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- Notes:
- Keith Blough was born on August 28th, 1925 in Freeport, Michigan. He was drafted in to the US Navy in November of 1943. After attending boot camp in Farragut, Idaho, he became a signalman on a ship. After the war, he was discharged at Great Lakes in Chicago, Illinois.
- Date Created:
- 2004-12-17T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Kenneth Kelly was born on a farm in Coopersville, MI in 1925. He enlisted in the Navy in 1943 and served in a construction battalion (Seabees) in the Pacific theater, primarily in the Admiralties and on Okinawa. He relates several of his experiences while working on war construction projects, and focuses mostly on camp life. He also served in the Reserves for thirty years. The interview includes a description of his experience of the 1995 reunion at Okinawa.
- Date Created:
- 2008-01-19T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Robert Borey was born in Flint, Michigan in 1920. He finished high school in 1938 and went to work, and enlisted in the Navy right after Pearl Harbor. He trained at Great Lakes, Illinois, and became a hospital corpsman. He was assigned first to a Navy hospital in San Francisco, and then went to San Diego to train with the Marines. he deployed to Guadalcanal in 1943, and then his hospital moved into the Northern Solomon Islands. He served as a surgeon's assistant and helped treat many sick and wounded soldiers. He got leave home in 1945, and was on his way back when the war ended. After a brief stay in Sasebo, Japan, he came home and was discharged.
- Date Created:
- 2014-07-24T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- John Canepa was born in Massachusetts in 1930. He attended Harvard University and enlisted in the Navy near graduation and just barely missed the Korean War. He attended officer school in Rhode Island and was later assigned to work in the Naval Amphibious Force. John traveled to Japan, Korea, and Cuba while in the Navy. After he was discharged he remained in the reserve for three years.
- Date Created:
- 2004-10-14T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Robert Van Strien was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and graduated from Byron Center High School in 1945. After high school he and three of his friends joined the Navy. After basic training he was assigned to be a typist for a Commander aboard the USS Columbus. He served after the war during the Occupation of Japan and typed part of the ships newsletter. After his discharge in 1946 he used his GI bill money to learn how to fly and has owned three planes.
- Date Created:
- 2008-08-15T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Raymond Frederick served in the U.S. Navy between 1944 and 1946 in the Armed Guard. He worked with the Merchant Marines in the transport of supplies throughout the Pacific Theater. He discusses what he was doing before the war, his experiences in working with the Merchant Marines, the various places he visited in the Navy and what happened after the war. He also expresses his views on Middle-Eastern culture, both from his exploits to Iran and in the United States.
- Date Created:
- 2008-01-22T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Larry Terborg was born in 1953 in DeMotte, Indiana. He graduated from high school in 1971 and attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan graduating from there in 1975 with a degree in psychology. After a short time of working for the FBI in Washington DC he decided to enlist in the Navy with the intention of becoming a pilot. He attended Navy Officers' Candidate School in Pensacola, Florida and after graduating from that went on to train at Whiting Field, Florida; Meridian, Mississippi; and Whidbey Island, Washington. After completing his training he was stationed at Whidbey Island to be an A6 Intruder pilot with the Replacement Air Group V8128. He served aboard the aircraft carrier the USS Ranger where they operated in the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific during the time of the Iran Hostage Crisis and the Iran-Iraq War. In the mid-1980s he voluntarily left the Navy and became a commercial airline pilot.
- Date Created:
- 2014-04-10T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- James Chamberlain enlisted in the Navy in 1943 and trained at Great Lakes Naval Academy in Chicago. James spent almost a year in the Philippines helping to build naval bases along the coasts of different islands. On his trip home in 1946, he traveled to Hong Kong, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Gibraltar, Naples, and Casablanca.
- Date Created:
- 2008-04-07T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Loyd Winer served as a Naval Officer in the Atlantic from 1952-1955. He was assigned first to an escort carrier, and later to the fleet carrier Ticonderoga. He cruised in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and also had to supervise shore patrol in New York City.
- Date Created:
- 2010-05-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Tom Cannan was born in Eldorado, Illinois, in 1922. Prior to military service, he went to the Citizens' Military Training Camp at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, for a month of training with field artillery in 1940. In 1942, he joined the Naval Aviation Cadet School after receiving three months of preliminary flight training at St. Ambrose College, Iowa. He went to the University of Iowa for Navy Pre-Flight Training, then on to Naval Air Station Hutchinson, Kansas, for Primary Flight Training. Tom then went to Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, for Advanced Flight Training, but was discharged from the Naval Aviation Cadet program due to not having two years of college. He enlisted in the Army Air Force and became an instructor at Parks Air College in St. Louis, training Army pilot cadets. He served as an instructor there for a year-and-a half then went to Keesler Field, Mississippi, for three months of Army Cadet Training. After that training he did Army flight training at Army airfields around San Antonio, Texas, and at Lancaster, California. He was selected to be an instructor at Marana Army Air Field, Arizona, and for the last couple months of his enlistment was at Williams Field, Arizona. He was discharged in late 1945.
- Date Created:
- 2017-01-24T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Frank O'Boyle joined the US Navy after enrolling at Harvard University in 1942. He served as a communications officer on board his ship during the war and returned to Harvard in 1946.
- Date Created:
- 2005-08-03T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Richard Thelen was born in Lansing, Michigan, in 1927. He grew up in Lansing and enlisted in the Navy in 1944. In January 1945 he reported for basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois and trained there for four months until he completed his training in April 1945. After basic training he want to California and was assigned to the USS Indianapolis which was in dry dock at the time receiving repairs due to a kamikaze attack. With the cargo of the atomic bomb components the USS Indianapolis left San Francisco on July 16, 1945 bound for the island of Tinian. After delivering the bomb components they were ordered to the Philippines to join the 7th Fleet. At roughly midnight on July 30 the Japanese submarine I-58 spotted the Indianapolis and torpedoed her. The ship sank quickly, and Thelen and other survivors were in the water for three days before they were spotted and rescued, during which time many men died. After extended time in hospitals, Thelen was assigned to duties on bases in the US until his discharge.
- Date Created:
- 2014-09-20T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Letter to President James K. Polk from future Lincoln Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton recommending Rev. John Scott for Chaplain of the Navy.
- Date Created:
- 1847-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Notes:
- Don Sheridan enlisted into the Navy in 1943 after graduating from Coopersville High School. He eventually trained in becoming a signalman and served as part of the Naval Guard on a Merchant Marine cargo ship. His first voyage went to the Persian Gulf via the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal. His ship then went to the Pacific, taking a load of lumber to the Philippines and bringing soldiers home at the end of the war.
- Date Created:
- 2010-07-07T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Forrest Winchester was born in Kent County in 1925 and was drafted into World War II from high school. Forrest joined the Navy because his cousin enjoyed it, and left basic training as a radio repairman. He served on several ships in the Pacific, and during and after the war sailed to Borneo, Okinawa, China and Japan.
- Date Created:
- 2009-03-31T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Sid Lenger was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1918. After graduation from high school, Lenger went into business with his father, who ran several stores in the Grand Rapids. After several years, Lenger received his draft notice and following training in Chicago and Virginia, Lenger sailed on an LST down the Mississippi River, through the Gulf and Mexico and the Panama Canal and into the Pacific Ocean. Lenger's LST transported Marines as part of the massive invasion of Okinawa. Following the battle, the LST transported the supplies needed for P-38 fighter escorts and supplies to Japan before Lenger left the service. Included with the interview is a video Lenger made himself, combining official Navy training films and video he filmed himself while aboard the LST.
- Date Created:
- 2011-01-04T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Burney Huizenga served in the Navy during the Korean War. His main job on the U.S.S. Missouri, the battleship he served on, was in the Main Propulsion Division where he dealt with running the engines of the ship. He served in the Navy for three years and was discharged before the war ended.
- Date Created:
- 2008-06-05T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Joyce Washburn was born in October 1949 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She enlisted in the Navy Reserves in May 1968 and received basic training at U.S. Naval Training Center at Bainbridge, Maryland in August 1968. She returned to college then went to Naval Hospital Corps School at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois where she learned how to be a corpsman. She stayed in the Navy Reserves for twenty six years working at the hospitals at Great Lakes Naval Station, San Diego, and Pensacola. She also got to work at Bethesda Naval Hospital and U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in Washington D.C. During her time in the Navy Reserves she helped with domestic abuse programs, drug abuse programs, and psychological trauma programs. After her service she helped a fellow veteran, Dr. Edward Byrd, with the creation of a memorial for her fiance, Dennis Lobbezoo, who was killed in Vietnam in June 1968.
- Date Created:
- 2015-02-19T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Harold was born in Oil City, Pennsylvania on April 28, 1927. After he graduated high school, he attended Allegheny College and later joined the United States Navy in April 1945. He was sent to Bainbridge, Maryland for basic training. Hank was stationed on the USS Pavlik in the Pacific and Japan and served as a supply and disbursing clerk.
- Date Created:
- 2013-05-24T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Joseph Dorgan enlisted into the Navy in 1942 at the age of 17 during the Second World War. He served a majority of his time in the Armed Naval Guard. on merchant ships in convoys in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
- Date Created:
- 2009-05-30T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Richard Kranenberg, born on January 6th 1944 in Grand Rapids Michigan, served in the U.S. Navy as a supply man between 1962 and 1966. Richard served in ROTC in high school which prepared him for service. Throughout the course of his service, Richard served aboard the USS Midway as well as the USS Enterprise.
- Date Created:
- 2012-05-25T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Maurice Buskers enlisted into the Navy after graduating from Ottawa Hills High School in 1943. He was originally a part of the V-12 Program that would have made him an Officer of the Navy, but he decided to transfer into the Navy Air Corps instead. He was to become a pilot but was sent to Great Lakes for Navy training because there were too many pilots at the time. Buskers never saw battle because World War II had ended before he finished training.
- Date Created:
- 2009-03-24T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- William Coan was in the Navy during the war in Vietnam from 1970- 1974. He traveled to Greece, Turkey, Spain, Germany, Italy, Cuba, St. Croix, and St. Thomas. He mentions that he may have received a better education and pay in the Air Force.
- Date Created:
- 2007-06-04T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- William Lysdahl entered the Navy at age 17 during World War II. He served in the Pacific Ocean on ships conducting antisubmarine patrols. He was discharged on December 1st, 1945, at the end of the war. He was 20 years old.
- Date Created:
- 2005-06-08T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Robert Witzig was born on August 22, 1924, in Grant County, Wisconsin. He enlisted in the Navy in early 1943 and received his basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois. He went to Naval Station Treasure Island, California, and was selected to go aboard the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) and served in the ship's fire control division (firing the ship's gun). He participated in the ship's major operations in the Pacific Theater in 1944 and 1945, including the invasion of Okinawa. After the ship's repairs in California, he participated in the delivery of the atomic bomb components to the island of Tinian. On July 30, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed and sank. Robert abandoned ship and was one of the 317 men to survive the sinking. After five days he was rescued, and recovered in the Philippines and at Guam. He returned to the United States and was discharged at Great Lakes Naval Station in late 1945.
- Date Created:
- 2016-07-09T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Ronald Leistra served in the US Navy during the Korean War. He enlisted in the Navy because he knew he had a very good chance of being drafted. During his time in the service, Ronald served at Barbers Point in Hawaii, and at Whidbey Island in Washington. His units handled maps and made sure they were secure.
- Date Created:
- 2005-05-22T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- James Porter served in the US Navy during the final year of WWII, and then spent forty-one years working for Commonwealth Edison, in Illinois. While still in high school, he worked at the University of Chicago, cutting graphite used in the Manhattan Project.
- Date Created:
- 2008-02-16T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Steve Hickel was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1956. He attended several colleges and then enlisted in the Navy on June 6, 1975. He started out as a Sonar Technician on a nuclear fast attack submarine. Their mission was to find enemy subs, monitor and record them and if necessary destroy them during the Cold War. He was first sent to the Mediterranean Sea where he became an officer and then traveled around on the Pacific Ocean. Steve was called back as a Commander in 1995 and went to Europe to install computer systems.
- Date Created:
- 2005-05-29T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Charles Mangold was born on June 9, 1952 in Saginaw, Michigan. Charles enlisted in the Navy in December of 1970 and went through boot camp at Great Lakes Naval Academy in Chicago, Illinois. He then went through Basic Propulsion Engineering School and Machinist Aid School. Charles trained for submarine service for one year and then boarded his first submarine in 1971. Charles traveled to Hawaii, Japan, and Korea while on active duty and worked as a machinist's mate.
- Date Created:
- 2008-11-08T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Mark Thiel was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1950 and served in the Navy/Marines and Army during the Vietnam War Era. He worked for the Navy and Marines as a lab assistant in a number of different locations, including South Carolina and Camp Pendleton in California. After his stint in the Navy, he joined the Army and worked as a truck and forklift driver in Germany and at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. After the Army, he worked as a truck driver in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
- Date Created:
- 2009-10-15T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Jerome Warren was born in Byron Center, Michigan, on November 11, 1926. He enlisted in the Navy on November 11, 1944 and received his basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois. He was selected for signal training, and received that training at Sampson Naval Training Center, New York. In late spring 1945, he went to Camp Shoemaker, California, and eventually boarded a Dutch merchant ship bound for the Philippines. After stopping in Hawaii and Samar, he arrived in Manila in August 1945. He was assigned to USS APL-19, a ship used to house personnel in transit. Aboard the USS APL-19, he served as a guard and as a signalman. In 1947, USS APL-19 was towed back to the United States, and was decommissioned at Jacksonville, Florida. He spent the final month of his service at Watervliet Arsenal, New York and was discharged at Great Lakes Naval Station.
- Date Created:
- 2017-01-10T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Don Kramer was born in Gary, Indiana on April 3, 1943. Don got his GED when he was 17, got married, and also joined the Navy. Don worked in the Caribbean, Europe, Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos. Don was involved in many fire fights while in Vietnam and was often under heavy attack. After being badly wounded in a mortar attack in 1972, Don was discharged from the Navy 6 months short of retirement and spent 2 years in military hospitals receiving physical therapy. He retired from his job in 2005 and now spends most of his time at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans.
- Date Created:
- 2006-12-04T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Lyn Lee served in the US Navy from 1972 to 1974. He was a crewman on the USS Navasota (A0-106), a large tanker. His ship served in the South China Sea, and supported ships cruising off the coast of Vietnam in the later stages of the war there.
- Date Created:
- 2008-01-07T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Lyle Perschke was born in Wisconsin in 1922 and moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1925 when his father's job was transferred. Lyle played the trumpet and drums in high school and so he became a bugler when he joined the Navy. During a fight he got his four front teeth knocked out and was no longer to serve in the position of bugler. He became second class quartermaster on his ship. Lyle traveled to many different islands throughout the Pacific, as well as Korea and Manchuria, serving first on the USS Honolulu and later on the USS Colbert. Lyle has many experiences where his ship was attacked by Japanese kamikazes and also problems with running into floating mines in the ocean. Photographs of the USS Honolulu and a clipping are appended to this interview outline.
- Date Created:
- 2007-10-11T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Fay Johnson was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and graduated from Lowell High School. After high school he joined the Navy and first trained as a radio tech and then a fire controller. He was assigned to the USS Terry and boarded it in November 1944. They went to Iwo Jima and their mission was to fire at targets on the island given to them by the marines. They were at Iwo Jima for 3-4 weeks and then went on picket duty between Japan and Iwo Jima. On their way back to Iwo Jima they were hit three times and had to go to San Francisco to get repaired. After they were repaired they were getting ready for the Japanese invasion, but the war ended.
- Date Created:
- 2008-08-25T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Morgan Singer was born in Pinckney, MI and served in the Navy during World War II. Singer was sent to Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Chicago, IL and then to Fort Bradford, VA and Ft. Pierce, FL for training on LST landing craft. After training, he was shipped to Guam, where he was preparing for the invasion of Japan when the war ended. He was then sent to the Philippines, where he worked clearing vehicles.
- Date Created:
- 2007-06-09T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- George Robinson was born on July 3, 1954 in Billings, Montana. Shortly before graduating from high school in 1973 he enlisted in the Navy. He received basic training in San Diego, California and went to Aviation Structure Mechanic School at Naval Air Technical Training Center Memphis, Tennessee. He was assigned to Naval Air Station Miramar, California and worked in VFP-63 (a photo reconnaisance squadron). He also did work aboard the USS Enterprise and USS Ranger on two week training exercises near Alameda, California. He stayed with VFP-63 at NAS Miramar until he left active duty in August 1977.
- Date Created:
- 2015-04-23T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Robert O'Brien was born on October 31, 1922 in Detroit, Michigan. His family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan when he was a baby and he grew up there. In the spring of 1942 he enlisted in the Navy with the intention of becoming a pilot for the Navy. After receiving training in Ohio and Iowa he was commissioned as an officer (receiving the rank of ensign) in Corpus Christi, Texas and then went on to receive further training in Florida and California before being assigned to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington. He was assigned to a land based squadron, VP 199, while at Whidbey Island where he flew a Curtiss Helldiver and patrolled the waters off the northwestern coast for Japanese submarines. After the war was over he received orders to go to Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois to be discharged and left the Navy in November 1945 with the rank of lieutenant junior grade.
- Date Created:
- 2015-05-22T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Duane Endres was born on a farm in Michigan in 1924. He was drafted into the Navy 1945. Prior to this he received a deferment due to his work at Michigan State University. He remained on the home front during his service and was stationed in Norman, Oklahoma, and Livermore, California. He was a seaman 2nd class, worked in the mess hall in Oklahoma, and was assigned to refrigeration in California. He was discharged from the Navy in 1946.
- Date Created:
- 2011-04-26T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Chester Dykema joined the Navy during WW II in July 1945 and served until 1946. Dykema tells of life in Hawaii after the war during which the military was demobilizing, and about his life upon returning home.
- Date Created:
- 2007-06-02T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Jim Kloosterman served in the US Navy in 1965 and 1966. He served as a radioman on the carrier USS Independence, spending much of his time decrypting Soviet radio traffic. During his tour, his ship saw action off the coast of Vietnam, and then served in the Mediterranean.
- Date Created:
- 2005-02-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Gary Doublestein was born on November 15, 1952, in Plainwell, Michigan. In early 1970 he enlisted in the Navy, and in June reported for basic training at Naval Training Center San Diego, California. He went to Hospital Corps School at Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego, and was then stationed at Camp Pendleton, California. Gary stayed at Camp Pendleton for a year and was then assigned to the USS Kitty Hawk. His first cruise on the Kitty Hawk lasted from April 1972 to November 1972. In that first cruise, he witnessed combat flights into Vietnam as well as a mutiny on the ship. He returned to the United States and was stationed at Naval Air Station Miramar, California, until he rejoined the Kitty Hawk. His second cruise lasted from November 1973 to June 1974 and he was aboard ship when one of the engine rooms exploded. He left the Navy in June 1974, and enlisted in the Air Force in the late 1970s (c. 1978) to pay for medical school. He was stationed at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, for three years and resigned his commission in 1991. In 2003, he enlisted in the Army Reserve. He served at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, in 2005, at Camp Bucca, Iraq, in 2006, at Tikrit, Iraq, in 2008, and and his final deployment was in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. He retired from the Army Reserve on November 15, 2012.
- Date Created:
- 2017-01-17T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Robert Livo, born in Detroit Michigan, serve in the U.S. Naval reserves from 1953-approximately 1954 to 1955. During his service, Robert went thought most of his training at Great Lakes Naval Base in Illinois. The men were put to work often cleaning and repairing ships that had come into port. Robert worked in the electronics department. He was also sent on a small cruise assigned to refill line layers in the South Atlantic. During this cruise Robert was given 18 days in Brazil.
- Date Created:
- 2011-09-09T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Richard Prosch was born in 1921 in Indiana and graduated from high school in 1939. He attended college in Ohio and signed up for the Navy shortly after Pearl Harbor was attacked. His appointment was deferred until his graduation in 1943. Richard trained as a naval liaison to work with army units in invasions. While training in England, he witnessed the Slapton Sands disaster. He landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day with the 1st Division, and then worked with the 2nd Division as it landed the next day. He was subsequently transferred to the Pacific, and served in the Philippines.
- Date Created:
- 2008-07-04T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Milo "Mike" Houghton was born in Sand Lake, Michigan in 1924. At the age of 17 he enlisted in the Navy in December of 1941. At Great Lakes Illinois he received his brief basic training. He was bound for the USS Sperry departing out of San Diego, California where they headed to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack on Pearl Harbor had taken place so recently that ships were still smoking. There he was relieved to encounter his brother who was injured in the attack, but survived. Next the Sperry took him to Brisbane, Australia where they remained for some time. Eventually the Sperry returned to San Diego and Houghton would next be departing on the USS Kittson. In 1944 the Kittson traveled the South Pacific and on then to Okinawa. It was at the battle of Okinawa in 1945 where Houghton worked to ferry members of the Army to and from the ships. Although on board the Kittson and prepared to invade Japan, the end of the War made this unnecessary and he was soon honorably discharged thereafter.
- Date Created:
- 2015-11-18T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Philip Palmer was born on May 23, 1933 in Lansing, Michigan. After high school he joined the Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps and studied at the University of Wisconsin, receiving training aboard the USS Roanoke, USS William R Rush, and at Little Creek, Virginia and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas. He graduated and was commissioned in 1955 with a degree in chemical engineering and a degree in naval science. He served aboard the USS Strickland and the USS Hissem and served as a Navy ROTC instructor at the University of Michigan. He served aboard the USS Meadowlark during the Bay of Pigs invasion. He studied at the US Naval Postgraduate School and at Ohio State University and received nuclear reactor training in Bainbridge, Maryland and Idaho Falls, Idaho. He served aboard the USS Enterprise during the Vietnam War from 1966-1968, afterwards being assigned to the Office of Naval Research. In 1971 he reported for duty at Naval Magazine Subic in Subic Bay, Philippines and served there until 1974 when he was reassigned to the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Potomac, Maryland. He then served at Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington D.C. and then at Naval Weapons Station Earle, New Jersey. His final assignment was at the Applied Physics Laboratory at John Hopkins University and he retired from that in 1984.
- Date Created:
- 2015-01-22T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- John Damon was, born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1919. When Pearl Harbor happened, he was a cadet at The Citadel, and immediately enlisted in the Navy. However, he was given the opportunity to complete his degree first, so he went on active duty only in 1943. He went through his officer's basic course at Columbia University, and while there drilled recruits who were having trouble with their training. He was assigned to the USS Alaska, a battle cruiser still under construction, in 1944. He sailed with the Alaska on a shakedown cruise to Guantanamo, and then into the Pacific in early 1945. The ship escorted carriers off of Iwo Jima and Japan, and also did shore bombardments and a sweep of the Chinese coast. After the surrender, they sailed to Japan, and then spent three months in Tsingtao, China, while the Japanese troops there were evacuated.
- Date Created:
- 2011-10-19T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Norman Beachum was born in Union City, Tennessee on March 7, 1927. After moving around the country his family settled in Muskegon, Michigan and on his 17th birthday he enlisted in the Navy (March 7, 1944). He took basic training at Farragut Naval Training Station, Idaho and after 14 weeks went to Tacoma, Washington where he joined the USS Cumberland Sound (AV-17), a seaplane tender. They went to sea on October 28, 1944 and sailed to Pearl Harbor where he received antiaircraft training. The ship sailed to Eniwetok, then Kwajalein, then Saipan, then Guam before reaching Ulithi on January 12, 1945. He was stationed at Ulithi until the ship returned to Eniwetok on June 24, 1945. After the war he was aboard the Cumberland Sound during occupation duty in Japan then joined the USS Gardiners Bay (AVP-39), a small seaplane tender. He sailed around Japan and China for the remainder of 1945 and into 1946. In early spring 1946 he boarded a troopship in Hong Kong and returned to the United States. He was discharged from the Navy at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois on May 23, 1946.
- Date Created:
- 2011-02-08T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Matthew Urbancik joined the military because he wanted to work with electronics. He initially sought out the Navy but was declined, and later enlisted into the Air Force to become a jet mechanic. Matthew saw the benefits of retiring from the military and re-enlisted after seven years. He served during Desert Storm and retired as a Chief Petty Officer. When 9/11 happened, his unit became a defensive unit on a domestic military base.
- Date Created:
- 2011-06-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Donald Oderkirk grew up in upstate New York and attended college at Central Michigan University in the early 60s. He then went to Michigan State University for grad school until he received his draft notice. Rather than being drafted into the Army, Donald enlisted in the Navy and passed the exam for Officer Candidate School. He was sent to Newport, Rhode Island for 90 days of officer training before he was assigned to go overseas. Donald had requested to work in Southeast Asia and he worked back and forth between Japan and Vietnam for about 2 years before being sent back to the United States. His duties in Vietnam included working on a rocket-launching landing craft and serving as an interpreter with Korean forces.
- Date Created:
- 2009-12-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)