906 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e06e83c59de9a4f187f7133ced27804a.jpg f34802f484fd80795e838754033f94fb 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 StricklandWilliam Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Strickland, William Description An account of the resource William Strickland, Tutor, Potter in Residence 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/118d3dab4c029d8d61eb7a5443617c17.jpg 38f1ba2d9dfb3bd8891f5dc858b8faa6 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 StricklerTimothy Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Strickler, Timothy Description An account of the resource Timothy Strickler, Anatomy 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/44f81b28b4e2fdcf94679af27e29b419.jpg 5b196bf2ccd46f7612dc97e2fadb4b9d 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 StriksDavid_Photo01 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Striks, David Description An account of the resource David Striks, Productions-Operational Manager at WGVU-TV 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/085aded188f02de4f677d1c269ec6e5c.jpg 655b6ab0871dd556e1a67de6b9a98738 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 StriksDavid_Photo02 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Striks, David Description An account of the resource David Striks, Productions-Operational Manager at WGVU-TV 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/4fb308ef6580bdb776bfbf7c33b26e26.jpg 90f25019d7add5dc42f62ee4809b282c 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-July-1962-3 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1962-07 Title A name given to the resource String Player Description An account of the resource A black and white photo. Two individuals sit in the front, while two men stand behind them. One has a large string instrument in his hand. The individuals on the left side of the image are obscured. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Allegan County (Mich.) Musicians Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital file collected by the Kutsche Office of History as part of the Stories of Summer Project. Relation A related resource Stories of Summer (project) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg 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/4fbdd19c331e7fc328e15d93b55000df.jpg 4f38bf6f37841e2d18bb5601b6f58d92 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-Red-Misc-20 Title A name given to the resource Striped Dresses Description An account of the resource A black and white photo of a scene being performed. There are three women in striped dresses who are talking to a man. Another woman in a black dress stands away from them and looks toward the parasol she holds in the air. Subject The topic of the resource Michigan Saugatuck (Mich.) Douglas (Mich.) Community theater 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/21b4063f3d2ed63906f6511e98ed8ee0.jpg 50cd8b6453a861df002c959e88bf00ed 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_3_1911-1915_72 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1913-08-11 Title A name given to the resource Striped rocks Description An account of the resource Black and white photograph of striped rocks along the Saguenay River in Québec. Subject The topic of the resource Québec Saguenay River (Québec) 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/15be1c759a1e2c06ac15c7c6d5b4162f.mp4 64512c9b790b032b30e8765b0bc3278c https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/14ba1cf469ddd548073c5a12ab63bf4a.pdf ae7ff124aa27b684d5ad7bbee95f8a65 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Notes Length: 53:15 Carl J. Strom WWII Veteran United States Army; July 1942 to May 1945 Company B, 141st Regiment of 36th Infantry Division *Strom’s wife, Eleanor Strom, was an active member of this interview as well **The following 9:53 focuses on maps, pictures, and medals (0:00) Medals • Regimental Pin • Purple Heart – Strom was hit 3 times • Bronze Star • European Campaign Medal – 3 stars showing that he served in 3 of his units 5 campaigns • European Victory Medal • Dog Tags – those from when enlisted and those from when an officer (1:18) Maps • September 9, 1943 • 1st American troops land in Europe • Sequence of battles: o Cassino (Italy) o Took Rome o Pulled out and went for some more training o Invasion of Southern France (Aug. 1944) o Montélimar, France o Lyon, France o Vesoul, France – got hit o Unit went on through Kitzbuhel, Germany o Italy (2:53) Pictures of the landing in Southern France • Strom was front man in landing craft; he was Company Executive Officer • Everything blown apart • US Navy did a good job destroying enemy advantage • As seen in the picture, there was a German 88 mm gun that would have destroyed Strom’s company had it not been destroyed by the Navy (4:15) Combat • 24 hours a day • Didn’t stop; NOT weather dependent • At Battle of Cassino (Italy) it was raining and snowing; sat in foxholes soaking wet much of the time �o Government paid an extra $16.87 per month for their trouble (5:50) Battle at Cassino • January 17 until late February o Much of time spent in the mountains o Mules couldn’t even get up the mountains o Supply priority: ƒ Ammunition ƒ Water ƒ Food (6:57) Army papers and photo album • Company B, 141st Regiment, 36th Infantry Division • 175 men in Company but went through almost 500 men (replacements) o 90 killed or MIA, the rest wounded th • 36 Division set record for most number of consecutive days in combat than any other outfit in the Army (9:53) Enlistment and training • Volunteered for the Army o Started as a private then went to officers school and became 2nd Lieutenant • Assigned to the 35th Division in Alabama • Sent overseas in 36th Infantry Division which was a Texas National Guard Unit in Italy, January 1, 1944 (11:04) Eleanor introduces self • Married Strom in 1941 after Pearl Harbor • Came with him to many training camps • When shipped overseas, stayed with mother in MI because had a new baby • Worked for Bell Telephone Company (11:46) Crossing the Rapido in Cassino, Italy • Assigned to Company B, Strom was in command of 3rd Platoon • January 20, 1944 • Rapido river o Fast moving, in flood stage • Ordered to cross river night of January 20 • Germans were on the west side • US on the east side • Germans had cleared out all trees so that there was no place for the US troops to hide • Strom picked to lead first platoon across river • Germans had built the Gustav Line, a coordinated defense line equipped with bunkers, minefields, barbed wire, machine guns, etc. • Moved out at 8 pm • 10 ft. plywood boats were used by troops for crossing • With an engineer who was supposed to direct 3rd platoon a clear path to the other side of the river • Strom looked backward for a minute and 2 German shells came into the boat �• All men of the 3rd Platoon, except for Strom and his runner, were killed or wounded by those 2 shells • Crossed to other side at 4 am o Once across, hid in shell hoes and ditches o One soldier of peeked out from hiding spot and was immediately shot between the eyes and killed by Germans • When started, 145 men and 5 officers • When ended, Strom, 1 other officer, and 14 men were left • Moved up into mountains behind the abbey at Cassino • Strom became Company Commander of 40 men • Sat on “Snake’s Head Ridge” for 1 week • Pulled out; Strom and 5 men left • Took new position; replacements built army back up to 20 men • Pulled out of line o Most men in mountains were lost to “Trench Foot” • Training period and received replacements (19:43) Invasion of Anzio Beachhead • Started day after Strom and Company crossed river • Had been stalemated until late May 1944 • Strom and Division put on ships to Anzio Beachhead o May 24th broke through German lines • Few days later, took Rome on June 4, 1944 • Went through Italy then relieved by another Division • Sent back to Salerno Beachhead (26:08) Training for Southern France Invasion • After Rome, given 1 week leave in Rome (only time Strom had leave during service) (22:16) Correspondence home • Eleanor sent letters everyday • Strom sent v-mail when had chance • Wrote often o Sometimes would go a week or 2 without receiving a letter and then suddenly receive 6 at once • Eleanor and mother would keep track of where Strom’s unit was • Government provided v-mail for soldiers which was that soldiers could send mail for free • Eleanor had to pay for postage (23:58) Commander positions • Flipped back and forth • Sometime Strom would be commander but then a replacement group would come in and someone with more seniority would become commander • But then during fighting, Strom would often become a commander again due to necessity (26:20) Invasion of Southern France �• More or less an easy victory because the troops came across were German conscripts from Poland o Conscripts were given choice: fight for us or die now o Often, conscripts would opt for the “fight for us” option • Same thing happened in Rome but with Russian Mongolian troops who had been conscripted by the Germans (28:17) Training camps from Eleanor’s perspective • Boot camp o She went to Georgia to be with husband o Stayed with another Army wife o Lived in a trailer in somebody’s backyard for 3 months o Then drove Arkansas with another Army wife to be with Strom o Went to Alabama; Strom rented home for wife and the wife of another commander o Strom went overseas and she returned to MI (31:31) Rapido River (Cassino) • After crossed, ordered to take Company C • Red Cross was going to be coming through, wanted Germans and Allies to call a temporary truce so that bodies and wounded could be picked up • Strom went down to the river’s edge with his sergeant that spoke and wrote German and met with German captain – Adam Dieraf – who was there with a sergeant who spoke and wrote English • Agreed on a 6 hour truce for picking up the bodies and the wounded • Strom was sent back to Company B • The German sergeant and American Sergeant exchanged addresses and were in communication after the war • 1989 Strom and his wife met with Captain Adam Dieraf and the German sergeant on a trip back to Europe o Remain close friends o They were good men who were just doing their duty, just like Strom was doing his job (35:52) France • Made an attack on an area in France • Occupied a house for the night • Strom was exhausted; no sleep the past 3 or 4 days because a Commander you get little sleep • Strom fell asleep; 2 hours later the phone line rings and gets orders to go to the town where Company A was, 10-15 miles away; took Strom’s Company 45 minutes to wake him up o They slapped him, made him stand up, poured water on him, etc. and he still didn’t wake up! • When finally got on telephone it was 2 am. Strom was told that trucks were on the way to pick him and his Company up; was told that Company A was under attack o Most harrowing drive Strom has ever been; he and one other person were in a jeep being followed by the big 2 ½ trucks carrying his troops �• Made into town and guard said that nothing was wrong • Example of how independent each Company functioned from one another (40:12) War in Iraq • unbelievable that can watch the fighting live (41:33) Serving • Enjoyed it • Was given an offer to stay in the Army but wife didn’t want to do that so decided not to (43:18) Rapido crossing in Cassino (continued) • The reason why the 141st and 143rd Division were nearly wiped out was because of faulty planning • Division Commander Gen. Fred Walker did not want to make crossing o A few days before the crossing, Strom went up on the mountains and looked down at the river where they were to cross. o Saw that it would be rough, knew that Germans had had 1 month to prepare for attack and that this was not going to be a good situation (44:33) Leaky boats at Rapido crossing • Pitch dark outside • More shelling • Wooden boats fully loaded down with ammunition and such • Instantly sank; river current was 10 mph and was quite deep • 12 or so men in the Company drowned • Engineers built a footbridge across out of ropes with planks across them (46:10) Description of the experience • Dramatic and deadly yet didn’t actually seem quite that bad • Proud of what did, if asked to do it again, he and most other veterans would serve again (47:58) Bombing at the Abbey at Monte Cassino • Abbey built in 450 AD by St. Benedict o Started the Catholic order of the Benedictine monks • Beautiful Abbey o Modeled after St. Peter’s Cathedral o Visited there several times since the war • Strom met Abbot, who was 1 of 7 monks in Abbey when bombed • Idea was that the monks could watch the US troops from its windows • Bombing of the Abbey killed 200 civilians • The ruins, however, made a better hiding place for German troops and their machine guns • At Cassino, troops from 14 nations were fighting against the Germans: American, Polish, French, Italian, English, Indian, Moroccan, New Zealanders, Australian, Brazilian, etc. � 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 StromC2 Title A name given to the resource Strom, Carl J. (Interview outline and video), 2006 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Strom, Carl J. Strom, Eleanor Description An account of the resource Carl J. Strom served in the United States Army in France and Italy during WW II from July 1942 to May 1945. In this interview, Strom and his wife, Eleanor, talk about their wartime experiences. Eleanor discusses life as an Army wife and how she followed her husband from boot camp to boot camp. Strom was a member Company B, 141st Regiment, 36th Infantry Division and lead the first platoon of soldiers across the Rapido River at the Battle at Cassino. He and one other soldier were the only people to survive from their Platoon's crossing. Strom's account of the Battle at Cassino is told in great detail. Strom shares stories of leaky boats, the bombing of the Abby, and intense casualties. He also discusses his Division's invasion of Southern France and an unlikely friendship between himself and a German Captain. Strom integrated maps, photographs, and his medals into the video interview. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Shaw, Kaitlyn (Interviewer) Dornoff, Andrew (Interviewer) Forest Hills Eastern High School (Ada, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Army spouses Military spouses Other veterans & civilians--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 2006-05-29 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/b158bcca4300bb80974895c12fe0ae0b.mp4 3d3e5144f121bc249b6a83b61b3b5ff2 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/74700e6f485e7eebadede13ae9fc9314.pdf 69a1f9ce1c795123e8f6e6dda062b226 PDF Text Text ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW Carl Strom Born: 1921 Resides: Grand Rapids, Michigan Interviewed by: Frank Boring Transcribed by: Joan Raymer, September 4, 2008 Interviewer: “ Carl, let’s begin with the basics. If you could just say your name, where you were born and when you were born.” My name is Carl Strom and I was born right here in Grand Rapids in 1921. Interviewer: “What was your early schooling like?” Basic traditional city elementary education and then I went into high school in the seventh grade and graduated from Central High School here in Grand Rapids. Interviewer: “What was family life like? What was your father doing?” My father was in the oil business at the time and was drilling oil wells and for a period of time there during the depression, things were very tight and we had a hard time making it, but finally he got lucky and then the family prospered from there on. Interviewer: “Now tell us a little bit more about your father’s background in terms of—he eventually influenced you in your future career so, tell us a little bit more about his—previous to this time.” Well, dad was raised on a farm in northern Michigan, up in the Central Lake/Bellaire area, and he came to Grand Rapids in about 1910—1908, and met my mother, married her and he went to work for the GR&I, Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad and at the same time he joined the National Guard in Grand Rapids here. 1:45 He eventually was promoted to a 2nd Lieutenant and then he went with the guard to Waco, Texas and to 1 �the boarder area. This was the time of the Poncho Villa thing, although the 32nd division of the National Guard was not involved with Poncho Villa, they were down there and they went through their training down there and he was appointed the division bayonet instructor. 2:25 He went to a special school and then came back and taught bayonet fighting to the division and then he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and in 1916 they came back to Michigan and they went to the Upper Peninsula for the copper mine strikes, he was involved in that, and then they came back to Grand Rapids and eventually were shipped over to France. 2:55 Interviewer: “This is World War 1.” World War 1, yes 1917, 1918 is when they arrived in France. Interviewer: “It should also be noted that he was part of the, we want to call it for this area, the “Red Arrow Division.” Yes, the 32nd was the “Red Arrow Division”. The earned the nick-name “Red Arrow Division” in France because the German’s showed this on all of their maps that they captured, the red arrow where 32nd division had broken through the German lines. 3:29 Dad was a company commander there, his best buddy, Carl Johnson, was a reporter for the Grand Rapids, Herald, I believe at the time, and was a 2nd Lieutenant under my dad. My dad was company commander of “M Company”. 3:52 Carl Johnson was killed and he was the first officer in his regiment killed and when I was born in 1921, he named me after Carl Johnson. Dad went on to win the “Distinguished Service Cross” and got a personal commendation from General Pershing and became Battalion Commander of the battalion from Grand Rapids and came home with them. 4:20 Interviewer: So, when you finished up with high school, where did you go from 2 �there?” From high school I went, well basically, I went to college at Grand Rapids Junior College. I was studying petroleum engineering and the war broke out and my future wife and I decided that we would go ahead and get married and then I would go ahead—that I would enlist. 4:50 Interviewer: “Let’s go back for just a moment, when did you first hear about Pearl Harbor?” We were driving home from Detroit with my mother and we heard it on the car radio that Pearl Harbor had been bombed and we took the opportunity at that time, my wife and I decided we would not wait, we would go ahead and get married and basically start two wars at once. 5:16 Interviewer: “So, were you drafted? Did you enlist? What happened?” I went down to the draft board and volunteered and I was placed in a V12 volunteer classification, which meant I was not drafted really, then about three weeks later I received notice to come down and to report. 5:46 Interviewer: “So, what was the process after that? You got married.” We got married and I took about a three-month hiatus and then I went down and volunteered. Interviewer: “I guess I am a little confused in terms of how that works. You volunteered initially, then you got married, then you were able to take three months off?” No, we got married and took some time off and then I went down in July, I already had my draft notice and volunteered, then three weeks later they called me and said,” We 3 �need you”. 6:29 Interviewer: “Now, what options did you have? Air Force, Marine, of course there is no Air Force, there was the Army Air Corps, but what were your choices?” At that time quite a group of us were shipped to Fort Custer—Camp Custer, and the group that I was with, which was quite a large group from all over the state of Michigan, we were informed that we would be assigned to the air force ground crew, which is not what I wanted. Interviewer: “This was actually the Army Air Corps?” Yes, at the time, the Army Air Corps. Interviewer: “And what was your reaction and what did you do about it?” Well, during my schooling, I had four years of ROTC and was raised to Cadet Captain, I had four summers of citizen military training camp at Camp Custer and I always wanted to be in the infantry. And therefore, I called my father who had influence in Grand Rapids and in Lansing, and told him that I wanted infantry and they were putting me in the Air Corps. and the next morning I got a call to come to headquarters at camp Custer and a colonel there said, “I understand you want to be in the infantry”? And I said, “yes sir”. And he said, “OK, you’re in the infantry”. 7:57 It was that simple. Interviewer: “You made a comment earlier about how when you first told me that, I thought he was going to say, “Are you a lunatic”? Wanting to go in the infantry instead of the Air Corps. So now lets go into—you’re formally in the infantry, what was the first step? You went to basic training I take it?” Well, they shipped us from—the ones of us who were going to the infantry—they shipped us by train, it took a thirty hour trip in old railroad cars, with no beds or anything, 4 �down to Macon, Georgia where we were met by trucks and taken to Camp Wheeler, Georgia, which was a basic training center and there were about ten thousand troops there training. I was assigned to a company there and we had a thirteen-week basic training course. 