Richard Yeagely was born in November 1925 in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. He had one brother who was in the Navy. His mother was a housewife who tried to make ends meet during the Great Depression by running a restaurant. His father was a successful decorating contractor. His father owned the property where the restaurant was located. When Yeagely graduated, he was drafted into the infantry which he calls the lowest branch of the military there is. He was in for 32 months and came out without a scratch. Yeagely was with his father when he heard the news on the radio that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was not crazy about going into battle, but knew it was coming. He graduated in June 1944, turned 18 on 3 November, and was in the Army two weeks later. The country was just pulling out of the Great Depression when World War 2 started. There were so many volunteers that the induction centers could not process them fast enough. Yamamoto [Annotator's Note: Imperial Japanese Navy Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto; Commander-in-Chief, Combined Fleet] said they had awoken the sleeping giant. That sleeping giant went to work.

After being drafted, Richard Yeagely went to Fort McClellan, Alabama [Annotator's Note: then Camp McClellan in Anniston, Alabama] to the Infantry Replacement Training Center. It made him sick. Nobody wants to be in the infantry but he did not try to get out of it. The choices of schools there were cooks, bakers, buglers, and automotive mechanics. After basic, he went into anti-tank training with the 271st Infantry [Annotator's Note: Anti-Tank Company, 271st Infantry Regiment, 69th Infantry Division] at Camp Shelby [Annotator's Note: Camp Shelby near Hattiesburg, Mississippi]. Yeagely did his training with 57mm antitank guns [Annotator's Note: M1 57mm antitank gun; American name for the British Ordnance Quick-Firing 6-pounder 7 cwt]. He went to Fort Dix [Annotator's Note: now Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Trenton, New Jersey] and loaded on a troop transport across the Atlantic [Annotator's Note: Atlantic Ocean]. The crossing was great but they had one submarine alert on the way over. He was on the MS John Ericsson which was next to the SS George Washington. They both took off from the convoy when the alert was sounded. He went to Southampton, England and his company was billeted in Longwood Castle [Annotator's Note: Longwood Castle, Salisbury, Wiltshire, England] until Christmas 1944. They crossed the English Channel into Normandy, France at night. He could see the evidence of the invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. He was 18 and he does not remember what he thought then, but he did not forget it. They loaded on 40-and-eights [Annotator's Note: 40 and eight refers European railroad boxcars which could accomodate 40 standing men or eight standing horses] and went across Northern France, Belgium, and into Germany. They went to the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by Germany in the 1930s] and spent the first night sleeping in melted snow. He did not feel prepared for anything that bad. They passed by the site of the Massacre of Malmedy [Annotator's Note: Malmedy Massacre in Baugnez les Malmedy, Belgium on 17 December 1944] and saw the evidence of the horror. They were in the thick of it from the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] until they were seven kilometers [Annotator's Note: metric unit of measurement equal to 0.62 miles] from Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany].

[Annotator's Note: Richard Yeagely served in the Army on an anti-tank gun crew in Anti-Tank Company, 271st Infantry Regiment, 69th Infantry Division. After arriving in the European Theater, his unit was tasked with holding the Siegfried Line, a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by Germany in the 1930s.] The Germans were behind them. He could not have anticipated nicer people. They were short of food and they helped them. Yeagely was hungry but never missed a meal. He was in an antitank company. There were no tanks to stop as the Germans were out of fuel. The Tiger [Annotator's Note: German Tiger I, Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E, German heavy tank] tanks were in the forest but could not be used. Yeagely’s unit was used as assault guns. His only real combat was going into one town. He was under fire and strafed by an Me-109 [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aircraft]. They crossed the Elbe River without casualties other than accidents. In one town, somebody got out of hand and went after a German civilian girl. In formation, a man's rifle went off and killed the man next to him. You do not forget things like that. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks what a regular day was like.] You kept your eyes open and stayed ready to duck and fire. It was four and a half months of every day possibly being your last.

Richard Yeagely was at Buchenwald [Annotator's Note: Leipzig-Thekla, subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp in Leipzig, Germany]. He saw the marks on the walls from the people who were trying not to die. The war was over then. His outfit [Annotator's Note: Anti-Tank Company, 271st Infantry Regiment, 69th Infantry Division] was going past it and stopped to look. His was the first outfit to meet the Russians. They were called "The Linkedup Division". When they met the Russians there was a lot of hugging and crying. The Germans there joined in on it. The war was nearly over then. Yeagely is of German descent. The Germans are intelligent people, and he does not understand their support of the Nazis. Once the landing [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] was successful, the war was over. The towns he had gone through had cheering people, Polish and Hungarians, not with their own countries anymore. When the war was over, the infantry was broken up. The 69th [Annotator's Note: 69th Infantry Division] was used as a carrying company. Yeagely was transferred into the 5th Army Ordnance. That was a soft life. They were in Wetzlar, Germany. He saw that the bombers had taken out the railroads and left the buildings intact. He worked at supplying the Americans in the area with what they needed. Germans and Americans worked together and were friendly. They did have to be cautious at night due to the German Werwolves [Annotator's Note: Werwolf; 1944 Nazi plan to create a resistance force operating behind Allied lines in Germany]. It [Annotator's Note: World War 2] was a wonderful experience that Yeagely hated very day of. He is glad he was there. The war ended 8 May [Annotator's Note: 8 May 1945] and he was home the following May on the 11th [Annotator's Note: 11 May 1946].

[Annotator's Note: Richard Yeagely was part of the Army of Occupation in Europe after the war ended.] They had food and they ate well. They had German cooks. None of the guys were losing weight anymore. They ate a lot of local German dishes. It was paradise compared to war time. When he returned to the United States, a guy wanted him to reenlist. He did. When he got outside he changed his mind and tore up his papers and left. His buddy had told him to. Yeagely started into a trade as a tool and die maker. He went to Penn State [Annotator's Note: The Pennsylvania State University in Centre County, Pennsylvania] using the G.I. Bill. He bought house in 1949. He was a mechanical engineer and had a rewarding career at various large companies. He then spent about 20 years in his own operation. The war did not influence his career choices. His grandfather was instrumental in how railroad cars couple together. Yeagely never had trouble adjusting to civilian life and did not suffer from post traumatic stress disorder.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Richard Yeagely what his most memorable experience of World War 2 is.] There are so many, and his memory is not the best. His outfit [Annotator's Note: Anti-Tank Company, 271st Infantry Regiment, 69th Infantry Division] took Leipzig [Annotator's Note: Leipzig, Germany] and that was something to see. The bombers did a tremendous job there. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks why he served in the war.] Yeagely had no choice but to serve. There were American-minded Americans, and the induction centers were full. Archie Bunker [Annotator's Note: television character played by American actor John Carroll O'Connor] on All in the Family [Annotator's Note: American television comedy that ran from 12 January 1971 to 8 April 1979] said that with America today, you could not get a good war off the ground. He hopes we do not need that. Yeagely did a lot of growing up in the war. He hated every day of it but is glad he was there. Most of America heard about it, only a few saw it. A lot of the guys are not here anymore. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks if he thinks The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana is important.] It is, provided the people who run the show in the capitals of the free world can appreciate what happened and why. It is actual history, and it is important to expose the kids to what took place. It should not be erased. He came home, goofed around for about three weeks, and then went to work. Life has been good and an opportunity to learn. The most fortunate people are people who are intelligent enough to recognize opportunity and latch onto it.