[Annotator’s Note: Video begins while the interviewer is in mid-sentence There is a beeping sound throughout the segment.] Joel Arnold was born in December 1923 in Reading, Pennsylvania. His grandfather was an entrepreneur and opened a bakery to deliver baked goods to grocery stores. Arnold’s father eventually took over the business. His father was was a veteran of World War 1 [Annotator's Note: World War 1, global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918], assigned as a cook, and was affected by the mustard gas. His grandfather did not believe in education, but in working hard. He eventually sold the bakery business. His grandfather also had a farm. When the stock market crashed in 1929, his grandfather lost a lot of his fortune. Arnold’s father was asked to run a new bakery in Altoona, Pennsylvania 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]. He worked there for several years, but developed asthma due to the flour in the bakery. His family also had a farm that was started by his grandfather. During the Depression, his family leased the farm, and Arnold herded cows in the field for one dollar a week. His mother had a garden in the back of the farmhouse. Arnold’s family hauled alcohol during prohibition times with their family wagon. His favorite uncle was a boxer and almost went professional. After Arnold’s grandfather died, his family received some stock. Arnold worked as a bread delivery boy and also played tennis. He eventually worked for Tasty Cake for several years.

[Annotator’s Note: There is a beeping sound throughout the segment.] Joel Arnold worked at Reading Clothing making pea jackets for the Navy. It was a horrible job. He was not a very athletic person until high school when he picked up tennis. He injured himself exercising on rings one day and found out that he had two additional bones in his feet. He had to wear special shoes. Arnold did not think he would get drafted because of his injury and flat feet, but to his surprise he received a notice in June 1944. He was shipped to Fort Bragg [Annotator’s Note: Fort Bragg, North Carolina] for six weeks of basic training. After taking an aptitude test, he was sent to Fort Riley [Annotator’s Note: Fort Riley, Kansas] and worked in a meteorological section. He enjoyed his time at Fort Riley and got along well with the others. His group measured the humidity, temperature, and wind speed. His unit was sent overseas and arrived in Glasgow [Annotator’s Note: Glasgow, Scotland]. [Annotator’s Note: Interviewee stands up and pauses interview at 0:30:03.000. Video break at 0:30:06.000. When interview begins, the interviewee is holding a map] His unit was sent to the border of Belgium and Luxembourg. They remained in Clervaux, Luxembourg for several weeks until the forces moved across the Rhine River. The weather was very snowy. His unit quickly moved all day long and stayed in abandoned houses. They traveled by truck which carried the unit’s equipment.

[Annotator’s Note: There is a beeping sound throughout the segment.] Joel Arnold was assigned to a meteorological unit in Europe. As he moved rapidly across the countries, the German troops surrendered easily. The German troops were either young boys or old men, and they had very old equipment. Sometimes he was strafed by a renegade German plane. His unit ran across snipers and often had to find their location. On one occasion, the snipers were a young couple. The Allies shot them in the head. Arnold thought it was a pathetic sight. His unit came across two work camps [Annotator’s Note: concentration camps] that had already been liberated but were still on fire. Arnold had seen Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] twice during his time in Europe. The first time was between La Havre, France, and Belgium. His truck had maintenance issues and Patton’s jeep came behind him. The jeep driver honked at them to move out of the way. The second time he saw Patton was after the war. His unit was given new meteorological equipment and a nice building for an office and quarters. Arnold was a sergeant at the time and was given the duty of showing off the new equipment to Patton. The balloon equipment blew up, but Patton did not seem to care. Three weeks before the war ended, Arnold accidentally shot himself in the hand with a German pistol. He was sent to a field hospital and then to Paris [Annotator’s Note: Paris, France]. After nine days in the Paris hospital, he received a pass [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and found out that day that the war had ended. He returned to his outfit after nine days of railcar travel. By the time he got back to his unit, all the men he served with had left and gone back to the United States. He became good friends with a man named Murry, and their friendship continued after the war.

[Annotator’s Note: There is a beeping sound throughout the segment.] Joel Arnold met up with his service friends in New York City [Annotator’s Note: New York City, New York] during New Year’s Eve 1950. His friend Murry later became a Catholic priest. During the war, Arnold was court martialed for accidentally shooting himself in the hand. He lost three months pay and was demoted to buck sergeant [Annotator's Note: the lowest rank of sergeant in the military; E-5]. On his way over to Europe, he had a horrible experience on the ship because of the weather. The troops were seasick, and vomit was everywhere. Arnold volunteered to work in the mess hall to avoid staying down in the hull. He spotted a couple of girls on the boat and found out that they were from the Netherlands. On the way back to the United States, he had a better trip home. The French people were very kind to him while he was there. [Annotator’s Note: The audio begins to go in and out at 1:00:00.000. Video goes black at 1:03:18.000.]