95
24
26018
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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
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Faces of Grand Valley
Creator
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Grand Valley State University
Contributor
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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
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GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files
Rights
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In Copryight
Subject
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Grand Valley State University
College administrators
College teachers
Colleges and universities -- Faculty
Michigan
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Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives
Identifier
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GV012-03
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image/jpeg
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Image
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eng
Still Image
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Identifier
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BradfieldWillard
Creator
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Grand Valley State University. University Communications
Title
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Bradfield, Willard
Description
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Willard Bradfield, Psychology
Subject
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Grand Valley State University – History
College teachers
Universities and colleges – Faculty
Michigan
Source
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University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03)
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives
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In Copyright
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Image
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image/jpeg
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eng
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3f8ce963738c07d4630b02653b3ed84c.mp4
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PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
Name of War: World War II
Interviewee name: Gerald Bradley
Length of Interview: (00:42:47)
(00:15) Pre-Enlistment
Childhood
o Gerald was born in Madison, Michigan on April 22, 1922.
Family
o His father had an 80 acre farm and later worked for a machine company during
the war.
Education
o Gerald went to Sunnyside elementary school through 8th grade.
o He then went to high school in Hudson where he played basketball and football.
o Gerald graduated from high school in 1938 and began working on the family
farm, as well as the machine factory with his father.
(13:06) Pearl Harbor Attacked
o Gerald had been with his girlfriend and her family when Pearl Harbor was
attacked.
o They heard the news on her father’s car radio; at the time most cars did not have
radios in them.
o Gerald had been shaken up and went straight home to see his family.
o His family was worried that he would soon be drafted.
(14:30) Enlistment and Training
Background
o Gerald had attempted to enlist in the Navy and Coast Guard many different times,
but they had told him they could not take him because of his bad eyesight.
o He was later invited to a town meeting by the Draft Board; at the meeting officers
from all branches were telling him that he was the type of man they needed.
o Gerald chose to enlist in the Army and ignored the other services that turned him
down.
(16:50) Training 1943
o Gerald was sent on a train to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri for training.
o They often had night training exercises in the woods and were not able to catch up
on sleep the next day.
o They only trained for about a month before being sent across the Pacific.
(20:20) Active Duty
(20:25) Australia
o Gerald boarded a converted passenger ship and was assigned to the bottom deck.
�o His bunk was right next to a large area that had been filled with concrete because
it had been hit earlier in a torpedo attack.
o They landed in the Northern part of Australia and the ship had got stuck in a sand
bar.
o Australian tug boats had to help get them out of the sand bar.
o Gerald had been part of the 495th Engineer Battalion.
o They traveled from Townsville to Brisbane, where they stayed for months
working on stacking lumber.
(25:50) New Guinea
o Gerald set up shop with other engineers where they worked on cars, tractors, etc...
o They often had to build new gears for tractors because the old ones often failed.
o Gerald worked about 30 hours a week and the tractors that took up most of his
time were eventually discontinued.
o He had never actually been in a combat zone, but could always hear firing in the
distance.
o They were issued weapons, but not given any ammunition and their officer only
had one round.
o Gerald worked on the island for one year, watching many planes and battles
overhead.
(34:05) After the Service
Going Home
o After hearing the news that bombed had been dropped over Japan, Gerald and
many others celebrated and drank for a week.
o He arrived back in the US on Christmas Eve in 1945 and landed in San Diego.
o Gerald took a train to Chicago where he was discharged.
Life later on
o He then began working at Hillsdale Steel making auxiliary transmissions for
trucks.
o Gerald got married on April 20, 1946 and had two children.
o He is now living at the Grand Rapids Veterans Home.
�
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
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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
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<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
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
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Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
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RHC-27
Language
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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/.
Title
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Bradley, Gerald G. (Interview outline and video), 2008
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Bradley, Gerald G.
Description
An account of the resource
Gerald Bradley was born in Madison, Michigan on April 22, 1922. He graduated from high school in 1938 and attempted to enlist in the Navy and Coast Guard. Gerald was rejected due to his eyesight, but eventually enlisted in the Army in 1943. After training Gerald traveled with the 495th Engineer Battalion to Brisbane, Australia. They remained in Australia for months working before finally being transferred to New Guinea. In New Guinea Gerald worked for about a year repairing tractors and other machinery.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Collins Sr., Charles E. (Interviewer)
Collins, Carol (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. Coast Guard
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
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Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
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2008-09-08
Identifier
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BradleyG
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
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application/pdf
video/mp4
Publisher
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
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PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
Vietnam
Bruce Brady
Total Time (01:15:00)
Background
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He was born October 17, 1949 in Welch, West Virginia (00:20)
His family moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina when he was seven years
old (00:30)
o His father was a coal miner and the mines had shut down in West Virginia
His father then became a barber (00:39)
There were four boys in the family and he was the third (00:58)
He finished high school in Kernersville, North Carolina (01:03)
o He graduated in 1967
He was very aware of Vietnam and the draft
o His older brother had been drafted and signed up for an extra year (01:25)
He worked in supply
When he finished high school, he worked part-time jobs and tried to go to school
at night (01:55)
Enlistment/Training – (02:06)
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He was drafted October 6, 1969 (02:12)
He was sent to Charlotte, North Carolina for his physical examination (02:32)
o There were nineteen in his group
o He was aware of men attempting to fail their physical
They were then bused to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and arrived at 01:00 A.M.
(03:21)
o When they arrived it was extremely loud
o It quickly went from civilian life to military life
When he got to Fort Bragg, they began with processing and testing (04:05)
o He was offered helicopter school
o His mindset was that he would take what they would give him (04:34)
His group was immediately stationed to a bunk where they received two or three
hours of sleep (04:50)
Once the processing was done, basic training was a lot of class time, physical
training, weapon training, and other busy activities
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o He was in good shape when he entered (05:27)
The discipline was not hard to get used to because he was a quiet individual
(05:45)
There were other men there that were having a much harder time
o Some of the men had a hard time with the physical part and others that
could not keep up with the mental aspects (06:07)
There were some men from Puerto Rico that had been drafted
• They were straight from Puerto Rico, rather than Puerto
Ricans from New York or elsewhere (06:39)
The majority of the men were from the Northeast and the South
There were very few black men (07:27)
His drill sergeant was an E-6
o He was an extremely fair sergeant
o He was an excellent teacher
When he grew up he did some hunting and trapping which helped him in basic
training (08:19)
o He was using the right techniques
His sergeant had been in Vietnam but did not say much about it (08:41)
He was sent to Fort McClellan, Alabama for Advanced Individual Training (AIT)
(09:24)
Fort McClellan was in much worse condition than Fort Bragg had been
In AIT, there was little class work and the physical training was much more
difficult (10:13)
o Every Saturday they did a 20 mile forced march, during the week they
would do escape and evasion, river crossings, helicopter training, etc.
(10:23)
During escape and evasion they would have men actually looking
for them
His instructors were men that had been to Vietnam (10:55)
o One of them had been shot in Vietnam and received a wound in the neck
His picture was on the cover of LIFE magazine in February of
1966 (11:17)
All of the training was geared for Vietnam
The training in the mountains helped him physically but the other training was
completely different from the reality of Vietnam
They trained on all small arm weapons, M-16, M-14, M-60, M-79, .50 caliber
machine gun, and many others (12:47)
The forest where he trained was dense (13:45)
o There were areas that were swampy as well
Some of the men would fall through the ice in the swamps during
training
o He was never caught in escape and evasion during his training (14:40)
The AIT was from December until April (14:54)
o He then received a leave until Vietnam
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He flew out of Greensboro, North Carolina and traveled to Oakland, California
(15:16)
o He was in Oakland for two days
o They had instructions to not bring much to Oakland
In Oakland, the troops stayed in one place and were there until they heard their
names read off (16:00)
At this point he had no expectations of Vietnam
He remembers serving food to returning soldiers and they appeared to be
“spacey”
He then took a commercial aircraft with 250 other GIs (17:21)
o Soldiers were in their jungle fatigues (17:35)
His flight path was from Oakland to Anchorage, Alaska, to Tokyo, Japan, and
then on to Vietnam (17:47)
o In Alaska there was a two hour layover that he was able to get off the
plane for
Active Duty – Part I – (18:08)
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He landed at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam (18:15)
o They landed during the day
On the plane's descent, because of his window seat, he could see small arms
firefights (18:28)
o He realized that “this was the real thing”
When the door opened the heat was stifling and could almost take a persons
breath away (18:46)
When they exited they were processed and began Vietnam training
o They were learning about the climate, sickness, etc. and how to deal with
them (19:06)
They were then assigned to their units
He remembers taking a shower at one point and then realized a Vietnamese
woman was cleaning the shower
He spent three or four days in Cam Ranh Bay (20:17)
He knew that he was in the 101st Airborne
When he received the travel orders, he was told to go to an airstrip to see if any
aircraft were going in the direction that he needed to go in (20:39)
o He first took a C-130, which took him part of his way north
When waiting for his next plane, he could hear the bombing, fighting, and air
strikes
o He also noticed that they were bringing in body bags (21:32)
o He did not dwell on it
From there he was taken on a chopper another 30-40 miles north (22:02)
He was approached by a Loach pilot and was asked if he would go and help him
load supplies in the field (22:19)
o There were three cases of dynamite
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He was supposed to throw two cases out of the right and one out of
the left
o One of the units threw smoke grenades so that they knew where to throw
the dynamite packages (23:06)
o By the time he was at the third package he was struggling because it was
so heavy
He eventually found a ride to Camp Evans (23:52)
At Camp Evans he had been assigned to A Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th
Infantry Regiment (24:10)
All of the companies were in the field when he arrived (24:18)
They remained in their hold pattern until they were assigned to a platoon (24:38)
He was sent out to join a unit in the field
He was flown out by a supply chopper
It was very mountainous and jungle-like (25:28)
o There were bare spots in the land where he realized where that was where
they would land
When they landed, they were approached by their platoon leader (26:21)
o He did not know it, but the soldiers in the field hated to be resupplied
because it gave away their position (26:30)
He is introduced to all of the other soldiers and then they disperse
They are told by their platoon leader that they are going to become RTOs (Radio
Transmitter Operators) (26:54)
o He was already carrying all of the weight that an infantry soldier was
loaded with
He told Lieutenant Noll that he was not sure if he could carry all of
that weight when Lt. Noll responded, “Well, you can walk point.”
(27:21)
He realized that he would become the RTO
His platoon stayed at the LZ for the whole night (27:39)
They were hit the next morning because of the supply chopper the day before
o They were hit with RPG’s (Rocket Propelled Grenades) (28:00)
The first night in Vietnam he was scared but he also thought that they were all in
this together
At this point he is working as the RTO
After the initial RPG hit, his platoon got up and were on the move (30:08)
o The weather was absolutely miserable – it was hot and it was at an average
of 100 degrees
o It rained every day at 16:00 (30:25)
o The terrain was extremely mountainous (30:39)
o They would often have to cut their own trails
o There were vines that had a hook on it that would catch on soldiers
Soldiers would have to freeze and reverse their steps to get the
hook out otherwise it would rip you open (31:01)
o The insects were horrible (31:09)
His company commander was Captain Burkhart (31:23)
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o He forced the company to make safe movements (31:57)
o There was contact under Cpt. Burkhart, but it was lighter and less frequent
than others
He stayed in the field for 90 days (32:22)
Cpt. Burkhart was with his unit for nearly two months (33:19)
The daily routine was moving every day
o They were occasionally hit – it was always a hit and run (34:31)
o One time they were on the ridgeline of a bombed hill where an individual
was hit in the thigh from an air strike 1,500 meters away
o There were times where they would sit for some time and ambush the
enemy (35:14)
His unit had many injuries
There was one occasion where they were digging in for the night and half of the
soldiers would go out and set claymores and trip flares (36:18)
o One soldier accidentally tripped a flare and the sergeant threatened to kill
the soldier (36:46)
o He then took his M-16 and put it in the ear of the sergeant who was
threatening the other soldier (37:12)
The Sergeant was taken out of the field soon after that
As an RTO, his objective was to follow Sergeant Ames, his squad leader (37:54)
o All of the communication was through the platoon leaders
He was eventually switched to serve as the RTO for Lt. Noll
Lt. Noll was very good and level-headed, seemed like he cared about his troops,
and he was calm and collected (38:40)
The majority of the RTO communication came at night (40:17)
o They would call in every hour to make sure their position was secure
He averaged around four or five hours of sleep every night (40:49)
o He was an extremely light sleeper
One night his platoon set up further up the hill than the NVA
o The NVA began firing mortars up the hill at Ripcord
Lt. Noll called in gunships – the firing stopped after that (42:20)
The majority of the nights were quiet even though it was the most feared time
o It was very helpful when there was a full moon at night because the
soldiers could see around them (43:03)
o When the moon was not out, it became extremely difficult to see anything
Active Duty – Part II – (43:25)
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When Lt. Hawkins took over the company, they became more aggressive (43:30)
o He initially thought that it was too aggressive because they were losing too
many men
o They were going out on ambushes more often (44:00)
o He was forced to go out on the majority of the ambushes because he was
the RTO
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During one ambush he saw some lights in the distance and called them in to the
base atop the hill
o The base fired rounds on the lights and they eventually went out (46:35)
He called and told the base that the lights had gone out
o Nearly an hour later the lights came back on
They fired another round that hit the tree that he was sitting at
(47:03)
o The men his platoon woke up and were screaming (47:16)
o They fired nearly ten more rounds and the lights never came back on
o The enemy had been moving ammo during the night
One day they came across a bunker system that was underground (49:28)
o They spread powder gas that would not allow the NVA to use the bunkers
for months
At this point he was concentrating on his job and not necessarily on the enemy
(50:54)
o Communication was extremely vital
o He was carrying the radio, multiple batteries, eleven quarts of water, and
all of his regular equipment as well (51:16)
o He carried the same equipment as a rifleman
They were resupplied by choppers every three or four days (51:50)
o They would catch water from rainfall
o When they crossed rivers some of the men would fill up their water bottles
Some of the men did not use iodine tablets [to purify water] and
got sick (52:07)
He knew about Firebase Ripcord at this time (52:25)
o He knew of other Firebases as well
Soldiers were often times taken out of the field and stationed at a Firebase for
thirty days to get some kind of a break (52:59)
He was then stationed at Firebase O’Reilly (53:04)
o He was at O’Reilly from the end of June until July 10th or 11th
They were taken off because Charlie Company had been hit hard
Charlie Company had been hit hard on Hill 902 on July 2nd (53:24)
When he was on O’Reilly, they received intelligence that Firebase Ripcord was
going to start getting hit around July 1st (54:18)
At this point they were all thinking that it could get bad
He was then sent back out to the field
He was only on Firebase Ripcord for one day (54:43)
o He had gone to Ripcord long before they had been sent to Firebase
O’Reilly
When he left O’Reilly, he went near Hill 805 (55:46)
o At this time he did not know what their mission was
o They were supposed to take Hill 805 and began operating from there
(55:58)
o There were already fox holes in the area from previous units being there
o When they arrived they were ambushed (56:16)
�Active Duty – Part III – Ambush and Final Days of Service – (56:17)
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The ambush was against Lieutenant Noll and the RTO’s (56:28)
He was able to duck into a foxhole where he gave the radio to Lt. Noll and he was
able to fire against the enemy (57:02)
o When this happened there was an explosion off to the side that hit both of
them with shrapnel (57:13)
o The enemy hit and ran – the fight did not last long
o When the medic came over he said, “Brady, this is your ticket out of
here.” (58:01)
o Lt. Noll had been hit in the back of the leg
He is taken out by medevac and the wind was extremely rough (59:30)
The flight out was extremely rough on the trip out
He was taken to Camp Evans at a field hospital (01:00:11)
They were taken into an aid station where he was then transferred to Da Nang,
Vietnam (01:00:22)
o He was on a litter and knew that he should be at Da Nang when he looked
over his side and only saw water (01:00:50)
o He had actually been taken to a hospital ship
He was taken into a medical room where a doctor looked him over (01:01:09)
He asked why he was there and the doctor just told him that they were going to
take care of him
They eventually sent him to Da Nang and then on to the 249th Hospital in Tokyo,
Japan (01:01:30)
In Da Nang he saw a man that was burned from head to toe (01:02:15)
o He had traveled to Tokyo with the man to make sure he was comfortable
At this point he was bandaged up (01:02:44)
o They would change the bandage three times every day
Once he arrived in Tokyo, he was placed in ward with 100 patients
o The doctor and the registered nurses would come around at least twice a
day (01:03:26)
o When he first arrived he had to give blood
He eventually had to go in for surgery
When he was there he would get up and help the other soldiers that could not
move (01:04:20)
He remembers many wounded men from A Company coming in as well
He was in the hospital in Japan for thirty-one days (01:06:18)
When he was on recovery he was told that he was being sent to a re-assignment
station the next morning (01:06:49)
o When he arrived at the re-assignment station he goes to check in and was
told that, because he was drafted, would not have to go back to Vietnam
because he had been in the hospital for over thirty days (01:07:18)
He was told that he could end up in five different locations
o He told them that he would take any one of them (01:07:55)
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He found out that he would be stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado
He was told to report to Fort Carson on September 1, 1970 (01:08:17)
When he was processed he was told that he had another year to go and did not
have any leave time remaining
o He had his convalescent leave taken from him (01:08:44)
At Fort Carson they played war games
o He was on a mechanized APC (Armored Personnel Carrier) (01:08:55)
o The first week he was out he woke up and had four inches of snow on him
He was with the 4th Infantry at this point (01:09:20)
o He was a rifleman
o He would pull guard duty, KP (Kitchen Police) duty, and other E-4 duties
(01:09:38)
He was left at an E-4 because the military believe that he was going to get out of
the service
One morning the draftees were told to pull to the side and clear post in five days
(01:10:44)
o He cleared post in four hours
After the Service – (01:11:04)
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When he went home he had to find work because he had a wife and child to
provide for (01:11:14)
He went to an electrical contractor and became an electrician
o He went through a four year apprenticeship (01:11:33)
o The G.I. Bill helped pay for this
o He was working during the day and doing the apprenticeship at night
During Vietnam he did not have contact with his family members (01:12:00)
o He had contact with his wife but no family members
While he was gone his wife was still in school and eventually finished when he
was in Vietnam
He finished his career as an electrician (01:12:48)
He worked eventually began working in the [VA] hospital system (01:13:00)
o He was a two point preference employee because of his service and Purple
Heart
o He saw many patients from war – he saw soldiers from Korea and some
from Vietnam
His wife left him and he became a single parent with two children (01:13:36)
o He changed jobs because he thought moving closer to his wife’s family
because he thought it would help the problems – Unfortunately it did not
work (01:13:57)
He is extremely thankful for his time in the service and tries to treat everyone
very respectfully
o He still hurts over the men who were lost (01:14:39)
�
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/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Brady, Bruce (Interview outline and video), 2012
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Brady, Bruce
Description
An account of the resource
Bruce Brady was born in 1949 in Welch, West Virginia. His family was forced to relocate to North Carolina where he eventually graduated from high school in 1967. He was drafted on October 6, 1969 and was sent to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and to Fort McClellan, Alabama for training as an infantryman. Sent to Vietnam after training, he was assigned to A Company, 2/506 Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. On joining his unit, he became a radio operator for his squad, and later for his platoon. His unit participated in the campaign around Firebase Ripcord for several months. He was wounded in an ambush in July, 1970, and sent to Japan for treatment, and served out the last part of his enlistment at Fort Carson, Colorado.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army
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
2012-10-06
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BradyB1447V
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
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PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
Name of War: Other veterans & civilians
Interviewee name: Robert Brady
Length of Interview: (00:16:28)
Grand Valley State University
Veteran’s History Project
Robert Brady
Length of Interview (00:16:28)
Background and Training (00:00:00)
Born in Toledo, Ohio, 1934
Went to college
Wasn’t drafted, nor enlisted because he joined the Naval Officers Training Corps in college
(00:00:25)
Allowed him a deferment until finishing college; given commission
Had to do two years of active duty and six years reserve duty
Did this when he was 22 or 23; in the U.S. Navy
Planned on going to Graduate School, but had to give it up
Went through various training (00:01:38)
ROTC: took a three hour college course to learn Navigation, Combat Information Center,
various Naval procedures; three years
Did training during service not during college
Trained as Atomic/Biological/Chemical Warfare Officer, protects the ship from these type of
attacks (00:02:20)
Took training on how to fix damage aboard ship
Boat Wave Officer, as well (00:03:05)
Made sure the other ships hit the line of demarcation, all in line, and hit the breach at the
same time
�Oxford, Ohio for four years of course work; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for training
(00:03:30)
In training for six months
There was no conflict at the time (00:04:06)
Stationed at Little Creek, VA where the amphibious force was located (00:04:15)
Lebanon (00:04:30)
Was once shipped out to Lebanon due to civil unrest occurring there
Six hundred Marines to “deter” them
Was in the Mediterranean during the conflict
Onboard an LST, 11-71 (00:05:34)
A big empty tank deck that carried tanks, trucks, and missile launchers; a very large ship
that could be beached
Was turned around and anchored in Crete (a Greek Island), instead; waited for the conflict to
dissolve
Base Life (00:06:43)
Enjoyed living at the base; had a bachelor’s office
Got married after a year and moved off the base
Had good food both at the base and onboard
Had Filipino cooks on ship
Had a normal workdays, 8AM-4PM, onboard; sometimes “officer of the deck”, steer the ship
and radar (00:08:08)
Would watch movies and play cards in spare time
Didn’t have much spare time, too many duties
When on base, would go off-base during free time in Norfolk
Made many close friends (00:09:30)
Had to be close because they depended upon each other
�During the Lebanon Conflicts, they would have sent in 600 Marines plus tanks; had been
relieved when turning back to the U.S. (00:11:00)
After Service (00:11:35)
Went back into Graduate School after service and got a degree in Oxford, Ohio
Had to cancel his Wedding once because of the Lebanon Conflict (00:12:25)
Got a Bachelor’s Degree in Geology and a Master’s Degree in Business and wanted to work for
and Oil Company but worked at a Pharmaceutical Company, instead (00:13:23)
Matured when in the Navy, mainly because of the duty “Officer of the Deck”; responsibility for
a multi-million dollar ship and 600 lives (00:14:35)
Most memorable moments: cancellation of his wedding and when being discharged (00:15:20)
Had to be “clothes-lined” to another ship when being discharged from the Mediterranean
�
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/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Brady, Robert Howes (Interviewer outline and video), 2009
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Brady, Robert Howes
Description
An account of the resource
Robert Brady took ROTC training while in college and joined the US Navy in 1956. He served for three years in various capacities, including duty on an LST in the Mediterranean during the Lebanon Crisis.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Combs, Cam (Interviewer)
DeVries, T.J. (Interviewer)
McMannus, Susan
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
Veterans
Video recordings
Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives, American
United States. Navy
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Moving Image
Text
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2009-06-04
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BradyR
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/b13abffb99d7b95030d846c26477558f.jpg
39f070868b10e3d1486346620037b84b
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
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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
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BrainardClara
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. University Communications
Title
A name given to the resource
Brainard, Clara
Description
An account of the resource
Clara Brainard, Educational Studies Institute
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
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Image
Format
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image/jpeg
Language
A language of the resource
eng
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PDF Text
Text
Grand Valley State University
Veterans History Project Interview
Vietnam War
Loren Brand
Length of interview (02:05:07)
Background Information: (00:30)
Born November 23, 1943 in Niles, Michigan
Currently lives in Ludington, Michigan
Interviewer served with Brand in the Marines and FBI for a number of years
Brand was a Marine Officer, discharged at the rank of Captain
Served in the Aviation end of the Marine Corps.
