Robert Boeke was born in August 1925 in Pasadena, California. Pasadena was a great place with nice people. The weather was great. His father was a mail carrier. His mother raised the three children. There were plenty of sports opportunities. The Rose Bowl [Annotator's Note: Rose Bowl Game, annual American college football game in Pasadena] happens there. He grew up as a hiker with his grandfathers. The first time they experienced a snowstorm was exciting. During the Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945] in 1931 or 1932, he went to the bank with his parents. They went to the bank because there was a run on the bank [Annotator's Note: A bank run or run on the bank occurs when many clients withdraw their money from a bank because they believe the bank may cease to function in the near future]. He only got 20 or 30 cents on the dollar he had and the rest he lost. He saved money to buy his own clothes. It was tough growing up. It was 10 cents to see a movie. They would go see a movie once a month. His father got a job with the post office as a substitute mail carrier. There were no bus services and he walked to school. They had one car. He saved his money to buy a bike and then took it to school. His family did not have fresh food because it was hard to keep it for long. Before 7 December [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] he did not know about the aggression with Japan. He did know about Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] and his aggression. His brother was older, and his parents were afraid he would be drafted. The attack on Pearl Harbor was on a Sunday. They were at home eating dinner when the news came over the radio. His parents were worried that Boeke and his brother would be called into the service now.

Robert Boeke and his classmates talked about the war in social studies class. He sang in the boys' choir. They started to sing more traditional songs instead of popular songs. By the time he reached the 11th and 12th grades, they talked about war more. His brother had gone to war at this time. He and his friends discussed what branch of service they should go in. When his brother went into the service, he got to drive his car. He used the car to go on dates and drive around. He thought about how he was going to miss his brother. His brother was going to go somewhere exciting, and they had never really been anywhere. They both enlisted in the Army. They applied to be in the ASTP [Annotator's Note: 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]. The programs would send them to college, and they would earn their degree and come out an officer. He and his brother took the tests and passed them. He picked the Army. While he was attending college in Pasadena [Annotator's Note: Pasadena, California] he received a phone call from his mother. He was to report to San Pedro [Annotator's Note: San Pedro, California] to join the Army. His mother was crying. When he signed in as an enlisted man, they sent him to Stanford [Annotator's Note: Leland Stanford Junior University in Stanford, California] in September 1943. The Army classes were all separate from the regular students. His program was 25 units. He was going to graduate in two and half years with a four-year degree. They had a three-day break for Christmas. When they returned to school, they were informed the Army program had been canceled. They were sent to Fort Benning, Georgia and trained for the infantry. He became a Private First Class. He does not know why he did not pick the Navy. The Navy's specialized program did not get canceled. He would have gotten his commission if he had picked the Navy.

Robert Boeke went to infantry training school which was 16 weeks of training at Fort Benning [Annotator's Note: Fort Benning, Georgia in January 1944]. They learned how to dig foxholes and trenches. They learned how to shoot. They went on hikes with full packs. They started early in the mornings. The food was terrible. He has a tomato allergy. All the canned food had some sort of tomato in it. They learned how to make their bed properly. They had to be neat and clean all the time. If someone did not have their bed made, they would be punished in some way. After training, he was sent to the 86th Infantry Division at Camp Livingston [Annotator's Note: Camp Livingston, now part of Kisatchie National Forest in Rapides Parish and Grant Parish, Louisiana]. They sent all the Privates and Private First Classmen overseas as replacements. The men who were left in the division were the Regular Army [Annotator's Note: Regular Army of the United States, now a component of the United States Army]. When they arrived as replacements, they all had some college. The men who were already there only had basic education and they resented the replacements. After a few months, they all started to get along. At Camp Livingston, they continued basic training. Next, they were shipped to San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] to Camp Callan [Annotator's Note: in La Jolla, California]. He was assigned to the intelligence and reconnaissance platoon. Intelligence and reconnaissance had to be water intelligent. They would run out on a pier and jump into the water with full packs and then have to swim back to shore. The rest of the guys did regular army training. He did amphibious training. They learned how to do landings with rubber boats. After eight weeks they went to Camp San Luis Obispo [Annotator's Note: in San Luis Obispo, California] a couple miles inland from the ocean. Here they continued their training. They carried their rubber boats on the beach. They would hold about 10 people. They weighed about 450 pounds. At the beach they would inflate the rubber boats, then paddle out to a large rock in the ocean and paddle back. The first time they tried they flipped over and ended up in the water. They kept practicing until they got through the waves. Then they learned how to waterproof the jeeps. They had to make a pipe to keep the exhaust out of the water. They learned how to drive the jeeps in the water. Next, they boarded a submarine with their rubber boats. They put them in the water off the side of the submarine and then had to row ashore. Then they had to find Marines who were already on the shore. After they finished their amphibious landing training they were sent to San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California]. As they were boarding the ship to go overseas, they were stopped. They were informed they were going to Europe. They took a train to Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts]. Then they boarded the Alexandria [Annotator's Note: unable to identify]. As they traveled to France they were in a convoy and attacked by submarines several times. They could hear the torpedoes exploding. Their ship did not get hit. They were told about the submarines on the radio. They stayed below deck and waited for it to end.

Robert Boeke was shipped to France [Annotator's Note: with the 341st Infantry Regiment, 86th Infantry Division]. When they arrived, they took rope ladders down to LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank]. They took the LSTs to shore. The next day the USS Alexandria [Annotator's Note: unable to positively identify] was hit by torpedoes in the English Channel and sunk. They were north of Omaha Beach [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach, Normandy, France] when they landed in France. The I&R [Annotator's Note: intelligence and reconnaissance] platoons were then trained to disarm mines [Annotator's Note: stationary explosive device triggered by physical contact]. They learned how to deactivate tank mines and personnel mines. The personnel mines were the ones that exploded beneath them. The bouncing betty [Annotator's Note: German S-mine, Schrapnellmine, Springmine or Splittermine] came up and exploded. They used a vacuum-like device that had a piece on the bottom that was a magnet detector. There were about 75 of them altogether. They would walk across the beach moving the detector side to side and in front of them looking for the mines. They were supervised by men who were experts in demolitions. When the detector found a mine, they would then use their bayonets to locate the mine. Then they would carefully uncover the mine in the sand. If it was too dangerous to deactivate a mine, they would then put a flag in the ground where the mine was. After a while, they decided not to deactivate any of them just to mark all of them as they went to the water. After they located all the mines then they would go back to them and try to deactivate them. Sometimes they would connect them with a detonation cord and then set them all off at the same time. They did this for five days so they would be experts at it. After they finished with this they boarded on trucks and headed to the battle areas. They were headed northeast to Belgium. As they were driving, they started getting fired on by German mortars. They had to get off the trucks and jump into the ditches. The mortars blew up some of the trucks and killed and injured some of the men. This was when he first learned how to smoke a cigarette. He also learned to drink. He drank French wine. Some of the guys filled the water cans with wine instead of water. This was after D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] and it was scary. They could hear the whistle of the bombs. If they heard a long whistle, they knew they were alright. If they heard a short whistle or no whistle, they knew they were in trouble. They had to try and huddle as close to the ground as they could because the shrapnel was the dangerous part. As they drove forward after the attack, he could see fellow soldiers on the side of the road. Some of them were dead and some were just injured. This happened two or three more times. The first place they stopped was in a factory. He slept on top boxes. They were near Liege, Belgium. When they got to Liege they were in a battle.

Robert Boeke's intelligence and reconnaissance group [Annotator's Note: of the 341st Infantry Regiment, 86th Infantry Division] was not part of the front line. Their job was to go forward before the front line and report back about the enemy troops and equipment. When they got there, they were already in battle. He did not enter the battle at the time. When the battle was finished in Liege [Annotator's Note: Liege, Belgium] then they were supposed to move forward. They moved as a whole division because they were following the Germans as they retreated. They did not fight until they got to the Rhine [Annotator's Note: the Rhine River] at Cologne [Annotator's Note: Cologne (Köln), Germany] and their division stretched all the way to Bonn [Annotator's Note; Bonn, Germany]. The Allies had to get across the Rhine over the span of 246 miles. All the divisions were responsible for crossing the Rhine. Boeke's first job there was a posting in the top of a church to search for German forces on the other side of the Rhine. He did this job for six or seven days. The other members of his intelligence and reconnaissance group had similar jobs on other parts of the Rhine. On the sixth or seventh day, the Germans spotted him in the church tower from a reflection off of his binoculars. They started sending mortars toward the church. There were people attending church in the bottom. He was by himself up in the tower. When the bombing started, he ran out of the church with the people. Every night his regiment would send eight GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] across the river to measure the size of the German forces. Then the intelligence and reconnaissance group was told they were being sent across. A group of soldiers south of Bonn made it across a bridge before the Germans saw them. The engineers built a rubber bridge across after the bridge was bombed. They all crossed the Rhine on this bridge the next day. They were entering the Ruhr Pocket [Annotator's Note: battle of encirclement April 1945, Ruhr Valley, Germany] in the industrial part of northwest Germany.

