Oral Histories 1857 items

Wide-ranging oral histories from Grand Valley, Capital Area District Library, and Michigan State that capture the perspective of citizens and veterans across the state.

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1301. Szejbach, Clarence L (Interview outline and video), 2015

Notes:: Clarence Szejbach was born in Traverse City, Michigan on September 19, 1948. When he was 19 years old he was drafted into the Army. He was deployed to Vietnam and served in the 2nd Battalion of the 22nd Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division. He spent his first month as a rifleman, but served as a radio operator for the platoon sergeant, the platoon leader, and the company commander. He served in Tay Ninh Province. His unit served at Fire Support Base Crook on the Cambodian border, and on June 5, 1969 the Viet Cong launched a massive attack on the base. The next day a Viet Cong militant tried to ambush the patrol with grenades. Clarence threw a grenade back saving his unit, but cost him his right hand. For his heroic action he was eventually awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. He returned to the United States and recovered at home and at Valley Forge Hospital, Pennsylvania before being discharged from the Army.
Date Created:: 2015-05-16T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1302. Hurst, J.W. (Interview outline and video), 2005

Notes:: J.W. Hurst was born in July 1918. After enlisting in the military, Hurst bounced around training, including going into the Air Corps, going to paratroop training and finally receiving training in artillery. Hurst served with the First Army Task Force and participated in the landing on Omaha beach and the campaign in France.
Date Created:: 2005-05-24T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1303. Jamison, Dwight Carson (Interview outline and video), 2015

Notes:: Dwight Jamison was born in Big Rapids, Michigan on February 15, 1928. He served in the Michigan National Guard as a teenager and enlisted in the Army in 1946. He received his basic training at Camp Polk, Louisiana and after that was deployed to Japan. He served at a hospital in Japan during the Korean War, helping with supplies and bringing wounded soldiers from a nearby airstrip to the hospital for treatment. He was also sent to an area near Pusan, Korea to help establish a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. In 1951 he returned to the United States after four and a half years in Japan and served at Camp Stoneman, California.
Date Created:: 2015-05-17T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1304. Doublestein, Gary L (Interview outline and video), 2017

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.)

1305. France, Gerald (Interview outline and video), 2014

Notes:: Gerald France was born in 1925 in New York City. He grew up on Governor's Island, New York City, the home of the 16th Infantry Regiment. He left high school in 1944 to join the Army Air Corps. He qualified for flight training and went through the early stages of it, but was reassigned to armament school due to a lack of need for pilots. He trained at different bases and joined a B-17 crew that flew to England in April, 1945, joining the 490th Bomb Group at Eye Air Station. They flew several missions over Germany and against isolated German forts in France. When the war ended, they flew relief missions, including ferrying political prisoners.
Date Created:: 2014-09-11T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1306. Tichvon, Frank (Interview outline and video), 200

Notes:: Frank Tichvon was born in Barry County, Michigan, and served in World War II. Drafted in 1941, Tichvon served in the U.S. Army. He worked in Canada building the Alcan Highway and trails. He was later sent to England and then to the European continent, where he worked for a construction battalion whose job was to clear mines and construct bridges. He served in the Battle of the Bulge. He was discharged in October, 1945.
Date Created:: 2004-12-07T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1307. Gerhard "Herman the German" Neumann interview (video and transcript, 7 of 9), 1991

Notes:: Interview of Gerhard Neumann by filmmaker Frank Boring for the documentary, Fei Hu: The Story of the Flying TIgers. Neumann, known by his American Volunteer Group (AVG) comrades as "Herman the German," was a mechanic and the son of non-practicing Jewish parents. Though drafted into the German army in 1938, he attained a deferrment as a working engineer. He left Germany to seek a job opportunity in Hong Kong in 1939, but upon arrival learned the company had disappeared. Circumstance led him to working for the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) where he worked as an auto mechanic. After the Pearl Harbor attack, he accepted an offer from Col. Chennault and joined the AVG. He served among the headquarters personnel as a Propeller Specialist. In this tape, Neumann describes the combats he experienced and the morale of the crews, in additon to his experience during the final days of the AVG becoming a Technical Sergeant and later a Master Sergeant.
Date Created:: 1991-01-01T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries

1308. Cavanaugh, Sidney Jr. (Interview outline and video), 2013

Notes:: Sidney Cavanaugh was born in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1942 and later moved down to Jacksonville, Florida. After graduating from high school in 1961, he tried going to college several times. He was drafted into the United States Army in 1964. He trained as a radio operator for the 2/17th Artillery 155 Howitzer out of Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He also was trained as a crew chief on a Mojave Helicopter. When he was sent to Vietnam, he was made a door gunner on a Huey Hog Ship with the 2/20th artillery, 1st Air Cavalry Division, and participated in the Battle of Ia Drang in November 1965.
Date Created:: 2013-08-15T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1309. Charles, Wayne (Interview outline and video), 2013

Notes:: Wayne Charles was born in Muskegon, Michigan, in 1925, and was drafted in 1943. He trained at Camp Croft, South Carolina, in wire communications, but was eventually sent to Europe as an infantry replacement. He shipped out in June, spent about a month in England, and was assigned to the 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Division, before the liberation of Paris in August. His unit advanced across France and Belgium, and fought through the Siegfried Line and into the Hurtgen Forest, where they saw their heaviest fighting. They were then sent to Luxembourg to refit, and wound up on the south shoulder of the Bulge in December. He then participated in the invasion of Germany and spent some time guarding German prisoners before being sent home and discharged.
Date Created:: 2013-01-24T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1310. Funnell, Rex (Interview outline and video), 2009

Notes:: Rex Funnell was born in Whitehall, Michigan and was drafted into the Army during World War II. He was trained initially to work with mules for mountain pack hauling, but his unit's function was changed so they didn't end up working with mules in combat. He worked in the message center for his unit during his time overseas. His unit was in France and Germany during the war.
Date Created:: 2009-06-16T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

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