Interviews
See Also: Dear Veteran | Read an Interview | Interview Request Form
| Name | Place of Interview | Date | Theater | Branch | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richard T. Alexander | Canton, NC | April 4, 2003 | ETO | Army | Attended school in Germany in 30s; Aerial artillery observer, 83rd Infantry Division. |
| Dario Antonucci | Knoxville, TN | April 16, 2004 | CBI | Army | Italian immigrant; Army Air Corps served behind enemy lines in India and Burma, 1944-46 |
| Foster D. Arnett | Knoxville, TN | July 7, 2000 | PTO | Army | East TN native. 511th PIR, Papua New Guinea, Invasion of Philippines-Leyte. Silver Star. Retired 1980 from USAR. UT Class '46. Univ. of Virginia Law '48. |
| Francis O. Ayers | Knoxville, TN | May 8, 2001 | ETO | Army | Pennsylvania native. 501st PIR, Ardennes, Bulge, Bastogne, Berchtesgaden. Waynesburg College, 1950-1953. |
| Sam Balloff | Knoxville, TN | March 12, 2004 | ETO | Army | Jewish family from LaFollette, Tennessee; Served in 78th Division in Germany, 1944 |
| Gordon R. Beem | Knoxville, TN | March 28, 2000 | PTO, Korea | Navy, Air Force | USS Athene, 1945; Supply tech, 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing, Korea; Service in Germany, 1950s-60s; career in health management |
| G. Gordon Bonnyman | Knoxville, TN | April 20, 2000 | CBI | Army | "Merrill\'s Marauders"; Liaison Officer with Kuomintang in India and Burma |
| Floyd M. Byers | Knoxville, TN | April 16, 2002 | Occupied Germany, Vietnam | Army | Childhood in Tracy City, TN; Enlisted 1948; 82nd Airborne stateside; 43rd and 5th Infantry Division, Germany, 1952-55, public relations; Warrant Officer School and Flight School (OH-13, H-19); Germany; 1960-64; Sikorsky C-H34 OH-6, OH-58, Huey, CH-47 Chinook; 1965-66 First Air Cavalry Div. Vietnam; Ia Drang Valley air support; Highlands; 1966-68 Germany; 1968-69 Vietnam, Mekong Delta; Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Vietnam Cross of Gallantry; Retired 1978; Post-war, Tennessee Airways office manager and vice-president for passenger traffic. |
| Rev. Melvin Carr | Sevierville, TN | December 19, 2000 | PTO | Navy | Amphibious landing expeditons in the Pacfic, served on the USS Pennsylvania, 1943-46 |
| Simon Chilewich (I) | New York City, NY | November 26, 2003 | ETO | Army | Russian, Polish family history; 1930s London, Royal Academy of the Dramatic Arts & London School of Economics; immigrated to America 1940; enlisted in Army, 1942. |
| Grady Corley | Kingsport, TN | September 1, 2000 | ETO | Army | Army Artillery Mechanic in Normandy, Belgium, Holland, and Germany, 1944-45 |
| Kurt and Margo David | Glenwood, IL | August 13, 2000 | ETO | Army | German-Jewish immigrants; Kurt joined the Army Counterintelligence Corps |
| Dr. Elvyn V. Davidson | Knoxville, TN | April 4, 2000 | ETO | Army | 92nd Division, "Buffalo Soldiers" in Italy; Occupation duty in Japan |
| Fred Davis | Knoxville, TN | September 4, 2000 | ETO | Army | Quartermaster Corps in England, France, Germany |
| Harold Diftler | Knoxville, TN | March 20, 2003 | Stateside | Naval Reserve | Early life in Knoxville; Drafted; Active duty, 1946; UT Alumni. Dental practice & Jewish community in Knoxville. |
