Clarence Strobel was born in Lodi, California in [Annotator’s Note: September] 1924 with four sisters and one brother. His father was a very successful farmer and construction worker that provided enough food for his family as well as the neighborhood during the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. Strobel walked or rode his bike to school, but sometimes he rode their pet donkey to school. He enjoyed school and his childhood. He was not aware that his family was poor because his father was able to provide food. Strobel and his family often had dinners with his father’s sisters. His father’s family was of German descent and made German meats and sausages. He met a friend, Howard, on their high school track team. Strobel’s family was very religious, but Strobel was not. After church on a Sunday, Clarence was eating dinner when he heard about Pearl Harbor being bombed [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Although he did not know where Pearl Harbor was located, he was still in shock. After graduating from high school in 1943, he was drafted two months later into the Army and attended boot camp at Camp Roberts [Annotator’s Note: Camp Roberts, California] for basic training for three months. Strobel wanted to join the Air Force, but he was denied because the branch already had enough applicants. He enjoyed basic training and found it easy. He was a great athlete and shot a rifle well. He was used to getting up early to milk a cow before school, and enjoyed the food, so basic was fun for him. He befriended a man named Jim Schrenick [Annotator’s Note: phonetic spelling] from Chicago [Annotator’s Note: Chicago, Illinois], and both decided to volunteer for the paratroopers. Jim was sent to Fort Benning [Annotator’s Note: Fort Benning, Georgia] for his training, while Strobel was sent to Camp Stoneman [Annotator’s Note: Camp Stoneman, California], an embarkation point for troops to go to the Pacific. After two months of waiting at Camp Stoneman, Strobel was assigned to the 11th Airborne Division, Company F, 188th Glider Infantry Regiment and shipped out to New Guinea where he attended airborne school and changed from paraglider to paratrooper. The division sailed in a convoy for about 28 days to get to New Guinea.

Clarence Strobel was assigned to Company F, 2nd Battalion, 188th Glider Infantry Regiment [Annotator’s Note: redesignated 188th Parachute Infantry Regiment on 20 July 1945], 11th Airborne Division in New Guinea. He completed his paratrooper training with the division. The weather conditions were hot and humid, and it rained every afternoon. Strobel had a bucket that collected fresh water outside of his tent when it rained. The weather was so moist that fungus grew on his clothes, in between his toes, and in his ears. He continues to suffer from the fungus today. For training, he did long runs every day on the beach in his fatigues and jump boots led by General Swing [Annotator’s Note: Lieutenant General Joseph May Swing, commander of the 11th Airborne Division]. Strobel landed in Leyte [Annotator’s Note: Leyte, the Philippines] and his regiment helped with unloading supplies off the ships and onto the beaches. The Japanese had moved inland when the Americans invaded the island, so after a few days, Strobel’s regiment received orders to move inland to combat the Japanese. Strobel’s unit encountered local Filipino villages as they searched for the Japanese. They learned that the Japanese dropped off two divisions on the island, but did not give them supplies. Although the Japanese fought hard, they soon ran out of food, medicine, and ammunition. Most of their casualties were due to illness, such as dengue fever and malaria. He was ordered to guard the aid station. Strobel’s regiment was never in any serious battles on Leyte, but sometimes ran into an ambush or received sniper fire from the Japanese. His regiment worked closely with the Filipino guerrillas to patrol the island. After a month on Leyte, his regiment was pulled back to prepare for the invasion of Luzon [Annotator’s Note: Luzon, te Philippines]. When Strobel invaded Leyte, they landed on the south side of the island and worked their way up to the north of the island. They were met with little resistance, but as his regiment moved in, they encountered machine gun resistance, and three of his fellow troops were wounded immediately. One of Strobel’s friends, Pete, was hit in his stomach. The doctor had to pull out his guts to clean up the wound and then sew him back up. While he was recovering, his friend developed fungus on his penis and had to be circumcised.

Clarence Strobel [Annotator’s Note: assigned to Company F, 2nd Battalion, 188th Glider Infantry Regiment (redesignated 188th Parachute Infantry Regiment on 20 July 1945), 11th Airborne Division] fought in the Philippines. Strobel’s unit left Leyte [Annotator’s Note: Leyte, the Philippines] after they secured the island and prepared for combat on Luzon [Annotator’s Note: Luzon, Philippines]. While on the island of Leyte, Strobel carried a BAR [Annotator's Note: Browning Automatic Rifle] when he was out on patrols. Strobel was on Luzon when he first heard about the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. [Annotator’s Note: A voice interjects during the interview at 0:37:28.000.] His regiment was pulled back and soon heard that the Japanese had surrendered. After the war was over, Strobel’s unit began packing up to be shipped out. Strobel was asked to volunteer for MacArthur’s [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] honor guard, which he accepted. He was shipped to Okinawa [Annotator’s Note: Okinawa, Japan]. He and about 100 other men camped out for a week and ate K-rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals] before they were finally given new clothes and assignments. He was flown to Yokohama [Annotator’s Note: Yokohama, Japan] and formed a horseshoe perimeter as MacArthur arrived there. The General greeted the officers, made a quick speech, and then got into a Packard car and drove off. Strobel and the other honor guards followed MacArthur into the burnt-up city to the headquarters. Strobel guarded MacArthur’s headquarters and his residence. One day, Strobel and a few other honor guards went into the kitchen and made sandwiches to eat. Then all of a sudden, a lieutenant and General Wainwright [Annotator's Note: US Army General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, IV, Commander of Allied forces in the Philippines and Medal of Honor recipient] walked in and asked Strobel to make sandwiches for them, which he did. During his time as an honor guard, he saw several other high-ranking officials, but no one interacted with him in the same way as General Wainwright, and Strobel respected him for that. He recalled when officials brought in Tokyo Rose [Annotator's Note: nickname given by Allied servicemen to any English-speaking female radio personality broadcasting Japanese propaganda in the Pacific Theater].

After the Japanese surrendered, Clarence Strobel [Annotator’s Note: serving with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 188th Glider Infantry Regiment (redesignated 188th Parachute Infantry Regiment on 20 July 1945), 11th Airborne Division] volunteered to be part of MacArthur’s [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] honor guard in Yokohama, Japan. Famous leaders came in and out of MacArthur’s headquarters. When he was off duty, Strobel lived in a two-story home on Tokyo Bay. There was a big storm that came through and sunk several Navy ships in the bay. His unit transported MacArthur in a jeep on the day when the Japanese signed the surrender papers on the USS Missouri (BB-63). Strobel remained in the honor guard for about another week before he reported back to his unit located at a Japanese Navy base in Sendai, Japan. When he returned, all his friends had been replaced by new guys. He thought several of the new replacements were not very good soldiers, and he even had to pour water on one guy’s head to get him out of bed. Their living quarters had wooden toilets and cracks in the tile for the use of urinals. His base had a PX [Annotator's Note: post exchange] where he bought candy and was given beer. [Annotator’s Note: Video break at 0:56:58.000.] Strobel had a difficult time adjusting from being in the combat zone to policing a Japanese city. Many of the Japanese men were still wearing their uniforms, but walked around unarmed. The Japanese were not happy because they were hungry, their cities had been bombed to hell, and they had no supplies or military protection. There was a black market where many troops traded their cigarette rations to civilians for goods and services. Many of the civilians learned the English language to communicate with the Americans. Strobel stayed in Japan until March 1946.

[Annotator’s Note: A leaf blower can be heard in the background throughout the segment.] In March 1946, Clarence Strobel retuned to the United States. He landed in California and went to the base that had German POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] as servants. He reported to Camp Beale [Annotator’s Note: Beale Air Force Base near Marysville, California] and was discharged from the Army. Strobel returned home to Lodi, California, and farmed tomatoes with his father. He was also very good at woodworking and often made items while he was in the service and sold several of them as souvenirs. In 1949, Strobel left his farm and married his wife and found a job in construction, specializing in hospital construction. He used the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] to take flying lessons. He retired from his construction work around 1983. Strobel suffered from posttraumatic stress [Annotator's Note: post traumatic stress disorder; a mental health condition triggered by a terrifying event either experienced or witnessed] after the war. He had continuous nightmares of a Japanese soldier jumping into his foxhole. While he was in the Philippines, a Japanese soldier snuck his way through the perimeter of Strobel’s unit. Strobel woke and saw him. When he tried to shoot the Japanese soldier, his gun jammed from being wet. The Japanese soldier ran off.

Clarence Strobel’s most memorable experience of World War 2 was serving in the honor guard for General MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] and serving General Wainwright [Annotator's Note: US Army General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, IV] a sandwich. He also recalled a time when he was on Luzon [Annotator’s Note: Luzon, the Philippines] clearing the area of Japanese. He ran into a guy he knew that was in a heavy weapons unit. His friend warned Strobel that they saw some Japanese. As he and his unit were preparing their campsite for the night, Strobel heard a Japanese mountain gun go off in the distance. Strobel saw a Japanese officer standing about 250 yards away, so he took a shot at him and killed him instantly. Because of his experiences in World War 2, Strobel lost his beliefs in religion, especially while he was in Manila [Annotator’s Note: Manila, the Philippines]. His brother was drafted into the Army and volunteered for the 11th Airborne Division. His brother took his jump training in Japan. His brother, Howard, was wounded in the butt on his first day of combat, and he contracted malaria. One of Strobel’s instructors during training was biased against Jews and gay people.

Clarence Strobel believes his service in World War 2 was necessary. He made good friends and realized that he was a good leader. For a long time, he suffered from posttraumatic stress [Annotator's Note: post traumatic stress disorder; a mental health condition triggered by a terrifying event either experienced or witnessed] and had nightmares. There are many experiences that still bother him about the war. There were many Texans that did not like Californians. There was one Texan guy in his unit that despised Strobel because he was from California. He believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations because we need to know why people hate each other. Strobel is saddened that people do what they do. As Strobel ages, he wonders why our society is so accepting of guns and killing animals.