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- Notes:
- Merton Powell was born in Topeka, Kansas in 1924. He grew up in Topeka and enlisted in the Navy in 1943. He received basic training in Chadron, Nebraska then went to Iowa for College Training before going to California for Flight Training. He was accepted into the Naval Aviation Program and was able receive flight training in the N2S Stearman. After the Second World War ended in September 1945 he was discharged from active duty. He remained in the Naval Reserve until 1947. He enlisted in the Air Force in 1949 and served briefly with them.
- Date Created:
- 2016-02-16T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Jacob Lucas is a World War II veteran who served in the Seabees, a construction branch of the Navy, from December 1942 to 1945. In this account, Lucas discusses his pre-enlistment, enlistment and basic training in the U.S. and his service time abroad in the Pacific. He goes into some depth about his responsibilities as a Seabee in Okinawa, New Caledonia, New Guinea and the Admiralty Islands. Lucas concludes his interview by showing pictures and newspaper clippings from that time.
- Date Created:
- 2004-04-19T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Richard Alkema was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1926. After graduating high school in 1944 he enlisted to the Navy. For his brief basic training he was sent to Great Lakes, Illinois. In Norfolk, Virginia he was trained to use the anti-aircraft guns to be a guardsman. Thereafter he traveled aboard the Seatrain Texas ship to Falmouth England, Naples Italy, and Marseille France to deliver locomotive engines. The ship next passed through the Panama Canal to Pearl Harbor where Richard boarded LST 801. Their next destination would be Okinawa where they transported Japanese to the mainland in the aftermath of the War. His time in the military lasted two and a half years and he was discharged in 1946.
- Date Created:
- 2015-12-03T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Ollie Dean is a World War II veteran that was born in 1927 in Kalamazoo, Michigan and grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In early 1945 at the age of seventeen he joined the U.S. Navy and after training at Great Lakes Naval Station in Chicago was deployed to the Pacific Theatre and Southeast Asia aboard the U.S.S. Cheleb, a Navy cargo ship. He also served on the U.S.S. Mt. McKinley, a communications ship, on a cruise through the Inland Sea of Japan and up to Vladivostok. With the Cheleb, he spent time in Shanghai and Tsingtao while the Japanese were being evacuated from China.
- Date Created:
- 2013-11-14T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Jack Norton was born in Ottawa County, Michigan, in 1920. He graduated from high school in 1937 and enlisted in the Navy in 1938. He trained as a machinist's mate and sailed first on a transport ship in the Pacific, then on the destroyer USS Barker from 1940 to 1943, engaging mostly in convoy escorts and antisubmarine patrols in the Pacific (including visits to China before Pearl Harbor) and Atlantic (sinking two U-Boats). He then transferred to the destroyer escort USS Henry R. Kenyon, and again served in the Atlantic and Pacific, witnessing a kamakaze attack at Okinawa and ending the war in the Philippines.
- Date Created:
- 2008-12-15T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Gerald Garner was born in West Branch, Michigan, on May 25, 1927. During the Great Depression, his family's jewelry shop was diversified as his father agreed to share the space with an energy company so he could pay the rent. Garner signed onto a radar technician program with the Navy in the closing months of the war and attedned Boot Camp at Great Lakes Naval Station. He was in Alameda, California, when the war ended and was quickly offered an early-out of the service due to the flood of dischargees returning home. He then went on to attend optometry school in Chicago on the GI Bill.
- Date Created:
- 2017-11-14T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Robert Barrett was born in Ohio in 1925. In 1943 he enlisted in the Navy and received basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois. He went to Gunnery School in Gulfport, Mississippi and received training with pistols, rifles, and larger ship guns like the 20mm cannon. He was assigned to the SS Alcibiadie, a Merchant Marine vessel, as one of forty five Americans on the gunnery detail. They operated in the Gulf of Mexico transporting fuel and in the Pacific Ocean around Australia and New Guinea refueling ship. In August 1944 the ship was acquired by the U.S. Navy and became the USS Andrew Doria. They continued with refueling operations then took part in the Battle of Lingayen Gulf in January 1945. Refueling operations continued until the end of the war. In early 1946 they returned to the U.S. and the USS Andrew Doria was decommissioned in Mobile, Alabama in late February. Robert was discharged in March 1946.
- Date Created:
- 2015-09-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Wayne Monroe served in the US Navy between 1944 and 1946. Her served as a crewman on USS Kaskaskia, a large oiler, and saw action at Okinawa, where he witnessed kamikaze attacks. After the war, he sailed to Japan, China and Arabia before returning home to be discharged.
- Date Created:
- 2007-10-23T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Samuel Latigo was born in 1927 in San Antonio, Texas. Raised by his grandmother, he worked as a teen before enlisting in the Navy at the age of seventeen. Following training in San Diego, the Navy assigned him to the troop transport U.S.S. Edgecombe. The Edgecombe carried troops to New Guinea and the Philippines and participated in the invasion of Okinawa and the landing of occupation troops in Japan following the end of the war. Following the end of the war, the Edgecombe returned to the United States and the Navy discharged Latigo.
- Date Created:
- 2010-03-27T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Buford North was born in Paragould, Arkansas, in 1922. His family later moved to Flint, Michigan where he attended high school. He enlisted in the Navy in June 1942. He received basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois and transferred to New Orleans, Louisiana for further training and his assignment to a ship. From New Orleans he went to Orange, Texas to board the USS William D. Porter as an Electrician's Mate 3rd Class. The USS William D. Porter participated in escorting President Roosevelt to Allied conferences in Africa and the Middle East as well as campaigns in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, the Philippines, and finally at Okinawa supporting the invasion there. On June 10, 1945 the USS William D. Porter was struck by a Japanese kamikaze plane and sank off the coast of Okinawa. Buford, along with the rest of the crew, was successfully rescued and returned to the United States.
- Date Created:
- 2014-09-04T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Donald Johnson served in the Navy during WW II. He traveled mostly aboard a luxury ship that had been remodeled into a Navy ship. Johnson's crew traveled throughout the Pacific to Australia, Guam, and the Philippines. Johnson experienced combat three times while in the Pacific and also discussed his experience with Japanese Kamikazes.
- Date Created:
- 2007-05-19T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Fay Orvis was a soldier during World War II in the United States Navy. He worked as a minesweeper during his time in the service and spent time in Okinawa and Saipan. His account describes different duties performed on the minesweeper and onshore in California and on various islands, as well as incidents involving kamikaze attacks and mine explosions.
- Date Created:
- 2008-04-03T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- George Steele was drafted into the Navy in 1943. He had previously gone to a technical high school and was able to continue such aviation and mechanical training while in the Navy. George spent most of his service in Guam after the Japanese invasion. He was there for about two years while the Navy was giving technical support to the Marines. After his time in the service George became a draftsman at an architecture firm.
- Date Created:
- 2007-10-30T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Len Berkenpas was born in 1925 to a farmer in Byron Center, MI. Was drafted into the Navy in 1943 and worked as a cook at Naval Air Base Livermore near San Francisco, CA. He did not spend any time on a ship at sea.
- Date Created:
- 2008-06-30T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Jake DeWitt served during the Second World War as a Gunner's Mate on the USS Roper, a destroyer from WWI. The Roper patrolled the Virginia coast where it sunk its first German submarine, then travelled to the Straits of Gibraltar for convoy duty. She was eventually struck near Okinawa when a Japanese fighter plane crashed into the side of the ship injuring DeWitt. Dewitt was eventually discharged after recovering from his arm injury.
- Date Created:
- 2010-02-16T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Lloyd Powell was born on February 22, 1927 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He enlisted in the Navy in summer 1944 and was called to active duty in fall 1944. He received basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois then went to Camp Little Creek, Virginia and on to Norfolk, Virginia where he boarded the USS LST-509. He worked as a regular sailor, oversaw a work detail of sailors and marines, and pulled shifts on the ship's helm. They sailed up and down the East Coast moving personnel and supplies from New England to Key West, Miami, and Wainwright Shipyard in Florida. Near the end of the war the ship was outfitted for the invasion of Japan, and when Japan surrendered they were in Camp Little Creek, Virginia. Lloyd stayed with the ship until he was discharged in Norfolk in April 1946.
- Date Created:
- 2016-02-23T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Robert Keegstra was born on April 20, 1919 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He enlisted in the Navy on August 7, 1941 and received his basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois. He went to Yeoman School and after 16 weeks graduated as a yeoman in the Navy. He was stationed at Naval Air Station Glenview, Illinois when the war began. In the summer of 1942 he went to U.S. Naval Reserve Midshipmen School at Abbott Hall at Northwestern University and graduated from that training on October 30, 1942 with the rank of ensign. He stayed there and worked as an instructor for a little over a year, then was transferred in January 1944 to Hollywood, Florida where he worked as a navigation instructor. In March 1945 he joined the crew of the USS Savannah (CL-42) and trained in the Gulf of Mexico through the summer and early fall of 1945. On October 22, 1945 he left the ship in New Orleans and shortly thereafter was discharged from the Navy at Great Lakes Naval Station.
- Date Created:
- 2016-02-27T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Albert Barker was born in 1925 in Stanton, Michigan. Albert grew up on a farm and was doing farm work when he was drafted into the Navy in 1943 and was then sent to Great Lakes, Illinois where he spent eight weeks in basic training. After his training, Albert was sent to the South Pacific where he met up with his PT squadron in New Caledonia. After being in New Caledonia, he was sent to Rendova Island where he patrolled waters against the Japanese. After Rendova, he was sent through the Solomon Islands until he was eventually sent to the Philippines. Albert was sent home from the Philippines and was discharged in Bainbridge, Maryland in 1946.
- Date Created:
- 2012-07-02T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Fred Spencer joined the Michigan National Guard in 1940, and served in Company C, 126th Infantry Regiment, 32nd (Red Arrow) Division. His unit was mobilized in October, 1940, and he went with them to train in Louisiana. From there he was shipped to Australia and then to New Guinea in 1942. Fred was wounded by a sniper at Buna, New Guinea, and spent over a year recovering first from the wound and then from malaria. He was finally sent back to the US, where he completed his service guarding German POWs in the southwest.
- Date Created:
- 2008-10-28T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- David Burkholder was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on September 21, 1926. He grew up there and on August 24, 1944 he enlisted in the Navy Hospital Corps. He received basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois. He received further medical training in Sampson, New York and at Balboa Park, San Diego, California. He received X-ray technician training at Bethesda Naval Hospital, Maryland and was stationed there until he requested assignment to a ship. He served aboard the USS Cadmus off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia as an X-ray technician until he was discharged on November 18, 1947. Due to his X-ray technician training in the Navy he worked as an X-ray tech after the war.
- Date Created:
- 2015-06-02T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Raymond Corrigan was born in Newaygo, Michigan on June 15, 1924. He enlisted in the Navy when he was 17 years old (sometime in 1942). He received basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois and was assigned to the USS Cincinnati (CL-6), a light cruiser. During his time aboard the Cincinnati he received training on the ship and stateside on how to aim and operate the ship's guns as well as went on patrols around the Caribbean Sea and near South America. In 1944 they escorted convoys to Belfast, Ireland in preparation for the Normandy Invasion. In late 1944 he was reassigned to a ship in the Pacific Theater, and in January 1945 they set sail. He was aboard that ship and participated in the pre-invasion bombardment of an island and assembled at Okinawa in preparation for the invasion of Japan. After the atomic bombing and subsequent surrender of Japan the ship pulled into Nagasaki where Raymond saw firsthand the destructive capability of the atom bomb. In late September 1945 he returned to Okinawa and by late October 1945 was back at Great Lakes Naval Station where he was discharged from the Navy.
- Date Created:
- 2015-09-30T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Charles Swendsen served on the USS Silversides and the USS Haddock during World War II. In this interview, he gives a guided tour of the Silversides, which serves as a museum in Muskegon, Michigan.
- Date Created:
- 2009-06-04T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Cornelius Ringnalda and Richard Herrema were interviewed jointly. Ringnalda was born in Grand Rapids in the early twenties and drafted into the military after high school. He served with the 383rd Infantry Regiment and fought on Okinawa in the early stages of the campaign, and was wounded after about two weeks of combat. Herrema was born in Michigan in the early twenties and was also drafted after high school. He joined the Air Force Cadet program and was assigned to a B-29 crew with the 13th Air Force, and flew 21 missions from bases in New Guinea and the Philippines.
- Date Created:
- 2008-07-09T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Alvin Rippen was born in 1917 in Franklin County, Nebraska. He finished high school in 1935, went to college and graduate school and took a job in the dairy industry in Chicago. In 1942, he enlisted in the Navy and qualified for pilot training. He was assigned to the USS Lexington in 1944 and went to the Marianas, where he witnessed "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" air battle and then participated in attacks on Guam and Saipan. He then spent time as a dive bomber instructor, and then learned to fly the Hellcat fighter and served on the USS Shangri-La and on Saipan before being discharged late in 1945.
- Date Created:
- 2014-07-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Fred Burgess is a World War II veteran who served in the U.S. Navy from June 23, 1944 to May 16, 1946. During the course of the interview he discusses in great detail his pre-enlistment, enlistment/basic training experience, and active duty in the South Pacific fighting against the Japanese. He describes in vivid detail the fighting on New Caledonia, Ulithe, Okinawa, in the Philippines, Saipan, and the suicide bomber attacks on the USS Franklin. He further goes into some detail about what the occupation of Japan was like. Burgess concludes by discussing what he got out of his military service.
- Date Created:
- 2005-03-10T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Tony Trovato was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1912. He was son to Italian immigrants and could speak fluent Italian. He enlisted into the Navy in 1943 when he was 31 years old and trained at Great Lakes where he learned how to handle troops and personnel. He was later assigned to Norfolk, Virginia where he was trained to be a boatswain. After leaving Norfolk, he was sent down the Mississippi River to New Orleans and eventually made his way across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea. While in the Mediterranean, his convoy spent the majority of its time resupplying troops in France and Italy as well as carrying war prisoners. He served as shore patrol near the end of his time before he was discharged in 1945, after both Germany and Japan had surrendered.
- Date Created:
- 2012-03-15T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Max Doering was born in 1924 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After Pearl Harbor he was drafted into the Navy in 1942 and had boot camp at Great Lakes in Illinois. After training as a hospital Corpsman, he volunteered to serve with the Marines and was placed in the 22nd Marine Regiment. He participated in the invasions of the Marianas and Okinawa.
- Date Created:
- 2015-07-28T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Hayes Cargill was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1926, and served in the Navy during World War II. He worked primarily on craft that took men from their ships to the mainland when they were at port. He worked in both the Philippines and Japan, but he never saw combat, as they were in theses areas after the war had for the most part wound down. After the War, he worked as an umpire for minor league and women's baseball.
- Date Created:
- 2004-12-17T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Katherine Powers was wife to Thomas Powers, a Navy seaman during World War II. The couple had been married for one year before Thomas was drafted to serve in Europe. While serving, Thomas worked on the USS Merrimack picking up wounded and stranded soldiers and bringing them back to a base. Katherine remembers the job market opening up for women during this time as she worked two jobs. Thomas and Katherine were able to remain in contact through letters throughout the war.
- Date Created:
- 2010-05-31T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Ester Warber grew up in Michigan and worked in defense plants in the Detroit area during World War II, and then enlisted in the WAVES, trained as an aircraft mechanic and served on a base in Hawaii. After the war she held a variety of jobs and became a psychologist, and then served in the Peace Corps in the 1960s. She provides detailed descriptions of her training and duties in the military, and mentions meeting Henry Ford as well as Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson.
- Date Created:
- 2004-02-11T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Christine and Henry Vande Kerk are both World War II veterans who served their country in different capacities during the course of World War II. Christine Vande Kerk briefly discusses her pre-enlistment, enlistment as a nurse into the armed services, and her nursing experience while serving in England until 1944. She then discusses her missionary work in Iraq and Jordan in some detail. Henry Vande Kerk briefly discusses his pre-enlistment, enlistment and basic training in the U.S. and then his goes into some detail about his days as a U.S. Navy Air Force civilian flight instructor working in the training of pilots in the basic procedures of aviation mechanics before they went on to pursue advanced training in bomber, fighter, and transport plane dynamics. Henry then briefly describes his thoughts on his wartime and what he learned from it. They both wrap up their interviews by showing some pictures and documents from Christine's Army and Missionary Books.
- Date Created:
- 2008-06-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Gordon Van Wylen left his job as an engineer for Dupont in 1943 and joined the US Navy. He entered an officer training program, but then transferred into submarine school. He served on the submarine USS Hardhead in 1944-45 and went on six patrols in the Pacific. His boat sank several Japanese warships, including an aircraft carrier, and after the war he contacted and befriended some of the Japanese sailors who survived the sinking of this ship.
- Date Created:
- 2004-10-22T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Warren Wandrey, born in 1924 in Chicago, served in the U.S. Navy from July 1943 to March 1946. After receiving his draft notice in 1942, he was allowed to finish high school before starting training in 1943. He trained as a radioman, and was sent to the Pacific in 1944. He started at a PT boat base in New Guinea, and was soon assigned to a series of PT boat tenders, which he accompanied to the Philippines and back to the East Indies, where he was stationed when the war ended.
- Date Created:
- 2011-11-10T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- James Carr grew up in Chicago and joined the Navy in 1945 at age 17 as a first class seaman. He received raining at Great Lakes Naval Station, and worked there as a dispersing clerk handling payroll for sailors being discharged after World War II. He then went to college and served in the reserves. He was called up when the Korean War started and was sent to Amchitka in the Aleutian Islands to work on a secret project for Atomic Energy Commission.
- Date Created:
- 2011-11-10T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Jack Baas, Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1920, enlisted in the Navy shortly after Pearl Harbor. Initially, he was initially allowed to return to college to finish his senior year, but before the term ended, he was sent to Mississippi to begin training. He qualified as a Navy pilot and was given his choice of naval aircraft (other than fighters), and trained on the TBF Avenger Torpedo Bomber. He did carrier training and flew patrols off the Massachusetts coast in 1944 and operated off of an escort carrier with an Atlantic convoy, and then was sent to the Pacific early in 1945. Assigned to Carrier Group 83, he flew missions over Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Japan, and participated in the attack on the Japanese battleship Yamato as it attempted to reach Okinawa.
- Date Created:
- 2011-11-22T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Gerald Bocian was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1925 and enlisted in the Navy in 1943 when he was only 17 years old. He went through training in Chicago and then chose to continue his training with submarines. After going through submarine school Gerald was stationed at Pearl Harbor where he worked on refitting submarines while the crew had time off on R & R. Gerald worked in Hawaii for 3 years before he went on a war patrol on the submarine USS Silversides in the Pacific.
- Date Created:
- 2008-12-11T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Sid Linger 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. He was drafted into the Navy in 1944, and was assigned as a quartermaster on a new LST that was being built at Seneca, Illinois. He sailed on the 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, where they witnessed many kamikaze attacks. 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 (see 2 of 2).
- Date Created:
- 2011-01-04T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Earl Lee joined the Navy in 1943 and trained for only six weeks before shipping out to London. Earl made three trips across the Atlantic while he was in the service, also traveling to Cuba, Panama, the Philippines, and Japan. He said that he had more problems aboard the ship then he did fighting the enemies. He had been surprised when they went ashore in Japan becuase he had thought the people there would be more hostile towards Americans. Earl said that overall he had a very positive experience in the Navy and it dramatically affected his life in a positive way.
- Date Created:
- 2007-06-28T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Richard Rasmussen, born in 1913, grew up on a farm outside of Greenville, Michigan. After finishing high school, he attended Olivet College and the University of Chicago Medical School on scholarships. After receiving his medical degree, he was accepted into the Navy in 1938, but wound up going back to Chicago to train as a thoracic surgeon. He was still in training when Pearl Harbor happened, and in 1942 he entered the Navy. He was assigned to a Seabee battalion that trained in Rhode Island and was sent to Adak Island in the Aleutians, where he served over two years. Once back in the states, he began practicing in Grand Rapids and became part of the research group that developed the first heart/lung machine and became an early anti-smoking activist.
- Date Created:
- 2011-02-22T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- John Schrouder was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on May 26, 1925. He joined the Navy on September 1, 1943 and was sent to Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois for basic training. Upon completion of basic training he was sent to Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois for Diesel School and after graduating from that he was sent to New London, Connecticut to train with submarines. After deciding to get out of the submarine program he was reassigned to LST 618 and deployed to the Pacific Theatre in late summer 1944. He participated in three major campaigns: the invasion of Leyte (in the Philippines), the invasion of Luzon at Lingayen Gulf (in the Philippines), and the invasion of Mindanao (in the Philippines). After the war, LST 618 ferried Nationalist Chinese troops to various Chinese ports until sailing back to the United States. He was sent back to Chicago and was discharged on February 28, 1946.
- Date Created:
- 2015-06-15T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- James Pond was born in Santa Ana, California in 1925. He became very bored with school during the war and dropped out when he was 17 to enlist in the Navy. James went through boot camp in Idaho and then went to signal school in Chicago. After signaling on destroyers in the Arctic, James retinas became burned and he could no longer work as a signal man. He went back to school to become a hospital corps man and was sent to work in a hospital in Okinawa after the invasion. James also worked as a doctor aboard a ship stationed outside of Sasebo and Nagasaki, Japan
- Date Created:
- 2009-02-07T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Ray Richardson, born November 13th 1920 in Winterfield Township Michigan, served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1942-1943 and then in the U.S. Navy from 1943-1946 as a flight instructor during World War II. As a flight instructor, Ray trained cadets on the PBY Catalina in Pensacola Florida. After completing his service, Ray served as an agent in the FBI from 1947-1973.
- Date Created:
- 2011-08-05T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Joseph Bailey was born in Prescott, Arizona, in 1922. He enlisted in the Navy in early 1941. He received his basic training and attended Metalsmith School at San Diego, and was assigned to the USS Whitney (AD-4). He survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and shortly thereafter was assigned to the USS Thomas Jefferson (APA-30). After an abortive attempt to bring supplies to American forces on the Philippines, he was transferred to the USS Annoy (AM-84) and participated in the liberation of the Aleutian Islands and subsequent patrols around those islands. He was then reassigned to the USS Impeccable (AM-320) and witnessed the liberation of the Marianas Islands, the invasion of Iwo Jima, and the invasion of Okinawa. His active duty ended in 1947 and he was placed in the inactive reserve. He was called up for duty in September 1950 due to the Korean War and was assigned to the USS Moctobi (ATF-105). He was then transferred to an oiler. For six months they refueled ships at Kwajalein before sailing to Sasebo, Japan, to continue refueling operations. He was discharged in 1952.
- Date Created:
- 2016-02-26T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Raymond Fink was a World War II veteran who served in the U.S. Navy Reserves from 1945 to 1946. In this account Fink discusses his pre-enlistment, enlistment and training, and his active duty while stationed out in the Pacific. Fink was stationed on Guam and describes living conditions there after the war.
- Date Created:
- 2009-04-14T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Wilbert Koetje was born in Marion, Michigan in 1922. After failing in his first attempt to enlist, he was drafted in 1943 and served in the Navy. Even after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Koetje waited a year before enlisting. After the military denied his enlistment, Koetje waited for the draft; once drafted, he served in the Navy. He initially served on a destroyer, the USS Davison, on convoy duty in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. He then switched to another destroyer, the USS McDermott, which patrolled out of Hawaii. After several months, he was sent back to California on a transport ship, the SS Henry Byrd, which had to be abandoned off San Francisco. After that, he was assigned as a gun captain aboard a transport ship, the SS Leo, and participated in the campaigns at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, took a load of troops to Japan for the occupation, and helped repatriate Chinese soldiers.
- Date Created:
- 2010-03-09T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Ed Wikander joined the Navy in 1934 and served as a seaman on board the battleship USS Tennessee until leaving the Navy in the middle of 1941. After Pearl Harbor, he was drafted back into the Navy, and spent about two years working at a Marine base in California before being sent to Tinian to help build a hospital. He was called up again for Korea, and served on a destroyer based in Japan.
- Date Created:
- 2009-10-18T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Clyde Boerman served in the Navy in World War II. He was part of a Torpedo Boat that served in both the Atlantic and Pacific theatres. He worked manning the torpedoes on the boat. He participated in D-Day as part of the Naval team that assisted with the landings and he also served in the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies.
- Date Created:
- 2005-05-09T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Harvey Lugten was born in Holland, Michigan in 1922 and graduated from Holland High School in 1940. Harvey was drafted into the service and had his choice of the Army of the Navy. He chose the latter and went through training at Great Lakes Naval Academy in Chicago. After basic training Harvey went to machinist school and then submarine school for another 6 months. After training he was shipped to Australia where he later boarded the USS 256. Harvey went on three war patrols throughout the Pacific and was later discharged in February of 1946. After his time in the service, he received his masters degree and later became the superintendent for Byron Center schools in Michigan.
- Date Created:
- 2008-10-14T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Louis Schmidt served in the Navy during World War II. He was sent to Australia after basic training and trained as an anti-aircraft gunner, but served mostly in support units. He served for about a year in Australia, and then went to Manus Island and to the Philippines.
- Date Created:
- 2010-09-07T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Thomas Pacic was born in Youngstown, Ohio on November 23, 1927. After graduating from high school in 1945 he enlisted in the Coast Guard in December 1945. He received orders to go to Curtis Bay in Baltimore, Maryland for basic training. He reported for basic training on January 8, 1946 and received rifle training, swimming training, the history of the Coast Guard, the function of the Coast Guard, and how to tie knots. His first assignment in the Coast Guard was aboard a cargo ship looking for mines left over from the war. They sailed down the East Coast, through the Caribbean Sea, the Panama Canal, and up the West Coast. He got to see San Diego and San Francisco before being stationed in Miami, Florida and San Juan, Puerto Rico. He spent the rest of his time at Coast Guard Station Erie, Pennsylvania where he helped rescue boaters and received a medal for saving a pregnant woman and her husband. He left the Coast Guard in May 1947 and then joined the Naval Reserves. He went on cruises aboard the USS Missouri and a minesweeper as well as cargo ships as part of a stevedore unit. During the Korean War he was on active duty helping with supply operations in the Caribbean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. After getting injured working in Red Bank, New Jersey he was discharged from the Navy in June 1953.
- Date Created:
- 2015-07-07T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- George Schuster served in the Navy during WW II aboard a Logistics Support Vessel (LSV), of which only 5 were used during the war. During this interview Schuster talks about serving in the engine room of the LSV, and trips between various islands and Pearl Harbor ferrying wounded personnel. Schuster also describes Manila after it's liberation from the Japanese, and about Navy prisoners having their sentences reduced if they went to sea.
- Date Created:
- 2007-08-06T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Richard Brooks was born in Canton Township, Michigan. His father died when he was two years old, and his mother later remarried and the family moved to Grand Rapids. He graduated from Central High School in 1933 and joined the Navy in 1940 to become a pilot. Richard went to Pensacola, Florida to conduct flight training and went on to be stationed in Naval Air Station Coco Solo in Panama. While there, he flew future President Gerald Ford across the Panama Canal so he could make it back to his ship. Later in the war, he was sent to the Pacific and stationed in the Philippines where he flew hundreds of hours of missions doing both Black-Cat operations and Air-Sea Rescue.
- Date Created:
- 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Allan Reynolds was born in Grand Haven, Michigan in 1923. After graduating from high school he enlisted in the Navy in 1941 and received basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois and went to Aviation Radio School in San Diego, California. He was stationed in Alaska when the war began and served at Dutch Harbor during the Aleutian Islands Campaign. He was sent to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington and volunteered for Flight School at that time. He received flight training and operational training in Louisiana, Tennessee, and finally Florida with PBY and PBM seaplanes, promoted to the rank of Petty Officer 1st Class Aviation Pilot. At the end of World War Two he flew patrols over the Pacific Coast. He was part of VH-4 Squadron at Bikini Atoll for atomic testing in summer 1946 and was part of Operation Highjump in Antarctica from December 1946 to April 1947. During the Antarctic expedition he discovered a trough that was named after him, Reynolds Trough. He made a career out of the Navy and was stationed in China, Japan, all over the U.S., and in the United Kingdom. After twenty years of service he completed his career at Great Lakes Naval Station and retired in September 1961.
- Date Created:
- 2015-11-25T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Robert Scholz was born in 1918 in Quincy Illinois. Before Pearl Harbor he worked as a civilian for the Navy as an offset printer in Washington D.C. He was drafted after Pearl Harbor happened and did his basic and job training at Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri. Robert became a combat engineer in the 13th Engineer Battalion of the 7th Infantry Division. Robert and his unit left on a train to Camp Stoneman in California and from there they departed to New Hebrides via ship for refueling. From there they went to New Caledonia and finally arrived at Leyte, Philippines. His unit later took part in the initial landings on Okinawa, and after the war went to Korea before returning home.
- Date Created:
- 2014-03-20T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Ronald Bergin enlisted into the Navy in the year of 1944. He was to be sent to Japan for the Occupation, but his company was instead sent to Guam. He describes the condition of the camps in Guam and the how their camp was used to test President Truman's idea for integration between blacks and whites.
- Date Created:
- 2009-05-03T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Stuart Eppinga was born in Detroit, Michigan on June 17, 1925. After graduating from high school in 1943 he was drafted into the Navy. He received basic training at Camp Peary, Virginia and got assigned to Naval Air Station Bermuda Annex, Bermuda where he helped with maintenance, went on anti-submarine patrols in PBY-3s, and witnessed the capture of six Italian submarines and one German submarine. After eighteen months he requested reassignment and was sent to Guam. On Guam he oversaw Japanese prisoners of war being used for work, and was stationed there for six months. At the end of the war he had enough points to go home and returned to the U.S. by way of the USS Enterprise.
- Date Created:
- 2015-09-02T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Richard Cannon was born in Gary, Indiana in 1925. He was drafted after high school in July of 1943 as part of a group of black draftees from his neighborhood. Mr. Cannon was assigned to the Navy. After training at Great Lakes Naval Station, he was sent to Whidbey Island, Washington, where he commanded a small boat used to retrieve torpedoes from training missions. Later on, he was stationed at Pearl Harbor, and then at Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands.
- Date Created:
- 2011-11-11T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Bud Masinick was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Detroit, MI during his childhood. After graduating high school, he was drafted into the Navy in 1943. He attended basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station, and attended submarine school in New London, CT. He was then assigned to the USS Icefish, and patrolled the Pacific until the end of the war. After the war, he played professional baseball, making it to the AAA level.
- Date Created:
- 2008-06-30T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Wesley Strehlau was born on December 14, 1926 in Detroit, MI. He served in World War II in the U.S. Navy as a second class water tender. During his three years of service, his responsibilities included operating and repairing machinery. He traveled from port to port to Australia where he participated in atomic bomb tests. He was discharged in 1947 and returned to work as an apprentice draftsman.
- Date Created:
- 2009-05-31T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- James Crowell is a WW II veteran who served in the United States Navy from November 1942 to February 1946 in the South Pacific. In this interview, Crowell shares with great detail his time in combat, including the Battle of Leyte Gulf, dogfights over Manila, suicide attacks, a massive air attack on November 25, 1944, and a landing accident that threw Crowell 150 feet from his plane. This accident, which both Crowell and his pilot survived, was made part of a motion picture.
- Date Created:
- 2007-05-15T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Harold Harig served in the US Navy from 1943 to 1946. He trained as an anti-aircraft gunner and served aboard the escort carrier USS Shamrock Bay. He sailed on convoy escort duty to North Africa, and later served in the Pacific in the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa campaigns, and was later based in Japan.
- Date Created:
- 2009-05-19T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Robert Berles was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was drafted in 1943 during his sophomore year at Aquinas College. Robert volunteered for a Navy program after receiving his draft notice that would allow him to finish his sophomore year before his time in the service, and also allow him to finish up college afterwards. Robert began officer training at Western Michigan University, where he attended classes all day long and physically trained. He served on a troop transport ship in the Pacific, and his ship was hit by a kamikaze off Luzon, the aftermath of which he describes in detail.
- Date Created:
- 2007-06-28T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Robert Loftis was born July 28, 1922 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He spent the majority of his childhood at his grandparents' farm in Marne, Michigan. Robert enlisted into the Navy in 1942 and was sent to Great Lakes, Illinois for boot camp where he spent nearly five weeks in training. After boot camp, he was sent to board the USS Phelps in Treasure Island near San Francisco, California. From California, he left for six months to fight the Japanese in the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific Ocean. Robert spent the majority of his time in the Pacific Ocean and was designated as a Signalman 3rd class that used Morse code to communicate with other ships. He was discharged in September of 1945.
- Date Created:
- 2004-05-14T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Fay Johnson, born in Lowell Michigan in 1925, served in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1945 in the Pacific during World War II. After completing his basic training, Fay was sent to specialty school where he eventually was made a fire controller. After training, Fay was placed aboard the destroyer USS Terry and sailed to Saipan and then took part in the invasion of Iwo Jima. The ship encountered some damage during the invasion and needed to be sent back to San Francisco for repairs, and returned to duty off the coast of Japan before the end of the war.
- Date Created:
- 2005-11-16T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Paul Lindner was born in Indiana in the early 1920s and joined the US Navy on July 3, 1941. Paul went through basic training in Chicago and was then sent to Rhode Island to train as a mechanic working on torpedo boats. Paul later traveled through the Pacific to Panama, Australia, New Guinea, Milne Island, Boona, and Kiriwina Island. Paul was also sent to Europe where he patrolled off the coast off Plymouth, England, and Cherbourg, France. He was eventually transferred to the Pacific shortly before the war ended, and never served there. Photographs and an account of military service are appended to interview outline.
- Date Created:
- 2007-06-29T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- George Peterson enlisted in the Navy when he was just 17 years old and was then sent to Rhode Island for training in 1942. During training George and a friend volunteered for submarine service and were transferred shortly after. George spent nearly a year training for submarine service and was finally on his first war patrol in 1943. He spent two years making six war patrols throughout the Pacific, with port breaks at Panama, Hawaii, Guam, the Marshall Islands, and Midway. After the war George was part of the police force in Hawaii, where he helped to patrol the base. George had made it to the position of First Class Gunner's mate when he was discharged in 1952. Photographs are appended to interview outline.
- Date Created:
- 2007-10-30T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Sam Bush was born in 1925 near Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. In 1943, at Dartmouth College, he undertook the Navyโs air corps V12 training program. Initially he spent time in Lynchburg, VA as well as Sheepshead Bay, NY working tarmac duty. In 1944 he was attending flight prep when the military screened him out with a physical exam. Instead he decided to join the Merchant Marines. He undertook basic training at Sheepshead Bay, radio school on Hoffman Island, and physics training. By July 1945 he completed his trainings and became a Junior Radio Officer aboard the Heber M. Creel Liberty Ship. Shortly after the bombing of Japan, they docked in Samar, the Philippines, where they unloaded cargo and transported locals as a troop ship. After enduring a typhoon he returned to the US in August 1946.
- Date Created:
- 2015-12-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Marshall Doak was born in Sturgis, Michigan on March 3, 1921. He enlisted in the Navy on November 9, 1938 and went to Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island for basic training. He served aboard the USS Salt Lake City then went to Hospital Corps School in San Diego, California in late 1939. He trained at Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois and served in the urological ward at Norfolk Naval Hospital. From Norfolk he returned to Great Lakes Naval Station to work in the dispensary then got assigned to the USS Wakefield. In November 1941 the Wakefield joined a convoy in Canada and helped secretly transport 5,500 British troops to Singapore before the United States entered the war. By the time they dropped off the troops, Pearl Harbor had been bombed and the U.S. was in the war. He served aboard the Wakefield until Thanksgiving 1942 when he was reassigned to the USS Arapaho. Aboard the Arapaho he served as the ship's doctor. Through the summer of 1943 the ship operated in the Pacific Theater and during the Battle of Tarawa he went ashore to treat Marine casualties. He also participated in the liberation of the in liberation of Eniwetok, Kwajalein, Makin, and the Northern Marianas Islands. He experienced a quasi-mutiny on the USS Arapaho before being transferred to the USS Enterprise on November 24, 1944. He returned to the United States and served at Brooklyn Naval Hospital and Hunter College before being discharged on October 8, 1945.
- Date Created:
- 2015-12-03T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- John Oracz was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1925. He was drafted into the Navy in 1943 and went to basic training at Farragut Naval Station, Idaho and then went to the University of Chicago for radio training. In late 1943 he was sent to Shoemaker Navy Base, California to wait for his next orders, and in early 1944 he finally received orders to join the Pacific Theatre. After doing a few weeks of supply work on various liberated Pacific islands he finally boarded the USS Hoel, a destroyer, in early 1944 in the Solomon Islands. Aboard the Hoel he saw action during the Invasion of Peleliu and at Leyte Gulf, where his ship was sunk. He was rescued after three days in the water, and served on several other ships without seeing further action until he returned home in 1946.
- Date Created:
- 2014-08-12T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Phil Brockschmidt knew that he wanted to join the armed service after Pearl Harbor was attacked and joined the Navy when he was only 15 years old. He took many long trips traveling in a convoy to Russia to deliver oil. Phil was eventually transferred into the Navy Air Corps and was disappointed with the transfer. In the Navy Air Corps Phil traveled to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Africa, Miami, Cuba, and Puerto Rico working as an ordinance man.
- Date Created:
- 2004-10-18T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Art Lucas was born in a small farm town in Michigan in 1922. There he acquired farming skills that would help him to avoid being drafted into the war at the very beginning. Lucas became eligible for the draft and decided to enlist in the Navy serving on an LST as a signalman and then as a quartermaster between 1944 and 1946. He has photographs taken in Japan after Nagasaki had been bombed. After serving, he continued farming and in Michigan was voted supervisor of his township for 25 consecutive years. Personal narrative, "My Two Years Before the Mast" is appended to the interview outline.
- Date Created:
- 2007-09-20T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Donald Newton was born in Grand Rapids, MI and graduated from high school at age 16. When he was eligible, he joined the Navy and did basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station. He then moved to submarine training at New London, CT. He was then assigned to the USS Icefish and patrolled the Pacific Ocean, making attacks on various different Japanese vessels.
- Date Created:
- 2008-09-29T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Charles Windisch grew up in Holland, Michigan during the depression. Although times were rough, his parents were both able to hold on to their jobs during the depression. Charles went to school through the sixth grade and joined the National Guard when he was only sixteen. He eventually enlisted in the Navy and traveled through the Pacific to islands such as Hawaii, Guam, and Okinawa. He served between 1941 and 1946 primarily on the USS Nashville, but also did a stint as a demolitions frogman.
- Date Created:
- 2007-06-29T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Albert Eitel, born in Nebraska in 1926, served in the U.S. Navy from 1944 to 1946 in the Pacific theater during World War II. Albert enlisted at the age of 17. He did basic training at Great Lakes Naval Base in Illinois, and then trained on LSTs at Camp Bradford, Virginia. He then joined the crew of a new LST at its shipyard in southern Indiana and sailed with her to the Pacific, where he participated in the campaign in the Philippines. Albert started out as a deck hand, but soon became a storekeeper. After the Japanese surrender in August 1945, the ship spent several months ferrying Japanese and Chinese soldiers from Korea, China and Indochina back to their home countries.
- Date Created:
- 2011-04-26T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- William Mulvey joined the Navy in 1937 and served in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. William joined the Navy in 1937, and was trained in Rhode Island before he was placed on the USS Texas. He was then transferred to the USS Boise where he remained until part way through World War II. He participated in the Battle of Cape Esperance off Guadalcanal on the Boise, and was then transferred to the USS Indianapolis, and served on that ship until a Japanese submarine sank it. He survived the aftermath, and joined the Naval Reserves upon his return to the United States. He was reactivated for the Korean War, and served in several capacities including on the USS Ticonderoga. He also served in the Vietnam War on a ship used for beach landings. He eventually retired from the Navy in the 1960s.
- Date Created:
- 2009-09-15T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Bob Veenstra was drafted into the US Navy in 1943. He trained as a Seabee in Williamsburg, Virginia, and was stationed in California before being sent to Samar in the Philippines. After the war he was stationed in Shanghai.
- Date Created:
- 2004-10-13T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Mort Hoffman was born in Rochester, New York in 1926. He grew up in Rochester and graduated in June 1944. From 1942-1944 he was in the New York National Guard and after graduating from high school decided to enlist in the Navy. He trained at Naval Training Station Sampson, New York and was deployed out of Camp Parks, California. He was sent up to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska and served on the island of Adak with the 114th Naval Construction Battalion, helping to maintain vehicles and equipment as well as take part in construction projects. He stayed on the Aleutian Islands from December 1944 to July 1946, and was discharged shortly after his return.
- Date Created:
- 2015-05-04T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- William Bos was born in Cascade, Michigan on December 18, 1922 and went to school there through 8th grade. He had to quit school early to work on his father's farm when his father got sick and later received deferments from serving in WWII because he was a farmer. Bill grew anxious while his friends were being drafted and enlisted and decided to enlist in the Navy in June of 1944. After basic training, he was sent to the Pacific and endured a very long and difficult voyage to the New Hebrides, where he worked for several months on a Marine base and helped set up farms there. Late in the year, he was assigned as an anti-aircraft gunner on an escort ship and sailed to Guadalcanal, the Philippines and Okinawa, where he witnessed many kamikaze attacks.
- Date Created:
- 2008-12-29T00:00:00Z
- 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:
- Alfred Thomet became a member of the United States Navy at 17 years old. He served in the Pacific theatre, specifically on Okinawa, in 1945. He worked as a truck driver in a supply route for the Navy. He returned to Lowell, Michigan after his service where he married and had a successful automotive career.
- Date Created:
- 2007-05-31T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Don Bennett was born in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in 1925. He attended Albion College for one semester, then enlisted in the Navy, and became a submariner. He served on five patrols, one in the Kurile Islands, three near the Yellow Sea, and a final one north of Tokyo. During this time they sunk forty-two enemy ships. He was discharged on December 18th, 1945. After the war, he finished school at Albion College.
- Date Created:
- 2008-10-09T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Don Morell was born in Ludington, MI in 1926 and joined the Navy in 1944 when he was only 17 years old. He was sent to Great Lakes Naval Base in Chicago, IL for basic training for about six weeks. Dan only received basic training and was then sent to Pearl Harbor. He was then chosen for submarine service, where he worked on submarines through the transitions of crews and locations. Dan worked in Midway and Australia during the war in the Pacific, went on several submarine patrols and was discharged in May of 1946.
- Date Created:
- 2008-09-18T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Harold LeFurge served in the US Navy in both WWII and the Korean War. On an LST ship during WWII, he sailed to the Marshall Islands, the Carolinas', the Northern Mariana Islands, and to Okinawa. The main battles were over by the time LeFurge got there, but his ship carried supplies to the islands, and transported Japanese military families living on the islands back to Japan. Late in the Korean War, his ship transported American relief troops, army and marines, to Korea from Pearl Harbor and other Pacific islands
- Date Created:
- 2004-10-21T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Dr. Gordon Balyeat was born in Michigan in 1911 and grew up in the small town of Sparta. He graduated from high school in 1928 and went to Kalamazoo College and the University of Michigan. Gordon attended college during the prohibition and the depression. After receiving his medical degree, Gordon worked in various hospitals from Seattle to New York. He joined the Navy in 1942 and worked with the Northwestern Medical Unit. Gordon was sent to the Russell Islands in the Pacific in 1943 to set up a hospital, where he tended many Marines wounded in battle.
- Date Created:
- 2008-04-21T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Robert Hammond was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on February 18, 1923. Robert enlisted in the Navy about one year after Pearl Harbor was attacked and went through basic training in Chicago. After basic training, Robert went to radio, gunnery and flight schools. He went on 39 flight missions as a radioman/gunner on TBF fighter bombers, seeing action at Palau, Saipan, Guam, the Philippines, Okinawa and Formosa. Eventually Robert and the others in his crew were in such bad shape, they could no longer pass their physicals. They had been pulled from their flight missions shortly before the bombs were dropped on Japan. Military records are appended to interview outline.
- Date Created:
- 2004-06-26T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- Notes:
- Art Jacobs joined the Naval Air Corps in the 1930s. He was one of only 32 men that graduated with wings out of the original 435 men. He stayed in the Navy for a long time and eventually taught other young men advanced air fighting tactics. While he was called out to fight in World War twice, in both times his orders eventually were cancelled before he was actually shipped out. Art Had a rough childhood because his father died when he was only six and then he and his siblings had to help support their mother. Art enjoyed being in the Navy and believes that every male should serve at one point in their life. After life in the Navy, Art also became part of the Masons, the Red Cross, and the Eastern Star.
- Date Created:
- 2005-11-17T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
- Collection:
- Veterans History Project (U.S.)
- 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:
- 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:
- 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:
- 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:
- 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:
- 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.)