Robert Boeke was assigned a jeep as a part of his intelligence and reconnaissance [Annotator's Note: as part of the 341st Infantry Regiment, 86th Infantry Division]. His two supervisors Sergeant Tate [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] and Corporal Gross [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] were both from Texas and both Regular Army [Annotator's Note: Regular Army of the United States, now a component of the United States Army]. The three of them were buddies. They got called into their colonel's office. He needed some men to go up north and accept the surrender of some Germans. Boeke had established a good reputation as a jeep driver. The colonel told them they could travel the road, but they might be shelled. The jeep had two machine guns mounted on it. A .50 caliber machine gun [Annotator's Note: Browning ANM2 .50 caliber machine gun] was between the driver and passenger seats, and a .30 caliber machine gun [Annotator's Note: Browning ANM2 .30 caliber machine gun] was on the other side. When they reached the area where the Germans were supposed to surrender, they came upon a wide-open field surrounded by forest. Boeke could speak German and his voice carried really well. He told any Germans they were there to accept their surrender and to come out of the trees and put their weapons down. He told them they would not be harmed or attacked. After he shouted a second time, the the Germans came out of the trees with their rifles and with their helmets on. Then a convertible Mercedes drove into the opening by a German officer. Boeke went forward to accept the officer's surrender and told his men to keep their machine guns on the hundreds of German troops. The German colonel asked where their officer was so he could surrender. Boeke explained that he was authorized by his colonel to accept the surrender because he spoke German. The colonel was hesitant, but he gave Boeke his surrender. He had a Luger pistol [Annotator's Note: German P08 Luger 9mm semi-automatic pistol] and he offered it to Boeke. They saluted each other and the colonel asked if his troops would be taken care of. Boeke told him they would be marched to a prisoner of war camp, and he would go to an officer's camp. He had them line up in columns of six and lay their weapons down. Boeke rode with the colonel in the convertible as the rest marched to the camp. He had two more experiences like this. One was a finance group that had the payroll. There were about 20 of them. He relieved them of hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of reichsmarks [Annotator's Note: the currency of Germany from 1924 until 20 June 1948]. He turned the money in. Boeke was glad he could speak German because he could interact with the soldiers and the civilians.

German civilians were wonderful people to Robert Boeke [Annotator's Note: with the 341st Infantry Regiment, 86th Infantry Division]. They fed them [Annotator's Note: the occupying American forces] and took care of them. They met a lot of nice people. The Hitler Youth [Annotator's Note: a youth organization of the Nazi Party for young men] groups were worse than the soldiers. They were Nazi children. They were 13-year-old to 16-year-old boys. They had to watch out for them. The GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] would have candy and the kids would come over for the candy or gum. They thought they were nice German boys, and they would feed them the candy. At nighttime they were in a German house spending the night. The German boys would kill or try to kill the men they had guarding the house. They were vicious. They had knives and guns. The regular German soldiers were fighting the war the same as them [Annotator's Note: the Americans]. They were not in good shape physically but were respectable troops. The Nazis were the SS people [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization]. They were cruel and did not take any prisoners. The SS would kill any captured Americans and would leave the bodies out there. Boeke had some interactions with the SS where they captured them. The SS were always well-dressed and acted like they were superior beings.

