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- Notes:
- John DeBoer was born in 1924 in Paterson New Jersey and before the war he worked as tool and die apprentice. He enlisted in 1943 and trained in Sampson New York. He was sent to radio school and was assigned to the destroyer USS John D. Edwards as a radio technician. The ship did convoy duty and anti-submarine patrols throughout the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and participated in the sinking of a German U-Boat. He left the ship in 1944 to began flight training, and was based near Memphis Tennessee. He left the military in 1946 before finishing flight training.
- Date Created:
- 2014-11-20T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Eugene Bleil was born in 1920 and grew up mostly on farms outside of the city. He was accepted to Eastern Michigan University, but dropped out after a semester, traveled with his brother looking for work, and wound up enlisting in the Army Air Corps. The brothers trained as Selfridge Field in Michigan and passed the tests for pilot training, but failed the physical, and trained as mechanics at Scott Field in Illinois. Assigned to the 17th Pursuit Squadron, Bleil shipped out to the Philippines in 1940. Based at Nichols Field outside of Manila, the squadron trained there until the war with Japan began, and then transferred first to Clark Field, and then to Bataan. When the aircraft were withdrawn, the crews became provisional infantry and fought off Japanese landing attempts along the coast until the surrender in April. Bleil survived the Bataan Death March and three years in labor camps in the Philippines before being sent to Japan to work in foundries. Bleil and some of the other prisoners developed a talent for sabotage, but were never caught by the Japanese. After the war, Bleil was told by Army doctors that he would not live very long or be able to father children. Even so, he went back to college, became a doctor, raised a family and is still around to tell his story. He has also published a memoir, Condemned to Death Six Times.
- Date Created:
- 2012-03-13T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Arthur DeWitt was born in Lapeer, Michigan in 1921, and grew up in Kalamazoo. While a senior in high school, DeWitt joined the Michigan National Guard, and his unit, Company C of the 126th Infantry Regiment, was called up soon afterward, causing him to miss most of his senior year. His unit was sent to Camp Beauregard, Louisiana for training, and he became a BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle) gunner. In the spring of 1942, his division was sent first to Boston, then to San Francisco, and from there to Australia. They were shipped to New Guinea in September, and participating in the fighting around Buna. One of the few men in his company to get through Buna unscathed and healthy, he came down with malaria soon after returning to Australia, and was reassigned to the 41st Division. He served with the 41st on Biak, and then on Mindanao in the Philippines, and was rotated home shortly before the end of the war.
- Date Created:
- 2008-04-08T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Allan Ostar was born on September 4, 1924, in East Orange, New Jersey. He went to Pennsylvania State University in fall 1942 and joined the Reserve Officer's Training Corps, then joined the Enlisted Reserve Corps. He volunteered for active duty and was inducted at Fort Meade, Maryland. He received Basic Training, Radio Training, and Signal Corps Training at Camp Crowder, Missouri, then was selected for the Army Specialized Training Program. He received Engineering Training at the University of Denver and Regis College until the ASTP was disbanded. Allan then received orders to go to Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, to join the 42nd Infantry Division. He was initially assigned to K Company of the 242nd Infantry Regiment, then transferred to Headquarters Company, before winding up in the Cannon Company. In November 1944 the 42nd went to New York City for deployment to Europe. They arrived at Marseille, France, in late November/early December 1944 then traveled north to help the French defend Strasbourg and the Alsace-Lorraine. During "Operation Nordwind" he received a Bronze Star for staying behind to direct artillery fire and another Bronze Star in Hagenau. In March 1945 he crossed the Rhine River into Germany, and took part in the liberation of Dachau on April 29, 1945. At the end of the war he entered Austria, and served in Austria as part of the occupying force. He left Europe in late 1945 (or early 1946) and was discharged at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
- Date Created:
- 2016-05-31T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Tom Jillson was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1947 and grew up in East Grand Rapids, Michigan. He joined the Air Force upon graduating high school and was initially trained as an electrical specialist, but was then transferred to accounting. He was stationed at Webb AFB in Texas for two years of his service and was then shipped to Vietnam for the remainder of his enlistment period. His job in Vietnam was a clerk, trading American money for Military bills. He remained in Da Nang for the greater part of his time in Vietnam.
- Date Created:
- 2008-12-18T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Edward Johnson was born in Greenville, Michigan in 1919, and was drafted into the Army in 1941. After training to be a mechanic at Camp Boyd, Texas, Johnson joined Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division. He went to England with this unit in 1942, and stayed with it through campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, Normandy, the Hurtgen Forest, Battle of the Bulge and the invasion of Germany, ending up in Czechoslovakia when the war ended.
- Date Created:
- 2012-02-28T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Douglas Martyn served in the US Army from 1944 to 1946. He initially trained as a medic in Chicago and worked in a dispensary and administered inoculations to new recruits. He eventually transferred to the Army Air Corps and was based first in Louisiana and then in Alaska at a base near Nome that Generals Eisenhower and LeMay visited because of the good fishing there.
- Date Created:
- 2007-12-21T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Bertam Zheutlin served in the medical corps during WW II. Still in medical school when the war broke out, Zheutlin recounts what it was like to be a civilian waiting to go to war, as well as his experiences as a doctor during the war and the training he underwent. Zheutlin also talks about the psychological after effects of war and of a relative who had escaped a concentration camp in Poland and become a guerilla.
- Date Created:
- 2007-06-02T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Roy Davis was born in Hartford, Michigan in 1924. He grew up in Hartford and after graduating from high school in 1942 enlisted in the Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet. He reported for duty on June 1, 1943 and began training at Sheppard Field, Texas. From there he went to Wittenberg University for College Training then went to San Antonio, Texas for Active Pre-Flight Training. He received flight training in Uvalde, Texas, and after graduating as a pilot and receiving his commission as a 2nd lieutenant he was assigned to Multi-engine Advanced Training. In Reno, Nevada he trained on the C-46 cargo plane. In late summer 1944 he deployed to the China-Burma-India Theater and was stationed at Sookerating Field in the Assam Valley of India, flying supply missions into China over the Himalayas. Three months later, after Christmas 1944, he was transferred to Myitkyina Airfield, Burma where he continued to fly supply missions until the war ended. He contracted a disease (most likely malaria) and stayed in Burma until he was transferred to Calcutta, India in September 1945 for 30 days in a hospital. In October 1945 he returned to the United States and arrived in November. He received 30 days of leave and was discharged in early 1946. Marion Davis grew up in Hartford, Michigan and in September 1943 enrolled as a cadet nurse at St. Jospeh Hospital in South Bend, Indiana. She received hands-on training on how to be a nurse and planned on joining the Navy after she completed her nursing program if the war was still going on. She completed her nursing program at St. Joseph Hospital in September 1946, and married Roy Davis in 1947.
- Date Created:
- 2016-01-04T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Walter "Red" Graham was born in January of 1917 in Lowell, Michigan, and lived there until he was drafted into the Army in 1941. He spent a year and a half training on Whidbey Island, near Seattle, Washington, and was then sent to Kodiak, Alaska as part of the 14th Coastal Artillery. In 1944, after spending significant time in Alaska, he was sent to Oklahoma for retraining before being shipped to Italy. Walter traveled through the Po River Valley in Italy until they reached Northern Italy when the war was won. Walter was eventually discharged from Camp Carson, Colorado in 1945.
- Date Created:
- 2006-11-27T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)