Richard J. O’Brien was born in September 1924 in Wessington, South Dakota with three sisters. Richard only lived in South Dakota for six months before moving to Minnesota, and then to Los Angeles, California after his father lost his job as a bank manager. Because his parents were both teachers 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], O’Brien’s aunt helped with supplemental income to feed his family. His father took several jobs during the Depression to make sure his family was provided for. His father moved his family to California when O’Brien’s uncles promised him a job at a market. His father served in World War 1 [Annotator's Note: World War 1, global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918] but did not deploy due to illness. O’Brien attended Catholic school for grade school and high school. Later, he helped his school raise funds through the alumnae. O’Brien was returning from mass on a Sunday morning when he learned from his family about the bombing of Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He did not know where Pearl Harbor was located. The next day at school, all the boys talked about how they wanted to be pilots. O’Brien had his eyes checked and learned that he was color deficient. The Army Air Corps and the Navy would not accept him. O’Brien was drafted into the Army after his 18th birthday and completed antiaircraft boot camp at Camp Eustis, Virginia. He was sent to morse code school in Athens, Georgia, but did not finish due to being sent to Georgetown University [Annotator’s Note: Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.] for mechanical Engineering in 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]. After six months in college, Richard was assigned to the 137th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division in Lawrence, Kansas as a radio operator in March 1944. Many of the troops were mechanics and farmers, and they gave him the nickname, “College Guy.” He enjoyed serving with his fellow troops and got along well with them. O’Brien took a leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] home before he was deployed overseas. He was happy to visit his family, but all his friends were gone. [Annotator’s Note: In May 1944,] he reported to New York [Annotator’s Note: New York, New York] and spent the day sightseeing. He then boarded a ship that deployed to England with a convoy that zig-zagged [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] across the ocean to avoid enemy submarines. O’Brien slept on the deck during the voyage because he did not want to sleep in the hull of the ship where troops were seasick.

After Richard J. O’Brien disembarked from the ship in England [Annotator’s Note: having departed the United States in May 1944], he boarded a train that took him to Newquay in Cornwall, England with his unit [Annotator’s Note: 137th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division]. He continued to train with his unit. One day, he saw planes go over his head, and learned that the planes were headed to Normandy for the invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. His unit was assigned to the First Army because the troops needed support in the hedgerows [Annotator's Note: man-made earthen walls that surround a field that are often overgrown with impenetrable vegetation] of Normandy. O’Brien and his unit landed on Omaha Beach 30 days after the initial D-Day invasion on 6 June 1944. His unit went inland and dug in. Not long after, they received heavy fire from the Germans and one foxhole was directly hit, killing the 19-year-old inside. The hedgerows were very difficult to get through because they were so thick, and the Germans were using them as a defense. When the Americans put “tusks” on the Sherman tanks, it helped move the troops through easily. O’Brien was the radio operator and runner for Lieutenant Jack Yost [Annotator’s Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] and a machine gun group. Yost set up a machine gun on top of a hedgerow so that troops could cross a large open field. While he fired at the Germans, he was shot at and killed. O’Brien thought very highly of Yost and his bravery. He was only 26 years old when he was killed. Some time after the war, O’Brien met Yost’s son and family. Throughout the war, O’Brien was wounded twice, but only superficially. After fighting in Normandy, his unit was reassigned to General Patton’s [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] Third Army. The hedgerows were still difficult to push through, so General Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] ordered bomber planes to come through and blow up the hedgerows. Everyone was cheering until some of the bombs landed on American troops, killing about 800 of them. Once the Americans had broken through the hedgerows, they moved through quickly, taking town after town with very few losses. Sometimes the troops rode on top of tanks or in jeeps depending on what they thought the Germans were doing. [Annotator’s Note: A telephone rings in the background at 0:34:29.000, then the video breaks.] O’Brien carried a carbine [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine] even though he had to carry radio equipment as well. He was always attached to the lieutenant of a machine gun platoon, and then later to the company commander, Captain Hawk [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify]. The German wire was better than the American wire, so O’Brien would capture the German wire and use it to set up communication. By the end of the war, he was promoted to communications sergeant.

[Annotator’s Note: The interviewee shows the camera several pictures while he talks about events of World War 2.] In September 1944, Richard J. O’Brien and his unit [Annotator’s Note: 137th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division] raced through France taking town after town. They arrived in the city of Nancy [Annotator’s Note: Nancy, France] and ran out of gas. He showered and got a new change of clothes while in Nancy, which was the first time he was able to do so in several months. He was walking down the street when he saw his high school friend, Gil [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify], who was an ambulance driver. They had kept in communication throughout the war by sending letters to each other. That was the last time O’Brien saw Gil because he was killed by German fire during the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. O’Brien found out what happed to Gil when his letter was returned to him. O’Brien was down south when the Germans did a counterattack in the Ardennes. After Christmas 1944, his unit headed to Arlon [Annotator’s Note: Arlon, Belgium], which was near Bastogne [Annotator’s Note: Bastogne, Belgium] to protect the road heading into the town. It was in the dead of winter, but luckily he was part of headquarters and was able to work in a barn or other shelter. He did not have any winter gear until later in the war. The Battle of the Bulge only lasted two months because his unit was ordered south for a counterattack which never materialized. By the time his unit returned to the Battle of the Bulge, the Germans had been defeated. His unit then left General Patton’s [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] Third Army and joined the 9th Army. General Patton was a great leader. His death was very tragic. [Annotator’s Note: There is a break in the video at 0:55:00.000.] O’Brien thought the SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization] were a brutal bunch. Towards the end of the war, his unit captured several prisoners near the Elbe River. [Annotator’s Note: The microphone falls off the interviewee at 0:57:55.000.] He was outside of Brussels, Belgium on VE-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945]. O’Brien's was the first unit to be shipped back home and received a 30-day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. After that, they would have to reassemble to begin training for the invasion of Japan.

After the war, Richard J. O’Brien 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 Loyola University in Los Angeles [Annotator’s Note: Los Angeles, California] and graduated in 1949 with a degree in human resources. After a few different jobs, he was hired by Mattel Toy Company in the human resources department. He was there when they developed Barbie, and his two daughters were models in the first ad for the doll. He stayed with the company for 18 years. He still works today as a human resources consultant. O’Brien’s most memorable experience of World War 2 was spending time with his buddies. He enjoyed going to reunions and meet up with them. He often sought them out when he was traveling. He is proud to have served in the Army and his unit was very effective. He still wears his uniform very proudly and goes to schools to talk about his experience to students. He was very successful in his career and was able to have many children of whom he is very proud.