[Annotator’s Note: There is someone in the background that is assisting the interviewee in answering the interviewer’s questions throughout the segment.] Nils Oldberg was born in August 1923 in Kansas City, Missouri. The Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] was tough for the family as his father struggled to find work as a carpenter. Oldberg recalls his father leaving for work each morning and returning home in the afternoon looking discouraged from failing to find work. After a few years like this, he found work with an ice cream company working to set up storefronts and build factories. After completing high school, Oldberg became his father’s apprentice and worked as a carpenter until he was drafted into the Navy. Oldberg remembers coming home from church on Sunday, 7 December 1941 and hearing the news of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. The attack was a real shock for the family and they began to expect that Oldberg would be forced to serve in the military. Oldberg was drafted in February 1943. Wanting to follow in his brother’s footsteps, Oldberg requested assignment to the SeaBees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions], but was denied and sent to basic training in Farragut, Idaho. He recalls the physical training and marching he completed while there. He got into an argument with a fellow sailor after he cut him in line to have his picture taken while in Coeur D’Alene [Annotator’s Note: Coeur D’Alene, Idaho]. Standing at six feet four inches, Oldberg felt confident he could beat the smaller guy in a fight, and the two agreed to a time and place. Upon returning to the barracks, Oldberg was told that the other guy was a lightweight boxing champ and he wisely canceled the fight. After basic training, Oldberg boarded a train to Norfolk, Virginia for torpedo training. He played music while aboard the train and made friends with three guys who gave him his Navy nicknames “Stretch” and “Ole.” After a few weeks of torpedo school, the three guys convinced Oldberg to join them in signing up for submarine service. He did not think he would be accepted because of his height, and was surprised when he was shipped to New London, Connecticut for submarine training.

[Annotator’s Note: There is someone in the background that is assisting the interviewee in answering the interviewer’s questions throughout the segment.] Nils Oldberg was selected to go to submarine school in New London, Connecticut. Oldberg learned much about the submarine and that it was usually a very safe vessel to be on. While in New London, Oldberg became acquainted with some locals and often spent weekends with them while on leave. One morning, while waiting for inspection and to be turned loose for the weekend, Oldberg noticed that he had developed a boil under his right arm. Fritz, the inspector, noticed Oldberg looking unwell and sent him to sick bay to have the boil removed. After two weeks in the sick bay, Oldberg emerged to find that his submarine class had moved ahead and already began a tour of duty. He was placed in a lower class and sent to Manitowoc, Wisconsin to join the crew of the USS Guavina (SS-362). When the sub was finished being built, it was placed on a floating dry dock and sent to New Orleans [Annotator’s Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. The crew was issued a two-week furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] with orders to return to the boat ahead of their tour of duty. Oldberg boarded the submarine and accompanied it to the Panama Canal Zone [Annotator's Note: manmade canal in the country of Panama that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in between North and South America]. There were dramatic tide changes in the canal. He did some training before sailing to Hawaii. While in Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii], Oldberg watched crews aboard small boats skim oil from the water’s surface which was escaping from the sunken battleships below [Annotator's Note: as a result of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. From Pearl Harbor, the Guavina left for its first war patrol.

[Annotator’s Note: There is someone in the background that is assisting the interviewee in answering the interviewer’s questions throughout the segment.] Nils Oldberg’s first patrol [Annotator’s Note: with the submarine USS Guavina (SS-362)] took place near Iwo Jima [Annotator’s Note: Iwo Jima, Japan] and its adjacent islands. Oldberg’s job aboard the sub for this first mission was as the “hot shell man”, responsible for sweeping the spent shells from the deck after the deck gun was fired. The first engagement was with a small craft carrying lumber. The ship was sunk. Because the enemy ship was unarmed, he had no reason to be afraid during his first taste of war. During another engagement on 4 July 1944, they torpedoed and sank a merchant ship. To escape the two escort ships that had been with the merchant ship, Oldberg’s captain ordered the men in the control room to take the ship down beneath the sinking hull of the ship. From his position in the aft torpedo room, Oldberg heard debris from the sinking ship hitting the top of the sub. This was his first experience with being depth-charged [Annotator's Note: also called a depth bomb; an anti-submarine explosive munition resembling a metal barrel or drum], but none were close to them. His jobs aboard ship while not in combat included four hour periods of watch on the conning tower. His captain, Carl Tiedeman, had the respect of the men on board. Captain Tiedeman was cautious and did not take risks, but he always got his target. At first, Oldberg’s bunk slid beneath a torpedo rack in the aft torpedo room. He was then assigned a bunk in the torpedo loading hatch which he shared with another sailor. He tried oysters. [Annotator’ Note: Camera shows the interviewer at 0:34:26.000-0:38:09.000.]