Pre-Enlistment: (01:50)
Entered the Marine Corps in 1966
Was in college at Michigan State University, transferred from North Texas State
University in 1963
After 5 years in college, he was sent notifications about the draft. He had registered for the
draft in Texas, (02:56)
Received notification to take his pre-draft physical (03:47)
While walking across campus he came across the officer recruitment agents. He checked
with the Air Force and Navy but was told that his Business major did not really qualify
him with enough mathematics and science. (04:54)
Remembers the Marines being very impressive. He “loved the uniform”, and was told to
take the exam. (05:22)
Did quite well on the exam, decided to avoid the draft by signing up to join the OCS after
graduation.
Was assigned to an Officer Candidate Class in October of 1966 (05:51)
Had a summer off after graduation before entering the Marine Corps, in which he met his
wife and became engaged to her. (06:11)
Had injured a knee while attempting to get in shape during the summer and so had a
difficult time with the physical training. (06:28)
Training and Flight Training: (06:30)
After completing training, became a Second Lieutenant on December 16th of 1966—also
was married the next day to his wife, Tamara, who he has been with for 43 years. (06:54)
Was then assigned to Flight School in Pensacola, Florida after a 20 day leave. (07:04)
Upon arrival in Pensacola, the aviation classes were full, so he needed to wait almost three
months.
o
Classes were 50 per squadron
o
Went through Primary Flight, then into flying the T-34 Mentor (07:52)
�o
o
Each class was made up of Navy and Marines
Took the physical test there (08:37)
Running the obstacle course, doing pushups and situps
Entered the first stages of flight school in April of 1967 (09:28)
Remembers the entrance meeting to flight school (09:37)
o
The meeting was standard, guest speakers, expected behavior
o
“Brought in a hero to get us pumped up”
o
„Hero‟ was a Lieutenant Commander who flew F-8 Crusaders. He had been
assigned to a photo-reconnaissance unit, who would make a low, fast pass to
photograph the damage done during bomb runs. (10:31)
o
Was a very dangerous job.
o
Remembers that the man‟s first statement was that he wanted to address the
Marines in the audience. He said “I want to tell you something right now,
gentlemen. Look to your right, and look to your left. One of you three is not going
to make it through alive should you get your wings.” (11:11)
Remembers his first landing
o
After logging 9 hours of flight, he was able to land his aircraft solo. (12:51)
o
The tradition afterwards was to buy your instructor a bottle of their favorite
liquor
o
Then came other training, such as aerobatics, maneuvering (14:17)
Describes another plane he flew:
o
T-28 Trojan, equivalent to WWII fighters. Further describes the plane in detail.
(15:10)
o
Describes flight route (15:46)
o
Also flew VT-2, description (16:05)
Did very well in the first few stages of flight training and was assigned to a VT-3 (16:42)
o
Completed the VT-3 training in 10 months
o
Remembers this stage being very stressful as his wife was pregnant during
Scored the highest ever scored on one of his flights, something that had never done before
(19:07)
At the end of training, your total composite scores from pre-flight, primary flight, advanced
flight were taken into account, and a number score was assigned.
o
Talks about the scores necessary for certain jobs in certain branches. (20:45)
Only one Marine was taken for actual planes, the rest were told they could drop out of
flight school or join rotary wing, and fly helicopters. (21:55)
Helicopter Training: (21:56)
The first helicopter used for training was the Bell TH-13-M.
o
Was the classic „bubble‟ helicopter that can be seen on MASH (22:14)
Describes the helicopter further
An incident during training, Brand was scheduled for a solo flight; he was there on time
and did everything he was supposed to. (23:34)
o
He went out to a practice area, (Pensacola, Florida) and there was no one there
(24:34)
o
He completed his training and headed back, and notices that everything is tied
�
down; the only people around are a few frantically waving ground crew.
o
As soon as he shut down the helicopter, he was told by Navy personnel, to see
the commanding officer immediately. (25:40)
o
He was immediately yelled at, and after explaining that he was scheduled for a
flight, and had a green light from the tower, and he was told that he was lucky to
have returned alive, because all flights had been canceled due to monsoon
activity.
The next stage of flying was the H-34, describes the helicopter
Tells of the incident of his final flight check, where his instructor was very distracting and
attempted to make him lose concentration. Shortly after he passed the check, he was
awarded his wings (30:11)
Brand‟s wife had flown home to have their first son, Jefferson, due to the threat of some
complications which never occurred
Brand had his wings ceremony on May 10th of 1968 (30:39)
o
Afterwards, Brand collected his family and went to his first post in South
Carolina, where he was to train in the CH-53
Became a first lieutenant while in South Carolina, and then was scheduled for leave and
then to depart for Vietnam. (32:13)
Vietnam (32:34)
Flew out of South Bend Municipal Airport for San Francisco to go to Travis Air force Base
Brand thinks that was when it hit him that he was going to Vietnam, he had been prepared
for the inherent dangers of flight, but not for the dangers of warfare while flying
The flight itself took about 20 hours, but was uneventful.
o
Landed in Okinawa, Japan for about a week before going to Da Nang, Vietnam
(34:24)
By the time he arrived in Da Nang, it was a very powerful military presence, and not
usually attacked, but he was ready to be attacked at any point
Describes the different kinds of transportation sent for the different branches of the
military.
Not 45 minutes after arriving at the Marine base called Marble Mountain, there was an
enormous explosion, and while they ran to the bunker, the captain knocked himself out
when he hit his head on the overhanging door. (38:48)
o
The explosion turned out to be dynamite from the mining of Marble Mountain,
and the men hadn‟t been there long enough to know the difference between
mining explosions and artillery.
The next day they were told the only way to get to their duties, some 75 miles north, was to
find their own ride. (40:20)
o
They found a CH-46 and “hitched a ride”
o
Checked into their respective squadrons—he joined HMH463 (40:57)
o
HMH stands for Helicopter Marine Heavy (41:06)
First Flight in Vietnam (41:58)
o
Heavy Lifters were to fly ammunition to a remote landing zone on the DMZ at
night
o
Carrying sling-loads of 155 artillery rounds
�o
The only light they had to maneuver by was a single flashlight on the ground
(43:24)
o
His partner, a warrant officer, told him they would, instead of moving the
ammunition to the landing pad, would move it to the gun site
Brand only flew about 25 missions (44:06)
He and 5 others were called into the CO‟s office and were told they were needed elsewhere
(44:28)
o
More experienced pilots were needed for the squadron
Brand remembers that only he and a captain, out of the six, came out okay (45:39)
The six of them were moved over to the CH-46 squadron
o
Squadron 265
Brand was preceded into Vietnam by “a matter of three weeks” by one of his best friends
(47:15)
o
William Hale was his name—nicknamed “Willie T”
The only bachelor in the group of Brand‟s six military friends, their wives
were always trying to fix him up
He was very cheerful and always upbeat (48:27)
o
Brand flew out to see Hale about two months before Hale went to Vietnam
Brand remembers for the first time since knowing Hale, he was
“despondent”
There were problems with the tail-end of the CH-46 falling off, which
Hale was to fly (49:46)
Brand reassured Hale—“Flying in combat is 90 percent boredom and
10% stark terror” (50:36)
Brand had been sent to the new squadron to replace William Hale, who had been killed
(50:56)
o
When Brand checked in, he received all of Hale‟s bedding, his locker, helmet,
ect.
o
Brand remembers being very religious, and praying during spare time for his
safety (52:42)
Brand began getting “Maintenance Hops” to learn how to fly the CH-46
o
A maintenance hop is when a helicopter has been repaired, it has to be tested
o
Brand had less than 50 hours of maintenance hops (54:19)
Brand tells a story of a combat mission (55:02)
o
Brand was not technically in command, but called all the shots (57:15)
o
The major with them was frightened the entire time, although they were not hit
(57:59)
A few weeks later an entire crew was lost
o
The hydraulics went out and there was no way to land safely (59:00)
Brand remarks on his religious attitude at the time (59:58)
o
“The off-time was worse than the flying time”
Brand made Aircraft Commander by early November, only a few months after he had
transitioned to the CH-46 (01:02:35)
o
Flight Commander by January
o
Division Commander by late February
Brand had a couple crew-chiefs wounded (01:03:13)
�
o
Story about inserting troops into a “hot area”
Military had designed the Ziploc bag for holding documents (01:09:25)
Worked in the flatlands and in the DMZ (01:16:12)
o
When the weather became cooler, they could fly at higher altitudes
o
1969: told he would be trained as an Embarkation Officer, explained
o
Was told when he was training in Okinawa, his wife could stay with him
Brand returns from training in Okinawa and resumes his duties.
o
Flight story about a difficult maneuver (01:21:02)
o
Army “Rule of Flying” (01:27:21)
June of 1969- moved to Iwo Jima (01:29:02)
o
“Bald Eagle” missions
o
Vietnam at night had no lights, had to fly without aircraft lights
Story about another marine, John Prombo (01:33:51)
o
Unusual weather pattern
o
Last they ever heard of that flight
Story about the end of Brand‟s tour (01:39:24)
o
2-3 weeks until the end
o
“Button Hook Landing” explained (01:44:21)
Once Brand left the marines and joined the FBI, he was talked into going back to church
(1:51:32)
o
Story about getting his faith back
Returned home in October of 1969 (01:55:01)
o
Rejoined a tactical squadron that supported the western White House, flew the
Secret Service, Presidential baggage
o
Put in for a regular Marine Officer, and also for the FBI—1970
Finishing Remarks
Brand talks about his sons (01:58:35)
o
Elder son graduated from the Air Force Academy
o
Younger son joining the FBI
�
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
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
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Smither, James
Boring, Frank
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
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RHC-27
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eng
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<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.
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Brand, Loren (Interview outline and video), 2009
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Brand, Loren
Description
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Loren Brand entered the Marine Corps in 1966, and attended college at Michigan State University and North Texas University. He was trained in aviation and served in the Vietnam War as a helicopter pilot. After the war he became an FBI agent.
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Erichsen, Wallace (Interviewer)
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Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
United States. Marine Corps
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eng
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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Moving Image
Text
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
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2009-05-15
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BrandL
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
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application/pdf
video/mp4
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
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f478005805b470d5316069ab3561d2f6
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Title
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Faces of Grand Valley
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Grand Valley State University
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University Communications
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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.
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1960s - 1990s
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GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files
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In Copryight
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Grand Valley State University
College administrators
College teachers
Colleges and universities -- Faculty
Michigan
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Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives
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GV012-03
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image/jpeg
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Image
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eng
Still Image
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BrandVera_Photo1
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Grand Valley State University. University Communications
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Brand, Vera
Description
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Vera Brand, Nursing
Subject
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Grand Valley State University – History
College teachers
Universities and colleges – Faculty
Michigan
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University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03)
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Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives
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In Copyright
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Image
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image/jpeg
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eng
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/16c2cecabf4946984c5133ab11ab2a15.jpg
9c9a7df722f371ef415d35ba3147b808
Dublin Core
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Title
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Faces of Grand Valley
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Grand Valley State University
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University Communications
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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
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1960s - 1990s
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GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files
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In Copryight
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Grand Valley State University
College administrators
College teachers
Colleges and universities -- Faculty
Michigan
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Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives
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GV012-03
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image/jpeg
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Image
Language
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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.
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BrandVera_Photo2
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Grand Valley State University. University Communications
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Brand, Vera
Description
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Vera Brand, Nursing
Subject
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Grand Valley State University – History
College teachers
Universities and colleges – Faculty
Michigan
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University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03)
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Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives
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In Copyright
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Image
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image/jpeg
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eng
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e32c807db1eb45650bc393c9944c9ffd.jpg
b8164321e4cebb7ed9f3ba028ff54118
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
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Faces of Grand Valley
Creator
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Grand Valley State University
Contributor
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University Communications
Description
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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
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1960s - 1990s
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GV012-03. University Communications. Vita Files
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In Copryight
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Grand Valley State University
College administrators
College teachers
Colleges and universities -- Faculty
Michigan
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Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives
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GV012-03
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image/jpeg
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Image
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eng
Still Image
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BrandVera_Photo3
Creator
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Grand Valley State University. University Communications
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Brand, Vera
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Vera Brand, Nursing
Subject
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Grand Valley State University – History
College teachers
Universities and colleges – Faculty
Michigan
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University Communications. Vita Files, 1968-2016 (GV012-03)
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Grand Valley State University. Special Collections and University Archives
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In Copyright
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Image
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image/jpeg
Language
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eng
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/446626cc94678a24d70c909525e421d1.pdf
c85300098517d754a7e41d7ab6ca0250
PDF Text
Text
Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project
A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant
Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department
Jerry Brandel Interview
Total Time – (1:09:11)
Interviewed by Walter Urick, February 12, 2016
Family Background
• He was born February 28, 1945 in Muskegon, Michigan
• His grandparents lived on a 20 acre farm north of Hart, Michigan
o They had 9 children, with Jerry’s father being one of them
• Jerry’s father was Herbert Brandel
o On their 20 acre fruit farm, they grew cherries, apples, and peaches
• Jerry’s father came from Muskegon to Hart and bought a fruit farm in 1945 when Jerry
was a baby
o Farm was located on 84th Ave. and Fox
• Jerry has been in the area for 70 years
• Jerry’s mother was Ruth Samantha Jacobs
o She was in the top 20 of her class in 1927 at Hart High School
• Jerry had one brother, Richard, and also an adopted sister, Marilyn
• Jerry bought the current property that he’s on when he was a senior in high school in
1962
o He paid $6,500 for 80 acres
o He bought it with a land contract at 3% interest
Childhood Memories – (4:20)
• He grew up in Hart and has been there all of his life
• He went to the one room school there called Danielson School
o He had to walk half a mile there and back every day
• When he was around 8 or 10 years old, he had to start doing chores
o He had to feed and water the cattle at a barn and at home
o Eventually he had to milk the cows too
• When he was 16 his brother went into the army, and Jerry was the only one home with
his dad then
• He had to milk 24 cows by himself
o He would get up at 6:00am and end up with 40 gallons of milk
o He would separate the skim milk from the cream, and then would feed the skim
milk to the pigs
1
�Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project
A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant
Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department
•
•
•
•
•
o It took about an hour to milk the two dozen cows
By 9:00am he was at the cherry orchard
o He’d drive to Hart or Shelby and unload all the lugs of cherries
He’d get home about 10:00pm, eat supper, go to bed, and then do it all again the next
morning for about 6-8 weeks
Jerry’s father was the principal at Walkerville High School during the first year of his
farm (1945) because the crops froze out
o His father had the farm paid off by the second year though (1946) because of the
big cherry crop
o His father went back to teach at Walkerville for five more years when he was
about 60 years old
Jerry’s father was a schoolteacher for 20 years, and Jerry’s mother taught for 36 years
o His mother taught at the middle school in Shelby
o She would take Jerry to school every day when he was 4 years old
o He was then a student there through 7th grade
When Jerry was 7 years old, he’d pick two lugs of cherries in both the morning and
night, and he got paid 50 cents a lug to pick them ($2 a day)
o He bought his first bicycle for $42 in Hart when he was 7 years old
Becoming Involved in Farming – (10:20)
• When he was 13 years old, he bought 60 acres with his brother near Pentwater for $10
an acre
o They planted 10,000 Christmas trees on it
o Three years later he sold that farm and split the money with his brother, using
his half to buy his current farm at 17 years old
• He graduated from Hart High School in 1963 and went on to Michigan State University
for a two-year agricultural course
• After his schooling, he went into partnership for 10 years with his dad and brother
o They farmed from when he was 20 to 30 years old, roughly from 1965-1975
o They had 2,500 acres all together, all in Oceana County
o Their largest piece was a 500 acre section in Hart
• Cherries were the biggest crop for their partnership
o 150 acres of cherries
o 40 acres of apples
o 20 acres of peaches
o At least 500 acres of Christmas trees
2
�Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project
A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant
Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department
• They tapped 3,600 taps to make maple syrup too, and Jerry was the head of this
Farming on His Own – (15:06)
• The partnership ended in 1975 when Jerry decided that he wanted to be on his own
• He started growing 150-200 acres of pickles
• He had bought other farms since the original 80 acres, adding up to about 800 acres
• He also had cattle, hay, and pigs
• He chose his cash crop to be pickles because he got along well with the migrant workers
o He saw that when the cherry season ended around August 1, the migrant
workers had nothing left to do
o So he wanted to use the time that they had that last month before they went
back to school to give them work with his pickle crop
• The largest quantity of pickles he ever grew at one time was about 300 acres
• All the pickles were harvested by hand
The Migrant Workers – (18:00)
• Oceana County had families coming from Tennessee and Arkansas who were white,
non-Hispanics
o They’d come to pick cherries for six weeks and then go back home
• There would be African American families coming the 36 miles from Muskegon who
wanted to pick cherries too
• A woman named Ruth Coleman would come with 35 people with her in a bus, and they
housed them in a labor camp
o Jerry owned this camp then
• When Jerry was about 15 years old, he would keep track of the amounts of cherries
picked by people and would have to pay them every Saturday
• The non-Hispanic work force was around 25-30 people
o These people did not like the pickle harvesting work because it was too hard for
them
• The Hispanic migrant workers started coming to work in the late 50s and early 60s
• They would come from Florida or Texas in big canvas-topped trucks
o Crew leaders would bring 50-60 people in one truck
• During the Mexican fiestas, the people would come out of those trucks in nice clothes
and ready to dance
o That was the migrant people’s culture
• Jerry employed around 60-70 Hispanic people during his pickle operations
3
�Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project
A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant
Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department
Farming Challenges – (24:53)
• There were problems with drought and hot temperatures
• In 1980, there were 22% bank interest rates
o Jerry had to borrow $100,000 because he had lost money on the pickle crop one
year
• In 1976, Jerry was investigated for child labor in the fields
o He got sued, and it took six years to get to the federal court
o After an appeal, Jerry was the only person who has ever won that
o Walter Urick was Jerry’s attorney
• Jerry stopped farming pickles because they were costly to grow and a profit couldn’t be
made
• He then started into the broker business of doing the pickle selling for other farms or
sheds
o He usually gets around $200-400 per load that he sells for others
o He knows the business and coordinates it all
Relationship to the Migrants – (30:42)
• There was an abundance of Mexican migrant workers coming in the late 60s and early
70s
• They would come out of desperation because school was out
o They would just show up because they didn’t know who to go to
• Migrant organizations would call around to see if anyone had work for these migrants
who needed jobs and housing
• Jerry housed migrants and had them work in his pickle fields
• Jerry wanted to increase the pickle market, so he started buying other farmers’ pickles
as well as having his contract with Heinz
• Jerry used to have strawberry acreage, and 350 migrants would show up to pick
strawberries
o It would spread by word of mouth that there was work at Jerry Brandel’s
strawberry farm, and they’d come
• He got along well with the migrants, and if there was conflict, they would compromise
well
4
�Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project
A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant
Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department
•
Jerry knew that he needed to settle misunderstandings because he had their goodwill,
and he and they were all there to make money
Migrant Housing and Living – (34:20)
• The housing had to be licensed by the state of Michigan and meet standards
• The housing was free to the migrants, which attracted workers to come
• Jerry’s people had to maintain the housing themselves
• The people who had trouble with the migrants were those who tried to cheat them
somehow, by shorting how much they worked or picked
• The migrants would have to be trained on how to best pick the pickles and maintain
their sections of the fields
• At this time there was no food stamp program, and people were so poor that they’d do
whatever they needed to survive
Jerry’s Family – (39:58)
• He has two boys and one girl
o Art is 47, Alan is 40, and Kathy is 44
• Art farms at the family place part-time
• Alan is in Alabama, working for a 3,000 acre farm in the pickle business
• Kathy is a schoolteacher in Hart
Oceana Community – (41:24)
• Jerry would like to see the Historical Society and the records to continue on for years
• He also wants the county fair to continue running
o He served 22 years on the livestock committee, promoting the 4-H program
• The cell phone business has transitioned in to life now
• Jerry farmed pickles for 17 years in Mexico
o He would be there for 2-3 weeks at a time
o They quit that business 3 years ago because of too many dangers and cartels
o They had rented land there to farm
o The U.S. would sometimes cause issues when they’d stop trucks for health
inspections, and the pickles would have gone bad by the end of it
5
�Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project
A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant
Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department
•
•
•
•
Jerry is in the Farm Bureau, but it isn’t as strong of a voice as it could be to help farming
Migrants aren’t coming to work as much anymore because of the U.S. immigration
changes, and people getting arrested now for being illegal
o The government doesn’t have a program to let these people work legally here
o It does exist in Canada though, so Mexicans or Jamaicans drive through to
Ontario to work
People who pick asparagus or apples are well-paid today, making $25 an hour
People can be shying away from labor-intensive crops because they aren’t sure if they’re
going to have the workers they need at the specific times their crops will need it
Listening to the Tape in 50 Years – (51:44)
• The population is stable and doesn’t grow very much
• The area has been a good place to raise families
• The biggest threat is some drugs coming into town now
• There is a lot of goodwill and peace between the people
• Jerry encourages young people to plant crops that will make money, such as fruit or
asparagus farming
• Farming today is so complicated that you have to be careful what you plant because you
may not get enough profits to survive
o The cost of farming is very discouraging for young farmers
• Now there are many people without skills or a college education but are making so
much money an hour picking
• Jerry and his sons had lost money on crops, so they sold off some land to pay back debts
• Today farmers have to guarantee hours and pay to workers whether there’s work or not
• Jerry mentions current farming challenges and laws that cause many problems for
farmers
Final Thoughts – (1:00:32)
• The migrants workers have always been a very important part of Oceana County, and
some have settled and become good citizens, stabilizing the economy there
• Jerry is in the process of selling his labor camp now
• Segregation has been a problem too when some locals don’t want the Hispanics around
• There’ll never be enough locals available to keep up with the work; migrants are needed
• At one time, Oceana County was the biggest pickle county in Michigan
6
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9f4b1a96c894c610e0ee58c1ed002df9.pdf
6a907ab0e829fbf64df11eaa6192b1b1
PDF Text
Text
Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project
A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant
Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department
Entrevista de Jerry Brandel
Tiempo total – (1:09:11)
Entrevistado por Walter Urick, 12 Febrero 2016
(Traducido al espaňol por Kassie O’Brien, May 2016)
Antecedentes familiares
• Jerry nació el 28 de febrero de 1945 en Muskegon, Michigan
• Sus abuelos vivían en una granja de 20 acres al norte de Hart, Michigan
o Tuvieron 9 niños, y uno fue el padre de Jerry
• Su padre se llamaba Herbert Brandel
o Cultivaban cerezas, manzanas, y duraznos en su granja de 20 acres
• El padre de Jerry se mudó desde Muskegon a Hart y compró una granja de frutas en
1945 cuando Jerry era bebé
o La granja estaba ubicado en las calles 84 y Fox
• Jerry ha estado en el área por 70 años
• La madre de Jerry se llamaba Ruth Samantha Jacobs
o Ella estuvo entre los mejores de su clase en 1927 en Hart High School
• Jerry tiene un hermano, Richard, y también una hermana adoptada, Marilyn
• Jerry compró su propiedad actual cuando estaba en su último año de la secundaria en
1962
o Pagó $6.500 por 80 acres
o La compró con un contrato de compraventa de terrenos con una tasa de interés
del 3%
Recuerdos de la niñez – (4:20)
• Jerry creció en Hart y ha vivido allí por toda su vida
• Asistió a la escuela llamada Danielson School que solamente tenía una aula
o Cada día tenía que caminar por media milla de ida y vuelta
• Cuando tenía más o menos 8 o 10 años, comenzó a hacer labores
o Tenía que alimentar y dar de beber a los animales
o Con el tiempo tenía que ordeñar las vacas también
• Cuando tenía 16 años su hermano ingresó en el ejército, y Jerry fue el único que estaba
en casa con su papá
• Tenía que ordeñar 24 vacas por sí mismo
1
�Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project
A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant
Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department
•
•
•
•
•
o Se despertaba a las seis de la mañana y terminó con 40 galones de leche
o Separaba la leche descremada de la nata, y daba de comer a los cerdos con la
leche
o Le tomaba una hora ordeñar dos docenas de vacas
A las 9:00 de la mañana llegaba al cerezal
o Conducía a Hart o Shelby y descargaba todas las cestas de cerezas
Llegaba a la casa alrededor de las 10:00 de la noche, cenaba, se acostaba, y la mañana
siguiente volvía a hacer todo de nuevo por 6-8 semanas
El padre de Jerry fue el director de Walkerville High School durante el primer año que
tuvo su granja (1945) porque los cultivos se congelaron
o Durante el segundo año (1946) su padre terminó de pagar por la granja porque
hubo una gran cosecha de cerezas
o Su padre regresó a enseñar en Walkerville por cinco años más cuando tenía
alrededor de 60 años
El padre de Jerry fue maestro por 20 años, y la madre de Jerry fue maestra por 36 años
o Su madre enseñó en la escuela intermedia en Shelby
o Cuando Jerry tenía 4 años, su madre le llevaba a la escuela cada día
o Jerry fue estudiante allí hasta el séptimo grado
Cuando Jerry tenía 7 años, recogía dos cestas de cerezas por la mañana y por la noche, y
ganaba 50 centavos por cesta ($2 por día)
o Compró su primera bicicleta por $42 en Hart cuando tenía 7 años
Participando en la agricultura – (10:20)
• Cuando tenía 13 años, Jerry y su hermano compraron 60 acres cerca de Pentwater por
$10 por acre
o Plantaron 10.000 árboles de Navidad
o Tres años después vendieron esa granja y se dividió el dinero entre Jerry y su
hermano, y Jerry usó su mitad del dinero para comprar su granja actual cuando
tenía 17 años
• Se graduó de Hart High School en 1963, y asistió a Michigan State University por dos
años para tomar un curso de agricultura
• Después de su educación, se asoció con su padre y hermano por diez años
o Mantuvieron las granjas desde cuando tenía 20 a 30 años, más o menos de 19651975
o Poseían 2.500 acres en conjunto en el condado de Oceana
o La parte más grande fue una sección de 500 acres en Hart
2
�Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project
A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant
Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department
•
•
Las cerezas fueron la mejor cosecha en su asociación
o 150 acres de cerezas
o 40 acres de manzanas
o 20 acres de duraznos
o Por lo menos 500 acres de árboles de Navidad
También prepararon mucho jarabe de arce, y Jerry encabezaba este trabajo
Su propia agricultura – (15:06)
• La asociación terminó en 1975 cuando Jerry decidió trabajar por sí mismo
• Empezó a cultivar 150-200 acres de pepinillos
• Había comprado otras granjas además de los 80 acres originales, que sumó un total de
800 acres
• También tuvo ganado, heno, y cerdos
• Decidió cultivar los pepinillos como su cultivo comercial porque se llevaba bien con los
trabajadores migrantes
o Jerry notó que los trabajadores migrantes no tenían trabajo cuando terminó la
temporada de cereza alrededor del primer día de agosto
o Así Jerry quería usar el tiempo disponible durante el último mes antes de que
regresaran a la escuela para darles trabajo con sus cultivos de pepinillos
• Cerca de 300 acres fue la mayor cantidad de pepinillos que cultivó a la vez
• Se cosechaban a mano todos los pepinillos
Los trabajadores migrantes – (18:00)
• Familias caucásicas no hispanas viajaron al condado de Oceana desde Tennessee y
Arkansas
o Venían para recoger cerezas por seis semanas y luego regresaban a casa
• Familias afroamericanas que viajaron las 36 millas desde Muskegon querían recoger
cerezas también
• Una mujer que se llamaba Ruth Coleman venía en un autobús con 35 personas, y todos
vivían en un campo de trabajo
o Jerry poseía este campo de trabajo en aquella época
• Cuando Jerry tenía más o menos 15 años, mantenía un registro de la cantidad de
cerezas que recogió cada persona y les pagaba cada sábado
• La fuerza laboral no hispana fue cerca de 25-30 personas
3
�Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project
A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant
Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department
•
•
•
•
o A estas personas no les gustó cosechar los pepinillos porque el trabajo era muy
duro
Los trabajadores migrantes hispanos empezaron a trabajar a finales de los años
cincuenta y al principio de los años sesenta
Se iban de la Florida o de Texas en camiones grandes con lonas
o Los supervisores traían 50-60 trabajadores en un camión
Durante las fiestas mexicanas, la gente venía en estos camiones vestida en ropa
elegante, preparada para bailar
o Eso fue la cultura de los trabajadores migrantes
Jerry empleó a 60-70 personas hispanas como parte de sus operaciones agrícolas con
pepinillos
Desafíos en cuanto a la agricultura – (24:53)
• Había problemas de sequía y altas temperaturas
• En 1980, hubo tasas de interés de los bancos de 22%
o Jerry pidió un préstamo de $100.000 porque perdió dinero durante un año con
su cultivo de pepinillos
• En 1976, fue investigado por trabajo infantil en los campos
o Fue demandado y después de seis años la investigación llegó al corte federal
o Después de una apelación, Jerry fue la única persona que ganó
o Walter Urick fue el abogado de Jerry
• Jerry dejó de cultivar pepinillos porque costaron mucho y no pudo obtener beneficios
• Luego empezó a trabajar en la venta de los cultivos de pepinillos de otros agricultores
o Normalmente gana $200-400 por cargamento de pepinillos que vende
o Entiende bien el negocio y coordina todo
La relación con los migrantes – (30:42)
• Había una abundancia de trabajadores migrantes mexicanos que llegaron a finales de
los años sesenta y al principio de los años setenta
• Llegaron empujados por la desesperación porque terminó el año escolar
o Solamente aparecieron porque no sabían adónde ir
• Las organizaciones migrantes hacían llamadas para buscar trabajo disponible para los
migrantes que necesitaron empleos y vivienda
• Jerry les dio vivienda a los migrantes y les dio trabajo en sus campos de pepinillos
4
�Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project
A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant
Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department
•
•
•
•
Jerry quería engrandecer el mercado de pepinillos, así empezó a comprar los pepinillos
de otros agricultores, además de su contrato con Heinz
Jerry solía poseer acres del cultivo de fresas, y 350 trabajadores migrantes vinieron a
recoger fresas
o Se promocionaban las noticias de trabajo disponible por el boca a boca, y los
trabajadores venían
Se llevaba bien con los trabajadores migrantes, y si había conflictos, llegaron a un
acuerdo
Jerry sabía que era necesario resolver malentendidos porque tuvo su buena voluntad, y
todos estaban allí para ganar dinero
La vivienda de los trabajadores migrantes – (34:20)
• Se necesitaba la autorización del estado de Michigan para cumplir las normas de la
vivienda
• La vivienda era gratuita para los trabajadores migrantes, y eso atrajo a los trabajadores
• Algunos empleados de Jerry tenían que mantener la vivienda
• Las personas que tuvieron problemas con los trabajadores migrantes fueron personas
que trataron de engañarles por medio de decir que los trabajadores recogieron menos
que la cantidad verdadera
• Se necesitaba enseñarles la mejor manera de recoger los pepinillos y de mantener sus
propias secciones de los campos
• En ese momento no existía ningún programa de vales para alimentos, y la gente era tan
pobre que hacía cualquier cosa para sobrevivir
La familia de Jerry – (39:58)
• Tiene dos hijos y una hija
o Art tiene 47 años, Alan tiene 40 años, y Kathy tiene 44 años
• Art trabaja en la granja de la familia a tiempo parcial
• Alan está en Alabama y trabaja con pepinillos en una granja de 3.000 acres
• Kathy es maestra en Hart
La comunidad de Oceana – (41:24)
• Jerry quiere que se preserven la Sociedad Histórica (Historical Society) y los documentos
5
�Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project
A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant
Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
También quiere que la feria del condado continúe
o Jerry participó en la comisión de ganadería por 22 años donde promovió el
programa 4-H
El negocio de la telefonía celular ha cambiado mucho en la vida hoy en día
Jerry cultivó pepinillos en México por 17 años
o Estaba allí por 2 a 3 semanas cada vez
o Hace 3 años dejó este negocio porque había demasiado peligro y muchos
carteles
o Alquiló tierra allí para cultivar
o A veces los Estados Unidos causaron problemas cuando detuvieron camiones
para realizar inspecciones de salud, y la comida se puso fea
Jerry es parte del Farm Bureau, pero cree que la organización no es bastante fuerte para
ayudar a la agricultura
Los trabajadores migrantes no vienen a trabajar tanto como antes a causa de los
cambios en la inmigración de los EEUU, y hoy en día las personas ilegales son arrestadas
o El gobierno no tiene programas en que estas personas pueden trabajar aquí
legalmente
o Sí existe en Canadá, así hay mexicanos o jamaicanos que viajan en auto para
trabajar en Ontario
Hoy en día se les paga bien a las personas que recogen los espárragos o las manzanas, y
ganan $25 por hora
La gente rehúye cultivos laboriosos porque no está segura si va a tener los trabajadores
necesarios en los momentos específicos para estos cultivos
Escuchar la grabación en 50 años – (51:44)
• La población es estable y no crece mucho
• El área ha sido buen lugar para formar una familia
• Unas drogas que han entrado en la comunidad son la mayor amenaza
• Hay mucha buena voluntad y paz en el pueblo
• Jerry anima a los jóvenes que planten cultivos que ganarán dinero, como cultivos de
fruta o espárragos
• Hoy en día la agricultura es tan complicada que hay que tener cuidado en lo que se
cultiva porque es posible que no se gane suficiente dinero para sobrevivir
o El costo de la agricultura es muy desalentador para los jóvenes agricultores
6
�Growing Community: Oceana’s Agricultural History Project
A project supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant
Project Director: Melanie Shell-Weiss, GVSU Liberal Studies Department
•
•
•
•
Actualmente hay muchas personas sin destrezas o sin educación universitaria que ganan
muchísimo dinero por hora cuando recogen cultivos
Jerry y sus hijos perdieron dinero en cultivos, así vendieron parte de sus tierras para
pagar unas deudas
Hoy en día los agricultores tienen que garantizar horas y pago específico para los
trabajadores sin importar si hay trabajo o no
Jerry menciona desafíos actuales para la agricultura y leyes que causan problemas para
los agricultores
Reflexiones finales – (1:00:32)
• Los trabajadores migrantes siempre han sido una parte muy importante del condado de
Oceana, y algunos se han establecido y han llegado a ser buenos ciudadanos,
estabilizando la economía allí
• Jerry está vendiendo su campo de trabajo
• La segregación racial ha sido problemática también porque algunos nativos del pueblo
no quieren que los hispanos estén allí
• El pueblo nunca tendrá residentes suficientes para hacer todo el trabajo; se necesitan
los trabajadores migrantes
• En cierta época, el condado de Oceana fue el principal productor de pepinillos en
Michigan
7
�
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4c60e07d6225f6d2e1fabfe09c8e41a3.mp3
c58867556bce55c83ee3fc0d6e40d650
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
Oceana County Migrant Labor History Collection
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Shell-Weiss, Melanie
Description
An account of the resource
Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Growing Community: A Century of Migration in Oceana County." This project was a collaboration between El Centro Hispano de Oceana, the Oceana County Historical and Genealogical Society, and Grand Valley State University funded by a Common Heritage grant from the United States National Endowment for the Humanities. The materials in this collection document the history of communities in Hart, Shelby, and Walkerville and explore themes of migration, labor, religion, family, belonging, national and cultural identities, regional, national, and international connections, and citizenship.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Oceana County (Mich.)
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
El Centro Hispano de Oceana; Oceana County Historical and Genealogical Society
Relation
A related resource
Growing Community (NEH Common Heritage project)
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
DC-06
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
image/jpeg
audio/mp3
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Image
Sound recording
Language
A language of the resource
eng
spa
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oceana County (Mich.)
Hart (Mich.)
Shelby (Mich.)
Farms
Farmers
Migrant agricultural laborers
Hispanic Americans
Account books
Diaries
Oral history
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Título
Spanish language Title entry
Brandel, Jerry (entrevista de audio y resumen)
Descripción
Spanish language Description entry
Entrevista de historia oral con Jerry Brandel, Hart, Michigan. Entrevistado por Walter Urick. Idioma en Inglés. Febrero 12, 2016. Jerry Brandel nació el 28 de febrero de 1945 en Muskegon, Michigan. En ese año, su familia se mudó a Hart, Michigan, y compró una granja de frutas. Se graduó de Hart High School en 1963 y después asistió a Michigan State University por dos años para tomar un curso de agricultura. Después de su educación, se asoció con su padre y hermano por diez años para cultivar cerezas, manzanas, duraznos, y árboles de Navidad. En 1975, Jerry decidió cultivar solo y empezó a cultivar pepinillos en Oceana y en México. Luego, eligió trabajar en la venta de los cultivos de pepinillos de otros agricultores en todo el país. Jerry tiene dos hijos y una hija, y actualmente ha vivido en el área del condado de Oceana por 70 años.
Sujetos
Spanish language Subject terms
La agricultura
Granja de frutas
Cerezas
Pepinillos
Árboles de Navidad
Ordeñar vacas
El cerezal
Tasa de interés
Acres
Trabajadores migrantes
No hispano
Hispano
Afroamericano
Desafíos en cuanto a la agricultura
Vivienda
México
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-06_Brandel_Jerry
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Brandel, Jerry
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-02-12
Title
A name given to the resource
Brandel, Jerry (audio interview and summary)
Description
An account of the resource
Oral history interview with Jerry Brandel, Hart, Michigan. Interviewed by Walter Urick. English language recording. Summary in English and Spanish. February 12, 2016. Jerry Brandel was born on February 28, 1945 in Muskegon, Michigan. That year, his family moved to Hart, Michigan, and bought a fruit farm. He graduated from Hart High School in 1963 and then went on to Michigan State University to take a two-year agricultural course. After his schooling, he went into partnership for ten years with his father and brother, where they farmed cherries, apples, peaches, and Christmas trees. In 1975, Jerry decided to begin farming on his own, and he started growing pickles in Oceana and Mexico. Years later, he entered into the broker business, selling pickle crops for other farmers across the country. Jerry has two sons and one daughter, and he has now lived in the Oceana County area for 70 years.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Urick, Walter (interviewer)
Shell-Weiss, Melanie (director)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Farming
Fruit farm
Cherries
Pickles
Christmas trees
Milk cows
Cherry orchard
Interest rate
Acres
Migrants
Non-Hispanic
Hispanic
African American
Farming challenges
Housing
Mexico
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Growing Community (NEH Common Heritage)
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
Sound
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Language
A language of the resource
eng
spa
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/99a474d0ecfad5def511864e8dfb5ad0.jpg
e3b89ee431ff96104d93b016d7c23cd0
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_FilmPacks_V_18_004
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1938-09-03
Title
A name given to the resource
Bras D'Or looking NE to Marble Mtn.
Description
An account of the resource
Black and white photograph of a dirt road on a hillside. A wooden fence runs alongside the road and a cow is visible standing on the roadside. Farmhouses are visible in the background, with a cliff face and hills prominent in the background.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bras d'Or Lake (N.S.)
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/b04f96ac89b0ebc1eccec4e312fdf05a.jpg
dc8b04876ab4543db96bbc3e6a7b09b4
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
BrashlerJanet_Photo1
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. University Communications
Title
A name given to the resource
Brashler, Janet
Description
An account of the resource
Janet Brashler, Anthropology
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/2f7e240d9a0e62376ff22065417defaf.jpg
b0e7273aaa32b25c6f869a359974f66f
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
BrashlerJanet_Photo2
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. University Communications
Title
A name given to the resource
Brashler, Janet
Description
An account of the resource
Janet Brashler, Anthropology
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/c05c716889f20040b39041f188748328.jpg
0cabe9a9a0e5dfddf7ac68f570db1c85
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
BrashlerJanet_Photo3
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. University Communications
Title
A name given to the resource
Brashler, Janet
Description
An account of the resource
Janet Brashler, Anthropology
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/472fddcc7baae9cf4e999d8dad0373af.jpg
05aac7e80b01d16a42ce47a75a165e3e
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
BrayNancy_Photo1
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. University Communications
Title
A name given to the resource
Bray, Nancy
Description
An account of the resource
Nancy Bray
Subject
The topic of the resource
Grand Valley State University – History
College teachers
Universities and colleges – Faculty
Michigan
Source
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Text
Brazen to the End
From the series: A True Story, the Gospel and Forgiveness
Text: Luke 23:39
Richard A. Rhem
Christ Community Church
Spring Lake, Michigan
Lent, March 10, 1999
Transcription of the spoken sermon
"A True Story, The Gospel and Forgiveness." That’s the overall theme of our
reflections during this Lenten season, midweek, and we have raised the question
about the possibility of forgiveness and whether or not it’s even moral, and we
have seen that attitudes and actions do have their consequences, quite apart from
whether or not forgiveness is possible and moral. This evening the meditation is
entitled, "Brazen to the End," and I was going to deal with the one criminal
crucified with Jesus who was brazen to the end, to be followed next week by the
other criminal who pled for mercy in his dying hour. But, next week we’ll have a
special opportunity to hear The Rev. Dr. Mel White, our evening preacher in a
Lenten service of this format, but with a special theme and emphasis. So, I’m
going to have to lump the two criminals together and retitle the meditation.
Perhaps I could say "Broken or Brazen at the End." That’s pretty good, eh? You
get the whole thing and I only have half the work, you see. "Broken or Brazen at
the End."
Last Lenten season on a Sunday morning I made history; it was the first time
from a Christian pulpit that a rebellious criminal got any good press. I suggested
that there was something heroic about his "No" all the way to the end. (We only
lost one family. No sense of humor, I guess.) Well, obviously, Luke sets us up and
his intention is clear. He has that magnificent word of Jesus, "Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do," which will be the text for two weeks from
tonight. And then he has the two criminals, the one brazen to the end, railing at
Jesus with his last breath, with no intention or indication that there was anything
like repentance or second thoughts going on in his life.
And then the other criminal, of course, pleading with Jesus to remember him,
acknowledging that what he was receiving was the just dessert of his deeds but
pleading for mercy, nonetheless, which mercy was granted him by the promise of
Jesus. And, of course, the Gospel intention of Luke was to show the magnificent
grace of Jesus and to show two opposite reactions, one a brazen attitude all the
way to the last breath, the other a brokenness that opened oneself up for mercy.
© Grand Valley State University
�Brazen to the End
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
If I were to deal only with the one this evening, I would simply have pointed out
the fact that one can only receive forgiveness when one is open to being forgiven.
I can forgive you for something you do to me, in spite of your desire for it or your
openness to it or any response to it. Of course, I can do that. And it will, as a
matter of fact, be good for me to do that, psychologically, emotionally, spiritually.
But, I can’t effect in you the benefit of being forgiven if you are not open to it, and
the reason a year ago I tried to look at the rebellious criminal from a little
different angle was the fact that we are so quick to look at that snapshot from the
cross and to say the one was bad and damned in his rebelliousness, the other was
bad, forgiven in his plea for mercy, and premature closure says that’s all there is
to it. But, that’s not all there is to it, really.
The story that has triggered this series is The Sunflower, the account by Simon
Wiesenthal of his experience as a prisoner in the death camps of the Nazis, who is
pulled aside by a nurse to come to the bedside of a dying SS officer who pours out
his awful tale of the horrendous things of which he has been a part and for which
he accepts responsibility, needing to confess and, pouring out this story in the
presence of a Jew because the Jewish people were the object of the terror and the
violence of which he was a part. The story ended with Wiesenthal’s question,
"Should I have forgiven him?" Actually, he listened to the story and he left
without saying a word. No word of human compassion or pity, and certainly no
word of forgiveness. He just left the room. I think the very fact that he tells the
story is perhaps indicative of the fact that he needed to do what that Nazi needed
to do. He needed to tell his own story because he has never rested quite easily
with the fact that he left a dying man pleading for some word of compassion or
forgiveness without saying a word.
But there are many respondents to the story, which Wiesenthal leaves with the
question asking each of us, "What would you have done?" Most of the
respondents did as one particular British journalist did, saying,
I cannot answer the question, what I would have done. I don’t think any of
us knows what we would have done, given that circumstance, given the
depths of the suffering of those prisoners in that situation. I don’t think
any of us knows what we would have done. So, I’m not going to judge that.
But let me deal with it in terms of the question, What should I have done?
This is one of the respondents who very clearly says there should have been
offered some word of compassion, some word of grace, and he, as a matter of fact,
points to this Gospel paragraph that we read where Jesus says, "Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do."
When you read Wiesenthal’s story and when you see all the respondents who
struggle over that question, "What would I have done?" or "What should I have
done?" you realize the complexity of this matter of forgiveness in human
relationships and, of course, ultimately, forgiveness in terms of God and the
© Grand Valley State University
�Brazen to the End
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
Ultimate, the Absolute. We realize that it is just not as simple as we are wont to
make it. Forgiveness is such common fare; we talk about it all the time; we use it
in our liturgies and in our sermons, and yet, the more I think about forgiveness,
the more I recognize what a complex matter that is, for forgiveness must affect
something in the one forgiven.
The reason that I say a good word about the criminal who never repented is that
he was one of those, like a Simon Wiesenthal. Barabbas, the person mentioned in
one of the other Gospels whom Pilate wanted to release, is called an
insurrectionist, and the Romans didn’t crucify petty thieves. You can bet that all
of the crosses that lined the hillsides out of Jerusalem were political terrorists,
rebels, revolutionaries, threats to the peace and order of the State, and we know
that Jesus made his protest against the way the world was with non-violence, but
we know, as well, that there were zealots, there were guerilla bands, there were
revolutionaries roaming the countryside, and who of us can say where we would
have been in a case like that? Where there is the heel of the oppressor on the neck
of a people. We, ourselves, American people, are the beneficiaries of those who
rebelled and revolted against that which they considered unjust which was
nothing compared to what was going on in first century Palestine.
So, once again, the reason that I’m just not ready to damn that brazen thief is
that, like with Wiesenthal, I don’t know what he was suffering. I don’t know what
he went through. I think it’s possible for a human being to be so damaged and so
wounded that he can never, never emotionally yield his hatred and his violence.
It’s just too easy for me just to say, "Well, then he’s damned to hell."
But, to die that way is a terrible way to die, and Luke was obviously setting up the
other criminal as a model modeled after Jesus. What I am experiencing and
suffering I have earned, nevertheless, I plea for mercy, for forgiveness. And
what’s going on in these two cases? What is not going on in the brazen one is that
coming to self-awareness that sets him free from his anger and his hatred and his
woundedness. That’s what’s going on. And what’s going on in the other one is
that same self-awareness that overtook that young German SS officer who said,
"My God, what have I done?", whose repentance was deep and genuine. To come
to that awareness, a certain integrity of being, an owning of one’s life and one’s
story, is the prerequisite for receiving the benefit and the blessing of forgiveness.
So, is that it, then? In spite of the fact that we handle gently the brazen one
because we don’t know how wounded he may have been, and affirm the other one
because his awareness came before his last breath, is that all there is, then?
It was thinking about that that got me thinking years ago, back in the mid-80s,
about the ancient Church’s teaching of purgatory, the fact that none of us at the
end of our life, in spite of whether or not we may have perceived the word of
forgiveness, is ready for the presence of God. That for the best of us as well as the
worst of us, there is a good deal of cleaning up that must be necessary, a good
© Grand Valley State University
�Brazen to the End
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
deal more of self-awareness and consequently of repentance and transformation.
It was at that point that I began to see the wisdom of the ancient Church’s
teaching on purgatory and then I came across this marvelous paragraph from
C.S. Lewis in his Letters to Malcolm, who says,
Our souls demand purgatory, don’t they? Would it not break the heart if
God said to us, "It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags
drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will
upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into the
joy!"
Should we not reply, "With submission, Sir, and if there is no objection, I’d
rather be cleaned first."
"It may hurt, you know."
"Even so, Sir."
I assume that the process of purification will normally involve suffering,
partly from tradition, partly because most real good that has been done to
me in this life has involved it, but I don’t think suffering is the purpose of
the purgation. I can well believe that people neither much worse nor much
better than I will suffer less than I or more, no nonsense about merit. The
treatment given will be the one required, whether it hurts little or much.
My favorite image on this matter comes from the dentist chair. I hope that
when the tooth of life is drawn and I am coming ‘round, a voice will say,
"Rinse out your mouth with this." This will be purgatory.
And so, you see, I think it’s much too simple and superficial to have us live our
respective lives, some a little better, some a little worse, but like C. S. Lewis said,
no nonsense about merit. But, it’s too simple and too superficial to say that at the
end of it all one says, "Forgive me," or one continues to say "No" and to have that
be the eternal issue of our being. I heard tell some time ago of an old fellow whose
funeral was conducted and the family was so delighted by the fact that two days
before he died he was led to the Lord by a nurse. Well, that can be wonderful.
But, I mean, the family was so happy about the fact that the old man escaped the
fires of hell and was entered into the pearly gates because two days before his
death he finally said, "Yes."
Does that really make sense? Does that really resonate with you? It doesn’t with
me, frankly. Much more, our lives are being lived out as a tale that is told and
we’ll come, sooner or later, before the face of God, and some of us sooner and
some of us later may find all of the stuff of our lives that’s so sour, causing such
dysfunction and distortion, finally draining away, and then, then maybe that
moment of awareness will come. And is not salvation finally simply awareness,
honesty and integrity before the face of God? Isn’t that all God intends in the
creation of complex creatures like us?
© Grand Valley State University
�Brazen to the End
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
Christopher Hollis, the journalist who responded to the Wiesenthal story, told of
an old medieval legend in which the disciples re-gathered around a table in
heaven with Jesus to re-celebrate the Last Supper, and there was a vacant chair
until the door opened and Judas entered and Jesus rose and kissed him and said,
"We’ve been waiting for you."
I don’t think God will quit until the last child has come to the table.
References:
C. S. Lewis. Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer. Harcourt, Inc., 1964.
Simon Wiesenthal. The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of
Forgiveness. Shocken: revised expanded edition, 1998.
© Grand Valley State University
�
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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.
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Clergy--Michigan
Reformed Church in America
Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
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Rhem, Richard A.
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/514">Richard A. Rhem papers (KII-01)</a>
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives.
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Kaufman Interfaith Institute
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KII-01
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1981-2014
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Midweek Lent
Series
A True Story, The Gospel and Forgiveness
Scripture Text
Luke 23:39
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Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI
References
C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm, 1964
Simon Wiesenthal, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness, 1998
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KII-01_RA-0-19990310
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1999-03-10
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Brazen to the End
Creator
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Richard A. Rhem
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Grand Valley State University
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Christ Community Church (Spring Lake, Mich.)
Sermons
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Richard A. Rhem - An Archive of Sermons, Prayers, Talks and Stories: http://richardrhem.org/
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eng
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Text
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audio/mp3
application/pdf
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on March 10, 1999 entitled "Brazen to the End", as part of the series "A True Story, The Gospel and Forgiveness", on the occasion of Midweek Lent, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Luke 23:39.
Forgiveness
Lent
Purgatory
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https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b608bc5dc402bfc2196120edcd11e934.pdf
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PDF Text
Text
ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW
DONALD BRAZONES
TAPE 1
Born: 1924 in Racine, Wisconsin
Resides: Byron Center, Michigan
Interviewed by: James Smither PhD, GVSU Veterans History Project,
Transcribed by: Joan Raymer, August 15, 2011
Interviewer: Mr. Brazones, can you begin by telling us a little bit about your own
family background? To begin with, where and when were you born?
Sure, I was born in 1924 in Racine, Wisconsin and I was the middle child of seven
children. I went to school in Racine and I stayed there until I left. The first time I left
was to go into the service.
Interviewer: What did your father do for a living?
My father was a factory worker.
Interviewer: Was he able to keep his job during the depression, through the
thirties?
No, he worked with the WPA and I think that was the only thing he worked with at that
time, and that was the only income we had at the time. We had seven children, so that
was kind of tough. 1:45
Interviewer: Did your mother or the older kids kind of pitch in and earn some
money?
There really wasn’t anywhere to go to earn money. Actually I started my first job when I
was nine years old. I sold Liberty magazines and they sold for a nickel and it was very,
very difficult to get a nickel out of anybody. I was a protegé of a little friend of mine, but
I was really good at selling and we would usually stand by where a streetcar stopped,
1
�there were no buses at that time, they were all streetcars, and when the people got off the
streetcar he would latch onto one of those guys and he might walk two blocks with him
and finally get that nickel for that magazine. Well, I wasn’t that kind of a salesman, so
after he sold all of his, he would take and sell mine because he was my sponsor. 2:55
Interviewer: All right, so you had to make do and sort of get by in the thirties. Did
your father get a job again in thirty-nine or forty, as things picked up?
Yes, he worked in a factory in Racine after the—I suppose there was—I’m not sure when
that picked up, but I suppose it was just before the war. I can remember now, I can
remember. We were listening to President Roosevelt, I think it was in 1939, and he was
saying that they were going to build a hundred airplanes a day, or a week, but I can
remember that, so I think things must have started picking up in 1939. At that time I was
fifteen or so. 3:48
Interviewer: You were able to stay in high school and finish rather than leave after
the eighth grade or something like that?
Yes, I went to high school.
Interviewer: Now, when you were in high school in 1939, 40 and 41, before Pearl
Harbor, were you paying much attention to what was happening in the world?
Were you aware there was a war in Europe and all of that?
No, I was worried about playing basketball and of course, I was working then too. I had
a paper route. I wouldn’t skip, I was excused from the last period in school, so I could
get down and get my papers and get those peddled. 4:31
Interviewer: So that, now when Pearl Harbor happens and we are at was, that is a
little bit of a surprise?
2
�Yeah, well it was a surprise and it happened, as you know, on a Sunday. My friends and
I were playing basketball and we played on Sunday afternoon. I was there and all of a
sudden one of my friends came and said, “The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor”, and I
said, “Where’s Pearl Harbor”? I didn’t know anything about that, but the next thing that
happened was that the newspapers put out what they called an “extra”, and the only
communication you had with the public was by radio and the newspaper. 5:36 I just
loved it when there was an “extra” because the paper cost five cents rather than three
cents. The regular price of the paper was three cents, and what you would do—you
would take your bundle of papers that you had and you would walk up and down the
street yelling “extra, extra”, and the people would come out and ask what’s happening
and you would sell them a paper.
Interviewer: How soon after you learned about the news were you out there selling
“extras”?
The same day, as fast as they could get them printed, yeah
Interviewer: So, it’s extra work for the paperboy and extra money.
Yes
Interviewer: When this all happened, did you figure that you would probably wind
up in the service then, or did you think the war would be over in a few weeks and it
wouldn’t matter? 6:31
Well, there were two friends of mine that were seniors in high school and we got talking
the next day and we decided that what we were going to do was to go and join the
Marines and we were going to go and kill Japs. My two friends went and told their
parents what they were going to do and I went and I told nine. I said, “I’m going to join
3
�the Marines, Art Moen, Searle and I, we’re going to join the marines and we’re going to
go and kill Japs”, and my mother said, “you’re going to go to school and you’re going to
get your diploma and no killing Japs, so that’s what I had to do. They went into the
service, they went into the Marines, and I went to school. 7:30
Interviewer: And of course, you were only seventeen at the time, so you couldn’t
enlist without your parent’s permission.
I guess do, I don’t know.
Interviewer: Your mother said so, so that took care of it. All right, now, once you
graduated did you go right away to enlist?
I went—I graduated in June and I went in, in August.
Interviewer: When you enlisted, did you have an opportunity to choose what
branch of the service you went into?
Yes, I was enlisting, so I could go wherever I wanted to go.
Interviewer: What did you choose?
I chose the air force; it was the Army Air Corps.
Interviewer: So you could specify that?
Yes
Interviewer: Where did they send you first once you enlisted? 8:14
Well, the first place I went was to Great Lakes in Illinois. I was there for—I can’t
remember.
Interviewer: Great Lakes in mainly a naval base. Was it possible they sent you
someplace else?
4
�I went to Great Lakes when I was getting out of the service. Maybe I—I was going to
say St. Louis, Missouri is where I went to training.
Interviewer: So, there’s Jefferson Barracks near there.
Jefferson Barracks, that’s exactly where I went.
Interviewer: What was the boot camp experience like?
It was not very good because you—St. Louis in August, at that time of year, gets kind of
warm. And when you have formations it was very common, when you’re standing at
attention, that someone would keel over. 9:18 That wasn’t very pleasant. In fact, none
of boot camp was very pleasant. It’s your first experience in the service, you’re just a
young kid, and then you have to go through all of this nonsense. At the time we thought
it was nonsense, but you feel kind of proud to be able to do it anyhow, because now you
were in the service.
Interviewer: You at least were in pretty good shape when you went in if you played
a lot of basketball, so you could handle most of the physical stuff ok. How did you
do with the military discipline, was that hard? Was it hard to learn or did you catch
on pretty fast?
I was eighteen years old years old and the discipline never bothered me a bit. I liked
discipline and you can ask my son. 10:10
Interviewer: Did the drill sergeants seem to be people who were pretty fair, or did
they vary a lot?
They were not what you see on TV where these guys are yelling and everything. That’s
for TV and that wasn’t the way it was, at least when I was in there, that wasn’t the way it
5
�was. Drill sergeants had a job to do and you had a job to do. You had to learn how to
march and that’s one thing that you did.
Interviewer: About how long did you spend in boot camp? Was it eight weeks or
twelve?
I would guess it was eight or twelve, yeah, I can’t remember.
Interviewer: Now, at that point did they send you someplace for air corps training
or what happened next? 11:06
From boot camp, I believe that you had of choice of where you wanted to go and what
you wanted to do or you were just assigned, I’m not sure, but I don’t think you had too
many choices at that time. I was assigned to armor school and I was sent to Denver,
Colorado at Lowry Field, just a very nice place.
Interviewer: What were they training you to do in armor school?
You’re trained to—I could take a 50 caliber machine gun apart and put it back together
blindfolded, and you also had to load the airplanes with bombs and that was about your
job as an armor soldier [armorer]. 12:18 When I got out of there, instead of going to an
active duty outfit, the officer on the base there decided he wanted me to work in the
office. So, I graduated in armor and I was working this office and I wasn’t real happy
about that, but that’s the way life is in the military.
Interviewer: Why do you think he picked you to work in the office?
I rally don’t know and I didn’t question it. 13:08
Interviewer: How long did that last? How long did you stay there?
It lasted some months, I’m not exactly sure how long, but at that time they opened up a
B-24 transition school in Denver, at Lowry Field. Everyday I would see these B-24’s
6
�coming in and landing and taking off and landing and I thought it would be more fun to
fly one of those things than to work in this office. I decided to apply for the Aviation
Cadets, and I did and I got in, and then I was sent to Santa Ana, California for a few
weeks of hell. 14:11 We were restricted to the base. We went there for six weeks and
in order to keep these young kids out of trouble, they put us to work. Every day we had
to scrub the barracks and you had scrub brushes and mops and everything and you had to
hang them up just so, and the mops were all cut even, so when you hung them up they
were in line. The officer who was in charge would come in and inspect it and he said,
“well, this looks pretty clean, but it doesn’t shine just right. Do it again tonight”. I don’t
know how many times we scrubbed that damn floor. 15:15
Interviewer: What were you doing the rest of the time? Were you in classes or
learning about aviation at that point or aircraft?
No, this was basic training for the Cadets.
Interviewer: Were the Cadets expecting to be pilots or were you training to be
navigators?
The point in Santa Ana was to take tests to see what you were qualified for. Whether you
qualified for pilot training or navigation or bombardier or whatever it was. You would go
through various tests, including co-ordination and trying to learn how to fly an airplane
and doing all those machines. 16:17 Then you were classified and then you sere sent
off to your particular school for whatever you’re qualified to do. They classified me as a
navigator and I didn’t like that because I wanted to fly one of those things, so I went
before the review board and I said, “I was classified as a navigator, but I would like to be
a pilot. I prefer to be a pilot”, and they asked, “Why do you want to be a pilot?” I said,
7
�“Well, I want to fly one of those airplanes”, and they said, “What the hell do you think
you do, navigate from the ground?” They said, “you either go to navigation school or the
infantry”, and I said, “Where’s this school?” 17:18 When I think back now, had I been
pushed out of there, I would have been hitting the beaches at Normandy.
Interviewer: Or who knows where else in the Pacific.
That’s right, that’s right
Interviewer: Flying in a bomber over Germany wasn’t always such an easy thing
either. They were all pretty dangerous jobs and not easy.
No, not very much fun.
Interviewer: Where did they send you for navigation school?
I went to Hondo, Texas.
Interviewer: Where in Texas is that?
It’s about seventy-five miles west of San Antonio, out in the desert or whatever.
Interviewer: Out in the wide-open spaces. Ok, what was the base its self like?
What kind of a place was it?
It was a bunch of barracks out in the desert and that was it. 18:20
Interviewer: What did your training consist of? What were you learning there?
You were learning, I hope I get this, learning how to be a navigator. You would go on
training flights and we had, I think they were called AT 10’s I believe, and you would
have three navigators in this plane, students, and you would take turns directing the flight
and following where you were going. Each navigator would take a leg and that’s what it
was. 19:19
Interviewer: What kinds of tools did you have to navigate with?
8
�At that time you had an altimeter, a speed indicator, and you had a computer, which was
called an E6B computer that was just like a slide rule really. That was a computer at that
time.
Interviewer: Did you work off maps?
Yeah, we had maps.
Interviewer: Did they teach you to navigate by the stars too?
Yes, I took celestial navigation.
Interviewer: About how long did you spend in navigator school? 20:20
I would guess, nine to twelve months, I can’t remember.
Interviewer: That’s a long time. Did you get to go home at any point during the
training process or were you just our there the whole time?
I was out there the whole time, I think.
Interviewer: Your out there at the base for a long time, you’re not in basic training
anymore, so you can get off the base once in a while. Where would you go and what
would you do?
I would go to San Antonio.
Interviewer: What was there to do in San Antonio?
The thing to do was you could get some beer there; of course you could get beer on the
base too, so that didn’t make any difference. It was getting away and out of jail, out of
confinement for a while and you could say no to somebody and didn’t have to worry
about it. 21:24
Interviewer: Did they have any facilities in San Antonio, Red Cross or USO to kind
of help the servicemen or were you just on your own?
9
�No, they had the Red Cross and the one thing that sticks in my mind about San Antonio is
that they have a river going through and a river walk. I remember we use to spend time
there at that. Really, about all I can remember about San Antonio is that it was an
impressive thing.
Interviewer: That’s still there and it’s one of the things that San Antonio’s still
famous for. What kind of guys were you training with? What sorts of people were
in that school?
In that school they were all in their early twenties. I believe, if I remember right, that you
had to be under twenty-seven years old. If you were over twenty-seven you were an old
man and couldn’t train in flight school. 22:34 It was all young guys and I was probably
one of the youngest.
Interviewer: Did a lot of them have some college already?
I suppose so, I don’t know. I can’t tell you that, but I would imagine so.
Interviewer: Were they from all over the country at that point?
Yes, from everywhere
Interviewer: What kinds of planes did you train in? You mentioned the first one.
AT10 I think
Interviewer: Was that a twin-engine plane?
Yes, it was a twin-engine plane.
Interviewer: Was that the only kind of plane you trained in, in San Antonio?
In the navigation school, yes
Interviewer: Was that complete now?
10
�There was one other, and I remember we took our final exam flight in a bigger plane. I
can’t remember exactly what it was. 23:34
Interviewer: Once you complete the navigation school, where did you go next?
Then I went to Ardmore, Oklahoma, and in Ardmore, Oklahoma we were assigned a
crew. Pilot, co-pilot, navigator and everything and then you would start flying as a crew
and try to get acquainted with all of your duties and how to fly as a crew.
Interviewer: Now, what kind of a plane were you in?
They were B17’s 24:15
Interviewer: Now, is this the crew that you would go over to England with?
That is correct
Interviewer: Can you tell us a little bit about the men in that crew?
Well, there were four officers, pilot, co-pilot, navigator and bombardier. My pilot was
the oldest of us, he must have been twenty-five and Bob Curtis, I’m not sure how old he
was; he could have been a little older too.
Interviewer: Was he the co-pilot?
No, he was the bombardier and the opera guy. The co-pilot was a young guy too.
Interviewer: You had enlisted men who were the gunners?
Yes, and they lived separately from us. 25:26 It was interesting because—I’ll go back
just a little bit—when I decided to go into the air force, a friend of mine from Racine had
already gone into the air force, and when I was going I went over to see his mother and
told her I might find—I might run into Don sometime, he’s in Texas. She said, “do you
know how big Texas is?” She said, “from the bottom of it to the top of it is as far as from
the top of Texas to Canada, and your chances of being with him are so slight”. Low and
11
�behold, where do I go? I go to Hondo, Texas and he’s a mechanic on those planes there.
26:29 The screwy thing about the service at that time, I don’t know what it is now, but
when I got there I said, “oh boy, now I’m in Hondo and I can go and see my friend”, and
I asked the officer, as he was getting us acclimated to the base and the rules and
regulations and what was happening. I said, “I have a friend here, enlisted man, how can
I go and see him? Where can I go?” He said, “well, maybe you could arrange to meet
him outside someplace”. Officers could not talk to enlisted men and that was beyond
what I could understand, so I saw him anyhow and I didn’t get put in jail. 27:29
Interviewer: Can you describe a little bit what you did as a crew as you were
learning to fly the plane? How did that go?
Well, you would have certain missions and as I think back, I think the training could have
been better than it was, and particularly from my standpoint because I had to learn how to
navigate. The pilot would say, “this is where we’re going to go and you tell us how to
get there”, and he was also learning to fly the plane and he was also learning how to work
with his co-pilot and visa versa. The bombardier also had to learn to drop bombs where
he was supposed to, so all of us were trying to learn something in a very short period of
time with the minimum amount of training, really. 28:42 One thing we did do in
Ardmore, Oklahoma—those poor people in that city, it was just a little village, but with
the B17 transition school there, they had all these young cowboys flying these airplanes.
What they did, and what we did, was fly down like that and fly down Main Street. You
could look up and see—I don’t know what those people did in that ton, but I guess
everyone that went through that school decided that was the thing to do. 29:32
Interviewer: I suppose they got used to it after a while.
12
�You can, but how the hell do you get used to those four engines going down Main Street,
Oh God, it was terrible.
Interviewer: Were there problems with accidents and things in training? Did any
crash?
Oh yes, yes there were and I don’t know of any specific ones, but I know I heard of
crashes. In fact, I’ll tell you—we were assigned one mission, so when we got in our
plane—normally what you would was, you would take off from this field and you would
climb to altitude like that and when you would get to your altitude you would level off
and fly. 30:26 Well, in navigating it’s a little difficult to navigate at these various
altitudes because the winds change and you don’t know exactly what they are ahead of
time. We were going on one mission and the pilot said, “well, I’ll help you out today,
I’m going to go to altitude right over the base and then we’ll fly on the mission”. That
was fine and I could start navigating right from here then instead of trying to calculate all
of that. Unfortunately somebody else was doing the same thing and we were coming
around like that and just about met each other, but both guys dove off like that and I think
the pilot was scared for the rest of the flight. That was not too smart. 31:31
Interviewer: Did the pilot ever play any games with you or do things that scared
you?
No, he had a job to do and we had a job to do and we just did it that’s all.
Interviewer: Wasn’t there one occasion there at Ardmore when you were flying
without a pilot? You were mentioning that before the interview.
We were on a bombing training mission and on one day, all of the enlisted men had some
bad food or something and they couldn’t fly because they had other things that were
13
�interrupting their flying, so they were all grounded. Just the four of us, four officers,
were in the plane and took off in the plane. 32:38 The bombardier and I are down in the
nose section and we were flying along and all of a sudden I looked around and here’s the
co-pilot saying, “hi guys, how are you”, and blah, blah, blah and that’s fine you know.
Then all of a sudden I turned around and here comes the pilot and I thought, “holy
Mackerel, this is not good”, so he went right back up there again. He was the old man
and he should have known better, but we were all in our teens and he was twenty-five or
so, so he was an old man. Anyhow, after we got down he admitted that it was a dumb
thing to do, but I guess he just couldn’t resist it. 33:33
Interviewer: Did these planes have an autopilot feature of some kind?
Yes, he set it on autopilot and it flies by itself.
Interviewer: Did you also have a Norden bombsight on this plane?
Yes
Interviewer: That is something were you can actually turn it over to the
bombardier at a certain point to control the plane?
You have—when you’re on a mission it’s all mapped out where you go and how you go
and as you approach the target they have a place that’s called the IP or the initial point, so
as you’re flying you fly over this initial point, you turn it into the target, and then the
bombardier would take over. He would crank up his bombsight so that it would zero in
on the target, and then he was under control of the plane. 34:32 He was flying the plane
because he wanted it to go where his bombsight was pointing. He would do that and he
would keep control of the plane until he dropped the bombs and then the pilot would take
over.
14
�Interviewer: In training, how well did that work? Was he able to be pretty
accurate with it?
Yeah, he did pretty well. We didn’t do very many bombing missions though.
Interviewer: You didn’t have a whole lot of practice then?
No, very little
Interviewer: We have been talking about your training with the flight crew in
Oklahoma. Now, once you completed that stage were you ready then to be shipped
overseas? Was that the next step? 35:25
Correct
Interviewer: Did they let you go home first?
I don’t think so
Interviewer: Where did they send you? From Oklahoma where do you go?
We went to Kearney, Nebraska
Interviewer: Did you pick-up a new plane there or did you just take your old one?
I’m not even sure how we got there. From Kearney we went to—that must be where we
were assigned bases in England. 36:38 From Kearney we went to the port of
debarkation in New York and we took a boat across.
Interviewer: So you did not fly a plane over?
No
Interviewer: What kind of boat did they put you on?
We were on a British boat, which was very nice.
Interviewer: Was it a big passenger ship or a smaller ship? Did they use things like
the Queen Mary to carry guys over?
15
�No—let me back up here a little bit. In Kearney we got—ok, we all got onto the ship and
then we went down into the ship where there was a sort of big area almost like a mess
area or something like that, and you all packed in there and sat by these mess tables and
waited for everyone to get onto the ship. 38:24 We were all packed in there at these
mess tables or picnic tables and we thought they were going to wait until everyone got on
the ship and then send us up to our separate room to travel over there. It wasn’t too long
after everyone got on the ship and there came an announcement over there—“Ok
gentlemen, this is your home for the next two weeks until we land in England”. “Where
are our rooms?” “Here are your hammocks, find someplace to attach them to and that’s
your home for the next several weeks until you get overseas”. 39:43
Interviewer: Did you sail in a convoy or did the ship go by its self?
We shipped in a convoy.
Interviewer: What do you remember about the trip over?
Well, the main thing that stays in my mind is that we were sailing along and there was an
explosion on one of the destroyers in the convoy. These destroyers keep going up and
down trying to keep you safe from submarines, but there was an explosion and one of the
destroyers just staying there and we were going on, so he just disappeared over the
horizon. 40:41 What we learned later was that a submarine took him out, so actually it
was kind of scary until we got the heck out of there, but it was uneventful from then on.
Interviewer: Was the weather reasonably good?
Yes, as I remember
Interviewer: Did you have a lot of guys get seasick anyway?
A lot of guys got seasick and I didn’t. I was lucky I could take that.
16
�Interviewer: When you’re packed together that tightly it might have gotten ugly a
few times.
Well, you weren’t packed like sardines all the time. When you were sleeping that’s when
you had to—you didn’t have a stateroom, your stateroom was your hammock you had
hanging there. 41:34 Other than that—yeah, there were a lot of people on that ship.
Interviewer: Were most of them army guys or air corps?
Air force, all air force being assigned to basis in England.
Interviewer: Where did they land you in England?
We landed at Liverpool.
Interviewer: What did that look like to you when you got off the ship?
I can’t—apparently it didn’t make a big impression on me.
Interviewer: Where did they send you then? What base did you go to?
We went to the 91st Bomb Group that was in Basingbourne. 42:30
Interviewer: How would you describe the base there in Basingbourne, what was it
like?
I was a combat base and you flew your missions from there. The base I was on, in
Basingbourne, was a previous Royal Air Force-Interviewer: Bomber Command base/
Yeah, well it was a British base and all of the buildings on there were permanent
buildings. They were stone and brick and everything and the accommodations were very
nice because it was a permanent base. A lot of the combat troops there live in Quonset
huts, but we had it pretty nice there. 43:28
17
�Interviewer: Can you describe the first mission you went on? When was it and
what did you do or did they split you up and put you with different crews the first
time?
No, the pilot flew two missions with another experienced crew, so he would know what
happens. What happens is, you’re assigned a spot in the armada that’s going to be going
over and bombing, so you would get up in the altitude, you would seek out the group that
you should be flying with, so you would get over there and you would get in formation
with them. 44:29
Interviewer: Had you done things like that, the fly in formation stuff when you
were training back in Oklahoma or was this kind of new for you?
There might have been one or two missions in Oklahoma, but I really don’t remember.
Interviewer: So, this was relatively new for you too once you had to start to do it as
a navigator?
Well, it was brand new and I had been out of school for quite a while and not really doing
much navigating at all and then you get to England and it was a completely different
system of navigating and you were at war and that wasn’t much fun to think about either,
so you had other things to think about besides navigating. 45:46
Interviewer: When did you fly your first mission over Europe?
My first mission, I think, on June 4th or June 5th. It must have been prior to D-Day, a few
days prior to D-Day.
Interviewer: Shortly before D-Day, and do you remember where they sent you?
Over—we went over onto the continent and we went in to bomb one gun site and came
back. That was almost like a training mission. 46:47
18
�Interviewer: Was there much anti-aircraft fire over there?
No, not on this mission
Interviewer: A small enough target, so it wasn’t as heavily defended as something
else might be?
I think that’s a good analysis, yes.
Interviewer: So you get there and you’ve joined up with your group right before DDay and at D-Day they used the heavy bombers which normally flew over Germany
and things like that to attack defenses around the beaches themselves. Is that what
you were doing then on D-Day?
We dropped—on D-Day we dropped, supposedly the way we planned, from the shoreline
in and strung out the bombing as they went in and we were one of the last groups
bombing on D-day and it was like twenty minutes or so before the troops were supposed
to hit the shore. 47:52 We were just in front of the troops.
Interviewer: This was not the kind of mission those planes had normally flown.
They didn’t usually—
Oh sure, we flew many like that. Do you mean to support ground troops?
Interviewer: I mean that particular kind of targeting against the coastline because
they, most of the bombers missed by several miles?
No, I wouldn’t say that
Interviewer: That’s what the military historians and the bomb survey after the war
said. You guys got better at it, but they didn’t hit the coastal defense at Omaha.
No, you’re getting the 8th Air Force mixed up with the British. 48:37 The British were
flying night missions.
19
�Interviewer: I’m speaking—in the history of D-Day this is pretty well documented.
They put the 8th Air Force on a support mission and the idea was to bomb behind
Omaha Beach. They were also bombing other stretches of the coastline, but the
ones who went into Omaha missed and almost all the bombs went well inland and
the German defenses were not hit by the bombers and the naval guns missed too,
everybody missed.
You know things that I don’t know.
Interviewer: But, they weren’t telling you things and you wouldn’t know things like
that, and when you flew a mission you wouldn’t know exactly what got hit or didn’t
get hit unless you could physically see it yourself. 49:20
You had a—not a movie, you knew where your bombs went and how they recorded that
I’m not exactly sure.
Interviewer: They used different things, there were aerial cameras sometimes and
sometimes you could visually see where they landed.
I was thinking about recording it, but I’m not—I don’t know how it was recorded.
Interviewer: Describe a little bit what you do as a navigator on one of these
bombing missions. What was your job or responsibility?
You’re, except for the lead navigator, your job was to follow. First off, at your briefing
you were given maps and routes as to what route you were going to fly to get to your
target, but the only plane or crew that led the rest of the air force were doing the actual
navigating. 50:46 The rest of us were following and I lost my train of thought.
20
�Interviewer: You were describing what a navigator did, so most of the time, if you
were on a mission and you were not the lead plane, the navigator didn’t have that
much to do, at least as long as you stayed with the formation.
You had to know where the heck you were at all times because who knew if you were
going to stay with the formation or not. The lead navigation plane, of course, had what
they called a “Mickey” and was radar. The rest of the planes had nothing. 51:45 When
you got over the continent the enemy radar could pick you up and know where you are.
What we would do, on the planes we would have what is call chaff and it was like foil
strips and they would throw it out of the airplanes to try to goof up their radar.
Interviewer: So, basically as a navigator, you’re still following, and checking where
you are, and keeping track of your altitude, speed and direction, and you’re trying
to plot out where you are with maps and that sort of thing even when you’re still in
the formation? 52:42
That’s right because you don’t know when you’re going to be out of the formation.
Interviewer: Did you have any other duties or responsibilities on the plane?
I was a gunner.
Interviewer: What gun would the navigator man?
There was one on each side of the nose, two fifty-caliber machine guns.
Interviewer: Now, you’re flying these missions in the summer of 1944 primarily.
Did you see much in the way of German aircraft? Did they send fighters after you
at all?
On my eighteen missions and were never attacked by German aircraft.
21
�Interviewer: Now describe a little bit—you flew a series of missions over France
and you did some over Germany too, but the ones over France, what kinds of
targets did you have? What were you going for? 53:29
Like I said, on D-Day you were concentrating on a gun and after D-Day we were
concentrating on bridges beyond the front lines, so you could—two things I guess, stop
additional enemy forces from coming up and stop some from getting out too. We had
sent a whole group of planes over to get one bridge. 54:06
Interviewer: Now, if you were trying to hit a bridge in a B17, how high did you fly
when you would drop the bombs?
25,000 feet
Interviewer: A bridge is a pretty small target and was the idea to just enough
bombers over the area that somebody would hit the bridge?
You don’t have a very good opinion of the air force do you? We hit the bridge and we hit
it good.
Interviewer: That campaign was actually very effective and it worked. I was just
curious as to how it worked. The assumption was, usually, for the smaller target
you would fly lower or send in smaller planes, twin-engine bombers or things like
that. 54:42
I don’t know, I was in a B17 and it was a high altitude bomber and that’s all I know.
Interviewer: That’s the idea, to find out from you, what did you do? What kind of
missions you did get.
We hit bridges, and we would hit gun placements
Interviewer: Did you ever hit submarine pens?
22
�No, I said no, but I think there was—go ahead
Interviewer: How bad was the anti-aircraft fire over France most of the time? Was
that a serious problem were you losing planes on some of these missions?
It was terrible, and the longer I was there the worse it got and the more accurate. As far
as the Germans were concerned, it got better and as far as I’m concerned it got worse.
55:39
Interviewer: I suppose some of the bridge targets and things like that, might not
been as heavily defended as a place that was fortified like when you flew over
Germany. Eventually as the campaign moves forward, the Germans are retreating
out of France, so you may still be attacking some of the bridges as they’re on their
way out, but eventually you also fly some missions over Germany too.
We flew very—the only time we went after a bridge was on D-Day and immediately after
D-Day. You’re correct, you know heavy bombers, you can send fifty-four bombers off to
hit one bridge. Normally you had your targets were airfields, factories and things like
that rather than tactical, more strategic. 56:37
Interviewer: Did you also attack railroad centers and that kind of thing or was that
not on your list?
I don’t remember any, so they must not have been on the list.
Interviewer: Where were the worst places to fly, at least in your experience? When
you would hear about a mission going someplace, which ones would you not want to
have to go on?
Well, I did not want to go to Berlin.
Interviewer: Why was Berlin particularly bad?
23
�I was defended; they didn’t want you to bomb Berlin. Their anti-aircraft and their aircraft
were defending Berlin and they didn’t want you to bomb it, of course they didn’t want
you to bomb anywhere, but Berlin, number one, was a long trip and number two, it was
very heavily defended.
Transcribed by: Joan Raymer, August 18, 2011
Interviewer: Now, we’re talking about your career as a navigator with the 8th Air
Force bombing over Europe. You start that basically in early June of 1944 and
when were you eventually shot down over Germany?
Yes, when I first got there I flew thirteen missions in eighteen days and you get kind of
worn out after that. Then I lost my crew. There was a navigator who had one mission
left on his tour and then he could go home or stop flying combat anyhow. He wanted to
take my place, so that was fine as far as I was concerned and I just wanted a day to sleep.
I was just really exhausted, so he took my place. There was one plane that didn’t come
back that day and that was my plane that I was supposed to be on. 2:20 I learned later
that they had crash landed in Spain, or they thought that they had crash landed in Spain,
but nobody really had any confirmation of that yet. So, for the what did I say, thirteen
missions in eighteen days and then five missions in about three months, I think, from
early July to September I flew five missions, so I’m a man without a crew. 3:03
Interviewer: So, you got assigned as a fill in or replacement for different crews?
Yes, that’s right
Interviewer: Let’s do a couple things, first of all, the bomber that you were
originally with, do you remember the name?
24
�Yes, it was “The Heavenly Body”, now “The Heavenly Body” , and of course we had a
nice gal sitting on a crescent moon, that was the nose art, but “The Heavenly Body”, I
was responsible for that name because in navigation you called the stars heavenly bodies
and I thought that would be a good name for us.
Interviewer: Did you find out eventually what did happen to the plane and the
crew? 3:53
Yes, I found out, and in fact somehow or other I got word that they were in London, the
crew was in London, so I went there that night and I met with—I met with them and I
went back to the base and I flew the next day and I got shot down, so that’s what
happened.
Interviewer: Now, can you tell us a little bit more about the missions that you flew
as a replacement? When you were off camera, you mentioned an interesting one
where you flew with a bunch of brass and it was a training exercise of some kind.
4:38
In fact I did very little training and that was, I think, one of the unfortunate things
because when I arrived there you are getting ready for D-Day and of course everybody
had to be in their—you didn’t have any time for training. You got training, on the job
training, so tell me your original question.
Interviewer: You mentioned something about flying with some higher-ranking
officers.
Well, when they wanted to go—well, I had one mission, it was called “Melcron” and it
was over France and it was—I can’t remember what we had to hit, but that’s when the
General was the pilot commander on the ship and who else did we have? I don’t know, a
25
�Colonel, I guess, as the co-pilot and the navigator was a Major and I went along as the
second navigator. 5:58 Just in case the first one-Interviewer: Got lost?
Yeah, but that was—it could have been better than that because the second one would
have been lost too. You’re sitting back there, you know, and you don’t see anything and
it’s really tough work.
Interviewer: What kind of a mission was this? What were they doing? You
mentioned something about colored smoke or something like that?
Say that again
Interviewer: You were talking about colored smoke.
This was an orientation, I would say, and I didn’t know it at the time, for the mission to
Saint Lo. 6:47 At that time the American troops were sort of bogged down. They
couldn’t get out of Saint Lo, so when we viewed the mission, it wasn’t a mission, it was
just a trip in England from one base to another and this other base is where they were
demonstrating what it was going to be like in Saint Lo, so apparently the ground troops
would light these flares, colored flares, and each group was assigned an area between the
red and the green, the blue and the yellow, so you could cover the whole area and not
cover one area five times, but cover five areas, so that’s what I—at that time I didn’t
know any of that though. 7:47
Interviewer: They were trying to figure out how to hit particular area targets on
the ground if they want to bomb the German positions, so they do it better than they
did it before. One of the runs they made at Saint Lo they hit a lot of American
soldiers.
26
�Well, I’m trying to think of the General’s name there. What happened, according to the
Air Force, not the infantry, the Air Force, is that at the bombing was so accurate and so
intense that the ground officer, the General, I can’t remember his name—8:40
Interviewer: Do you mean the famous one that got killed?
Yeah
Interviewer: General Mc Nair, who was head of the infantry?
Yeah, he got over enthused about this bombardment and he couldn’t wait until the rest of
the bombers bombed and he started going in ahead of time. Now, that’s the Air Forces
story. I don’t know what the infantry’s story is.
Interviewer: But that was a process, right? Tell us a little bit about flying over
Germany. You flew a couple of missions over Hamburg? That was one of the
places you went?
Yes, that was not nice and Hamburg was—I can’t remember exactly what the target was
there, but it was very heavily defended and the anti-aircraft was very intense and very
accurate. It took, the plane that was flying off our wing, it had a direct hit and broke the
plane in half and it went down. 9:55 I can still remember my pilot, he got on the
intercom for some reason and said, “oh my gosh, right in half’. He was an older man, he
was an older boy, and doing something like that of course, gets everybody excited.
You’re excited enough and you don’t need that kind of stuff. He really felt bad after he
did that, but obviously it was an emotional thing.
Interviewer: Can you describe a little bit the physical conditions of being up in the
airplane, you’re flying a mission twenty-five thousand feet up, or something like
27
�that, how did you keep warm? How long do the missions go if you go over
Germany? What is it like to be up there? 10:50
Well, it wasn’t any fun at all because when you fly at twenty-five thousand, or higher, it’s
colder than heck. It could be twenty-five degrees below zero and your body doesn’t
operate like it does when you’re in this living room, so it’s very difficult to move and to
think and to operate. It’s very tough.
Interviewer: Did you have to wear oxygen masks?
Oh yeah, from ten thousand feet on they say you have to wear oxygen.
Interviewer: How did you keep warm?
Well, you had a-Interviewer: Did you have a heated suit?
No, I didn’t—they had heated suits, but I had, what the hell do you call it? I had a fleecelined suit. Is that right? It was like an overall with a big bib up here. 12:04 They kept
you warm, sort of, and you wore big boots, fleece lined boots to try to keep warm.
Interviewer: Why didn’t you have a heated suit? Were there not enough of them or
what?
I guess I just didn’t want one.
Interviewer: So, you chose not to have one, all right. It’s another one of those
things that show up in the history book. They say, well the first guys that flew over
in B17’s, they were really cold etc. Then they had the first heated suits and then
those set fire to themselves and things, but eventually they got better, so everybody
had one and it was no big deal. Maybe not everybody is wearing them or you just
28
�didn’t think you wanted one, ok. If you flew, say, as far as Berlin, how long would
you be in the air? Was it all day? 13:04
Five or six hours maybe and on my gunnery I would write down the length of time, but
that was the time that you got credit for and that was when the wheels left the ground and
when the wheels touched the ground. You’re going to have to excuse me.
Interviewer: We were talking some about what it was like to be flying on these
missions and being up in the aircraft etc. Did you basically have to spend most of
your time as navigator, just constantly tracking stuff and keeping track of where
you were or were there period when you could just not pay attention?
Not while you were flying, you better pay attention because even—it was extremely
difficult. They say at altitude you’re mind isn’t working the same. It’s very hard to write
and you can’t see the ground. 14:22 You don’t have much to look out of anyhow, just
the Plexiglas nose, so it’s extremely difficult to know where the heck you’re going.
Interviewer: Were there occasions when you did have to leave formation, when you
had to actually navigate your way back home?
Yes, we had one mission that was aborted and thank God, it was a mission to Berlin and
the pilot said that he couldn’t get one of the engines to function the way it’s supposed to
and decided we would abort. 15:01 We were all the way up over the—up into the Baltic
Sea when he said we had to go back, so we went by ourselves and when you get back, it’s
amazing, they have about four or five officers meet that airplane when it stops and they
want to know why the hell you came back and they check it out to make sure you just
didn’t decide you didn’t want to go on this mission.
29
�Interviewer: Now, you had that period there, after you had lost your crew, when
you only had a small number of missions over an extended period of time. What did
you do the rest of the time? Did you sit around the base a wait for an assignment or
could you go off base?
I went off base and I went to—I went to Cambridge, which was north of us, and I went
Christ’s College and I would go into their library and I would get books to read and it
was nice because you’re away from it all when you’re in this quiet room and doing
something different from what you were doing. 16:20 I think, and I didn’t have a crew,
so it was uncertain when I would be flying, so I spent a lot of time there.
Interviewer: Did you go down to London at all?
Not by myself
Interviewer: Had you gone with the other guys before?
I’m trying to think. I went to London one time and I can’t exactly remember when that
was, after all my missions or what, I just don’t remember. 17:03
Interviewer: Now, can you tell us about the mission when you’re plane got shot
down? It was your last mission.
Yeah, from the beginning?
Interviewer: Just tell us what you remember about it.
Well, as I was saying, this is sixty-seven years ago, but it’s so unusual that, that mission
is burned into my scull, into my brain. And I can just about remember every single little
thing that happened or didn’t happen that day, so if you want me to start from the
beginning I would be happy to.
Interviewer: Sure, go-ahead 17:52
30
�When we—for some reason, I was nervous that whole day, from the middle of the night
when they woke us up to the time we got shot down. I got up, you get dressed and go to
the mess hall and eat your breakfast, and then those who wanted to would go see the
priest to get your blessing before you went off. Hoping God will watch over you and
bring you back. So, that day the chaplain didn’t show up, he overslept or something I
guess. 18:55 That just got me a little more excited and I couldn’t figure why that was
happening, so after breakfast I went into the, I’ll say locker room, to get dressed for my
flight. I would put on the heavy clothes and then your fleece lined boots, these big boots,
you put them on, and as I was stringing one of those up the string broke, or the—excuse
me, oh, the zipper broke, I think, and in the zipper pull, they have a little leather strap, so
I took that strap out and instead of going and getting a new boots I thought to myself,
“well, I don’t need these after today anyhow”. 20:05 I took that and put it around my
boot and tied it into a knot to tie my boot on and that was a crazy thought to have going
through your mind anyway.
Interviewer: It wasn’t like this was going to officially be your last mission. It was
number eighteen, which is not a magic number.
It was not official anything except that to me, it was a different mission. The target was
Ludwigshafen, Germany and we had a normal flight to the target, actually. 20:55 On
the way I had this premonition that something was going to happen and that I better get
ready for it if it does happen. I decided that what I would do when we got hit, and when
you’re flying you have a helmet and a big sun shield, it’s not glasses, it’s a shield, and
when you’re with that, you can’t see down here at all because of the shield. 21:50 So, I
was trying to figure out what I was going to do and I said, “I better get ready for this”, so
31
�you also wear a flack apron, I call it an apron because one part comes down in front and
one that goes down the back and it snaps at the shoulders. You have a red tag down here
and when you pull it, it releases those fasteners up on the shoulders, so it falls off you.
What you do is, you wear a parachute harness and the straps snap here and also the leg
snaps up like that and the shoot itself has—the harness has two hooks here that are
friction hooks. 23:23 Your parachute is a pack about that big and it’s all packed up real
tight and on there you have two rings and the thing to do is to hook those rings into those
hooks and then you have your parachute. Well, on my first few missions I would just put
that pack by the side and not even—until I woke up and said, “this is not the United
States, this is dangerous and you better”, so what I would do from then on, I would take
that chute and hook it on one side here and then it would hang down like this and I didn’t
know if it would work or not, but I had some protection there in case flak comes and
maybe that will protect me from flak. 24:18 I had the flak suit on the front and the back
and that side and on this side I would get kind of close to my instruments on the table
there, but that wouldn’t have stopped the BBs, so anyhow, that’s what I started to practice
and I said, “well, the first thing I’m going to do when we get hit is to pull this thing, so
my flak jacket drops off, and then it will expose my harness, my parachute, and it will
expose this ring, so then I can just pull this up and snap it in there, and now I’m ready to
go”. You also have an oxygen hose out here and communication lines, so you have these
lines out there all the time, and so I would practice. 25:20 I wasn’t doing much
navigating, I’ll tell you that. I said, “OK now, when we get hit the first thing I’ll do is get
rid of these lines, so I’ll just grab them and jerk them off of my face. The next thing is, I
have to get rid of my flak jacket, so that flies, and I have to take my chute and bring it up
32
�and poke it into the ring there”. I would practice that, so I could do it without fail. So,
sure enough, here we’re going over the target and that day I had a camera, it’s a big old
thing like this, with a crank handle like that and the pilot told me to take pictures of this
trip. 26:26 As we hit the IP, which is the initial point, and we turned to go into the
target, I just scrunched down hoping that I wouldn’t get hit, or I was at least protecting
myself as much as I could while going over this target. It’s really difficult to fly that
airplane into this target area because the sky black and it’s just all bursting out there, and
it’s turning black and you know that those black things, they’re just shooting metal all
over the place. 27:24
Really bad news, but you can’t dodge those; you have to keep
going right straight into the target. So, the pilot, he can’t do anything because he’s flying
off the wing of someone else, so there isn’t anything you can do, you just sit there and
pray to God that you don’t get hit. Well, I think God takes that just so many times and
decides that this is your day, so we’re headed right for the target and going through all
this hell and all of a sudden I see this black puff of smoke right in front of the Plexiglas
nose. 28:25 You know that those 88’s, they go boom, boom, boom, boom, four of
them, so it didn’t hit anything there and the next one I heard right here and POW it blew
and at that moment the plane seemed to put on its brakes up there in the air. We were
just sort of staying there for a second or two and then we just went over like that and
from the time of the explosion, I don’t know if I said this, but I’ll repeat it. At the time of
the explosion I went through all of my motions and got my chute on and I was ready—I
guess I said that. 29:22 But, in the navigator’s and bombardier’s compartment in the
nose of the airplane, there’s a bulkhead right behind us and an opening. You go through
that bulkhead and right on the floor there’s a door that we used to get in and out of the
33
�nose section. I said, “What I’m going to do, I’m going to get all this junk ready, get my
chute on and I’m going to lean back and I’m going to go out that door”. Well, I did all
that and I leaned back like this to go out the door and that’s when the plane got hit and
both of us just went down—the bombardier and I were just crushed into the nose and as
this plane is going down in a spiral like this, the centrifugal force just pushed us into this
nose. 30:21 Then we’re going down and I knew there wasn’t anything you could do
about it , and this is your last day on earth. The first thing I did, of course, was to make
peace with my God and I knew I was going to die. The funny thing is, you’re not very
scared because you’re going to die and there’s no way of getting out of it. Thoughts go
through your mind as this is happening, obviously your mind doesn’t stop, and I thought
of my family first. 31:22 They’re going to be really sad when they find out that I got
killed and I just sort of waited there to hit the ground and I said, “Gee, I wonder how
much it’s going to hurt when we hit the ground?” Dumb things like that and all of a
sudden as we’re going down like this I feel this pressure against your body, and all of a
sudden I could see a little space between the Plexiglas nose and the metal body and the
nose blew off. 32:17 The bombardier and I were blown out that nose. Well, it’s a very
peculiar feeling when you’re first of all, falling through the sky. I look up and I could see
that the planes were still going, they were going to go home. “Damn, I’m not going
home with you today”, so I just kept falling and falling because you’re trained to delay
pulling your chute until you can just about see windows in buildings because that will tell
you that’s the height you should pull your shute. 33:12 The reason for delaying that is
that is that you will not be detected for such a long period of time and when you hit the
ground you can do your best to escape. If you pull the chute way up here, they’ll be
34
�watching for you and greet you as you touch the ground, so that’s the reason for that.
Finally, when I falling through the air, I saw this chute up there and I said, “you know
what, that’s enough”, and I pulled my ripcord. I pull my ripcord and the chute opens up
and I’m floating down and I look down and I can see this building and the flames are
shooting up out of it and I said, “oh God, I hope I don’t land in that”. 34:13 I’m coming
down and all of a sudden I hear this roar and I couldn’t figure out what it was. I thought
it was a plane, it’s one of the Luftwaffe, and he’s going to come here and he’s going to
shoot me out of the sky. I turned around like that and looked and it’s not the Luftwaffe at
all, it’s all these bombs and they are going down like that. It was just—I don’t know how
far away from me, but not very far. When you can pick up little bombs and everything,
that’s when you know you’re pretty close, and the roar of the bombs falling. In a bomb, I
don’t know if you know it or not, there’s a little propeller that they put in the nose part of
the bomb and it’s held in there by a wire. 35:14 So, it won’t spin until that wire is
pulled out and when you lead the bomb in the plane, you load the bomb on some racks
and then you take that wire and put it through a hook up here that will hold that wire
while you drop the bombs. When you drop the bombs you pull that wire out from
holding that propeller, and that propeller goes around until it’s off and then when the
bomb hits it’s ready to explode. Without that it wouldn’t explode, so I imagine that was
part of the noise I heard, I don’t know, but it was very, very scary. 36:13 Fortunately, at
least as far as I could tell, that was the last group that was bombing, so I didn’t have to
worry about that any more because you’re in the air and the wind is taking you and from
then on it was kind of uneventful. I’m looking down and trying to figure out where the
heck I’m going to land and what I will do, and as I’m coming down I could see there was
35
�a pretty darn good chance of me landing in that river, the Rhine River. So, I’m going
down and sure enough, sure enough I’m going down into the river, so I take and unhook
this tip part of my parachute harness and your Mae West, which is your life preserver.
37:15 It’s made of rubber and it has two CO2 cylinders down here and when you want
to inflate it you just pull these two tabs and it releases the cylinders and the cylinders
blow the Mae West up. So, I’m in the river and woof, I pull those off and it blows up and
I hit the river. People who are not jumpers, and the one timers like the rest of us in the air
force, do not realize the speed that you’re falling with a parachute, and as a result many
of the guys in prison camp have sprained ankles and broken ankles. I could tell when I
hit that river I really hit it, so if I was on the ground I would have gotten smashed up, too.
38:13
Interviewer: Was the parachute still attached to you or had you unhooked that
completely?
No, the only thing I did was unhook this and I kept it with me until I hit the water. I
wasn’t going to get out of that thing until I hit the water. When I hit the water I still had
these two straps holding me, so I just turned over on my belly and swam out of the chute,
swam out of the straps. The wind took the chute and I went down with the current of the
river. I said, “the factory’s back here, Ludwigshafen Ovens, and the river’s going that
way, I’m going to stay in here a little while and get the hell out of the target area”. I did
for a little while, it had to be a minute or something like that and I decided to row over
and get the heck out of that river. 39:16 So, I started to swim over to the shore and as I
hit the shore, get to the shore. I started to crawl up the embankment and I look up and
there’s a guy standing there. I thought, “Oh jeez, I wasn’t free very long”. He was not a
36
�German he was a slave laborer and he said, “come, come, come”, so I followed him and
what choice did I have, but anyhow, I presumed he was a friend because he was not in
uniform and he was taking me. He took me over a little ways and then there was an
opening in the ground and a ladder going down in this opening. 40:18 You go down
the ladder and when you’re underground there was a big metal tank with a door on it and
you would get in that tank and that would be your bomb shelter. That’s what they used
for bomb shelters. So, he put me in there and just made some motions and left. He can’t
talk my language and I can’t talk his, so we’re going through sign language like that. A
few minutes later he comes back and he has a loaf of bread. He rips off a piece of that
bread and handed it to me. “Thank you, but I can’t eat, I’m not in the mood for eating
right now”, so he took it and he goes back out and another guy comes down. Aha, he saw
this prize they had just gotten. 41:29 They could speak a little language and they had a
leaflet. We would drop leaflets, and he said two words that I could understand, “soon
here, soon here”, and the leaflets showed where the front lines were and where Patton
was and they were right, “soon here”. So, they motion like this again and they go back
up and a few minutes later, I don’t know how long it was, this one guy comes back down
and he’s all excited, “comrade, comrade, comrade”, and I thought, “something’s going on
here”, and I didn’t know if it was good or bad or what, but it didn’t sound good. 42:30 I
followed him over to the ladder and he crawled out and I crawl out and as I look up
here’s a German in a black uniform. At the time I thought it was an SS trooper, but I
found out later he’s a policeman. So, he’s holding the gun down there and I come out. I
didn’t tell you one of the interesting things about when I went into the river or did I? I
couldn’t swim or anything with those big heavy boots on, so I got rid of the boots. I
37
�unzipped the one, but the other one was tied on, so I just took that thing and broke it and
kicked it off. 43:26
I sort of said, “no sense in getting new boots because you wouldn’t
need them after today”. That was kind of dumb because I could have used them in
prison. We were up on the Baltic Sea and it was pretty darn cold up there. Anyhow,
that’s the way it worked.
Interviewer: So the policeman arrests you and what do they do with you once they
have you?
They took me—we were sort of on a, it was an open area by a factory, the factory was
right there, and we walked across this open area and onto a street, then he marched me
down this street. I had my hands up in the air like this and the gun in back of me, and
we’re walking through this rubble and stuff and people are running in and out of
buildings and I thought, “oh, oh, this is probably the end of me”. 44:47
I was one of
those guys that just bombed their home there, their city. There’s no question about it
because I got my hands up like that and I said, “boy I’m not going to be able to walk very
far before I get shot, I know that”, but apparently nobody shot me, or obviously
thankfully nobody shot me. 45:22 He took me into an office, but this office was down
underground also. We walked down some stairs, I mean it was not like the dungeon I
was in, but it was a funny office all underground. Apparently after years of war they
started burying stuff. We went in there and the first thing the policeman does, he said,
“take off your clothes”. He didn’t say it, he just motioned to take them off, so I took
them off and I had my shorts on and he motioned for me to take of my shorts too and I
thought, “ok, you’re the boss”. 46:21 So, I had to take off my shorts too and
everything’s all wet , of course, and they had to go through everything to make sure I
38
�didn’t have any weapons of any kind. Then he gave me back my clothes, so I put on my
clothes and just sat there for a while and he’s sitting there with this gun pointing at me all
this time. We’re just sitting there, obviously waiting for something, and I didn’t know
what, but he’s just pointing it there and finally he takes and he releases the hammer and
puts it down, so the least little movement up until then and I would have been a dead
cookie. I was happy to see that he relaxed a little bit too. 47:21 Then we just sat there
for quite a while and then another man dressed in a suit and everything, not a uniform,
but he had a business suit on. He came down and he said, “Oh my boy, my boy, what has
happened to you today?” I said, “I was shot down”. They go through this every damn
day and they know what’s happening. “Where are you from, where did you come from?”
I said, “I come from the United States”. “No, no, no, where did you come from today?”
I said, “I’m an American, I come from the United States”, so he got a little angry with me
about that and said, “all right, all right”, and he leaves. He didn’t have to ask me that, he
knew who I was. 48:26 He leaves and I think the next thing is that this soldier comes
down there and we get out of that office building. We went to another area and went into
another building, an aid station, I don’t think it was a hospital, but it was an aid station.
49:49 I went in there and then this German officer was in there and he was going
through some of my things and one of the things I had was an escape pack, it was about
like this and that high, and in it, it had something to put into water to purify it, so you
could drink it. It had some candies in there, and I don’t know if they were potent candies
or what they were, but there were candies in there and he offered me some at that time.
50:50 He was paging through that and there was also a cloth, almost like a silk, and
there was a map printed on it, so in case you got shot down in enemy territory you could
39
�figure out where you were and how to get back out of there. What else was in there? I
don’t remember much else, but those were the important things, I think. Then they took
me and put me in a cell, I’ll call it a room, but it was a room with no windows or
anything in it and I just stayed in there. 51:44 I think that’s where I stayed, for the night
I stayed in there—I’m trying to figure out when I was turned over from the Wehrmacht to
the Luftwaffe because that was a very important point. You could just about see day and
night between the two. The Wehrmacht would just as soon shoot you, where the
Luftwaffe had sort of camaraderie with the Eighth Air Force flyers. 52:40 So, I guess
we didn’t have the experience on the ground with the soldiers, so we weren’t that
hardened, so he was very nice to me and he was appointed to be my guard. I was glad to
get rid of that other guy and I went into this room, windowless room, and there was a bed
in there, not the kind of beds we know, but it was something I could lay down on and
that’s where I stayed that night. 53:27 I went to sleep and the next morning, I don’t
know what time it was, and I imagine it was around noon because that’s how long it takes
for our planes to get back, and the Eighth Air Force came back and bombed
Ludwigshafen again. I don’t know why they hit us, I didn’t think we were in
Ludwigshafen, but we must have been close to it. When the sirens went off my guard
comes running into the room and said, “come on”, and we go outside and we go across
the street into another building and go down into the lower level of that building and
here’s a bunch of people there and all of a sudden the bombs start dropping. 54:32 You
just can’t imagine what it is to be bombed. You’re in this place, the bombs are dropping
all around you, the big explosions—you’re just about scared out of your skin and the
40
�bombs start coming down and then all of a sudden an incendiary bomb comes down
through the vent window and it’s burning there. 55:30 They cry “sand, sand sand”.
Continued on Tape 3.
41
�
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
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1914-
Rights
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<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
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
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Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
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RHC-27
Language
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eng
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
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Brazones, Donald L. (Interview transcript and video, 1 of 2), 2009
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Brazones Donald L.
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Born in Racine, Wisconsin, Donald Brazones enlisted into the Army Air Corps at the age of 18 in retaliation to the Japanese's bombing of Pearl Harbor. Brazones trained to be a navigator and was sent to England to fly missions over Europe. On Brazones' 18th mission, he was shot down and captured by German Officers. His interview is a detailed recollection of his time in the service, especially his memories from the day he was shot down, and his subsequent capture, imprisonment and release from captivity.
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Smither, James (Interviewer)
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Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
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World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army Air Corps
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eng
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
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2009-04-06
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BrazonesD
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
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application/pdf
video/mp4
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ee3a09f69be9367a363e1cec1d526bac.mp4
cc960ec6292baacdf3a10b2a33a651ba
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/991eab97791ee426e2850e6e05abd6bb.pdf
5bca74b6fd69c267babef0b8f733eb92
PDF Text
Text
ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW
DONALD BRAZONES
TAPE III
Born: Racine, Wisconsin
Resides: Byron Center, Michigan
Interviewed by: James Smither PhD, GVSU Veterans History Project,
Transcribed by: Joan Raymer, August 23, 2011
Interviewer: We’re continuing our conversation with Mr. Donald Brazones of
Byron Center, Michigan. We got to the point in your story where you had been shot
down over Germany, fished out of the Rhine, and taken by the German police and
turned over to the Wehmacht and the Luftwaffe. You were just being held at this
point, in town, and a bombing raid begins and they take you out of your cell and
into a bomb shelter and we pick-up the story there. Who was in there with you?
First of all I have to restate that. I was not in a bomb shelter; we just went across the road
and into another building. This building was more bomb proof than the one we were in
and I’m not exactly sure, but we went down into the basement where maybe this other
one didn’t have a basement. I don’t know why they took me over there. 1:13 Then
while I was in there, and there were many people in there and I suppose they were
employees of whatever was there, I don’t know. I didn’t feel very comfortable because I
had a German guard there and yesterday I dropped all these bombs on these—I didn’t
drop them—we didn’t because we got shot down before we could drop them, but
anyway, the air force dropped the bombs there. Here again, I was nervous about the
crowd. I wasn’t worried about my guard; he was a very nice guy as far as I was
1
�concerned, but I’m always concerned about the crowd and what they might think or do.
2:09
Interviewer: Did they know who you were?
I have no idea because there was no discussion at all there. The bombs, when they
started bombing that place—first of all I don’t know what that place was. I wish I did
because I was in the aid center or hospital or whatever it was and I couldn’t figure out
why they were bombing this, so it must have been something else or the bombs were
spread out. Anyhow, down in the basement the bombs started coming down and it was
just absolutely devastating, the concussions of the bombs and although they were
concrete walls when they hit it felt almost like rubber. 3:10 The walls would actually
move like rubber and also, they dropped incendiary bombs because the incendiary bombs
came down where we were. They came through the vent window down into the area
where we were and were burning this phosphorus was burning. The Germans had
obviously gone through this before and knew all about it and yelled, ―sand, sand, sand‖.
They had to get sand to put over those bombs and it looked to be routine, but me, being
new to being bombed, I was scared out of my pants. 4:02 Then, after the bombing, my
guard took me out and we walked over to the road and the first thing he did—when the
first car came down he flagged it down and there was a German officer in there, and he
went and said something to him and I don’t know what. He said, ―OK, come get in‖, and
I got in the car and we rode out of the area. I guess they thought the bombing was over
and went back to their normal living. We went to, I believe it was Frankfurt, and we got
out of the car and we went into a restaurant and had our lunch and our lunch was potato
soup and a beer, he bought me a beer too. I thought it must be German because their beer
2
�is like coffee or something, so that was enjoyable, and then—I don’t know if I’m getting
mixed up here or not, but then, I think, we went to Oberursel, which is just a little outside
of Frankfurt. 5:51 Oberursel, I’m not sure what that name means in German, but it was
an interrogation center and apparently the prisoners were taken there. They took me
there and put me in a room with just a little low bed, and the mattresses on those beds are
straw, and they closed the door and it’s dark in there. 6:28 They have shutters on the
windows, sliding shutters, and the only light that came in was through the cracks between
the boards. I just lay there with nothing to do, nothing to read, and nothing to do
anything you just lay there. 6:50
Interviewer: I have a question for you. When you bailed out and you landed in the
river, you took off your boots, what did you have on your feet by this time?
I had shoes, they fit over the shoes
Interviewer: You did have shoes?
Yeah
Interviewer: I was wondering about that because I had visions of you going around
in stocking feet the whole time.
Thank god I had them, and in fact later, when you’re up there in the Baltic, I wished I had
some boots there.
Interviewer: They have you in the cell and it’s dark except for the light between the
slats.
Then three times a day they come in and give you some food, and the food—at breakfast
time it’s usually a piece of black bread with jam of some type on it and I can’t remember
what we had to drink. I don’t know if it was tea or what it was, I can’t remember, but we
3
�had something to drink. 7:54 Then at noon you would get a bowl of cabbage soup, no
meat in it, just cabbage, and that was ok because I was getting hungry about this time
anyhow. In the evening, I can’t remember exactly what we had there, but normally it’s
just a piece of black bread and water, but nobody talks to you and the next day, the same
thing, nobody talks to you. You lay there, and the third day it’s the same thing, and then
the fourth day you get your turn at interrogation. 8:43 The interrogation officer, they
take you into his office and you sit there and he, of course, speaks perfect English and
knows about the United States, and apparently has been doing this for a long time. You
go in there and you sit down and he’s very, very kind and asks me if I want a cigarette
and I said, ―No, I don’t want a cigarette‖. I didn’t want to be chums with him at all. So
then we start talking and I can’t remember much of the small talk, but apparently he
could notice that I was relaxing a little bit or something because he offered me the
cigarettes again. I said, ―ok‖, and I took it and he sort of smiled when I did that. He had
done this for so many years and of course, it was my first time. 10:05 So, then we start
talking and he brings out a big book and it’s a book on the 91st Bomb Group, and he
pages through it and he has pictures of the hangar and the runways and everything, and a
list of all the personnel. Before that he was trying to get me to say what I was and what I
belonged to and I just said, ―I’m in the air force, in the air corps in the United States, and
I was shot down on a bombing mission‖, and then he brought out this big book with all
the information on the 91st Bomb Group. 10:59 He said, ―We’ve been at war for five
years and we know as much about you as you know about us and you can’t tell me
anything that I don’t know‖, and I said, ―fine‖. I think that was—Oh, did I tell you, when
I wouldn’t tell him anything to start with, I just told him my name and I was with the
4
�American air force, he said, ―ok, we’ll just have you shot as a spy‖, and I said, ―you
know I’m not a spy‖, ―no, I don’t know that, you could be a spy‖ he said. I’m not
speaking all this out loud; I’m doing a lot of thinking on my own. 11:59 I’m thinking,
―if you’ve been at war for five years, you know damn well I’m not a spy, I was just shot
out of the air this noon‖, so anyhow, that was the end of that. He took me back to my
room and then the next morning I saw that my door was open a little bit. I think I forgot
to say at the beginning, when I went there they took your shoes and your belt, so if you
escaped you were going to have to hold your pants up and find someplace to walk, so
that’s pretty smart. I looked out, nobody said anything, but I heard a little action out in
the general area there, there were rooms all around there. 12:52 I looked outside and
there were my shoes and belt and nobody said anything to me, but if they were there they
were meant for me to put on, so I put them back on. Then people started gathering out in
the central area, other prisoners and guards. Nobody said anything to be, but if they’re
there I’m going to go there because that’s getting out of this place. I think back today,
that if I only knew what the Germans were doing over there, as far as gassing people and
killing them, I don’t think I would have gotten into a line unless I knew where it was
going. Of course, me being ignorant of that, I just got in line and said, ―fine, we’re
getting out of here‖. 13:53 That’s when they took us over to a train depot, I think, and
then we got on the train and this car, and I don’t know how many other cars, but in our
car it was just all prisoners, recent people who got shot down. The German trains, and I
don’t know if it’s that way all over, and I think it was too in England, but the trains are
built so they have the walkway on one side of the train and then the compartments are
along there. They put us, I think eight of us, in this compartment and there are two seats
5
�and you sit and look at each other and that was it. 14:55 There had to be guards outside,
I don’t remember seeing any, but the train started moving and going and I think it
probably took two days to go up to Barth, which is up on the Baltic Sea in Pomerania.
On the way, and at that time, the air force, the P47’s and the P51’s had a good time
shooting at trains and sure enough we could hear one coming down, yak,yak,yak,yak, and
he was apparently spraying the train and we all hit the floor. 16:07 You tried to protect
yourself as much as you possibly could, but that only lasted a few minutes and that was
over. The thing that happens is, when that train gets hit the doors get locked and the
guards leave because they don’t want any part of that, and I can understand that.
Anyhow, we got up to Barth, which is where Stalag I was and I think they disconnected
our car from the rest of the train, so our car was the only one at the dock there, at the
depot. 17:07 They got us all out, we’re standing there in a line, and a German officer
comes up and I can’t really remember what he said or anything, from there on we could
see the city of Barth because it’s—Barth had this, I’ll call it a cathedral or a church of
some kind, and you could always—there was a significant identification of Barth. We
saw that and they didn’t take us there, they took us away from there and into the barracks
area of the prison. 18:04 I don’t think there’s anything very important from there,
you’re just in a room, at barracks and a room, and the room, our room at the time, had
fourteen prisoners in it. They had double bunks and the room was about 14x20, so you
were kind of cozy in there. At least by this time you felt sort of secure getting there after
all this havoc coming down into getting there. 19:03 You felt kind of secure. The
prisoners who—this part of the prison camp was being built at this time, this was a new
barracks we went into, and there were some prisoners in that barracks, but not all the
6
�rooms yet, and that’s why they were taking us in there, but the prisoners that were there,
of course, were very kind and very considerate. They knew we were hungry, so they
would bring out some of their food and they would share it with us. The one thing I got
was a can of salmon about that big, and I said to myself, ―you don’t like salmon‖, but
they opened it up and I ate the whole damn thing. 20:05 It wasn’t what I liked, but I
was hungry, and it was actually very good that day, and I still love salmon.
Interviewer: Did the prisoners explain to you what the rules of the place were, or
how you had to act or behave, or what you had to watch out for?
I believe so, I really can’t remember specifically. They had to because they were there
and we just came, yes. I’ll just explain the daily life there. At least once a day a horse
drawn wagon was driven into our compound and on it were big piles of potatoes, or
rutabagas, and water, and they had special kettle, and it must have been for the field
mess, maybe I should call it, that they would heat. 21:39 They would heat barley, and
they had big pails of barley, maybe like a milk pail, so they would come and dump that
and each barracks would come up and take their share of what there was, and also some
black bread, so that was our meals and subsistence for quite a while. In addition to that
though we were allotted one Red Cross parcel, now the Red Cross parcel, that was made
up by the International Red Cross in Switzerland, but it was the American Red Cross.
22:38 In that they had good foods that we liked, and that’s where that can of salmon
came from, or we’d get a can of pate, which is a liver spread, a big can of oleo margarine,
and that’s significant and I’ll talk about that later, and a can of Spam and what you call D
bars, about that size and very thick and very dark chocolate. 23:32 I guess it was made
with good stuff, vitamins or something in them to help you. They had those in K-rations
7
�for the army, the American army they were in the K-rations. You were supposed to get
one, supposed to get one Red Cross parcel per person per week—that’s right, there were
also five packs of cigarettes in there, and cigarettes became very important because that
was your money—I better not get off track here, but let me continue with that as long as I
went there. In this compound you always—and when I found out what being in the
service is, it’s really an experience because there are so many different people in the
service and they all have different talents. 24:40 Sure enough, in our compound we had
some guys who set up a store and you would have your cans of salmon, spam and
cigarettes and everything in there and you could go in and buy stuff with cigarettes. One
cigarette would buy you a can of something, or something like that, so I just wanted to
explain that.
Interviewer: You were talking about the daily routine, so they bring you the food,
and did they actually give you the Red Cross parcels?
Oh, yeah, they had the Red Cross parcels and then the barracks captain would distribute
so many to each room and then the room would really put everything they had in the,
away in a cabinet, so when it came time to eat we would distribute some of this food.
25:58 For instance, a can of Spam, you know how big a can of Spam is, about that big,
and you would have to slice that in fourteen even slices. Later, the camp got more
crowded and they had to accommodate the new prisoners, they came in each room and
put a third bunk high, so now we had twenty people in our room, in the same room
14x20. You got very friendly, and then when you had this feast of Spam, you had to cut
it in twenty slices, so the slices got smaller. 26:47 That was the only meat you had and
you treated it like roasted Spam, not like an old Spam sandwich. Anyway, then your
8
�meals were—this was supplementing the German rations, which were very, very scarce.
If you had to live on German rations, you wouldn’t live too long. We experienced that
after Christmas. I got shot down in September and then in December, Christmas, we had
a gorgeous meal and the main entrée was roasted Spam, and about that time too they
stopped giving us potatoes. 27:47
They probably ran out of them, I don’t know, but
then we got rutabagas, great big rutabagas like that, and some of the men in the camp
were apparently farmers or knew about farming, and they said, ―usually you feed these to
cattle‖, but we were just happy to get them. From Christmas to Easter the Red Cross
parcels got spread out farther and farther, and instead of getting, well, we got hardly
any—we got some, between Christmas and Easter we got some, but we mostly got
rutabagas. The only meat you got was, they said it was horses, horsemeat. 29:02 Of
course the stories go around that when a horse gets killed on the front, they bring it in
here and feed it to the prisoners, so we don’t know about that except that was the only
meat you had and it was very, very little of that. There was one day we got some meat
and we don’t know what it was, but –I’ll tell you another thing. The way you cooked and
kept warm in your room was, there was a stove, a coal stove or a wood stove about that
long and that wide, sort of a narrow one, and then you would get a ration of coal
briquettes a day, they were whatever your allotment was, ten a day, or whatever it was, so
you used that to keep warm and to cook. 30:18 It was the only way you could cook
anything, so during that period, that starvation period, we got so hungry that when we
boiled the rutabagas, we decided that nothing was going to go to waste, so when we took
the rutabagas out of the water, we drank the water thinking that maybe there was
something good in the water. Rather than throwing it out on the ground, we drank it.
9
�Interviewer: Why was the oleomargarine important?
Oh, I got to tell you that and I’m glad you asked. In our barracks there were no lights, I
guess there was one, one light with a pull chain in this big room. 31:23
At night you
had to close the shutters on the windows, you could not have them open, so we’re sitting
in the dark, so somebody again figured it out that if they took their belt and cut a piece off
of it, we had web belts, the GI belt, and stick it in the oleomargarine and light it, you
would have a lamp. That’s what we had for light at night, burned the oleomargarine.
Interviewer: What sort of contact or interaction did you have with the German
guards? 32:10
The German guards would come in generally at roll call, every morning they had roll call
and everyone had to get out of the barracks. They would line us up and then the guards
would count and then they would report to the commandant there. If they were off you
had to stand there and they had to recount and check the barracks. Well, they always left
a barracks guard in there and they left a barracks guard in there for two reasons, he could
usually speak German, and when the guard came in they became real friendly and then
they would barter with the German guard about something, whatever it was you wanted
to get. 33:19 Here again, I think the mode of payment was cigarettes or it could have
been food from the parcels we got. That’s how the exchange would happen and that’s
how you got different things in your barracks and rooms that were not GI issue.
Interviewer: How was the health of the men in the camp? Were the men getting
sick or having problems?
I would say generally that the health was ok. 34:08 What happened to me though
was—soon after Christmas, I can’t remember exactly when it was, I had a very sore
10
�throat, so I went on sick call and the doctor was British, the doctor was a prisoner also,
and there were quite a few British in our camp. They were probably there first because
they were fighting a lot longer than we were. This British doctor came and looked at my
throat and he screamed out AH! I thought he meant for me to say AH, but he said, ― No,
no, that was just an exclamation of what I saw in there‖. 35:15 My tonsils were just all
coated with something, so they took me out and put me in isolation. It was just a room
and there were two beds in the room and both of us were quarantined. They said I had
Diphtheria, so the treatment for Diphtheria was Diphtheria serum or whatever it is. They
came and they had a syringe, it had to be that long and, of course, as you’re looking at a
syringe the size always gets bigger, and it was amazing because they filled it up and in by
butt they squeezed the whole thing, left the needle in and unscrewed the reservoir and got
it filled up again and screwed it back on and gave it to me again. 36:28 I remember how
much it was, it was 30,000 British units or something like that and that was my treatment.
Within a day I started puffing up all over my body. I was just puffing up and the Dr.
came in and looked and I had a reaction to the stuff that they gave me. He came in and
gave me one shot in the arm too to counteract what they had given me. The swelling
went down and from then on I never got anything that I can remember. 37:24 I must
have gotten medication every day, I don’t know, but I was in there about a month though.
Then when I went back to the barracks they gave me a very wonderful thing. It was a can
of cod liver oil. I don’t think that there would be enough money to make me take a spoon
of cod liver oil when I’m normal, but I had to take that three times a day and being in the
condition my body was, I just looked forward to the time when I could get some more
cod liver oil. 38:18
11
�Interviewer: Well I hope it has some interesting nutrients in it.
Probably more than rutabaga juice
Interviewer: Most likely
I’m sure that’s why they were giving it to me, to build me back up. I read stuff about fish
oil being so good for you, and cod liver oil at that time, and I don’t know if it was in your
youth, but at that time it was quite common.
Interviewer: It was just going out of style, and as far as I could tell it was probably
a good thing at that point.
I was just—maybe that became popular during the depression or something, I don’t
know.
Interviewer: An old cure all kind of thing and it had a lot of vitamins and stuff in it.
They keep talking about fish oil and anyhow, I think the point I’m trying to make here is
that I was so darn hungry anything like that would really taste good, so I was looking
forward to it every day. 39:24 Finally when the can was empty I got sad.
Interviewer: In general you really didn’t have much contact with the Germans?
They just left you alone in the compound most of the time?
No contact with the Germans at all. In our compound there was a, I’m going to guess,
and I heard this someplace, ten acres was our compound, and around the compound was a
double barbed wire fence about ten feet tall and between the two fences they had an
entanglement of barbed wire. 40:05 On the inside part of the wall, twenty feet from the
inside of the barbed wire, they had one single strand of barbed wire, nailed to a post
about this high, all the way around the compound. The reason why they had that was for
the security of the Germans and anyone that crossed that single barbed wire was shot.
12
�We had guard towers all around and they would shoot you. You were told that, not to go
over that fence and I never did, but when you walked around the compound you would
walk right next to the fence all the time and that was our exercise and entertainment and
everything was the walk. 41:12 We walked and walked and walked around that
compound all the way, all the time and everybody did, so it was like a big parade.
Interviewer: While you were there, were there people who would actually go over
the wire or try to get out or by then were they behaving themselves?
I would guess that they were behaving themselves more and I have no idea what it was
earlier in the war, but I do to, and I’ll tell you about that. Oh, yeah, we heard one story, I
did not see it, but I heard a story that—you know, we would have air raids too. The
British and Americans would come and bomb around there and when the planes came,
when these big planes, and our planes too, came they would blow the siren, and we had to
get back into the barracks, close the shutters on the windows and stay in the barracks
42:22 One time, a person apparently did not hear the siren, so he came running out of
the barracks and as he got out he realized that there was nobody out there and went to go
back, but they shot him from the tower. I didn’t see it, but that’s the story that went
around and I have no reason to believe it’s not true. 42:52
Interviewer: What shows up, at least in the history book, is that earlier on there
were various escape attempts and those got dealt with harshly enough that
eventually orders came from the outside, and said that the American and British
prisoners were not under any obligation to escape and they should just stay where
they were, so you had an earlier phase and by the time you got there, some of that
13
�may have kicked in, so you understood you would just mostly stay there and not try
to crawl out or anything else like that.
Well, if that is true that is a good thing, because in Stalag III they had this great escape
and they dug down. Our barracks were up on stilts, the compound I went in, the barracks
were up on stilts and in previous compounds they weren’t, so what would happen is, they
would take this stove that was in the corner, take it off and put it on the side, and then
they would take up some bricks, the stove had a brick bottom there, and then they would
dig down from there. 44:17 If a guard was coming or anything they would take the
stove and put it back up there and twiddle your thumbs while he’s walking around. I’ve
read stories about this, so they had a very sophisticated method of digging and tunneling
and when they would dig in that dirt, then the prisoners would take the dirt and put it in
their pockets and then when they were walking around the compound they would get rid
of the dirt, and they had to get rid of the dirt somehow. 45:17 I’m thinking, they had to
be sure to spread it so the color of the dirt didn’t change otherwise they would suspect,
but of course, they’re always suspecting someone tunneling out and getting out of there.
In Stag Luft III, it was a very sophisticated tunnel and you would almost think that they
were miners or something.
Interviewer: They may have had some miners and they did have some miners in the
camp.
They went down there and they built some rails so they could crawl on their belly to the
next area and very, very sophisticated. 46:12 One day they decided that it was time to
dig up, so they could escape, and they went up, and I have to sort of guess at this, but
their tunnel that came up was not far enough away from the outside, so the Germans, in
14
�fact, saw it and when all of the prisoners came up and spread themselves out, all of a
sudden they were all captured, recaptured and they were all shot.
Interviewer: When they recaptured prisoners, they didn’t always kill them, but
they did often enough and it was just hard enough for any of them to get out of
Germany at all, that the allied commanders decided they didn’t need to do that
anymore, but as far as you can tell, the time that you were in the camp that you
were in, there were not any organized efforts to escape or things like that, you were
just waiting? 47:26
Not with me, and anyone that was anyone that was connected, of course, would be tight
lipped, you don’t broadcast that to anybody.
Interviewer: We talked about different aspects of the conditions in the camp. The
food supply goes down over the course of time, and aside from walking, did you
have any kinds of things for entertainment or recreation? Did you organize any
kind of events or do things like that?
Well, I went into the camp in September of 1944 and the invasion happened in June and
the allied forces were getting closer and closer to Germany and in fact, when I got shot
down I guess, they were at the German border. 48:30 There was not too much stuff
going on, playing I mean, before that. They played ball, the prisoners played ball, they
put on plays, and I wouldn’t doubt if that they had a band. The closer we got to the end
of the war, and when the Germans had less and less, I mean, I don’t think the people in
Barth had much more than we had. 49:33
Interviewer: They were getting short on food. So, there wasn’t a whole lot more
going on there and you weren’t getting anything interesting coming in. What kinds
15
�of things did they trade? When swapping and bartering with the guards, what
kinds of things could they get?
Well, I think one of the things I remember was a radio and it was probably one of the
most important things that they bartered for. I don’t know, but I guess I have to guess, if
I was a German I would be smart and I wouldn’t give them a whole radio, I would give
them a part of a radio. Give me some more food and I’ll give you another part of the
radio, and I sort of think that’s the way it was, but I don’t know. 50:28 So, we had a
radio and we could get, when I say we, I mean the whole prison, broadcasts from the
BBC. Then they would take this information and write it out on a sheet of paper and—
how would they copy that? Maybe they just---they had to have more than one sheet of
paper, so they had to do it many times, because this got passed around to all of the
prisoners in the barracks, so every night you would wait for that, someone to come and
give you that paper, so that would tell you what you never get out of the Germans, you
would get out of the BBC. 51:25 Where the troops were, what they captured, mostly
about the war.
Interviewer: Did you get any letters from home or could you write?
I got letters from home, yes, and it took about three months before I got my first letter. I
wrote some, but you can’t have much to say really. Even on the incoming letters, they
were read by German censers because parts were all blacked out and you could see it, and
I don’t think the American censors would do that. I wrote a few letters home, but they
never got any of them. An interesting thing, and I don’t know if you’ve heard this before,
but at that time, when you first became a prisoner, you had a chance to send a message
home and you sent that message home by, I guess the Red Cross handled that, and you
16
�wrote the message that you wanted to send home to your parents and they would
broadcast this over short wave. 53:29 There were a lot of short wave people, operators.
Interviewer: Ham radio operators?
Ham radio operators on the east coast, and they would pick-up these messages and go to
find the families. This is what we heard last night, this is what we got and I got some of
those yet. They would also write a letter to your parents telling them what they heard,
―your son might be a prisoner of war‖, so that was interesting.
Interviewer: Were there other details or parts of the prisoner story?
Yeah, this—when you first became a prisoner, they would give you a bowl about like
that, a cup, and a knife, fork and spoon. The knife, fork and spoon being the normal
tableware that you have here, and that was it. 54:44 But again, these different people as
prisoners, they figured out that wasn’t enough and how could we cook our food because
we have no pans or anything. Another thing that was in the Red Cross parcel was a can
of klim, milk spelled backwards, and it was powdered milk. After that was gone, and
somebody had figured out years before, that if you took that knife and put it down into
that empty can, you could get the bottom out real nice. 55:43 So, then you had a nice
flat piece of metal and I’ll just say they made it so you could put it together. They would
take one end and bend it up and take this one and bend it up an put it together and put
pressure on it, and you end up with a sheet of metal from cans. Then they would turn up
the edges and had a pan, so that’s how you could cook your food.
Interviewer: Now, were you able to do things like shave? Did you have razors or
anything like that?
17
�I was twenty years old then and I didn’t have to shave very much. I can’t tell you
because I don’t remember. 56:44
Interviewer: Did the men around you grow beards and things?
No
Interviewer: So, somebody was able to shave if they needed to.
Yeah, but I don’t ever remember seeing safety razors, so they had to have it.
Interviewer: The Germans were letting you have metal things, knives and forks and
spoons, etc., maybe they weren’t too worried about you having sharp objects and
things like that.
Well, they were because again, it didn’t take prisoners very long to learn that if you rub
that knife on a rock you can make it nice and sharp and pointed and it would become a
lethal weapon, so that’s what they did. 57:30 There’s another thing here that—talking
about the ingenuity of the prisoners—the bunks were wood framed and the bed part was
framed, but then to make a bottom in it, it wasn’t solid. It had seven wood slats about
that wide and long enough to fit into the bed frame and then you had the straw ticking for
a mattress, so what you would have to do was space those seven slats so you wouldn’t
fall through. Some of the, not very many, a few of the prisoners, if I had pictures it
would be interesting to see, would make different things from these slats. 58:42 Well, I
don’t know if they stole them from other people’s beds or their own, but they used these
slats, and of course, what kind of instruments did you have? What kind of tools did you
have? A knife, a fork and a spoon, so they would take this knife and they would take a
rock and make big teeth in it, so now it became a saw and you sawed pieces of it out of
this bed slat for the size and shape for anything that you wanted, you would do that. One
18
�man there, one boy there made a violin and I have a picture of that too. I think it’s in the
museum now. Can you imagine that, making a violin? 59:47
Interviewer: He had a lot of time on his hands I guess.
With the limited tools and everything, it looks just like a store bought violin.
Interviewer: This tape is just about out and have you covered most of what you can
think of?
Well, they did have a library and there were various books in the library and I didn’t visit
that very much. What else? That’s about it I guess.
Interviewer: Now, as the war went on, you’re in the eastern part of Germany and
the Soviets are getting closer and closer to you, was there a point at which they
made you all get out and leave the camp for the west, or did you stay at the camp
until the Soviets got there? : 43
That’s interesting, with the radio, we knew what was happening in the war. We knew
where the American were and where the Russians were. As the war went on, we would
get some news that the Russians had advanced some more, and at night some of these
guys would open up their shutters and open up their windows and yell, ―come on Joe‖,
calling for Joseph Stalin. We knew exactly what was happening and so did the Germans,
of course. 1:46 One day all of the Germans left, they all left the camp. No more
guards, no more nothing and guess what, the next day Joe comes, the Russian army is
there and they go—these troops came from Stalingrad and they were hard soldiers. They
had seen a lot and they were hurt a lot and they came on horses, which is interesting.
2:41 When they came into Barth, the story goes, they would go into a house and they
would take their gun and point it at whoever answered the door and say, ‖Schnapps‖, and
19
�they had to get some Schnapps for them. Then, this one afternoon—we were up on the
Baltic Sea, right on the shores, and there was a peninsula that went out like that and
here’s this Russian going down on the peninsula, we could see him, as fast as he could go
on a horse and he had a machine gun in his hand and he’s shooting off the bullets as he’s
going and I thought, ―oh, my god, this is really something‖. We were more scared of the
Russians than we were of the Germans because we didn’t know what they were going to
do. 3:41
Interviewer: What did the Russians do? When they got to your camp did they just
wave at you or go on or what?
Well, they raided the city first and did what they wanted to do there and then they came
up to the camp and they said, ―ok, we’re going to take you back to Russia and we will
repatriate you to Russia‖, and our officers in charge said, ―no, we’re not going to Russia,
we’re going to wait here until our troops get here. We’ve already notified the air force
and they’re going to come in and fly us out‖, and somehow they made this guy
understand that. 4:37 I’ll tell you one other thing though, what they did do for us is that,
a day or two after they came there, they put on what we call a USO show, and song and
dance and everything, and it was amazing. You would see these Russians do that
Russian dance where they cross their arms and kick their feet like that, and it was a good
show. We couldn’t understand anything they said, but their dancing was interesting.
Then, it must be a day or two after that, and I can’t remember how long it was, possibly a
week from the time we were liberated until the time the 8th Air Force flew in there.
Interviewer: So, there was an airbase somewhere in the area they could land at?
5:30
20
�There was an airbase right outside of Barth. I don’t know how much you know about
Barth, but the other thing about Barth is that it was some sort of a sub-depot for the
Luftwaffe, that airbase. Also, in the city there was a concentration camp and we didn’t—
I should say we did know because at times you would see some people out there in the
field working and they had on striped suits and these hats, I think you would call them a
tam for us, and stripes, and they were hauling stuff out of the flak zone, there was a flak
zone there, and airplane parts, they would take them and distribute them out in the fields,
and I don’t know why. 6:53 Maybe to keep the prisoners-Interviewer: There were prisoners held in the town and there were you guys outside
of it.
There must have been and I don’t know where they were held.
Interviewer: At least there was a labor camp in the area of some kind?
Yes, and like I say, a concentration camp was right in the middle of the city, and when
the Russians liberated us, our officers in charge went around and they found in the city of
Barth, prisoners being held in the basements of buildings and they were chained to the
wall and some were dead and some were alive. 7:48 They released—those that were
dead, they got rid of them, but those that were alive, our officers made the Germans do
this, the German civilians in the city. ―You get out and clean up that place‖. It was a
stinking mess and they made it there and they knew it was there. They got them to clean
it up with a bunch of tears in the eyes of my men. I’m kind of mixing this up, but when
we were leaving we had to all march down to the airport, to the runways, and when we
saw this concentration camp in the city, that was the first time we knew it was there, there
21
�were bars on the windows and everything, and we walked by it then. 8:51 What was
your question?
Interviewer: I was asking you how you wound up getting out?
Oh yeah, our air force came in and flew us out, and it was interesting because it was the
91st. Bomb Group that came and got us. The planes were all lined up and flying in, in a
line, landing, coming around, sitting like that, shutting off two engines, we piled into the
airplanes, filled it up, they started the two engines again and went and took off.
Interesting because you read articles about that. They took us into France to a camp
called Camp Lucky Strike, and we got showers and deloused and some food, some good
food. 9:59
Interviewer: Did you have any problems getting adjusted to eating good food
again?
Well, we didn’t, because before the Russians came, somehow or other we got a bunch of
Red Cross parcels, so we had a lot to eat and we got sick. The body wasn’t used to that
kind of food, especially that much of it, so a whole bunch of us were sick, but that was
about a two week period and we were already on our way to recovery by the time we got
to Lucky Strike. 10:58 We had good food there and it didn’t bother us, but it bothered
other people.
Interviewer: When they got you out and they took you to Lucky Strike, did anyone
debrief you? Did anyone ask you questions about your experience or anything like
that, at that time? They just brought you in there and?
They brought us in there and as I remember, we had choices of going home or you could
go back to England and go home from there. We decided, me and a couple of my friends
22
�there, we’d go back to England. And one of the closest friends I had there was from New
York, but his father was Scottish, so he wanted to go up to Scotland to see where his
father was born and raised, so I went with him. 12:08 I’m not sure how long we were
gone, but we were gone and then we went to, also in Scotland they have—do you know
anything about Scotland at all? They have this castle up on the hill and the Scottish army
puts on a show and it’s unbelievable, it’s really good.
Interviewer: Edinburgh 12:45
We went back there after the war and saw another one, and Laraine had her picture taken
with one of these guards. From there we—where did we leave from? It might have been
Scotland.
Interviewer: Did you take a ship home?
Yeah, it couldn’t have been Scotland it had to be-Interviewer: Well, you could have gone out of Glasgow.
All the troops weren’t up there, just a couple of us, anyhow, we got back to London, or
wherever it was, maybe we left fro Liverpool I’m not sure. 13:51
Interviewer: Liverpool is quite possible.
Anyhow, we got on a ship to go home, that was another-Interviewer: So, you sail out of Liverpool. Do you remember what kind of ship you
were on? Was it a regular transport or Liner?
Well, when we got up there, I’ll always remember, that in the harbor was the Queen
Mary and man, we thought we were going to go home on the Queen Mary because it’s so
nice, so they march us out, we go onto the dock, and onto a liberty ship that apparently
carried sugar up there because there was sugar spilled around and the bees were flying
23
�around. 15:00 We said, ―what the hell are we doing here, we’re supposed to go home
on the Queen Mary‖. That was our ride home, the liberty ship, and it was empty so it
rode kind of high in the water and we had some pretty good rides as we were going up
and down like this. It was kind of interesting and many, many of the guys got sick. I
won’t even say this on the—anyway, our ride home was on this liberty ship, an empty
liberty ship and it was not a very nice ride home. 16:11
Interviewer: Did they have bunks built into it or hammocks? What was it?
I really can’t remember, so I really don’t know.
Interviewer: But it was not the Queen Mary?
No, it was not the Queen Mary she was in the harbor.
Interviewer: Do you remember where you landed in the U.S.?
Yes, we landed in Boston.
Interviewer: From there did they let you get on a train and go home or did you
have to go someplace to be discharged, what did you do?
We went home, I think we got home somehow. I was home and I had a ninety-day leave,
I think, so I had time to get reaclimated to civilian life in the United States. 17:17
However, the war in Japan was still going on and after my experience, I decided that I
was going to do no more fighting with anyone, so I did everything I could to extend the
time of my vacation. That’s why I stayed in England two or three weeks longer than I
had to. I did not want to go to Japan and I don’t know of any prisoners that did, but it’s
possible, I don’t know that. I didn’t want to take a chance.
24
�Interviewer: Well, they had the point system in place and they could calculate is
you had enough to be discharged. Presumably, if you were a POW you would have
had quite a few. 18:18
I think I was short a few of them. You needed 85 and I had 83 or something like that. I
was thinking how I could get two more points. When I was shot down and I was in the
plane and the plane lurched forward like that, the equipment in the plane came down and
hit us, and it hit me on the back of the leg here and it drew some blood, but mostly a
bruise. In order to get a Purple Heart you have to shed some blood and you get five
points or something like that, and I was trying to figure out how I could get those points
and get out, but I never did apply for it. 19:24
I decided there were too many other
guys that really deserved the Purple Heart.
Interviewer: Did the war with Japan come to an end before you had to go back, so
that took care of it?
Yes, my home was in Racine, Wisconsin and I was there, and one night I was out playing
cards with the boys and drinking a little beer and when it was time to go home, I started
driving, and I wasn’t driving too far, and all of a sudden this policeman is in back of me
and he pulled me over. I didn’t think I did anything wrong and he comes over and he
said, ―quick, turn on your radio, I think the war is over‖, so he got in my car and listened.
20:29 ―The war is over and isn’t that super?‖ That was kind of interesting. He wasn’t
worried about how much beer I had; he just wanted to listen to the radio.
Interviewer: Once the war ended, did you still have to go and report someplace to
get officially discharged?
25
�Like I said, I was on a long leave and after that I had to go to North Carolina to get
discharged. I went there and they took your history and everything and got your
discharge papers. 21:08
Interviewer: Now, once you’re finally out, what do you wind up doing at that point?
Do you go to college or go to work?
Well, I first went on what was called fifty-two twenty. Fifty-two weeks you get twenty
dollars unemployment and it wasn’t a year, maybe it was twenty-six twenty, but I think
they extended that. I fooled around and I played golf and I felt sorry for myself, so I
thought, ―I spent all that time in the clink, I’m going to enjoy myself a little bit. I’m not
going to rush into work or anything as long as I can, I’m just going to enjoy myself‖, and
there was a friend of mine that I went to high school with, and he was with Patton’s 3rd
Army and he was home, so we caroused around for a few weeks. 22:25 After that I
went to work. I went to work in a factory, both of us did, and we were assembling big
hydraulic jacks and that was just something to do. Later I decided to go to college and
the University of Wisconsin had opened up an extension in Racine where you could go
for your first two years, in Racine. 23:25 After that I went to Madison and graduated in
1949.
Interviewer: What did you have a degree in?
I had a split—I had a degree in business, I had a split major of marketing and finance. I
was always conniving; I got a split major because I could get out of college six months
earlier. There was one required subject that I had to take for a marketing degree, but it
wasn’t offered in that semester. I didn’t want to fool around for a semester, so I took a
split major and got out of there, so that’s what I did. 24:19
26
�Interviewer: All right, once you had the degree, what did you do?
There are two things I did real quickly, and the first one was to marry my beautiful wife.
Before that I applied for a job at Oscar Meyer and Company and they accepted me and I
told my boss, ―I can’t go to work for another couple weeks because I’m getting married
tomorrow‖, or the next day or whatever it was. So that was that, we got married, we went
on our honeymoon, we came back and I went to work for the Oscar Meyer Co. 25:04
Interviewer: Now, to look back on the whole thing now, and this is maybe too big a
question, how do you think that whole experience in the military wound up affecting
you? Were you a little different person or saw things differently than you would
have if you hadn’t gone through that?
That can’t be answered because I was eighteen when I went in, I was twenty when I got
out, twenty-one when I got out, and those are kind of the tough years for a boy growing
up , so had I not gone in there, I don’t know what would happen to me, I don’t know. I
know that my experience in the service was good. I enjoyed it even though I had some
interesting things happen.
Interviewer: There are certainly parts you would not want to repeat. 26:03
No, but the service was good for me and I enjoyed the service. I’ll tell you one more
thing. My son that was here the other day and he must have been about eighteen when
the Vietnam War was going on and he said he wanted to go in the service and fight in
Vietnam, and I said, ―no, you can’t go there. I’ll pay your way to Canada, but you’re not
going to Vietnam‖. I felt Vietnam was a rotten war and we never should have been there
killing all those innocent people.
Interviewer: Did he not get drafted, so it wasn’t an issue?
27
�No, he didn’t get drafted and it’s too bad too because the service would have done him
good. He would have enjoyed the service I think, and maybe not, at least I think he
would. 27:10
Interviewer: I talk to quite a few veterans and the majority of them say that it’s a
good experience and something that everyone aught to go through, or have, but a lot
of them will say except for the war part. If you don’t have to fight a war, then it’s a
pretty good thing.
I really hate war and I think it’s the most stupid thing that mankind can do, people
shooting people, why? Why are you doing that?
Interviewer: You go and you look at the reasons for it and it doesn’t make a whole
lot of sense. If you look at where Japan is today opposed to what they thought they
wanted to be when they wanted to build themselves and empire, and they didn’t
need an empire, they got out of it.
Look at Germany, what did we do? We defeated them and then, bam; we flew all this
food into Germany. Germany, I can understand, I can understand that war, that maniac
really had to be stopped and obviously there was no one else who could do it. In fact, we
had a hard time preparing for it, so I think war is stupid. 28:36
Interviewer: One thing you learn when you talk to enough people who have been in
it, it really is a pretty terrible thing and you do your best to avoid it. Part of the
point of this whole project, in a way, is to let people who really don’t know anything
about it, understand how bad it really is and how much goes on beyond what we see
in the movies or other kinds of places.
28
�Well, I was thinking that the best place I could have served this war was in the air, and
the nice part about that is, you don’t see the gory part of war. You don’t have to take
your rifle and point it at this young man’s head just because he’s using a different
uniform or different kind of helmet. I don’t hate that guy, why should I kill him; it
doesn’t make any sense to me. I wish, I hope, I really think Obama will get us out of this
damn war mentality. We’ve been in it so long, I don’t know. 29:50
Interviewer: Well, the country is pretty tired of it, you’re not alone in that
sentiment, and that’s part of why he got elected. Certainly anybody who can
recognize what a problem it is will want to get it out. It’s a little bit beyond our
control here, but in the meantime, what you have done, is you’ve told us a really
remarkable story and it’s a very valuable part of our collection. I want to thank you
again for taking the time to talk to us.
Well, thank you for being here. 30:13
29
�30
�
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
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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
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1914-
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
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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
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
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Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
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RHC-27
Language
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eng
Source
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<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/.
Title
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Brazones, Donald L. (Interview transcript and video, 2 of 2), 2009
Creator
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Brazones Donald L.
Description
An account of the resource
Born in Racine, Wisconsin, Donald Brazones enlisted into the Army Air Corps at the age of 18 in retaliation to the Japanese's bombing of Pearl Harbor. Brazones trained to be a navigator and was sent to England to fly missions over Europe. On Brazones' 18th mission, he was shot down and captured by German Officers. His interview is a detailed recollection of his time in the service, especially his memories from the day he was shot down, and his subsequent capture, imprisonment and release from captivity.
Contributor
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Smither, James (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Michigan--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army Air Corps
Language
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eng
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
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Moving Image
Text
Relation
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Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Date
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2009-04-06
Identifier
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BrazonesD2
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<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a>
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application/pdf
video/mp4
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Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4ec6f26d9d07bcc2d2fa2f58132d1307.pdf
14298fb0bce6823f1729c0c3f7a21ac2
PDF Text
Text
Bread amd Wine: A Sacrament of Dependence and Hope
Many Generations of a Family Gathered for Independence Day
at their Family Home
Psalm 16:5-11; I Corinthians 13:8-13; John 1:14-18
Richard A. Rhem
Spring Lake, Michigan
July 4, 2011
Some of the best memories of my ministry are of moments experienced here in
this place and with this family. Countless gatherings around the kitchen table
with coffee, cookies and nutty M&Ms. Visits during Thelma’s illness and
eventually as she lay in the hospital bed in the family room with many of you
present. The sacrament of baptism celebrated for the rising fourth generation –
or in my ministry, the fifth generation for I too had the privilege of being pastor
to Gerrit and Jo, Neal and Alice in their respective homes.
In these past weeks as I’ve stopped by I have realized, Marvin, that life’s load has
become heavy, more difficult to carry. Perhaps I’ve sensed a bit of weariness. Not
to your liking, the Life Alert system is installed and the keys of the red Ford truck
no longer a part of your daily routine, although dear Joanne does drive you
around often, stopping at the drive-in window of Temptations for ice cream (Life
still has its little pleasures).
The last time I was here you asked when the old Christ Community group would
celebrate communion again. I had thought perhaps last month but we were not
able to arrange it. Your question made me realize your hunger for the sacrament
of the Lord’s Supper – Holy Communion. The bread and wine that over your
lifetime has been for you the sign and symbol of our Christian faith – the body
and the blood through which we experience our Lord's life and death and are
strengthened and refreshed as we follow the way of Jesus.
Thus I wanted to satisfy that hunger one more time and what better community
in which to celebrate Holy Communion than in the gathering of your loving
family – a loving family because you, Marvin, and your beloved Thelma learned
love in your respective families and you in turn with your beloved Thelma created
a community of love for your six children and their children and their children’s
children, all of that arising from the embodiment of the love of God in Jesus – the
strong tradition of Christian faith that has marked this family.
Yesterday as I was preparing for this family service, I went to my funeral file and
took out the service I led for Thelma on June 23, 2001. There was an eloquent
© Grand Valley State University
�Bread & Wine: Sacrament of Dependence and Hope
Richard A. Rhem
Page 2
testimony to the treasure of family. I’m not certain who put together this litany of
remembrance, but it captures the richness of a family immersed in love.
Our Grandma, Our Guardian
We’ll forever remember the child in you…
baseball games in the field, thread spool necklaces, making sand
castles, playing Husker Du, your animated dreams, and under-dogs
that seemed to push us to the sky.
We’ll always treasure our outings together…
picking berries, ice skating and mini golf, taking us swimming,
outings to Russ’, and drives around the Oval with a stop at Miss
Lisa’s.
We’ll always remember your mindful sayings…
“walk and think”, “Lord give me patience and give it to me right
now”, “Oh Marv” and countless others.
We’ll sorely miss the cook in you…
cookies from the icebox, your world-renowned muffins, pork
barbecue on Christmas Eve, and enough pies at Thanksgiving to
cover the kitchen table.
We’ll always remember the gardener in you…
potting plants with us, eating vegetables straight out of the garden,
and the care that went into every turn of the John Deere.
We’ll forever cherish the caregiver in you…
the countless times picking us up for school because we missed the
bus, protecting us from Grampa’s endless teasing, the old-fashioned
home remedies for everything, correcting exaggerated stories, your
honest advice and candor to help us see our paths more clearly.
We’ll forever admire the homemaker in you…
stiff towels right off the clothesline, the butter on the ham
sandwiches, cookies and coffee at your kitchen table, the multiple
pairs of knitted mittens and slippers, the love that was sewn into
each of our quilts, the iron always being warm, the sheet over the
davenport, homemade strawberry jam, and the way you provided a
warm gathering place.
We’ll always carry on the traditions you’ve established…
the best Easter egg hunts ever, Christmas stockings for all thirteen
of us, the most famous picnic coordinator on the block, decorating
Christmas cookies, playing piano for the Bottema Choir on
Christmas Eve, five dollar bills in birthday cards, fireworks, sharing
old treasures and reliving old stories.
For always being an inspiring role model as a mother, wife and devout
Christian, we thank you. And as you continue on and become our
Guardian Angel, we say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”
© Grand Valley State University
�Bread & Wine: Sacrament of Dependence and Hope
Richard A. Rhem
Page 3
To be sure, Marvin, that was written about Thelma, mother, grandmother, great
grandmother par excellence. But you have been a vital partner, gramps, in that
endeavor. And the fact that the family continues to gather on holidays, on
Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, jammed into a house too small, a room too small,
is testimony to the degree to which love and care still mark this family. You are its
rock, its compelling center.
I went through the wonderful liturgy of that service and found that what I want to
say today I’ve said before. The Scripture lessons are the same. The title of my
meditation for Thelma was “A Love Shaped Face” – pretty well chosen I would
say. And the lessons bear repeating.
Psalm 16:8: “I keep the Lord always before my face.” Because he kept the Lord
before his face, the Psalmist said, he would not be moved. Constancy, strength,
resoluteness – those are the fruits of living before God’s face. Faithfulness,
dependability, consistency – those are the marks of this family and I submit to
you that is not an accident; it is the fruit of living faithfully before the face of God,
in trust, in goodness, in love.
Love. John’s Gospel tells the Christmas story in one line: “The Word became flesh
and dwelt among us.” And so in the Word become flesh (or human), we see the
face of God. In verse 18, he writes:
No one has ever seen God. It is God’s only Son…who has made him known.
In his familiar and well-loved chapter on love, St. Paul writes a description of love
as the highest gift of the Holy Spirit. But then he acknowledges that in our
present human experience we see dimly:
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.
To live in love is the highest human possibility but as long as we are on our
human journey we will wonder, struggle, sometimes despair of making sense of it
all. But this is not the last word –
…now dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will
know fully.
This is movingly expressed in the funeral folder I have from Thelma’s funeral. I’m
not sure who chose it; I suspect it was a family choice. It could not be more
appropriate and I think it is appropriate to be reminded of it today as we
celebrate Holy Communion on the holiday when we celebrate The Declaration of
Independence. I’ve entitled my meditation today “Bread and Wine: A Sacrament
of Dependence and Hope.”
© Grand Valley State University
�Bread & Wine: Sacrament of Dependence and Hope
Richard A. Rhem
Page 4
It is one thing to celebrate national independence for which we give thanks. But
that is not the celebration we are engaged in here. Rather it is the total
dependence on the good and gracious God who is our rock, our strong foundation
enabling us to be confident that we shall not be moved. It is the celebration of the
way of Jesus, the way of love, the way that cost him his life. But in bread broken
and wine poured out we remember, we find our hope and we know in our
dependence on God we will be kept in love, confident that, though now we see
dimly, there is coming a day when we shall see face to face.
Thus let me say as clearly as I can to us all and especially to you, Marvin, feeling
the infirmities of the flesh –
The best is yet to be.
Listen to the Parable from Thelma’s funeral folder and know that she is present
even now, here and now…
A Parable
A young Mother set her foot on the path of life. “Is the way long?” she
asked.
And her guide said: “Yes. And the way is hard. But the end will be better
than the beginning.”
But the young Mother was happy, and she would not believe that anything
could be better than these years. So she played with her children, and
gathered flowers for them along the way: and the sun shown on them, and
life was good. The young Mother cried, “Nothing will ever be lovelier than
this.”
The night came and storm, and the path was dark, and the children shook
with fear and cold, and the Mother drew them close and covered them
with her mantle, and the children said, “Mother, we are not afraid for you
are near, and no harm can come.” The Mother said, “This is better than the
brightness of day, for I have taught my children courage.”
And the morning came, and there was a hill ahead. The children climbed
and grew weary, and the Mother was weary, but at all times she said to the
children, “A little patience, and we are there.” So the children climbed, and
when they reached the top, they said, “We could not have done it without
you, Mother.” The Mother, when she lay down that night, looked up at the
stars and said, “This is a better day than the last…for my children have
learned fortitude in the face of hardness.”
© Grand Valley State University
�Bread & Wine: Sacrament of Dependence and Hope
Richard A. Rhem
Page 5
And the next day came strange clouds which darkened the earth – clouds
of war and hate and evil, and the children groped and stumbled, and the
Mother said, “Look up. Life you eyes to the Light.” And the children looked
and saw above the clouds the Everlasting Glory, and it guided them and
brought them beyond the darkness. That night the Mother said, “This is
the best day of all, for I have shown my children God.”
And the days went on, and the weeks and the months and the years, and
the Mother grew old, and she was tired and weary. But her Children were
tall and strong, and walked with courage. And when the way was hard they
helped their Mother and when the way was rough, they lifted and carried
her; and at last they came to a hill, and beyond the hill they could see a
shining road and golden gates flung wide.
And the Mother said, “I have reached the end of my journey. And now I
know that the end is better than the beginning, for my children walk alone,
and their children after them.”
And the children said, “You will always walk with us, Mother, even when
you have gone through the gates.”
And they stood and watched her as she went on alone, and gates closed
after her.
They said, “We cannot see her, but she is with us still. A Mother like ours is
more than a Memory. She is a living Presence.”
© Grand Valley State University
�Bread & Wine: Sacrament of Dependence and Hope
Richard A. Rhem
The Prayer
Oh God, whose mercies are new every morning,
whose faithfulness is great,
and whose grace washes over us in wave upon wave,
to You we lift up our hearts,
longing for the experience of your Presence
which is healing and refreshing.
On this beautiful day as the nation is celebrating our independence,
as a family we celebrate our dependence –
our dependence on your grace that holds us steady
in the movement of our days,
your grace that has kept us as a family together in love and care.
And especially, we give you thanks for the patriarch in our midst,
father, grandfather, great grandfather,
the one whose steady presence keeps us steady,
whose faith has shown us the way,
whose welcoming love keeps us coming back and coming together.
We are grateful, O God, that once more we can gather here,
be together and celebrate the holiday.
But even more today, we gather around another table,
the table of our Lord.
In the presence of the symbols of bread broken and wine poured out
we are brought back to the heart of things,
to that which really matter,
to your love, your grace.
Be present to us as we are present to You and one another–
touch us deeply, hold us securely, manifest to us that Love
that is at the center of all things.
Spirit of God, make this bread and wine for us
the body and blood of Christ who loved us
and gave himself for us
as we pray the prayer he taught us, saying,
“Our Father, …”
© Grand Valley State University
Page 6
�
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
Independence Day Celebration of a Family
Scripture Text
Psalm 16:5-11, I Corinthians 13:8-13, John 1:14-18
Location
The location of the interview
A Family Home
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-0-20110704
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011-07-04
Title
A name given to the resource
Bread and Wine: A Sacrament of Dependence and Hope
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
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
Text
Description
An account of the resource
A sermon given by Richard A. Rhem (Dick) on July 4, 2011 entitled "Bread and Wine: A Sacrament of Dependence and Hope", on the occasion of Independence Day Celebration of a Family, at A Family Home. Scripture references: Psalm 16:5-11, I Corinthians 13:8-13, John 1:14-18.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives
Holy Communion
Independence Day
-
https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b0a07f8459ad7f68afe5b3386a88b6e0.jpg
fd368d3f7e16f973f843d7ef080ffd3e
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
Decorated Publishers' Bindings
Subject
The topic of the resource
Book covers
Covers (Illustration)
Graphic arts
Publishers and publishing
Pictorial bindings
Description
An account of the resource
From the early 1870s to roughly 1930, many publishers issued their commercial book covers with a remarkable variety of graphic designs and illustrations. This sixty-year period saw many artists and designers contributing to this art form. While some can be identified from their style or initials, others remain unknown.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Seidman Rare Books Collection
Michigan Novels Collection
Regional Historical Collection
Lincoln and the Civil War Collection
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
2017-08-30
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>, <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
image/jpg
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
DC-01
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials.
Source
Seidman Rare Books. PS3505.A5595 B74 1906
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-01_Bindings0437
Title
A name given to the resource
Breakers Ahead
Description
An account of the resource
Binding of Breakers Ahead, by A. Maybard Barbour, published by J. B. Lippincott Company, 1906.
Subject
The topic of the resource
Book covers
Covers (Illustration)
Graphic arts
Publishers and publishing
Pictorial bindings
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
image/jpeg
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1906
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/abfdc811cc1e9186d1958c6f4baa0d15.pdf
73d57c5afc168f5217eb1a229198e21a
PDF Text
Text
�
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
GVSU Sexuality and Gender Flyers
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The Rainbow Resource Center
Women and Gender Studies Department
Women's Commission
Gayle R. Davis Center for Women and Gender Equity
Description
An account of the resource
Digitized posters, flyers, event notices, and other materials relating to gender expression and sexuality at Grand Valley State University, with materials spanning from 1974 to 2019.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1974/2019
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Digitized from collections at the Rainbow Resource Center (formerly the Milton E. Ford LGBT Resource Center), Women and Gender Studies Department, Women's Commission, and Gayle R. Davis Center for Women and Gender Equity.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
In Copyright
Subject
The topic of the resource
Gender identity
Gender expression
Sexual orientation
Women's studies
Queer theory
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
DC-09
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
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-09_SGF_2010_Breaking-Down-Poverty-Barriers_Donna-M-Beegle.pdf
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Women's Center
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2010-11-29
Title
A name given to the resource
Breaking Down Poverty's Barriers
Description
An account of the resource
Flyer detailing a discussion lead by Dr. Donna M. Beegle on poverty and creating a more equitable society.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Hunger and Homelessness Student Organization, Women's Center, Women and Gender Studeis, Office of Inclusion and Equity
Subject
The topic of the resource
Community centers
poverty
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Women's Center
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
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/939ce95533e47c960fe72459191aaba6.mp3
a65cebb46992987a548acc61ba04a6f3
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
Pentecost XVII
Scripture Text
Isaiah 43:18-19, Acts 11:4
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-0-19930926
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1993-09-26
Title
A name given to the resource
Breaking Through, The Future Emerging
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Richard A. Rhem
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 September 26, 1993 entitled "Breaking Through, The Future Emerging", on the occasion of Pentecost XVII, at Christ Community Church, Spring Lake, MI. Scripture references: Isaiah 43:18-19, Acts 11:4.
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/e474253442d82267f0c84de175824043.jpg
791fe25abaf4ab2d23f55d7eb1c52711
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
BreenQuirinus_Photo1
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. University Communications
Title
A name given to the resource
Breen, Quirinus
Description
An account of the resource
Quirinus Breen, History
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