[Annotator’s Note: There are various noises in the background throughout this segment.] John Bruce was born in northern Scotland in a village called Peterhead in 1917. In the early 1920s, the family immigrated to the United States and arrived in Boston [Annotator’s Note: Boston, Massachusetts] where his aunt’s family was living. His father was a fisherman by trade, but after some confusion in California, he found work in the Bethlehem Steel shipyard. Bruce attended school in San Pedro [Annotator’s Note: San Pedro, California]. He was in his last semester in college at UCLA [Annotator’s Note: The University of California, Los Angeles] when he received his draft notice. He was allowed to finish his degree before he was eligible to be picked up in the draft. Bruce grew up with one brother who served in the Navy during World War 2. Bruce was at home when he heard the news about the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. After he was inducted into service, he was sent to Camp Buckley, Texas for medical training. He was admitted into the ASTP program [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] and sent to Oklahoma to begin training. He was then transferred to the Italian training program in Berkley [Annotator’s Note: Berkley, California] for 11 months. Then one day, the Army pulled Bruce from his outfit and sent him overseas to Hollandia, New Guinea. Before being sent to Hollandia, he was sent to a few other training facilities, including Camp Crowder, Missouri to become an electronic operator. He learned how to intercept the Japanese messages within their control. He recalled when the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] was dropped by the United States and the war finally ended. In the Army, it was always “hurry up and wait.”

[Annotator’s Note: various noises in the background throughout this segment.] John Bruce served in the Army as a radio interception specialist in the 4025th Signal Service Group during World War 2. He joined the unit in Hollandia, New Guinea. On the trip overseas, his ship was not in a convoy, and many of the troops fell ill, but he did not. His unit was responsible for transmitting coded messages which the Australians had intercepted from the Japanese back to the United States. Bruce was never in combat, but there were close calls of possible bombing raids during his time on New Guinea. Prior to going into service, he received a degree in accounting, then during his military training, Bates received education in medical training. Then he was sent to university to learn the Italian language, and then sent to radio communications school before being deployed overseas. Hollandia was very bare and primitive, but had been built up with military equipment. He explains briefly how the equipment worked to decipher the Japanese coded messages. His unit worked closely with the Australians, and he worked as a transmitter operator. A message would be intercepted by the Allies, and then it would go directly to his unit to be decoded. Then the message would be sent out again in its original code of Hana and Kana. He had minimal interaction with the local population. He saw them, but did not associate with them. As far as security, they had American and Australian units on the island to protect them.

[Annotator’s Note: various noises in the background throughout this segment.] John Bruce served in the army as a radio interception specialist in the 4025th Signal Service Group during World War 2. He joined the unit in Hollandia, New Guinea. When he first got to Hollandia, he had to wade through a swamp to a sandy beach. Bruce remained in Hollandia until shortly after the end of the war when he was moved to the Philippines. Bruce has cynical feelings towards MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area]. He referred to the commander as, “Dug out Doug.” Bruce knew he had a job to do but was never in combat. His messages were usually very urgent. Sometimes he received messages of the American destroyers under attack. He believes that many of the messages he intercepted helped the progression of the Americans winning the war. While he was on Hollandia, he ate a lot of Spam and Australian mutton. They received supplies from the port of Hollandia. When he first heard about the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945], he knew that the war would be over soon. He did not know what the atomic bomb was until after it was dropped. He does not recall if he was slated to be part of the invasion of Japan’s mainland. When the Japanese surrendered, he did not believe it at first. He thought it was propaganda. After the Japanese surrendered, Bruce was sent to Leyte, Philippines to set up a communications station.

[Annotator’s Note: various noises in the background throughout this segment.] John Bruce served in the army as a radio interception specialist in the 4025th Signal Service Group during World War 2. The equipment that he used was very simplistic, but it was the best the military they had at the time. As new equipment came about, the military gave it to them. After the war, his unit was sent to the Philippines. He stayed there until he received enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home]to go home. Bruce returned to the United States at the end of December 1945 and was discharged from the army at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro [Annotator’s Note: San Pedro, California] in January 1946 with the rank of sergeant. Bruce worked for the army as a civilian working as a tank operator. He did not use the benefits of 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]. Bruce had very little trouble adjusting to civilian life after he separated from service.

[Annotator’s Note: There are various noises in the background throughout this segment.] John Bruce’s most memorable experience of World War 2 was when he was on patrol one day and saw some black smoke. When he went to see what it was, he found out the cook had caught the outhouse on fire. When he boarded the ship in San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California], he had to climb ropes to board. He slipped on the ropes and thought he was going to drown. Someone helped him aboard. He served because loved America. Being an immigrant from Scotland, he appreciated the opportunities that America gave him and his family. He became an American citizen in 1938. Bruce believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and that we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations because people need to know who true leaders are.