[Annotator’s Note: There is someone in the background that is assisting the interviewee in answering the interviewer’s questions throughout the segment.] Nils Oldberg served on the submarine USS Guavina (SS-362) in the Pacific Theater. While not on war shipping patrols, the Guavina was assigned to lifeguard duty and set to work picking up airmen who ditched their planes and needed to be rescued. On one of these missions, the crew managed to save five of six men of a bomber crew and continued to search for the final man. While on lookout duty with the officer on the deck at night, Oldberg heard a loud whistle come from somewhere in the darkness of the sea. He confirmed his suspicions with the officer on the deck and, despite the danger they put themselves in, turned on the searchlight to look for the airman. They searched for a while, but never found him. It was a sad moment when the search was called off, but saving the other men and receiving a commendation from the Air Force was one of his best memories from the war. On another patrol, Oldberg served as a trainer on the deck gun. They fired and sank one ship, while the second ship was hit and began to sail toward the beach. Oldberg saw a man running on the deck of the flaming ship and waited for him to dive into the water before firing the gun again. The ship beached itself and was destroyed. Oldberg reflects on watching the man jump into the water and says this is why he wanted to join the SeaBees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions]. He never wanted to kill anyone. Two merchant ships and two escorts exited a deep port and came into view of the Guavina. As the ships drew closer, Oldberg and the other torpedoman fired the torpedoes and hit and sank one of the tankers. As the sub turned to leave the area, it hit bottom and the captain ordered its engines shut off to “hide” from the escorts above. From his position in the aft torpedo room, Oldberg listened closely as depth charges [Annotator's Note: also called a depth bomb; an anti-submarine explosive munition resembling a metal barrel or drum] were dropped in the water with many detonating near the submarine. They then heard a larger ship approach. Oldberg thinks it could have been a destroyer. It dropped seven depth charges which exploded in a line alongside the sub and caused it rock back and forth on the seafloor. The captain ordered the engines back on, but they made too much noise trying to dislodge from the seafloor and he ordered them back off. Depth charges continued to fall, but none made a direct hit. At night, after 21 hours on the bottom, the submarine surfaced safely. Oldberg recalls getting a headache due to a lack of oxygen. This was the worst experience of the war. [Annotator’s Note: A doorbell rings in the background at 0:57:48.000. Can hear people talking in the background.]

[Annotator’s Note: There is someone in the background that is assisting the interviewee in answering the interviewer’s questions throughout the segment.] Nils Oldberg served on the submarine USS Guavina (SS-362) in the Pacific Theater. Of her six successful patrols, only one warship was sunk by the Guavina, and the rest were commercial vessels. While in the Philippine Sea, the Guavina fired on a ship that was painting itself in camouflage. Oldberg recalls watching the men on deck shoot at the approaching torpedo in an attempt to detonate it, but they failed, and the ship was sunk. After the experience at the bottom of the sea, the submarine was tied up alongside a sub tender near Manila [Annotator’s Note: Manila, the Philippines] for repairs. While in port, a group of the Guavina’s sailors hiked to Manila for a day of sightseeing. When they returned to the ship, they told Oldberg and the others of a battlefield they passed which was full of rotting bodies. Oldberg was thankful he was on deck duty that day. He then tells a story about diving into the Marianas Trench and taking the submarine well below its tested depth. The hull began to creak as the pressure increased as they descended to nearly 500 feet. When they surfaced, he thanked the men of Manitowoc [Annotator’s Note: Manitowoc, Washington] for building such a strong hull. [Annotator’s Note: A man takes a picture off the wall in the background to show the camera at 1:10:.00.000.] They then sailed to San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California] for an overhaul to replace the 4” deck gun with a 5” model. While in San Francisco, Oldberg befriended a family from Missouri with whom he played hillbilly music.

[Annotator’s Note: There is someone in the background that is assisting the interviewee in answering the interviewer’s questions throughout the segment.] Nils Oldberg served on the submarine USS Guavina (SS-362) in the Pacific Theater. They left San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California] for the Philippines and heard news of the Japanese surrender [Annotator’s Note: in August 1945] while halfway there. They sailed to Hawaii where they remained for several months until they were sent back to Mare Island, San Francisco for decommissioning. After the Guavina was decommissioned, Oldberg was transferred to the USS Seahorse (SS-304) to decommission it. Oldberg circles back to tell what came of the submarine crew who left Connecticut ahead of him while he was in sick bay. The crew hit a mine while on patrol on the South China Sea and went down with all hands aboard. The boil he was hospitalized for saved his life and 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 attend a baptist college in Bolivar, Missouri. He then transferred to the University of Missouri [Annotator’s Note: in Columbia, Missouri] and studied agriculture. He met his wife after the war and started a farming career.

[Annotator’s Note: There is someone in the background that is assisting the interviewee in answering the interviewer’s questions throughout the segment.] Nils Oldberg's most memorable experience of World War 2 was being on the bottom of the ocean in the USS Guavina (SS-362) with depth charges [Annotator's Note: also called a depth bomb; an anti-submarine explosive munition resembling a metal barrel or drum] exploding all around him. He did not want to fight in World War 2, but he began to understand why he needed to fight in order to defeat the Japanese. Later in life he became a missionary and lived in the Congo [Annotator’s Note: The Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa] with his family for over 20 years. The war completely changed his life because 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]. He appreciates all the support from people thanking him for his service. He thinks Americans today are turning away from God. Oldberg believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and that we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations.