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  Partner: National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation
Oral History Interview with Garvin Kowalke, January 23, 2001

Oral History Interview with Garvin Kowalke, January 23, 2001

Date: January 23, 2001
Creator: Cox, Floyd
Description: Interview with Garvin Kowalke, a pilot during World War II. He discusses joining the Army Air Corps, going to Air Cadet training to become a pilot, and training on various aircraft (AT-17, UC-78, P-36, P-33, T-6, BT-13, B-17, B-29) before becoming a B-29 pilot; he shipped out to Guam and flew standard and fire bombing runs over Japan. He discusses having to ditch the plane on the way back to Guam once when the engines failed, seeing another B-29 crew have to bail out over Toyko Bay and get picked up by a U.S. submarine that was in the Bay, getting pulled down to the fires when they were trying to hide in the smoke to avoid Japanese fighter planes, and getting caught in a storm by Mount Fujiyama, as well as collecting data such wind direction, speed, and temperature over Hiroshima for future bombing runs, which turned out to be for the bombers who dropped the atomic bomb. He also talks about flying over Hiroshima two days after the bombing and gauging how high the radiation levels were at different altitudes. He also talks about being in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, becoming a B-57 pilot, and adopting a ...
Contributing Partner: National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation
Oral History Interview with Joseph B. Brown, March 24, 2001

Oral History Interview with Joseph B. Brown, March 24, 2001

Date: March 24, 2001
Creator: Cox, William G.
Description: Interview with Joseph Brown, who was in the Marine Corps during World War II. He discusses going to Guadalcanal, various guns and artillery he used, the battle of Tarawa and getting malaria just before it, then going to Hawaii for more training before returning to the South Pacific and fighting on Saipan and Tinian. He also discusses being wounded on Saipan, having a bayonet run through his forearm and keeping the bayonet as a souvenir after the war, and he talks about some of his experiences and travels after the war.
Contributing Partner: National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation
Oral History Interview with Al Flocke, October 22, 2000

Oral History Interview with Al Flocke, October 22, 2000

Date: October 22, 2000
Creator: Nichols, Chuck
Description: Interview with Al Flocke, a radio operator during World War II. He discusses his flight training and being the radio operator on a B-24 bomber which did raids on Guam, Turk, Iwo Jima and other islands. He also relates anecdotes about food, rations, and living conditions on the islands.
Contributing Partner: National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation
Oral History Interview with Ethel Reisberg Schectman, March 24, 2001

Oral History Interview with Ethel Reisberg Schectman, March 24, 2001

Date: March 24, 2001
Creator: Cox, Floyd
Description: Interview with Ethel Reisberg Schectman regarding her experiences during World War II. She begins by discussing her family background: her parents were Jews born in Poland and emigrated to the United States. Ethel's European aunts, uncles and grandparents all likely died in the Holocaust. As a first grade student, she taught her mother, a Polish immigrant, how to read and write English. She recalls, wartime rationing, Victory Gardens, scrap drives, and antisemitism among her school-aged classmates in Dallas, Texas, and the end of the war.
Contributing Partner: National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation
Oral History Interview with Arwin Bowden, March 9, 2000

Oral History Interview with Arwin Bowden, March 9, 2000

Date: March 9, 2000
Creator: Cox, Floyd
Description: Interview with Arwin Bowden, a marine during World War II. He begins by discussing his training in San Diego and New Zealand before the Battle of Tarawa. He describes being wounded in the battle, the casualties he saw, and being shipped back to Pearl Harbor for treatment before joining the battle of Saipan. He describes ancedotes about Japanese killing themselves rather than surrendering, eating food from a garden watered from rainwater running down from outhouses, the wages he made, and the time he had leave.
Contributing Partner: National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation
Oral History Interview with David Braden, September 30, 2000

Oral History Interview with David Braden, September 30, 2000

Date: September 30, 2000
Creator: Johnson, Kep
Description: Interview with David Braden, a member of the U.S. Air Force during World War II. He discusses his training in the U.S. to become a navigator; his deployment to Saipan with the 870th Squadron, 497th Bomb Group, 73rd Wing; initial attacks on Tokyo in a B-29 bomber at high altitude (during which the jet stream interfered with the bombing raids); a low-altitude fire-bombing mission over Tokyo in March, 1945; living conditions on base at Saipan; a mission in which the B-29 he was on ditched in the ocean and his subsequent rescue; Victory in Europe (V-E) Day on Saipan; completing 35 missions; and going home.
Contributing Partner: National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation
Oral History Interview with Elliott Ross, May 1, 2001

Oral History Interview with Elliott Ross, May 1, 2001

Date: May 1, 2000
Creator: Cox, Floyd
Description: Interview with Elliott Ross who joined the U.S. Navy during World War II. He discusses being a landing craft coxswain carrying troops and supplies from ships to the shore in seven invasions: Guam, Leyte, Luzon, Santacristo, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and as an occupation force in Japan after the surrender. He talks mostly about Guam, Leyte, Luzon, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Japan, but also mentions burials at sea and on the beachs, seeing his brother's ship get hit by torpedoes, and the emotional toll of the war.
Contributing Partner: National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation
Oral History Interview with Richard Bennett, November 15, 2001

Oral History Interview with Richard Bennett, November 15, 2001

Date: November 15, 2001
Creator: Cox, Floyd
Description: Interview with Richard (Dick) Bennett, a pilot during World War II. He discusses his enlistment in the Army Air Corps, basic training and flight school. He then went to a base in South Carolina to learn to fly B-25s. At Fort Myers, Florida he flew B-26 bombers and trained to fly them off of aircraft carriers so they could drop torpedos on the Japanese fleet during naval battles. He traveled across the Pacific to Brisbane only to be told that they didn't have B-26s for the crews; the colonel there knew nothing about the plan to launch B-26s from aircraft carriers, so they were sent to New Guinea to fly B-17s and supplement the crews for those bombers. From there they made bombing runs or "Washing Machine Charlie"-type runs to keep people awake at night on various Japanese targets in the islands, particularly the base at Rabaul. In fall of 1943, the Army grounded the B-17s due to the damage they had incurred and replaced them with B-24s. The men received manuals and were given only a few days to familiarize themselves with the new planes. They were then sent on bombing runs. He finished his tour of duty at ...
Contributing Partner: National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation
Oral History Interview with Mary Steele Leon, April 15, 1997

Oral History Interview with Mary Steele Leon, April 15, 1997

Date: April 15, 1997
Creator: Alexander, Bill
Description: Interview with Mary Steele Leon, a secretary for the U. S. Navy during and after World War II. She joined the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) and was trained as a secretary. Her first assignment was in the office of the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) during World War II. The CNO at the time was Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King. After the war, she served as personal secretary for Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz while he was CNO. She was discharged in 1946.
Contributing Partner: National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation
Oral History Interview with Albert Bouley, June 27, 2001

Oral History Interview with Albert Bouley, June 27, 2001

Date: June 27, 2001
Creator: Cox, Floyd
Description: Interview with Albert Bouley, a U. S. Marine during World War II. He discusses his enlistment in the Marines just after Pearl Harbor; his assignment to the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Division; the battle of Guadalcanal; malaria and dysentery; the battle of Cape Gloucester; the use of Pavuvu as a base; the battle of Peleliu; his return to the United States; guard duty at the Brooklyn Naval Yard and his service as an instructor in a heavy weapons school before the end of the war. He joined the Air Force 2 1/2 years later to be able to fly and work on planes, then retire to become a teacher in California, and finally settled in Texas.
Contributing Partner: National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation