[Annotator's Note: There is a lot of background noise throughout this clip.] Malcolm Louis Holleman was born in July 1920 in Mayfield, Kentucky into a family of musicians. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Holleman what his memories of The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945 are.] That was an era where everybody had serious problems living day-to-day. He had a paper route and then got a job at the local drugstore. Every day was tough. There was not a lot that could be done about it. His uncle had a peach orchard. Holleman ate more than he could handle. The town had some manufacturing. It was just miles from Tennessee, Arkansas, and Illinois. He could hunt easily. He ate a lot of squirrels. His wife is his first cousin, and they grew up together. While he was in training, he was stationed temporarily near where he lived. That was a blessing. [Annotator's Note: Holleman invites the interviewer and his family to visit and stay with him.] Holleman went to college and took ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps]. He did summer training camps with them. They had regular drills. Their colonel had been an infantry colonel. Holleman has never forgotten his first 50 mile hike. An old sergeant and Holleman got along greatly. The two of them led the hike together. He went to Camp Wolters [Annotator's Note: in Mineral Wells, Texas], which was a godsend. He had the weekends off a lot.

[Annotator's Note: There is a lot of background noise throughout thi clip.] One of Malcolm Louis Holleman's cousins slept with [Annotator's Note: helped transport] the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: either Little Boy, the codename for atomic bomb dropped Hiroshima, Japan 6 August 1945, or Fat Man, the codename for atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan 9 August 1945] on the way to Japan. The world is much smaller today. Holleman volunteered for the Army. [Annotator's Note: A person offscreen assists Holleman with answering the interviewer's questions.] His father had a close friend in Bowling Green, Kentucky. That is where Holleman went to school and then went to basic training in Dallas [Annotator's Note: Dallas, Texas] at Camp Wolters [Annotator's Note: in Mineral Wells, Texas]. He then went to Fort Benning [Annotator's Note: Fort Benning, Georgia] for parachute training. He did one jump and could not handle that. He went overseas to the Pacific out of the northern United States to Hawaii for more training. He then went to Iwo [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan]. Saipan [Annotator's Note: Battle of Saipan, 15 June to 9 July 1944; Saipan, Mariana Islands] was tough but Iwo was worse. On the way out from Hawaii, he knew a message was going through. An Air Force colonel had gone down in the Pacific. They landed because of that. Some guys came through who had been at Iwo. They told him nobody lives through that. The more he heard about it, the worse it got. They did not end up going to Iwo. That was a blessing.

[Annotator's Note: There is a lot of background noise throughout this clip.] Malcolm Louis Holleman was in the infantry. Fort Benning [Annotator's Note: Fort Benning, Georgia] had everything. Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Mariana Islands] was a cradle. The biggest part of the island held the Japanese, but they were non-aggressive under the circumstances. Saipan had enough troops that if they were stormed, they were part of it. It was a different quality of people and life. Holleman was not particularly impressed one way or the other. He went in on the first day [Annotator's Note: Battle of Saipan, 15 June to 9 July 1944; Saipan, Mariana Islands]. It was tough day to day but not as bad as it could have been.

[Annotator's Note: There is a lot of background noise throughout this clip.] The invasion of Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, 1 April to 22 June 1945; Okinawa, Japan] was unusual for Malcolm Louis Holleman. At that point in time, the Navy had been successful. Some nights he would go watch the submarines being blown up. Saipan [Annotator's Note: Battle of Saipan, 15 June to 9 July 1944; Saipan, Mariana Islands] was no plaything, but it appeared they were more prepared for Okinawa. He had two close friends in the Navy who were offshore with long guns. They [Annotator's Note: invasions] were all tough. This one was not quite as deadly as the others. He was in the Army but was attached to the 5th Marine Division with the attacking group. Holleman had no specific job. He had no problem fitting in with the Marines. They were all there for the same reason. In any situation, there was no question it was about the Marine Corps. They were the key word and the key group and did a damn fine job. Holleman landed with the Army but at that point, depending on the assignment, would switch.

[Annotator's Note: There is a lot of background noise throughout this clip.] Malcolm Louis Holleman did not come across any caves on Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. There was an old building that he spent the night in alone. He went in with one group and thought it was not the right place. He pulled out and went to a barn to spend the night his first night on Okinawa. Ninety percent of the people there knew what their job was and how to do it. The guys with the rifles and pistols took 90 percent of the shots. Holleman was involved with one Japanese prisoner of war but does not recall the details. Native peoples were there but stayed out of the way. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Holleman if he witnessed any mass suicides.] He did not but could see how the circumstances there could lead to it. Holleman got separated temporarily from his unit. He got hit by a mortar shell. He feels lucky because he laid in a field from nine o'clock in the morning until near dark. He was dragged in finally. Most of the shrapnel is still in him. He was sent to a tiny island that had nothing on it. Then he went to a Marine location to a hospital. The Admiral wanted to find out what anybody who had been to Okinawa had been through. Holleman ran into a witch of a nurse. He had no idea of where he was or why he was there.

[Annotator's Note: There is a lot of background noise throughout this clip.] Malcolm Louis Holleman returned to California for about a week. He then was moved to a hospital in Chicago [Annotator's Note: Chicago, Illinois] and then to Percy Jones [Annotator's Note: Percy Jones Army Hospital] in Battle Creek [Annotator's Note: Battle Creek, Michigan]. That was a nice facility. The shrapnel could not be taken out. They just made him comfortable. He had a friend there he will never forget. There was a nationally known crook in Chicago. His nurse's mother was his closest friend. They got the crook into a movie house and as he came out, they shot him. Holleman was able to walk but not able to do things like play tennis. On the other hand, he saw men get their leg or arm blown off.

[Annotator's Note: There is a lot of background noise throughout this clip.] The war gave Malcolm Louis Holleman a different perspective about humanity. He always felt like he was lucky, and he began to think that he was lucky in more ways than one. He does wonder how he was lying in a field from nine o'clock in the morning until being awakened after dark [Annotator's Note: after being wounded during the Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, 1 April to 22 June 1945; Okinawa, Japan]. The Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] could have found him and finished him off. The main doctor on Okinawa took one look and sent him out on a plane to another island and then eventually to Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. When Holleman looks at what we [Annotator's Note: the United States] had after Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], how we had managed to succeed to where we are today is due to the man upstairs [Annotator's Note: nickname for God]. America was lucky. Without blowing up that part of the world [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945], there would not have been enough of us left to put in a box. They [Annotator's Note: the Japanese] would not have had any problem with us. It took the second bomb to convince them, and it is hard for him to understand that. He thinks the future is going to be different due to the current president [Annotator's Note: at the time of this interview]. It used to take a month to get to England. You can go now from anywhere. There are people as talented as we are. We have to do whatever is necessary to maintain our way of life. World War 2 definitely changed the world. People realized there need to be some changes to stay a country. Holleman feels very lucky to be here. The position the Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] has taken is to be congratulated. The United States had no choice in World War 2. Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] said we could sit idly by or get cracking. In order for us [Annotator's Note: Americans] to continue to live as we want to, we cannot roll over. The Museum's significance is in giving the American public the opportunity to see what was used and where. Most Americans are not aware of what the job is. It shows that we are not aggressive but proud of what was done. Holleman finds it hard to understand how an airplane cannot be worked on and finished. Other countries do not wait around. The world is smaller, and we are going to have to be very sharp to keep the country growing.