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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1811. Kuiper, George (Interview outline and video), 2015

Notes:: George Kuiper was born in February 1926 in Holland, Michigan. He grew up in Holland and in February 1944 he received his draft notice. In June 1944 he reported for duty at the draft board in Holland, was processed at Fort Sheridan, Illinois and was sent to Camp Roberts, California for basic training and field artillery training. After sixteen weeks of training he was sent to Fort Meade, Maryland for an additional week of training and then left the United States out of Camp Myles Standish, Massachusetts. He sailed over, stopping in England, and arriving in Le Havre, France. He was sent to Paris where he was assigned to the 191st Field Artillery Battalion attached to the 4th Armored Division. He joined the battalion in Belgium in mid/late December 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge and was assigned to #1 Gun in A Battery and also laid down field telephone wire for the gun batteries. After the Battle of the Bulge they advanced into Germany, crossing the Rhine River at Worms, going south and seeing the Ohrdruf Concentration Camp, and entering Czechoslovakia on April 29, 1945. After the war ended on May 8, 1945 he was reassigned to the 405th Infantry Regiment and then 4th Armored Division before being sent home in early 1946 and getting discharged at Camp Atterbury, Indiana.
Date Created:: 2015-05-27T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1812. Vanlier, Kenneth R (Interview outline and video), 2015

Notes:: Ken Vanlier was born in Grand Rapids Michigan in 1948. He served in the Air Force during the time of the Vietnam War, achieving up to the rank of Staff Sargent. Before turning 18 Ken joined the military with an interest in flying in the Air Force. During basic training he stayed at Lackland Air Force base and joined the drum and bugle corps. Eventually he would be stationed out of Beale Air Force base and sent to Okinawa for tours as necessary. Part of his duties consisted of structural repair mechanic work on the SR-71 planes. Ken left the military in March of 1971.
Date Created:: 2015-05-21T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1813. White, Pia (Interview outline and video), 2016

Notes:: Pia White was born in 1926 in Rome, Italy, to a Japanese father and an American mother. Due to her father's job with the Japanese government, the family traveled all over the world, and she lived in the United States, Japan, and various other countries. In the late 1930s, Pia, her mother, and her siblings returned to Japan. She lived in Tokyo and attended school there. After Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, she and her family moved to a summer cottage in a mountain village near Tokyo. In 1942 her father, who had been in Washington, DC, at the time of Pearl Harbor, returned to Japan as part of an exchange of diplomats and he lived in Tokyo until he joined the family at the cottage. During the war she helped gather food and worked at the village's police station as a translator. In 1945, her older brother, a pilot, was killed in action during a bombing raid on Tokyo. After the war ended, she worked closely with the American Army of Occupation by helping manage the village as an R&R location for American troops. She befriended one Lieutenant Ken White and they eventually married, returning to the United States in December (1947 or 1948). They started a family and lived in Ohio and various cities in Michigan before settling in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Date Created:: 2016-05-19T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1814. Wilt, Paul L (Interview outline and video), 2015

Notes:: Paul Wilt was born in West Virginia on June 30, 1942. He enlisted in the Marines in 1960 and after basic training received assignments in the United States. He was stationed at Marine Naval Air Station Norfolk, Virginia carrying out guard duties, and received infantry training at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He also went on temporary duty to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
Date Created:: 2015-04-12T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1815. Gerhard "Herman the German" Neumann interview (video and transcript, 2 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 discusses his journey to Hong Kong to visit the CNAC office and his first meeting with Captain Claire Lee Chennault in Kunming discussing the future of the AVG.
Date Created:: 1991-01-01T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries

1816. Lewis "Doc Rich" Richards interview (video and transcript, 5 of 5), 1991

Notes:: Interview of Dr. Lewis Richards by filmmaker Frank Boring for the documentary, Fei Hu: The Story of the Flying Tigers. Dr. Lewis J. Richards, or "Doc Rich" as he was known in the American Volunteer Group (AVG), served as the unit's Flight Surgeon. In this tape, Richards discusses the last months of the AVG and his reflection on the achievements of the Flying Tigers.
Date Created:: 1991-05-30T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries

1817. Borek, Eugene (Interview outline and video), 2011

Notes:: Eugene Borek was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1925. He enlisted in the Army shortly after turning eighteen, and trained with the 78th Division at Camp Butner, North Carolina, until his unit was broken up and he was assigned to the 83rd Division. He sailed to England in April, 1944, and landed in Normandy in late June. He fought in the battles near St. Lo until he was wounded and sent to England. He was then sent as a replacement to the 104th Division in September, and fought near Aachen, in the Hurtgen Forest and western Germany until he was wounded again in early 1945. After that, he was assigned to a military police unit based in Strasbourg until he was sent home late in 1945.
Date Created:: 2011-05-11T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1818. Kuhn, Robert (Interview outline), 2011

Notes:: Robert Kuhn, born in 1934 in Grand Rapids Michigan, served in the U.S. Air Force between 1954 and 1974. He trained as a pilot and did two tours in Korea. He was later sent to Vietnam, where he flew AC-47 ground support aircraft, and was shot down once. After returning from Vietnam in 1969, he completed his 20 years at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
Date Created:: 2011-05-22T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1819. Marks, Glenn (Interview outline and video), 2005

Notes:: Glenn Marks, born July 27th 1925 served in the U.S. Army in the medical field from 1944-1946 in Europe during World War II. While in training at Camp Grant, Illinois, Glenn was sent to clerical school where he was trained to be a typist. However, due to demand, Glenn was assigned to be a field medic recovering fallen casualties. Glenn traveled across Europe following units that were expected to have high casualty counts. At the end of the war, he stayed in Germany caring for German casualties until he was sent home.
Date Created:: 2005-06-02T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

1820. Zimmerman, Leo (Interview outline and video), 2011

Notes:: Leo Zimmerman of Grand Rapids, Michigan, waited to be drafted before joining the Army in 1943 during World War II. Leo received his training in wheeled vehicle maintenance and repair in Camp Worth, Texas. His first deployment was to Italy in 1944 where he served with a replacement depot until the war ended in May 1945, driving with supply convoys between Naples and the Po Valley and performing other duties. After the war ended in Europe, Leo was transferred to the 109th Ordnance Company and shipped out to the Philippines to start servicing vehicles. He was stationed in the Philippines during the bombing of Hiroshima, and was sent to Japan shortly after to perform maintenance duties and gained further experience in welding. Leo left the military in April 1946.
Date Created:: 2011-10-15T00:00:00Z
Data Provider:: Grand Valley State University. University Libraries
Collection:: Veterans History Project (U.S.)

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