8:59 Interviewer: “This is what you would picture—barracks, chow line?” Yes, we had the barracks, we had the chow line and we had the sergeants who were on our cases and trained us—kept on our cases. Interviewer: “It’s interesting, now here you are from Michigan, I’m assuming you never traveled outside of Michigan before this time, you’re now in the Deep South and these drill instructors were experienced, of course, southerners, tell us a little bit about your experience with that.” They were southern boys, they were regular army men who really knew what they were doing and they were very good and they could make you believe when they told you something. 9:45 I had traveled outside the state of Michigan before so, I was familiar with some other areas, but the group that we had, that was in the company I was in , they were from all over the United States, but an awful lot of them were from New York and a lot of them were from the Kentucky and Tennessee hills, and we had quite a mixture of individuals , in fact we had a Greek boy there who was newly over from Greece and didn’t speak English and somehow or other the army had an interpreter who stayed right with our platoon and stayed with this boy and taught him English. 10:30 There were a couple of fellows in the barracks who couldn’t read or write and one of them bunked right next to me and I would read his letters for him and write his letters for him, but basic training, we learned first of all, how to drill, the manual of arms, and we started 5 �doing things like hikes and of course this was summer in Georgia and it was hot. We had 100 degree days and towards the middle of the training we started doing the twenty-five mile hikes with a full pack and a rifle and the packs weighed about forty or fifty pounds. We had boys who would fall out and couldn’t make it and had to be driven back, but eventually they came around and learned to do it. We received training in just about everything, first aid, rifle, how to fire a rifle, machine guns, mortars, we did a lot of target practice, bayonet fighting, of course regular drill—a little bit of everything. 11:52 Interviewer: “Now, did your experience in ROTC have an effect in terms of how you were doing things there?” Yes, and as a matter of fact, when they found out I had ROTC and knew the manual of arms, knew how to drill, etc., my platoon Sergeant would call me out to demonstrate to the rest of the platoon how to do it. 12:18 Interviewer: “But you still remained at the same rank as everybody else?” I was still just a Buck Private and paid fifty dollars a month. Interviewer: So, you got through basic, and where did you go next?” I completed my thirteen weeks of basic training—I had put in at the time I arrived there, you were allowed to do this and in fact you were asked if you wanted to do it, I had put in that I wanted to go to officers candidate school--I wanted to be an officer. 12:50 So, at the end of basic training, they assigned me to non-commissioned officers school at—it was a six week course there at Camp Wheeler and there we learned how to handle a squad and a platoon and the various responsibilities of a non-commissioned officer. At the end of this time I was promoted to corporal and sent to Fort Benning, Georgia for officers candidate school. 13:29 6 �Interviewer: “Just so we get a picture of this—some of this, I take it, is classroom environment?” Yes, a lot of classroom things, hygiene, first aid, military rules and regulations, and indeed it was a large amount of varied type of education. Interviewer: “ You know this is going to sound like a stupid question, but why would you be learning hygiene?” You go out there in the field and you’re all by yourself and you gotta take care of your self the best you can. I can remember one time writing home to my wife saying, please— this was when I was in Italy, “please send me a wash rag”, and things like this. You were so happy to be able to get soap now and then and things like that. 14:26 Interviewer: “I take that this was also to make sure that your men you were working with were keeping up with their hygiene?” That is correct, yes. You had to look out for your people. Interviewer: “So, once you completed that course—along the line here, I guess—I realize it is very difficult because it was a lot of years ago, but America’s at war so, you’re not out there doing this just because you want to be an officer, you know that at some point in time you’re going to be going into a conflict somewhere. While you were going through this schooling, was that at the back of your mind or at the forefront of your mind or were you just trying to concentrate on getting your studies completed and learning the best you can?” No, I recognized that I was going to have to go into combat and in fact, I expected it, and so, I was looking forward to learning as much as I could from what we were being taught to try to do the best possible job when eventually they did ship me out. 15:31 7 �Interviewer: “Was there a sense, you had mentioned earlier that in the barracks for example, there were people from all over the country, New York and Tennessee, etc., was there a sense that you were all Americans? That this was all an American conflict, or were there certain amount of states teasing amongst each other that you’re from this state or that state?” 15:50 There were, there were some cliques that formed, fellows from different states together or different specific areas together and these people tended to hang out together. I had a group that I was basically hanging out with. They were basically fellows who like myself had some military training from the standpoint of ROTC etc., so we had a common interest. 16:22 Interviewer: “It makes sense that you would congregate with people you felt comfortable with or sounded like you, but in terms of the overall general feeling of— I guess today you would call it patriotism and you would then too, but was there a sense that you were in this together?” Oh, very much so, very much so, and most of these fellows, although most of them had been drafted, they had no resentment to being in the service and quite a number of them had gone down and volunteered, we had a lot of volunteers too, and this was a time when as at the beginning of World War I, when America first got in, young men were flocking to the recruiting stations and joining up. They were ready to fight, they wanted to get into this thing and they wanted to do this for their country and it’s still true today with the fellow in Iraq. 17:28 Interviewer: “Now, from there where did you go?” From Camp Wheeler I went to Fort Benning Georgia, to officers’ candidate school and 8 �there we had a very rigorous six-week course in all types of military combat training and leadership. The motto of Fort Benning was—or officer candidate school was, “follow me”, and we were trained and it was drummed into us, we were the leader and we were to take the men, we were supposed to show the men where to go and what to do, and it was a very, very rigorous training. 18:23 Interviewer: “What do you mean by rigorous?” We would be up first thing in the morning and we would be out in the field running and doing all types of things. I remember one time when we were working with machine guns and I had a water cooled machine gun that I had to carry and I forget—I don’t know how far we went, but we went a long distance with it and that was heavy, and they same way we would haul ammunition. We were doing much of the same things the men would be doing, but we were doing it with the idea of appreciating what we were doing, but then of course we would get to that position with a machine gun and he had to set the machine gun up, we had to set our plots, we had to pick our fields of fire and we had to know why those fields of fire were picked and we were critiqued on all of these things we did. It was a very rigorous course and a lot of fellows did not make it. A lot of the fellows were dropped from the course. 19:32 Interviewer: “In the Air Corps, they called it washed out, is that the same thing?” The same thing, washed out, yes. Interviewer: “The thing that’s curious to me, and I think it’s fascinating, is that it’s drilled into you that this is what your men are up against. Now that you’re an officer it doesn’t mean that you sit back and drink champagne and have a cigar, you’re going to actually be there in the mud with them.” 9 �Absolutely, you were there like the motto was, “follow me”. 19:59 Interviewer: “So, once you completed this rigorous training, what was the next step in your journey?” Completing my OCS course, as a brand new 2nd Lieutenant, I was given a ten-day leave home. It was the first leave home and I arrived home and spent ten days here with my wife and our new baby. Interviewer: “Carl for give me—brand new Lieutenant coming home to your wife and your band new baby, that had to be an amazing moment in your life.” And I arrived home on our first wedding anniversary. It was really a thrilling day. Interviewer: “Now your parents were there I take it, your father?” My dad and mother were at the train station to meet me and my uncle was there. Interviewer: “And the bars were on?” The bars were on, yes. I was a brand new 2nd Lieutenant you know. Interviewer: “I don’t know how expressive your father was, but he must have been proud at that moment?” 20:58 He was very proud, but he was somewhat subdued and quiet too because he’d been through World War I and he’d seen officers killed you know, along with the men and he knew what I was going into, but he was happy that I had chosen the infantry, because that was his love. Interviewer: “Well, we won’t go into detail, but I can just see on your face that it must have been an amazingly proud moment, to get off that train and there is everybody meeting you and so, once you completed your R&R so to speak, where did you go from there?” 10 �Then I was shipped to or assigned to Camp Robinson, Arkansas, which was the basic infantry replacement-training center and these were all men who had completed basic training, but now they were being formed into squads and units which would eventually be assigned to divisions and here the new non-com’s, who had completed NCO school and the new officers, the new 2nd Lieutenants, were placed in command of squads and of platoons and we were working then in that capacity. 22:30 And again, we went through quite rigorous training with the units breaking us up into units, ok, this is your company and this is your platoon and your job is to go out here with this platoon and do this or that. 22:46 Interviewer: “So, the theory is over with and this is actual practice. This is working with real soldiers?” This is working with real soldiers, men who have had training, their all trained and they are all trained in basic, they know how to make their beds and so forth. Interviewer: “Now once again, did you feel like your ROTC training, your background, was a help in terms of your ability to take on that task compared, say to other Lieutenants in your similar capacity?” Well yes, I think the very fact that I had the background in that gave me some depth that perhaps the others did not have. 23:25 Interviewer: “Was there a sense of bonding with these men since you were responsible for them? Potentially, although you didn’t know it at the time, that you would be going into combat with these people, you were training for it to be like that. Was there a—what was the sense of responsibility? Tell us a little bit about that.” 11 �You were strangers, you were all strangers, but soon you began to know each other and began to know the personalities and you began to figure our—OK, this individual he has this attitude, he has this potential, and he’s a man I can rely on , this individual over here, we have to watch him a little more carefully and perhaps give him a little more training and get him shaped up. 24:21 Interviewer: “Once again, were these guys from all over the country?” They were from all over the country, yes. Interviewer: “You know that’s a part that I think is difficult to get across to the current generations, is that you’re thrown together with these people from all over, different accents and different ways they look and all that and you have to somehow as an officer mold that into a functioning unit. Did you feel that you were successful in doing that, in terms of your particular group?” I believe so. Yes, I believe so. The men came around for the most part, very good. You would have that occasional individual who didn’t seem to want to fit in, but for the most part there was no problem with that. 25:12 Interviewer: “Give us some idea of the scope of numbers of men training at that time, at this particular time, are we looking at a thousand people, ten thousand people?” As I said, at Camp Wheeler we had ten thousand people there and at Fort Benning our classes were two hundred in size, in fact more than 200, possibly 250 because we eventually graduated about 200 from each class and several, a number of them had washed out as such. At BRITC, Camp Robinson, I don’t know exactly how many were there, but there were several thousand troops there. 26:00 12 �Interviewer: “I think it’s important that people realize just the huge scope of men in training and just the activities and there’s just people everywhere. So, once you’ve completed that, you went on into—where did you go next?” Well, on completion of your BRITC training, the men and the officers were assigned to divisions. Infantry divisions and they went to wherever they were assigned. I was assigned to the 35th Infantry Division at Camp Rucker, Alabama. Interviewer: “What is a division in terms of numbers?” A division is about 17,000 men and it consisted of three regiments, each regiment consisted of three battalions, and each battalion consisted of four companies and each company consisted of four platoons. 27:07 Interviewer: “So, you were in charge of a platoon?” When I first joined—yes, when I arrived at the 35th division, I was assigned a platoon and we had a surplus of officers so, they assigned two brand new 2nd Lieutenants to each platoon and there was another Lieutenant and I who had charge of this one platoon. And we would take turns handling the platoon and doing things with it. 27:39 Interviewer: “So, what came next? I understand that you were transferred at that point?” I was there –I was with the 35th division for about two months and then the surplus officers were shipped out and I was sent to Fort Meade, Maryland for assignment for overseas and at that time I was informed that I would be sent to the European theater. It actually wasn’t the European theater; it was the African theater at that time. 28:08 Interviewer: “When you heard this, what was your reaction? You could have gone to the Pacific or you could have gone to Europe, was there any sense of, “I would 13 �rather be here or I would rather be there”, or did you just—“ I was happy with that. I felt that I would rather be in Europe than in the South Pacific. I’d had a little—we’d had a little more information at that time about the fighting in the Pacific and I guess the idea of being in that jungle heat and swamps etc., didn’t appeal to me as much as fighting on dry land so to speak. Interviewer: “So, then you go to the desert.” I go to the desert, right. 28:57 Interviewer: “So, let’s get an impression of—how did you get there and what happened when you arrived?” Well, after about two weeks at Fort Meade, I was ordered to report to Camp Patrick Henry, and was sent there by train, which was the pre-departure camp for overseas shipment. Once we were on Camp Patrick Henry, we were quarantined, we were not allowed out of the camp and after we were there about a week, we were trucked to the port and I boarded a liberty ship for shipment overseas. 29:42 Interviewer: “Now, for those who don’t know what a liberty ship is, this is a troop transport?” A troop transport, yes and I don’t know how many men it held, but there were quite a number of them and we sailed out of Newport News harbor there and got out in the Atlantic and we were going by quite a number of other ships and a couple of destroyers and there was an aircraft carrier that came along too and we finally—we left the shore there and had a ten day trip over to Oran, North Africa. 30:23 Interviewer: “Were you aware of the submarines and the potential danger?” Yes, in fact we had a couple of submarine scares. At one point one of the destroyers 14 �dropped a couple of the depth charges and we zigzagged quite a lot, but we arrived in Oran without any problems. 30:53 Interviewer: “Now, you are an American, you grew-up in Michigan, you did a little bit of traveling, but arriving in Africa had to be a real wake-up, what was that impression?” Well, it was very interesting; of course I have always loved to travel. It has always been my ambition to really be able to travel sometime, and Oran was a total shock. It was totally different from anything. The Souks, the Arabian people, the Arabian people and their costumes, their dress, their particular style of dress, the style of houses and buildings there, it was quite different there and to me very interesting. And I think most of the men really enjoyed seeing it. 31:54 We were sent to Camp Canastel, which was just outside of Oran and we had one section which was for officers only. Ninety percent of us were brand new 2nd Lieutenants and we were in perametal tents, and from there we went out on various field problems, compass problems, and at one time I went to—the group I was with was sent out into the desert to a British commando training center and we were there for a week and they put us through the ropes there. We learned things that we never learned in the states such as Judo and more fighting and self defense and dealing with difficult situations, some of them funny, some of them not so funny, and we had live ammunition firing over us, we would be in a dry creek bed, which was a “wadi”, and I still remember the British Sergeant saying, “Into the wadi”. It’s still a joke with us, the fellow that were there. 33:25 We had quite an intensive training session there. At other times we were sent on compass problems out into the desert. We would have a two and a half ton truck and were told, first follow this compass reading and then this one and you 15 �had to arrive back at a certain point as a result of accurately following that compass program. 33:52 Interviewer: “This is really getting close to the real thing, the war, you got to be aware—you’ve been through trainings, you’ve been through schools, you’ve been through all kinds of—but being out in the desert of North Africa, and especially now you’re dealing with the British who have already been in the war for many, many years, was there more of a deeper sense before that “this is it”, this is coming up real close?” We had that feeling, hey things are looking up—looking more serious that way and we had so much training by that time that we were imbued with the idea that it would not be long and we would be facing the real thing. 34:35 Interviewer: “You know one of the things that’s been so impressive to me, in terms of interviewing vets, is that by and large the ones that were trained very well, in other parts of the war they weren’t trained as well, there has to be some sense of confidence because of the training you had, that even though you’re going into danger that you’re at least somewhat prepared for it?” Oh yes, you feel much more confident because you had the training in weapons and the different ways of using them and of course camouflage and how to protect yourself so, you had that confidence that you wouldn’t have had without the training, at least you had an idea of what to do. 35:23 Interviewer: “Now you’re in North Africa, did you think at that time that you would be fighting in North Africa, or did you already know where you were going from there?” 16 �No, we knew we were not going to fight in North Africa because the fighting there, by that time, was ninety percent done. In fact I think the Germans were out of there. They were getting ready; in fact they had already made their landing in Sicily so, the Seventh Army. Interviewer: “This brings up something interesting, and please help yourself to the water if you need it. This brings up an interesting question, how did you get your news?” Well, we had bulletins that were posted and we had, I don’t remember in North Africa, but in the states we had camp newspapers and we had the regular newspapers because we would be able to go into town on leave and get the newspapers and magazines. There’s plenty of information there. 36:21 Interviewer. “What about radio?” Yes, we had the radio too. Interviewer: “Was that the Armed Forces Radio?” No, we had just the regular news stations. Interviewer: “In English?” In English, ya, well in North Africa we didn’t have the English and I don’t remember any radios in North Africa, but I know we did have them in Italy. There were radios in English, but we didn’t get much of them because we were not in a position to have that kind of equipment with us. 37:00 Interviewer: “You weren’t sitting around the fireplace. Ok, so now you went on then from here and is this when you got into the mountain training?” From North Africa they sent us by ship, it was a British ship, to Naples, Italy, and in 17 �Naples we were placed in a replacement depot that was at racetrack and many, many men will remember the racetrack and the officers were quartered in pup tents with two of us to a tent. We waited there for assignment to one of the units that was fighting in the— fighting there in Italy. 37:48 Interviewer: “You know, I think it is interesting to note that if the military today went into an area, they would build buildings and have everything all set up, but here you are living in pup tents at a racetrack in Naples, Italy.” Well, it’s much the same right now as it was then. True, in the situation like we have in Iraq now and Afghanistan, basically they have buildings that they can use. However, I don’t know, but I would suggest that in Afghanistan especially, that there are a lot of instances where the guys are living in pup tents. 38:28 Interviewer: “So, as a Lieutenant, I would imagine you were privy to at least some of the information of where you were going next so, what happened in Naples?” We had no idea where we were going. All we know was there were four American divisions there and we would probably be assigned to one of them, but we would go into Naples regularly, almost every day we would go into Naples—Red Cross, write letters and have a Coke and this type of thing, but no, we had no idea where we were going to go, except that we were going to one of the infantry divisions. 39:11 Interviewer: “Did you have a map of the area that told you where the Germans were and where we were or anything like that?” No, at that time no, we had nothing. We didn’t receive any of that until we were assigned to a unit. 18 �Interviewer: “So, what happened next? You were assigned to the?” There were four infantry divisions there, American infantry divisions, the third, the 34th, the 36th, and the 45th. And these divisions had been in combat, some of them like the 36th and the 45th since early September of 1943, now this was December of 1943. January 1st, I was assigned to the 36th Infantry Division and there were several truckloads of us brand new 2nd Lieutenants who were shipped up to the 36th division and I thought, “Oh, this is great, I’m finally getting assigned to a unit, I’m done with the schooling etc”. 40:16 So, we got to the division and they said, “All right all you 2nd Lieutenants you’re going to spend a week at mountain combat training school so, were back in school again, and we had a week of very intensive mountain combat training, which was totally different from anything we had been through before because we had been in the desert and we had been in the southern part of the United States where everything was flat, and now all of a sudden, it was sometimes straight up. 40:52 Interviewer: “So, this is rope climbing, this is hammering?” We didn’t do any rope climbing, the Rangers did some of that in the 10th Mountain Division later on, but no, we were just basically “hoof it”. Interviewer: “Ok, the terrain, I take it, was rough with trails as opposed to—“ Yes, it was—in Italy it was basically, you take a mountain and on the other side of the mountain there was a river, you go down the mountain and you take the river and then you had to take the mountain that was on the other side of that, and Italy is mountains from the toe up to the Po River, and we were being trained in how to set up our defenses, how to attack in a totally different type of terrain all together. It was vital that we receive this training before we joined the unit. 42:00 19 �Interviewer: “So, upon completion of that training, what happened next?” Ten we were assigned to out companies and I was assigned to Company B of the 141st Infantry Regiment and was given command of the third platoon of that company. Interviewer: “ What was it comprised of? Did you have a Sergeant? Did you have experienced people or inexperienced people?” I had a Sergeant and I had three squad leaders that were experienced in combat. They had been—some of them had been through combat since September 8, 1943, which was when the first American troops, the 36th Division, landed on the continent of Europe. 42:42 And the Corporals too, who were assistant squad leaders, they were all combat experienced men, but I would say fifty percent of my platoon or better, were brand new replacements. Now, this was a unit at that time that was fairly green for the simple reason that they had just been pulled out of combat the day after Christmas, December 26, 1943 and now it’s January 10th of 1944 and we’ve got all these new officers and men, none of whom had been in combat, that we had to quick get into, get them organized and get them acquainted with each other before we went into combat, actual combat. 43:42 Interviewer: “What did you tell this group of experienced men? Here you are in charge of them, but you’re very inexperienced in terms of combat, what did you say?” I met with my non-commissioned officers, my Sergeants and my Corporals, immediately after being assigned to my platoon and I told them, “Look, you fellas have been through it, you know what to expect, you have the experience, I do not and I want you to feel free to tell me anytime you think I’m wrong and to make any suggestions, let me know. I’ve 20 �got to learn just like the rest of these brand new men here”. Then I introduced myself to the platoon and explained that I was again, “As green as any of you here and I’m going to have to learn and we have to do the job together as such”. 44:39 Interviewer: “So, where did you go from here? Were you now planning to go into combat?” After a couple of days, we moved up behind a position, a mountain called Mount Trocchio. Now, this faced the Rapido River, the Rapido River was part of the German Gustav Line in Italy there, which ran from the Adriatic Sea over to the Mediterranean and it was probably the finest defensive position that you could ever have. Now, we had in front of us the river and then beyond that, the mountains and the British 8th Army was on our right and we were the American 5th Army, and the plan was for the 36th Division to cross the river in front of a large valley, which led up to Rome, called the Liri Valley and we were to cross the river and to break through the German lines, the Gustav Line and push on up to Rome. 45:46 The British, a day or two before, made a crossing of the river down by the coast of the Mediterranean there and they had pushed ahead two, three, four or five miles before they were stopped by the Germans. The next plan was for the 36th division to push across the Rapido River, but even though I was a brand new 2nd Lieutenant, we were all 2nd Lieutenants, we went upon the—towards the crest of Mount Trocchio and we looked down and we said right away, “Well, this is going to be a very tough row to hoe”, because the Germans had all the advantage. They had about three months to dig in and you could hear the jack hammers on the other side of the river going at night in the mountains there digging defensive positions there in the mountains for their machine guns, there mortars and their artillery. 46:56 Our patrols had been out 21 �and we could see—we determined right away that they had cleared all of the vegetation on both sides of the river for several hundred yards on each side and it sloped down on each side so, you couldn’t see exactly what was going on. Those fields were all mined, on the opposite side of the river their was barbed wire and mines and then behind that where the Germans were entrenched, they had their machine gun positions all coordinated so they could give cross fire defensive fire, plus this was January—winter and in winter it rains more than it snows in Italy. The Rapido River was at flood stage, the ground on both sides of the river was very soggy and you couldn’t get any wheeled vehicles down there so, it was up to the man with the rifle to do the job. 48:08 Interviewer. “I take it was very cold?” It was quite cold; it was basically in the thirties and forties. Interviewer: “And you had, you did have---“ We had our winter uniforms. We didn’t have any special clothing. We didn’t have those nice combat boots, waterproof combat boots, we had our regular combat boots and we didn’t have the parkas or any of that type of thing that later on they used. 48:44 Interviewer: “When did you first get into battle then?” Well, on the 20th of January we were scheduled to make an attack across the river and I’ve never been lucky at cards and our company was selected to be the lead company for the battalion for the attack across the river and so, we cut cards to see which platoon would be the lead platoon and like I said, I’m not lucky at cards and my platoon was the lead platoon. The night of January 19th we moved out of the area where we were bivouacked, on the back side of the mountain, and we went out and we had these large wooden boats that would hold about 10-12 men, and we had to go and they were dumped 22 �up—they were placed up behind the spur of the mountain and we went out and we picked those up and then an engineer guide led—my platoon was the first platoon of course so, I was up front with an engineer guide who was going to take us down to the river. 50:08 We were going down a sunken road, it was one of these positions the Germans had pretargeted and so, they could automatically set their artillery at a certain position and it would automatically drop shells in there. 50:30 I was about 200 yards ahead of my platoon and I turned around and I looked back to see if I could see them and how they were coming along and just about that time, just at that time two shells came in and landed where my platoon was. My platoon was—my entire platoon was killed or wounded, ninety percent wounded I think. The company commander was killed, the company executive officer was wounded, and another officer was wounded. 51:15 At this stage that left three brand new 2nd Lieutenants, who had never been in combat, in charge of the company. We went ahead down after we got things straightened out, we headed down with the other platoons, got down to the riverbank; we started to make the crossing of the river. Well, we found out then that some of the other boats had holes in them from the shelling and we would load a boat with men and we loaded a couple of them, and the boats would be sunk. We had quite a number of men who drowned because they were fully loaded with ammunition and rifles and their equipment. 52:00 Finally about 4:00 in the morning the engineers came down and they got a little bridge across for us and we were able to cross and move up toward the Germans. Interviewer: “Was there any fire power going on at this time, or was it quiet?” The Germans were throwing in some artillery and some mortars. They detected that we were out there. They didn’t know how big the operation was and as a matter of fact, 23 �talking with one of the German officers later, they thought it was just a patrol type, a reinforced patrol type operation where you might send out as much as a platoon. Interviewer: “So, they weren’t throwing everything at you, they didn’t realize that it was a bigger operation?” 52:56 No, they didn’t realize how big it was. It wasn’t until daylight when they realized the second--the third battalion had crossed on our right and so the two battalions were across. Interviewer: “What happens when you have injuries like that? Do the medics come in and start taking care of them?” Our aid men took care of as many as they could and in fact, we pressed other fellows into—other men into service with stretchers etc. They cleared the wounded and the dead out and then the other officers reorganized out platoons and went ahead and I went back kind of in reserve with my runner. Interviewer: “What’s a runner?” Well, he’s a fellow that sticks close to me and when I’ve got a message I have to get back to the company commander or someone, then I send him back with that message. 53:56 Interviewer: “So, you didn’t have a radio man with you?” We had our radios, but they didn’t work. We had the SCR 40’s I think they are, and they were totally useless. Interviewer: “So, after 4:00 AM, what happens?” We moved across the river and the other two platoons moved up toward the German positions. Then daylight came and about that time then the Germans really saw us there and they started pouring everything in. Heavy artillery, mortars, machine gun fire, we couldn’t stick our heads up. Most of us were in ditches or foxholes, not foxholes, ditches 24 �or shell holes, we weren’t able to dig foxholes—we couldn’t be out where we could be seen. 54:48 Interviewer: “So, you were pinned down basically?” We were pinned down and of course from the mountains on each side the Germans could see us and see just what we were doing and in time, when they saw any movement, they would call artillery fire in on us. And it was all muddy, I was in water up to my waist, so were the rest of the men. In one particular incident, my runner was about thirty feet ahead of me in a shell hole and we had a couple shells come in real close to us and after it quieted down I hear him cussing away and I said, “What’s the matter? Are you hurt?” and he said, “No, I just got my rifle all cleaned and now the suckers got it all muddy for me again.” 55:42 Interviewer: “Give us an idea of the sound. You got shells coming in, you got big guns, what are you hearing?” You’re hearing these shells come in, you’re hearing—they were also firing the “Screaming Mimis” you know, “nebelwerfers”, which was a six barrel rocket type thing, they were firing those, and you would hear these shells come in and the shell would hit and it was real heavy stuff and the ground would just shake like jelly and all you could do was just hunker down as best you could and pray that you would come out of it ok. 56:22 Interviewer: “So, what happened next? What was—they’re shelling you, they’re shelling you, what happened? We kept losing men, we had several men killed by artillery, one of the men—I saw him get a bullet hole between the eyes, I had a machine gun bullet bounce off my helmet and 25 �finally about when it started to get dark, I moved out and I took a check of who we had there and we had very few left. 57:00 During the day, during the middle of the afternoon, several of our men who were up close to a house that was our first objective, and closer to the German machine guns etc. They finally decided they couldn’t do anything there so, they got up and they surrendered and I could understand that because they were really catching it up there and they were really receiving the shell fire so, although you hate to see men surrender, I didn’t blame them any because if they had just stayed there they would just suffer more casualties. After it started to get dark, then I took a check around and found out how many I had left and we took our wounded and fortunately most of the bridge was still in and we were able to move back across the bridge and when we got across the bridge then I took the basic—what was left of the company back to where we had left from and reported to battalion headquarters there. There was one other officer and myself and fourteen men. 58:18 Interviewer: “So, what did they say to you?” Well, they understood and they concurred with me that I had done the right thing and there was nothing that I could do on that side of the river with that few men and that had been my logic—“hey I can at least hold a defensive position on our side of the river”, but I couldn’t do anything effectively on the other side. 58:52 Interviewer: “So, what was the decision to do next?” We went into—the division pulled back after a couple of days. The following day the other battalion, the second battalion, made the attack across, not where we had attacked, but over to our right. And then they fought there for a couple of days and they got in further, they were able to push in further than we were and after a couple of days, 26 �gradually men were coming back, they had to swim the river etc., but they were losing so many men that finally they were pulled back too. Now, army headquarters had ordered that our 142nd Regiment was to now attack across the same place, but after our General Wilber, our General Walker conferred with them, they finally determined there was no way they could get across there and succeed 59:57 so, they called off that attack and they had the 34th Division make an attempt over to our right. Interviewer: “Where did you got next?” We were bases in front of this Mount Trocchio, which was a long narrow mountain, and in a defensive line and we were there for about two weeks, strictly in a defensive position and we had no casualties, we had no attacks and the Germans weren’t about to come across the river and so, we just sat there in a defensive position and then after a couple of weeks we were pulled out and the 34th had made a successful crossing north of us, up river from us, and we were up close to the Abbey, the famous Benedictine Abbey at Cassino and we were sent , after a couple of week, sent over to relieve them. 1:07 Now, in the meantime, we received quite a number of our people back, ones with slight wounds and some who had just said, “Hey this is no good”, and we received a few replacements, including a couple of brand new 2nd Lieutenants. And, we moved over towards the Abbey at Monte Cassino and moved around behind it and went up on top of the mountain there and relieved part of the 34th Division, our battalion relieved the 34th Division. 1:48 Interviewer: “So, the Abbey was already held by Americans?” No, it was not, the Abbey was still—it was not a strong point—the Germans didn’t need the Abbey, the better place was down on the side of the hill dug in someplace. The Abbey, you could see, you could see somebody in the window and you could shoot them 27 �or send an artillery shell. So, the Abby was not a good defensive position and the Germans realized that they were better off and really control things from where they were on the side of the mountain. 2:19 Interviewer: “So, what was your next assignment? What were you supposed to do?” I was of course at this time... I was the company commander, I was still a 2nd Lieutenant, but company commander and we built the company back up to about forty men. When we crossed the river we had about one hundred and seventy five men. We built the company back up to forty men and we went up onto an area behind the Abbey called Snake’s Head Ridge and there with my company, we relieved a company of the 34th Division which had twelve men commanded by a PFC and we were up there trying to drive the Germans off the end of it so we could get down closer to the Abbey and get over to the Liri Valley. 3:16 Interviewer: “Now was the opposition once again heavy guns and mortars and machine guns?” There were mortars and machine guns. The unit we were facing at the river was a Panzer Grenadier Regiment, the unit we were facing assisted Panzers, and they weren’t Panzers, but the unit that was up on the mountain, they were paratroopers, and they were probably the finest German troops you could find. We faced them and they were well dug in and we just could not make any progress there. 3:56 We had a weather problem up there, it was now the first of February and it was around thirty degrees, thirty to thirty five degrees, and it would snow and it would rain, it was just wet, cold and damp and we were having a lot of problems with the men with trench foot. You couldn’t get your feet dry 28 �and the net result was that soon they would get all red and they would start to hurt and men could hardly walk. The net result was—again, I lost an awful lot of men, several of them killed or wounded, but most of them from trench foot. 4:43 I was called to battalion headquarters there , which was up on the mountain with us there, and our of a battalion of about seven hundred normally, we had seventy men and six officers and we were ordered to attack, make an attack the following morning on the Abbey and the battalion commander told me, he said, “You’ll have the left flank, how many men have you got there?” and I said, “I have five men”, and when we pulled off there were five men and myself, six men altogether out of the company and we’re pulled over to the right, our right, to take a defensive position. 5:34 We were there in that position about two weeks I ‘d say and in the meantime, while in that position, several men came back to the company and then we were relieved by the 88th Infantry Division and we were pulled back and given a big steak dinner and then went into perimetal tents and were there for a week, we were off for several weeks recuperating and building the company back up and getting trained again you know and getting used to each other. 