Arthur Spaulding was born in August 1925 in Oxnard, California. Back then, some women, including his mother were sent to have "twilight sleep" [Annotator's Note: a form of childbirth wherein drugs were given to the mothers to induce sleep prior to giving birth] when they were expecting a child. He grew up in Santa Barbara, California. His father was a lemon rancher in Goleta [Annotator's Note: Goleta, California], who had started out in walnuts. Spaulding had one older brother who was in the Navy in World War 2. Spaulding spent his formative years on the ranch with his parents. The Laguna Blanca [Annotator's Note: in Santa Barbara, California] school's headmaster was his uncle, so that is where he went beginning in the third grade. He graduated in 1943 and then went to the California Institute of Technology [Annotator's Note: in Pasadena, California]. He went in the Army after that. There were small ranches in Goleta which was a tiny town. Most of his entertainment was in Santa Barbara, eight miles away. He became a virtuoso in alto saxophone and clarinet and still plays in swing bands in Ventura, California. The developing war was a topic of discussion in his home. The Santa Barbara newspaper came at five o'clock in the afternoon. He still remembers the headline of "Britain, France Go to War". At that time, he was 14 and wondered if he would ever be in it. A Japanese submarine shelled an oil field not far from Goleta in February 1942 [Annotator's Note: Bombardment of Ellwood, 23 February 1942 in Ellwood, California]. They were warned to black out their lights since they were a coastal community. They listened to the radio to hear about the submarine shelling Ellwood. It made them very much aware that the war was coming home to them. It did not scare them but reminded them it was serious business. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Spaulding where he was when he heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] Spaulding was rehearsing with his swing band. They stopped playing and were incredulous. Going in the military seemed inevitable. As time went by his older friends went in and it made the younger ones think they should be part of it. He enlisted then. His brother had started Cal Tech [Annotator's Note: California Institute of Technology] in 1940. The Navy took over and his brother took part in their V-12 program [Annotator's Note: V-12 US Navy College Training Program, 1943 to 1946].

Arthur Spaulding decided to enlist in the Army because his brother was in the V-12 unit [Annotator's Note: V-12 US Navy College Training Program, 1943 to 1946]. The Army had the Army Specialized Training Program, or ASTP [Annotator's Note: Army Specialized Training Program; generally referred to just by the initials ASTP; a program designed to educate massive numbers of soldiers in technical fields such as engineering and foreign languages and to commission those individuals at a fairly rapid pace in order to fill the need for skilled junior officers]. They had a soldier patch that they all called "the flaming piss-pot." After basic training at Fort Benning [Annotator's Note: Fort Benning, Georgia], Spaulding was to be sent to Pomona College [Annotator's Note: in Claremont, California], a competitor of Cal Tech [Annotator's Note: California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California], to become an engineer. The ASTP was demolished though because young men were needed on the front. Spaulding wound up in the 94th Infantry Division for a short time. Because he had studied chemistry at Cal Tech, he was put into chemical warfare which turned out to be shooting a mortar. He was disappointed the ASTP was abolished because he was expecting to return to California and continue his education and wound up shooting a mortar instead. He trained for four or five months in Texas on how to shoot a mortar. In late summer, he found out they were to be part of Patton's Army [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] and took a train to Fort Myles Standish [Annotator's Note: Camp Myles Standish in Taunton, Massachusetts] in Massachusetts to the SS Wakefield [Annotator's Note: USS Wakefield (AP-21)] and to Liverpool, England. They took a train to Southampton [Annotator's Note: Southampton, England] and were put on a miserable, Canadian merchant vessel. The officers were above deck in cabins and the enlisted men were put below with no bunks. They used duffel bags for pillows for two days crossing the English Channel in bad weather. Nearly half the men got seasick. They got off the ship into landing boats long after D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. There was no fighting, but they landed in the same manner as the earlier soldiers. Everything was so novel and new they did not know what to expect. After they got into Normandy, they had to await their equipment, which took about a month. They were in drenching rain most of the time. They left to join Patton where the fighting was taking place.

Arthur Spaulding and his outfit [Annotator's Note: 2nd Platoon, Company B, 91st Chemical Mortar Battalion] took off to join General Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] where the fighting was taking place. Not long after that, the Battle of the Ardennes, commonly called the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], began. The exciting part of that was they were suddenly involved in General Patton's famous 100 mile junket to stop the southern part of the invasion by the Germans. That was the worst travel. It was snowing and they were in open jeeps in ten degree temperatures. Jeeps had steel floors and went into their feet. By the time they got to Luxembourg, they had no feeling in their feet. The entire time, they could hear the artillery barrages to the east of them. They were inured to the idea of combat by that time. His early combat was defensive. The Germans were trying to get to Antwerp [Annotator's Note: Antwerp, Belgium]. Spaulding and his group would set up his guns and get missions to stop the Germans from coming south. The mortar battalion is assigned to the infantry division. He was originally assigned to the 80th Infantry Division. The division has 15,000 men broken up into several regiments. A company of mortars would be assigned to a regiment. That company would be subdivided into platoons which would be assigned to a company of infantry. They were backups and were not part of the infantry except on rare occasions.

Arthur Spaulding was in charge of a gun [Annotator's Note: in 2nd Platoon, Company B, 91st Chemical Mortar Battalion]. He had a squad of six or eight men. They had 4.2 inch mortars [Annotator's Note: M2 4.2 inch mortar] that weighed about 450 pounds apiece. They [Annotator's Note: the mortar] had three parts: a base plate that weighed about 250 pounds, the tripod, and the barrel. Each round of ammunition was more than one foot long, was 4.2 inches in diameter, and weighed 23 pounds. They had to get all of that into a dug out position that was about ten feet in diameter and about three feet deep. Incoming fire did hurt them, and he was wounded that way. [Annotator's Note: Spaulding gets emotional.] He was one out of four mortars in his platoon. They would be staggered over a 100 yard line. They had a forward observer who would locate the targets. They had a sight on the mortar that gave them a traverse of about 15 degrees in each direction. The ammunition had a gelatinous powder as a propellant that was set off by a 12 gauge shotgun shell in the bottom. Dropping it in the barrel, set off the shell and fired the mortar which had a range of 500 to 5,000 yards depending on the amount of powder they put in. Most of their targets were around a mile away. Occasionally they were quite close. Once the Germans were attacking, and his crew was told to decrease the powder and fire the mortars nearly vertically. His training paid off. The guy in charge of their prior training was fresh from the Anzio beachhead [Annotator's Note: Battle of Anzio, 22 January 1944 to 5 June 1944, Anzio, Italy]. He knew all about it. They called him "Anzio Joe" affectionately. He taught them to dig in for protection, but it was not much protection. [Annotator's Note: Spaulding gets emotional.]

Arthur Spaulding and his squad [Annotator's Note: in 2nd Platoon, Company B, 91st Chemical Mortar Battalion] were setting their guns up and a German captain was watching them do it from a building. He was the forward observer for a German mortar outfit, so the battle was going to be mortar against mortar. The German mortars were 120 millimeter [Annotator's Note: 12cm GrW42 or Granatwerfer 42; grenade thrower Model 42] but did not have the same capability for damage [Annotator's Note: as the American mortars]. They did release a lot of shrapnel though. Spaulding and several men were injured by shrapnel. The snow was about two feet deep and trying to dig into frozen ground was hard. The German captain was watching them all that time. When the incoming shells started landing, it was all around them. The snow would fly all over. It was like fireworks going off. After one explosion, a piece of shrapnel hit the lip of their mortar and split into two pieces. One hit a gunner at the base of his spine. [Annotator's Note: Spaulding gets emotional.] The other piece entered Spaulding's hand. It was small and it felt like he was hit by a hammer. He pulled his gloves off, which were saturated with blood. The gunner needed immediate attention, so they called for the medic. His name was Travis [Annotator's Note: Army PFC James W. Travis]. They got the gunner to safety in a building. Spaulding never saw him after that. Mortar shells were landing all around them. Travis got a Silver Star [Annotator's Note: the Silver Star Medal is the third-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy] and Spaulding got a Bronze Star [Annotator's Note: the Bronze Star Medal is the fourth-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy]. Spaulding was bandaged at the battalion aid station and was there for several weeks. Doctor Leo U. Zambom [Annotator's Note: US Army Captain Leo U. Zambon] scheduled him for surgery to remove the shrapnel, but it was so deeply embedded in nerves and tendons, he left it. When Spaulding returned to the United States, he got it out at the base hospital. He still has the piece, and it looks like something you might pick out of your nose. He stayed at the aid station for a couple of weeks and then returned to the front, where he caught a cold.

Arthur Spaulding was in Luxembourg [Annotator's Note: with 2nd Platoon, Company B, 91st Chemical Mortar Battalion], just before General Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] ordered the 4th Armored Division to the Rhine River [Annotator's Note: Rhine River, Germany]. Eisenhower's [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] program was to retake the territory the Germans had gained during the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] inch-by-inch. Patton got tired of doing that, as he was a man of action. Patton gave the head of the 4th Armored Division 48 hours to get 48 miles to the Rhine River. They made it in about 36. Spaulding and his squad followed. That was the end of the Bulge in March [Annotator's Note: March 1945]. The Battle of the Bulge was from December 16th until February 5th, but there was a sequence of small battles to nullify the gains the Germans had made. Spaulding and his outfit followed the wreckage that the 4th Armored achieved. It was total demolition. They wiped out everything they found. The wreckage was beside the road. His unit was with the 5th Infantry [Annotator's Note: 5th Infantry Division] at that point. Eisenhower wanted to cross the Rhine in his own way, but Patton had his own ideas and nominated the 5th Division to be "numero uno" [Annotator's Note: Spanish for number one] and so Spaulding was among the first to cross the Rhine. An officer in his group had a Naval jacket. The only bridge across the Rhine was an engineer's bridge. That officer assumed command and had the 91st Mortar Battalion be among the first. The Rhine River demarked central Germany. They went through the Rhineland [Annotator's Note: strip of German land that borders France, Belgium, and the Netherlands] and had a battle [Annotator's Note: series of allied operations from 8 February to 25 March 1945, Rhineland, Germany]. The German people were now the people primarily affected by the war. Spaulding and his outfit were billeted [Annotator's Note: a place, usually civilian or nonmilitary, where soldiers are lodged temporarily] in a German house, and they suffered a counterattack. It was not a major battle. A bunch of Krauts [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Germans] were shooting at them inside the building. Spaulding and his men won.

The Germans had a machine gun and rifles and were firing through windows. Arthur Spaulding and his squad [Annotator's Note: in 2nd Platoon, Company B, 91st Chemical Mortar Battalion] only had carbines and pistols. Somebody remembered there was a .50 caliber, mounted machine gun [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun] on their jeep. They went and got it. It was a big gun, and one big sergeant threw it over the windowsill and blazed the bejesus [Annotator's Note: also bejeezus, an exclamation traditionally attributed to the Irish used for emphasis or to express surprise] out of the Germans. The German machine gun fired back, and the bullets tore up the ceiling. Night passed and, in the morning, they expected to find dead Germans all over the place, but they only found one. It was disappointing. A guy in his squad was named Russell J. Lansing [Annotator's Note: Army Corporal Russell J. Lansing] and he had a history of being crazy. He would immerse himself in the most dangerous activity. Early in the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], the Germans had overtaken American aircraft. A P-47 [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] piloted by a German, strafed their caravan and Lansing shot at them with a .50 caliber machine gun. He did not damage the plane, but he was regarded as a crazy hero and got a Silver Star [Annotator's Note: the Silver Star Medal is the third-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy] and a Purple Heart [Annotator's Note: the Purple Heart Medal is award bestowed upon a United States service member who has been wounded as a result of combat actions against an armed enemy]. In the earlier attack, Lansing went out to the street to get something out of the jeep. There was a German machine gun in the street that shot him through the knee. He got another Purple Heart and Silver Star. That was the last Spaulding saw of him. They crossed the Rhine River at Mainz [Annotator's Note: Mainz, Germany] and headed for Frankfurt [Annotator's Note: Frankfurt, Germany]. They liberated it and had some casualties. That was in April [Annotator's Note: April 1945]. They wound up on the Danube River [Annotator's Note: Danube River in Germany] and the war ended. Things were highly disorganized. Troops were put on military government duty, which happened to them [Annotator's Note: Company B went to Remptendorf, Germany]. The platoons were broken into squads. Spaulding had one and became the mayor of a town. They had a man who could speak German, Spaulding could speak French, and they all spoke English, so early on things were quite placid.

Frankfurt [Annotator's Note: Frankfurt, Germany] was a big and important city that was guarded by thousands of 88s [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] for antiaircraft fire. It had been bombed repeatedly. When the ground troops entered, the 88s were aimed horizontally against them. That was a problem for Arthur Spaulding and his outfit [Annotator's Note: in 2nd Platoon, Company B, 91st Chemical Mortar Battalion]. They had a number of casualties from the 88s. They were the most effective artillery weapon that either side had. They had flat trajectory like a rifle. You could not hear them coming in. The 105s [Annotator's Note: M2A1 105mm howitzer; standard light field howitzer] and 155s [Annotator's Note: M1 155mm howitzer; towed howitzer, nicknamed Long Tom] shells could be heard. As a squad leader, Spaulding took orders from others. He and his squad would occupy a building, set up their gun outside and engage in alternating fire. They would fire a shot, change the traverse, and fire again. They spent the whole night firing erratically and randomly. In the meantime, the infantry and aircraft took care of the other parts. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Spaulding what he thought of the Germans at this time.] Aside from being an enemy, they were people not much different from the rest of us [Annotator's Note: American soldiers]. At the end of the war, his squad was sleeping in a house. They were just getting up when a German soldier came to the door. He could have killed a bunch of them, but he gave up. They were all in their underwear and it was a shock.

Arthur Spaulding and his outfit [Annotator's Note: in 2nd Platoon, Company B, 91st Chemical Mortar Battalion] bivouacked [Annotator's Note: a bivouac is a temporary campsite] at the Danube River [Annotator's Note: in Germany] towards the end, awaiting orders in May 1945. Word came quickly that they were needed for the anticipated invasion of Japan. They were regarded as a "hot" outfit and were among the first to be redeployed. After a couple of weeks of military government duty, they went on a train to Le Havre [Annotator's Note: Le Havre, France] and then a ship to New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. They were to report back to Texas where their original training had taken place. Spaulding was on an emergency furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] because his father was growing lemons and had no one to help him. The war was over in Europe and then on 14 August [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945] the war was over. He returned to Camp Swift [Annotator's Note: Camp Swift near Austin, Texas] and received a certificate of service in November 1945 which put him back in the Enlisted Reserve Corps. Spaulding was in Europe for V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945] and nothing much happened. They adopted a normal living regime. He had a wisdom tooth pulled. The doctor was very informal. He was given a shot of Novocain and then the tooth was just yanked out of his mouth. Spaulding's platoon leader took pity on him and asked him to have a drink with him. There was no celebration really [Annotator's Note: for V-E Day]. During their military government duties, there was still some shooting going on. Spaulding had a jeep and a driver. Another member was in the back, and they encountered three Germans in full uniform who dove for cover. Spaulding had an Italian submachine gun and wounded one of them. The others surrendered. The Germans were people like us [Annotator's Note: Americans]. The two who had not been wounded, told Spaulding they were deeply grateful for how their wounded comrade had been taken care of.

The platoon [Annotator's Note: in 2nd Platoon, Company B, 91st Chemical Mortar Battalion] was broken up into squads, each squad was given a town, and Arthur Spaulding had two or three [Annotator's Note: as part of their military government duties when the war ended]. It was only for two or three weeks. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Spaulding about any memories of this time. He replies by referencing a story he has already related in the clip titled "Taking Frankfurt" of his interview series.] Spaulding interacted with German civilians who were cooperative and damn glad the war was over. Spaulding had a 16-year-old in his squad named Baumgardner [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] who was blond and immediately became very popular with the German ladies despite not speaking German. Spaulding says that using "disappointment" to describe learning that they would be involved in the invasion of Japan would be a euphemism [Annotator's Note: a mild or indirect word]. His reaction was really a four-letter word [Annotator's Note: slang for swear, or cuss, word]. They had had their share of combat, but their type of unit was what was exactly needed in that kind of operation. They would have been integral to that and that is why their reaction was not positive. He returned home on a slow, ship. He had gone over on the SS Wakefield [Annotator's Note: USS Wakefield (AP-21)] to Liverpool [Annotator's Note: Liverpool, England] in four days. It took two weeks to go from Le Havre [Annotator's Note: Le Havre, France] to New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] on this ship. The reception in New York Harbor was magnificent [Annotator's Note: Spaulding gets emotional]. They got a real welcome. One of his fine memories of the war. He then went to a military base and dispersed on their rehab furloughs [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. He went by train to California in a drawing room [Annotator's Note: private room]. He was very fortunate as that trip was four or five days. The Santa Barbara paper [Annotator's Note: Santa Barbara, California] described it as "Sergeant Spaulding crosses the country in drawing room ease." Arriving home was pleasing after more than two years. He had a sense of relief. He asked his girlfriend to be his wife on V-J Day [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945]. They were at the movies when the announcement was made. He then asked her to marry him. [Annotator's Note: Spaulding becomes emotional.] They were married New Year's Eve 1946 [Annotator's Note: 31 December 1946] and were married for 59 years when she died in 2005. He remarried a couple of years later.

Adjusting to civilian life was not easy for Arthur Spaulding, but there were so many others in the same situation. They shared stories and eventually ran out of them. It was not difficult though. He returned to Cal Tech [Annotator's Note: California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California] as a married man in February 1946. He graduated in 1949. He went to work for Shell Oil Company as an engineer. He became fed up with corporate life and returned to get a master's degree. He began what he calls a career in geopolitics. His degrees are in geology, but his life after 1960 was in politics. He became the Oil Administrator for the city of Los Angeles [Annotator's Note: Los Angeles, California] and did unique things that he feels only he was able to achieve. He was head of the Western Oil and Gas Association. He was their spokesman and testified before Congress on many occasions. He also managed political affairs for the industry until 1984, when oil went from 40 dollars a barrel, to eight dollars a barrel and he and a half-million others were fired from the industry. He was 60 years old. He has directed two nephews of his into the business and they both have been "chopped off" [Annotator's Note: slang for losing a job] in the current recession [Annotator's Note: at the time of this interview]. They had 38 years of service. Those are the ones who the oil industry picked on to fire. The current recession cost 350,000 people their jobs in the oil industry.

Arthur Spaulding's World War 2 experiences had an impact on his career choices. They provided him with an understanding of humanity. He became familiar with people of all descriptions. The US Army was a mass of people from all kinds of backgrounds. There were good ones, bad ones, and unusual ones like Russell J. Lansing [Annotator's Note: Army Corporal Russell J. Lansing; Spaulding relates stories about Lansing in the clip titled "Battling and Governing Germans" of this oral history], and it made him understand people. In his management experience, he was also able to understand people and become a good manager. His most memorable experience of the war is getting wounded. That impressed him that the war was real and not just firing shells to kill guys on the other side. These came to kill him. That is a profound recognition. They tried to kill him, so he was going to kill those bastards too. The psychology of what he learned [Annotator's Note: from being wounded] was profound and not from training. He had decided to fight and serve because everybody else was. He thinks all of them wanted to serve in some way. The war affected him by giving him an understanding of people. A lot of people go through life with no understanding of the population that makes up the United States. Two years of combat affected him materially in that he considers himself lucky to be here. It is something he has never forgotten and in fact, it permeates much of his reflections these days in retirement. He plays alto sax [Annotator's Note: alto saxophone] in several bands at the age of 91. He is regarded as a dinosaur, but it is so damn much fun.

Arthur Spaulding reads World War II magazine [Annotator's Note: published by History-Net], and it has been his ambition to come visit [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana]. His son-in-law and daughter are attending a convention of landscape architects, so his trip to the museum afforded him an opportunity to visit. He has a connection with the Sinise Foundation [Annotator's Note: The Gary Sinise Foundation, a charity and veterans services organization] and called them to find out where to stay. They found him a hotel. His service means a lot to him. If it did not, he could not have spent this hour talking about it. His brother was at Harvard [Annotator's Note: Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts] in the Navy when Spaulding went overseas. Myles Standish [Annotator's Note: Camp Myles Standish in Taunton, Massachusetts] is not far from Harvard, so he visited his brother. His brother told him he had grown up. Spaulding feels that is one of the main results and achievements of his service, he has grown up. It is hard to say what World War 2 means to Americans today. It is memory for a lot of them, and not much history for the new generations. He accuses his children and wife of not fully appreciating what he did for them. [Annotator's Note: Spaulding laughs.] There is no doubt in his mind that institutions like the museum are important and it is reassuring to him to learn that young people do visit it. The people with whom he is associated with consider him a dinosaur. Teaching future generations about the war is vital. The enormity of World War 2 should not be lost and should be an integral part of American history which is being neglected in current education. At Camp Swift, Texas [Annotator's Note: Camp Swift near Austin, Texas] after the war in Europe ended, he had the shrapnel taken out of his hand. He had the opportunity to write the history of the 91st Chemical Mortar Battalion [Annotator's Note: Spaulding was in in 2nd Platoon, Company B, 91st Chemical Mortar Battalion]. This history is available on the internet. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Spaulding if the surgery to remove the shrapnel was a major operation.] They put him out [Annotator's Note: slang for being given anesthesia] because it was so deeply embedded. He was in the hospital for several days. He got no physical therapy afterwards. He had no permanent damage.