Robert Boeke [Annotator's Note: with the 341st Infantry Regiment, 86th Infantry Division] was a part of the 9th Army or the 1st Army. The 9th Army was Simpson [Annotator's Note: US Army General William Hood Simpson] and the 1st Army was Hodges [Annotator's Note: US Army General Courtney Hicks Hodges]. Then they were transferred to the 3rd Army with Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.]. When Boeke was accepting surrender [Annotator's Note: of German troops], he was in Hagen [Annotator's Note: Hagen, Germany]. His job in the 3rd Army was to drive down to Munich [Annotator's Note: Munich, Germany]. His jeep was selected to be in front. They were in front of their division and another group. He had 30 thousand troops behind his jeep. At this time the German troops were surrendering. His job was to drive forward. If they saw Germans, troops, tanks, artillery, or guns they had to radio it back. If they saw this, they had to jump in the ditches. They took their guns with them. He had a carbine [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine], and the other guys had their M1s [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand]. They would radio back the mileage. The Germans would only try to shoot at them. They did not want to go forward. They wanted to wait for the American troops. The drive to Munich took a few days. They were responsible for clearing the road. The Germans had cut down trees and laid them across the roads. They would put mines [Annotator's Note: stationary explosive device triggered by physical contact] in the trees and on the roads and snipers in the tree lines. His job was to clear the road, deactivate the mines, and kill the snipers. They would fire their machine guns into the trees on both sides of the road trying to kill the snipers. They got fired on a couple of times but fortunately, none of them got hit. After they got rid of the snipers, they would then move on to deactivating the mines. After they deactivated the mines, they would radio back that they could send a tank forward. This continued until they came upon some building with high wires on the right side of the road. There were guard posts up in the air all around the wire. He saw the Germans had abandoned their posts. Out of the buildings came hundreds of men. They were in rags and had bare feet. It turned out to be Dachau [Annotator's Note: Dachau concentration camp complex near Dachau, Germany]. It was one of the worst internment camps from the Germans. These guys were British and Canadians who had been there since Dunkirk [Annotator's Note: Battle of Dunkirk, 26 May to 4 June 1940 in Dunkirk, France]. It was emotional. These men were so skinny they were just bones. Boeke's division went forward, and another division took over. They knew there were a lot of concentration camps. They were glad they were there to see them. Those men had been in there for four years.

Robert Boeke and his men [Annotator's Note: 341st Infantry Regiment, 86th Infantry Division] talked about the people they had found [Annotator's Note: at the Dachau concentration camp complex near Dachau, Germany]. They tried to recollect about when Dunkirk [Annotator's Note: Battle of Dunkirk, 26 May to 4 June 1940 in Dunkirk, France] had happened. There were many sailboats and other civilians that crossed the English Channel trying to help with the evacuation at Dunkirk. There were not enough boats or time to get all the people out. The Germans were planning on taking them all prisoner or shooting them. They did not know how long they had been there. There were British, Canadians, Australians, and New Zealanders. When they got to Dachau, they did not see any Jewish people there. The Dachau Jewish people had either been killed or were still inside their own camps. He did not see any Jewish people at all. They moved on to Munich [Annotator's Note: Munich, Germany]. Then they kept going until the division told them they would be in different towns to bivouac [Annotator's Note: a bivouac is a temporary campsite] until they got word to move out. Then they were going to move onto Vienna [Annotator's Note: Vienna, Austria]. He was assigned to the town of Mörsdorf, Germany. It was 20 kilometers northwest of Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] hideout was [Annotator's Note: Kelhsteinhuas, or Eagle's Nest, Nazi Party building on the summit of Kelhstein, Berchtesgaden, Germany]. They took over a little house. A German woman lived there. She had not seen her husband for five years. It was a town of about 300 to 400 people. They were well received. People put white flags outside their windows and were glad to see the Americans. The only ones that were not happy were the Hitler Jugend [Annotator's Note: a youth organization of the Nazi Party for young men]. They were going through farmland areas. A typical city was small, and they had a fountain in the downtown square. As they drove into a town, they waited to see if the people put out the white flags. If the white flags were not put out, then one jeep would proceed to see if there were Germans they would have to fight. They would do house-to-house fighting if necessary. They would have to do the initial fighting with the Germans. Then they would retreat and radio back to which town they were in. Then they would send the forward troops in to clean the town out. They approached each town this way. They were fortunate because it was late enough in the war that the Germans were giving up. His experience was much different than those who arrived on D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. His experience started after things had gotten better. It was November or December 1944 after the Germans had made their counteroffensive and Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] had come in and saved the 101st Airborne [Annotator's Note: 101st Airborne Division] that was surrounded. Boeke knew that as long as he was going forward and doing his job, he was going to be okay. There were four or five of them staying in a house with the German woman. They knew they would be moving forward to Vienna. They talked to her about her friends and her husband. This house was not much different from other places they had stayed. They stayed there for four or five days.

Robert Boeke [Annotator's Note: with the 341st Infantry Regiment, 86th Infantry Division] was with the 3rd Army driving toward Munich [Annotator's Note: Munich, Germany]. He was asleep in his sleeping bag outside on the ground. He was awakened and told his colonel wanted to see him, Sergeant Tate [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], and Corporal Gross [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] immediately. The colonel told them they lost all contact with Company A [Annotator's Note: he does not remember exactly which company it was]. The Germans were between them and Company A of the 1st Regiment [Annotator's Note: unable to identify]. The Germans had cut all the phone lines. The radios did not carry very far either. They were given an aerial map. It was snowing outside, and they sent three jeeps. Boeke was in the lead jeep and memorized the roads he wanted to take. They went about three miles and then one of the jeeps slid off the road. They continued without those men. They traveled 10 more miles and the second jeep slid off the road. They continued without those men and found the missing company. Boeke showed the captain how to find his way back to headquarters. Then they started to go back on their way back. As they neared headquarters, he told the men he thought they were lost, but it was about 50 feet to the right of them.

On 6 May 1945, Robert Boeke was told to stay in Mörsdorf [Annotator's Note: Mörsdorf, Germany]. They [Annotator's Note: 341st Infantry Regiment, 86th Infantry Division] would not be advancing to Vienna [Annotator's Note: Vienna, Austria]. Two days later on 8 May 1945, Germany surrendered. The war was over. The next day on the radio the positions of all the troops were announced. He learned his brother, who was in the 58th Armored Division [Annotator's Note: unable to identify] was in Göttingen in northern Germany. He had not seen his brother since 1943. His colonel gave him a pass [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], but they would be leaving the day after, and he would have to be back by then. He drove through the rain to Gottingen and found out the 58th had moved. He found his brother who did not recognize him at first. They had lunch together. He stayed for four or five hours. He returned back through the Black Forest [Annotator's Note: a mountainous region in southwest Germany] down a narrow road. The next day his brother read in the Stars and Stripes [Annotator's Note: United States military newspaper] that about eight or 10 GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] had been killed in the Black Forest that night by Hitler's Jugend [Annotator's Note: a youth organization of the Nazi Party for young men]. His brother did not find out he was alright until he received mail from their mother.

Robert Boeke [Annotator's Note: with 341st Infantry Regiment, 86th Infantry Division] was leading the division in his jeep on the autobahn. They came upon a river where the bridge had been blown up. HIs colonel told him to figure out how they could get the division across. He took Sergeant Tate [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] and Corporal Gross [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] with him. He did not want to go alone in case there were Hitler Jugend [Annotator's Note: a youth organization of the Nazi Party for young men] in the area. They found a way across the river and into France. They then headed home for a 30-day rest and recuperation before more training for the South Pacific. They were the first group to arrive in New Jersey via Liberty ships [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship]. When they got to New Jersey there was a band, and the governor was there. The press was there. The best part was going by the Statue of Liberty. That made him feel like he was home. They were anxious to get home and see their families. He took a train to Los Angeles [Annotator's Note: Los Angeles, California]. When he got home, he learned he lost some friends in the war. He was concerned about going to the South Pacific. He knew he would be preparing for the invasion of Japan. He told his parents about seeing his brother. His brother was an architect whose division was going to stay in Europe. Boeke spent his 30 days at home then he went to Camp Gruber[ Annotator's Note: near Braggs, Oklahoma]. They had to get themselves back into physical shape and went through basic training again. They were then sent back to California before going to Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines] by Liberty ships. They were worried about Japan, but not the Philippines. They did not have to worry about being bombed. They played cards and poker on the ships. They did not have much money. Just before they arrived at Leyte, they were told they were landing in Luzon [Annotator's Note: Luzon, Philippines] at Batangas on the southern tip of Luzon. The houses were on stilts. The roads were dirt. It was a native village. They then went to Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines].

Robert Boeke [Annotator's Note: with the 341st Infantry Regiment, 86th Infantry Division] went to Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines]. They slept on the ground. It rained a lot and there were huge rats all over the place. The city was bad and dirty. After the barracks were built, they built a post exchange where they could buy beer. Next, they built a shower. Next to the showers, there was a path that the native women took to get to the river. The women washed their clothes on top of the rocks. The women would ask the men if they could wash their clothes. They eventually built them a bowling alley. They were waiting to get orders for the invasion of Japan. Some companies had to go out and clean up parts of the island where people did not know the war was over for them. He did not have to do it often because he was I&R [Annotator's Note: intelligence and reconnaissance]. Boeke became the top bowler in the regiment. He never had any experiences with the Japanese soldiers. Other men in the regiment did. The war was over in September 1945. They were about three days out of Luzon [Annotator's Note: Luzon, Philippines] when the bomb was dropped [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945].

Robert Boeke [Annotator's Note: with the 341st Infantry Regiment, 86th Infantry Division] was promoted to Corporal while he was in Mörsdorf [Annotator's Note: Mörsdorf, Germany]. He wanted to go see Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] hideout [Annotator's Note: Kelhsteinhuas, or Eagle's Nest, Nazi Party building on the summit of Kelhstein, Berchtesgaden, Germany]. It was a beautiful town in the lower part of the Alps. There was a one-lane road to get to the top of the mountain. Enough GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] had been up there that all the artifacts had been stolen. He did manage to get a key out of one of the doors. The house had been bombed. As they were heading down the mountain they ran into Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States], Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.], and Hodges [Annotator's Note: US Army General Courtney Hicks Hodges]. They stopped and saluted the generals and the generals saluted them back. He has tried to find his friends from Texas, but he has never been able to locate them. They were both Regular Army [Annotator's Note: Regular Army of the United States, now a component of the United States Army].

Robert Boeke's friends Sergeant Tate [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] and Corporal Gross [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] came to him to set up an enlisted men's club [Annotator's Note: with the 341st Infantry Regiment, 86th Infantry Division]. Enlisted men were not allowed to go into any liquor places in Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Philippines]. They wanted him to be the spokesman and to take care of the money. There were 300 soldiers. The colonel gave them the okay to do it. They found a house to rent in the southern part of Manila. They set up a slot machine [Annotator's Note: gambling device] to help them get money. Boeke met a Spanish girl there. All the men in her family had been killed by the Japanese. She always had a chaperone. He was invited to go to a family party. The women wore beautiful costumes. They cooked a large boar [Annotator's Note: a male hog] underground. From there they went to midnight mass. The men were dressed in tuxedoes. His family was worried he would marry the Spanish girl. Her name was Julie Capri [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling]. He was out with her one night in the jeep and they were stopped at a checkpoint. It turned out he was driving a stolen Jeep. The men at the checkpoint said they had to arrest him and took him to jail. It was the old Manila jail. It was probably 300 years old, dungeon-like, and dark. He left the phone number for the captain and colonel with the men in charge. At about three in the morning, they picked him and the jeep up.

Robert Boeke [Annotator's Note: with the 341st Infantry Regiment, 86th Infantry Division] opened an enlisted men's club [Annotator's Note: in Manila, Philippines]. They allowed the men to bring their Filipino dates inside. They had beer, vodka, gin, and soft drinks. They made money off the slot machine [Annotator's Note: gambling device]. He kept the money to buy the food and drinks. He was promoted to 1st Sergeant of the company. He was 20 years old and was running the whole place. He had been in the Army since 1943. He learned to smoke. He smoked three packs a day. Working in the club he put on weight. He went from 120 pounds to almost 160 pounds. He was out of shape. In April 1946, he got word he would be going back to the States [Annotator's Note: United States]. He was discharged on 6 May 1946. He was happy to get back to his family. He sent his poker earnings home. His father bought him a brand-new Ford coupe [Annotator's Note: type of American automobile]. His folks were glad to see him.

After the war, Robert Boeke adjusted back to civilian life easily. He was anxious to start a job. He wanted to go back to school. He entered USC [Annotator's Note: University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California] and joined a fraternity. The Army picked up most of the 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 worked in the hardware department at Sears [Annotator's Note: Sears Roebuck and Company]. His manager helped him grow up. He was the assistant manager on weekends. The credit department came to him with a job. They wanted him to collect the bills. He could adjust people's bills as he saw fit. If the people could not pay, he had to repossess the property. He graduated in June 1949. Television had come out in 1947-1948. The TVs were seven-inch screens. Peggy [Annotator's Note: his wife] had a program where she danced. He enjoyed watching her. He thought he should go to work for a tv station. Jobs were hard to get. All the GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] were home and looking for jobs. The women were still working and did not want to give up their jobs. He was told he had a good voice and would be good on tv. They could not guarantee him a job. He asked if he could meet Peggy Roth [Annotator's Note: his future wife; born at Peggy Lynch, later named Margaret Kerry, American actress and radio host]. He started to date her in February or March 1949. Peggy went with him to his graduation. He had a suit on. His family was there. Then they went to the beach north of Santa Monica [Annotator's Note: Santa Monica, California]. The farmer's market in Los Angeles [Annotator's Note: Los Angeles, California] was an entire city block. He and Peggy lost touch, but eventually got married.

Robert Boeke was traveling in Amsterdam [Annotator's Note: Amsterdam, Holland] for the 75th Anniversary [Annotator's Note: 6 June 2019] of D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. He came across a store that had Tinker Bell [Annotator's Note: Tinker Bell fictional character from "Peter Pan" by J. M. Barrie in 1904 and the animated film by the Walt Disney Company in 1953] toys on display. He told his friends he had dated the girl who played Tinker Bell back in 1949-1950, Peggy Roth [Annotator's Note: his future wife; born at Peggy Lynch, later named Margaret Kerry, American actress and radio host]. He thought she would not remember him because it had been 70 years since they had seen each other. His friends sent her an email about Boeke. She responded by saying she would love to talk to him again. He called her from France. He gave her his phone number and address. He was living in North Carolina. She was going to be in North Carolina for Mayberry Days [Annotator's Note: an annual festival that celebrates "The Andy Griffith Show", an American situation comedy that aired from 1960-1968, in Mount Airy, North Carolina]. He said he would meet her there. He recognized her immediately. The press told him to kiss her. He spent the rest of the tour there. The newspaper wanted to do an article on them. He tagged along with her everywhere that she went. Everyone knew her. He met a lot of nice people. They stayed in contact with each other. He made arrangements for them to spend time with each other. He wanted to get reacquainted with her. They had a good time getting to know each other again. He had lost two wives before meeting her again.

Robert Boeke remembers Dachau [Annotator's Note: Dachau concentration camp complex near Dachau, Germany] as the most wonderful experience of the war. He was lucky to see the result of war. To see the guys who had been in prison so long. He was growing up and going to school. Everyone was going off to war and he wanted to be a part of that. He had a friend, Cary Cowart [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], who fought in Europe during the beginning of the war and then wanted to reenlist to fight in the Pacific. He does not know his battles. He died in a battle in the South Pacific. Boeke grew up fast. He learned discipline in the Army. He learned to drink and to handle drinking. At 40-years-old he learned how to quit smoking. He is interested in history and World War 2. They were going to do a tank landing on the French coast. They dropped the tanks off sure and they all sank. Quite a few soldiers died on the tanks. Before D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] happened they learned how to do the landing. He learned people are different everywhere they went. French people are very different from German people. The French are more social and outgoing. The Germans are more regimented and serious. As soon as the bombs stopped, the Germans were cleaning up the streets, but the French were not interested in cleaning up. Boeke did the job he was supposed to do. He did the best job he could. He served his country to the best of his ability. He learned to appreciate people and the things they do. He thinks it is marvelous that there are museums. He thinks bringing the stories of the war to the people today is important [Annotator's Note: he is referring to The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana]. People today do not understand war.