Civil defense

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Ridyard, Herbert America Goes to War
Herbert W. Ridyard was in high school when he listened to President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano...
Mesken, Lorraine Contributing to the War Effort
Lorraine Mesken said people were eager to participate in victory gardens and bond drives. They felt it was their duty....
Sherbecoe, Martin Early Life to Working in Hawaii
Martin Sherbecoe was born in 1920 in Stamford, Connecticut. His father was a skilled mechanic and from a very early age...
Lennon, Daniel Early Life, Being Drafted, Training and Deployment
Daniel J. Lennon was born in February 1925 in Vienna, Austria. His father was in graduate school for medicine. They...
Franzky, Gerhard Education
Gerhard Franzky could quit the Hitler Youth but he was not allowed to quit the civil defense. Soon it was 1942. Many of...
Baham, Marietta Entertaining Troops and Meeting Celebrities
Marietta Baham met Omar Bradley [Annotator's Note: US Army General Omar Bradley], who was meeting a colonel at Jackson...
Aalders, Johannes German-Occupied
When the Germans entered Johannes Aalders’ city [Annotator’s Note: Apeldoorn, Netherlands], they occupied his family’s...
Aalders, Johannes Getting into Trouble
[Annotator’s Note: can hear a dog panting in the background throughout the segment.] Johannes Aalders [Annotator’s Note...
Welch, Richard Growing Up on a Farm
Richard Welch was born in November 1927 in Perry, Michigan. His father, a sharecropper, moved the family to various...
Benjamin, Adelaide Homefront
Once the United States entered World War 2, Adelaide Benjamin followed the progress of the war in a number of ways but...
McAuliffe, Edwin Kenneth McAuliffe and the War Effort
Kenneth [Annotators Note: Edwin McAuliffe's brother] was five years older than McAuliffe. Kenneth went to St....
Powers, Robert Korean War Service and Postwar Life
Robert Powers was called back to the service for Korea [Annotator's Note: the Korean War]. He had been honorably...
Acevedo, Anthony Life Before the Army
Anthony Acevedo was born in San Bernardino, California and spent most of his childhood in Pasadena. His father was a...
Warner, George Life on the Home Front
George Warner was told that blackouts were enforced because there might be enemy airplanes in the vicinity, although he...
Soong, Tsuyin Losing His Younger Brother
Tsuyin Soong notes that the Burma Road [Annotator's Note: a road linking Burma with southwest China built in 1937 and...
White, Dee Military-Minded Boy
Dee Wayne White was born in September 1929 in Chester, Idaho. At age eight, his parents divorced, and he moved with his...
Grant, Lydia "Diane" Pearl Harbor Attack
Lydia Smith Grant was born in Bath, Maine. Her grandfather was a banker as was her father. Her stepfather was in the...
Beaman, William Plying the Depths
William Beaman was 18 years old when he participated in his first submarine patrol in the Pacific, and he said he didn'...
Stewart, Frank Prewar Life
Frank B. Stewart, Jr. was born in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] in September 1935. He is a...
Machaud, Albert Prewar Life
[Annotator's Note: Throughout the segment, a chirp sound can be heard.] Albert "Al" Machaud was born in November 1928...
Gemperline, Eugene Prewar Life to Basic Training
Eugene J. Gemperline was born in Portsmouth, Ohio in June 1923. [Annotator's Note: A telephone rings in the background...
Bonelli, William Reaction to Pearl Harbor
William Bonelli felt bad for the sailors who died at Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: during the Japanese attack on...
Woods, Edward Segment 2
Woods did well in school. He could have gone on to any of the advanced training schools but he volunteered to go out as...
Crump, Ralph Segment 5
Crumps dad was making 90 cents an hour. A dime was a big difference in those days. Gasoline was 10 cents a gallon and a...
Gurr, Robert Start of War
Robert Gurr heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor while cleaning a car seat. He saw a panicky neighbor running through...
Snyder, Phillip "PB" Supporting the War Effort
"PB" Snyder was born in Vernon, Texas in June 1927. His father was an independent drilling contractor and moved the...
McAuliffe, Edwin Supporting the War Effort Then and Now
Edwin McAuliffe's mother worked as an army aircraft spotter during the war. She started doing that shortly after his...
Sadler, Richard The Blitz
The bombings started getting hectic. By then, Burt Richard Sadler was 15 years old and had joined the local Boy's...
LeBlanc, Joyce The Eminent War
Joyce Leblanc's memories of the war are vivid. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] came to power...
Belliard, Diana The Holocaust and the Future
Diana Belliard has never forgiven the Germans for what took place during the war. She did not lose anyone personally...
Sadler, Richard The Home Guard
Just before he turned 16 years old, Burt Richard Sadler went to work in a factory that made grease guns for tank wheels...
Kruszewski, Z. Anthony Warsaw Uprising Begins
Z. Anthony Kruszewski went to the west side of the bridge and joined the uprising [Annotator’s Note: The Warsaw...
Joyce, Josefine Wartime Germany
Josefine "Piepsi" Joyce went to work outside Vienna, Austria for the Luftwaffe [Annotator's Note: German Air Force]....