Oral History Interview with Tom Krauska, October 9, 2001 Metadata

Title

• Main Title Oral History Interview with Tom Krauska, October 9, 2001

Creator

• Interviewee: Krauska, Tom
  Creator Type: Personal

Contributor

• Interviewer: Cox, Floyd
  Contributor Type: Personal
• Interviewer: Cox, Cynthia
  Contributor Type: Personal

Publisher

• Name: National Museum of the Pacific War
  Place of Publication: Fredericksburg, Texas

Date

• Creation: 2001-10-09

Language

• English

Description

• Content Description: The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Tom Krauska. Krauska was born 15 December 1919 in St. Louis, Missouri and attended high school in Cleveland, Missouri. He graduated from the University of St. Louis with a Law degree. He was drafted into the United States Army and assigned to the 329th Infantry at Shelby, Mississippi. After basic training, he was assigned to menial tasks such as kitchen police and guard duty. He was soon selected for the Aviation Cadet Training program and sent to a civilian flying school in Fort Worth, Texas. From there, he went to bombardier school at Midland, Texas. Krauska describes methods used to train bombardiers and the use of the Norden bombsight. Upon completion of this training he was sent to Casper, Wyoming for crew training in a B-24 Liberator. His crew was then sent to Langley Field, Virginia for training in low altitude bombing, which consisted of using radar and performing submarine search missions off of the east coast of the United States. Eventually, the crew picked up a new B-24 and flew it to Hawaii where they were assigned to the 11th Bomb Group, 425th Bomb Squadron. They went to Guam and flew mine laying missions as well as both low level and high altitude bombing missions over Iwo Jima. He describes the heavy anti-aircraft fire they encountered during one mission and the damaged that resulted in the aircraft being classified as scrap and taken out of service. After flying 40 missions, Tom returned to the United States.
• Physical Description: 34 p.

Subject

• Library of Congress Subject Headings: World War, 1939-1945
• University of North Texas Libraries Browse Structure: People - Individuals
• University of North Texas Libraries Browse Structure: Military and War - Wars - World War II
• Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms: Interviews
• Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms: Oral histories
• Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms: Personal narratives
• Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms: Autobiographies
• Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms: Biographies
• Keyword: WWII
• Keyword: United States. Army Air Forces. Bombardment Group, 11th. Bomb Squadron, 425th
• Keyword: Military training
• Keyword: B-24 bomber
• Keyword: Norden bombsight
• Keyword: World War, 1939-1945 -- Guam
• Keyword: Iwo Jima, Battle of, Japan, 1945
• Keyword: Mines (Military explosives)

Primary Source

• Item is a Primary Source

Relation

• Oral History Interview with Tom Krauska, October 9, 2001 - ark:/67531/metapth1607618

Collection

• Name: National Museum of the Pacific War Oral History Collection
  Code: NMPW
• Name: National Museum of the Pacific War Digital Archive
  Code: NMPWA

Institution

• Name: National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation
  Code: NMPW

Rights

• Rights License: by-nc-nd
• Rights Statement: Commercial use is prohibited without permission from the National Museum of the Pacific War.

Resource Type

• Text

Format

• Text

Identifier

• Accession or Local Control No: OH00306
• Archival Resource Key: ark:/67531/metapth1603653