Veterans History Project
1714 items
- Notes:
- Randy Austin was born in Paw Paw, Michigan on December 30, 1945 and was drafted shortly after graduating high school in 1965. He was not happy about being drafted and expected to be sent to Vietnam. Instead he began training in aviation electronics and was sent to a base in Germany to work on electronics maintenance for an armored unit. He said the base in Germany was very laid back and he took every moment he had off to travel around in Europe.
- Date Created:
- 2008-05-15T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- This interview session recaps the first part of Bassett's tour in Vietnam, and then covers the second half, when he was a brigade-level staff officer in the 9th Division. Bassett supervised long range reconnaissance patrols, organized and ran a provisional company working with experimental ground radar, and dealt with an unstable commander. He would remain the Army until 1997, working both with the Rangers and in intelligence work. He spent a total of eight years in Germany, including the period immediately before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and also went to Saudi Arabia and Iraq at the time of the Gulf War, and also worked at the Pentagon. After retiring for medical reasons, he continued to work as a civilian contractor for the military, helping the Colombian army and national police with counterinsurgency training and later working with civilian contractors sent to the Middle East at the time of the invasion of Iraq.
- Date Created:
- 2011-04-26T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Harry Kutten was born in St. Louis in 1924 to Russian immigrant parents, and enlisted in the Navy while still in high school after he heard of the tragedy of Pearl Harbor. He felt obligated to join the armed forces after this incident, and cited the growing influence of Hitler and the threat to democracy as his motivation. Harry completed basic training at the Farragut Naval Training Station in Idaho. After training he joined a merchant ship that sailed to New Caledonia and assigned as a signalman aboard the light cruiser USS Montpelier. He served aboard the ship in the Solomon Islands, and later on as part of the flotilla that went to the Marianas and provided support for troops on Saipan. From there, he went on to the Philippines, Okinawa and Japan.
- Date Created:
- 2011-08-18T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Jack Mc Caulley was born in Woodland, Michigan in 1927 and enlisted in the Navy in 1944 when he was only 16 years old. Jack went through boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Academy in Chicago, Illinois and then shipped out with the 59th Seabees. Jack worked as a truck driver delivering supplies on Pacific islands such as the Marshall Islands, Guam, and Saipan. Jack and Norma met after the war in a roller rink and have since been married for more than 56 years.
- Date Created:
- 2005-07-16T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Jerry Muir, born April 14th 1924 in Grand Rapids ,Michigan, was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943. Sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma for basic training, he was assigned to the Signal Corps and began learning Morse Code. He took an opportunity to transfer to the Army Air Corps, and spend several months taking college courses in preparation for flight training, but the program shut down after three months, and he was now sent to Fort Warren, Wyoming, for Quartermaster Corps training. After this, he want by ship to New Guinea, and then to a replacement depot in the Philippines, where he waited over a month for an assignment. He was eventually assigned to the J.M. Davis, a ship that provided repair services for Army transport ships. He served aboard the Davis for the last few months of the war, and went to Yokohama, Japan, after the surrender.
- Date Created:
- 2011-11-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Francis Scott was drafted in October of 1942. He was trained to be a radio operator and attended college at Washington State from June of 1943 to March of 1944. He was stationed in California for a short while before he was sent to Europe, where he served in England, the Battle of the Bulge and the invasion of Germany as a radio operator in the 11th Armored Division. At the end of the war he saw many refugees, helped liberate two concentration camps, and participated in the capture of 2,000 Hungarian soldiers in Austria.
- Date Created:
- 2008-11-16T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- In order to avoid the draft, while still a junior in high school, Joseph Scott elected to join the Michigan National Guard in 1965. After about a year and a half in the guard, he decided to go on active duty and trained as an aircraft mechanic at Fort Eustis, Virginia. He volunteered for Vietnam, and was assigned to the 540th Transportation Company, 34th Battalion, 14th Transportation Division stationed at an airfield in Qui Nhơn. While at the Qui Nhơn airfield, Scott split his time between working as a mechanic and as part of the base security force. He also spent some time Tan Son Nhut and Vung Tau. During Scott's tour, which he extended to a second year, he experienced the 1968 Tet offensive, during which the Viet Cong placed the Qui Nhơn airfield under a four-day siege.
- Date Created:
- 2013-01-22T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- William Sterzick served in the US Army during the Korean War, but never saw combat. Stationed in Nuremberg, Germany, he met his future wife while working as an orderly in a hospital. He discusses life in Germany at the time and the condition of the city after World War II.
- Date Created:
- 2007-06-05T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Gerald served as an instructor in the Army from 1953 to 1955, despite failing his physical for the Navy. Gerald focuses mostly on his home life prior to and after enlistment. He also briefly recounts the complications of integration of the armed forces.
- Date Created:
- 2007-05-30T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Keith Cole, born in Muskegon, Michigan, in 1924, served in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1942-1945 in England during World War II. After completing his training at Miami Beach, Keith was sent to England in 1943 where he was assigned to the 22nd Anti Submarine Group. Keith was then sent to Herington Air Field where he served as an Engineer on B-24 bombers utilized by the OSS. These aircraft dropped operatives and supplies for the Resistance in France, and were also pressed into service to ferry supplies to American units that had outrun the ground supply system. Keith was sent home soon after VE Day and was discharged in late summer of 1945.
- Date Created:
- 2012-07-31T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)