting to put jets into Taszár, Hungary to support Bosnia operations. When I got to my first unit, that is what I was basically tasked with; getting units within my group deployed into Hungary. Didn’t get to go to Hungary–– really wanted too–– just wasn’t in the cards. But, that’s what I did for the entire time I was there. That was a pretty–– that tour was interesting. We went and did an operation in Turkey, got to do operations in Honduras and Nicaragua but they were all small stuff–– building schools, partnership operations. Interviewer: “Now, did you get to go on those?” I did. The Turkey operation I got to go on and the Honduras and Nicaragua operations I got to go on. They were one-month long–– you go down, do what you do, and get back. Interviewer: “Did you have much interaction with the locals when you’re doing that or are you still isolated?” No, we were interacting with locals pretty close. In fact, I was one of the first ones down and the Embassy flew me into the wrong airport. So I got to the airport and they said, “You’re in the wrong place.” I said, “You bought the ticket.” They said, “Yeah we messed up. Go get a rental �car, put it on the Embassy tab, and drive down.” I’m like, “Wait a minute. I’m by myself in a country I’ve never been in before, and you want me to get a rental car and drive through the mountains of Honduras and find you?” And they were like, “Yeah, no problem. It’s just one road.” That was kind of surreal, you know, driving through the backwoods of Honduras on my way from the city, but going to Tegucigalpa and then finding Soto Cano Airfield, and then doing all the planning and getting all the Marines in there–– but it was a fun operation, it was. The Marines getting into the jungle was different for the Marines, getting the equipment in the jungle. We actually brought all the unit into Honduras and then we had to use barges to barge them into where we were working in Nicaragua–– so that was an interesting feat, but no. It was just the standard everybody was friendly, everybody was glad to see us. We were building a couple schools and a small medical facility for a small town. (1:07:54). Interviewer: “And what were you doing in Turkey?” Turkey was just–– it was a military pre-positioning test, where we would take gear that we had positioned all over the world, go into a beach, set it all up, show we can do it, pack it all back up, and leave again. So just a normal NATO exercise that was done back then. Interviewer: “Then having done that, you go back again to the States and now what do you do next?” I got selected to W2 and–– Interviewer: “So that’s a promotion?” A promotion. Promotion to Warrant Officer 2 and immediately with that in my field, basically, comes a ship tour. You go and you integrate yourself into a Navy crew on an amphib ship, and you’re the liaison for all Marine matters on that ship. And I went to the USS Ponce site, which was an LPD–– smaller than the lost class. It’s a landing ship, it has two spots back for helicopters, but it’s mainly an amphibious assault ship. Interviewer: “What were you doing with that?” I did one regular MEU deployment with them, which was basically the same thing I was doing but this time I was on the Navy side of the house. We took Marines out, we did the last of the great–– of what we call the old med cruises, and when we were in our last month, about to go home, was when the towers came down, September 11th. We were actually off the coast of Sicily when it happened. My wife shot me an email and said, “A plane crashed into the towers.” And immediately we were all thinking, “Okay, yeah. Some Cessna flew into some tower somewhere.” Then we–– I think it was about ten minutes later–– we got a flash message that the �Pentagon had been hit. So, that’s when everything went crazy. We didn’t have television at the time–– you had to steam a certain course for the satellite to link up, so we went out to where we could steam a certain course, got the TVs up and running, and we got the TVs up and running right as tower one came down. So that was just really–– I can just remember being–– and we just watched TV for two days trying to figure out what was going on. And the mood on the boat was, “Is this deployment going to turn into a combat deployment? Are we immediately going over?” And the decision was made [of] no, that’s not what we’re doing, we’re bringing you home. So we went home from that. Got home, didn’t get involved in the Afghanistan stuff at all that was going on. The Marine Corps was kind of held back from that–– it was mainly an Army operation at that point, and then Gulf War II started ticking up. So, I was supposed to transfer off the boat and go back to a ground unit finally, and actually take a break because I had done my sea tour, I had done all these deployments. I was supposed to go somewhere on campus, you know, Cherry Point in North Carolina and then it was the day after Christmas, we got called to the ship and the CO told us we were leaving in a week-and-a-half for the Gulf. “We’re gonna go pick Marines up, we’re gonna go fight in Iraq.” After that meeting I went up to him, I said, “What are you doing with me? I’m supposed to leave next week.” He said, “You’re not leaving next week, your replacement is not coming. Call your wife, tell her you’re not going to checkpoint–– those orders have been rescinded–– and get ready to go.” We had just had our son, he was a couple months old, and we had already started looking at houses to transfer to and I had to go and tell the wife we’re stuck here and she was like, “Do you even know where we’re going when you get back–– whenever you get back?” And I was like, “No idea.” So it was kind of like in a couple days get on a boat and you just had no idea. Everything was up in the air. She made the most of it, she always does. She’s a tough lady–– one of the reasons I married a sailor. (1:11:39). Interviewer: “Yeah. I mean, she’d been in there, she understood something of how the Military works and this kind of stuff can happen. So what assignment do you get?” We were part of ATF East so we went down to Camp Lejeune to pick Marines up. ATF East was the seven ships that pushed from the east coast, there was ATF West which was pushing from the west coast. Interviewer: “And ATFs are amphibious task forces?” Amphibious task force–– they’re put together only in time of war. We took as many Marines as we could carry. It was really crazy because basically all the rules we had for loading ships, we threw out the window. I had gear that was what we call “athwartship stowed.” Basically humvees stowed sideways on a ship, which is something you don’t do. We had everything blocked and braced in because it was basically [you] can’t leave everything on the shore–– everything’s getting on the boat. I had a really good CO, his parents were–– one parent was a Marine, one parent was a sailor–– and he was all about the Marine Corps. He was like, “Chris, �we’re not leaving any of their gear on the boat. Just figure out a way to get it on. I don’t care if we’re legal or not, get it on the boat.” [I] got everything on, really good Marines on the boat, got integrated quick. Everybody was really focused about what we were gonna go do, but we didn’t end up doing an amphibious assault. We took everybody to Kuwait and dumped them off, took all of our ammunition off the ship for it to be pushed forward, and then they told us–– we didn’t know what we were gonna do, you know, what our follow on task was going to be, we didn’t have Marines anymore. And found out we were gonna be a mine-sweep operation. We were gonna be in a mine-control ship for the Al-Faw peninsula–– that area where the rivers empty out into the Persian Gulf. We’re assigned all our mine-sweeps, they put some sea dragons–– large Navy helicopters–– on us that actually tow magnetic poles through the water to find magnetic mines. We got dolphins on our sister ship that we were controlling. They didn’t have a Combat Cargo Officer, so I was actually sent over there to help install dolphin tanks. It’s something you just–– never in a million years–– think you’re even gonna be–– it’s something that’ll ever even cross your path. But I actually got to work with Marine Mammal Systems guys out of San Diego–– don’t even know if we have that unit anymore–– but it–– (1:13:50). Interviewer: “What was the purpose of the dolphins?” The dolphins are mine-finders. Seaworld used to have a military affiliation with the Navy in San Diego, and they trained sea lions as any ship–– so any swimmer. So the sea lions–– actually we had two sea lions in Bahrain that would protect all our ships–– they went down and made sure nobody was putting anything on the boats, there were no scuba divers in the water. It’s basically a Rottweiler with fins, is the way the Navy would explain it to us, and you’d see these big sea lions jump out of the water and get fed fish, and then they’d jump back in the water and go search the bottom of the boats–– fascinating. But we got the dolphins, and the dolphins are trained to go out and find metal objects on the bottom of the ocean and come back and let the divers know where they are, so [the divers] can go down and disarm the mines. Because that was the big word, that they were going to mine that entire area. They did do some mining but not nearly what we thought they were going to do. But, just a neat thing to work with dolphins. Interviewer: “And you also mentioned you’re working with NATO troops at this point.” We were. We actually got a complement of British divers on board. The Brits were going to go in and seize the Al-Faw peninsula. We got some Polish commandos–– the Grom commandos–– which are Polish Special Forces. They were going to go in and see some of the oil platforms that were up there in that area. They basically came to us because we were one of the farthest north units, so they came to us to do some of their reconnaissance. They were able to come out to us, use our services to figure out what they were doing, before the big push started. So, I got to get involved a little bit with the planning with the Brits of how they were going to invade the island. That was really fascinating, helping a foreign military. That was a part of what an embarkation �guy does. We do all the planes and trains and all that, but we also a large part of our job is being trained to plan amphibious assaults. You know, understanding how cargo needs to be faced ashore, understanding combat loading, understanding timelines for when things are going to be taken, that type of stuff. (1:15:51). Interviewer: “Now, do you leave before the actual invasion of Iraq starts? That starts in March––” We were right off the coast when it started. We were still doing that operation the entire time. We stayed through the entire war, until our Marines–– we actually put our Marines back on the boat and took them back home when the whole thing was over. But we did mine-sweep operations the entire time there in the Northern Gulf. Interviewer: “Did you ever have any kind of opposition where you were?” The most interesting thing that happened to us up there was, what we think were some Saddam suicide boats, that were supposed to come out and hit us. The interesting thing that happened to them is, whoever these Iraqis were that tried to come out to us, they went into Iranian waters before they came out to us and the Iranians got a hold of them–– and the Iranians made pretty short work of them. There was one silkworm missile, which is an anti-ship missile that was fired dead reckoning. Basically, the Iraqis were afraid to turn the radar on, so they basically just pointed it at dead azimuth and shot it out into the Gulf. They actually ended up–– I think it hit a mall in Kuwait City, that’s where it actually landed. But that was interesting because basically the missile flew right through our box in the middle of the night, and we had no idea it happened. It was one of those things that Skipper goes, “Hey, a missile landed and we’ve got the launch indicator.” And we went over to the chart table and we looked at it like, “Huh. It flew right by us last night.” So that was the extent of the intensity of what we saw, so nothing big. We’d have Iranian boats that would come out and challenge us every now and then, which is normal stuff in the Persian Gulf. They love to come out and just play games with us. And because of the towing of these special helicopters–– basically the helicopter has to come back to the boat and land, and as it’s doing that it is still attached to this huge, the best way to explain it is, it’s a giant magnetic telephone pole, so that thing has to be recovered and pulled into the ship. And this whole thing is a restructured maneuvering condition for the boat–– and it takes a lot of time–– so keeping the Iranians away from the boat and keeping them from fouling our path through the ocean, that was a big part of it. Small boats running around and just getting rid of them and that type of stuff. That’s just what they do. (1:18:11). Interviewer: “And so how many months do you think you were out there?” We ended up–– I think it was a five-and-a-half-month deployment for us by the time it was over. �Interviewer: “Now when you come back from there, what’s next for you?” I finally got off the boat, but I didn’t get off the boat the way I thought I was going to get off the boat. I was sent down to Camp Lejeune, and I was supposed to go to an artillery regiment and the reason they were going to send me to an artillery regiment–– also a unit that’s not supposed to deploy–– and by that point my ticker was–– I had had a lot of deployments, a lot more deployments than most people. So I was relieved to find out I was going to an artillery unit. Before I got there, there was me–– at that time I was W3, I had just put W3 on–– and there was a brand new W1 that was coming in that was supposed to go to a new regiment. They were standing up 8th Marines because the fighting in Iraq was getting more severe, so they had brought 8th Marines back out of mothballs. And I found out a month after I got there that I got traded for beer at the O Club. So my boss, Colonel Gerghainis at the time–– ended up being General Gerghainis–– he went to the division commander and said, “Hey, I heard you sent me a W1.” He said, “I don’t want a W1. I’m standing a unit up from nothing, I hear there’s a W3 coming into 10th Marines.” And he said, “Yeah, but you don’t rate a W3.” He said, “I don’t care [that] I don't rate a W3.” And Gerghainis is a guy that got what he wanted, so I ended up reporting to 8th Marine Regiment, which was a surprise to me when I got down there. But I couldn’t have gone to a better place–– of course, it meant more and more deploying. As soon as I sat down there they were putting Marines in Afghanistan for the first time, so the boss put me in charge of that. He said, “Go figure out how to get my Marines in Afghanistan.” So I had to go figure out the airport system that the DoD had set up using–– we were using Kyrgyzstan at the time–– Manas, Kyrgyzstan to push forces through. Marine units hadn’t done that before. We do things a little differently than the Air Force and the Army, so we had to basically go to all these different hubs [like], “This is how we do business. How do you do business? How can we get these guys in there?” It was about two months of figuring that whole thing out and getting that unit in place before I came home–– it was a mini-deployment, if you want to call it that. I really enjoyed it because it was one of the coolest moments for me in my life because my father was deployed to Bagram, Afghanistan at the time with the Rangers. I actually got to go meet up with dad in a combat theatre, sit down at chow hall, have dinner with my old man, and take one of my most treasured photographs I own–– is a picture of me and him together with Hindu Kush Mountains behind us there in Bagram. (1:20:44). Interviewer: “Now you’ve been to Afghanistan.” Yep. I have been to Afghanistan. I had come home from that and we went on what was called ACM which is the Air Contingency MAGTF. It was a unit that had never been used before–– kind of like the Army Airborne has a battalion that’s always within 24 hours of being able to be deployed anywhere in the world. The Marine Corps does the same thing, and the reason why the Army does it one way and we do it another is the Army is going to give you an entire battalion of airborne troops that can sustain themselves for 30 days. If you need more than that, then you �come to the Marine Corps–– we’ll give you an ACM. An ACM can be tailored to whatever the situation is for ground troops, for support troops, or for aviation troops. We can get the first elements of that anywhere in the world in 24 hours, and then the follow on troops will all close within ten days. So you can have a regimental sized force in ten days instead of a battalion that can do 30 day ops. Everybody always told us, “Don’t worry about ACM. ACM never goes anywhere. Never seen an ACM deploy,” and I was like, “Hey, I’m here” so it’s going to deploy, and it did. Aristide got pushed out of power and within 24 hours of him getting on an airplane in Port-au-Prince, we were getting Marines on airplanes to go over and take over Port-au-Prince and run the city. For the follow-on forces that eventually came in there–– the French came in there and took over the northern half Haiti, we took over the southern half of Haiti, and we did operations there for four-and-a-half months until we turned everything over to the Brazilian government. The Brazilian brought their troops in and they did sustainment ops down there. (1:22:30). Interviewer: “Now is this sort of like a UN operation?” It was under the auspices of the UN–– that’s the, and it’s kind of a weird operation, it started out as kind of a NATO thing and then it ended up growing into a UN thing when we got the Brazilians in charge. We needed to extricate ourselves from it, only because our ops tempo for the US Military was so high. Brazilians were looking for a mission to do–– as a growing military, it was something they were interested in doing. It was just–– the Marine Corps has a long relationship with Haiti, so does America. The Marine Corps has probably been there six times, so whenever unrest happens in Haiti we send the Marines in, everything calms down, we come back home. The main reason we do that is because if you don’t calm Haiti down, then all the Haitians get on their boats and they all come to America. That’s the real reason why we go and calm Haiti down when we have problems; there’s always this mass exodus and there’s a large loss of life whenever that takes place. In Haiti–– I’ve been to Somalia and I’ll tell you Somalia is a very rough place to be–– but honestly, going to Haiti is such an education because something in this hemisphere that is at that poverty level is mind-blowing. To anyone who ever gets the chance to get down there, it’s a place that you’ve got to see to believe. You literally can take off in the Dominican Republic on a helicopter and start flying towards Haiti and when you get to the Haitian border the trees stop because everything on the Haitian side of the border has been turned to charcoal and burned for heat. That’s the level of poverty you’re dealing with, and that’s the reason why you hear about mudslides and all these other problems they have. It’s a rough area to work in–– the people that work there are doing the Lord’s work without a doubt. It’s mainly missionaries, but it’s a rough country. That’s what we were trying to do–– was just calm down. There’s a lot of gang violence and our big mission was to just suppress the violence that was going on in Port-au-Prince and the areas of the Southern claw that we were responsible for. (1:24:37). �Interviewer: “How successful were you as far as you could tell?” Really. I mean Haiti is one of those places that once authority shows up, it settles down pretty quickly. The people that are the troublemakers there don’t want to make trouble with people that are organized militaries. They usually are making trouble because there’s just not much organization that is in Haiti. Haiti is Haiti. I have been told that by Haitians. Haiti is what Haiti is, Haiti will always be Haiti. In Haiti you have one percent that has everything and 99 percent that has absolutely nothing and that’s just the way the country works. It settled down pretty quickly, by the time we turned it over to Brazilians it was pretty quiet and back to normal. Of course, that was pre-earthquakes and everything else that happened down there recently. Interviewer: “Now you get to go back to the States and you’re still with the 8th Marines at that point?” Yep, still with 8th Marines. We immediately entered back into the deployment cycle for going to Iraq. It was–– Gerghainis came and told us, “Look guys, yeah we just got back from Haiti but we’re going to deploy on the same timeline that we were originally gonna deploy.” So everything that we were supposed to do in 12 months, we’re doing in six months. He was such a great commander, he said, “Basically guys, we got a plate full of food, eat as fast as you can, if you don’t eat all your vegetables just make sure you come to me and tell me what vegetables you didn’t eat.” He was a very down-to-Earth, country boy from North Carolina and “we will get there” was his whole thing. (1:26:10). Interviewer: “So what does a unit have to do to prepare for deployment to Iraq?” Everything. At this point everything had become–– we always said “very corporate.” You had to go over to March Air Force Base where they had set up all the facilities for training people leaving for Iraq. You had actors that were acting as bad guys, civilians, that type stuff. So you’re entering an environment that felt like Iraq. You were doing all that “pre”–– that was most of the pre-deployment training. Going to the rifle range, getting all your rifles sighted in. We went out and did a CAX–– basically a miniature CAX–– which is a combined arms exercise done at 29 palms so you can practice integrating aviation fires, artillery fires, ground training maneuvers so you’re not killing people in friendly fire. It’s a really big thing. It’s a lot of training that has to be done and we basically had half the time that most units get to get it done. There was a lot more stress–– we had all just come out of Haiti. Me–– I’m just this constantly going jackrabbit since I have been in and immediately going into that was kind of a grinder. We got ourselves through the pre-deployment training, got deployed, and that was right–– I think it was two weeks before we deployed–– found out I was going to be made an LDO Captain. Interviewer: “What is an LDO Captain?” �An LDO Captain is an even more elite technical officer than the Warrant Officer is. LDOs are regular officers that are–– you can go from Captain all the way to Lieutenant Colonel with no college. Basically you’re in Warrant Officer training and you’re in enlisted training, then they just go ahead and say, “Bless you. You’re a Captain.” I’m taking your Warrant Officer off you one day and putting a Limited Duty officer on. But, it’s a Captain bar just like all the other Captains where you're the same rank, same abilities. The only difference with us is we can never have command. A regular Lieutenant, a regular Captain, can have company command or battalion command, we can never do that. We are stuck in our staff job for the rest of our career. Because I was promoted Captain I was supposed to come out of the unit, but Gerghainis looked at me and said, “You’re not going anywhere.” I knew that he was going to rotate out too, halfway through the deployment over in Iraq, and I asked him, I said, “Look, I’ll go. I have no problem going. I’ll tell my guys I’m going, we’ll push this whole ‘I’m going’ thing, but when you leave Iraq I want to be in your cargo pocket.” And he promised me–– he said, “Chris, you’ll get out. You won’t have to do a full year. We’ll get you out of there a couple months early.” And they did. They got me out–– got a replacement for me. But, we got into Iraq in January–– (1:29:01). Interviewer: “Of what year?” I think it was ‘07. I can’t really–– Interviewer: “Well in Spring of ‘07––” Yep. Spring of ‘07. Interviewer: “It says in Spring of ‘07 you were selected to be LDO Major.” That was ‘05. Interviewer: “I have February ‘05 it says deployed to Fallujah.” So we were post the second Battle of Fallujah. The city at that point, it was still tightly controlled access in and out. We basically got everybody out we could, put a wall around it, made all the bad guys go away, and then slowly let the civilian population return, trying to control–– make sure–– no guns were flowing back into the city. That worked at varying levels of success, but we took over from the units that had done the Battle of Fallujah. The big thing we were responsible for was basically rebuilding the city that had been destroyed in certain sectors–– because of the fighting. We did a lot of moving money–– moving money and distributing money, engineering projects to get the city back on its feet, trying to set up a police force there, trying to set up different levels of government there to get the city functioning again. That was our main task–– �was that area. We had three infantry battalions and one reconnaissance battalion that was on the south side of the city. It was just managing those units. Interviewer: “Were you based outside of the city?” Right outside of the city in the main Fallujah complex, which is a large direct support base [about] five kilometers from the city. Interviewer: “Did you have Marines who were stationed in the city itself?” Yes. The city was separated into three sectors and an infantry battalion had each of those sectors. All of us–– even though we lived out of the city–– we spent a lot of time in the city because we were in direct support of the units that were there. So for us we were going back and forth constantly, moving in and out of the city. Interviewer: “Do you have much contact with any Iraqi forces at this point or were they kept separate?” We did. We were bringing in–– in fact that was a large part of what my unit individually did–– we were bringing in the 4th Brigade, which was a unit from Southern Iraq. It’s really interesting it was done that way because the people in Southern Iraq were very different from the people in Northern Iraq–– religiously. You know, one group is Shia and one group is Sunni. We had a Shia heavy force that we were bringing into the city of Fallujah–– which I still don’t understand the reasoning behind that–– but we were bringing the 4th Brigade in and we were training the 4th Brigade at the same time. I had a lot of really good relationships. I actually interfaced directly with their logistics department–– it was Major Omar, at least that’s what we called him. He was their S4–– their logistics guy. I spent a lot of time with him talking about how we did things and a lot of time eating chicken. Whenever we went over there we’d sit down, dine with them. We always ate Iraqi food which was actually really good. Naan bread and chicken, it’s great. It was interesting to get to interface with them, especially with me having been in the First Gulf War and the Second Gulf War–– I’m just kind of interfacing with a person that was the enemy at one point, but they’re not enemies at that point. It’s a really interesting relationship. In fact, we were teaching really basic logistic stuff to them and a lot of us felt bad in a way about it. It’s kind of like these guys are professional officers, I mean Omar had fought in the Iran-Iraq War and I asked him one day. I was really honest and I said, “How do you feel about the stuff we’re teaching you? Is it beneath you?” And he says, “No, no, no. You came in here, you beat us twice. We can learn some things.” It was just really–– it was very cheery. I would love to know where he is now with everything that has gone on. It was getting that unit stood-up and as they were getting stood-up we started integrating them into our infantry battalions and turning over portions of the patrolling and that type of stuff to them and the police we were training. It was �trying to get the country turned back over, that was the idea. Back to the forces of the country. (1:33:11). Interviewer: “Was there much violence at this point?” Yeah. It was low intensity, asymmetrical combat constantly. A lot of IEDs. IEDs were the biggest thing we dealt with. Dealt with VBIEDs at some point. Probably the worst day we had there–– I can’t remember the day off the top of my head. I mean, I remember it like a movie but we had female search teams that we were putting at the various gates of the city out of respect for the Arabic culture–– we wanted females being searched by females. Our unit had gotten in a habit of moving these people around on a schedule, which is always bad. We weren’t thinking of it like that–– I think there was a little bit of hubris that was going on. We were kind of in charge. We were moving in large convoys, we’d be fine, and we had a VBIED hit one of our female search teams one night. It was a civilian vehicle. It had several artillery shells, we think, in it. They knew exactly what they were doing. They knew exactly what vehicles to hit and that was the first time we had lost females in our command. Interviewer: “These VBIEDs–– Vehicle-Borne––” Vehicle-Borne IED. So basically a suicide truck or a suicide car. That was the moment–– we had up to that point we had lost about 20 males, but that was the first time we had lost females. Which it’s a really interesting dynamic. I can tell you that even General Gerghainis who–– the guy’s a rock. I mean he’s just a stone, you don’t think anything would ever faze him. But I think the fact that he had college aged daughters at the time–– it hit everybody hard. It even hit the CO hard. Did a lot of soul-searching about the way we were doing things. We started looking at complacency in every way that complacency could possibly take over. That became the word of the day: complacency will kill you. The unit definitely had a major push to undo all of that and get back to the way we were supposed to do business. That was probably the worst day. I lost one of the Marines that was working directly for me–– he had a family. [It] kind of hit my wife too because she was the coordinator for all of the wives for our unit for our section. This was before we had really figured out how to do casualty operations. We were still, as the Marine Corps, getting used to how we organized the wives and the rear around casualties–– the wives, back then, were doing things like helping to run memorials. That was when the Marine Corps figured out this is not the way to do things. You can’t have young wives doing this kind of stuff with her husband still deployed. So the Marine Corps actually went through a whole shake-up of the way that system was done–– out of the stuff that was going on with us, which was good. But yeah, that was probably the hardest day for the unit over there. (1:36:12). Interviewer: “Other things from that deployment that kind of stand out in your memory?” �Funniest thing that happened on that deployment was when I first got there. I think I had been there about two weeks and General Gerghainis called me into his office and he said, “Chris, I need to move several million in Iraqi dinar. How do I do it?” I was just kind of taken aback and I’m like I don’t even know how to calculate what we’re talking about. I told him, “I’m not a Swiss banker. I physically need to go to the money that we are gonna move with a scale and a tape measure and figure out what we’re talking about.” He said, “I can get you into one of the banks in Fallujah where the money’s stored.” I said, “That’ll work.” So, we went into a bank vault and actually took bricks of cash–– Iraqi denominations–– measured them, weighed them, and figured out how much each denomination was, how their money was organized. Then we went back to the Embassy and said, “We can do this but give us exactly what we’re getting. Tell us how many bills–– what are we getting?” We ended up figuring it out and we–– of course–– thought we were talking about like a carload of cash. In the end we were talking about a 20-foot ISO container of cash. It was a lot bigger than what we thought we were going to be dealing with. Then at the time, the MSR between Baghdad and Fallujah–– I mean it’s famous; the Green Line there is the highway to hell. You don’t want to be out in the Green Line, it’s one of the most IED places in the world. Taking that much money down there, there was no way we were going to do that, so we figured we had to fly it. We called our Marine air and they said only a heavy lift can do that and heavy lifts weren’t allowed to fly into Fallujah because we had lost one and it killed almost 20 some-odd Marines. So we ended up with the Army as our only option, and I called up the Army–– they were called the sugar-bears–– up in Balad and I told them what we were going to do, just out of the blue, and they were like, “So you want us to move a million dollars worth of cash for you guys, from Baghdad into Fallujah?” I was like, “That’s exactly what we’re doing.” They said, “We only have one thing we want to ask you to do.” We said, “What’s that?” He says, “All the guys on the mission, we want to lay in the cash and take a big picture.” We were like, “Knock yourselves out.” So we actually pulled the cash out of the trucks there in Baghdad and let them all get a picture with all this money. We flew it in–– it took several helicopter loads to get it all in–– and then the rest of my job became distributing that money. Each week we’d take so much money into the city, and in random places, and we would distribute it to the businesses that had been destroyed and damaged. That was probably the most interesting thing I had to do. (1:39:04). Interviewer: “Now, are you going and meeting with the business owners and handing them the money?” Basically. There was a process where they would come to an area we had, they would say what was destroyed, then there would be an engineer and an Iraqi government official that would go out and verify–– two-person integrity–– what had been destroyed. Yes this person was the owner and then the payment would get made and when the payment was made, they would basically tell them the day before so there was no time to plan anything against us. We [then] would go meet the people and dole the cash out. I was just responsible for getting it there, I didn’t have any �of the other concerns. It was really interesting. There was a lot of money distributed there to rebuild that city. Every building we broke, we paid for. Kind of an interesting thing in warfare. I think it was probably one of the first times that was ever done. Interviewer: “There were equivalents of that in Vietnam and in other places, but probably on a different level. When do you get to leave Iraq?” I left Iraq in October–– when the Colonel left, I left. Headed back to the states and went to my next unit. I was supposed to go to the 26th MEU, which is also a deploying unit, but at that point in my career I didn’t have a choice. You have to go to MEU if you want your career to continue. Interviewer: “That’s a Marine Expeditionary Unit?” Marine Expeditionary Unit. Basically going right back to the ships. I went there and had a great CO, great XO, great experience at 26 MEU and did one deployment with them. The deployment was to the Middle East. The good thing about that deployment was because of my rank at the time, I was involved in all the planning operations so I didn’t spend a lot of time on the ship–– probably half my time was on the ship, half my time was living in hotels in Kenya or Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Kuwait City. So doing all of the planning for all of the exercises that the unit was going to do. A lot of time in Jordan, which I really love. Jordan is one of my favorite countries. It was a good deployment, but it was another deployment. (1:41:17). Interviewer: “But this one is not–– you’re not really to a combat zone versus––” Oh, no. We were considered–– everything in the Persian Gulf is considered a combat zone and received combat pay, but it wasn’t. We weren’t doing combat operations at the time. It was all training operations, meeting the training goals. While everybody else was up in Iraq doing what they were doing, we were the ones training with all of our partners. Interviewer: “What were you doing in Kenya?” Kenya was–– at the time we had special operations forces that were operating out of Northern Kenya. We were training with them and we were training with the Kenyan military. That was just another training opportunity that was there. We were kind of at the time, that was when the Marine Corps was starting to stand-up AFRICOM and starting to get involved in Africa again–– seeing Africa as a future venue that we were going to need to train in. That was one of those initial get out there, shake hands, we had one of our infantry companies train one of their infantry companies and had a big party at the end. We all got together and shot off rifles together. Kenya was fascinating, I loved working in Kenya. �Interviewer: “I guess at that point there’s probably concerns about increasing Islamist activity in various places.” Exactly. You were dealing with Boko Haram and those agents up there in that Somali/Central African Corridor at that time. Interviewer: “How long was that deployment?” That was only a couple weeks of the six months. Interviewer: “Kenya was a couple weeks, but it was six months total?” It was six months. (1:42:51). Interviewer: “And then–– so you go back home again and––” Go back home again and I got selected for Major and I’m supposed to go and take a break again– – and every time in my career I was supposed to go to unit where I was supposed to not be deployable, I would go to the unit and that unit, for the first time in its history, would be deployed. Or for the first time in the last decade, be deployed. I went to the Second Marine Air Wing there at Cherry Point. My job was to control all movement for the wing but not to leave Cherry Point, but that was when they decided they were going to put an entire wing headquarters into Iraq. So, here it comes again: going to do another deployment, but there was a caveat. They needed to also put a unit into Afghanistan. My boss at the time, she wasn’t thrilled with her options for the people she could send to Afghanistan because none of the officers she had in the unit had any experience with expeditionary ops. They were all staff guys at their level, so she kind of looked over at me and said, “I know this isn’t your job–– that you’re a movement guy, you’re not a basic logistics guy but me and the General have decided you’re going to be the one to go to Afghanistan and we’re going to take the other guys to Iraq.” It’s like they get to go to the land of the big chow hall because they have no experience, and I get to live in a tent. In one way you’re flattered, but in the other way you’re kind of like it just keeps happening over and over again. Anway, great boss that I was going to ATF East with. He was a Cobra pilot–– Wally Watkins–– just an amazing man. A good group of officers I got put together with, it was a really interesting mission. We were going into southern Afghanistan–– this is before the Obama surge into Afghanistan. We kind of knew something was going to come and we were going to grow that force but we were the initial unit that went in there. It was just one very small Marine air combat element, which is what I was a part of. We had a couple of Cobras and a couple of 53s–– large heavy lifts and attack helicopters. Then we had one Marine battalion that was spread out over a huge AOR. I mean you had one battalion of Marines that were basically covering the state of Tennessee. Basically, there were a couple guys in Nashville, a couple guys in Chattanooga, �and that’s just the way AOR was at the time–– doing what they could to tamp things down. They interfaced heavily with the British because the British controlled Helmand province at the time. We were just doing small level, asymmetrical, small-intensity conflict, IEDs, that type of stuff. Starting to understand how we’re going to stand-up the Afghan military, how we were going to stand up the Afghan police force, and trying to get those things started there in those regions–– and keeping them calm enough to where we could start creating these sustainable organizations within Afghanistan. But it grew very quickly into something else. We realized very quickly that that wasn’t going to happen and I think that’s when the administration decided now we need to surge troops in and we went from being a very small operation with one battalion to having a full regimental sized MEB–– what we call a MEB–– Marine Expeditionary Brigade. (1:46:18). Interviewer: “When are you actually there because Obama doesn’t take office until ‘09?” It must have been–– am I off? No. It was Obama because he had just come into office. It must have been ‘09. Interviewer: “Yeah.” Yeah, it must have been ‘09 timeframe because it was one of the first operations, I know, that he approved. It would have been right after he took over. Yep. The decision was made that in the summer we were going to surge from what we were to something much larger. Because of that, we were based on Kandahar originally–– which was a NATO ISAF base. We had forces from France, Denmark, everybody in there. Poles, Brits, but we weren’t going to fit so we had to figure out somewhere else we were going to live. Kandahar went from being a very small airfield to having the same air traffic as Heathrow, almost in a year. One of the most complicated airspace zones anywhere in the world. We knew we were going to have to move out bringing in an entire aviation. We were gonna bring in four squadrons so we started looking [at] what we were going to do. The Brits had a base called Camp Bastion–– it was out in the middle of nowhere in the desert. It was sitting on a really nice aquifer, so it was one of those rare places out there that had really good fresh water and we went out, we looked at it, and they had a lot of territory that was out to the side of it that was completely unused. We decided there was enough area out there to build an entire Marine base and also build an ANA–– Afghan National Army base. Then the Afghans had a base, we had a base. We could train the Afghans and we could start integrating them in and that’s what we did–– we brought all of the Marines out there. I remember when they called it Camp Leatherneck–– I think it’s been completely taken apart now–– but I remember when it was 110th and by the time I left it was a city. (1:48:18). Interviewer: “Now, you’re there with an Air Wing?” Yeah. �Interviewer: “So what is the Air Wing supposed to be doing?” The Air Wing is supporting all of these units that are all over the place. We had to build multiple bases for air support. The distances you’re talking about, we called it tyranny of distance. The legs were so long, you’re so distributed in a place like Afghanistan. One: everything is so hard to get in to the country. It’s a landlocked nation, nobody around it’s friendly towards, completely friendly towards what you’re doing. Logistics just becomes the hardest nut to crack. You can, you know, bullets on foreheads? Easy thing. Trying to get things in the right place, getting people supported? That became the big push. What we realized really early we were going to have to do is build satellite sites everywhere. You were going to need to put fuel here, have small runways here, caches, small supply caches pushed forward as much as you could push them forward. That’s what we got into the business of doing. We started building small bases all over the AOR. The first one we pushed out was Base Dalaram. Dalaram was a huge facility in the end, but it was hard. It was hard living. That sand composition down there was terrible, there was no water almost down there, so all the water we were having to bring in. The first Marine battalion we put in there, I still remember the General coming back and telling us, “I just looked at a Marine battalion that the entire unit is in thermal shock. They are not combat effective, they won’t be combat effective.” And that was the day they determined that the whole push–– we had to fix Dalaram. We had to fix the Dalaram problem. All of the logistics we started getting, we started forcing into Dalaram to try to fix. We were just surging so fast [and] Marines have this very expeditionary idea that “I can go anywhere, I can fight anywhere, I can do anything,” but there are some distances and some temperatures and some environments that you just can’t throw a unit into and expect to be effective. We were learning that the hard way. (1:50:26). Interviewer: “Well with things like the climate, I mean did people acclimate over a period of time? Or what do you do?” When the surge happened they went and found whatever units weren’t deployed to Iraq and they said, “Within weeks you guys are deploying.” So, they sped up the whole pre-deployment training process. It was a bear to get these guys converted over and get ready. The idea was we were gonna put those battalions out there and then we were gonna put them in these spots, condensed, behind wire. The whole idea was once we got enough logistical power into Helmand province, they wanted to do–– and we did–– the largest airborne assault that had been done since Vietnam. We were going to integrate British helicopters, [and] our helicopters. We were going to go where we had put all of these Marines and all of this stuff, and in one night we were gonna take three Marine battalions and put them out in the field in all these trouble spots. Literally the mujahedeen went to sleep, the next morning they woke up and there were Marines in their backyard and the Marines had already dug themselves in and they were there to stay–– and that’s what we did. That was what the idea was. I mean there were guys that were pushing sites out–– platoon and company level sites were being constructed in 24-hours. They would show up and �they would immediately start bob-wiring, digging in, and boom. The next day you had a fire base and we went from having three sites to having probably 18 or 20 sites in 24 hours–– that we were supporting and trying to take over, trying to get our presence everywhere so we could calm the area down. (1:52:00). Interviewer: “Now by the time you did that did the troops become acclimated?” Yeah. They had, but it was hell and there’s no other way to explain it. It was tough. I mean even the conditions that we were living in at Leatherneck were conditions that Marines just–– Marines had gotten so, by that point, used to going on a deployment like Iraq and an officer has half of an ISO container that’s air-conditioned. It’s kind of like a little–– it’s a room. It’s a hotel room in the desert, self-contained, and this was going back. Way back. I remember when I got to Leatherneck we had 18 officers in a GP medium tent with no air-conditioning in bunk-bed cots. Those were field grade officers, you know, these were guys that were used to having much more space–– so it was rustic. Back to basics. Interviewer: “How much longer did you stay there after you sent those battalions?” I was kind of a holdover. I was the only one from the original unit–– actually me and the doctor were the only two that were kept there. That was because they didn’t have back fills for us and we were already so integrated into the logistical system–– her and I–– that they were like, “No we need to keep those two. We’ll rotate them out later.” I ended up doing–– doc ended up doing seven months in the country–– and I did eight months in the country before I came out and finally found a replacement for me. Interviewer: “So when do you get back home?” Got back home and kind of went back to my normal day job running the wing for about six months. Then they decided they were going to rotate our unit back over there to Iraq but this time they decided, “ Chris isn’t going.” They were good to me and they said, “No. You’re gonna stay back and you’re gonna be one of the few officers we leave back to run the wing while the wing is forward deployed.” So I got to stay back during that deployment, came up to the end of my tour. While they were gone they brought in a replacement for me and I went to Blount Island command down in Florida. First time, good deal. First time the Marine Corps was honest with me and said, “We’re gonna send you to a good deal” and I went to a good deal. So I went down to Jacksonville, Florida to Blount Island command–– which is where the Marine Corps runs all of its military pre-positioning from. The Marine Corps keeps around 24 ships all over the world at different sites in the Pacific and Diego Garcia’s where we keep a lot of them. We also have caves up in Norway and all of these facilities have all of the equipment we would use if we deployed. That’s one of the reasons why the Marine Corps is able to move so quickly, because �we honestly don’t need to move the equipment the Marines have. We just need to move the Marines and marry them up with the same equipment we have pre-positioned all over the world. I was in charge of managing that pre-positioning system for the Marine Corps. (1:54:59). Interviewer: “Now would you go to the places?” Yes. I got to go to Diego Garcia which was fascinating. Beautiful atoll out in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I didn’t get to go to Norway because that wasn’t my bailiwick––well I was in charge but not of the caves–– of the shipping. I was also made the operations officer for all exercises in the Middle East because of my experience with the Middle East. I was going and leaving home but I was only leaving home for three/four weeks at a time, and most of that living was hotels. It was actually interfacing with government officials, foreign militaries, and planning exercises in Jordan, UAE, and Bahrain. A really good tour for three years. Interviewer: “So now they have finally given you a good assignment, but not too long after that you leave the Marine Corps.” Yes. Interviewer: “How does that happen?” I did three years there and I was coming up for promotion to Lieutenant Colonel, which is the max rank you can have in the job field I’m in. As you get–– as in any business, things pyramid–– as you get closer to the top. There are fewer and fewer slots and because there are fewer and fewer slots, it’s kind of a “one guy goes, one guy comes in” so where you are going to go and what you are going to do is kind of pre-scripted based on when you’re promoted. I knew that when I was coming up for promotion the job that was becoming open was at headquarters Marine Corps at the Pentagon. I talked to the guy that had the job at the time and I said, “Hey, is that what’s in the cards if I end up getting selected as Lieutenant Colonel?” He said, “Yeah.” Well, what he told me was, “You’re either going to the Pentagon or there is a chance you could go to Okinawa.” At the time I had school-aged children, Okinawa wasn’t really–– we wouldn’t want to take kids over there that were going to do their senior year and then try to figure out college from overseas, so that was off the table. The Pentagon was just a bridge too far for us as a family. My wife, by that time, was a working accountant for the government–– had a really good government job and like I said, school-aged children did not want to go to D.C. To have the standard of living that we had gotten accustomed to in the Marine Corps, we’d have to live two hours outside the city–– three hours of commuting everyday. (1:57:12). Interviewer: “Commuting in the D.C. area, yeah.” �And the traffic too. Well the traffic and then the security that the Pentagon has now. Just getting through Pentagon security is a 20/25 minute affair every morning. It just wasn’t what I wanted at that point in my career. It was just that decision time–– sit down with the wife and say, “Hey, been in 24 years. If I don’t show up tomorrow they have to give me 60 percent of my money anyway. I can just retire.” We just made the decision that it was time to hang it up and it was time to get out of the Marine Corps and transition and do something else. Interviewer: “Because part of it for you is because you were a Limited Duty Officer, you had very few options. Now as you were moving through, speaking once you became a Warrant Officer and then were roping up there, did everyone ever recommend to you that you go and get a college degree so you can become a regular officer?” No. That is possible, but it’s just not something–– in all of my time in the Marine Corps, I knew one that did that. Now I knew a lot of guys that went to school that were Restricted Officers and I knew several guys that got degrees. But to get converted over and made a regular Officer, there’s a lot of hoops. Basically it’s a Secretary of the Navy decision to do something like that. It’s not a normal thing that’s done. There’s just no need for it. Plus, when they’ve trained you to this level–– it’s almost like being a pilot. I’ve spent all this time turning you into this technical Superman in your field, so why would I take you out of that and put you in the regular military and give you some other job. Interviewer: “I guess I see it more in people who are in the Army, but the Army is a much larger organization.” Yeah. The Marine Corps is so small that like I said, as you get near the top it literally becomes that there’s seven jobs at that rank, and you know all of those guys. You’ve been friends for years and you know who’s shifting where and it’s just a zero-sum game at that point. There’s nowhere to hide or disappear into or extra billet. It’s just–– it is what it is. (1:59:11). Interviewer: “So when you decide to get out, how do you wind up in Michigan?” My wife’s with the Defense Contract Audit Agency. We were in Florida–– she’s originally from Minnesota. Like I said, I grew up in Germany so the one thing we knew is we just wanted to come somewhere with four seasons. We both like to ski, so it was–– she went to her agency and said, “I want to go North.” Which they were kind of amused by because everyone in government agencies wants to go South. For some reason they all want to go to Florida or California. Christina was like, “No. I want to go to the Midwest.” They said, “Sure. Knock yourself out” and they looked around and they had an opening in Grand Rapids. My wife came home and said, “How do you feel about Michigan?” I said, “Where?” “Grand Rapids.” I looked it up. Military family, used to shuffling around, looked at it. It’s got a University where I can go back to school. �It’s known as “Beer City,” it sounds like a good place, let’s just go. We’ve been here for four years and I’m almost done with my degree. We’ll probably–– we’ve got our oldest in the Army right now and our youngest is about to graduate and when he graduates he’s looking at going to U of M and once we get him into school, we’re really considering going back to Europe now. With my wife’s agency she could actually travel overseas and maybe we just go overseas for a couple years and then figure it out from there. Interviewer: “Normally when I close out an interview it's usually with people who were in for two, three, four years, you know. I’ll ask them how they think their time in the service affected them or what did they take out of it. Of course, for you it’s a whole career. If you kind of wanted to sum up the whole thing, what would you say about the experience?” (2:00:58). I came in at a point where I was really fortunate I had a father that had some insight, who understood the military that said, “No. You need to go somewhere that has potential for growth. It has upward mobility because you’re that kind of guy that in that environment will bloom very quickly.” He was absolutely right. I caught a job field that was growing at a huge rate so that accelerated everything for me. There was never a promotion where I wasn’t eligible–– where it wasn’t almost automatic, which is unheard of in most branches. Especially in the Marine Corps with me in a small service. Not a lot of people–– there’s not that much open upward mobility, so I was really fortunate and I know that. I mean getting to go from PFC to Major and retiring at Major pay is huge. It’s a worry I don’t have, that a lot of other people have. On the first of the month, a big check shows up. So yeah, you put a lot in. I did all of that deploying, a lot of time away from the family, but now there’s just this level of security that–– it’s just worth it. Also, when it came to going back to school, I came back to school for two reasons. One, I always wanted to go. My brother went, my parents were both educated, and I always felt like I wanted to go to school but I knew I wasn’t ready to go to school when I was a teenager. I just didn’t have the maturity level for it–– that’s why it was a given I was going in. Now that I’ve come back, it has done two things for me. One, it’s helped me integrate back into being normal–– I guess is the way to say it. When you’re around the same people for 24-years–– the same mindset–– I think not enough veterans recalibrate and one of the best places to recalibrate is at school. Going back, being exposed to the whole-wide-world, everybody again, learning to operate in that environment, learning to talk like a civilian and not like a Marine. And you’ve got so many things going for you. Just because of your work ethic, school is not hard in any way. I mean just because I know how to task organize, I know how to plan my time, and it's–– yeah. Interviewer: “I’ve got a class I could use you in right now.” So yeah. It’s been really good. I’m actually looking to possibly go into teaching at the University level in the long run, so down the road. �Interviewer: “Well it makes for a pretty remarkable story and you certainly tell it well. Thank you very much for taking the time to share it today.” (2:03:40). � 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 BergeronC2337V Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bergeron, Christopher F. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-10 Title A name given to the resource Bergeron, Christopher (Interview transcript and video), 2073 Description An account of the resource Christopher Bergeron was born in 1972 in Anniston, Alabama to two members of the service. In July of 1990, three weeks after graduating high school, Bergeron began his Marines career by attending boot camp in Parris Island, South Carolina. Eventually, Bergeron went out to Norfolk where he attended the Amphibious Embarkation School and became a Logistics Embarkation Specialist, after which he went to Saudi Arabia for the first time. It was during this same time that Bergeron went into Kuwait. He then returned to the States and was quickly deployed to Norway for a different operation. Bergeron then had a deployment to Somalia during their Civil War period and was there for two-and-a-half months before returning to the States in Jacksonville. He was deployed as a Sergeant to Aviano, Italy, Bosnia, and Tunisia. In his next deployment, Bergeron was selected for Warrant Officer and shipped to Quantico for his Warrant Officer courses. After this promotion Bergeron was deployed to Turkey, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Immediately after returning from this deployment Bergeron got selected to W2 and got sent to another ship tour towards the Persian Gulf. By this time the invasion of Iraq had started, and Bergeron stayed for a five-and-a-half-month deployment. Upon his return to America, Bergeron was quickly shipped off again, this time to Afghanistan. After that, he was shipped to Haiti to help with the violence there, and headed home to soon find out that he was going to be deployed to Iraq. At this point, Bergeron was selected to be an LDO, a Limited Duty Officer, and was stationed near Fallujah. After that, he returned to continue his career with MEU where he was deployed again. This time Bergeron spent time in Kenya, Dubai, and Kuwait. After this six-month deployment Bergeron was then selected to be a Major in Afghanistan. After this deployment Bergeron was then sent down to Jacksonville, Florida to Blount Island. It was at this point when Bergeron went on another tour for three years, this time visiting Jordan, the UAE, and Bahrain. However, soon after this Bergeron was selected for the highest rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Unfortunately, it was at this point Christopher Bergeron decided to end his 24-year Marine Corps career. He and his family moved to the Grand Rapids area, where he decided to go back to school and is looking to eventually teach at the University level. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States—History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945—Personal narratives, American Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401. Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/1944320e2b026994349c893cab9dfab7.mp4 d247433f99251adeccc64568c173556e https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/99f87986991e0eedc8d7d114ae42add9.pdf 7c63dbdb3ceb94ded284fcf9505bee17 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veteran’s History Project World War II Ronald Bergin Length of Interview (00:42:55) Background (00:00:00) Born April 20, 1927 Served in WWII in the Navy as a seaman, 1st class Enlisted in the Navy because a lot of his friends died in the Army Had to join early because at age 18 you’d be drafted in the Army Training (00:02:00) Enlisted in 1944 18th birthday in April of ’45 so he had to sign up beforehand Was taken a month before graduating, still got his diploma Went to Great Lakes for 8 weeks of basic training Went back to California after a week of rest The rest of Bergin’s friends were given ships but he wasn’t Took combat training in California Had dropped the Atomic Bomb after combat training had finished Thought they would be going home, instead picked up the 4th Marine Division in Okinawa and go to Japan for the Occupation Got as far as Guam and was dropped off; never went to Okinawa Was on a troupe transport, very small, Liberty Ship; 1200 men in his unit Took 16 days to go over; got into some rough storms Barely any room; had to stay below deck, wasn’t allowed Spent first three days in storms, a lot of seasickness; taking on a lot of water, too �Almost went up to Alaska, a lot of mines set there When radar picked up signal of one, gun crew had to take care of it No more men were needed in Japan so they were dropped off in Guam Finished the rest of his overseas duty in Guam Guam (00:09:50) Not many living quarters, assigned to an abandoned camp Very hot and muggy climate Lived in tents the whole time he was in Guam The supply base was the second biggest after the Japanese took Subic Bay in Philippines Supplied the whole 7th Fleet in the Pacific All jungle there, large caves; the Japanese lived in these caves and would occasionally attack Bergin’s fellow soldiers A lot of insects and reptiles there The camp itself was rough, a rough way to live • Facilities for showers were always malfunctioning • They eventually built barracks, but that was after Bergin’s unit left Built floating docks, a huge harbor Guam has a lot of coral reef surrounding it, so the harbor rectified this No fresh food: powdered eggs, milk, etc. Everything was in tents There was a fungus from the jungle that affected a lot of men, they got used to it; a lot of infections, as well Was a company reporter (00:18:35) In boot camp, had a newspaper; had taken journalism in high school Paper was called the Great Lakes Bulletin, came out every two weeks �• Interviewed men; a lot of famous ball players, also a lot of high school kids • Bergin was considered one of the oldest even though he just turned 18 When in Guam, also wrote for the paper there Kept him out of guard duty Played a lot of ball: baseball and softball (00:22:10) Held a lot of tournaments for swimmers Movies every night; outdoors Didn’t have to worry about entertainment at the end of the day because you’d be too tired to do anything There were different areas where pool could be played There wasn’t much to do Communication was hard, but would write letters (00:25:07) • Many of the men in his unit were unmarried, so they mostly received letters from family • Ships usually brought the mail because the planes were being used for combat Going Home (00:28:43) Went back on a large ship; a luxury liner converted into a troupe transport Calm weather all the way home; made the trip in 11 days Landed in San Francisco, California, stayed there for two days then flew to Great Lakes to be discharged A lot of jobs were open About 10 million men had been in the service So men had trouble going back to a “normal” life Worked in the Engineering Department in Consumers’ Power (00:32:22) • Very busy, many farmers wanted electricity • Enjoyed doing it very much �Held Japanese prisoners in Guam (00:34:21) Two classes of prisoners: • Japanese Imperial Marines: under lock and key all the time; solitary confinement, prone to committing suicide before capture • Also held ordinary prisoners • Held 30,000 prisoners of the ordinary prisoners just as the war was ending • Didn’t let the Japanese Imperial Marines go Integration (00:36:50) Blacks had separate barracks, bathroom facilities, chow halls, etc. • Bergin thought this was silly Would still train together In all branches of military, this practice was pervasive When Harry Truman became president, he integrated Bergin’s base; 20,000 men Took one night to do this, on a Sundays morning • Would eat together, have the same bathrooms, but barracks were still segregated No problems occurred, except for an incident with seven southerners (00:40:02) • Went up to several blacks and tipped over their trays • MP’s took these seven men out, never saw them after that • Within a year, they integrated the barracks One of the biggest that happened, it was turning point in history � 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 BerginR Title A name given to the resource Bergin, Ronald (Interview outline and video), 2009 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bergin, Ronald Description An account of the resource Ronald Bergin enlisted into the Navy in the year of 1944. He was to be sent to Japan for the Occupation, but his company was instead sent to Guam. He describes the condition of the camps in Guam and the how their camp was used to test President Truman's idea for integration between blacks and whites. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Davenport, Ben (Interviewer) Caledonia High School (Caledonia, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Navy World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2009-05-03 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/1765bb0c1d4830bbdf777c414308bb86.jpg 33434eee60e614cc9117943ff4332ab6 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3ecdc35c2533f9f2c9280e940a9b944a.jpg c6fc87aff7eca96daaa48f782e37f7ef 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 Insel-Bücherei Series Description An account of the resource The German publishing company Insel Verlag was founded in 1899 by Anton Kippenberg in Leipzig. In its early years the firm only printed expensive, beautifully-produced volumes, until demand led to the publication of the more modest Insel-Bücherei series in 1912. Relatively inexpensive but with the same careful sense of design and typography, these smaller-format books reprinted shorter works from a variety of German, European, and world authors. The series numbers considerably more than a thousand titles and is still being issued. The Digital Collection contains the scanned covers of 140 titles held by Grand Valley State University Libraries. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1904-1987 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books Collection 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 Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context DC-05 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Language A language of the resource ger Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-09-29 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-05_IB0301 Title A name given to the resource Berichte über die Entdeckung Perus Subject The topic of the resource Book covers Covers (Illustration) Graphic arts Publishers and publishing 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 Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1920 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-09-29 Description An account of the resource Cover of Berichte über die Entdeckung Perus, by Clements R. Markham, published by Insel-Verlag, 1920. Insel-Bücherei Nr. 301 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Seidman Rare Books. Insel-Bücherei. Z315.I5 B83 no.301 Language A language of the resource de 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/2f47559c9afa7e56de3f91d2e984d208.mp4 0639f8766cf19015c1987ecf2ff594f0 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/34ddf3ab583a0906ea1303b410dba200.pdf a9f1da2f4cc6524187c432b30c234a08 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Len Berkenpas World War II Total Time: 0:43:15 Childhood and Pre-Enlistment (0:00:20) • • • • • Born in 1925 in Byron Center, MI Family was involved in farming Attended Byron Center Christian School until 8th Grade and then Byron Center High School, but did not finish. Father tried to get him a deferment for the service, but because his family had 6 other boys, he did not get the deferment. Was sent to Detroit, passed his tests, and was drafted into the service. Training and Active Duty (0:03:55) • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Trained at Great Lakes Naval Station in 1943 for the Navy. This was his boot camp. He did not pass his swimming tests after Boot Camp, and this disqualified him from serving and he was sent home. The Navy made him take swimming lessons there so he could pass basic training. However, he applied to be a ship’s cook and became good friends with the pool attendants, so he didn’t really take any lessons. This was at US Naval Air Base Livermore, CA. (0:06:40) Was shipped across the country on a troop train from Detroit to San Francisco. (0:09:05)He was the cook at the Naval Air Base Livermore, CA. Shifts were 24 hours on 24 off. Attained the rank of Third Class Ship’s Cook. Stayed on the base and cooked. Soup was served at every meal, and some canned food and fresh food were used. (0:14:23) They sometimes used prisoners on the camp. They would use them for tasks like pealing potatoes. The biggest crowds of men they had to serve were around 3000. (0:17:30) Men would sometimes run into Livermore or San Francisco or for recreation. They had busses that ran back and forth. (0:21:50) Their base was not integrated. Never had any black sailors. There were some Jews on the base but that was about it. He reported to a Lieutenant and the other command structure above the Lieutenant. He applied many times to get off the base, but he was unable to during the war. However, he was assigned to the USS Iowa after the war was over, however he never went out to sea. �• (0:28:10) He was discharged in early 1946. He hitchhiked from San Francisco to Byron Center. Post-Service (0:35:40) • • • Stayed and worked on the family farm for 3 years and got married. After he left the farm, he got many different jobs. Ended up Box Board Packaging Corporation in Grandville, MI making corrugated cartons. He stayed there for 39 years. � 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 BerkenpasL Title A name given to the resource Berkenpas, Len (Interview outline and video), 2008 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Berkenpas, Len Description An account of the resource Len Berkenpas was born in 1925 to a farmer in Byron Center, MI. Was drafted into the Navy in 1943 and worked as a cook at Naval Air Base Livermore near San Francisco, CA. He did not spend any time on a ship at sea. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Byron Area Historic Museum (Byron Center, Mich.) BCTV Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans United States. Navy World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Video recordings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2008-06-30 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/30d8e3086aa8dff636f63d0522e940df.jpg 5b06e77b4f34b9599cffdb95ff97fa13 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 BerkowitzHyman Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Berkowitz, Hyman Description An account of the resource Hyman Berkowitz, established the Hyman H. & Greta M. Berkowitz Scholarship Fund Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History 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/ea8eda722f764fc928bfbbabfd279496.jpg 5ad13be0836a6e45b55189c039a38a8a 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 BerkowitzIrving_Photo01 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Berkowitz, Irving Description An account of the resource Irving Berkowitz, Director of the School of Social Work Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History College administrators 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/2a5862d5cec0498e12f8747a9455c4d1.jpg d7642d74b0322e364920b5e3167d3fc6 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 BerkowitzIrving_Photo02 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Berkowitz, Irving Description An account of the resource Irving Berkowitz, Director of the School of Social Work Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University – History College administrators 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/fdab5c72dc5edc0d07a56b354be50375.jpg d3d0f36839d38d0bdfb419159d987c59 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 BerlandTheodore_Photo01 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Berland, Theodore Description An account of the resource Theodore Berland, Communications 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/edbae5eab3508379256cb0434e6cf36a.jpg 28d681a3c3bb0b05c80e62902174a12b 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 BerlandTheodore_Photo02 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Berland, Theodore Description An account of the resource Theodore Berland, Communications 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/1f2f7b73f721eae1f96d954f01ec48f0.m4v 6e33bb8cf61ddabf427b9359a9c9e660 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/521d894a22b253c624837d7d6fbdb1cb.pdf beb3ea29e53c702e454084e025fdf91b PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Name of War: World War II Interviewee name: Robert Berles Length of Interview: (00:57:15) Robert Berles (57:15) (00:15) Background Information  Robert was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan  His father was a sales manager in Grand Rapids and built their home in 1931  He paid $10,000.00 to have the house built and it last sold for $160,000.00  Robert went to Aquinas College and was drafted during his sophomore year in 1943  He was not happy about being drafted and did not like the idea of his future being held in someone else’s hands  Robert was interested in a Navy program and traveled to Detroit with a friend to get more information  The program would allow him to finish his sophomore year and continue with school after his time in the service (7:15) Training  Robert began taking training classes at Western Michigan University on July 1, 1943  They went through one year of physical training and classes  Robert though it was similar to boot camp, but without the negative drill sergeants  After one year of training Robert was reassigned and began taking supply classes for five months  He was commissioned in September and assigned to the AP 168 War Hawk Troop Ship  They left from San Francisco and traveled to the Admiralty Islands (11:30) Island Base  The base was very rugged and Robert would have preferred to remain on the ship  He was only 20, about 8 years younger than all the other officers he was working with  Robert witnessed many kamikaze attacks and had been “taught to hate the Japanese”  They invaded Luzon on January 9, 1945  The ship was hit by a kamikaze later than day and 61 men died (17:20) Leaving the Pacific  It took the ship 26 days to get back to Manus Island near New Guinea  Robert worked with a priest to provide services for the dead � Many were still worried about kamikaze attacks (23:05) Dry Dock in Manus  Robert was ordered to clean up the ship and help fix the damage from the attack  No one wanted to help him clean the area where the bodies were stored at the bottom of the ship  They had been stored there for a month and the smell was terrible  The arms fell right off of the first body that Robert tried to move  He had to cut off all their thumbs to use later for identification  The bodies were buried at Manus Island, where they had a short service  Only 19 of the 61 bodies had been identified (32:00) Back to the US  The ship headed back to the US for more repairs  Robert later helped secure Okinawa, where he was thankful that the kamikazes were no longer attacking  He also worked in Guam once the war had ended, where they helped transport soldiers back to the US  They were also bringing back businessmen back to China and working with the Chinese embassy in the US  Robert played a lot of poker in China and used the money he won to buy jewelry for his mother (36:40) Japan  Robert visited Nagoya, Japan, which was completely devastated  He went to a naval base near Tokyo and had just gotten his appendix removed, so he was not able to do much physical activity  Robert felt lucky with his experience in the service, but that there is generally much waste with regard to money and human life  He felt that he received more from the Navy than he had ever given to the service (38:25) Manus Island  Robert had been playing cards on the ship with a guy from Grand Rapids when a ammunition ship blew up right next to them  There were 300 men on the ship and all of them died, which Robert found to be another example of waste (40:55) The End of the War  Robert continued to work on the ship for one year after the war had ended  He was working on the ship altogether for 22 months  They had been taking new soldiers out to the Pacific and bringing other home  They later decommissioned the ship in Seattle  Robert had wanted to go to law school, but ended up getting his Master’s Degree in Social Work �(48:00) Social Work  Robert began working with children at Saint Johns in California  He also had been training probation officers during the riots of 1952  Robert spent one year as a parole officer and worked as a therapist in a psychiatric clinic  He also started and ran a halfway house (52:40) Appendicitis  Robert remembered working on the ship and feeling very ill  They had been in a typhoon during his surgery and the deck was completely flooded  A crash knocked all the tools on the floor and they had to be washed and sanitized all over again during his surgery � 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 RHC-27_BerlesR Title A name given to the resource Berles, Robert A. (Interview outline and video), 2007 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-06-28 Description An account of the resource Robert Berles was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was drafted in 1943 during his sophomore year at Aquinas College. Robert volunteered for a Navy program after receiving his draft notice that would allow him to finish his sophomore year before his time in the service, and also allow him to finish up college afterwards. Robert began officer training at Western Michigan University, where he attended classes all day long and physically trained. He served on a troop transport ship in the Pacific, and his ship was hit by a kamikaze off Luzon, the aftermath of which he describes in detail. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Berles, Robert A. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Navy Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Moving Image 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> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/x-m4v application/pdf https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/422aa59c9d4b8710a57a4ddfc666ff50.jpg ae61af1ddefa10c93d7bba76e06eff2d 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 Douglas R. Gilbert Photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gilbert, Douglas R., 1942-2023 Description An account of the resource Photographs scanned from negatives and transparencies from the Douglas R. Gilbert papers (RHC-183). Douglas R. Gilbert (b. 1942) is an American photographer from Michigan. He was born in Holland, Michigan and is the son of Russell W. and Carmen (Andree) Gilbert. Gilbert earned a B.A. in social sciences and art at Michigan State University in 1964, an M.S. in photography from the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology in 1972, and a M.S.W. from Salem State College in 1993. He is married to Barbara (McDonald) Gilbert, and has three daughters, Robyn, Rachel, and Anne. Gilbert took a serious interest in photography at the age of fourteen. In 1963 he joined the staff of Look magazine in New York as the second youngest photojournalist in the magazine's history. As a Look photographer from 1964 to 1966, he photographed folk musician Bob Dylan, the Newport Folk Festival, Simon and Garfunkel, the New York City Financial District, the children and facilities at the Manhattan School for Seriously Disturbed Children. From 1967 to 1969, Gilbert did several shoots, including that of folk singer Janis Ian for Life magazine. After moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1969 to attend the Illinois Institute of Technology, Gilbert conducted notable photo shoots of business and political figure Lenore Romney, and pursued more personal and artistic photography, focusing on urban and rural landscapes in Illinois and Michigan. He then joined the faculty of Wheaton College, where he taught from 1972 to 1982. In 1993, Gilbert graduated from Salem State College, Massachusetts, with a Masters in Social Work, and later pursued a second career as a psychotherapist. Douglas Gilbert died in June 2023. Throughout his photography career, he pursued both freelance commercial work as well as artistic work. His art photography is characterized by its classic black-and-white format, and features people, places and objects shot great attention and sensitivity. Gilbert's works are held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, and the Grand Valley State University Art Galleries, as well as in numerous private and institutional collections. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960-2011 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="%E2%80%9Dhttps%3A//gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/783%E2%80%9D">Douglas R. Gilbert Papers (RHC-183)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Subject The topic of the resource Photographs Photography -- United States Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-183 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Image Type The nature or genre of the resource image/jpeg 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-183_I110-0001 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gilbert, Douglas R. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968-08-01 Title A name given to the resource Berlin Wall in Wedding District, Berlin, Germany Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of a close-up view of the Berlin Wall located in the Wedding district of Berlin, Germany. Scanned from the negative. Subject The topic of the resource Berlin Wall, Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989 Berlin (Germany) Wedding (Berlin, Germany) Black-and-white photography Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/783">Douglas R. Gilbert papers (RHC-183)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1960s 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/eb9aaa875968c13e02d48f7306cd4723.jpg 876a68d7118b55c64c9ed638ca083591 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 Douglas R. Gilbert Photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gilbert, Douglas R., 1942-2023 Description An account of the resource Photographs scanned from negatives and transparencies from the Douglas R. Gilbert papers (RHC-183). Douglas R. Gilbert (b. 1942) is an American photographer from Michigan. He was born in Holland, Michigan and is the son of Russell W. and Carmen (Andree) Gilbert. Gilbert earned a B.A. in social sciences and art at Michigan State University in 1964, an M.S. in photography from the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology in 1972, and a M.S.W. from Salem State College in 1993. He is married to Barbara (McDonald) Gilbert, and has three daughters, Robyn, Rachel, and Anne. Gilbert took a serious interest in photography at the age of fourteen. In 1963 he joined the staff of Look magazine in New York as the second youngest photojournalist in the magazine's history. As a Look photographer from 1964 to 1966, he photographed folk musician Bob Dylan, the Newport Folk Festival, Simon and Garfunkel, the New York City Financial District, the children and facilities at the Manhattan School for Seriously Disturbed Children. From 1967 to 1969, Gilbert did several shoots, including that of folk singer Janis Ian for Life magazine. After moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1969 to attend the Illinois Institute of Technology, Gilbert conducted notable photo shoots of business and political figure Lenore Romney, and pursued more personal and artistic photography, focusing on urban and rural landscapes in Illinois and Michigan. He then joined the faculty of Wheaton College, where he taught from 1972 to 1982. In 1993, Gilbert graduated from Salem State College, Massachusetts, with a Masters in Social Work, and later pursued a second career as a psychotherapist. Douglas Gilbert died in June 2023. Throughout his photography career, he pursued both freelance commercial work as well as artistic work. His art photography is characterized by its classic black-and-white format, and features people, places and objects shot great attention and sensitivity. Gilbert's works are held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, and the Grand Valley State University Art Galleries, as well as in numerous private and institutional collections. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960-2011 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="%E2%80%9Dhttps%3A//gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/783%E2%80%9D">Douglas R. Gilbert Papers (RHC-183)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Subject The topic of the resource Photographs Photography -- United States Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-183 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Image Type The nature or genre of the resource image/jpeg 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-183_I110-0004 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gilbert, Douglas R. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968-08-01 Title A name given to the resource Berlin Wall in Wedding District, Berlin, Germany Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of a close-up view of the Berlin Wall located in the Wedding district of Berlin, Germany. Scanned from the negative. Subject The topic of the resource Berlin Wall, Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989 Berlin (Germany) Wedding (Berlin, Germany) Black-and-white photography Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/783">Douglas R. Gilbert papers (RHC-183)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1960s 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/24018bb2c280c9987cde5e928fd3bb99.jpg 1040e8b33388614bfddd4e812f22a5d7 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 Douglas R. Gilbert Photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gilbert, Douglas R., 1942-2023 Description An account of the resource Photographs scanned from negatives and transparencies from the Douglas R. Gilbert papers (RHC-183). Douglas R. Gilbert (b. 1942) is an American photographer from Michigan. He was born in Holland, Michigan and is the son of Russell W. and Carmen (Andree) Gilbert. Gilbert earned a B.A. in social sciences and art at Michigan State University in 1964, an M.S. in photography from the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology in 1972, and a M.S.W. from Salem State College in 1993. He is married to Barbara (McDonald) Gilbert, and has three daughters, Robyn, Rachel, and Anne. Gilbert took a serious interest in photography at the age of fourteen. In 1963 he joined the staff of Look magazine in New York as the second youngest photojournalist in the magazine's history. As a Look photographer from 1964 to 1966, he photographed folk musician Bob Dylan, the Newport Folk Festival, Simon and Garfunkel, the New York City Financial District, the children and facilities at the Manhattan School for Seriously Disturbed Children. From 1967 to 1969, Gilbert did several shoots, including that of folk singer Janis Ian for Life magazine. After moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1969 to attend the Illinois Institute of Technology, Gilbert conducted notable photo shoots of business and political figure Lenore Romney, and pursued more personal and artistic photography, focusing on urban and rural landscapes in Illinois and Michigan. He then joined the faculty of Wheaton College, where he taught from 1972 to 1982. In 1993, Gilbert graduated from Salem State College, Massachusetts, with a Masters in Social Work, and later pursued a second career as a psychotherapist. Douglas Gilbert died in June 2023. Throughout his photography career, he pursued both freelance commercial work as well as artistic work. His art photography is characterized by its classic black-and-white format, and features people, places and objects shot great attention and sensitivity. Gilbert's works are held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, and the Grand Valley State University Art Galleries, as well as in numerous private and institutional collections. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960-2011 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="%E2%80%9Dhttps%3A//gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/783%E2%80%9D">Douglas R. Gilbert Papers (RHC-183)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Subject The topic of the resource Photographs Photography -- United States Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-183 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Image Type The nature or genre of the resource image/jpeg 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-183_I111-0020 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gilbert, Douglas R. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968-08-01 Title A name given to the resource Berlin Wall in Wedding District, Berlin, Germany Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of a view of the Berlin Wall located in the Wedding district of Berlin, Germany. Scanned from the negative. Subject The topic of the resource Berlin Wall, Berlin, Germany, 1961-1989 Berlin (Germany) Wedding (Berlin, Germany) Black-and-white photography Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/783">Douglas R. Gilbert papers (RHC-183)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1960s 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/2647be968e9eaf248040e9bb6350bbd3.jpg e00f33c4577f6844dad95ef8bc90f454 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_EastmanAlbum_1_1909_080 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1909-08-19 Title A name given to the resource Berme 5300 Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of berme 5300 in the New York State Canal System. Subject The topic of the resource Canals New York Waterworks--Design and construction Horse-drawn vehicles Graders (Earthmoving machinery) 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/73517c4a25360f1ede7fd7ce98e9187e.jpg 55e5d3441f0984cece4f6d2a47af1b96 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_NE_62_1926_012 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1926-02-23 Title A name given to the resource Bermuda Tender Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of a steamship at sea. A shoreline is visible in the background. "Bermuda Tender 1926-2-23." is written on the bottom of the image. Subject The topic of the resource Boats 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/90f5cb9436f3f894717656dc60bfd9d7.mp4 8bafd23988a84fbf4c68195db7345230 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/076396f6b3039d955f02d8bef64b45ff.pdf 4ce7f6b04579d756361f69c5ba63c862 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interviewee’s Name: Fred Bernhardt Name of War: World War II Length of Interview: (00:40:00) Background  Born 2/6/1927 in Grand Rapids, MI. (00:14)  Went to Union High School. (00:24)  Enlisted at age 17 in the Marines, during WWII. (00:28)  Most of his friends enlisted. So many of his friends enlisted that he would not have many friends at home. He and a friend both enlisted in the Marines. (00:41)  Enlisted early March, 1944, the earliest he could enlist. (01:04)  About a month later, he had to have a physical, which took all day. (01:40)  The Marines avoided putting all the men from a particular region in the same unit. The reasoning for this was that if an entire unit was wiped out, the losses would be too great for the area. (02:06)  Sent to San Diego, Camp Pendleton for two months. (02:10)  He decided on the Marines after seeing a movie, possibly Guadalcanal Diary. (02:24)  He enlisted to avoid the draft, as draftees could not decide where to enlist. He needed parental permission because he was only seventeen. His parents reluctantly consented. (02:45)  After Camp Pendleton, he was sent out on a ship, and was not informed where he was being sent. (03:02) Training  Training was difficult. (03:30)  Had to wake up at 5:00 AM, attend roll call, and do drill-work, then the rifle range, which was exceptionally important. (03:34)  Practice at the range involved shooting at targets from various distances with an M-1 rifle. Men were divided into grades: Marksman, Sharpshooter, and Expert. He managed to attain the highest grade of Expert. (03:57)  After the rifle range, they were sent to practice with grenades, then automatic rifles, and then they were ready. (04:10)  Drill instructors were very strict and tough. The two months at Camp Pendleton were the roughest two months of his enlistment. (04:33)  He had an advantage over many of the men. He had been in ROTC for a year in high school, and knew the commands and formations. Other men had a hard time learning the formations. (04:53)  They did battlefield practice exercises with weapons, such as grenades, mortars and machine guns. (05:30) Deployment  Sent out on an APA troop transport, the SS Langford. It was a new ship. (05:44)  It was a thirty-day journey. (06:06)  The stopped at Pearly Harbor to refuel. (06:11)  There wasn't much left of Pearl Harbor. It was still a wreck, and had not yet been re-built as of 1944. (06:16)  Other parts of the Hawaiian Islands were all right. (06:37)  He was sent to Saipan. (06:50)  The trip was his first experience on a large ship. He became very ill and sea-sick. He was on �three ships during the war, and was only sick the first time. (07:02)  From Pearl Harbor they went to the Marianas. (07:23)  Stayed at the Marianas briefly, they were nearly sent to Iwo Jima. (07:32)  The battle on Saipan was mostly over, but there were some stragglers left. (07:56)  The Japanese troops were terrified of the Americans, and would often preferred suicide over capture. (08:07)  He helped some native (not Japanese) civilians hiding, because they were scared. (08:44)  His unit had to find hiding enemy troops. (09:06)  The Japanese Army did not treat the natives of the Marianas very well. (09:13)  He was on Saipan for about five months. (09:34)  They patrolled the islands. Once an island was secure, the air force would set up a base. The Marianas were vital for the “island hopping” strategy. (09:46) Atom bomb/Nagasaki  One day, his commander called out names for guard duty. (10:30)  [DVD freezes] (10:30-10:50)  They were instructed to shoot if any Japanese came by without the password. (11:03)  At the time, he thought the guard duty was just an exercise. He had been put on similar missions before, and did not believe the situation was very important. Later that day, the atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. (11:30)  He found out that he had been guarding the bomb. This took place the summer of 1945. (12:09)  He had arrived in Saipan around May or June. The bombs were dropped later. (12:24) Tinian  He was at the battle of Tinian briefly, but then back to Saipan, then to Okinawa, and then back to Sai-Pan. He was on Okinawa to set up a base for about a week.  The Marines would secure a beach, and then the Army would take over. (14:26)  Preparation for the battle involved a very detailed debriefing. They were shown maps, given a history of the area, informed about the geography, and of their objectives. They were also given an estimate on the number of Japanese civilians which were present. The Navy would begin the operation by bombing and bombarding the target. (14:57)  He watched the bombardment from a troop transport. They were sent in on tracked amphibious transport vehicles. (15:27)  He came in during the second wave of infantry. (15:51)  There were many explosions going on in the area. (16:10)  The Japanese resisted at the beach. (16:19)  It was a very rough ride. (16:50)  The landing craft came high in at a high speed. The front end dropped out, and the Marines ran out for the nearest cover, while being shot at. (16:57)  They were targeted by mortars and machine guns (17:14)  The Navy continued to shell the hills. The shelling was not successful as the Japanese entrenchments were too strong. (17:21)  The beachhead was only about twenty yards long, but very deadly as there was no cover. (17:41)  There were thousands of Japanese infantry in the hills. (17:57)  His objective as an artillery observer was to find a target—such as tanks or important equipment. (18:21)  He was then to radio the range to the instrument personal. (18:37)  The Navy would then fire one shell, to see how close they came. (19:03)  If the shot missed, he would provide closer coordinates, and so on until they scored a hit. Once a hit was scored, he was to instruct them to fire at well. (19:22) � He was supported by infantry, but did not have a gun himself. (19:45)  There were tanks at Saipan and at Okinawa, but not at Tinian. (21:02)  He did not stay at Tinian the entire time. Tinian was a less intense battle than Saipan and did not require naval artillery as frequently. He was only in the area for a day or two. (21:26)  Other men in his division stayed longer, to help secure the area. (22:17)  The Marines took high casualties. (22:30)  His unit had to call in reserves. (22:30) Okinawa  There was a delay between Saipan and Okinawa. (23:30)  The Allies needed Iwo Jima to proceed on Okinawa, which had air strips. (23:46)  He was not involved at Iwo Jima, but was nearly sent there. (24:06)  The pre-combat debriefing was similar as for Tinian. (24:40)  The information was given on the boat, a few days before the operation. They were not informed of their mission until just before it was to take place. (25:16)  His unit was in Okinawa for a few days, and then pulled back. Another unit took over. (25:34)  He had the same role as at Tinian, that of the artillery observer. (26:02)  He would provide the distance from the guns, not from his own location. (26:41)  The artillery was usually accurate, and sometimes hit the target on the second shot. (27:09)  He saw Ernie Pyle at Okinawa. (27:22)  The Marines were in the hills; Pyle was with them and taking notes. He had a uniform similar to a Marine, but his helmet had the word “correspondent” on it. (27:22)  The hill was being shelled, and the Marines told Pyle not to approach, and to take cover. (27:57)  Pyle kept coming, and was killed by a mortar shell. (28:11)  He had never talked to Pyle, and only heard it was him after the fact. (28:13) [Ed. note: Pyle was killed on Ie Shima, a small island near Okinawa, and by a sniper rather than by mortar fire.]  Correspondents were unusual; he only saw a few of them. (29:12)  He was at Okinawa for about a week. (29:27)  He saw very little of the natives, they took very few prisoners. Most of the Japanese troops preferred death to capture. (29:37) More on the Atom Bomb  At the time, he didn't know he was guarding the atom bombs. He was very confused afterward; he could not comprehend the scale of destruction. (30:11)  He had thought they were going to invade Japan. (31:37)  When the war ended, the men experienced “great joy.” (31:51)  There was no drinking allowed in the Marines, and there was no real way to celebrate on the island. Most of the men resorted to yelling as a celebration. (32:05)  A week or two later, he was sent do occupy Japan, as part of the treaty provisions. His unit occupied Nagasaki. (32:45)  Nagasaki had been reduced to rubble. Some parts were left standing, but there were no people. (33:06)  They used tents on the ground and tried to camp away from the bomb site, in a forest or on the beach. (32:33)  There were two to four men to a tent. (34:00)  He was in Nagasaki for about two months. (34:08)  Then he was sent to Isahaya, then Obama for the remainder. (34:16) Obama  Obama had been a resort during peace-time. (34:04)  There was a hotel, and various entertainment businesses. (34:50)  There was a nearby town called Unsen, which had a large sulfur spring. The sulfur spring in �                Obama was smaller. (35:01) The spring water was piped into the hotel. (35:30) His job was to make sure there was no trouble. (35:31) There was usually not much trouble to worry about. (34:45) He was part of the MP force. He trained for the position for about a week. (36:01) He was to watch the American troops, make sure they didn't get in trouble. (36:10) The Japanese police were very good at keeping order. They were a reliable contact if any Japanese civilians caused problems. (36:36) The American MPs had no power over the civilians. (36:39) He got to know many of the civilians very well, as they were very friendly. (36:24) The Americans were often invited into households for Japanese holidays, especially their New Year. (37:10) He was very surprised at their pleasant reception among the civilians. Discharged Japanese soldiers were very hostile however. (37:43) The civilian population was mostly relieved the war was over, and many of them had been opposed to the war. (38:12) Many Japanese citizens spoke English, which helped as most of the Americans did not speak Japanese well. (38:45) He remembers the civilians as friendly and helpful. He felt sorry for them. (38:51) He learned a lot about himself, learned discipline, and met many nice people during his career in the Marines. (39:25) Believes the Marines have the most rigorous training of any branch of service. (39:45) He was very glad the war was over. (40:04) Disc Two (36:31) (00:30) Marine Photographer  There were picture sets available to all those in the division for a price [this was discussed because Bernhardt bought a set of photos from Saipan from a Marine photographer, and this set is included in his file for this project—Bernhardt also states that he was in one of the pictures, which was how he met the photographer]  Service men were not allowed to have a camera and there was nowhere to purchase film  Fred was able to purchase a nice German camera from a man in Japan  He patrolled Japanese towns all day and was then allowed to go sightseeing with his camera once his shift was up  They stayed in a nice Japanese hotel with great Japanese food (8:20) Unsen, Japan  This as a large, beautiful resort town  They had community baths that were very hot and large  Fred and others watched stage shows that were similar to American plays  There were about 35 men in the unit, but not a lot of other military police in the area (14:45) Former Soldiers  There were many discharged Japanese soldiers that were not friendly to the American soldiers  They would not talk to the American soldiers or even look them in the eyes  A civilian who had seen the bomb go off from in the mountains about 20 miles away told him that they had no idea what was going on and it was like the end of the world � Many Japanese men were trying to get American soldiers to date their daughters and take them back to America  Some men did bring back women to the US (18:20) Duties in Japan  Fred had been working with the military police and keeping an eye on American soldiers  The Japanese police watched the civilians and they were all pretty tough  Fred spent 9 months in Japan while Nagasaki was being rebuilt (24:00) Transport Ship back to the US  The ship was crowded and the men had to sleep on cots  They stopped in Hawaii to refuel and this time Fred did not get sea sick  They landed back in San Diego and he traveled to the Great Lakes Naval base in Chicago (26:20) Life after the Service  Fred went back to visit his friends and took some time off  He did not even look for a job for about two months  He began working at the American Seating Company for about a year  Fred was then an apprentice for four years doing iron work and he eventually got his journeyman papers (29:15) Photography  Fred joined the Grand Rapids Camera Club and became more interested in the subject  It had been a hobby, but everyone he knew had encouraged him to turn it into a career  He began taking other photography classes and joined the Professional Photographers of America � 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 BernhardtF Title A name given to the resource Bernhardt, Fred (Interview outline and video, 1 of 2), 2007 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bernhardt, Fred Description An account of the resource Fred Bernhardt enlisted in the Marines at the age of 17 in early 1944. He served in the Pacific Theater of WWII as an artillery observer for naval bombardments. He also served as a guard of the atomic bomb which was dropped on Nagasaki, and was part of the post-war occupation force as an MP in the Nagasaki area. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Marine Corps Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-11-13 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a0e2fb6efc2e758b09a85b43f1fbf15d.mp4 63d96de2cb201b7a33020247ccf08645 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/91fb42150d57b30e18e2baa9f0abba6f.pdf f79fb89a76c83cc658f23d172ca425f8 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Name of Interviewee: Fred Bernhardt Name of War: World War II Length of Interview (00:36:31) Disc Two (00:30) Marine Photographer  There were picture sets available to all those in the division for a price [this was discussed because Bernhardt bought a set of photos from Saipan from a Marine photographer, and this set is included in his file for this project—Bernhardt also states that he was in one of the pictures, which was how he met the photographer]  Service men were not allowed to have a camera and there was nowhere to purchase film  Fred was able to purchase a nice German camera from a man in Japan  He patrolled Japanese towns all day and was then allowed to go sightseeing with his camera once his shift was up  They stayed in a nice Japanese hotel with great Japanese food (8:20) Unsen, Japan  This as a large, beautiful resort town  They had community baths that were very hot and large  Fred and others watched stage shows that were similar to American plays  There were about 35 men in the unit, but not a lot of other military police in the area (14:45) Former Soldiers  There were many discharged Japanese soldiers that were not friendly to the American soldiers  They would not talk to the American soldiers or even look them in the eyes  A civilian who had seen the bomb go off from in the mountains about 20 miles away told him that they had no idea what was going on and it was like the end of the world  Many Japanese men were trying to get American soldiers to date their daughters and take them back to America  Some men did bring back women to the US (18:20) Duties in Japan  Fred had been working with the military police and keeping an eye on American soldiers  The Japanese police watched the civilians and they were all pretty tough  Fred spent 9 months in Japan while Nagasaki was being rebuilt (24:00) Transport Ship back to the US  The ship was crowded and the men had to sleep on cots  They stopped in Hawaii to refuel and this time Fred did not get sea sick  They landed back in San Diego and he traveled to the Great Lakes Naval base in Chicago (26:20) Life after the Service  Fred went back to visit his friends and took some time off  He did not even look for a job for about two months � He began working at the American Seating Company for about a year  Fred was then an apprentice for four years doing iron work and he eventually got his journeyman papers (29:15) Photography  Fred joined the Grand Rapids Camera Club and became more interested in the subject  It had been a hobby, but everyone he knew had encouraged him to turn it into a career  He began taking other photography classes and joined the Professional Photographers of America �Left to right: Fred Bernhardt and Jeep; Joe Pannella, R. Summers, E. A. Spellman Fred Bernhardt as MP, Japan �Fred Bernhardt discovering native family in hiding on Saipan after the capture of the island. �Nagasaki ��������������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context BernhardtF2 Title A name given to the resource Bernhardt, Fred (Interview outline and video, 2 of 2), 2007 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bernhardt, Fred Description An account of the resource Fred Bernhardt enlisted in the Marines at the age of 17 in early 1944. He served in the Pacific Theater of WWII as an artillery observer for naval bombardments. He also served as a guard of the atomic bomb which was dropped on Nagasaki, and was part of the post-war occupation force as an MP in the Nagasaki area. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Marine Corps Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-11-13 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/11d6957a3b34114cb0ce9d32c38a7328.jpg b423f82c35ba8d1aeea30aff1509b89a 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 BernsteinDavid Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Bernstein, David Description An account of the resource David Bernstein, Psychology 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/3472a515100db4841e72767c22e79d5f.m4v 66c839d2b3dabffdb247896caf30fe73 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3bde94d64d7c5daa9f00af09471738dc.pdf 877c862dd626aa477b1cbdd4cfc8ce4e PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans' History Project Lewis Berra Vietnam Era-Cold War 33 minutes 41 seconds (00:00:42) Early Life -Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1942 -Grew up in Detroit -Father worked as an arc welder -Died in an on the job accident when Lewis was five years old -Mother worked domestic jobs while Lewis was in college -Went to St. John Berchmann Catholic School for grade school -Went to Servite Catholic High School for high school (00:01:18) Vietnam War -Aware of the Vietnam War -Interested in being a pilot (00:01:34) University of Detroit & the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) -Went to the University of Detroit -Joined the ROTC with the intention of becoming a pilot -Part of the engineering program at the University of Detroit -After sophomore year he received hands-on training and got paid while doing it -Guaranteed a job after college -Only downside is it took five years as opposed to four years to complete degree -Worked three months on the job and received three months of classwork -Trained as a civil engineer with the State Highway Department -Rotated through the various engineering positions -Since he was studying engineering, that meant he had to do at least two years of ROTC duty -Two additional years were optional, and he decided to opt in for that -Passed the written exam to be a pilot, but failed the eye exam at Selfridge Air Force Base, Michigan -Offered chance to be a navigator and considered that -Looked into engineering officer position in the Air Force and decided to go with that (00:04:20) Officer Candidate School & Waiting for Active Duty -Sent to Lockbourne Air Force Base, Ohio for Officer Candidate School (OCS) -A lot of of physical training and learning how to deal with stressful situations -Similar to basic training for enlisted men -Lasted 60 days -Commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in August 1965 -Had to wait until June 1966 to receive his orders -Between August 1965 and June 1966 he worked for Michigan Consolidated Gas Company -Went through a training program -Rotated through the various divisions of the company -Six month training program -Worked as an engineer for the company -Guaranteed a job with the company after he completed his active duty (00:06:10) Stationed at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base Pt. 1 -Sent to Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming in the summer of 1966 -Strategic Air Command base at the time �-He was part of the base civil engineering squadron with a focus on missile engineering -Working with intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) -Francis E. Warren AFB oversaw ICBMs in three different states -Responsible for maintaining electronics, air conditioning, structures, and launch control facility -He started working at the base as a staff officer -Did that for two years -Promoted to chief of operations -In command of 350 personnel -Very high morale -Half of the personnel were civilians and the other half were military personnel -Stationed there until 1969 (00:08:21) Stationed at Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay -Reassigned to Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Goose Bay in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada -Another Strategic Air Command base -Americans provided the KC-135 refueling planes and the Canadians provided fighter jets -Americans and Canadians were organized and cooperated with each other -Part of base operations -Meant he helped oversee electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and snow-removal personnel -Also responsible for maintaining base infrastructure and base housing -Most of the infrastructure problems stemmed from weather and the age of the buildings -Base opened in late 1941 -Served there until 1970 (00�:11:00) Air Force Reserve Pt. 1 -Active duty with the Air Force ended in 1970 -Considered staying on active duty and making a career out of the Air Force -Decided to get out of active duty so he could get his Master of Business Administration (MBA) -Joined the Air Force Reserve (00�:11:36) Problems in the Military -Had problems as the military, as a whole, transitioned from the draft to an all-volunteer force -Problems with letting men into the Air Force that probably shouldn't be in the Air Force -When he was in the Reserve he encountered a lot of men putting in their time to avoid the draft -Had to motivate those men because they felt pressured to be there -Knew about racial tensions in the Air Force -Tried to manage the recruits that were unprepared for Air Force service -They had trouble with applying what they learned in training -Had skilled non-commissioned officers help the recruits (00:16:40) Air Force Reserve Pt. 2 & Civilian Life -Almost made an active duty career out of the Air Force because he enjoyed active duty -Got his MBA and his law degree at the University of Detroit thanks to the GI Bill -Worked at Michigan Consolidated Gas Company for six months while in the Reserve -The Department of Housing and Urban Development opened an office in Detroit -Needed engineers and wanted him because of his experience in the Air Force -Interested in getting into the management side of engineering which is why he got his MBA -Started as an engineer at the Department of Housing and Urban Development -Once he got his MBA he worked as the chief of construction estimating -Moved to Indianapolis, then Grand Rapids, Michigan; to Chicago, and back to Grand Rapids -In Grand Rapids became the head of the office -Stationed at Selfridge Air Force Base, Michigan from 1971 to 1990 -Served as the construction engineer �-In 1978 he became the squadron commander -From 1990 to 1995 he worked in the Office of Civil Engineers in the Pentagon -Promoted to the rank of colonel -Spent two weeks a year in the summer and one weekend a month training and going on deployments -More responsibilities due to having such a high rank (00:19:35) Deployments in the Reserve -Went on construction related deployments with the Reserve -Every third year he went to Europe for NATO support operations -Idea was to be familiar with the NATO bases in the event war broke out in Europe, again -The other two years were spent at various bases in the continental United States -Construction related projects on various bases -Set up support buildings, repaired buildings, and carried out demolition projects -Electrical, mechanical, and structural projects -Went to Germany several times, deployed to Spain, Italy, and England for NATO operations (00:21:15) Air Force Reserve Pt. 3 -The squadron size varied during his time in the Reserve -Maximum number was about 250 men, and 60 men at the minimum -Had men in the Reserve trying to avoid the draft -Also had men with prior military experience that wanted to continue to serve -Had very high morale in the Reserve (00:22:55) Gulf War -His Reserve unit was not called up during the Gulf War -Initially, there was resistance from the active duty leadership to involve Reserve units -Ironically, a lot of Reservists had more experience than younger active duty personnel (00:25:02) Reflections on Service Pt. 1 -Proud to have gotten to lead the troops he led during his time in the Air Force -Satisfied to accomplish the missions assigned to him -Bonded more with the men in the Reserves because he spent more time with them -Believes that it made them a more effective unit -They knew their strengths and weaknesses (00:26:52) Service at the Pentagon -Promoted to the rank of full colonel when he served at the Pentagon -Worked in Planning and Resources -Established policy and allocated resources for engineering projects -Managed budgets for civil engineering commands around the country -Near the end of his career he saw more civilian contractors used for engineering projects -There were a lot of base closures after the Cold War ended -Helped consolidate units at the open bases and make sure they had the proper resources -Never noticed any tension between the military personnel and the contractors -Generally good relationship between the two groups (00:31:10) Stationed at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base Pt. 2 -While at Francis E. Warren AFB he never worried about getting hit by a nuclear bomb -Figured that if a nuclear war began it was the end of the world any way -Never dealt with any anti-nuclear protestors -Francis E. Warren AFB oversaw missiles in Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska -Citizens in those states tended to be fairly pro-military -Winters in Wyoming were rough, but survivable (00:32:57) Reflections on Service Pt. 2 -He would serve again if he could �-Felt that he accomplished something for the nation's defense -Developed close friendships with the men he served with -Still in touch with them as of 2016 � 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 RHC-27_BerraL1883V Title A name given to the resource Berra, Louis (Interview outline and video), 2015 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015-08-13 Description An account of the resource Louis Berra was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1942. He attended the University of Detroit and was part of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) there. He received his Officer Candidate School training at Lockbourne Air Force Base, Ohio and received his commission as a 2nd lieutenant in August 1965. In June 1966 he received orders for Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming where he served as a staff officer and the chief of operations until 1969. He was transferred to Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay in Canada where he helped with base operations until 1970. From 1971 to 1995 he served in the Air Force Reserve at Selfridge Air Force Base, Michigan, various bases all over the continental United States, and at NATO bases in Europe. From 1990 to 1995 he served in the Office of Civil Engineers in the Pentagon and reached the rank of colonel. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Berra, Louis Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource McGregor, Michael (Interviewer) WKTV (Wyoming, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American United States. Air Force 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> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/x-m4v application/pdf https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e33fa55792fc5273ac7f1b38e96b26f2.jpg b82bec46f57b367d972e19b93d707951 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/385c7ad0779920049e1358cbd8c83232.jpg 09ff6fe35de0da6079097e600618397d 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-Walsh-J_0069 Title A name given to the resource Berry Cove Motel, Saugatuck, Mich. postcard Description An account of the resource Black and white postcard of the Berry Cove Motel located off of U.S. 31 in Saugatuck, Michigan. The motel is situated behind a few trees in the photograph and there are two individuals sitting in lawn chairs by the entrance. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Allegan County (Mich.) Postcards Motels Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file contributed by Jerri Walsh 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 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/623de8e6233cd35897243651d9fc178e.jpg c76a33f573141459266c67ddafe8ab67 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-Pie-Factory-07 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Lloyd J. Harris Pie Co. Title A name given to the resource Berry Inspection Table Description An account of the resource A black and white photo of a man at the berry inspection table. The caption reads: "All blueberries, youngberries, strawberries, raspberries, etc. pass under very powerful magnets to remove all nails or foreign objects. Leaves and stems are picked out by the operator. This machine has been created and built by Lloyd J. Harriss and its an exclusive feature of our company." Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Allegan County (Mich.) Factories Bakeries Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of Local History from the Saugatuck Douglas History Center for 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 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/cfa0bb69f314eb1b55c076ca823d04ed.mp4 54c73a1f330b2f5071aa3a66a4e9e770 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f86ad96612d1b5519403f075ebf78ed3.pdf d22d44913b6ca8a3d937a0c99dbb60be PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Name of War: World War II Interviewee name: Homer Berry Length of Interview: (00:13:59) (00:40) Pre-Enlistment  Background o Homer was born in Flint, Michigan on February 13, 1925. o He joined the service [Navy] because his brother had recently been drafted. (01:30) Enlistment and Training  Homer was sent through boot camp where he went through a lot of physical training.  After training Homer was a motor machinist mate, 2nd class petty officer. (02:00) Active Duty  Overseas o Homer was on a LST that left from the Gulfport, Mississippi and went through the Panama Canal. o The trip took 25 days and they stopped at the Solomon Islands. o While in the Pacific they went from island to island dropping off supplies for troops. o Homer felt lonely on the boat in the middle of the ocean and he was home sick. o They often wrote letters back home. o Food was always different depending on when they had received fresh supplies.  Memorable Moments (05:15) o Homer had been in Saipan unloading in the harbor when a bunch of Japanese planes flew over and attacked. o The men were able to shoot down 7 Japanese planes. o They had landed in Tinian and Homer grabbed a tennis shoe he found on the ground; there was a rotten foot still in the shoe. o They did not have many occurrences with Japanese because the Marines had always secured the islands before their ship arrived. (07:15) After the Service  Going Home o While leaving the Pacific they traveled around the Aleutian Islands on the way home. o Homer and the other men had all been really excited when they heard the news about the war being over. � Other experiences o After his time in the service Homer worked as a fireman. o While in the Pacific he traveled through the Marshall Islands, Guam, Saipan, Ten Yen, and Guadalcanal. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context BerryH Title A name given to the resource Berry, Homer C. (Interview outline and video), 2008 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Berry, Homer C. Description An account of the resource Homer Berry was born in Flint, Michigan on February 13, 1925. Homer decided to enlist in the Navy shortly after his brother had been drafted. After training Homer became a motor machinist mate, 2nd class petty officer. Homer was shipped to the Pacific on a LST and they began traveling all over the Pacific dropping off supplies to other troops. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Gilliam, Zach (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Navy Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2008-03-12 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives