Oral History Interview with Dayton L. Alverson, May 10, 2001
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Oral History Interview with Dayton L. Alverson, May 10, 2001 (Text)
Transcript of an oral inerview with Doctor Dayton L. Alverson. He was born in 1924 in the San Diego Naval Hospital. He joined the Navy and received training in radio interception. Went to Washington, DC where he volunteered for assignment to the Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO) as a Radioman First Class. Left Newport News in July 1944 and sailed to Bombay, India and took the train to Calcutta. He was flown on a DC-3 over "The Hump" and into Kunming, China. He volunteered for duty near Amoy Island, which was occupied by the Japanese and was flown to Zhangping and traveled to a small encampment 25 miles north of Amoy. He recounts his time intercepting Japanese code and sending it to Chungking and provides details about breaking the code. He next describes taking 38 days to travel 18,000 miles on foot, in sampans and on trucks to reach the camp. He describes the methods by which the Chinese moved the sampans up and down the rivers. He was then assigned to a group making a raid on a small island adjacent to Amoy. He traveled by sampan down the river to Shima, China in order to deliver two 50-caliber machine guns to the raiders. He describes the group making its way down the Chinese coast and raiding Japanese forces along their supply route during the period May-July 1945. When the war ended he was sent to a radio station in Shanghai. He recounts meeting General Dai Li head of Chiang Kai-shek's secret police, the head of SACO. He describes arriving late at General Li's lavish Christmas party and finding all the tables full, when General Li tapped him on the soldier and invites him to sit at his table. He wass introduced to a very wealthy Chinese lady who invited him to another party at her gated mansion where he was introduced as a "good friend" of General Li. Soon he departed Shanghai on a troopship to San Francisco. After discharge he attended the University of Washington where he earned a Doctorate in Oceanography and Marine Biology.
Oral History Interview with Dayton L. Alverson, May 10, 2001, [transcript] ark:/67531/metapth1603480
Oral History Interview with Dayton L. Alverson, May 10, 2001, audio recording, May 10, 2001; Fredericksburg, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1607448/: accessed June 13, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation.