Oral History Interviews of West Virginians in World War II
Collection
Collection Number: A&M 3426
Collection of 39 video tapes of interviews with WWII veterans from West Virginia. Interviews were conducted Oct. - Nov. 2002 as part of the Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress. The beginning of each tape gives date, location, and names of interviewee, interviewer, and cameraman. Interviewees include a survivor of the USS Indianapolis, a sailor who was on board the USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbor, a procurement officer for the Manhattan Project, a pilot who was shot down and spent months training partisans in the Italian Alps, and a sailor from one of the ships that captured the German sub containing the Enigma Machine. Also included are an Army nurse, a USO performer, a French war bride, and a WAVE (a member of the US Navy's "Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service" (WAVES), an organization established in 1942). Names include: Albert John Arco, Harry Berman, Bernard Berry, Wallace Brake, Ray Junior Bush, Don Caplinger, Lillian Mae Columbo, Austin D. Cunningham, Norman C. Drainer, Merle E. Dutchess, Eugene Gary, Vernor Gerrard, Darrel J. Hickman, Clarence E. Jones, George A. Judy, David King, Earl F. Lake, O. D. Linder, Sam Lopez, William Manley, Earl Lawrence Marquess, John Kessler Martin, Robert Mendenhall, Paul Nutter, Manuel Ovies, Marjorie Paugh, Benjamin Portaro, William Reynolds, Kenneth Richards, Joseph Tarantino, Harold V. Tate, Wesley J. Thomas, John B. Tonkin, Louis Trupo, Alvina Weaver, H. Laban White, Gordon Clark Windon, Richard Windon, and Ed Young.
Thirty-six of the thirty-nine tapes have been digitized by the Library of Congress. The three that need to be digitized include Gordon Clark Windon, Benjamin Portaro, Ray Junior Bush.
English
No special access restriction applies.
Researchers may access digitized materials by visiting the Library of Congress site. If the link is ever broken, please contact the West Virginia & Regional History Center reference department at https://westvirginia.libanswers.com/wvrhc for a locally stored copy of the item.
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
1.5 Linear Feet (Summary: 1 ft. 5 1/2 in. (3 document cases, 5 in. each); (1 document case, 2 1/2 in.))
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / Fax: 304-293-3981 / URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/
Gift from Clarksburg-Harrison Public Library. Davis, Diane, 2003/04/15
Part of the West Virginia and Regional History Center Repository