Robert Spint was born in February 1925 in Billings, Montana and lived there until he was in the sixth grade. He had three older brothers. In the third grade, they moved to a farm. His dad was a barber and had a rough time. He wanted to move all the time. Spint started raising chickens to make income for them. His brothers took care of the cows and hogs. The country school he attended was about a mile away. There were nine kids in the school, from first through eighth grades. He was aware of the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] because of the WPA [Annotator's Note: Works Progress Administration]. When he was young, there was a lot of community. His father loved to trade. His father only came home on Sundays. Since Spint was too young to work the fields, his mother helped him build his chicken business up to 200 chickens. His father would sell the eggs or trade them for something the family did not have. Spint would walk to town to get a ride with his father. They would get a roast from the butcher shop by trading farm products or potatoes. Spint graduated from high school in January 1943. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Spint if he remembers where he was when he heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] His family had moved back to Billings from Wyoming in 1940. He was in the ninth grade then in a new high school. He and a buddy decided to go in the service. They huddled around a radio and learned about Pearl Harbor. He did not know where Hawaii was. They were not registered for the draft but were taken to get physicals. They returned home until they got their notices in February [Annotator's Note: February 1943]. He was inducted in Salt Lake City [Annotator's Note: Salt Lake City, Utah]. All through the Depression years, they had a garden and dug a well for water. One brother worked for a dairy. His brothers did not graduate. His oldest brother was in the National Guard on active duty at age 18. Another brother who was 16 went into the Navy. Spint knew of the Army and of the Navy and not much about the Marines. The Air Force was part of the Army then.

Robert Spint lost a good friend who had gone in the service, was shipped to the Philippines, and was killed when his battleship went down. [Annotator's Note: Spint becomes emotional.] That helped him determine [Annotator's Note: which part of the military to join]. He just recently learned that his father and uncle had been working since the age of seven. His father told him he just wanted him to finish school, which to him meant the eighth grade. His mother said he had to finish high school. His brother in the Navy was stationed in Massachusetts. Spint talked to him. When Spint and his friend decided to go into the service, he wanted to go into the tanks. Being on a farm, he knew farm equipment. He had a neighbor when he was five who had been in World War 1 in the infantry. He had been gassed in France and he would talk about tanks. Armor did not really mean anything to Spint, until he got to Texas. He was put in a company being formed then, the 651st TD Battalion [Annotator's Note: 651st Tank Destroyer Battalion at Camp Bowie in Brownwood, Texas] in support of the African Campaign [Annotator's Note: North Africa Campaign, 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943]. They did not learn too much about tank warfare but more about the purpose of tanks. He went to the Louisiana maneuvers [Annotator's Note: series of Army exercises held in Louisiana]. They would take the tanks and push trees over. The tanks could go through buildings and fences. He went in February 1943 and that fall, he went to Louisiana.

When Robert Spint first went in the TDs [Annotator's Note: tank destroyers; Spint was a member of the 651st Tank Destroyer Battalion], it was a surprise to him. They learned they were working with a halftrack [Annotator's Note: M3 Gun Motor Carriage] with a French 75 [Annotator's Note: French Model 1897 75mm field gun] from World War 1 mounted on the backside. When they went to Louisiana, they got the true tank, the M10 Tank Destroyer [Annotator's Note: three inch Gun Motor Carriage M10, tank destroyer]. The armored division had the M4s [Annotator's Note: M4 Sherman medium tank] with no upgrades. His was an upgrade. They maneuvered in the winter of 1943. They had ice storms in Louisiana. He was the tank driver. He felt he was somebody. There were four [Annotator's Note: crewmen] in the tank. He had an assistant driver, a gunner, and a commander. They were his family. He referred to his tank as his condo. He lived, slept, and ate in it. From Louisiana, they went to Camp Hood [Annotator's Note: now Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas] for advanced training. The TDs were broken up to be replacements for heavy armor or where needed because of the Africa Campaign [Annotator's Note: North Africa Campaign, 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943] to prepare to go into Italy. When you are in the service, you really do not know what is going on. He did not even know the function of the unit. In basic, you learn how to operate equipment, survive with it, and how to do the best you can. Some went to armament, some to artillery, and some to infantry with no choice. Spint was a sergeant and went to Camp Howze [Annotator's Note: Camp Howze in Gainesville, Texas; now Gainesville municipal airport] which was an advanced camp to coordinate replacements for overseas duty. The 103rd Infantry Division was next door and they trained together. The 103rd was going through glider training. Spint took his first ride in a glider, and it was scary.

Robert Spint got married to a gal he met through a friend of his who had him write her a letter. She worked in Santa Anita [Annotator's Note: Santa Anita, California] and had a boyfriend. She went to Minnesota to see him. Spint had been writing her and asked her to come by Texas on her way back home. They met in the early part of 1944. Later that year, they were married at Camp Howze [Annotator's Note: Camp Howze in Gainesville, Texas; now Gainesville municipal airport]. Spint shipped out a week later to Le Havre [Annotator's Note: Le Havre, France]. He then traveled by 40-and-eight [[Annotator's Note: 40 and eight refers European railroad boxcars which could accommodate 40 standing men or eight standing horses] to his assignment. In the middle of the night, they had the doors open and were told to get up if they wanted to see Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. They went to the Rhine River [Annotator's Note: Rhine River in Germany] where he was assigned. One the best things that happened to him occurred then. He was in France in a replacement group. A guy came through the barracks and called his name. He then learned he was going into armor which made him feel good. He found out later that might not have been a good thing. In 1944, he ended up in a Cavalry unit, in armored reconnaissance attached to the 12th Armored Division as part of the 7th Army [Annotator's Note: 92nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 12th Armored Division, 7th Army] going south in Germany. These things he remembers, and others he turns away. [Annotator's Note: Spint gets emotional.]

Robert Spint crossed the Rhine River with five others going to his unit [Annotator's Note: 92nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 12th Armored Division] in Germany. Some things are very vivid, and some are very vague. This was the first time he realized what war was. It was a rainy day and they pulled into an overnight tent area. An acquaintance suggested they take a walk. This was in 1944 and they went to a concentration camp about a mile and a half away. The rails went into the center. The crematoriums were on one side. They walked through there. There were very few people there and in the center was a trench about ten feet deep, ten feet wide, and 50 feet long or longer. It was half full of bones and bodies. [Annotator's Note: Spint gets emotional.] It got to him later. He walked through it and saw the ovens, gas chambers, and does not know how many bodies, skeletons, were laying there. At that moment, he did not know what it was all about. The next day it was put off limits. The townspeople were being made to march through it. He realized why he was there. They had not heard anything about the Africa campaign. Spint did not realize what he had been assigned to. He thought he was going into a medium tank company. They traveled another day by truck and was assigned to the 92 Cavalry Reconnaissance Armored Company. Before that, he and his friend did not know they were walking into a concentration camp until they were in it. They were not supposed to go there but there was no containment. He wondered how it could be that there were just bodies and bodies. At the time, it did not bother him. He went through another camp. They took over work camps. It did not bother him until he came out of the service and became an instructor in the reserves during the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953]. He got out of the service in 1946 and went in the reserves in 1948. He had a lot of young gung-ho kids coming in. They felt it was all glory and that is what it is today. They do not recognize what war is. It did not bother him.

When Robert Spint was first given his assignment and reached his company [Annotator's Note: 92nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 12th Armored Division], they had lost their platoon leader and a driver. Spint took the driver's spot. The company was in a convoy going into Germany. Spint was a T4 Sergeant [Annotator's Note: US Army Technician Fourth Grade or T4; equivalent pay grade as a Sergeant; E-5]. The next day he heard that when he had thrown his duffel bag into a jeep at the head of the column, he broke a guy's wine stored there. Spint had been trained as a medium tanker. He was only acquainted with the M5 [Annotator's Note: M5 Stuart light tank]. He worked with the M10 [Annotator's Note: three inch Gun Motor Carriage M10, tank destroyer] that became the M17 [Annotator's Note: M17 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage, or M17 half-track]. It saw action and was built for Africa. When he got the M5 light tank, he did not want to go in it. You do not argue though. The tank driver and assistant rotate duties. He was never a gunner or commander. They liberated two work camps. Many did not survive the camps. They were walking ghosts and wore the striped clothes. They would climb all over the tanks. They were instructed not to give them any food. In one case, they pulled into a camp in April or March or February 1945. The German guards had left. His unit set up a kitchen for the prisoners and then left. Someone else took charge of it.

The first time Robert Spint saw a work camp [Annotator's Note: while serving with the 92nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 12th Armored Division], he thought at least they were free now. It hit him harder than the first time he saw a concentration camp. That time he did not know what he was seeing. He has told his daughter that the war was a funny thing. It was not like the Civil War [Annotator's Note: American Civil War, 1861 to 1865], where you were lucky if your shot took somebody out. This way, he saw so much aftermath of what had gone on before he got there. Areas were destroyed from artillery. There was wreckage alongside the roads. He could hear the artillery. He was geared not to be affected, but was. There were no crematoriums in the work camps. There were people hardly able to walk. They were skeletons. They had very little to live on but they had a lot to live for. The war started coming to a close, although they did not know. They were alerted to go when Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] started his push into Germany. They did not go and were held in a readied state. From then on, not much was happening. They were strafed by German aircraft. He was going in convoy on a dark, cloudy day and he saw a developing dogfight. He saw P-47s [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] in the air within the last five days of the war. They were near a farmyard and got out of their tanks and into a big barn. The farmer was there, and they had a lot of wine. They kept a lot of wine on the tank because they did not know if the water was good or bad. He saw the first German jet planes [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter aircraft] engage the P-47 Thunderbolts. The Me-262s came over at treetop and sent straight up. He wondered what they were. They had heard about V2s [Annotator's Note: German Vergeltungswaffe 2, or Retribution Weapon 2, ballistic missile], but not about jet planes. They knocked down two of the American planes. He did not see them again until after the war. A lot of things that happened, like artillery, you did not know where it was coming from or going. They were headed for Innsbruck [Annotator's Note: Innsbruck, Austria] at the time. They were staying in a park in a utility building. The next morning, some older fellows and three or four brown [Annotator's Note: Braunhemden; Sturmbteilung, or SA, Storm Detachment; Nazi Party's original paramilitary] and black shirts, or SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization], came marching into their unit. They were young kids. They were all taken away.

Robert Spint was headed to Innsbruck [Annotator's Note: Innsbruck, Austria with the 92nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 12th Armored Division] but did not know it at the time. They thought they would have a heavy confrontation but did not. The next thing he knew, he and a couple of guys were in a school collecting arms [Annotator's Note: weapons]. Innsbruck had been declared an open city [Annotator's Note: a city that is officially declared demilitarized, open to occupation, and will not be defended] by the German general there. Spint and another soldier took a jeep up the mountain to go into Italy. They got near the top and were stopped by MPs [Annotator's Note: military police]. The war was still going on in the mountains of Italy. From then on, he bounced around in Germany. A lot of rumors were flying around that they were going to invade Japan, or they would have to fight the Russians. Spint's V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day] was 7 May [Annotator's Note: 7 May 1945]. He did not have enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] to go home. He was told he was staying over there. After a reorganization, he ended outside of Linz, Austria as a Staff Sergeant. He was on the Danube River, with the Russians on the other side. The Russians would go into Linz and harass the people by taking their cattle and chickens. He later learned what Linz was all about. Spint was at Lindham, Austria and it was great. He was a mortar sergeant, and they were in a resort area. They had hot water pools they could swim in. Linz was 20 kilometers away. He has a neighbor currently that he just met who was born in Austria where Spint was, so he is learning more about the area.

Robert Spint was discharged at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin [Annotator's Note: now Fort McCoy in Monroe County, Wisconsin]. He did not use 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 wanted to take an engineering course, but it was in Pennsylvania. He had gone to Montana. His wife met him there. He did not want to stay in Montana and be a farmer. He had talked to guys in his basic training who were from California, and he thought it was the way to go. His wife was from Alhambra [Annotator's Note: Alhambra, California], so he said they should go to California. They did. He got started in engineering in International Correspondent Schools. It did not provide much income. He went out on his own and his wife had a job. Spint went to work for various companies in various trades. He got out of the service on 1 April 1946. He went back into the active Reserve in 1948 and stayed for eight years. Things have been good for him, and he has no regrets. Going from military to civilian life, was going from regimentation to none. Being in the service meant nothing at the time for getting a job. He learned a lot in his lifetime. He never had a job he did not like, even though he was not right for a lot of his jobs. The country was going through a good economic change and there were good jobs, but he did not qualify for them. He just hoped something good would happen. He went to work for a lumber company in Los Angeles [Annotator's Note: Los Angeles, California]. His boss was George Patton [Annotator's Note: unable to identify which grandchild this was] and was the grandson of George Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.]. Spint had a daughter on the way and bought a house in Whittier [Annotator's Note: Whittier, California]. He went to night school at USC [Annotator's Note: University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California] and UCLA [Annotator's Note: University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California]. He also spent three summers in executive training at Stanford [Annotator's Note: Leland Stanford Junior University in Stanford, California] when he worked with Kaiser Aluminum. He helped build a plant in Oregon for them and moved there. They moved back due to the rain. He became vice-president and part-owner of another company after that.

Robert Spint saw a concentration camp and had opinions of the Germans. His grandfather was from Germany and was injured in the Civil War [Annotator's Note: American Civil War, 1861 to 1865]. Spint's opinion was wondering how Germans could not know what was going on. After the war, he became acquainted with German people who were not aware of what was going on. In Germany, the little towns are so close together. He went to weddings there and was invited to parties. He does not think they really understood the magnitude of what they were causing. If you were German, you had rights, if you were not German, you had no rights whatsoever. The camp he went to, had been liberated already. He went through a crematorium and saw only bones. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Spint about a trench he saw that he describes in the clip titled "Into Germany and Concentration Camps" of this oral history interview.] Those skeletons were still intact. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Spint if he kept up the war in the Pacific.] He had a brother in it, and only heard from him once. He still does not know what he did. They never talked about it. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Spint what he thought about the nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on 6 and 9 August 1945.] At the time, it did not mean anything. Spint learned more from television than he did from the Stars and Stripes [Annotator's Note: United States military newspaper]. His war was already over in Europe. After a period of time, he realized that some of the truths come about. Germany was so close to having the atomic bomb. We got it because we got hold of Von Braun [Annotator's Note: SS-Sturmbannführer, or Major, Wernher Magnus Maximillian Freiherr von Braun; German-American aerospace engineer and space architect] and his people and shipped them to New Mexico.

Robert Spint's most memorable experience of World War 2 is hard for him to say. He does not classify any of it. Some of them are crossing the Rhine [Annotator's Note: Rhine River into Germany] and not knowing where he was going when he got off the boat in Le Havre [Annotator's Note: Le Havre, France]. He decided to serve after Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] and President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] said we were at war. It was his responsibility. The war made him a better person. He is more understanding and more compassionate. When he moved to Wyoming, his dad had a barbershop. Spint was in the sixth grade at the time. His older brother went to work as a shoe shiner. In the seventh grade, Spint started shining shoes. He came to grips that he is not alone in the world. His mother was a strong believer in not fighting the elements and live with them. She lived to be 103. Spint thinks that World War 2 is lost to Americans today. The war was completed but not what the real cause was. The museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] is absolutely important and even more should be exposed. He went through the George S. Patton Museum [Annotator's Note: General George S. Patton Memorial Museum in Chiriaco Summit, California] near Indio [Annotator's Note: Indio, California] three or four times. He told them they are incomplete. They do not have the information necessary to pass on. Museums are needed as evidence, and they are visual. The Air Force gets a lot of recognition because it is a big thing. You do not hear anything about the tankers [Annotator's Note: members of military tank crews]. [Annotator's Note: Spint gets emotional.] What has to be exposed is that a lot of lives were lost with cause and without cause. We do not hear much about the Civil War [Annotator's Note: American Civil War, 1861 to 1865]. World War 2 was a different kind of war. How unprepared the United States was, is very important. Tanks are like the Marines. He has a buddy who was in the Marines, and they do not talk about the war. Spint did not realize how much stronger the enemy equipment was. They got new tanks three days after the war ended, the M24 [Annotator's Note: M24 Chaffee light tank]. Museums should be more than just here or there. He did not know about New Orleans before. There should be one in two or three other parts of the country. There is going to be another war, but is it going to be a technical war or a war of devastation? We do not know, and it is hard thing to come to grips with. He will not be here.