6:19 Interviewer: “By building up you’re talking about new recruits coming in or?” Recruits were coming in, men were coming back from the hospital with slight wounds, almost any man that had spent any time over there ended up with two, three, or four purple hearts. They would get wounded and they would go back in, they would go back to the hospital and get fixed up then come back to the unit. We had a number of incidences where the men said, “I want to go back to my unit.” Much the same as it is in Iraq today. 6:55 Interviewer: “Now, you got hurt. Was the soon after what we are talking about?” 29 �Yes, I got hurt. At the Rapido there, when those shells hit, I got a piece of shrapnel in my left eye, but it was a small piece and nothing was done until after I got home here to the states. Later on, after we took Rome, we were up north of Rome there fighting and I got another piece of—I got another wound above my eye and I received a purple heart for that. 7:31 Interviewer: “Let’s get through the Italy—this part, the Abbey part before we get to Rome. What was the eventual outcome of that battle?” The eventual outcome of that was, several units, New Zealanders, British, South Africans, I think there were fourteen different units from different nations that were fighting there. The French, the French were very good and it took them until May 24th to eventually cross the river and break out. In the meantime of course, Anzio beachhead was going on, Anzio beachhead was planned for two days after we crossed the Rapido. We crossed on the 20th and the Anzio beach landing was made on January 22nd. Well, they were stalemated there too and after we rested and recuperated and got built up again to full strength, we were shipped—towards the middle—towards the end of May, we were shipped up to Anzio beachhead and we went into the attack out of there and we captured the town of Velletri and then moved on and took Rome. 8:57 At that same time the big push was made across the Rapido River. They brought most of the 8th Army over from the Adriatic side so they had basically, two full armies there to attack across the river. Interviewer: “Now, this is actual what you would picture, infantry fighting? Taking a town with guns?” That’s right, you had to up these hills and go into these towns and bring them out with a 30 �bayonet, you—it wasn’t, your air force had done all it could, the ships had brought you to where you could get there, the artillery had fired all of its rounds of ammunition, but rather done its job, but it’s still up to the guy with the rifle to go in and take the piece of territory. 9:50 Interviewer: “Is this—this is house to house?” In some instances it was house to house. We had very little of that where we were in Italy because they were small towns. In Cassino it was house-to-house fighting and our 34th Division did some fighting in there, but the British did most of the house-to-house fighting there. Cassino had been bombed to where it was just rubble, the entire town was wiped out and they had been able to--the Germans had been able to then fortify those positions. The same way with the Abbey—we finally bombed that and then the Germans moved in there because it then presented a very good defensive position and it finally took the Polish troops at the end of May, to take the Abbey and they lost a lot of men taking the Abbey. 10:44 Interviewer: “Now, in terms of your own experience though, you mentioned the name of one town before Rome, what was that?” Velletri. Interviewer: “What was that battle like?” Velletri was situated behind a small range of mountains that was immediately in front of Rome. The Germans had that well positioned and we had to take that town and those hills before we could get to Rome. We went up and we attacked there and we had quite a number of casualties, but we finally took the town and also, one of our regiments found an unguarded spot on the mountain and they went over on the other side. In essence, they 31 �got behind the German lines and that broke the German defense and so, we moved up and moved into Rome. 11:39 Rome was not defended, the Germans fortunately had not— had decided not to defend it. Interviewer: “This has got to be an amazing moment for you, I just can’t even imagine it completely, but try to give us an idea of what it felt like to march into Rome.” It was great, we were going in in columns of twos of course and I was the assistant company commander at that time—company exec, and we marched into Rome in a column of two with our rifles slung on our shoulders etc. and the crowds, crowds on each side of the road cheering us and one lady came out and she gave me a glass of milk and it was the first glass of milk I’d had since I left the states—it tasted so good. 12:35 We moved straight through Rome. It probably took us—I don’t know how many hours, but we marched completely through Rome, we walked and when we got through Rome the Germans were pulling back so fast that we were ordered—we would run ten minutes and then we would walk ten minutes, we’d run ten minutes and then we would walk ten minutes, then we would pull off into a field and fall down. We would spend maybe ten or fifteen minutes resting there and then we would go on. We did that for maybe three or four hours trying to catch up with the Germans and we were exhausted of course when we finally stopped. 13:22 The following day they brought up two and a half ton trucks and we loaded on the trucks and we moved up the coastal highway to a place called Orbitello and here we ran into a German road block and were held up by them for some time. They were dug in with the 88 and they had their machine guns and everything was perfectly positioned. 32 �Interviewer: “88 is the heavy artillery?” Actually, 88 is their anti-aircraft gun. A very high-powered gun and better than anything we had at that time. And so, they were holding us up with that—they hit our battalion headquarters and burned up a couple of our jeeps and finally we made the attack on the position and we captured it. 14:30 Interviewer: “They gave up?” They pulled out—they realized that—ok, their delaying action, it had lasted as long as they wanted, it was a couple of days, and so then they just pulled out and our men went in a took the place. At that time we had about fifty men. At that same time, as the company exec, I was in the rear area there and a bunch of two and a half ton trucks came up with replacements and I guess everything comes in a circle because at Fort Custer, at Camp Custer, they had initially assigned me to the air force ground crew—air corps ground crew, these men were all air corps ground crew. They didn’t need as many anymore so; they were given rifles and sent to the infantry. So it comes in full circle. 15:27 Interviewer. “So, what happened next?” Then we moved up and proceeded north towards Pisa and we were fairly close to Pisa and we swung off to the right. We were going to go over towards Siena and finally we took a town there after some casualties. We ran into a roadblock type thing and we pulled into this town and then we were relieved by another unit and we went back and everyone had a weeks leave in Rome. Half the company went on leave first and then the other half of the company went on leave. 16:20 Then the company was moved-Interviewer: “Leave in Rome—do you think I’m going to let you get away with that? What was that like?” 33 �Oh, that was great, they had the restaurants you know and real food, movies and we went to the Vatican. I happened to be there one afternoon when the Pope was holding audience for the servicemen from different units and so, it was Pius the IX [XII], and I went into his special room there and I stood in the back because I’m not Catholic and let the Catholic fellows get up to the front and he addressed us in very good English and gave us his blessing etc. 17:11 So, I had a chance to see the Pope and hear the Pope. Interviewer: “Was there a sense at this point that you are winning the war?” Yes, in fact we thought after we took Rome, “this should be smooth sailing now”, but that was not true in Italy because then they went across the Arno River to Florence and Pisa and across the Arno River in the Apennines and the Germans had built another defensive line there similar to the Gustav Line and it wasn’t until, this was in July, and it wasn’t until the following April that they broke out of that line. 18:04 Interviewer: “What about you though, where were you going?” We were—our unit was placed on ships and sent back to Salerno beachhead and there we trained, of course we got an awful lot of new replacements including four new 2nd Lieutenants, and we trained then again for combat as a unit to be cohesive and also trained for the landing in southern France. 18:42 We would go out—we would get on the LST’s and we would go over into the little LCI’s and go ashore and they told us at the time the area where we landed was very similar to the area where we were going to land in southern France. Interviewer: “Carl you’ve seen things that—there is this continuous training, even during battle time you are sent off now, to train for another type of landing.” Yes, yes, we would receive, even when we were up by Cassino there and behind the lines 34 �there at Cassino, we were constantly training. 19:28 Interviewer: “I find that fascinating because in my studies and what not, there had to be at the highest levels a realization that we, even though they are battle experienced, we can’t just throw them in. If they are going into this type of battle, we have to train them for that kind of battle. That’s fascinating.” I remember one time there, back of the lines, just south of Cassino, we were back there in a place we called the “apple orchard”, and the order came down for me to prepare a night problem attack up a mountain and I had to lay the whole thing out and direct my company, I was company commander at the time and I had to direct my company on how I wanted them to attack, where I wanted this platoon to go, what I wanted them to do, where I wanted to set my mortars, machine guns etc. 20:28 This had to be because at that time I was company commander , not officially, but because I had been there the longest, and I had a couple of brand new 2nd Lieutenants and I also had quite a number of replacements and you had to keep doing this to train them to work together, and we would have these problems and set them up. I have some of my notebooks at home there and when I look at them, it told to set up this kind of a problem etc. 21:07 We had to constantly be training because you go into a battle--ok, you’re unit changed and you would get some new people in and you really had to start over again. Interviewer: “You’re training then to invade France, is that exactly what happened? Were you part of that invasion force into France?” Well, the middle of August, about the tenth of August, we moved up to Naples and we boarded ships for the invasion of southern France. And I believe that was “Operation Anvil”, and we were then—we had been attached to the Fifth Army in Italy and now we 35 �were attached to the Seventh Army and we made the—on August 15th, we made the invasion of southern France and we were all prepared for the type of casualties you would have etc., but it was relatively speaking, “a cake walk”. We pulled in--our battalion was the extreme right of the whole operation. We pulled into a small bay that the Germans had fortifications on each side of and the could have just wiped us out as we came in with those little boats, but the navy had rocket ships there and while we were circling in our landing craft, the navy was sending these rockets off and it was just out of this world, they just kept going and going and when we got to shore we found out that all the German positions were just rubble, in fact I have a picture showing afterwards and it shows a German 88MM gun, which would have been pointing right to the rear of our craft as we came in, but that was knocked out. 23:11 We went ashore with our company and we had a new company commander, a Captain, we didn’t run into much opposition— we went around behind the position and captured about twenty Germans in a fortified position that were happy to give up. These were second line troops, a lot of them were Polish conscripts and they didn’t want to fight for the Germans and their officers had pulled out and their non-coms had pulled out and so immediately they give up and then we pushed on to what was our right, to the east along the coast, and we were almost to Cannes and then our company pulled out along with another company and we were sent on a special task force up to a town called Colliann [Castellane?] where a paratrooper unit had landed and supposedly were trapped by the Germans there. Well, we got up there and fortunately the paratroopers weren’t there and we didn’t know where they were. We don’t know where they ended up, but the Germans were still there in town. We had quite a fire fight and we were there and we got into house to house fighting type and we 36 �took most of the Germans prisoner, we killed a few, but we took most of them prisoner. 24:53 Interviewer: “Were they prisoner as in they just walked out from the rubble with their hands up or how did they--?” Oh, yes, yes, in one place there I was going along and there were some bushes ahead of me and I had a carbine and I had my carbine pointed and all of sudden here came two German troops again, I think they were polish boys, they had their hands up and big smiles on their faces you know, they were so glad to see me you know, and pal and this type of stuff. They were so happy to be prisoners of war. We were starting to run into quite a bit of that there in France, but in the end, we weren’t fighting the real elite German troops. They were up in the north, up by Bastogne and Lorraine and the Moselle River Valley, in that area. 25:46 Interviewer: “So what happens next? You go through this, you’ve taken this town.” We were reassigned or taken back and joined the division. We were chasing the Germans and it was very hard to keep up with them because they were moving so fast and we were moving rapidly, we used every bit of transportation we could get to try to move up to catch them. In fact at one point the battalion commander said, “Look, now there’s going to be a bunch of supply trucks, two and a half ton trucks, coming along here. Take your company and stop these trucks and get as many men as you can on the trucks and send them north, and we’ll catch them up at the other end there”. And I did that until I had all the men on the trucks heading north and then with my jeep we proceeded on north. 26:41 Up there we went over to the right and a lot has been written 37 �about the battle of Montélimar and we were ordered to take a large hill along the highway there, the highway up alongside the Rhone River, and so, we took the hill and drive the Germans off it and then we received an order to pull back down off the hill and we got down off the hill and a Major came up and said, “what are you doing down here, you’re supposed to be on that hill?” We said, “we received orders to pull back down”, and he said, “you got to be up there”, and in the meantime the Germans moved back in to their positions, in the foxholes etc. So, we had to attack and take it a second time. 27:43 Interviewer: “So, after that was taken, what happened?” Then we began to chase again, following the Germans up central France there along the Rhone river to the right between the Rhone river and Switzerland and one morning we took the town of Vesoul and this was my last action, we took the town, moved through, moved into a position where we had run into another road block similar to the Urbitello thing. Interviewer: “Carl, you were not getting the same level of casualties that you were earlier on?” No, in that area we weren’t getting as many, we lost a few people there at Montélimar and we lost a couple people on the way up to Vesoul, we lost a couple of people in Vesoul and beyond Vesoul, and there I was down to—I was the only officer with the company, but again I only had about fifty men. This was an ironic thing because we ran into this roadblock and just at that time a brand new 2nd Lieutenant was reported to me so, he was my only other officer now, and I said, “I want to do a flanking movement and I want you to take this platoon and make a flanking movement on the German position”. Well, he moved out with the platoon and he got around there and while he was around 38 �there, a sniper hit me. So, here was this poor guy, his first day in combat, kind of like me at the Rapido River, his first day in combat and all of a sudden he’s company commander and I’ve often wished I could talk to him, I never talked to him after that, but it was his. They sent me back to an evacuation, kind of a MASH type unit, and the battalion commander, he had just been up visiting with me and checking on what I was doing etc., and he’s left and I got back to this MASH unit and there was a whole line of stretchers with people laying on them and on the end were three or four empty stretchers and this aid man said, “Ok, you lay down on this stretcher”, and when I started to lay down the guy on the next stretcher sat up and said, “Strom, what are you doing here?” And I said, “look, the same thing as you apparently”, and it was my buddy from Company A, who was the A company Commander. He said, “the battalion’s in good shape” and right next to him was the battalion commander. Here were two of the four company commanders and the battalion commander all wounded at once. 30:58 Interviewer: “Where were you hit?” I was hit in the right shoulder. It was a sniper, I was being too bold, I had been in combat too long and I was not taking the precautions that I should have. I stood up and I was looking at the position and telling one of my Sergeants what I wanted him to do with his platoon and he nailed me right here, but if he had been six to eight inches to the right I’d of had it. That happened an awful lot that you would be in combat so long and you would survive and you would forget the precautions that you should take. I should not have been standing up there that way doing that. 31:45 Interviewer: “So, fear is healthy in war huh?” Yes, that’s very true. Fear is a healthy thing. 39 �Interviewer: “Was this a clean shoot? Did it go right through?” Yes, went in the front—came out the back. Fractured the humerus up here and everything, but they were able to take care of that OK. Interviewer: “So, you’re laying there on the stretcher and around you is devastation I take it, there is just a lot blood etc?” Frankly, it was quiet and none of the guys were moaning or anything. They were taking them from the far end and picking them up and taking them in and I don’t think I was there a half an hour and they came in and picked me up. They knocked me out and took care of everything and when I finally came to, they had me sitting at a table and they were putting a body cast on me and had my arm in an airplane splint and I was there for a week at the hospital back there. From the MASH unit they moved me back to a field hospital and then they flew me to Naples and I was in the 300th General Hospital in Naples and after I was there about a month, they put me on a hospital ship and sent me back home. 33:08 That was—I think I landed in the states in October and I went to Cambridge, Ohio to Fletcher General Hospital and I was there until January or February. 33:35 My wife was able to join me there, we had an apartment and I had to go back to the hospital everyday for therapy and then I was brought back to Fort Custer and I was discharged. Interviewer: “How lucky we are that that sniper missed what he was shooting for and just got a little bit of your shoulder there.” Yes, more so for the simple reason—a couple of my close friends weren’t as lucky, one in particular was a very good company commander and he bought it in France and he’d been with his company all the way through. 34:20 40 �Interviewer: “I think on of the most amazing things about the conversation we’ve just had is you have several references to becoming company commander and then you got an assistant because the casualty rate was so high that it is hard to fathom that—just how devastating these battles were.” We went through men like water and they were mostly 18,19,20 year old kids and thank god for them because they are the ones who can and did the job and they are the ones who are doing it in Iraq today and they have the stamina for it, they don’t have the ingrained fear that someone older might have and of course they don’t have the families usually, which is better too. 35:19 Interviewer: “Just to wind up, I wanted to ask you—your experience, not just in WWII, but your military experience, do you feel that it had a major influence on the person you became?” Yes, very definitely, I didn’t realize until after I had been home a few years. I didn’t know what I wanted to do and I knew when I came home I didn’t want to be a petroleum engineer so, I had to kind of feel my way and I tried several different fields and finally it hit me that I had gotten into the right thing. I got into personnel work, handling people and I was very successful with that with major manufacturing companies and ended up as director of industrial relations for one until I finally left there. 36:14 Interviewer: “Well, on behalf of myself and the people who enjoy our freedoms today, in a large part because of you and so many other people risking their lives, I know it is difficult to talk about some of these, but I want to thank you personally for everything you’ve done because I wouldn’t be here without people like you and my dad and the generation that Brokaw called “The Greatest Generation”. 41 �Well, that is true and I’ve thought about that often too, if something had happened to me, my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren wouldn’t have been here either. We only did what we had to do. Interviewer: “Carl, thank you for doing it.” 36:55 : : : 42 �43 � 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 StromC Title A name given to the resource Strom, Carl J. (Interview transcript and video), 2004 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Strom, Carl Description An account of the resource Carl J. Strom is a WWII Veteran who served in the United States Army in France and Italy from July 1942 to May 1945. Strom was a platoon leader in ompany B, 141st Regiment, 36th Infantry Division and fought at the Rapido River crossing, Monte Cassino, the landing in southern France, and the campaign into northeastern France and Germany. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Boring, Frank (Interviewer) Michigan Military Preservation Society (Grand Rapids, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Army 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 2004-06-26 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/4a9faff42bd34dc78bd6411f3294c79c.mp4 82f5710f7045a1f759920112be1b4c7a https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ce3ad5c3cfd324e8b0cc39c066d6d4e1.pdf 18468bf7cca0eae8fcf00a31d4e6d8bb PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans’ History Project Lambert Struble World War II 45 minutes 28 seconds (00:00:10) Early Life -Born in Muir, Michigan on September 18, 1925 -Located in Lyons Township part of Ionia County -He grew up on a farm near Muir -They were able to keep the farm through the Great Depression -It was 160 acres -They grew oats, wheat, other various grains, and raised hogs -He was the middle child of three -He finished high school, but not until 1955 -He had left school after the eighth grade to go to work at a nearby orchard (00:02:12) Start of the War -He was out milking cows and there was a radio on in the barn -He heard the news that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor -He had anticipated that the United States would eventually get drawn into the war -Thought that it would be because of German aggression, not Japanese aggression though -He thought that the war would be over before he would have to serve (00:03:35) Getting Drafted & Basic Training -He turned eighteen in 1943 and received a draft notice almost immediately -He had to report for duty before Christmas 1943 -He reported to Camp Grant, Illinois to be inducted -At the time there was an epidemic of polio in the camp -From there he was sent to Camp Wolters, Texas for basic training -Travelled there by train and the ride took two days -As they passed through small towns the women would feed the recruits -At the time Camp Wolters was a brand new camp -It was a huge camp with a perimeter that was seven miles long -The barracks were flimsy, tar paper shacks though -Poorly insulated which meant the wind could just cut through the walls -He started off with weapons training and was placed in a heavy weapons company -Trained with the .30 caliber machine gun and the 81mm mortar -Also received discipline training and went on marches -He was in good physical shape, so the physical training was not much of a challenge for him -He had grown up hunting, so marksmanship training was not difficult for him either -Everyone that was being trained was cooperative -Drill sergeants were tough, but reasonable -He stayed at Camp Wolters until May 1944 -He was allowed to go off the base to visit the town of Tyler, Texas -There wasn’t much to do there though -He remembers a sailor was in town on leave, and it was a strange sight �(00:10:25) Pre-Deployment -From Camp Wolters he was sent to Fort Benjamin Harrison near Indianapolis, Indiana -A unit was getting organized there, but there were problems with getting enough men -He stayed at Fort Benjamin Harrison for a little under half a year -He trained with mortars and machine guns every day -When it came time to leave he was given equipment and sent to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey -He stayed in Camp Kilmer for a couple days waiting to ship out (00:13:46) Deployment to Europe -In Camp Kilmer he boarded an old repurposed British superliner and left in October 1944 -He had been following the course of the war after being drafted -Thought that the Germans would have surrendered after D-Day -It took eight days to sail across the Atlantic Ocean -Men were getting incredibly seasick on the voyage over -They slept in larger rooms, not in individual cabins -There were bunk beds that were six to eight beds high -They were allowed to go on deck -On the voyage over they were treated to a USO Show by the singer Frances Langford -She happened to be on their ship going to Europe to perform for soldiers there (00:17:09) Arrival in the United Kingdom -They landed at Firth of Clyde, Scotland -He was placed on a train and sent south to the small English town of Cubbington -There wasn’t much space in the country due to the influx of American soldiers -At this point he was still just a replacement and didn’t have a unit yet -He stayed in England during the Battle of the Bulge (December 16, 1944-January 25, 1945) -While in England he was just looking for ways to try and kill time -He would visit the village of Cubbington and some of the surrounding area -Never got to go into any of the larger cities like London though -The English civilians were welcoming -There was some resentment though towards American soldiers -Felt that they were “overpaid, oversexed, and over here” -He feels that it was an accurate statement -American servicemen were paid more, which made them more desirable -He spent Christmas 1944 on the base in England -He started to wonder if he would ever get to go to mainland Europe (00:21:09) Joining the 106th Infantry Division -In early 1945 he was sent over to mainland Europe to join a unit there -He crossed the English Channel on a barge and landed on the coast of France -He was placed on a train and went to the replacement depot near Nancy, France -He stayed there for a month waiting to be assigned to a unit -Assigned to D Company 1st Battalion 424th Infantry Regiment 106th Infantry Division -He was placed on a truck and taken to join the division -There was no major activity when he joined D Company -He remembers that there were truckloads of replacements -Units were being rebuilt after the losses from the Battle of the Bulge -There were a lot of battle hardened and older soldiers in his company �-He, and the other replacements, were treated well by the veteran soldiers -They tried to teach the replacements useful things -They stayed in their camp until the units were strong enough to move out (00:26:44) Advancing through Belgium -After they moved out they advanced through Belgium -There was still German resistance as they pushed through the country -He remembers the first time that he was shot at it was a sniper harassing their position -They traveled by truck and covered six to eight miles each day -At night they would set up temporary camps on the side of the road (00:28:37) Advancing into Germany -As they moved into Germany they started to see more evidence of the war -Dead livestock and spent ordnance -Surprisingly, towns and villages were mostly intact -As they passed through them German civilians just stayed out of the way -They never stopped in the towns to make camp -As they moved deeper into Germany they started to see more German prisoners of war -Some of the prisoners were either very old, or very young -The final push into Germany was fairly easy -By this point there was no fear of the Luftwaffe since the Allies controlled the skies -It was a rarity to see just one German fighter plane -When they did it would never attack them (00:31:20) End of the War in Europe -At the end of the war there were still pockets of German resistance -When the war ended he was as close to the frontlines as he had ever been during the war -He was in northern Germany on Victory in Europe Day (May 8, 1945) -After the war he didn’t see any Soviet troops, but he did see British troops -Most likely because they were in the British Occupation Zone -After the war they set up defensive positions to insure the Soviets didn’t try to advance further -They were camped out in the German countryside, living out of tents -After the war he saw more German civilians -The civilians were cooperative and willing to help American soldiers -He remembers buying hay off of a farmer to make a bed -They would regularly trade cigarettes and food with the German civilians -He stayed in northern Germany for about a month (00:35:52) Occupation of Germany Pt. 1 -He was moved into the southern part of Germany into the American Occupation Zone -They were set up on an old German army base -Stayed there for about one month -He remembers a man shooting himself in the hand, so that he could go home sooner -Last he heard the man was going to be court martialed -The occupation duty was good (00:38:05) Contact with Home -He stayed in contact with home by way of V-mail -A way of sending and receiving letters by using microfilm for faster transportation -He also received care packages from home -Remembers getting fruitcakes and other nonperishable treats �(00:38:38) Occupation of Germany Pt. 2 -No fraternization with German civilians was allowed -Men would still go out to meet with German women though -If they were caught they were brought back to base and imprisoned -He was still in Germany by the time Christmas 1945 came -He was no longer on the base, but was in a brick house that been abandoned -They were mostly just a force there, and they weren’t carrying out any specific duties at the time (00:40:40) Coming Home & Life after the War -He was sent home in August 1946 -A full year after the complete end of the war in August 1945 -He was sent to Camp Lucky Strike in northern France to be processed -He stayed there for about two (or three) weeks -He boarded a Liberty Ship bound for the United States -It took eight days to get home -The weather was good, so it was not a bad voyage -The ship arrived in New Jersey and he reported to Camp Kilmer to be discharged -After returning home he went to work for Portland Equipment Company -Worked there for three years -After that he worked for the State of Michigan as a prison guard at Ionia Prison -Worked there for thirty three years (00:44:02) Reflections on Service -It was a different way of life going into the Army -He learned from his experiences -Taught him to look after himself, because no one else will -He would do it again if he had to � 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_StrubleL1715V Title A name given to the resource Struble, Lambert (Interview outline and video), 2014 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2014-12-15 Description An account of the resource Lambert Struble is a World War II veteran who was born in Muir, Michigan in 1925. He grew up there and in 1943 he was drafted into the Army and was inducted at Camp Grant, Illinois. He received heavy weapons training at Camp Wolters, Texas and then later at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. In October 1944 he was sent over to Europe out of Camp Kilmer, New Jersey and was stationed in Covington, England during that winter. In early 1945 he was sent over to mainland Europe where he joined D Company 1st Battalion 424th Infantry Regiment of the 106th Infantry Division. He participated in the advance through Belgium, and then the final push into Germany. After the war he was part of the American occupying force in northern Germany, and then in southern Germany until August 1946 when he was sent home and was discharged out of Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Struble, Lambert 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 World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Language A language of the resource eng Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7258c2165eeee01621e626f3d0a27383.mp3 4e031a7574177cae344187f8a4995954 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 Richard A. Rhem Collection Description An account of the resource Text and sound recordings of the sermons, prayers, services, and articles of Richard Rhem, pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where he served for 37 years. Starting in the mid 1980's, Rhem began to question some of the traditional Christian dogma that he had been espousing from the pulpit. That questioning was a first step in a long and interesting spiritual journey, one that he openly shared with his congregation. His journey is important, in part because it is reflective of the questioning, the yearnings, and the gradual revision of beliefs that many persons in this part of the century have experienced and continue to experience. It is important also because of the affirming and inclusive way his questioning was done and his thinking evolved. His sermons and other written and spoken materials together document the steps in his journey as it took a turn in 1985, yet continued to revolve around the framework and liturgies of the Christian calendar. Subject The topic of the resource Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Religion Interfaith worship Sermons Sound Recordings Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rhem, Richard A. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a> 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 Kaufman Interfaith Institute Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Text Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context KII-01 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1981-2014 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 text/pdf Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Event Lent V Series The Will of God in Human Action Scripture Text Psalm 40:8, Matthew 26:43 Location The location of the interview Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI 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 KII-01_RA-0-19960324 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1996-03-24 Title A name given to the resource Struggling To Be True Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Richard A. Rhem Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University 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 Clergy--Michigan Reformed Church in America Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.) Sermons Relation A related resource Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/ Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 24, 1996 entitled "Struggling To Be True", as part of the series "The Will of God in Human Action", on the occasion of Lent V, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Psalm 40:8, Matthew 26:43. https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8297838939975ec40075330a33fe2f86.jpg d3914077ce5641aca2ca51485bf05eff 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 StrumGeorge Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Communications Title A name given to the resource Strum, George Description An account of the resource George Strum, Mathematics and Computer Science 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/eaa7fa4d20ae63d3d7bd0709ecdc5233.mp4 63b10382748c085f22efef9488bfbfbc https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/bfb05c56b1dd255e386fe86c5a590ef3.pdf 4c4fa70ebed4df3f89379b5f0484a0e3 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Name of War: Interviewee’s Name: Susan Strum Length of Interview: 1:04:25 Interviewed by: James Smither Transcribed by: Hokulani Buhlman Interviewer: This interview is a co-production of WKTV Voices, and Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project, and the Silversides Museum in Muskegon, Michigan and we are in fact on the campus of the Silversides Museum today conducting this interview. We’re talking today with Susan Strum of Muskegon, Michigan, so Sue, why don’t you start off with some background and to begin with: where and when were you born? Okay, I was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1951 to a Canadian father and my mother was a US citizen. She was at that point in her late 20’s and for those times was considered a spinster, so she and her mother were traveling by train around Canada visiting various relatives to see if anybody knew, you know, anybody who might be eligible. And my parents actually met at a tea leaf reading. He had taken his mother and her friends, and she had taken her mother and her cousin, and you know they’re both apparently “I’m only here because I brought them” and, you know, the rest is, as they say, history. They came back and forth, mom was, you know, a school teacher in Michigan and he was an engineering student working for the phone company in Edmonton, and after back and forth for a few years they ended up getting married in Muskegon. Moved back to Edmonton where mom said goodbye to all of her friends and her bridge club that she’d been in from high school, and off she went 2,000 miles away. Well, in 1953 we ended up moving to Owosso, Michigan with the phone company. Edmonton was, at that time, one of the largest cities in North America with the dial telephone system outside New York City, so everyone who was looking at putting in dial telephone systems was, you know, stealing people from New York and Edmonton to various places and with mom having family, especially elderly parents in Michigan, that was the best we could do and by 1955 we were in Muskegon, mom was back on her bridge club, I started first grade in North Muskegon elementary school and I graduated from there in 1969. Interviewer: Okay. Now, as you’re kinda going through high school things in this country are getting kinda interesting. �That puts it mildly! Interviewer: You’ve had a civil rights movement, you’ve got the counter-culture thing, you’ve got the war, a lot of this stuff and all the craziness in ‘68. How much of that were you paying attention to? (3:12) Paid a fair amount of attention to it, but it was not… didn’t really seem to affect us, North Muskegon had at that point and probably still does a reputation of to sending 99% of its students on to college, so, you know, we weren’t terribly—the guys weren’t terribly worried about the draft. We followed it, had a school teacher in 7th grade who, you know, to dismay of 97% of the class said we had to watch the nightly news and write reports on it, and my cousin and I are going, “We’re gonna get credit for what we do any how?” Our parents, we always watched the news so this was like, this is a bonus, so. You know, we were aware of it but, you know, it really—you know, North Muskegon to this day only has 3-4,00 people and it’s a mostly doctor/lawyer/indian chief zone. It was out there, we ready about it, we knew people who went. By that point we actually also knew someone who had died, so you know there was a gold star family in North Muskegon which, thankfully I believe is still one of the only gold star families. But, no, just really… we knew it was there, but… Interviewer: Yeah, and since you were a woman and not subject to the draft anyway. Right. Interviewer: It would make less of a difference. Okay, so what do you do after you finish high school? I enrolled in Muskegon Community College and discovered that I really didn’t have the… attention span needed to, [you know, pay attention.] I had more fun playing poker with some of the veterans and active in student government, I was the treasurer of student government the second year I was there, and so as a result my grades didn’t quite meet muster. The employment, you know, rate in Michigan was absolutely abysmal, there was very little opportunity and so I said, “I need to do something and right now college is not it.” So I started looking at the military, looked at all four branches, pretty well immediately crossed out the Army and Marine Corps as they only offered a two-year opportunity and with the two-year opportunity you get very little in the way of training. Interviewer: Okay, so they weren’t offering longer—cause if men enlisted they could enlist for longer hitches, but that wasn’t being offered to you? �I don’t know whether they, you know, the Marines and the Army basically were pretty much two-year, you know, active duty and then you probably—especially the men had, you know, others who were a six-year commitment, you know, because of the draft. But the Air Force and Navy… Navy required 3 years, Air Force four years but offered far more, you know, opportunity and I ended up, you know, joining the Navy, you know, because at three years but, you know, in a clear twist of fate I ended up extending to go to school and ended up spending just about four years in the Navy, so. You know, it really didn’t, you know, make that much of a difference in the long run. Interviewer: All right. Now at the point when you were enlisting, now what year was this? (6:36) 1971. Interviewer: Okay, and what was your citizenship status then? At that point I had dual-citizenship because my father being Canadian, having been a Canadian citizen, born in Canada. My mother a US citizen, so for years both countries recognized, you know, our citizenship either one depending on where we were and we just, you know, had friends and family in both places. We just went back and forth across the border, you know, and it wasn’t until my enlistment, you know, paperwork was fairly well underway and we were starting to discuss departure dates that the recruiter was brought up short with the realization that I needed to be a US citizen, but having been in this country since I was 3 it wasn’t any real big deal. Interviewer: But having dual citizenship, that wasn’t accepted? Was not acceptable for women. Men could join and use their time in service to become a citizen, but they said, “You’ve lived here 17 out of 20 years, you know, what are the chances of you going back to Canada?” which turned out to be somewhat ironic later on but because I’d been here as long it was a fairly simple process. I had ended up with a private meeting with a federal judge in Grand Rapids who swore me in and I was able to make the original, you know, deadline we had anticipated for enlistment. Interviewer: All right. So, where did you go then for your training? Everyone from, you know, Michigan is processed then and I assume now through Detroit, so, you know, they sent us over in buses to Detroit where we spent the night, we were sworn in the next morning, given our orders and sent weekly by plane to Washington, D.C. and then a Navy bus picked us up and took us to Brainbridge, Maryland. �Interviewer: All right. Now, as you’re going through this processing are men and women together? Or do they separate women out at some point? As soon as we got on the plane we were separate. Women’s training back then was completely separate from men, we saw men in the mess hall and during the church service on Sunday, we were not allowed to talk to them, they were not allowed to talk to us. We were told to consider men as trees and everyone knows how much in love with, you know, trees women are so, you know… Interviewer: Okay. So, back when you were processing in Detroit, for instance, or that kind of thing. We were all just, you know, lined up together and then they just, you know, parceled us out to the various, you know, places. You know, lot of the guys probably got back on buses and went to Great Lakes or, you know, potentially could have gone to Orlando which was very real for men at that point, I believe. Interviewer: Yeah. And then San Diego otherwise, probably. Yes, that’s right. Interviewer: But they’re farther west. Okay. But in your case, okay, Bainbridge, Maryland. Where in Maryland is that? (9:39) It is in the middle of nowhere. It is still apparently in the middle of nowhere. I’ve had by chance recently connected with a girl who actually was into a Facebook group for former WAVES, connected with a women who had actually been in my company and she has been back to Bainbridge in a couple of occasions, that she lives in the area and she says it’s still as nowhere as it was then. Interviewer: As a naval base is it actually on Chesapeake Bay somewhere, or is it inland? It doesn’t exist as the base anymore. It has not for many years. It was near Havre de Grace and someplace else, but you know, we were there we had no opportunity really to, you know, if we went someplace else they took us in a bus and it really didn’t matter cause we weren’t going on our own. Interviewer: Yeah, but that’s sort of the upper end of Chesapeake Bay and there’s not really that much there. �No, the closest city of any size is Lancaster, Pennsylvania where they took us during one of the weeks where, you know, to pick up new things that we needed still for our, you know, required uniform. You know, underwear, you know slips, etc. that we hadn’t brought with us or they just didn’t have, you know, available on base. Interviewer: Alright. Describe basically the training process itself: when you get there what happens to you? (11:03) Well, it was pretty strange because we apparently got there on Halloween. We got there late, everyone else had gone to bed, you know, luggage did not come with us it disappeared some place, arrived a week or so later so we wore the same clothes for a week. Never did wear that outfit again, and I had loved it so much before. But, you know, we’re just sitting on the stairs in the main barracks known as Hunter Hall while they sorted us out and figured where we were supposed to go since we were all assigned to, you know, the few of us that were there I don’t remember how many of us there were, were assigned to various companies and they gave us a sucker. Well, this is pretty strange, you know… well little did I know that was one of the last sweets I was going to see for several weeks. It ended up making a rather larger impression on me than I, you know, simple little lollipop with a little paper hoop in it would do in any other circumstance, but eventually got us sorted out and… the main barracks for women, as I said, was called Hunter Hall and it held, I believe, 8 companies of women. Since they were getting a—we didn’t know this but, you know, in highsight, you know, they were getting ready to transfer the women’s training to Orlando, which they did in July of 1972 and so knowing there would be some lag time they kind of multiplied the number of companies going through ahead of time and put two companies in a barracks that had not been used probably since World War II. It was indeed a World War II barracks that was two floors, it was condemned while we were living in it, when the company upstairs moved out we thought we might, you know, have won a lottery and got to use their bathrooms and laundry and we were told it wasn’t safe to go up there and if there was a fire to don’t worry about the exits, try and, you know, go out the windows. Just remember to go out the windows on the street side because it was built on a ravine and there was a two story drop on the other side. Fortunately we never had that, but you know, it was winter and it was a cold winter for Maryland and the furnace kept going out, the water heater kept going out and, you know, they issued you one blanket. It was a little gray wool blanket and it was your fire blanket you were supposed to use in case of fire, but it had to be folded just so. Well, when there’s no heat, you know, there was like do I unfold this thing? It’s not worth the hassle. Our company commander, to her credit, did try to get us additional blankets so we could keep that one in its pristine shape, but she was unsuccessful so we spent a great many nights sleeping in our winter, you know, what they called great coats which is a wool overcoat, over our pajamas just to try and, you know, curled up trying to stay warm. You know, while the people in Hunter �Hall had, you know, lots of, you know, hot water and, you know, heat and all kinds of things, so. We were special, we were tough. Interviewer: Alright. And we did get some special, you know, considerations because of it. Interviewer: So basically the group that you came in with, did you all get put into that new barracks or were you split up? (14:42) No, we all got split up. I’m not sure that there was anyone besides me, you know, that went into, you know, that company. Interviewer: So you were just lucky. Yes. Interviewer: Alright. Story of my life. Interviewer: So, what does the actual training consist of? Training at that time was mostly, you know, paperwork learning, you know, the various ranks, how to march. It wasn’t a whole lot of physical training because at that point most of the assignments available for women were office related with the exception of corpsmen or dental techs, although literally daily new positions were coming open. Interviewer: So they were starting to— We were learning about the various professions and a great deal of that was taken doing aptitude testing, you know, what we were capable of and then therefore what jobs we could be assigned, you know, once we, you know, graduated. Interviewer: Cause I guess this wasn’t when the—of course over the course of the 70s they open up a lot of opportunities for women in the military, so was this kind of the beginning end of that, when more things would be coming potentially available? Very much so. Very much so. When I, you know, I qualified for a number of, you know, categories that, you know, many women were not eligible for and some that were but did not �have any vacancies at that time. So they said, “You know, we’re just going to put you in the next most qualified,” you know, “Training opportunity there is, but keep an eye open we’re gonna note it in your file that when and if one of these other opportunities comes open, you know, we encourage you to apply for it. Cause chances are if there’s an opening you’ll get it. Especially because by that point you will have some prior service.” So I ended up as a result being trained as a dispersing clerk, I went to a training center in San Diego and trained there for… again, approximately 10 weeks. But at that point, you know, once we finished basic training, you know, men had ceased to become trees and they were back to being human beings again and we had classes with guys, we could talk to them on a regular basis, we could, you know, associate with them. Interviewer: Okay. I’m just gonna back up into the Bainbridge part of things for a little bit. Sure. Interviewer: What kind of women were in your company, what were their backgrounds or…? (17:12) We had everything from, cause you had to be 18, so we had, you know, women who were 18 on up to, you know, some were in their mid-20s and just from, you know, all various backgrounds. The girl who actually had the bunk below me was salvation army and she brought her bugle, and so once they found out about that the unit who was on night watch would come in about 5 minutes early and wake her up—though they always seemed to wake me up instead! It’s like, “No, lower bunk!” And she would get up and she would blow revelry. Well it gave me a little bit of—it, you know, gave those people in our little cubicle a bit of a heads up so we could, you know, hit the ground, you know, we were running. Interviewer: And when they do that was there a sort of set of things everybody sort of has to do XYZ within a certain number of minutes, so you had the advanced warning in waking up, that was helpful? Yes. Interviewer: Okay. All right, and what sort of people were training you? Oh, we had the old bus, it was all women, first class petty officers of various gradings. My company commander was the aviation store keeper, I don’t remember the others but they were always first, occasionally second class petty officer in training, but usually first class or chief petty officers and of course then the officers commanding, but again it was all female. �Interviewer: Okay. And how did they treat you? They treated us very well except for the food. The food was absolutely horrible and almost everybody got food poisoning and instead of worrying about gaining weight pretty much everybody lost weight, a lot of weight. Interviewer: So much for the reputation of the Navy having better food. Oh they had much better food other places, they just didn’t have it in Bainbridge. Interviewer: Alright, And so how long did you spend in Bainbridge? It was approximately 10 weeks. Interviewer: And then from there you went out to San Diego? Yes. Interviewer: Okay. And what did the training there consist of? (19:14) Training there consisted of primarily using—how to calculate payroll, how to use, you know, a calculator. Some of them they had electronic calculators, some of them were behemoth mechanical monsters that had probably been in use since war two. Some of us distinctly used our heads to figure it out until we got caught and said, “Oh, you have to use the machines.” So it was just kind of a repetition, this is what you do, you know, if they go on leave; this is how you process the, you know, various scenarios of pay, of leave time, sick time, if they get transferred this is what you have to do, etc. Interviewer: Okay. And how long did you spend training there? That was, again approximately I think it was, I said about 10 weeks. Interviewer: Okay. And were there men in these classes now? Yeah, oh yes. Yeah. The majority were men. Interviewer: And what kind of dynamic was there between the men and the women in a class like that? �Mostly, you know, helping and sharing. We’re all in this boat, we’re all in—pretty much for the most part—all need to do it. So it was just, if you help me I’ll help you because everybody had their own strengths and weaknesses and yeah, we were all in this together to get our company, you know, through to graduation. Interviewer: All right. And then did you get to go off base in San Diego? We did, mostly, you know, we did some exploring, you know, Balboa Park. You know, the beach. Biggest thing was there was Disney, you know, buses that would run up there, you know, especially on weekends and back then they had the old e-ticket type things. So you bought, you know, you got your entry sheet along with a whole bunch of coupons and, you know, what you didn’t use you brought back, you know, it’s kind of put in a pile and then so somebody else would come and they’d take this group of coupons with them, and they’d have to buy the entry in it but then, you know, you would just use and then you bring it back and just, you know, it went on until some poor sucker when they went to the general admission was stuck with a whole bunch of coupons that didn’t work, but uh… That was, you know, the big thing because, you know, we were from all over the country most of us had never been to California, you know. We’d come out, especially those of us coming out of Bainbridge where it was miserable cold and icy and, you know, being in the warmth in San Diego in February and it was really pretty wonderful. Interviewer: Alright. Now once you complete that course what do they do with you? Well, if you graduated they shipped you out. It seemed like everybody who graduated got transferred someplace else and those who failed got to stay in California. But nobody was willing to intentionally fail, and we were all mostly new to this stuff and just, you know, but ended up going from there to a station in Charleston, South Carolina. Which really was a wonderful place but, you know, it wasn’t San Diego by any stretch of the imagination and there were, you know, probably oh a half-dozen, dozen of us who all [were] from various training who met in San Diego all ended up in Charleston and we used to get together in the Enlisted Club, you know. I think we wore out the jukebox playing California Dreaming by the The Mamas & The Papas and we’d just sit there and play pool and, you know, sob that we weren’t still where it was nice and wonderful and warm, you know. Yes, we were still with someplace where it was gorgeous with plantations and, you know, wonderful things but, you know, it just, you know… for kids, most of us in our, you know, late teens and early twenties, you know, it just didn’t have the things that, you know, San Diego’s surf culture, you know, seemed to offer. Interviewer: Alright. So what was your actual job? (23:19) �My job there was handling payroll, I started out handling payrolls for submarines in the main office which actually was stationed off base. There was a fairly large facility and we had, as I said, submarines. Back then the submarine stations in Charleston were some of the early nuclear subs and they had what we call blue and gold crew; so you’d have a crew that was out at sea for 6 months, crew in training on land for 6 months, and then this, you know, the sub would come in, get refitted, the other crew would take off. And it did that for several months and then I got transferred, promoted, I’m not quite sure exactly what but to a small office on base where I handled payroll for minesweepers, and they pretty much stayed put the entire time. They thought they were pretty lucky and for the most part they were, although, you know, our office there was a one experimental cement minesweeper which was more just outside our office. Which meant we had very little daylight, you know, and the minute the sun went over, you know, noon it went behind this enormous cement thing and we were in the shade all the time and, you know, of course the Vietnam War is winding down. Things were looking up, we’ve managed to miss out on everything. Little did they know, little did we know, the orders came through to send all the east coast minesweepers to Haiphong Harbor to clean out the mines in North, you know, Vietnam. Interviewer: Yeah, it’s a part of the peace settlement or whatever. Yes. Interviewer: Yeah. And so their leisurely, you know, tours of duty came to a fairly abrupt end for reasons that, to this day and this happened in 1973, and I still don’t know why this many years later filling out the paperwork required somebody with a security clearance. I’m the only one in the office with the security clearance. I’m a naturalized citizen and the only girl in the office and I’m the only one with the security clearance, so I fill out all this paperwork. Well, the Navy, and I’m assuming the other branches had similar, had a five digit code, you know, that was attached to the name of whatever place you were going to be or, you know, if you were in transit there was a separate code for these. Well, there was no code for enemy territory, so that part of the paperwork all had to be left blank. So I fill the stuff out, well, to back up slightly: while I’m stationed down there the rating aerographer makes, which is weather observer forecasters, which they had originally hoped that I would be able to become, opened up. So, following orders from previous I applied for it and was accepted, you know, to even become an aerographer's mate. But it meant an automatic change from a seaman rating to an airman rating, but I still kept my rank as a dispersing clerk. So instead of being a DKSN I was a DKAN which does not exist, except on me. So, you know, we get all this paperwork done, Lieutenant Commander looks it over and everything’s fine, we send it off, sometime later I don’t remember exactly when the phone rings, he picks it up, next thing I know, “Susan, there’s an admiral so-and-so from Washington wanting �to talk to you.” And I’m like, “I don’t know any admiral so-as-do, I don’t know any admirals at all.” “Well he asked for you.” So I go up there, I’m literally standing at attention next to Lieutenant Commander’s office which is where the phone was and he, you know, this man who says he’s admiral we have no way of verifying is reading me out for this horrible job I had done at this paperwork and this fictitious, you know, signature and I’m going “What?” so I had explained to him that I was in the process of transferring between being a dispersing clerk and an aerographer’s mate and the change in rank had come through before the change in rating and I was told I would still wear my dispersing clerk emblems as a dispersing clerk until my orders were cut and I left Charleston to go for further training, at which time that I would just simply become an airman. He bought that, but then he’s still fussing about the paperwork and there’s no codes. I don’t know who this person is, you know, I’ve got a security clearance which I’m not about to divulge, my lieutenant commander is staring at me and so I’m trying to think of way to hint to this gentleman how he can come up with the answer himself, and I realized from being a fairly neurotic newspaper reader that the biggest thing in all the papers lately had been, you know, emptying Haiphong Harbor of mines and so, you know, I just finally, you know, “Do you happen to have today’s newspaper handy? Please humor me a minute, would you please look. Tell me what the headlines are?” Well the headlines were “The Removal of Mines from Haiphong Harbor” and the lightbulb went off, and he immediately became very apologetic, you know, and said that the paperwork was great and he wished me, you know, the best wishes on my future endeavors and hung up and I’m standing there shaking like a leaf. And my Lieutenant Commander looked at us like, “You look like you need a drink.” and I said, “I think I need two.” Interviewer: So basically, the other people in your office didn’t know what the assignment was going to