Jerome Harold Black was born in November 1921 in Brooklyn, New York. He was eight when, in 1929, his dad bought a dress factory in Bridgeport, Connecticut. That is where he really grew up. That was right about the time of the stock market crash [Annotator's Note: Wall Street Crash of 1929, also called the Great Crash, September to October 1929]. They did not feel it all that bad. They always seemed to have enough to eat. A lot of people he knew were really suffering but they did not really suffer during the Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945]. He has one sister. His grandparents lived in New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. His parents were both great people. His father was a good provider but was a workaholic. When Black came back from the service and went to work in the factory, he could not get used to the fact of going to work. He tried to get his father to sleep later and let him go in early, but it only worked for a week. Working on his father's schedule convinced Black he did not want to be in the dress business. His father-in-law lived in Alexandria, Louisiana. Black married a Louisiana gal that he met at LSU [Annotator's Note: Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana]. Her father was in the insurance business and told him to think about selling insurance. That is where he ended up. His father told him he had built the business for him. They are Jewish and Jewish fathers believe they have to build for their children. Black appreciated but did not like factory work. His father told him he was making a mistake going into insurance. Black did extremely well. In three years, he bought quite a nice home in Fairfield, Connecticut. His father thought he was making a mistake then too, but later told him going in the insurance business was the smartest thing he ever did. Black got a choice to be transferred from Connecticut to be manager of an office in either Florida or Arizona. He did not want Florida. His father had bought a home in Coral Gables [Annotator's Note: Coral Gables, Florida]. His father only took a vacation over July 4 [Annotator's Note: Independence Day, federal holiday commemorating the Declaration of Independence of the United States, annually on 4 July] when he closed his factory for two weeks. Black would go down for two weeks, and he almost died. The humidity was terrible, and he hated it. Black had never been to Arizona. He liked to play golf, so he flew out to look at it. He liked it and bought a house in Phoenix [Annotator's Note: Phoenix, Arizona] in 1961. His kids all grew up there. His two boys were excellent baseball players and went to LSU on baseball scholarships. Black moved to Arizona and was in business from 1961 to 1985 when he retired. He moved from Phoenix to Sun City West [Annotator's Note: Sun City West, Arizona], which is a large, retirement community. He stayed there for 20 years until his wife passed away. His sons married Louisiana girls and stayed there. That is why he moved to Louisiana after his wife passed away. He played golf three or four times a week when he lived in Arizona. The high temperatures did not bother him. One day he returned from playing and his wife told him it had been 120 degrees that day. It is so dry there, that you do not perspire. If you are under cover, it is acceptable.

Jerome Harold Black was a student at LSU [Annotator's Note: Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana] and remembers the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941 vividly. His girlfriend and he were invited to Sunday lunch. They were going to go to the movies. Her sorority sister had met a soldier and they went to the movies together. They came out of the movies, and the newsboys were selling extras about Pearl Harbor being bombed. Black was anxious to know what was going to happen because he was in ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] . The Colonel had a big meeting and told them they were covered and could finish school. That was his junior year, and he was to go to summer camp to get his commission. They did not have to go because there were too many new recruits. They finished school, but then were told they could not be commissioned due to not going to summer camp. All of the ROTC people had to apply for the draft. When they were accepted, they would be promoted to Corporal and then go to OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school]. Black went home and graduated early to have some surgery. He did not want an Army surgeon to work on him. His girlfriend stayed on to graduate. While in recovery in the hospital, his girlfriend told him the cadets had a meeting. Black was in the Field Artillery of the Cadet Corps. She told him the Colonel said that on 6 February 1943, he had to go down to register with the draft. The 8th Service Command [Annotator's Note: 8th Service Command, Army Service Forces] would be sending him orders to Fort Sill, Oklahoma [Annotator's Note: in Lawton, Oklahoma] to Artillery OCS. They almost threw him in jail went he registered because he was 21 and had not done so yet. He went there on a troop train and took his exams. He had a ten day delay in route [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a specified period of time] before basic training. He said he could not do that because he had an OCS class at Fort Sill. He was told that he had to go into basic training and then see what happened. He got on the train and went to Massachusetts. He grabbed a Major and explained his situation. He got him switched into another group and it worked out. He could have ended up as a dogface [Annotator's Note: slang for infantry soldier] somewhere. He got to Fort Sill in February 1943. He got his commission 90 days later. His parents came down and then went with him to Louisiana where he got married on 16 May 1943.

Jerome Harold Black reported to Fort Sill [Annotator's Note: in Lawton, Oklahoma in February 1943] and for almost a year was the Adjutant General [Annotator's Note: military officer who is administrative assistant to a senior officer] of the 29th Training Battalion [Annotator's Note: unable to identify]. He had five corporals and two sergeants in his unit. They kept the records of each battery. One of his jobs was to pay the men. They would have to pick up the payroll with armed guards. They paid each soldier in cash. Prior to that in OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school], they had a medical exam for their unit. He did not until that exam that he does not have binocular vision [Annotator's Note: vision with two eyes, providing depth of field]. He only looks with one eye alternately. The optometrist was somebody he knew. His vision made it so he could not get a commission because he would not be able to adjust fire. He had been doing it all this time in artillery training and was doing greatly at it. The doctor said he would be washed out and have to go to basic infantry training. He was told to go back and take his classes and said he would get a pink slip to report to the Adjutant General. He was getting married and already had his invitations made out as Lieutenant Black. He checked for the pink slip every night for ten weeks and it was not there. One night during the eleventh week, he was told to get measured for his officers' uniform. The next week he got the pink slip. He went to the captain who told him that he could get his commission if he accepted it with limited duty. This meant he would not see combat. He said if that was the worst that could happen, he would take it.

Jerome Harold Black went to Fort Sill [Annotator's Note: in Lawton, Oklahoma in February 1943] for about a year as an Adjutant General [Annotator's Note: military officer who is administrative assistant to a senior officer]. The battalion went out in the field for a seven day bivouac [Annotator's Note: a bivouac is a temporary camp]. He came back and his First Sergeant told him he was to report to the station hospital for an overseas physical. He did not understand why as he was on limited service. They examined 29 limited service officers and two passed for overseas duty. Black was one of the two. He hated to tell his wife. When he reported to go overseas, he was not assigned to a unit. He thought he was going over on the Queen Mary [Annotator's Note: the RMS Queen Mary] but was put on a Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship] with no enlisted men. They left Hampton Roads, Virginia on 3 July 1943 in a convoy of 150 ships. They did not know where they were going. They were told to leave their cold weather gear behind. They thought that meant they were going to the Pacific. The captain in charge of them was supposed to be given a notice of where they were going but he did not get it. For 28 days, they were in that convoy. They ended up outside of Naples, Italy. There was not room at the docks, so they sat in the harbor for four days. They were asked what they were doing there. Prior to going over, they had been told they were going because the situation was critical, and they be prepared to go off the boat shooting. That scared the hell out of them. Once there, they had no knowledge of why they were sent there or what they were supposed to do. The captain went into town to find out. They were taken to a farm owned by Mussolini's [Annotator's Note: Italian fascist dictator Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini; also know as il Duce] son-in-law Gian Ciano [Annotator's Note: Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari; Italian diplomat, politician, married to Edda Mussolini] that was being used as a replacement training center. They went there for two weeks. Each time Black talked to somebody, they said they noticed he was on permanent limited service and said that did not exist over there. He got an assignment to an artillery unit. The unit captain saw the limited service and asked why because he needed him to be a forward observer. He did not want him to be up there and him shipped back to the center. Black was walking one night, and a familiar captain walked by. Black stopped him and asked him if he was from Louisiana and been at LSU [Annotator's Note: Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana]. His name was George Fair [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] and Black had been one of his students. Fair was in charge of personnel. Black told him his sad story and asked him to get him assigned somewhere. A week later, he was called in. Fair asked if Black had studied statistics and he had. He had him assigned to the highest headquarters in the theater which was Allied Headquarters [Annotator's Note: Allied Force Headquarters or AFHQ] in Caserta, Italy.

Jerome Harold Black went to Allied Headquarters [Annotator's Note: Allied Force Headquarters, or AFHQ, in Caserta, Italy]. They had taken over the King's [Annotator's Note: Victor Emmanuel, III of Italy] summer palace [Annotator's Note: Royal Palace of Caserta]. It has 1,600 rooms, swimming pools, and dining rooms. He thought it was like paradise. He was set up to be assigned to the Military Police section and Colonel Melvin Purvis [Annotator's Note: US Army Colonel Melvin Horace Purvis, II; American law enforcement officer]. His name sounded familiar. Melvin Purvis was the FBI [Annotator's Note: Federal Bureau of Investigation] agent who captured [Annotator's Note: killed] Dillinger [Annotator's Note: John Herbert Dillinger, American gangster] an arch-criminal of all time. He was now a full colonel in charge of the MPs [Annotator's Note: military police]. He got Black started right away making a complete statistical analysis of the prisoners of war who had been captured starting with the campaign in Africa [Annotator's Note: North Africa Campaign, 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943]. Black said he did not know enough about statistics to do that. Purvis said he could not use him then. Black asked him if he knew somebody that could use him. Purvis said he would look around. Black went back to his quarters in a deep funk [Annotator's Note: slang for feeling depressed]. A major walked by, and they started talking. Black asked him if he knew anybody in G1 which is the personnel department. Black wanted to stay there. For about a week Black was checking with both the major and the colonel. The major said that according to his 201 files [Annotator's Note: 201 folder, military personnel file], he had been in plays at school. Special Services was looking for an officer. Black was told to go see him. The Special Services section was designed to take care of the pleasures and enjoyment of the soldiers. They had athletic equipment, the USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations, Inc.] Programs, and all of the recreational activities' responsibilities. Black was told to write up a resume and was then assigned to the unit. His job for the next year or so was to travel with the USO shows as the officer-in-charge.

