Robert Leroy Shirkey was born in Vliets, Kansas in April 1924. He grew up on a farm with eight brothers and sisters. His father was a great baseball player but got into a scuffle that ruined his baseball career. Life on the farm was very difficult. They were affected by the dust storms [Annotator's Note: Dust Bowl, period of severe dust storms that damaged the ecology and agriculture of American prairies during 1930s] and the Great Depression. At age 12, Shirkey was sent to a neighboring farmer as hired help. He stayed there as a boarder and did a variety of farming tasks. In 1939, he left the family at age 15 to join the 35th Division of the Kansas National Guard [Annotator's Note: 137th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division]. He dropped out of high school to go into the military. He did not see his family once he joined the service. When he returned from World War 2, he saw them occasionally. Shirkey confessed that he joined the military because he was hungry. He recalls one week when he was sent to school with nothing but pancakes. He also enjoyed listening to the veterans who fought in World War 1 and he wanted to be like them. Not long after he joined National Guard, the federal government mobilized the unit in 1940. Shirkey was sent to Camp Gruber, Oklahoma [Annotator's Note: in Muskogee County, Oklahoma] for training. He learned to fire weapons, drills, simulated combat, marches, and other physical training. He met a family that invited him out for sodas and to church. The military lacked enough equipment. On 7 December 1941, they had returned from church when they learned that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] over the car radio. He immediately returned to base. [Annotator's Note: Shirkey gets off topic and the video breaks at 0:12:37.000.] He went to OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school] at Fort Benning, Georgia and graduated as the youngest officer. He was then assigned to Fort Hood, Texas and trained there until he was shipped to the Pacific as a replacement.

Before being shipped out as a replacement to the Pacific, Robert Leroy Shirkey was put on guard duty at the wharves in San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California]. Shirkey recalls a strange incident when a ship docked at the harbor and the FBI [Annotator's Note: Federal Bureau of Investigation] came out and confiscated the manifest because it was Japanese on an American ship. He does not know what came of the manifest [Annotator's Note: Shirkey asks interviewer to turn off camera at 0:18:53.000]. Shirkey thought the Japanese-Americans were very respectful to him and he never had cause to hate them. Shirkey boarded a ship in San Francisco and was sent to the Fiji Islands then Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands], and finally New Caledonia [Annotator's Note: New Caledonia, Overseas France]. He was assigned as a rifle platoon leader [Annotator's Note: in the 158th Regimental Combat Team]. He engaged in heavy combat on Luzon, Philippines. Time and time again, he heard fellow soldiers say morbid statements about how they won't make it out, and a few days later, he would find out that the soldier had been killed. He had an experience with his best friend during the war. His friend kept saying that he did not want to be left there. Before the war ended, his friend was shot by a sharpshooter while he was saving wounded men from the field. Shirkey thinks the Japanese were great fighters. They never gave up and when they died, it was for the Emperor. His unit killed over 21,000 Japanese during their tour in the Pacific.

Robert Leroy Shirkey was selected to join the Alamo Scouts [Annotator's Note: 6th Army Special Reconnaissance Unit] in the Pacific Theater. The Alamo Scouts were organized [Annotator's Note: in November 1943] to conduct reconnaissance in the Pacific Theater under the command of General Krueger [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General Walter Krueger]. Shirkey says General Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] was chosen to be the Supreme Commander of the Army over General Krueger because the government was worried about Krueger's German lineage. Shirkey thinks it is amazing that we had so many great commanders during this time. The Alamo Scouts trained at Bataan [Annotator's Note: Bataan, Philippines] for six weeks. He had to swim for five miles in the ocean, read a compass, and understand Morse code. The first mission the Alamo Scouts were assigned to was on Manus Island [Annotator's Note: Manus Island, Papua New Guinea] to gather reconnaissance of the new constructed Japanese airfield. Shirkey considered his color blindness a blessing because he could make out the Japanese camouflage. After performing missions with the Alamo Scouts, Shirkey returned to his outfit, the Bushmasters [Annotator's Note: 158th Regimental Combat Team]. They were assigned to clean the area of Japanese. During this time, Shirkey was stabbed with a Samurai sword in the knee. They caught the Japanese soldier and Shirkey's men wanted to kill him, but Shirkey spared the soldier's life. Not long after, the Japanese soldier went out into the jungle and brought back more Japanese to Shirkey. They all agreed to surrender. Shirkey was able to get 850 Japanese to surrender with the help of this Japanese soldier. This was one of the proudest moments in his life because the Japanese were able to go home to their families at the end of the war.

Robert Leroy Shirkey and his unit [Annotator's Note: Company E, 2nd Battalion, 158th Regimental Combat Team] began training for the invasion of Japan. He served as a platoon leader. Shirkey and his unit received word that the United States dropped the atomic bombs on Japan [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945]. Right before he began training for the Japanese invasion, the Army wanted Shirkey to go to West Point [Annotator's Note: United States Military Academy West Point, West Point, New York]. He missed his chance because he was on a reconnaissance mission with the Alamo Scouts [Annotator's Notes: 6th Army Special Reconnaissance Unit]. He captured a Japanese captain as prisoner and brought him to headquarters to get intel [Annotator's Note: slang for military intelligence], which was successful. Because Shirkey was with the Alamo Scouts, he had direct line of communication with MacArthur's [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] or Willoughby's [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General Charles Andrew Willoughby] headquarters. [Annotator's Note: Shirkey tells a story of one of his fellow Alamo Scouts, US Army First Lieutenant John R. C. McGowan.] The first mission the Alamo Scouts were assigned to was on Manus Island [Annotator's Note: Manus Island, Papua New Guinea] to gather reconnaissance of the newly constructed Japanese airfield. McGowan and his team were able to report back to MacArthur that the island was heavily fortified by the Japanese. MacArthur sent out three squadrons of the 1st Cavalry Division to the island and was able to secure it because of the intel McGowan was able to recover. Shirkey explains that the Alamo Scouts were a diplomatic group, and some men were selected to be on a Special Team, while others were selective to return back to their original regiments. The men and officers were selected each other based on the leadership and physical capabilities. Shirkey was one of 21 officers to be selected as a team leader for the Alamo Scouts. Shirkey was well liked by his men and they were wanted to be under his leadership. [Annotator's Note: Shirkey asks to pause interview at 0:54:30.000.]

Robert Leroy Shirkey and his unit's [Annotator's Note: Company E, 2nd Battalion, 158th Regimental Combat Team] first combat landing was on Luzon [Annotator's Note: Luzon, Philippines]. They advanced through the Philippines with fierce and brutal fighting and artillery fire. Shirkey's platoon was able to knock out some of the Japanese cannons. Shirkey thought the Japanese soldiers were very cunning. They created "L" shaped foxholes to better protect themselves from the American artillery fire. Shirkey's platoon had to stand over their foxholes to eliminate them. The Japanese came through his platoon one night with water buffalo. One time, they saw a Filipino man screaming out in the field. Shirkey apprehended him and had one of his men take him to headquarters. Not 15 minutes later his soldier returned to Shirkey because the man had run off. Shirkey had some interaction with the local Filipino population when he was behind enemy lines. Shirkey and some of his men had rescued an orphanage from a Japanese attack. The Mother Superior [Annotator's Note: head of a female religious community] was so thankful that she gave Shirkey her Saint Christopher medal [Annotator's Note: medal Catholics wear for protection on travels]. He carried that medal with him until it was stolen from him years later. On another mission, Shirkey stayed with an indigenous tribe for three nights. He felt like he was living in the Stone Age. The women only wore grass skirts and the men only had something to cover their fronts. Shirkey had asked the tribe's leader to have some of his tribal men lead the Japanese to him and as they crossed a river, Shirkey would kill the Japanese with a BAR [Annotator's Note: M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle; also known as the BAR]. [Annotator's Note: Shirkey asks to pause interview at 1:04:46.000.] Shirkey was told by the chief of the tribe that he gave his men a signal when to get out of the way so Shirkey could eliminate the Japanese. It did not go exactly as planned, but Shirkey was able to take out three of the Japanese soldiers and accomplish his mission.

Not long after the mission with the Filipino tribe [Annotator's Note: see clip titled "Mission with Filipino Tribe"], Robert Leroy Shirkey heard the news that the United States had dropped atomic bombs on Japan [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945 and Nagasaki, Japan on 9 August 1945]. He was sent to Japan as part of the occupation. He met a Japanese man who became his interpreter and friend. They took a drive one day to a factory that had used POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] for slave labor. Shirkey found their daily books with details of what they did to the prisoners. These books were later used as evidence in the Japanese war crime trials [Annotator's Note: International Military Tribunal for the Far East, also called Tokyo Trial or Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, 29 April 1946 to 12 November 1948]. Later, they went to the 60th Imperial Infantry Army's headquarters and the commanding general surrendered his samurai sword. Shirkey took the sword back to the United States. Years later he found out that the sword was made in 1491. Shirkey was stunned by the obedient behavior of the Japanese towards the Americans. He never saw a Japanese soldier or civilian treat the Americans with disrespect. The Japanese military surrendered all the military weapons without any problems. Shirkey lost one of his bags on his way to Japan for occupation duty. It had most of his war souvenirs. He left Japan in December 1945 to return to the United States. In March 1946, he received a letter from his First Sergeant and the bag with all his war souvenirs, which included swords and pistols. One of the souvenirs he had was a leather briefcase with money. Shirkey had killed a group of Japanese soldiers and one was carrying the leather briefcase filled with Japanese money. While he was in Japan for occupation duty, Shirkey's duty was to gather military weapons from these towns and meet with governmental officials. He received various gifts and sake [Annotator's Note: alcoholic beverage] from the Japanese governmental officials. Shirkey had no animosity toward the Japanese people during his time in occupation. He is also proud with what he did in war. He killed a lot of Japanese soldiers but that's war. Shirkey saw a lot of horrible sights. He saw wounded men, body parts lying on the field, and how war affected the mind of a soldier.

Robert Leroy Shirkey would lead about five men when he was on a mission with the Alamo Scouts [Annotator's Note: 6th Army Special Reconnaissance Unit]. [Annotator's Note: Shirkey talks to someone off camera at 1:29:17.000.] They carried a very minimal amount of equipment and one weapon. Shirkey carried the M1 rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand]. The men had their choice of carrying whatever weapon they felt comfortable with. Shirkey explains that the Alamo Scouts were very democratic. Everything was agreed upon by the group, and votes were taken when necessary. After missions, the group would write a report together to submit to headquarters. Shirkey believes that the Alamo scouts saved countless lives due to their reconnaissance missions in the Philippines. Shirkey regards General MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] as a great military commander and the United States could not have become a superpower country without his aid in World War 2 [Annotator's Note: Video Break 1:33:40.000.] Shirkey believes World War 2 changed his personality because of the horrors he saw. He would rather tell a joke than talk about World War 2. He knows that he changed many lives of the Japanese families because he killed so many soldiers, but he had a job to do. He believes it is important to have The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] and to continue to teach to future generations. He had a lot of influence on the construction of the Liberty Memorial [Annotator's Note: Liberty Memorial Tower, Kansas City, Missouri].