be, or you didn’t know whether they knew it or not? (30:01) I don’t think they did. Interviewer: Okay. I’m not sure. Part of it was a—there’s somewhat of a—I was, you know, again I was the only girl in the office. We had, most of the rest of the office were Filipino, for some reason becoming a dispersing clerk was one of the easiest ratings for them to get into and for the most part they all seemed to excel at it. But there was still a bit of a language barrier and for reasons that I can only guess our first class petty officer, who I would have thought would have been… it was a black gentleman, who for whatever reason could not get a clearance. So that left me and Lieutenant Commander, and the Lieutenant Commander’s not gonna do the paperwork. Interviewer: But in the meantime I guess, did you have anybody else hearing you talk except the Lieutenant Commander? �Oh yes, no, the whole office could hear. Interviewer: Okay, so you couldn’t just blab these things in front of that audience. No, because, you know, plus I didn’t know him and this man says he’s an admiral but I don’t know that it isn’t somebody trying to test me to see whether I’m divulging this information or not. You know, so it was. Interviewer: Yeah, okay. And the initial stuff that he was fussing about, that was because you had listed your new creative rank? Yeah, I had signed it as a DKAN, you know, rather than a DKSN, you know, this part of the paperwork on where they would be going to was blank. Interviewer: Yeah. Okay. So it was just kind of a multitude of, you know, compounding errors. Interviewer: Now, did the minesweepers leave before you did? Oh yes, they left, yeah. They were leaving as I was processing their paperwork. Interviewer: Alright. And did the cement minesweeper go away? (31:58) It did! We actually, I managed to see a little bit of sunshine before I departed. Interviewer: Alright, now what… one of the things about Charleston, you know, you’re in the south and it’s now made it into the 70’s but there are aspects of segregation, discrimination that kind of last a long time. Did you notice any racial issues at all? No, not at all, again we basically associated with, you know, other people, you know, we worked with and the women’s barracks were actually right next to the Naval hospital. They had actually been women's officer quarters up until sometime, I don’t know where they, you know, I mentioned they probably ended up giving them an allowance to, you know, have housing off base so they then turned it over to enlisted and we only used, you know, a small portion of the building but, you know, it was for enlisted persons, you know, it was, you know, it was kind of heaven. You know, if you’ve gone from sharing with 70 women in basic training to, you know, 4 women while you’re in a school and now you’ve got a room to yourself that you share an adjoining bath with somebody if that room happens to be filled. There were a few of us, enough of us there, that most of us there had bathrooms and rooms completely to ourselves. �Interviewer: When do you go out into the community, I guess, is the question. I guess we usually went with the people we were with. We went, you know, there really wasn’t, you know, I mean the bases provided pretty much all the entertainment and everything you needed. Go off base was usually to go, you know, one of the fellas that I, you know, where we stayed at the time had a motorcycle and we’d go out and go off on a motorcycle ride but usually we rode with, you know, somebody else who was also in the Navy. We really didn’t have too many opportunities. Now my parents did come and visit me a number of times and we went out and explored, you know, Charleston and some of the plantations, but to be honest I didn’t see any overt signs of racism until I was working in a planning office in Lake County, Florida in 1995 where, sadly, my supervisor pointed out that if you looked you could still see where “Blacks Only” had been painted over on the water fountain, and that was just… you know, that was sad and sickening. To think that in that day and age someone could still be proud of it, and proud of the fact that we had a former, you know, imperial wizard in Lake County. Interviewer: Alright. So I’m gonna go back now to your training. So, how long then did you spend in Charleston? I spent about a year in total there. Interviewer: Okay. Alright, and now do you get your new rating and then you have to go to school for that? Yes. Absolutely. That school was in Lakehurst, New Jersey which is… you know, about halfway between Philadelphia and Atlantic City, a little further north than that. It’s where the Hindenburg crashed and the hanger, you know, that was used for the Hindenburg and other blimps is still, you know, was still there in the 80’s and I understand is still there. I’m assuming, and now it as a historic preservation designation to protect it, but it’s just unbelievable to picture the scale, you know, of the blimp until you see the hanger. Interviewer: Cause the blimp would fit inside it. (35:57) Yes! Most of it would fit in, the tail oftentimes didn’t, but when my dad found out I was going to Lakers he was just, he was so excited. He had a recording of various events in history and, you know, he dug it out and he played a copy of the recording of the gentleman who was covering the landing, it was the first landing of the season and, you know, the classic “Oh, the humanity!” and just to see it for real… I mean today it still sends chills up my spine. I got to know one of the base photographers and I have four copies of original, you know, photographs of the Hindenburg while it was crashing. They said, “You can take anything you want as long as you don’t take the �last one or the negative.” Those have been proudly hung in pretty much every apartment I’ve had and are, you know, it’s horrible but it’s exciting and it’s history. And I could say I’ve actually been there, I’ve been in the hanger, I’ve been in the back of the hanger and stayed in the back of the hanger. While I was there they had a big airshow with the Blue Angels and the Blue Angels were doing some practice runs, and one of them crashed and the pilot was killed, and one of the women from our barracks who was permanently stationed there happened to be on duty that day and had to go out and take the pictures of the, you know, of the scene and she was naturally, extremely shook up and so we took turns literally staying with her 24 hours cause she did, you know, she says, “If I go to sleep I see it again.” And so when they, you know, encouraged us students to help out with this thing and we’re all going, “We’ll help but we’re going to be in the back, we don’t want to see, you know, we don’t want to risk seeing another plane crash.” You know, they didn’t have any plane crashes but, you know. You see four go over and three come back and your gut tells you, you know, something’s wrong and then the alarms start going off and, you know, so… Interviewer: Okay. So what else goes on, what action was going on at base besides training people for your job? There was, it was actually a, you know, there was, you know, a station there. We weren’t the only people being trained there, I don’t remember what the other training was but there was an actual duty station. It, Lakehurst, abuts, is it McCoy—it’s a big Air Force base just, you know, adjacent to it and I want to say there’s an army facility there too and so they did all kinds of, you know, joint maneuvers and when I went back up in the late 80’s, mid 80’s, to Philadelphia for graduate school, I took time and drove out there and at that time, and from what I’ve heard from other people, the base is now and has been for many years a top-secret facility and… you know, there’s basically a place where you can turn around at the gate and, you know, if they’re not busy they’ll talk to you and, you know, yeah I was stationed here once upon a time and all those buildings are long gone but, you know, the hanger is still there and you can see it from the road but beyond that, you know. They have super top-secret clearance well beyond anything I ever, you know, had. Interviewer: Alright. So what did the school consist of? (40:03) School consists of teaching you various cloud-types, precipitation types, everything from rain to snow to sleet to hail to hurricanes to, you know, tsunamis. Various weather patterns, you know, what various winds mean, how to plot them on a map and then how to make sense of it what you’ve got the information on a map, you know, and just every hour observations are required to throughout the entire, you know, not only the Naval system but the entire meteorological, you know, world and back then, once you did it you took your observation, you put it in your log book, put it on your maps and then someone else usually had to be—you’d take turns to do it, �there’s always at least two people in the office, print it up on a teletype machine, you know, one finger at a time or so and send it out so that everybody else knew what you had so they could add it to theirs and that was how we developed, you know, an idea whether fronts were coming through, we had some very very basic satellite images that, you know, sometimes you can see something and you know sometimes the satellite was just not gonna cooperate and you had nothing. Interviewer: Yeah, I guess there was a nationwide radar system by that? Or? Very little for weather purposes, it was still, you know. Interviewer: It was still early enough in the 70’s it's not as common as it would become later on. No, you know, and the satellites were not nearly as, you know, efficient as a main, you know, now they can, you know, they can pick out the license plate on your trailer and, you know, if you’re staying out there what brand cigarette you’re smoking. You know, we would be lucky to say, you know, “Is that a cloud or is that a ship?” You know, or is that just a blip in the satellite download? And sometimes you literally, you know, had to guess and go back and look at the previous reports because they only came in like every 6 hours, and well based on that it’s still in the same place it probably wasn’t a cloud it really was a ship. Or, you know, a sandbar or, you know, who knows a whole island. You just kind of got seen by, you know, guess and by God will you figure it out, you know, what was what, you know, and to think that, you know, we would spend hours doing this stuff which today they, you know, it all comes in to computers and prints out and you know, five minutes everything that we spent a couple of days doing. Interviewer: Did you have computers at all? (42:57) No. Interviewer: Not there yet? No. Interviewer: So what year is this now? This is ‘73 through ‘75. Interviewer: Alright and… and you were living on the base at that point? �Oh yeah. Interviewer: Okay and could you get off the base or do anything else? You could get off, in Lakers we could get off the base and go to various places when you weren’t studying but, you know, it was a fairly, you know, it was a far more intensive, you know, training program then to become a dispersing clerk so, you know, a lot more time was spent studying. Cause there was, you know, there was a lot more material. Interviewer: You had to memorize a lot. Yeah. Yes. Interviewer: Okay. Alright, and that’s still the school so once the school finishes where do you go? (43:46) Well, you know, as with any other school the postings come open as to what has become available. Well, turns out hurricane hunters had an opening. It required someone with prior service time, two of us qualified: he had been in the Navy 28 days longer than I have. He got first pick. I mean it’s every weather guesser’s dream to be in the hurricane hunters, at least, you know, we thought. So he picked it. Second choice was between Adak, Alaska or Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. I chose Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. Before my orders were cut he had bailed on the hurricane hunters, he decided that was not for him, they tried to get my orders recut and, you know, it didn’t work so somebody a couple classes after us, you know, potentially got lucky, I never did, you know, did hear. But Roosevelt Roads being warm was definitely more interesting than the land of horizontal snow. Interviewer: Okay. So what was at Roosevelt Roads? Roosevelt Roads was the largest, area wise, base the Navy has ever had. Most of it was underwater at high tide and barely above water at low tide; air field was miles from anything else. I was only the 12th woman ever assigned to the base and the first woman in the weather office, so, you know. But it was, you know, it was a city unto its own, which was, you know, rather fortunate because at that point we weren’t paying a whole lot of attention to Vietnam because we were more concerned with the political problem in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico had probably 20, 30 political parties all of which were warring with each other to the point of bombing and shooting, you know, there were a great number of times where we were restricted to base because of the danger and there were a couple of times the powerlines to the base got cut. We were re-established very quickly but, you know, you couldn’t go too far. Fortunately there was a really good Puerto Rican restaurant literally at one of the gates, and so, you know, if you �couldn’t go anywhere else you could go there. Oh my God, they had the best rice and beans. You know, I’ve only managed to make it like that a couple of times but, yeah. So, you know, if we went we went as a group, usually, you know, a couple of times the weather office, you know, anybody who wasn’t working and the Lieutenant Commander in charge, you know, got a van and we went out and explored El Yunque, the rainforest which was right near the base and then we, you know, took a trip inland—Arecibo, which is where the big radio telescope is, and I did end up seeing the other end around where Air Force had had a base on a visit with a group of SEAL team who were visiting from Norfolk but it was pretty strange, especially the rainforest, you know, they had been trying to repopulate it with birds but the poverty was such that the people were killing the birds for food even though, you know, the brightly colored birds really have very little meat on them and, you know, their value is in their looks. But you go into a rainforest and you’d expect to hear, you know, birds chirping and, you know, all you’d hear, you know, were the little coquís, the little frogs, you know, like this, you know, and almost nothing else. It was almost spooky. Interviewer: Alright, and were there any kind of distinctive events that took place while you were there or things that disrupted the routine other than worries about the Puerto Rican violence? I think I disrupted the routine more than anything else. Once again, I get down there and every time you take an observation you log it in the book and you’re supposed to initial it with your first and last initials, which in my case would have been SS for Susan Strum. Those initials were already taken, so then we look at “Well, what about your middle initial, last name? To be MS?” already taken. This is an office that’s only got, like, less than 20 people in it! So, “Okay, what about first name, middle initial? SM?” It’s taken. I don’t know what I’m supposed to—they had to get special permission from someplace else for me to use 3 initials and to this day I sign everything with SMS, you know, it just became ingrained in me during my time there. “Why do you use 3 initials?” I can’t do it any other way. But it was interesting being the first woman in the office with some adjusting, but, you know, everybody was really helpful and we all, you know, you kind of worked as teams and, you know, especially if you worked 11 hour days and 13 hour nights so you kind of take turns literally, you know, curling up under the drafting board, you know, one of you would stay awake the other would take a nap, you know. Couple hours later, you know, you’d switch. Only, you know, problem that came with this is in somebody’s infinite wisdom the weather office was located on the parking lot side away from the air field. We had to go out and, you know, we were responsible for maintaining reports on the weather on the air field. Well we couldn’t see it! We either had to, you know, wait for our equipment which was out in the air field to start, you know, if it was raining, you know, we had measured, you know, we had equipment that would measure it and it would—we did have computers, it would come in and measure into the computer and we would read off the measurements, you know, etc. but they were, you know, giant ENIAC type things and, you know, all they did was tell you what �happened but nothing beyond that. You had to figure out what the numbers meant or, you know, the air traffic controllers who fortunately did have a view of the air field, you know, would say, “Hey guys, it’s raining out here, you wanna come take an observation?” and then depending on what the situation was, especially, you know, because the land was so flat you get a lot of, you know, it didn’t take oftentimes much rain to cause major flooding and there were several instances while we were there of people trying to, you know, do what they tell you to this day: if you see running water across the road, don’t try and cross it. Well, somebody was all “I gotta get back to the base” or “I’m meeting somebody” and get washed away and drowned. So, you know, we could send out our reports to the other weather stations through the teletype in the office, stay nice and dry. Unfortunately for flood warnings and things like that had to go to the communications center, which it was about the opposite end of the base. On my shift I was the only one with a military driver's license, the guys had all managed to lose theirs. One of them by passing the base commandant’s car, I mean… guys, its got flags on it! He’s got an escort, what were you thinking, we’re lucky he was able to stay in the Navy without losing any rating! So that was always real fun because the only time that you had to do it was if the weather was really nasty, and so you’re going to the, you know, you’re doing, you know, water’s over the road? Doesn’t matter you gotta get to the comms center, you know, and then you gotta get back. Interviewer: Now were you driving Jeeps or regular cars or pickup trucks? (52:19) Pickup truck. Interviewer: Okay. You know… stick, on the column. Interviewer: And did you ever drive through running water? Oh absolutely. And over land crabs—they had these huge crabs that I don’t think were edible, I never knew of it, but they were, I swear to God, the size of plates and, you know, the rain would wash them up and you’d just hear them cracking under the wheel and there were times I’d come back to the office and I would just be, you know, I’m sobbing because I’ve killed so many of these crabs and of course by the next day the rain has washed them all away or somebody has eaten them, you know, and the road’s clear again and I’m like, “But it’s gonna happen again! I don’t wanna do this, can’t somebody get another driver’s license!” Interviewer: Alright. Now thinking about the time you spent in Puerto Rico are there other aspects of that experience that stand out for you? �It was fairly calm for the tropics. We had no hurricanes while I was there, we had, you know, some winds but fortunately for me I decided when my time to get out came I had, you know, saved up a 30 days leave and I chose to, you know, you could either, you know, stay to your end and cash it out, you know, or you could use it or a portion thereof. Well, I chose to use it and, you know, came back to Muskegon and enrolled in community college and got all set for, you know, I could star the Fall semester which had I stayed there for the 30 days the semester would have already started and it would have, you know, I could have tried to play catch up but, you know, just didn’t feel like that would be a real good idea so I got everything done here and then went and spent about a week and a half at Great Lakes in a transitional barracks while they processed my paperwork, came back and jumped into classes at MCC and… got going. Well in the meantime, during those 30 days a hurricane developed and there were 2 or 3 guys who were supposed to be getting out at the same time I did and they all got their time in service extended for a good 6 months and experienced a hurricane. Because we were on the far, you know, eastern edge so we got the first full brunt of anything coming through the tropics and… Interviewer: So if you had stayed there… It’s an experience that I really, you know… Interviewer: Were they extended because it was just a lot of work to be done to repair the base? Yeah because the weather office, you know, we still had to do something. I ended up, you know, spending about 30 years in Florida so I ended up with enough experience in the tropical storms and close to hurricanes that, you know, made up for missing one in Puerto Rico. Interviewer: Now had your plan always been to just do one enlistment and then leave? (55:25) I really wasn’t sure, you know, my original plan had been to do the three year but then in order to get the additional training I had to add an additional not quite a full year, but it was close to it, so I actually ended up spending close to 4 years, you know, which made the Navy and Air Force practically identical in the end run, but I decided finally at the end that since they said, you know, “Sign the paperwork then we’ll talk.” I think I’m like, “Eh, I’d really rather like to talk first.” But in the end I said that it’s not what I’m going to do, I’m gonna get out and use the GI bill to go back and I think I know what I want to do and I think this may be an area that I’m really interested in so, you know, I came back to community college because living at home didn’t, you know, JC didn’t cost that much so I used very little of my money. Then after I got my Associates degree and went back up to Edmonton where I was originally from to the University of Alberta, which is the university my father had gone to, thinking I was going to major in �meteorology cause they—it was between them and Michigan State and having been gone for 4 years Michigan State was just a little too close, you know. Mom and Dad would want me home every weekend or they would be showing up to school every weekend and then I just, you know, I was not ready for that. I had moved on, so, you know, 2000 miles worked out. As it turns out, you know, I decided it really wasn’t, I enjoyed the social sciences more than the others so I switched to Social Geography, ended up with a degree in Urban Geography with a minor in Sociology and then came back to Muskegon where the employment was a little bit better but not a whole lot. So I spent some time working for my father and his engineering office and he designed electrical-mechanical for buildings and was also very active in the initial renovation and restoration of the Hackney and Hume houses here in Muskegon, so, you know, any time anybody was home we got hauled in on that, you know. As a separate thing and then I got hired by Muskegon county in their planning department, but after just about 2 years they decided to eliminate the department and so basically said, “Use our resources to find yourselves other jobs.” and they had one fellow who they transferred to working for the bus garage as a planner and the other two of us were just kind of left to our own devices to find things and I decided at that point it was a good time to get a graduate degree, so I ended up going to the University of Pennsylvania in City and Regional Planning and while I was there I was offered a job by the city of Orlando as a planner and I took that job and then spent pretty much the next 30 years working in Florida. Initially, you know, doing a little bit of everything: housing, law enforcement, fire planning, some environmental and then ended up specializing in affordable housing, working with first time home buyers and non-profits that provided housing for disabled and very low income households and that was real rewarding. Interviewer: Yeah and I guess how much building goes on in Florida, there as populated as everything else and it’s probably a lot of business there. Yes, yes, yes. And the program I worked for actually was a grant program, but it was funded through the sales of property. A certain portion of the taxes went into a trust fund which worked really well for awhile until the governor discovered, you know, and several governors discovered that they were allowed to scoop some of the money out to balance their budgets and the money became less and less and fortunately—or unfortunately that kind of tied in with my retirement date and considering that my supervisor also did historic preservation, which I had some knowledge of but was not, you know, the expert she was so I couldn’t take her position and the other person in the office made about half of what I did and plus I was the only one at retirement age, so it just worked out, you know, provincially that the money ran out, my time, you know, was, you know, clicking as well. I retired in 2012, moved back to Muskegon, 2013 became a volunteer here at the Silversides and the rest is history. Interviewer: Now, back at the time that you spent in the Navy, how would you characterize the climate for women at that time? (1:00:26) �Most of the time it was very good, there were a couple instances where individuals themselves, you know, caused problems but overall the Navy was really pretty receptive, at least where I was. We did have one incident or a senior chief petty officer at Lakehurst who was stationed there for some other reason, had nothing to do with our school, but he insisted on coming to the graduation parties and he outranked pretty much everybody in the program and the officers had told him to stay away and what are you gonna do? And he would go, you know, fondle these poor—and these kids, you know, I don’t know they’re 18, 19 years old they’re terrified of this guy cause they should be, and, you know, our instructors and everything just kind of, you know, when it gets time for our class to have the parties, you know, I’ve heard about this guy, I’m watching and I’m trying to keep him away from some of the younger ones but hey, well, he grabbed me and I bit him. I bit his arm, and I bit him hard, I drew blood. Interviewer: I take it that actually worked? It did. I got congratulations for months after that when people found where I was because he never came back, he had to go to the, you know, to the base hospital cause I had broken the skin and he had to explain to them what had happened and I had, you know, lots of witnesses and he never bothered, you know, the AD school again. You know, I mean I was sorry it came to that, you know, but I’m glad I, you know, was in a position to do something however distasteful it was. Cause talking to this guy didn’t work but other than that everybody I worked with, you know, for the most part was—I mean there was always some hesitancy first, when you’re the first woman in the office, you know, “What’s she gonna be like?” But, you know, hey I went to the same school and, you know, learned the same things you guys did, knew the same training and had the same opportunity. Interviewer: And I guess the working environments that you worked at were ones where usually that many people make a small group, like some of these meteorological things, or even with the disbursement thing here in the office where the Lieutenant Commander’s right there, and the Filipinos were they female, male? (1:03:11) Male. I was the only female in that office, there were other females stationed in the main office but I was the only one in the sub-office. Interviewer: But in those places you might well not have had a subculture that was conducive to harassment or anything like that. No. Interviewer: Cause it pops up periodically and it happens in service. �Oh absolutely, yeah I mean, I have heard horror stories. Fortunately nothing other than that one instance which I just relayed to you, you know, was affected by it, thankfully. Interviewer: Alright. I mean, to look back on it now, what do you think you took out of your time in the Navy or what did you learn from it? I mean it was a great experience. I learned patience, you know, I learned to focus. When I went back to MCC I teased, you know, there were a lot of the same professors and staff there and I went from, you know, the Dean’s uh-uh list to the Dean’s mmhm list, you know? And he recognized it and, you know, it was encouraging. Interviewer: Alright. Well the whole thing makes for a good story so thank you for coming and sharing it today. � 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 StrumS2310V Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Strum, Susan Margaret Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-06 Title A name given to the resource Strum, Susan (Interview transcript and video), 2019 Description An account of the resource Susan Strum was born in Alberta, Canada, in 1951 and grew up in Michigan after her father’s work moved to the United States. Her father was a Canadian citizen working for a telephone company in Edmonton and her mother was a schoolteacher in Michigan. After graduating high school in 1969, Strum enrolled into Muskegon Community College, but the poor job market deterred her from completing her degree and she began looking into the military as a viable alternative. She enlisted into the Navy in 1971 once she earned her full American citizenship. For Basic Training, Strum was sent to Bainbridge, Maryland, where she described the induction process as oddly organized. She was trained as a Dispersing Clerk and was transferred to a Naval Training Center in San Diego, California, for another ten weeks of training on how to calculate payrolls and use calculators while in sexually integrated courses. From there, she was stationed in Charleston, South Carolina, for a year where she handled payrolls for several Navy detachments on the base. Strum later began training in recognizing precipitation types, meteorology, and weather patterns in Lakehurst, New Jersey, from 1973-75. After graduation, she was transferred to a Naval base at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, where she was assigned to the base’s Weather Office. While at Roosevelt Roads, Strum was more concerned with the unstable, violent political situation in Puerto Rico than with the ongoing war in Vietnam. She was also the first woman assigned to the Weather Office at Roosevelt Roads. From there, Strum decided to leave the Navy since she had accrued enough service points, was discharged, and returned to Muskegon, Michigan, where she re-enrolled into Muskegon Community College. She graduated with a degree in urban geography and a minor in sociology and went on to study regional planning at the University of Pennsylvania for her graduate degree. Strum was then hired by the city of Orlando as a regional planner and proceeded to spend the next thirty years of her career in Florida before retiring in 2012. She then moved back to Muskegon and began volunteering at the USS Silversides Museum. Reflecting upon her service, Strum believed the climate for women in the military was, for the most part, good despite some isolated instances of gender conflict. She ultimately believed her time in the Navy was a great experience which taught her the values of patience, focus, and discipline. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) WKTV (Wyoming, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States—History, Military Veterans Video recordings Korean War, 1950-1953—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 video/mp4 application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a40ab1b87300802660ec1abd525cba1a.jpg 62d2305669edf0a70df6a1bc7afbd97f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 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-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection 1970s Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">University photographs, GV012-01</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01_UAPhotos_001098 Title A name given to the resource Student Description An account of the resource Student. Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges Students Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</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 black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4dac431106ffecb0c84d373d8e14503e.jpg 951b7e1df87bcef5f3c0b12378844e79 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 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-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection 1970s Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">University photographs, GV012-01</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01_UAPhotos_001100 Title A name given to the resource Student Description An account of the resource Student. Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges Students Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</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 black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/53272096202f2bb750beb3edf2d01e2b.jpg 21474c437bc23b1fd7f3c107d0ce1f3c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 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-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection 1970s Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">University photographs, GV012-01</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01_UAPhotos_001102 Title A name given to the resource Student Description An account of the resource Student. Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges Students Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</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 black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ecffecc26a99ac293237a1a84174ddae.jpg dab65afda073c15df4cc55a39e4a040e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 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-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection 1960s Source <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">University photographs, GV012-01</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01_UAPhotos_000073 Title A name given to the resource Student [Patricia Mose?] from the first graduating class Description An account of the resource Female student, possibly Patricia Mose, in cap and gown holding program from the first at commencement in June 1967. Participants and tent are seen in the background. Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges Events Graduation ceremonies Students Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1967 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/95822fa9aba00e2ed7d590d9543eed8f.jpg 342257563f2e34b81472fc65ec869bc9 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 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-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection WGVC-TV 1970s 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/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 Title A name given to the resource Student and staff at station WGVC-TV Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01_UAPhotos_001543 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Description An account of the resource Staff and student working the control panel at station WGVC-TV. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges University television stations Students Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In copyright - Non-commercial use permitted.</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e9bd9a3a4b12ee0ed4c771790ee680a5.jpg bfc2cce7fb0197a7741ed28b3db57581 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 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-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection Commencement 1960s 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/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968 Title A name given to the resource Student at podium during Commencement Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01_UAPhotos_001496 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Description An account of the resource Student receiving diploma at podium during commencement ceremony. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges Events Students Graduation ceremonies Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In copyright - Non-commercial use permitted.</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7a20fb251920f4713510ccd1b33f0724.jpg 54aabd56c2c01d7d3b0a2f47c6cd6fd5 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 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-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection WGVC-TV 1980s 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/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1980 Title A name given to the resource Student at station WGVC-TV Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01_UAPhotos_001535 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Description An account of the resource Female student working at station WGVC-TV with monitors and control panel in the background. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges University television stations Students Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In copyright - Non-commercial use permitted.</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/635b151a208a67bab548d85701df7eb4.jpg a0be6827866b33ce53ef3d25449e3d2c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 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-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection WSRX radio station 1980s 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/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987 Title A name given to the resource Student at WSRX radio station Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01_UAPhotos_001549 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Description An account of the resource Student DJ speaking into microphone at WSRX radio station. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges University radio stations Students Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In copyright - Non-commercial use permitted.</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cac31e165dff2d5bed54f201aeac9395.jpg c32d51ee8367f6b2f083b49ccf157f5a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 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-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection WSRX radio station 1980s 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/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987 Title A name given to the resource Student at WSRX radio station Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01_UAPhotos_001557 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Description An account of the resource Student working the record player controls at WSRX radio station. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges University radio stations Students Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In copyright - Non-commercial use permitted.</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/13a8b6f83dcc02bb9c114c949c63570b.jpg 0bec1552212a8f9f6d70096a4f03c67a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 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-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection WSRX radio station 1980s 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/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1987 Title A name given to the resource Student at WSRX radio station Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01_UAPhotos_001558 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Description An account of the resource Student working the control panel at WSRX radio station. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges University radio stations Students Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In copyright - Non-commercial use permitted.</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/64c305502a3b89d14d1a6f0d8722a4e6.jpg f50748560b6d80cdb2633b0358c92e4d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grand Valley State University Photographs Subject The topic of the resource Aerial photographs Universities and colleges Michigan Grand Rapids (Mich.) Allendale (Mich.) Building Facilities Dormitories Students Events 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Description An account of the resource People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource News & Information Services. University Communications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-03-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01 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-2000s 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. Local Subject Subject headings specific to a particular image collection WGVC-TV 1970s 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/. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1974 Title A name given to the resource Student Barry Keefe at WGVC-TV Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context GV012-01_UAPhotos_001534 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/41">News &amp; Information Services. University Photographs. (GV012-01)</a> Description An account of the resource Student Barry Keefe, WJC intern, operating a camera at WGVC-TV. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpeg Language A language of the resource eng Subject The topic of the resource Grand Valley State University Michigan Allendale (Mich.) Universities and colleges University television stations Students Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-NC/1.0/?language=en">In copyright - Non-commercial use permitted.</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives black and white photo