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Eugene Adkins (Army Air Corps/Air Force)          Audio | Documents

Eugene Adkins was born in Unicoi County in 1919, and in his youth he developed a fascination with aircraft and flying. His father was a career Army man, and Adkins enlisted at Fort Oglethorpe’s Civilian Cadet Training Camp in 1936. This camp trained him for the cavalry, and while he was determined to fly, his training aided his development as a soldier. Adkins joined the Army Air Corps in 1940 and became a rear turret gunner on B-18 bombers. He then learned to work on B-17s as “floating crew,” filling in where needed. He operated the gun turrets aboard the Memphis Belle for several missions until he was injured in the line of duty. He later reenlisted in the Air Force and flew as a crew chief during the Korean War.

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Earl Ailor (Army)           Video | Transcript

Earl Ailor was part of the 47th Infantry ordered to Fort Bragg in August 1941. Ailor was part of an amphibious assault between November 8-16, 1942 at Safi, French Morocco known as Operation Torch. 

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James J. Akins (Army Air Corps)          Video | Transcript

James J. Akins was born on December 14, 1922, and joined the service in 1942. Akins flew a B-24 Liberator in the 450th Bomb Group, 15th Air Corps. Akins fought German aircraft throughout Southern Italy and was shot down over Austria on May 24, 1944. Akins was sent to Stalag Luft 3, a prisoner-of-war camp. Akins survived the war and returned home to Tennessee. 

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Richard T. Alexander (I) (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born in 1917, childhood in Nashville, New York City, Berlin; father worked as an educator; spent a year in Germany beginning in 1925; recalls inflation in the Weimar Republic; attended school in Germany in 1930; describes Hitler’s rise to power and National Socialist initiatives like Winterhilfe; emotional lift Hitler gave Germans; drafted on October 20, 1942 in Canton, North Carolina; Tennessee Maneuvers, 1943; 83rd Division Artillery, aerial liaison artillery observer; Omaha Beach, Normandy to east of the Elbe River, 1944 to October, 1945; Recipient of Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, Bronze Star, and Silver Star.

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Richard T. Alexander (II) (Army)          Audio | Transcript

 Post-war; how his father came to be in the Office of Military Government in Germany after the war, until 1951; German education system; return visits to Germany; University of Tennessee (EdD, 1955); Returned to math and science teaching post in Haywood County, NC and part-time at Adelphi University until 1957; Professor at Ball State University in Muncie, IN until retirement in 1982.

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Eilel M. Archilla (Army Air Corps/Air Force)          Audio | Transcript

Eliel Archilla was part of the 8th Air Force Squadron that flew missions across the English Channel into France. His squadron supported the American troops throughout France with the primary responsibility to support Patton’s Third Army. After the war in Europe officially ended, Archilla was stationed in Guam before being released from active duty. 

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Paul Arndt (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Paul Arndt was part of the 80th Division and served in Nuremberg, Germany at the war’s end. Arndt’s account details his relationships with German civilians near the end of the conflict. 

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Arthur Arseneault (Navy/Merchant Marine)          Audio | Transcript

Father in the Navy as a pharmacist mate from 1918 to 1946; Arsenault born in Somerville, MA in 1924; Growing up in New England; Living in Guam as a military dependent in early 1930s; Boy Scout in New England as a teenager; thoughts on skipping grades in school, postgraduate high school classes, and working construction before old enough for military service at the start of World War II; father’s service in World War II as a hospital administrator in New York; Attending Merchant Marine Academy at Hyannis, MA in March 1943; Pre-commissioning training in the Gulf of Mexico in 1944 on USS Griggs; duty as superintendent of shipbuilding in New York and New Jersey in spring of 1945; Combat Information Center officer at Treasure Island, CA and attending deep sea diving school in summer 1945; carrying men back from Europe after World War II on board USS LeJeune; Explosive Ordinance Disposal School at Indianhead, MD in 1946; Frogman in Underwater Demolition Team at Little Creek, VA; UDT duty on USS Pocono in Mediterranean and Persian Gulf in 1948; on battleship USS Mississippi doing oceanographic and research work in the Pacific; Scripps Institution of Oceanography at La Jolla, CA and Northwestern University in 1952. Meeting wife while she was a navy nurse in San Diego; Oceanographic work in North Atlantic; Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA; Sonar School in Key West, FL in 1954; officer on the destroyer USS Haynesworth in the Mediterranean; Explosive Ordinance Disposal Officer in Charleston, SC; recovery opertaions for dropped nuclear weapon off the coast of Savannah, GA and Hunter Air Force base in 1958; 2^nd Air and Naval Gunfire Liaison Company with Army Airborne Divisions from 1963 to 1965 that involved the intervention in the 1965 Dominican Civil War with the 82^nd; reflections on weather at sea, family’s military service, raising a family while in the military; retirement after 25 years at the same time Vietnam is escalating; post-service work with Boy Scouts of America in 1966, Department of Health for Georgia from 1967 to 1970, and Cobb County, GA police department until 1987; retirement in Knoxville and community work with civic organizations like the Boy Scouts and the Military Order of the World Wars.

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Francis O. Ayers (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born December 31, 1925 in Pittsburgh, PA; father worked for Gulf Oil Corporation as a traffic manager, and mother stayed at home; enlisted Dec. 1943, U.S. Army; 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division; attitudes toward death upon enlisting; time in England and France prior to combat; Battle of the Bulge, Ardennes, Christmas in 1944; Two weeks leave in London; studied Business Administration at Waynesburg College, 1950-53; Factory Engineer Representative, 1953-59, and Sales Engineer 1959-1973.

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Jack L. Bailey (Army Air Corps)          Audio | Transcript

Jack L. Bailey was a Boeing 737 bomber pilot who was shot down over Germany on February 10, 1944. He was captured, interrogated, and sent to the prisoner-of-war camp called Stalag Luft 6, in the eastern part of Poland. 

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Warren H. Baker (Army Air Corps)          Audio | Transcript

Warren H. Baker was an engineer gunner on a B-24 bomber that was shot down over Munich, Germany on July 12, 1944. Baker and his crew managed to crash their plane onto the Bavarian Alps where they were captured by German infantry. Eventually, Baker ended up in the Dulag Luft Interrogation Camp. 

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Sam Balloff (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born 1923, LaFollette, TN; recollection of parents’ emigration to America, mother from Romania, father from Russia; father owned a clothing store called Balloff’s; childhood in LaFollette; Jewish practices; attended private Presbyterian school at McCallie Boarding School in Chattanooga, 1940-41; recalls impact of Oak Ridge on LaFollette; attended Vanderbilt, 1941-42; Zeta Beta Tau fraternity; enlisted Dec. 1942; 78th Infantry Division, 309th Field Artillery service battery, truck driver; Battle of the Bulge, Remagen Bridge; Aachen to Kassel; discharged, February 1946; returned to Vanderbilt following the war; continued working for his father’s store; opened additional stores in Oak Ridge and Knoxville.

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Rita Bateman (Red Cross)          Audio | Transcript

Originally from Canada, but living in Tennessee during World War II; volunteering with the Red Cross; working in Europe towards the war’s end in 1945; Red Cross showmobile performer for the Army of Occupation in Germany until 1946; Tour with the Red Cross in Pusan, Korea; returns to Tennessee and earns a Doctorate from the University of Tennessee in 1960.

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Richard Barrick (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born 1925, childhood in St. Louis, MO; father died shortly after birth, working mother, raised by aunt; drafted 1943 after high school in Kansas City, MO; 3^rd Army, 49^th Armored Infantry Regiment, forward observer scout; Trained at Camp Polk, LA; arrived D-Day plus 60, Battle of the Bulge, Bronze Star; discusses post-war life and reunions with unit.

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Joachim Belli (Germany Army)          Audio | Transcript

Joachim Belli was born in Bremen Germany in November 1922. After joining the Hitler Youth program at 13, Belli joined the German army in 1940 and ended up with the 22nd Infantry Division in the Artillery Regiment 22. Belli’s account discusses Germany in the 1940s, the reaction among children growing up in the Third Reich, and German infantry experiences. Belli eventually spent five years as a prisoner of war in Russia. Belli eventually opened up a business in Miami and retired in Chattanooga, Tennessee. 

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Philip Benziger (Army Air Corps)          Audio | Transcript

Family tied to Knoxville history going back to before the Civil War; Growing up in Knoxville in the 1920s and 1930s; attended UT Knoxville before the war; working for TVA when Pearl Harbor happened; volunteering in the Army Air Corps; Training across the US as a pilot and then a tail gunner; assigned to a B-24 bomber in the 758th squadron of the 459th Bomb Group; deployment to European Theater by flying down to Brazil and then over to West Africa; Flying out of captured German Air Bases in Italy; 50 Missions including over Rome, Vienna and Ploiesti, Romania. Returning home and going back to school at UT Knoxville; working all around the world as a geologist on hydroelectric projects for Charles T. Main Company out of Boston, MA; getting out of Iran during the revolution while working on a project.

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Sidney Bishop (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born July 17, 1921, in Milledgeville, Tennessee; father was a farmer; Volunteered for service on October 28, 1942; Served in Company A, 18^th Tank Battalion, 8^th Armored Division. Saw combat in France in 1945; Crossed the Roer River in February 1945, Crossed the Rhine on March 26^th and helped eliminate the Ruhr Pocket. Discusses post-war life and active engagement in veterans organizations.

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William F. Bopp (Army)          Audio | Transcript

William F. Bopp was part of Army’s Company A, 7th Armored Infantry Battalion, 8th Armored Division. This interview deals heavily with Bopp’s family history where his ancestors fought in the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the Spanish-American War. Bopp discusses the news of Pearl Harbor, FDR’s fireside talks, and his experiences in Europe.

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Joe Boyd (Army Aviation)          Video 1 | Video 2 | Transcript 1 | Transcript 2 

Joe Boyd joined the Army before war was declared in December 1941. He graduated from flight school and flew transport planes. Boyd served throughout Africa, including the Gold Coast, Ethiopia, and Egypt. Boyd’s account details various transport operations across the Atlantic and throughout Africa. 

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Jason R. Byrd (Army)          Video 1 | Video 2 | Transcript 1 | Transcript 2

Jason R. Byrd enlisted in the army on November the 28th, 1939 at the age of sixteen. He was part of the 1st Combat Engineers, which was attached to the 1st Infantry Division during World War II. When Byrd was not building bridges or removing mines, he was with the infantry. Byrd fought throughout the Mediterranean, including some parts of Africa and Italy.  

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Fred Campbell (Army)          Video | Transcript

Fred Campbell joined the army on October 10, 1944, at eighteen years old. After his journey across the Atlantic, Campbell was sent to Metz, Germany, and eventually crossed the Rhine. Campbell’s account details European combat and the state of Germany near the end of the war. 

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William F. Cashin (Army)          Video | Transcript 1 | Transcript 2

William F Cashin was part of Company A, 7th Armored Infantry Battalion, 8th Armored Division when he joined the army in 1942. Cashin’s account details horrific French winter conditions, fights with German soldiers, and the camaraderie among fellow soldiers. 

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Stephen Cassell (Army)          Video | Transcript

Stephen Cassell was part of the 66th Infantry that was sent to Austria. Cassell’s account details his training, various accounts of combat with German soldiers, and his travels throughout Europe. 

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Bill Chamberlain (Army Aviation)          Video | Transcript

Bill Chamberlain was a prisoner of war in Germany between 1944-1945. He was fifteen when he joined the service, using his nineteen-year-old brother’s certificate. He joined the army and eventually flew with the  B-17G 96th Bomber Group. Chamberlain’s account details his crew’s bombing runs over France and Berlin, Germany. His plane was shot down and he was sent to a German prisoner-of-war camp. 

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Edward Chandler (Army)          Video | Transcript

Edward Chandler joined the army in October 1943. He was part of the 245th Engineer Combat Battalion in A Company. Chandler’s account describes combat with German forces, meeting Soviet soldiers in Austria, and liberating British soldiers. 

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Simon Chilewich (I) (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born April, 1919 in Bialystok, Poland; father worked in the family’s animal/cattle hide business; grew up in a Warsaw ghetto; encounters with anti-Semitism; grandparents emigrated to Palestine, 1928; graduated gymnasium (high school) in Poland, 1936; moved to England to attend London School of Economics and simultaneously the Royal Academy of the Dramatic Arts; recollections of Winston Churchill; student culture in London; response to the Munich Pact; arrived in the United States on September 5, 1939 on the Champlain; lost 138 family members to the Holocaust; found work in Andrews, North Carolina in 1940 supplying sole leather to the Army; father begins new business in hides futures trading; drafted to Camp Lee, Virginia, 1943; Intelligence School, Camp Ritchie, MD; attains rank of Master Sergeant.

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Victor M. Ciffichiello (Army)          Video | Transcript

Victor M. Ciffichiello was part of Company A, 7th Armored Infantry Battalion, 8th Armored Division in World War II. He joined in 1942. This interview was with William F. Cashin at a division reunion in 1987.

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James L. Clark (Army Medical)          Video | Transcript

James L. Clark joined the U.S. Army Medical Department on December 10, 1940. Clark worked in army ships as a medic to take care of troops on the way to the European front and to bring prisoners of war to the United States. Clark crossed the Atlantic 22 times during his time of service. 

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Charles H. Coolidge (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Prewar life in Signal Mountain and Chattanooga, TN; family owned Chattanooga Printing & Engraving Co.; enlistment, June 1942; basic training, Ft. McClellan, AL; Camp Edwards, MA; assigned 36th Infantry Division, 141st Infantry Regiment, 3rd Battalion, M Company; 27 months overseas; North Africa—Oran, Casablanca; Italy—Salerno, San Pietro, Rapido River, Monte Cassino, Anzio, Silver Star action at Velletri; France— Medal of Honor action at Hill 623, near Belmont-sur-Buttant in the Vosges Mountains; Germany; Austria; also awarded Bronze Star; postwar, returned to Chattanooga; Contact Rep. for the Veterans Administration; returned to Chattanooga Printing and Engraving, 1949; manager and partner, 1974 to retirement.

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Charles H. Coolidge (II) (Army)          Audio  | Transcript

Action at Salerno, Italy and death of friend, Joe DelaGarza; miscommunication on the front at San Pietro, Italy; truce at Rapido River, Italy; civilians and their homes during combat in the winter of 1944, France (navigating artillery fire and close call with a defective artillery shell); moving off the front at the Siegfried Line; battlefield presentation of the Medal of Honor in Ulm, Germany; transitioning to civilian life; applying military skills and training after war.

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Grady Corley (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born in Greenwood, South Carolina, 1916; parents worked in cotton mill; moved to Virginia, then back to Kingsport; began working as a paper boy for the Bristol Herald Courier around 1930; left high school in 1934; found work at Eastman Company, yarn production and machine maintenance; enlisted in Army National Guard, Feb. 1941; Trained at Camp Forrest, TN, Fort Sill, OK, and Camp Roberts, CA; 191st Field Artillery Battalion; artillery mechanic; deployed to Europe April, 1944; C Battery, 959th Field Artillery Battalion attached to the XIX Corp; Landed Omaha Beach, June 24, 1944; post-war, returned to job at Eastman; retired as foreman in Fiber Divisions Maintenance after 45 years of service.

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William (Bill) Lemaster Cox, Jr. (Army)          Photos |  Documents

Bill Cox was born on May 4, 1924 in Knoxville, TN.  He lied about his age at 17 and volunteered for the army.  After basic training, he deployed to England to train for D-Day.  He survived the invasion and helped liberate Paris from Nazi occupation.  He was among the Americans that marched up the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe.  He fought at the Battle of the Bulge.  His unit went on to Munich where they amassed and regrouped.  From there, Cox and his unit were among the very first troops to enter the concentration camp at Dachau.  On April 29, 1945, three months after surviving the Battle of the Bulge, he began to tend to the needs of the Dachau survivors.  After the war, he returned to Knoxville and worked for Union Carbide in Oak Ridge.  He was a steel worker by trade.  Cox died on June 26, 2005.  He is buried at Edgemore Cemetery.

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Elliot C. Cutler, Jr. (Army)          Video | Transcript

Frank Musidola, a Tech Sergeant in the 76th Infantry Division, United States Army, conducted this interview, having served with Company I of the 304th Infantry Regiment from June 1942 at Fort Meade, Maryland, to August 1945 in Germany. Musidola interviews two leaders of the 76th infantry divisions: Assistant Division Commander Brigadier General Francis A. Wolfley and Elliot C. Cutler, Jr., former Captain, and S3 in the 1st Battalion of the 385th Infantry Regiment, who later served as head of the Electrical Engineering Department at West Point Military Academy with a rank of Colonel, having only recently retired as Brigadier General. The interview describes the 76th Infantry role in Europe during World War II. 

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Kurt and Margo David (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born in 1920 in Germany; father was German Army officer, World War I and worked for Amoco Oil; Germany in 1930s; he emigrated to U.S. in 1940 while parents fled to Uruguay during the Third Reich; born and attended grammar school in Zwingenberg; expelled from gymnasium in 1936 because he was Jewish; reactions to American society; could not join the U.S. Army because he was registered as an enemy alien; became an agent for the Counter Intelligence Corps, 1943; C.I.C. school, Camp Ritchie, MD; interrogated Gestapo members; thoughts on French collaborators; experiences of being Jewish during World War II; reconstruction in Germany following the war; Post-war, salesman and resided in Chicago. (Wife Margot Wolf David also participates in interview; born in Germany.)

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Dr. Elvyn V. Davidson (Medical Corps)          Audio | Transcript

Born 1923 in Rockaway Beach, Long Island; grew up in an Italian and black neighborhood in New York; raised in both Protestant and Catholic church; attended Stuyvesant Science & Math Academy; recalls the Harlem Riots; relationship with Adam Clayton Powell; found work in the Photostatic department of the War Department on Wall Street; rebellion against public transportation through jitney committees; attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, 1941; volunteered at the age of 18 in 1942; assigned to Fort Riley, Kansas with Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson; Army Special Training Program – University of Nebraska, Wilberforce program, Camp Polk; 92nd Division “Buffalo Soldiers” 370th Regiment, F Company in North Africa, Italy; encounters with Ghurkhas (from Nepal); issues with race relations in the army; thoughts on medical care in the field; member of Japanese occupation forces; visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Discharged January, 1946; Returned to Lincoln University to complete degree; completed medical studies at Meharry Medical College, Nashville; Married in Knoxville; Internship and surgical residency at Harlem Hospital, NY—was on duty there when Martin Luther King, Jr. was brought in after being stabbed; returned to Knoxville; began work at Oak Ridge Hospital emergency room, 1958-61; Hospitals still segregated; Opened private practice in Knoxville, 1959; Also, in 1959 began working 3 months a year as on-call surgeon, UT Hospital, for several years; semi-retired in 1990.

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Fred Davis (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born 1922 and raised in Sharps Chapel, Union County, Tennessee; Horace Maynard High School; worked in his father’s general store; enlisted March 1943; Basic training at Camp Cooke, California; U.S. Army, 488th Quartermaster Depot, Headquarters; Promoted to corporal, sergeant, first sergeant; arrived England, October, 1943; positive experiences in London; D-Day +14; supplied Patton’s Third Army while in France; Extended stay in Reims, France; impressions of Patton, France, American supply lines; Recalls interactions with German civilians upon arrival in Berlin; Postwar, took over family general store in Sharps Chapel, moved to Maynardville, closed store in 1976, simultaneously maintained four farms; opened hardware store in 1989.

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Washington McCalvin Davis (Army)          Documents

Davis was born in Knoxville, TN in 1921 amidst the struggles of the Jim Crow South. He attended Knoxville College in 1939, and while in college his brother was killed by police officers for protesting his own mistreatment.  Davis joined the military in 1943 as a private at Camp Forrest, TN. He served in the European Theater beginning in 1944 as a battalion sergeant major for a segregated unit, and he also served with the Quartermaster, Signal Corps, and the Field Artillery. He landed in France amongst the first assault troops seven days after D-Day, and in 1944 he received orders to join the battle in the Pacific Theater. After the war he returned to Knoxville, graduated from Knoxville College with a degree in Sociology, served the community in both his home state of Tennessee and his adoptive state of California, and published his memoirs. Davis passed away in Nevada in 2005.

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Jacob D. DeShazer (Army Air Corps)          Audio

Recording of a presentation at USS Mastin Reunion. DeShazer was one of Doolittle’s Raiders, the pilots who flew missions over Honshu in order to bomb the Japanese. He was 1 of 8 Raiders captured and tortured by the Japanese, and luckily he was also 1 of the 4 that survived that experience.

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Andrew Dolan (Army Air Corps)          Audio | Transcript 

Born in Haddonfield, New Jersey in 1918; parents were Irish immigrants; father was a school teacher at the Bancroft School in Haddonfield; childhood in New Jersey; worked for Philadelphia Record in the promotions department before WWII; joined Pennsylvania National Guard Air Corps in January 1941; served in 103rd Observation Squadron in photo interpretation; performed anti-submarine surveillance on Atlantic Coast after the attack on Pearl Harbor; transfers to Army Air Corps 33rd Reconnaissance Squadron in 1943; shipped to England in Spring of 1944 to conduct photo reconnaissance at Chalgrove Airfield, England before D-Day; landed at Omaha Beach in August 1944; description of work with photo interpretation as US Army advances through France and Germany; experiences with V-1 “Buzz Bombs” and V-2 Rockets; VE-Day in Brunswick, Germany; post-war refugees; leaves Europe in October 1945 and experience returning home; returned to work for the Philadelphia Record; worked for Food Fair supermarkets in advertising for fifteen years; participation in veteran associations and activities; returned to Europe to visit after war; moved to Crossville, TN after retirement.

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Herschel Downs (Navy)          Video | Transcript

Herschel Downs worked on a destroyer minesweeper throughout the Atlantic, North Sea, and into the Arctic. Downs’ account details his reaction to the atomic bomb, combat, and his post-war experience.

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Donald D. Duncan (Navy Hospital Corps)          Video | Transcript

Donald Duncan was part of the Naval Hospital Corps in 1942. Duncan supported the American troops after D-Day, landing at Utah Beach on June 12, 1944. Downs’ account details his time in France, his time setting up hospitals, and his work on healing the injured. 

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Bruce Dunsha (Army)          Video | Transcript

Bruce Dunsha joined the army on July 18, 1942. Dunsha landed on Utah Beach on August 6, 1944, and his account details the state of the beach after the D-day landings. Later, Dunsha crossed the Rhine and fought German forces throughout Europe. 

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Jeffie (Jim) W. Duty (Army)          Video | Transcript

Jeffie (Jim) W. Duty was drafted into the army on July 1st, 1943. Duty fought during the Battle of the Bulge. After the battle, Duty gave some boots to an old Belgium man only to be hit by a truck immediately after. He never returned to active duty. 

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Roddy Edmonds (Army)          BIO | Testimonial | Testimonial 

Roddy Edmonds was born in 1919 in Knoxville, TN. Edmonds made Master Sergeant at the age of 24 and was the senior NCO in charge of the Headquarters Company of the 422nd Infantry Regiment in the 106th Division at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina. He participated in the landing of American troops in Europe and in the Battle of the Bulge. During the Battle of the Bulge he was captured by Germans and transported him to the Stalag IX A POW camp. In January of 1945 the Germans ordered all Jews POWs to report outside their barracks and separate from non-Jewish POWs. Master Sergeant Edmonds was in charge of the American POWs and ordered them all to report in formation outside the barracks. The German major confronted MSGT Edmonds about the formation saying “You can’t all be Jewish.” Edmonds responded with “We are all Jews.” The German major drew his gun and threatened Edmond’s life if he didn’t make the Jewish soldiers step forward. Edmond responded to the threat by saying “the Geneva Convention states that if a soldier is captured he need only provide his name, rank and serial number. If you shoot me, you will have to shoot all of us, because we all know who you are, and when the war is over you will be tried as a war criminal.” The German major stormed off sparing the life of all Jewish American POWs at Stalag IX A. As the allies approached Stalag IX A, the Germans ordered all POWs to evacuate. MSGT Edmonds ordered American POWs to play sick and eat dirt instead of evacuating so that they were left behind. The American POWs were liberated by GEN Patton because of MSGT Edmonds’s leadership and courage.

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R. C. “Dink” Eldridge (Army)          Video | Transcript

R.C. “Dink” Eldridge was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Eldridge was assigned to the 750th Tank Battalion that landed on Omaha beach in July 1944 and fought at the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944.

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Julian Ellis (Army)          Documents

He was born on October 20, 1918, near Big Rock, Tennessee, located in Stewart County.  He was issued a draft card on October 16, 1940, when he was almost 22.  He enlisted in the U.S. Army on January 20, 1943, when he was 24.  He served in Company A, 290^th Infantry, 75^th Infantry Division, United States Third Army for the remainder of the war.  After his honorable discharge, Julian followed most of his family north, where they had migrated in the late 30s and early 40s to find work in greater Detroit.  He then spent the rest of his working life in the automotive industry.  He died on December 1, 1992, in Christian, Kentucky, at the age of 74, and was buried in Indian Mound, Tennessee.

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Donovan Enos (Army Air Corps)           Audio | Transcript

Family history in Michigan; Growing up during the Great Depression; Army Aviation Cadet Program at Michigan State University before war; Remembering FDR; Basic Training at Miami Beach, FL; Advanced Training at Clemson University; Officer and Pilot/Flight training at Montgomery, AL, Greenwood, MS, and Eglin Field, FL in Spring of 1944; Running into flight training friends in post-war; P47 training at Richmond, VA with 1^st Air Force in July 1944; Deployment to England as a replacement fighter pilot with 9^th Air Force; Brother in 276^th Combat Engineers deployed at the same time and meeting in Belgium during war; fifty missions with 405^th Fighters with example of fighting Germans over Metz, France; German Civilians vs. German Military treatment of downed US pilots; Getting shot down on on April 13, 1945 on a mission in the Remagen, Germany area. 320^th Holding Hospital then transferred back to England; Rehabilitation on the French Riviera and finding out brother had been killed at Remagen at end of the war; Returning to Michigan State to finish Civil Engineering degree; Finding work in engineering equipment sales in Michigan; Work with Barton Malow Company in Detroit, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, and hospital in Joplin, Missouri; Retirement in Fayetteville, NC and move to Tennessee.  

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Grace E. Farley (Army Nurse Corps)          Video | Transcript

Grace E. Farley joined the Army Nurse Corps in April 1943. Farley first worked in surgery in England. There, Farley saw German airplanes bombing England. Farley’s account depicts life in the European theater, surgical procedures, and the art of healing the wounded. 

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Thomas Ferebee (Army Air Corps)          Video | Transcript 

Thomas Ferebee was a crew member aboard the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that became the first aircraft to from an atomic bomb in warfare. Ferebee was the bombardier who targeted and dropped the bomb. 

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Ben Franklin (I) (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee; Native American heritage; Father wounded in World War I; visited Cherokee reservations with his grandfather; Committed to the Democratic Party; early life in Knoxville; Enlisted at 16 two days after Pearl Harbor (total stranger signed his papers); Joined 1st Infantry Division (Big Red One) in May, 1942—16th Regiment, 3rd Battalion, I Company; North Africa, Sicily, France, Belgium, Germany, Czechoslovakia; After his service visited the parents of Mark Dickerson, his best friend who was killed during the war; Went A.W.O.L. while in Paris and Licata.

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Ben Franklin (II)          Audio | Transcript

Basic training at Camp Wheeler, GA; Machine gun training; Joined the boxing team while in Sicily; Invasion of North Africa; Comments on French-Arab relations while stationed in Oran; offers opinions about the French; Kasserine Pass, Tunisia; Read books to pass time on the front; Notes the significant amount of friendly fire and the nature of the air-ground cooperation; Number of encounters with German POWs; Thoughts on German soldiers; Battle of the Hurtgen Forest; Receive passes to Paris.

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Ben Franklin (III) (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Paris; Rejoined regiment headed to Mons, Belgium; Entered into Germany in September of 1944, Battle at Aachen; demoted from staff sergeant but later restored after Havre; Hurtgen Forest; Battle of the Bulge; Ruhr Valley; Experiences with insubordination as a staff sergeant; Interaction with German civilians and Russian soldiers; Berlin Blockade of 1946; Still in Germany, meets wife there in 1946; Returned stateside in November, 1948; Promoted to First Sergeant; Volunteered to go to Korea, but was assigned to a unit in France instead.

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Henry Fribourg (French-Jewish Refugee; Korean War – US Army)          Audio | Transcript

Childhood and family history in France; Fleeing to Southern France during German Invasion in 1940; Occupation and life under Vichy France; Journey to escape to North America through North Africa and Portugal; Schooling in Cuba during the war; New York City at the end of war; Undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Graduate School at Cornell and Iowa State; Active duty in Korean War working in biochemistry projects for the US Army; Agent Orange; University of Tennessee Agricultural Professor for 40 years working in forage crops.

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Jimmy Gentry (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born in what is now Wyatt Hall, TN on November 28, 1925 near Franklin; father died when he was eleven; He and siblings found ways to make extra money by selling animal pelts and walnuts; Church of Christ services; Father supported Roosevelt, but he did not; Recalls rationing and the effects of World War II on Franklin; Joined the Army shortly after one brother was KIA, Itay; Basic training at Camp Blanding, FL; Assigned to the 42nd Infantry (Rainbow) Division when he arrived in Pettincourt, France; 232th Infantry Regiment, 2nd, Battalion, E Company; Battle of the Bulge; Part of liberation of Dachau concentration camp in 1945; Visited Austria and Italy following the war; Met Ezra Pound while visiting Genoa; Returned to Tennessee in March, 1946; Married in August 1946; Post-war memories of Dachau; Began college at Vanderbilt, transferred to Tennessee Tech, then transferred again to Peabody College for Teachers in order to take a job as a high school football coach; Benefits of G.I. Bill; Later attended the National Science Foundation program at Middle Tennessee State University; Taught at Brentwood Academy during desegregation; Traveled back to Germany to visit. Retired, but went back to Brentwood Academy as Athletic Director; Retired again 1999.

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Walter Welch Gentry (Army, Combat Engineer)          Documents

Walter Welch Gentry (April 14, 1922 – Feb. 2, 1945) was born in Kingsport, Tennessee. He attended the University of Tennessee for Engineering from 1939 to 1942 and then graduated from the University of Michigan and their ROTC program. He enlisted in the United States Army immediately after graduating in 1943 and was trained as combat engineer and officer at Camp Shelby in Mississippi. 1^stLt. Gentry served in command of C Company of the 290^th Engineer Combat Battalion attached to the 7^th Army. He was deployed to Europe during the war. First reported missing, he was later confirmed killed in action on February 2, 1945 while fighting in France. Walter W. Gentry is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Knoxville, Tennessee and many of his personal artifacts from his wartime service are located in the Walter W. Gentry Collection at the Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections at the University of Tennessee.

Childhood in Mannsboro, TN; rural life; Great Depression; education, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN; training Fort Oglethorpe, GA and Camp Blanding, FL; assignment to 63rd Infantry Division, February 1945; fighting in Germany, Florsheim, Mannheim; impressions of German civilians; return to the United States, 1946; post war life.

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Dr. John Anders Hansen, Jr. (Army)          Documents

Dr. John Hansen was born in Frederick, MD in 1908. He graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in 1929 with an English degree and began teaching at the high school level while pursuing a Master’s degree from Yale University. Though his teaching role would have exempted him from the draft, Hansen registered as a student and was put into active service. Hansen was commissioned as an officer, and he was trained as an infantryman, an artilleryman, and an aircraft spotter, as well as a commanding officer in each of these areas. He was deployed to the European Theater towards the end of the conflict, and he fought in the Ruhr area against German forces. He eventually rose to the rank of Captain by the end of the war, and in 1946 he retired from military life as a Major. Upon his return stateside, Hansen returned to his career teaching English while completing his PhD at Yale. From 1947 until 1978 he taught English at the University of Tennessee, eventually reaching the title of a full Professor of English. He retired in 1978 at 70 years old and passed away in May 1988.

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Charles Robert “Bob” Harmon (I) (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born April 12, 1925; Grew up in Olympia, Washington; Father managed a freight lines dock, stable income; Mother worked there too, then at department store; Family’s military history; Catholic high school, graduated 1943; Wanted to join Marines or Merchant Marines to serve country; Discusses Japanese friends; Signed up to attend Army Specialized Training Program for engineering school, but program was cut in early 1944; Joined the 80th division, 319th Infantry as a part of an anti-tank company; Infantry training at Fort Benning; Relationship with his rifle; Fort Dix; Normandy, August 1944, and the “Breakout;” Germany, 1945; Dicusses conditions of the soldiers, mail, provisions, civilians.

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Bob Harmon (II) (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Germany, Spring 1945. Occupation force for 8 months after V-E Day: Austria, Germany, & the Sudetenland.

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Bob Harmon (III) (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Nov. 1944, Delme Ridge. 1945, slave labor camps: Kaiserslautern, Mauthausen, Ebensee. Various discussion of war experience in general & more on previous topics covered in Parts I & II.

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Birch “Hank” Park Henderson, Jr. (Army)           Audio          Documents

Birch ‘Hank” Park Henderson Jr. was born in June 10, 1913 in Knoxville, TN. As a young man, Henderson worked as a billing clerk at a grocery store before he was drafted into the Army in 1941.  He went to basic training at Camp Wheeler in Georgia, and he was assigned to the Medical Detachment of the 22nd Infantry Regiment as a first aid man and litter bearer.   In July 1942 Henderson was promoted to corporal and worked as a supply clerk until his 1944, wen he traded his rank of Corporal to the rank of Technician Five, a rank was reserved for enlisted soldiers with specific skill sets but who were not specifically trained to be combat leaders. On D-Day in 1944, Henderson Jr. landed on Utah Beach with the 3rd Battalion 22nd Infantry Regiment 4th Division, whom he served with for the remainder of the war. He received multiple awards including the; Infantry Medical Badge, 5 Battle Stars, the Bronze Star, 3rd Battalion Unit Citation, and the 22nd Infantry Unit Citation.Henderson returned to Knoxville after his service, working in the grocery business until his passing in March 2006 at 92 years old.

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Clifford Edward Keenan  (Army, 82nd Airborne Div.)          Documents

From Gibson County, Tennessee, Keenan served as a Private in the 505th Parachute Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division. He participated in Operation Husky I and Operation Avalanche during the Sicily-Italian Campaign. He was killed in action on June 6th, 1944 when dropping into Normandy during D-Day.

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John E. Kesterson (Medical Corps)          Audio | Transcript

Born in 1918 in LaFollette, TN; dad was a pharmacist; educational experiences, including when local Roma immigrants burned the school; TVA, prewar Knoxville; graduated high school and enrolled at UT at the age of 16, graduated at 19; attended Vanderbilt Medical School, surgical residency was in the Veterans Administration Hospital in Nashville, completed in 1943; inducted into Army Medical Corps as a First Lieutenant in 1944; training at Camp Barkley in Abilene, TX, Ream General Hospital in Palm Beach, FL, Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN; Assigned to Ft. Bragg, 114th General Hospital as chief of anesthesia; 114th Field Hospital in Kidderminster, Scotland; 84th field hospital, France; postwar: Newton Baker General Hospital, WV; discharged 1947; Opened a general surgical practice in Knoxville, TN and worked at various hospitals, Knox General, Baptist Regional, Fort Sanders, and St. Marys; a surgical pioneer who taught his procedures to other surgeons in the region.

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Dr. Milton M. Klein ( Army Air Corps)          Documents      Audio | Transcript 

Born in New York City in 1917; Hungarian-Jewish family; father worked as a tinsmith in Europe and as a mechanic in America; talks about his family and immigrant communities and life in New York City; primary school; Boy Scouts; Depression years; anti-Semitism in America; talks about Socialist Party in New York City; B.A. and M.A. at City College, Manhattan; Oxford Oaths and student clashes; discusses New York libraries and intellectual communities; New York World’s Fair; high school teacher at George Washington High School and Ford Foundation grant; graduate school at Columbia University; registered in 1940, Air Force training at Keesler Field, MS in 1942; Air Transport Command, Squadron Clerk/Typist, Presque Isle Field, ME; promoted to Staff Sergeant; Officer Candidate School, Miami Beach, FL; Special Services Officer and Assistant Personnel Officer, Edmonton, Alberta field; Historical Officer of the North Atlantic Wing, Manchester, NH; promoted to Captain; decommissioned, 1946; postwar, civilian historian, Mitchell Field; PhD at Columbia; Dean of Graduate Studies, State University of New York at Fredonia; Professor of History, including at the University of Tennessee from 1969-1988 and served as the university historian from 1988-1997.

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Cecelia S. Koch (Medical Corps)          Audio | Transcript

Born in England, moved to Canada and grew up in Saskatchewan; St. Boniface Hospital, Winnipeg, ’39-’42; Mount Sinai Hospital, Cleveland; enlisted in Army Nurse Corps, 1943; classes and work at the station hospital at Fort Benjamin Harrison, IN; maneuvers in Yuma, AZ, 5 January to 12 March, 1944; 105th Evacuation Hospital; Fort Jackson, SC, 16 March to 10 August, 1944; Camp Kilmer, NY, August, 1944; England, France, Holland, Belgium, Germany; awarded the Soldier’s Medal, 1945; Occupied Germany; return home, July, 1946; post-war, general duty nurse and OB nurse, 1952-1985.

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Maurice Kunselman (Army)          Audio           

Maurice “Bill” Kunselman was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania in 1921. In 1941, Kunselman enlisted as a private in the Army National Guard rather than waiting to be drafted. He was among the first troops assigned to Fort Hood in September 1942, and much of his training there involved construction work to complete the development of the base. He was called to service with the 424^th Infantry, 106^th Division in Belgium, and he would eventually rise to the rank of Sergeant with the “tank destroyers.” Kunselman fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and he received the Bronze Star for his actions in that offensive. After his service, he returned to Pennsylvania, and in 1944 he married his wife Lois, with whom he would spend 69 years and have four children.  Kunselman and his family moved to Knoxville, closer to Lois’s family in Arkansas, and he began to work in Oak Ridge as an engineer, working on many early atomic energy projects. After his retirement, he designed custom house plans for Oak Ridge residents before his passing in 2013, just months after his wife’s death.

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Hugo Lang (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born in 1923 in Arnsbach, Germany; Jewish family; father was a cattle dealer; talks about his father and uncle’s service in WWI; childhood experiences; anti-Semitism in Germany; talks about how supportive the German-Jewish community was; forced labor; fled Germany in 1941 (some of his family had left earlier); part of his family was deported to a concentration camp in Poland; talks about the Holocaust and what he knew at the time; life in Jersey City and impressions of America; worked in manufacturing; drafted into the army in 1944, training at Fort Dix, Fort McClellan; served as interrogator and translator in the 28th; talks about his fear of being captured (because of his German-Jewish heritage); Bastogne and the Battle of the Bulge; describes his work in the army; talks about the nature of war; captured, describes interrogation and life as a POW; Malmedy Massacre; liberated in April 1945; retuned to the States in May 1945; reunited with sister who survived a concentration camp in 1946; vocational school in Elizabeth, NJ; worked for Bristol Myers for thirty years; took trips to Germany in 1969, 1972, and 1988, talks about post-war Germany; talks about his children and family.

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Harry Leake (Army)          Documents

Harry Leake was born in Knoxville, TN in 1909. After graduating high school he attended the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and then he moved to the New England area where he met his wife, Margaret, around 1939. Leake worked for a New York glove company when he was drafted in the early 1940s. He spent his military service as a mess hall manager, working in an important support role  in the European Theater, mostly in Italy. Upon his return stateside, Leake married Margaret and moved to Bedford, MA. Leake returned to Italy with his wife a decade after his service in 1955, even returning to Anzio, the site of the majority of his service during the war. Leake died in February 1990.

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Frances Lovelace (Navy)           Audio          Documents

Frances Lovelace, born Frances Pauline Smith, was born in Wheat Community, TN in 1918. After high school, she earned a teaching certificate from Lincoln Memorial University and taught for five years before enlisting in the Navy WAVES program in 1943. After Naval training at Smith College in Massachusetts, she was stationed at Charleston Naval Base, working at the headquarters. She lived in Charleston for a little over two years, before requesting a transfer to San Diego, where she moved shortly after V-J Day and only spent a few months there. Upon release from active duty, Smith wanted to move into civil service in Honolulu, Hawaii. However, when she returned home to what had become Oak Ridge, she reunited with her high school sweetheart, William ‘Bill’ Lovelace, and was married on the day she was supposed to leave for Hawaii. After briefly working at Oak Ridge, she returned to the classroom. Then, upon the birth of her son, Joe David, she took five years off from teaching to earn a bachelor’s degree in childhood education from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She spent the years following teaching in Knox County Schools. Her husband passed in 1987, and she remarried in 1992 before moving to Florida, where she died in 2003.

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Buford Longmire (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Childhood, Knoxville, TN; Great Depression and Tennessee Valley Authority; enlistment, 1942; training at Fort Benning, GA and Camp Polk, LA; assignment to 7th Armored Division; deployment to Europe, June 1944; recollections of General Patton; fighting in France, August 1944;  Chartres, Metz; St. Vith, Malmedy, Battle of the Bulge; recollections of Belgian civilians; Germany, return to the United States; post war life.

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William Lubbeck (Wehrmacht)           Audio | Transcript

Childhood on a farm near Luneburg, Germany; life during the Great Depression and the Third Reich’s early years; enlistment in the Wehrmacht, 1939; assignment to the 58th Infantry Division, 154th Infantry Regiment; invasion of France, 1940; invasion of Russia, June 1941, 58th Infantry’s activity as part of Army Group North; fighting around Lake Peipus; impressions of Soviet soldiers; battle of Volkhov; brother captured in France, 1944 and sent to a POW camp in the United States; discussion of treatment of prisoners on the eastern and western fronts; officer school at the War Academy in Dresden; discussion of food and news of defeat at Stalingrad; recollections of Nazi propaganda; retreat and destruction of unit at Memel; transport to northern Germany and capture by British forces; return to family farm in Soviet zone of occupation; travels back and forth across the Iron Curtain; emigration to Canada and later the United States; post-war life.

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Edwin Lusk (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born and raised in Grundy County, Tennessee in 1918 in a farming family; moved to Knoxville in 1937; attended the University of Tennessee in ROTC; Army Training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and commissioned as a 1st Lieutenant; officer in B Company, 60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division; Sent to North Africa for Operation Torch; Morrocco in November 1942; Battle of Port Lyautey; Fighting across North Africa; Wounded at the Battle of Maknassey; returned stateside and reassigned as a combat instructor at bases like Camp Butler, North Carolina and Fort Benning, Georgia retired Lieutenant Colonel and returned to UT in the Agricultural College on the GI Bill; Work with US Bureau of Soils and twenty-five years with Prudential Insurance Company in Alabama. 

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Fred N. McConnell (Army Air Corps)          Audio | Transcript

Childhood, New Castle, PA; Family background; Childhood during the Great Depression; enlistement, 1942; pre-flight training San Antonio, Texas; flight training Parks Air College, East St. Louis, Winfield, Kansas,and Lackland, Texas; B-26 training, Del Rio, Texas; assignment to 386h Medium Bomb Group,  Beaumont-sur-Oise, France & St. Trond Belgium; Battle of the Bulge; discussion of missions and “Terror Day,” February 22, 1945; VE-Day; final mission to pick up POWs; preparations for deployment to Pacific Theater; VJ-Day & return to the United States; post war life.

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George R. McIntosh (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Prewar life in Nashville, TN; Lipscomb High School; drafted in 1944; basic training at Camp Van Dorn, MS; E Company, 2nd Battalion, 253rd Regiment, 63rd Infantry Division; Colmar, France, Rhineland, and Saar campaigns, Germany; Purple Heart and Bronze Star recipient; active in unit tennis tournaments, qualified for Wimbledon; post-war at Lipscomb College, 1946-1949; agent with National Life Insurance Company in Nashville; retired as V.P. in 1990.

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Tommy Edwin McKeehan (Army)          HVHS Fallen Warriors Military Memoriam

Private First-Class Tommy Edwin McKeehan was born on June 3, 1924, in Elizabethton, Tennessee. He graduated from Happy Valley High School in 1943 and began his service in the Army Air Forces in June of that same year. McKeehan served as a member of L Company of the 29th Infantry Division, 115th Infantry Regiment. He was killed in action on June 10, 1944, while in France. He had only been in the service for a year and three days. He was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart. McKeehan is buried at the Happy Valley Cemetery in Elizabethton,
Tennessee.

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Ira Lynn Meredith (Army)          HVHS Fallen Warriors Military Memoriam

Staff Sergeant Ira Lynn Meredith was born in Elizabethton, Tennessee, on December 2nd, 1914. Meredith enlisted in the Army after graduating from Happy Valley High School. He served in the Army Air Force in L Company of the 8th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division. He fought in the European Theater, most notably in the Normandy Campaign. It was during the Normandy Campaign when he fought through German gunfire, and after a long battle, succumbed to his injuries. He was KIA on June 9th, 1944. Meredith was awarded both a Purple Heart and the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously. He was the first from Carter County to be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in World War II.

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Cpl. Fritz Charles Metler Jr. (Army)          Documents A | Documents B

Corporal Fritz Charles Metler, Jr., was born on May 8th, 1911, in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was the son of Fritz Charles Metler, Sr., and Mary T. Metler. Metler grew up in Knoxville and worked as a salesman as an adult. He enlisted Branch Immaterial – Warrant Officers, USA, on July 22nd, 1942. He served in the Army as a Radio Repairman with the 58th Bombardment Wing, pioneer Superfortress unit. He served in the Irdia-China Theatre and in Tinian, Marianas Islands. He was honorably discharged in November 1945. He married Josephine Lett in 1952. The two lived in Knoxville for the remainder of their lives. Metler passed away on December 2nd, 1993, at the age of 81. He is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Knoxville, Tennessee. Cpl. Fritz Charles Metler Jr.’s information was given to the Center for the Study of Tennesseans and War via Mr. James Angel from the Veteran’s Success Center at the University of Tennessee. 

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Jesse Miller (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born 1919 Hagerstown, Maryland; childhood in York, Pennsylvania; plumbing school; Pipefitters/Plumbers Union 250; work at Three Mile Island; history of the 238th Combat Engineers Association and reunions; enlistment in the Army, 1942; basic Training, Plattsburg, New York; transport to England; D-Day; combat experiences; Miller’s opinion on the differences between current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq versus World War II; end of World War II; construction of redeployment camps (Cigarette Camps); directing work crews comprised of German prisoners of war; views on West Point educated officers versus regular Army officers; returned to United States, 1945; demobilization at Indian Town Gap, Pennsylvania; marriage and post-war life; returned to Europe in the 1990s with veterans and their reception by Belgian citizens; retirement.

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Charles Morton Jr. (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born in 1918 in Nashville, TN; grandfather was Civil War veteran, was wounded at Shiloh; father worked for Postal Service in Nashville; talks about family life, childhood, and teenage experiences; talks about race relations; worked at local Ford dealership; bought a dealership in 1941; talks about what he thought of FDR; entered army in 1941; basic training at Fort Belvoir, engineer training at Fort Benning, Camp Edwards; 531st Engineer Shore Battalion; invasion of North Africa; talks about his encounters with enemy soldiers; invasion of Sicily; Salerno Bay; France, D-Day, Utah Beach; Aachen; talks about his dislike of “strategic bombing”; talks about his opinion of Germans; returned to the dealership after the war; talks about a family trip to Germany in 1989.

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Clayton Narveson (Marines)          Audio | Transcript

Born and raised in Austin, Minnesota; Growing up in poverty during the Great Depression; Training with the 2nd Marine Division in San Diego, California; More training and assignment to a M Company, Mortar Squad in New Zealand; Battle of Tarawa; training in Hawaii for Saipan when LST exploded and hospitalization caused him to miss leaving with 2nd Marine Division; transferring to the 4th Marine Division; Invasion of Iwo Jima; remembers seeing the raising of the flag over the island; Furlough home when the war ended; GI Bill for College at St. Paul College of Law in Minnesota; working as a legal investigator in Southern California and Albuquerque, New Mexico; retirement in Maryville, Tennessee. 

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Lindsey Nelson (Army)          Audio          Documents

Lindsey Nelson was born in May of 1919 in Pulaski, TN. After high school, Nelson attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He got free room and board in exchange for tutoring the football players – under football coach Robert Neyland. Upon graduation from the University in 1941, Neyland was commissioned into the army for WWII as a second lieutenant with the 9th Infantry Division in Fort Bragg. During his tour in North Africa, Sicily, and Europe, Nelson served as a public relations officer with his division. In 1945, Nelson was released from active duty and he returned home and worked as a journalist, including a stint as a sports reporter in Columbia, TN and broadcaster for the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants.  Nelson received several honors, including being named National Sportscaster of the Year 5 times and being inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame. Nelson died on June 10, 1995 in Atlanta, Georgia and to commemorate his memory, the UT baseball stadium is named after him.

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Rodney Q. Nelson Jr. (Navy)          Audio | Transcript

Born in Covington County, MS in 1916; attended the University of Mississippi; worked for American Airlines in Nashville and New Orleans; joined the Navy in 1941; reported to Chicago for officer’s training in May 1942; transferred to Norfolk, Virginia; USS Dorothy Dix; North Africa Invasion, Morocco; returned to Norfolk and was appointed captain of a LCIL ship; next mission was to Algeria, Tunisia, Sicily, Salerno; talks about his ship hitting a mine; talks about different types of naval crafts; returned to Boston and reported to Olathe to Naval Transport Command; was then stationed at Bunker Hill Naval Air Station in Indiana; got married in September 1945; demobilized in 1946; went back to work for American Airlines in Indianapolis; medically retired in 1949 due to injuries suffered from the mine blast; talks about relations between the Navy and Navy Reserves.

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John W. Nipper ( Army Air Corps)          Audio | Transcript

Born in Knox County, TN on September 16, 1924; grandfather was a Baptist minister from Texas; father was born in Knox County and worked as a machinist at ALCOA; mother was a music teacher; talks about his family’s opinions of FDR and the New Deal; talks about childhood and the Depression; talks about educational years and the strict disciplinary policies; worked at ALCOA and TVA-Spring City after high school to save money for college; talks about his memories of learning about Pearl Harbor; entered UT in 1942; talks about memories of UT days; enlisted in February 1943 and took the Air Force exam; talks about how he meet his wife; training in Miami, FL, then to Nashville, Maryville College, and Maxwell Field, AL; more training at Malden, MO, Spence Field in Moultrie, GA, Eglin Field, FL, Camp Springs, MD, and Millville, NJ; shipped out from New York; talks about a horrible storm at sea; stopped in Southhampton, England before heading to France; flew P-47s as part of the 371st Fighter Group; talks about close calls; talks about the Air Force in comparison to the other branches; talks about being stationed in Linz, Austria at the end of the war and taking lots of joy flights all over Europe; attended UT after the war on the G.I. Bill; worked for DuPont and Chandler & Company before starting his own business.

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Ordway Perry (Army)          Documents

Private First Class Ordway Perry (March 24, 1925) served in the Army and Army Air Force in WWII. He was raised in Shell Creek, Carter County, TN. He was a member of the 311th Infantry Regiment and the 78th Infantry Division. He is buried in the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetary in Belgium. He died days before his 20th birthday on March 10th, 1945. He is the great-great uncle of one of our center’s 2023 interns.

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John B. Phelps (Army)          Video | Transcript

John B. Phelps was part of the 65th Infantry that served in Germany. Phelps’ account details hearing General Patton speak, German military failures, combat, and the eventual leadership of General Eisenhower. 

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William Phelps (Army; 101st Airborne)          Video

William Phelps was born and raised in Tennessee, and he was drafted into the U.S. army during World War II.  Phelps served with the 101st Airborne Division at some of the most momentous moments of the war. He was there for D-Day.  He helped liberate the Netherlands from the Nazis.  And he fought at the Battle of the Bulge.  In his own words, he “wanted to kill Hitler.”

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Dr. James L. Pointer (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born April 15, 1921 in Heiskell, TN; father was a logger and farmer, mother was a housewife; talks about childhood and life on the farm; describes local community and living conditions; impact of the TVA and WPA; discusses early schooling; recounts interracial interactions in the community; education at Norris High School; discusses the Great Depression and national politics; participated in FFA in high school; joined the army upon finishing high school; training at Fort McPherson and work at an induction center; Air Force cadet training in Springfield, MA; discusses hazing in the military; 9th Armored Division at Camp Polk, Louisiana; OCS and Fort Benning; Camp Gruber, Oklahoma; departed from Fort Dix for Marseilles in 1944; Strasbourg, France; Maginot Line; impressions of German soldiers; Battle of the Bois D’Ohlunqen; treatment of POWs on both sides; crossed into Germany at Dahn; ended up in Würzburg, where he was injured; talks about soldiers raiding German wine and food cellars; talks about his encounters with friendly Germans; recovered at a hospital in Daytona Beach; enrolled at University of Tennessee in 1946; worked as a Professor of Agriculture at University of Tennessee.

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Jacob J. Presser (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born 1918, Providence, RI; Great Depression; Jewish life in Providence; Rhode Island College; enlistment, 1940; basic training, Fort Ord, OR; assignment to 103rd Artillery, 20th Division; arrival in Brest, France; clerical work on unit’s staff; contact with German prisoners of war and civilians; post war life.

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Frank M. Ray (Army Air Corps)          Audio

POW shot down on May 20, 1944 over Yugoslavia; in his interview, he discusses his friend, Charles B. Sewell (who also has materials in our collection), and their shared time in a POW camp.

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Staff Stg. Raymond Francis Range (Research Department at NARC)          HVHS Fallen Warriors Military Memoriam

Technician Third-Class Raymond Francis Range was born on October 27, 1916, in Elizabethton, Tennessee. He was a graduate of Happy Valley High School and worked in the Research Department at NARC. He served at the 106th General Hospital in England. On February 7th, 1945, while on a day off, Range was involved in a terrible accident. He fell from a window that sat about 12 feet above the ground and landed on his head, killing him instantly. He was awarded an American Campaign Medal and a World War II Victory Medal and was laid to rest in the Cambridge American Cemetery in Cambridge, England. Range was survived by his wife, Mrs. Mary Range.

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Clinton E. Riddle (Army)          Audio | Transcript

East Tenn. native; 1/325th Glider Infantry Reg. 82nd Airborne; 194th Glider, 17th Airborne (post-war until discharge); North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Normandy, Netherlands, Germany.

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Elizabeth Katherine Rogers (Army)          Documents

Rogers was born in 1909 in Sevierville, TN. She was the oldest of six children, and her father was a physician who passed away in 1923. This left Rogers to help her mom raise her siblings. Rogers graduated from high school in 1927 and moved to Johnson City in 1932. She worked during the 1930s as a nurse at a veteran’s home, assisting those who fought in World War I. In 1943, at the age of 34, Rogers enlisted as a nurse in the Army. She deployed to France for WW2 and rose to the rank of Captain. On her return home, she married Walter Guy King in Fredericksburg, VA.  She passed away in 1985 in Berkley, WV.

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John E. Russell (Army/Army Air Force)          Documents

Private John Edward Russell was born on 18 April 1908 to James A. Russell and Sallie Katherine Webb. He was the brother of Walter Clyde Russell, Carl Worley Russell, Nellie Maude Russell, Robert Lee Russell, Mary G. Russell, Emma Lou Russell, Roscoe Franklin Russell and Paul William Russell. He married Ethel Lou Galliher on 27 December 1932 in Bristol, Virginia. Ethel died in 1938. Private Russell served in the Army Air Force with the 325^th Glider Regiment in the 82^nd Airborne during World War II. At 36, Private Russell entered the service in March 1942, receiving basic training at Camp Claiborne, LA & Fort Bragg, NC. He was wounded in Belgium by a burst of an enemy artillery shell while his unit was occupying a front line position. He received the Purple Heart for his service, though he died of his wounds on January 5^th, 1945 in Belgium. He is buried in Elizabethton, TN.

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Stephen Salley (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Enlisted in 1940; Training at Fort Jay, New York and Fort Devens, Massachusetts; Assignment to 1st Infantry Division; 1941 Maneuvers in North Carolina; Stationed in Britain in August 1942; Operation Torch and Invasion of North Africa; Battles of Oran, Arzew, and Sidi Bel Abbes fighting against French Foreign Legion; Battles of Algiers, Tunis at Hill 609523, El Guettar and Kasserine Pass; Invasion of Sicily and Battle of Gila; D-Day and Battle of St. Lo; wounded in Normandy; Reassigned to an ordinance unit overseeing POW camps in France; discharge at Camp Devons; living after the war in Kingsport, Tennessee.

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Trond Sandvik          Audio

Born in Mamsos, Norway, and living there during the German invasion of Norway. His interview recounts his and his family’s experiences during World War II and post war; later moved to Nashville

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William Schmidt (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Childhood in St. Paul, MN; enlistment, 1943; training, Fort Bragg; assignment to the 100th Infantry Division; Battle of Raon L’etape; Lorraine campaign; Maginot Line; captured by German troops; Prisoner of war camps, Ludwigsburg, Muhlsburg, Bad Scandau, Hohenstein, Germany; conditions inside camps; labor details; liberation; post war civilian life.

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Betty J. Sparks (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born 1920, Harrisburg, PA; family life, father’s Post Traumatic Stress from his service in WW I in the 28th Infantry Division; parent’s political affiliations and impressions of Roosevelt; Great Depression; nursing school, University of Pennsylvania, 1938-1941; enlistment in Navy, 1941; Nursing Cadet Corps, promotion to lieutenant; working relationship with male orderlies; training in hospitals in Philadelphia and Norfolk, VA.; assignment to Special Navy Advance Group 56; deployment to Scotland; leave in London and interaction with British; treatment of casualties from the D-Day invasion; treatment of wounded German prisoners; return to the United States; post war life.

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M.E. Springer (Army Air Corps)          Audio | Transcript

Prewar life in Missouri; Univ. of Missouri, Columbia; ROTC; enlisted, August 1942; training in Medical Corps and OCS, 236th station hospital, 1943; 56th Field Hospital assigned to the 9th Air Force; England on D-Day; Oct. 1944, France (LeBourget and Valenciennes); Battle of the Bulge; Belgium and Germany (Kaldenkirchen); returned home, April 1946; postwar Japan occupation force, 1946, as a civilian soil scientist on MacArthur’s staff; University of California-Berkley, 1949-1953, PhD; Professor of Soils, University of Tennessee, 1957-1979; honorary lifetime member of Knoxville Track Club; Senior Olympics; USA Track and Field Hall of Fame, 2006.

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Eugene Swartz (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Father’s service in the US Army during World War I; prewar life in Luxembourg; political and social atmosphere in interwar Europe; flight from Luxembourg and return to the United States; World’s Fair, New York; wartime life in Washington, D.C. as a teenager; military training in Arkansas and New Jersey; selection for Army Intelligence; attached to the 79th Infantry Division, training in Tennessee; sent to the Military Intelligence Camp, Camp Ritchie, California; work with Jewish émigrés; travel to ETO, assignment to SHAEF Military Intelligence Division and attachment to the 35th Infantry Division; Battle of the Bulge and return to Luxembourg; interrogation of German prisoners and assessment of their morale; postwar atmosphere in Germany; Cold War Vienna; worked with CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency in their China section; nuclear war games at Black Rock; logistical assessments of Soviet Union.

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Eldred Swingen (I) (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Childhood, Cooperstown, ND; Great Depression; education, University of North Dakota; Chicago World’s Fair; impressions of war in Europe prior to 1941.

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Eldred Swingen (II) (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Enlistment, 1941; training Fort Bragg, NC; Fort Sill, ND; assignment to 905th Field Artillery battalion; deployment to France, August 1944; Battle of the Bulge; recollections of German prisoners; return to United States; post war life.

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James C. Talley (Army Air Corps)          Audio | Transcript

Childhood; education at the University of Tennessee; navigator training at Kessler Field, MI, Ellington Field, FL,  and Kansas City; assignment to 306th Bomb Group, Thurleigh, England; B-17s;  recollections of actor Jimmy Stewart, who served with the 306th Bomb Group; bombing missions over Germany; Operation Market Garden; wounded in action; hospital conditions in England and the United States; post war life.

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Helen Tarr  (Medical Corps)          Audio | Transcript

Childhood, Norwich, CT; Great Depression; Nursing School, Hartford, CT; Army Nursing Corps, 1943; assignment to 69th Evac Hospital, Cirencester, England; recollections of locals; discussion of casualties from the Normandy invasion; deployment to France, December 1945 with 200th General Field Hospital; return to the United States, 1946. Post war life.

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Lonas Tarr (Army Air Corps)          Audio | Transcript

Childhood, Jefferson City, TN; family background; father’s medical practice; childhood activities; Carson Newman College; Great Depression; enlistment 1941; training at Fort Oglethorpe; flight training at Shaw Field, SC. and Valdosta, GA.; assignment to Air Transport Command; Ferry Command; delivery of B-24 and B-25 bombers to India, Iran, and Egypt; discussion of lend lease aircraft to the Soviet Union; notes assignment of prewar pilots from American Airlines and Eastern Airlines (TWA) in Air Transport Command; deployment to England, France, and Italy; impressions of English civilians; airlifts during Battle of the Bulge; V-E Day; return to the United States; Berlin Airlift; career with American Airlines; post war life.

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John Towle (Army Air Corps)          Audio | Transcript

Born, 1921, Knoxville, TN; childhood, Great Depression; Tennessee Valley Authority; enlistment, Air Force, training Fort Oglethorpe; flight training Keesler Field; gunnery school, Utah, training with B-17s, Burbank, CA.; deployment 709th Squadron, 447th Bomb Group; Rattlesden, England; recollections of V-1 and V-2 rocket attacks on England; missions to attack Frankfurt, Germany; preparations for missions; Big Week, February, 1944; Schweinfurt, shot down over Orly, France, February, 1944; hidden by French civilians in Hericourt France; interactions with Resistance and efforts to escape German-occupied France; life in hiding; liberated by British troops; return to the United States; training on A-20s; post-war life.

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Frank Eugene Verran (Navy)          HVHS Fallen Warriors Military Memoriam

Radioman First-Class Frank Eugene Verran was born on November 8, 1918, in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. He graduated from Happy Valley High School in 1936. He was married to Sallie Meredith and was a brother-in-law to Ira Lynn Meredith (World War II). He served as a Radioman for the Navy. On August 18, 1943, Verran went down on a training plane off the coast of Long Island, New York. There were no survivors. A memorial stone was placed in his honor in the Happy Valley Memorial Park in Elizabethton, Tennessee.

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Edgar C. Wilson (I) (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Born 1914, Powell, TN; family background and childhood; Tennessee Valley Authority; Great Depression; Milligan College, 1933-1935; career as a school teacher; enlistment, 1941; training at Fort Oglethorpe and Fort Sill; Officer Candidate School; Artillery Liaison Officer, 314th Artillery, 80th Infantry Division; transport to England.

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Edgar C. Wilson (II) (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Arrival in France, July 1944; interactions with French civilians; Moselle River campaign; awarded the silver star, artillery protocols; motives for fighting and combat experiences; leave to the United States, December 1944; perception of war in the United States; discussion of the surrender of Weimar, Germany; German prisoners and discussion of perception of SS; Austria; interactions with German civilians.

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Edgar C. Wilson (III) (Army)          Audio | Transcript

Discussion of combat motivation; role of religion among soldiers; Moselle River campaign; guarding German prisoners and impressions of them; return to the United States; work with Veterans’ Association Farm Training Program; retirement; post war travels and return to battlefields in Europe; membership in veterans’ organizations; impressions of World War II Memorial, Washington, D.C.

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Johnny Ray Wolfe (Army)          Document Scans | Ancestry Page | Obituary

Johnny Ray Wolfe was born on December 1st, 1926, in Washburn, Tennessee. Wolfe enlisted into the U.S. Army in April of 1945, when he was 18. He served in Nuremberg, Germany. He was married to Thelma West, and had two children, Janice Wolfe Steele and Darrell Ray Wolfe. The two separated and Wolfe remarried in 1970 to Betty Robertson; they had one son, Jason Evan Wolfe. Until their closing in 1970, Wolfe worked at The C.M. McClung Co. and sold sporting goods and fishing tackle. Following their closing, he worked as a sporting goods manufacturer representative at Hunter & Associates. Wolfe passed away on December 17, 2015. He is laid to rest at the Berry Highland Memorial Cemetery and is survived by his wife, Betty. Betty Wolfe donated around 250 pictures from Wolfe’s service. They can be found under document scans. Several images depict ice skating at what appears to be the 1936 Olympics, which famously took place in Berlin. Unfortunately, none of the photos had any captions or markings on the back.

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Brigadier General Francis A. Woolfley (Army)          Video | Transcript

Frank Musidola, a Tech Sergeant in the 76th Infantry Division, United States Army, conducted this interview, having served with Company I of the 304th Infantry Regiment from June 1942 at Fort Meade, Maryland, to August 1945 in Germany. Musidola interviews two leaders of the 76th infantry divisions: Assistant Division Commander Brigadier General Francis A. Wolfley and Elliot C. Cutler, Jr., former Captain, and S3 in the 1st Battalion of the 385th Infantry Regiment, who later served as head of the Electrical Engineering Department at West Point Military Academy with a rank of Colonel, having only recently retired as Brigadier General. The interview describes the 76th Infantry role in Europe during World War II. 

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