| Rev. Buck Donaldson | Knoxville, TN | October 21, 2002 | PTO | Navy | Radioman, Navy Armed Guard; Zoot Suit War; Palau; USS Suisun Bay, SS Cape Canso, SS Cyrus Adler, SS Casper S. Yost; Post-war, missionary; Tanganyika, Julius Nyerere; Nigeria, Biafran War; Kenya |
| Stanley Duhan (I) | Knoxville, TN | March 14, 2002 | Stateside | Navy | Jewish family from New York; Naval engineer during World War II |
| Stanley Duhan (II) | Knoxville, TN | April 11, 2002 | Stateside | Navy | Graduate of Virginia Tech; Air Force Reserves, 1951; Senior Project Engineer on Titan/Atlas Program |
| Ben Franklin (I) | Knoxville, TN | October 20, 2004 | ETO | Army | Born and raised in Knoxville during the Depression |
| Ben Franklin (II) | Knoxville, TN | November 19, 2004 | ETO | Army | Army Infantry 1941-1945, Big Red One, Italy, North Africa, France |
| Ben Franklin (III) | Knoxville, TN | March 10, 2005 | ETO | Army | Paris to Germany; Postwar worked as ski instructor in Gatlinburg |
| Jimmy Gentry | Franklin, TN | July 22, 2000 | ETO | Army | Infantry, 42nd Rainbow Division, Battle of the Bulge |
| Richard L. Graham | Knoxville, TN | October 2, 1999 | CBI | Army | Prewar life in Hazel Green, Alabama; University of Auburn, Fall ’42, ROTC; Enlisted in March, 1943; Basic Training, Fort Bragg; June, 1944 Bombay, India; 475th Infantry Regiment, Company G of “Mars Task Force”; Combat experiences in Burma; Myitkyina; Long march to combat, Burma Road; Postwar, Huntsville, Alabama. |
| Lionel Greer | New York, NY | November 11, 2003 | Stateside | Army Air Corps | Jewish family, Aircraft Navigator, Mechanic, Radar Bombarder, World War II |
| Perry G. Goad | Knoxville, TN | April 5, 2001 | Korea | Army | Childhood in Sunbright, TN; Enlisted 1951; Combat engineer; D Co,13th Engineer Battalion, 7th Infantry Division 1952; Roads, Bridges, Minefields; R&R in Japan; Post-war, 34 years at Harriman Hosiery. |
| Hermes Grillo M.D. | Boston, MA | July 8, 2002 | Korea | Navy | Naval Surgeon in Korea, 1951-52; currently Senior Surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital |
| Charles Robert "Bob" Harmon (I) | Seattle, WA (with Daniel Burnstein) | October, November 2001 | ETO | Army | Family history. Olympia, WA. AZ & CA manuevers, 1944. Rifleman, 80th Divison, 319th Regiment. Normandy to Luxembourg, Aug.-Dec.1944. |
| Bob Harmon (II) | Seattle, WA (with Daniel Burnstein) | January, 2002 | ETO | Army | Germany, Spring 1945. Occupation force for 8 months after V-E Day: Austria, Germany, & the Sudetenland. |
| Bob Harmon (III) | Seattle, WA (with Daniel Burnstein) | Feb-April, 2002 | ETO | Army | 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. |
| Fred Hart | Knoxville, TN | April 21, 2001 | Vietnam | Army | Heavy Truck Driver, 93rd Engineering Bn, 9th Infantry Div.; Tet Offensive |
| James R. Henderson | Knoxville, TN | March 29, 2002 | Korean Era | Army | Early life, Queens, NY; mother was Margy Taylor, actress & singer; drafted during Korean War; Basic Training at Fort Dix; 60th Infantry Regiment, 7th Army; Germany, Heilbronn, Stuttgart, Olm; Postwar career in the NYPD, patrolman and detective, 1957-1977; Medal of Honor presented by mayor and police commissioner. |
| Ray H. Higgins | Knoxville, TN | April 11, 2000 | PTO | Navy/ Coast Guard | All aspects of shipboard communications; Liberty Ship, "William H. Claggett" UT Alumni |
| Dr. Andrew Kang (I) | Knoxville, TN | December 26, 2001 | Korea | Army | Civilian in Korea during WWII/Korean War; "Yellow Beret;" Medical researcher. |
| Dr. Andrew Kang (II) | Memphis, TN | August 3, 2002 | Korea | Army | A follow-up discussion of Dr. Kang's medical career and research. |
| John E. Kesterson | Knoxville, TN | July 26, 2001 | ETO, PTO | Army | Surgeon, Medical Corps; 114th Gen hospital, UK; 84th field hospital, France; Served in Philippines, Newton Baker Gen Hospital, Mayo Clinic. |
| Dr. Milton M. Klein | Knoxville, TN | April 10, 2003 | ETO | Army Air Corps | Hungarian-Jewish family; Air Transport Command, 1942-44; Professor of History at University of Tennessee, 1969-88; University of Tennessee's historian |
| Cecelia S. Koch | Hixon, TN | March 16, 2004 | ETO | Army | |
| Hugo Lang | Newton, NJ | March 19, 2001 | ETO | Army | German Jewish family, heavy weapons man and interrogator, captured in Luxembourg |
| J. C. Mason | Maryville, TN | April 15, 2004 | Korea | Army | Pre-war life in Maryville, TN; Father, brothers, cousins served in military; Enlisted November, 1951; Basic training, Fort Ord, CA; 7th Infantry Division, 32nd Infantry Regiment; Arrived Korea, June 1952; Kumhwa Valley; Combat against Chinese and North Koreans; Wounded at Triangle Hill; Post-war; National Guard service. |
| Charles Morton Jr. | Franklin, TN | April 16, 2000 | ETO | Army | Invasion of North Africa, 1942, Invasion of Sicily, 1943, Invasion of Normandy 1944 |
| Rodney Q. Nelson Jr. | Knoxville, TN (with Charles Johnson) |
August 18, 1987 | ETO | Navy | Univ.of Miss.; Nashville American Airlines; Navy volunteer, 1941. USS Dorothy Dix. Morocco, North Africa invasion. Landing Craft Infantry (Large). Sicily, Salerno, Southern France. |
| John W. Nipper | Knoxville, TN | April 6, 2001 | ETO | Army Air Corps | Flew P-47 Fighter Bomber in the 371st Fighter Group in World War II, 1944 |
| P. Neal O' Steen | Knoxville, TN | April 2, 2002 | PTO, Korea | Navy | Prewar life in Bedford County, TN; Enlisted Jan. 1941; Philadelphia Naval Hospital until Dec. 7, 1941; Naval Recruitment Station, Philadelphia until June, 1943; Sole medical staffer aboard USS ATR-23, rescue tug, in eastern Pacific, 1943-1946, Pharmacist’s Mate, First Class; U.S. Navy Reserve 1947-1951; Korean War at Norfolk Naval Air Station 1950-1951, Chief Hospital Corpsman; Postwar; UT-Knoxville, Class of ’50, Journalism; Kingsport Times, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot; Director of Publications at UT-Knoxville, 1957-1985. |
| Fred Owens (I) | Knoxville TN | March 18 2004 | Vietnam | Army | Active in Civil Rights Movement; assigned to duty in Germany during the Berlin Crisis (1960-63, 1966-69) |
| Fred Owens (II) | Knoxville TN | May 19, 2004 | Vietnam | Army | 11th Air Assault Test Division later designated the First Calvary Division that fought in the Ia Drang Valley (1965); Bong Son Campagin (1966) |
| Thomas N. Parlon | Knoxville, TN | April 27, 2000 | PTO | Navy | S.S. William K. Vanderbilt, S.S. Mormactern |
| Col. John W. Patrick (Ret.) | Knoxville, TN | April 10, 2001 | Korea, Vietnam | Army | Commanded Army Postal Unit in Korea, 1945-47; Military Science teacher; Service in Germany and Taiwan; Advisor in Vietnam |
| Dr. James L. Pointer | Knoxville, TN | April 8, 2003 | ETO | Army | Army Infantry; Service in European Theater,1943-45; Associate Professor of Agriculture at the University of Tennessee, 1963-1986 |
| Clinton E. Riddle | Knoxville, TN | March 19, 2002 | ETO | Army | 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. |
| William Schmidt | Knoxville, TN | April 28, 2000 | ETO | Army | Infantry, 100th Division, Rhineland Campaign, POW 1945 |
| Charles Seay | Knoxville, TN | March 24, 2000 | PTO | Army Air Corps | B-25 pilot, 13th Air Force, 70th Bomb Squadron |
| Samuel A. Shipman | Knoxville, TN | April 10, 2000 | Vietnam, Persian Gulf War | Army | Combat Engineer; Germany, 1966-67; Vietnam, 1968-1969; Panama, 1985-86, Operation Desert Storm, 1990-91 |
| Ed Shore | Louisville, TN | April 17, 2001 | Vietnam | Marine Corps | Childhood in Maryville, TN; College years at the University of Tennessee; Air Force ROTC; Farmhand for a local dairy farm; Marine OCS at Quantico, VA; 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment and 1st Battalion, 27th Marine Regiment; Platoon interactions (“fragging,” etc.); Hue City; Field conditions during patrol; Operation Allenbrook; Go Noi Island; Wounded June 15, 1968; Marine psychological response in combat; Okinawa; Period as agricultural advisor in Vietnam; Tet Offensive – posted in Hue; Phu Bai; Infantry weaponry; Contact with Australian and South Vietnamese forces; Return home and discharge; Employment with Upjohn Corporation; Career in construction. |
| Betty Sparks | Knoxville, TN | March 24,2001; May 3, 2001 | ETO | Navy | Navy Nurse, Special Navy Advance Group 56; Served in Scotland |
| Lemuel Sparks | Knoxville, TN | March 13, 2001 | PTO | Navy | Chaplain, Pacific '44-'46, USS Sangamon, USS Fall River; St. John's Lutheran Church Knoxville; taught at UT School of Religion, '54-'66. |
| M.E. Springer | Knoxville, TN | April 3, 2001 | ETO | Army | 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); Return 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. |
| Helen Tarr | Knoxville, TN | July 2, 2003 | ETO | Army | Prewar, nursing school in Norwich, CT; Enlisted '43; 200th Gen. Hosp., 67th Evac Hosp.; England, France '43-'45, Germany 45-46; Dachau; Postwar; Stewardess, 1946-1947. |
| Lonas Tarr | Knoxville, TN | March 7, 2003 | ETO | Army Air Corps | Pre-war (Jefferson City, Carson-Newman); Enlisted '41; Flight Training, '42; Ferry Command, '42; Air Transport Command, 1942-1945; postwar career; Berlin Airlift |
| John Towle | Knoxville, TN | March 20, 2002 | ETO | Army Air Corps | B-17 flight engineer; shot down over France; hid with French family for 6 months |
| Bill White | Athens, TN | July 20, 2000 | PTO | Marine Corps | 2nd Divison, Special Airborne Infantry. Post-war, Battle of Athens, August 1946. |
| Edgar C. Wilson (I) | Knoxville, TN | June 26, 2003 | ETO | Army | Pre-war years in Knoxville; UT Alumni; Drafted prior to Pearl Harbor; Departing for Europe. |
| Edgar C. Wilson (II) | Knoxville, TN | March 2, 2004 | ETO | Army | Field Artillery, 319th Inf. Reg. 80th Division; Awarded the Silver Star
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| Edgar C. Wilson (III) | Knoxville, TN | September 4, 2005 | ETO | Army | Return home to
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| W. Lewis Wood | Memphis, TN | August 3, 2002 | Stateside, Korea | Navy, Army | Seamen
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