[Annotator's Note: There is loud background noise throughout this clip.] Willie Roy Hebert, hates his first name of Willie, so he goes by "W". He was born in Sulphur, Louisiana in December 1925. His family moved to Abbeville [Annotator's Note: Abbeville, Louisiana] a couple of years later. In 1941, he and his mother moved to Lafayette [Annotator's Note: Lafayette, Louisiana] to be with his two brothers so they could claim them as dependents. Hebert answered the telephone at City Taxi. His brothers were both declared 4F [Annotator's Note: Selective Service classification for individuals who are not fit for service in the Armed Forces], so Hebert and his mother moved back to Abbeville. He graduated high school in 1943. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Hebert if he remembers where he was on 7 December 1941, the date of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.] He did not think about it meaning he would go in the service. He did think it would have an effect on his brothers, none of whom qualified for service. About a month after his graduation, his mother died. His father was the bridge tender in Abbeville, and they lived by the bridge. About a month after his mother passed away, Hebert enlisted in the Marine Corps and went to San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California]. He was 17. He came home on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] after boot camp as a PFC [Annotator's Note: Private First Class].

Willie Roy Hebert joined the Marine Corps due to their reputation. He came out of boot camp as a PFC [Annotator's Note: Private First Class]. After leave, he was sent to Miramar [Annotator's Note: Naval Air Station Miramar, now Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California] which was a base for aviation. He was made a messenger boy between different offices for about six months. After that, they thought about sending him to OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school]. He had an IQ [Annotator's Note: intelligence quotient] of 129, but his math grade was 95 instead of the required 100. Instead of OCS, he was sent to a school for a 16 week course. He was there when D-Day occurred [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. When he graduated, the whole class was sent to the East Coast to be the first Marines to serve in Europe. Halfway across the country, they changed their minds. They were put on KP duty [Annotator's Note: kitchen patrol or kitchen police]. The decision was made that no Marines would go to Europe, and they were sent back to the West Coast. New Year's Eve [Annotator's Note: 31 December 1943], he celebrated on a troop train in Kansas. He was on KP duty on the train. They got back to the coast, and they went overseas to Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands, as part of Marine Aviation Observation Squadron 6 (VMO-6), 6th Marine Division].

The first time Willie Roy Hebert had ever been on a ship was when he was sent to Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands, as part of Marine Aviation Observation Squadron (VMO-6), 6th Marine Division]. He had once thought about joining the Navy and he was glad he did not. They went into training in Guam for the invasion of Japan. Then the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] was dropped. Instead of going to Japan, they went to China to release all of the POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war]. He was the chief clerk doing clerical work even though he was an expert rifleman. He got promoted to corporal. He was in Marine Observation Squadron 6. He came down with yellow jaundice [Annotator's Note: condition caused by high level of bilirubin in the liver] and was sent to Shanghai [Annotator's Note: Shanghai, China]. He went on the USS Saint Paul [Annotator's Note: USS Saint Paul (CA-73)]. He did not have to work from there to California. They stopped overnight at Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii], but he did not get off the ship. He should have to see the damage, but he did not. From California, he was sent to a hospital for three or four weeks. He was then sent to San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] and stayed there until his discharge. He met an assistant director that worked on a motion picture. That person learned that Hebert's parents had passed away. His name was [Annotator's Note: unintelligible] and he wanted Hebert to go to Hollywood [Annotator's Note: Hollywood, California]. Hebert returned to Lafayette [Annotator's Note: Lafayette, Louisiana] instead.

Willie Roy Hebert kept in touch with his brothers while he was in the service [Annotator's Note: with Marine Aviation Observation Squadron 6 (VMO-6), 6th Marine Division]. He had no lady friends until he met Nita [Annotator's Note: Juanita "Nita" Hebert] and that was not until [Annotator's Note: Hebert does not finish the sentence]. He got recalled on active duty. He had enrolled at SLI [Annotator's Note: Southwestern Louisiana of Liberal and Technical Learning, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Lafayette, Louisiana] in an ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] unit because of his Marine Corps background. He got his degree one morning and then got a letter in the afternoon mail ordering him to active duty. [Annotator's Note: Nita Hebert comes in off-camera at 0:19:22.000 and has a conversation with the interviewer until 0:19:55.000.] A decision was made to discharge the World War 2 veterans. On his way home, he stopped in Covington [Annotator's Note: Covington, Louisiana] where a man he knew had put a radio station. He was persuaded to stay there. He helped put the radio station on the air and met her [Annotator's Note: his wife]. [Annotator's Note: Nita Hebert returns to give the interviewer ice cream at 0:21:36.000 and they talk until 0:21:55.000.] Hebert became the program director for the station. There was a meeting at City Hall and a guy Hebert knew at SLI needed directions. Hebert took him there. Nita was there and that was the beginning of their 52 years together.

Willie Roy Hebert qualified as expert on the M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand]. He was never interested in hunting or firing a weapon. The food in the Marine Corps was better than what he had been eating at home. His father had been working and lost his job in the Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945]. He started running the Booray games [Annotator's Note: Bourré is a playing card game popular in Louisiana] in Abbeville [Annotator's Note: Abbeville, Louisiana]. Hebert was raised in the back end of the Crescent Pool Hall there. His father finally went to work as the bridge tender, and they lived in a little shack at the bridge. Hebert had two brothers living in Lafayette [Annotator's Note: Lafayette, Louisiana]. When he got out of the Marine Corps, he settled with one brother and enrolled at SLI [Annotator's Note: Southwestern Louisiana of Liberal and Technical Learning, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Lafayette, Louisiana]. He was editor of the SLI paper. He was lucky in World War 2. What made the difference was his IQ of 129. [Annotator's Note: Hebert's wife asks him to show a picture of his mascot in China and he holds up a picture of a dog.] He adopted a dog when he was in China [Annotator's Note: with Marine Aviation Observation Squadron 6 (VMO-6), 6th Marine Division]. Hebert did not have a family to speak of, so as a result he made friends with pets. That has continued. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer and Hebert's wife have an off-camera conversation from 0:29:42.000 until 0:30:13.000 about where their daughter lives.] Hebert 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]. He was the first one in his family to graduate from high school. The SLI paper, the Vermillion, made him a reporter. He wound up as the editor. They received a first-class honor rating for the first time while he was editor. He was a barefoot, Cajun [Annotator's Note: an ethnic group mainly living in Louisiana and Texas], country boy from the bayou, so you never know what you can do.

Willie Roy Hebert had no trouble adjusting to civilian life. He was in the ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] unit at SLI [Annotator's Note: Southwestern Louisiana of Liberal and Technical Learning, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Lafayette, Louisiana]. He got a commission from that. It was amazing that a barefoot, Cajun [Annotator's Note: an ethnic group mainly living in Louisiana and Texas], country boy from the bayou could go where he has gone and one what he has done and accomplish what he has. [Annotator's Note: Hebert's wife points out some embroideries she took off jackets from his time in China at 0:33:07.000 and the camera is turned to show them framed on the wall and discuss them and the Marine Corps League - congressionally chartered United States Marine Corps-related veterans' organization - until 0:35:05.000.] Hebert did not know anything about the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. He does not recall anyone having thoughts about it because they were doing their duty to their country. An assistant director of a motion picture made on a Marine Corps base [Annotator's Note: Hebert does not finish the sentence]. You wanted to volunteer because if you volunteered, you had nobody to blame but yourself. He was in the chow line and people were talking about the bomb, but they were just hoping the menu was better that day. They did not know it was coming and neither did the Japanese. Otherwise they would never have attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Hebert what it was like to meet people from all over the country.] He never spoke with a Cajun accent, and he does not know why. He did a lot of reading. Way back in the sixth grade in Abbeville [Annotator's Note: Abbeville, Louisiana], he wound up in public school instead of the convent he had been in. He was fortunate to do as much traveling as he did.

Willie Roy Hebert did not talk with his family about the war. [Annotator's Note: Hebert's wife talks about her father not talking about the war and the Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945 starting at 0:40:09.000. Hebert adds that her father was wound and earned the Purple Heart - award bestowed upon a United States service member who has been wounded as a result of combat actions against an armed enemy. They discuss his service, including his experiences with the Red Cross and being wounded and hospitalized. She then talks about a cousin who was wounded and ran the movie projector for General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States until 0:44:30.000.] Hebert has been extremely fortunate when he looks back on it.