Jerome Harold Black traveled with Hollywood [Annotator's Note: Hollywood, California] people and got to know a bunch of them. He and his wife even visited them after the war. This included Sinatra [Annotator's Note: Francis Albert Sinatra; American singer, actor, and producer], Bob Hope [Annotator's Note: Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope KBE; British-American entertainer who was famous for entertaining American troops serving overseas during World War 2, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War], Ed Gardner [Annotator's Note: born Edward Poggenberg, American actor], Jinx Falkenburg [Annotator's Note: Eugenia Lincoln "Jinx" Falkenburg, American actress and model], Allan Jones [Annotator's Note: Theodore Allan Jones, American singer and actor] on an everyday basis. He set up their arrangements for travel, took care of their personal problems. He got into some interesting experiences. Ed Gardner started out with a program called "Duffy's Tavern" [Annotator's Note: American radio situation comedy, 1941 to 1951] and became very popular as an actor in the "star" category. He came over with Jinx Falkenburg who was a ravishing beauty. They were both Catholic. One day in between Florence [Annotator's Note: Florence, Italy] and Rome [Annotator's Note: Rome, Italy], they came to him to see if could arrange a private audience with Pope Pius XII [Annotator's Note: Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Maria Guiseppe Giovanni Pacelli, head of Catholic Church, 1939 to 1958]. Black was able to work it out with the Vatican [Annotator's Note: Vatican City, officially Vatican City State or Holy See, independent city state enclave within Rome, Italy] Papal Secretary and got them a 45 minute meeting. They were staying at the Excelsior Hotel in Rome and the Pope sent his Rolls-Royce [Annotator's Note: brand of automobile] to pick them up, including Black. They were taken to his private office. It was the most amazing experience Black has ever had. When they finished, the Pope gave each of them an envelope that contained a mother-of-pearl rosary [Annotator's Note: a string of beads used in The Holy Rosary, a form of devotion in the Catholic Church]. Black told him that he was Jewish. He had no objection to receiving it but wanted him to know. The Pope told him he was glad he told him and to never forget that he spoke to the Pope. [Annotator's Note: Black shows a photograph of the rosary to the interviewer.] From 1944 to 1945, Black traveled around Europe with the USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations, Inc.] mostly by air. One unit traveled by bus. With units like Ed Gardner and Jinx Falkenburg, the unit was small so it was not too bad, and they could travel by air. He had the Roxy Review from the Roxy Theater [Annotator's Note: Roxy Theater, New York, New York] that had 35 dancing girls let alone the other principals. They traveled in two buses. Those were done within protected areas. They did go into some areas that were close to combat zones and Black has two combat stars for areas that were under fire. The small units like Sinatra or Hope, flew in most cases. Black was the liaison between the Army and the USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations, Inc.] unit. His responsibility was to see that they had transportation, food, and lodging. Sometimes it was a big job. It was very enjoyable. He did that for about a year and a half.

Jerome Harold Black got lucky and got called in by the Commanding General of Allied Force Headquarters [Annotator's Note: in Caserta, Italy] who knew what he was doing in Special Services. He told Black the war was coming to an end, and they needed to find something to do with the soldiers who would not be fighting. He wanted to set up tours for them. He asked Black to set up a program. He set up tours to Switzerland, Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France], Athens [Annotator's Note: Athens, Greece], and Cairo [Annotator's Note: Cairo, Egypt]. He had to make trips there to make the arrangements with companies and the local governments. He went to Switzerland and might have been one of the first Americans to enter during the war. He went to Bern [Annotator's Note: Bern, Switzerland] before the war ended. He met with the people for the railways and the commanding general of their army. He had to arrange for food and housing. It was a complicated procedure. Some of the people on those trips told him he had given them the time of their life. The trips were for a full seven days. They sent about 1,000 troops a day on the Swiss trips. Black did that for about a year. The first trip he made to Bern, he stayed at the Bellevue Palace Hotel [Annotator's Note: Hotel Bellevue Palace]. He was having dinner in his dress uniform. His check was taken care of by a stranger. He went down to thank the gentleman and his wife and introduced himself. The man was the publisher of the local newspaper and said he appreciated what the Americans had done for Europe. He told him to visit anytime he was in Bern.

Jerome Harold Black got a call from General Lee [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General John Clifford Hodges Lee] at Allied Force Headquarters [Annotator's Note: in Caserta, Italy], who told him that in about two weeks, there was going to be a consistory [Annotator's Note: or papal consistory, a formal meeting of Cardinals called by the pope] at the Vatican [Annotator's Note: Vatican City, officially Vatican City State or Holy See, independent city state enclave within Rome, Italy] where they make archbishops into cardinals [Annotator's Note: most senior members of the Catholic clergy]. This particular one, was where Spellman [Annotator's Note: Francis Joseph Spellman, American bishop and cardinal in the Catholic Church] from New York, was made a Cardinal. Lee wanted to make it available to all of the Catholic soldiers in the Mediterranean Theater who wanted to come. Black asked him if he had any idea of how many troops that might be. He did not, but he wanted it set up so that they all converged at the same time. Black had to get involved with about eight different sections and they brought in about 100,000 troops. To the best of his knowledge, they did not have many problems. Today he wonders about how he did something like that when he was only 23 years old. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him what postwar Europe looked like.] It was an amazing thing. At one point in time, the Europeans were excited to see Americans. Right after the war ended, it was the most amazing thing to see the amount of love exuded to the American G.I.s [Annotator's Note: government issue; also, a slang term for an American soldier]. Unfortunately, as American G.I.s are prone to do, they started to take advantage of it. There was an awful lot of work ahead of them. The destruction was absolutely unbelievable, particularly in Germany. Some Germans did not like Americans because of that. Black thinks there will never be another war like it.

Jerome Harold Black does not think there will ever be another war with trenches and where tanks will be used. It is all tending to go to nuclear and electronic. What used to need 200 tanks to wipe out now can be done with two rockets. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Black what he thinks World War 2 means to America today.] The problem is that there are not too many people who knew much about World War 2 who are still around. The younger people really have no knowledge of it. He is not sure if they are even thinking of that anymore. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer explains that is the purpose of The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana and asks Black if he thinks that is important.] He thinks it is very important for the young people to realize the trials and tribulations so that maybe they will be smarter as they go along than they were. There were a lot of mistakes made, but he thinks it was unavoidable because it go so big that any one person is not smart enough to know what to do. Black's most memorable experience was personal. He remembers vividly that when he was at OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school], he had a first cousin in the Signal Corps [Annotator's Note: Army Signal Corps] shipped overseas. They corresponded. Black found out his cousin was shipped into Anzio [Annotator's Note: Anzio, Italy]. One day, Black got a letter returned that was stamped "deceased". He was killed at Anzio. He and several friends were going to the mess area to get lunch. An air raid killed him. Black's father told him if he went to Italy, he wanted to find his cousin, Jerome Schoenfeld [Annotator's Note: Army Private Jerome E. Schoenfeld]. His father's sister always felt he was still alive. Black found his gravesite. Going to the Anzio beachhead cemetery was the most amazing experience he ever had. It was not permanent yet and the headstones were made of wood. It was about 15,000 men. He was there in the evening and asked the Graves Registration unit to check for the name. Black walked out to the spot, and nobody was out there. He kneeled at the grave, and it was the strangest feeling he ever had in his life. It was as if everything had stopped. He has never had the same experience since. There was not another person there. He always felt excited that he was able to serve his country. In those days, there was a lot of patriotism and it meant something. He feels that maybe he watches the wrong newscast, but he sees some of the high school and college kids that are spoken with. They do not have the slightest concept of what is going on in the world or what happened in the past. He wonders how they are going to control their world 20 years from now. It bothers him that so many of his friends paid a terrible price to protect this world and it seems to be going downhill. He will say that in looking back, he does not have one moment that he regretted in the service. It was a tremendous experience. It was something he had to do, and he was fortunate he was able to do his share. You have to have a belief in what is important. Those guys who are not around anymore and they had it. This country does not seem to have the feeling they had, but he is not going to change it.