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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1631. Ostar, Allan W (Interview outline and video), 2016

Notes:: Allan Ostar was born on September 4, 1924, in East Orange, New Jersey. He went to Pennsylvania State University in fall 1942 and joined the Reserve Officer's Training Corps, then joined the Enlisted Reserve Corps. He volunteered for active duty and was inducted at Fort Meade, Maryland. He received Basic Training, Radio Training, and Signal Corps Training at Camp Crowder, Missouri, then was selected for the Army Specialized Training Program. He received Engineering Training at the University of Denver and Regis College until the ASTP was disbanded. Allan then received orders to go to Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, to join the 42nd Infantry Division. He was initially assigned to K Company of the 242nd Infantry Regiment, then transferred to Headquarters Company, before winding up in the Cannon Company. In November 1944 the 42nd went to New York City for deployment to Europe. They arrived at Marseille, France, in late November/early December 1944 then traveled north to help the French defend Strasbourg and the Alsace-Lorraine. During "Operation Nordwind" he received a Bronze Star for staying behind to direct artillery fire and another Bronze Star in Hagenau. In March 1945 he crossed the Rhine River into Germany, and took part in the liberation of Dachau on April 29, 1945. At the end of the war he entered Austria, and served in Austria as part of the occupying force. He left Europe in late 1945 (or early 1946) and was discharged at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
Date Created:: 2016-05-31T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1632. Pitetti, Kenneth (Interview transcript and video), 2017

Notes:: Kenneth Pitetti, was born in1946 in San Francisco, California, where he was raised. He enlisted in the ROTC program at the University of San Francisco. He signed up for infantry in the Army. He received Infantry Officer Basic Training at Fort Benning. In the fall of 1969, he was assigned to the 24th Division at Fort Riley, Kansas, which, within his last two weeks of the assignment, became the 1st Division. He then participated in jungle training in Panama before being sent to Vietnam in August of 1970. He was assigned to C Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. He spent most of his time in the field leading platoon-size patrols in the mountains and jungles in the northern part of South Vietnam. Four months into his service in Vietnam, Ken Pitetti stepped on a land mine and lost his leg just under his knee in a traumatic amputation. He was medically evacuated to a field hospital, where they performed surgery. He was sent back to the United States to recover. After his return to the United States, he faced the negative treatment and negative stigmatization that many veterans of Vietnam felt. Still, he worked to get his PhD and now is a professor at Wichita State.
Date Created:: 2017-07-21T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1633. Jillson, Tom (Interview transcript and video), 2008

Notes:: Tom Jillson was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1947 and grew up in East Grand Rapids, Michigan. He joined the Air Force upon graduating high school and was initially trained as an electrical specialist, but was then transferred to accounting. He was stationed at Webb AFB in Texas for two years of his service and was then shipped to Vietnam for the remainder of his enlistment period. His job in Vietnam was a clerk, trading American money for Military bills. He remained in Da Nang for the greater part of his time in Vietnam.
Date Created:: 2008-12-18T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1634. Johnson, Edward (Interview outline and video, 2 of 2), 2012

Notes:: Edward Johnson was born in Greenville, Michigan in 1919, and was drafted into the Army in 1941. After training to be a mechanic at Camp Boyd, Texas, Johnson joined Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division. He went to England with this unit in 1942, and stayed with it through campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, Normandy, the Hurtgen Forest, Battle of the Bulge and the invasion of Germany, ending up in Czechoslovakia when the war ended.
Date Created:: 2012-02-28T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1635. Martyn, Douglas (Interview outline and video), 2007

Notes:: Douglas Martyn served in the US Army from 1944 to 1946. He initially trained as a medic in Chicago and worked in a dispensary and administered inoculations to new recruits. He eventually transferred to the Army Air Corps and was based first in Louisiana and then in Alaska at a base near Nome that Generals Eisenhower and LeMay visited because of the good fishing there.
Date Created:: 2007-12-21T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1636. Plattner, Howard (Interview outline and video), 2007

Notes:: Howard Plattner was born in Sabetha Kansas in 1950 and served in the U.S. army during the Vietnam conflict. He was drafted into the Army in 1969 and sent to Fort Sam Houston to train as a medic. He was sent to Vietnam in 1970 and returned to the U.S. in 1971. During this time he served as an operating room technician in an Evacuation Hospital at Chu Lai.
Date Created:: 2007-06-06T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1637. Zheutlin, Bertam (Interview outline and video), 2007

Notes:: Bertam Zheutlin served in the medical corps during WW II. Still in medical school when the war broke out, Zheutlin recounts what it was like to be a civilian waiting to go to war, as well as his experiences as a doctor during the war and the training he underwent. Zheutlin also talks about the psychological after effects of war and of a relative who had escaped a concentration camp in Poland and become a guerilla.
Date Created:: 2007-06-02T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1638. Davis, Roy M. and Marion (Interview outline and video), 2016

Notes:: Roy Davis was born in Hartford, Michigan in 1924. He grew up in Hartford and after graduating from high school in 1942 enlisted in the Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet. He reported for duty on June 1, 1943 and began training at Sheppard Field, Texas. From there he went to Wittenberg University for College Training then went to San Antonio, Texas for Active Pre-Flight Training. He received flight training in Uvalde, Texas, and after graduating as a pilot and receiving his commission as a 2nd lieutenant he was assigned to Multi-engine Advanced Training. In Reno, Nevada he trained on the C-46 cargo plane. In late summer 1944 he deployed to the China-Burma-India Theater and was stationed at Sookerating Field in the Assam Valley of India, flying supply missions into China over the Himalayas. Three months later, after Christmas 1944, he was transferred to Myitkyina Airfield, Burma where he continued to fly supply missions until the war ended. He contracted a disease (most likely malaria) and stayed in Burma until he was transferred to Calcutta, India in September 1945 for 30 days in a hospital. In October 1945 he returned to the United States and arrived in November. He received 30 days of leave and was discharged in early 1946. Marion Davis grew up in Hartford, Michigan and in September 1943 enrolled as a cadet nurse at St. Jospeh Hospital in South Bend, Indiana. She received hands-on training on how to be a nurse and planned on joining the Navy after she completed her nursing program if the war was still going on. She completed her nursing program at St. Joseph Hospital in September 1946, and married Roy Davis in 1947.
Date Created:: 2016-01-04T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1639. Marjorie Shelden Oral History

Description:: An oral history from Marjorie "Marge" Shelden, who served as village treasurer in Mulliken, Michigan, in the 1950s and 1960s, served as office manager at the Lansing Chamber of Commerce, and was involved in the creation of the women's Athena Awards program. She was interviewed by Joyce Moffett at the Lansing Civic Center on Washtenaw Street, on May 8, 1990. A transcript for this recording has not been completed.
Data Provider:: Capital Area District Library (Lansing, MI). Forest Parke Library and Archives
Collection:: Voices of Lansing Oral Histories

1640. Lansing 150 Oral Histories

Description:: In spring 2008, a committee of Lansing Rotary Club members and community leaders convened to plan Lansing's sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary celebrations. One of the many projects was an oral history initiative spearheaded by retired MSU Arts and Letters professor and author Marilyn Culpepper. Students in MSU's American Studies 881 course assisted in the creation, transcription, and editing of the recordings. The purpose of the project was to provide historical context for the year-long celebrations. About 20 interviews were done, and have been digitized by the Forest Parke Library & Archvies at CADL in 2015 and 2016. Any interview for which there is a signed release on file is available for access online; those without releases may be accessed in the Local History Room at CADL. All interviews have been transcribed and are available in the Lansing 150 booklet that is linked in each record.
Date Created:: [2008 TO 2009]
Data Provider:: Capital Area District Library (Lansing, MI). Forest Parke Library and Archives
Collection:: Lansing 150 Oral Histories

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