Browse By

more »

more »

Start Over Format Moving Image Genres Oral histories Collection Veterans of the Valley

41. Douglass Starr - part 1: Interview (28:18)

Date:
2008-04-17
Main contributors:
Starr, Douglass
Summary:
Dr. Douglass Starr, U.S. Navy, WW II (Interviewed April 17, 2008) Dr. Douglass Starr’s World War II service all happened before he turned 20 years old. But he packed a lot into those 3 1/2 years. A navy sonarman who serve with honor aboard the proud destroyer USS Nicholas DD-449. He was a Texas A&M journalism professor until the age of 83. Douglass Starr has many stories to tell of not only his World War II service but in Korea aboard the Destroyer USS Walke -- And perhaps the most fascinating was his eyewitness to history. On 2 September 1945 in Tokyo Bay, the signing of the surrender by the Empire of Japan aboard the USS Missouri. You see the Nicholas was moored right alongside Big Mo on that historic day.

42. Douglass Starr - part 2: Interview (28:18)

Date:
2008-04-17
Main contributors:
Starr, Douglass
Summary:
Dr. Douglass Starr, U.S. Navy, WW II (Interviewed April 17, 2008) Dr. Douglass Starr’s World War II service all happened before he turned 20 years old. But he packed a lot into those 3 1/2 years. A navy sonarman who serve with honor aboard the proud destroyer USS Nicholas DD-449. He was a Texas A&M journalism professor until the age of 83. Douglass Starr has many stories to tell of not only his World War II service but in Korea aboard the Destroyer USS Walke -- And perhaps the most fascinating was his eyewitness to history. On 2 September 1945 in Tokyo Bay, the signing of the surrender by the Empire of Japan aboard the USS Missouri. You see the Nicholas was moored right alongside Big Mo on that historic day.

43. Duke Hobbs: Interview (27:39)

Date:
2008-06-05
Main contributors:
Hobbs, Duke
Summary:
Duke Hobbs, Army/Air Force, World War II (A&M Class of '47) (Interviewed June 5, 2008) Duke Hobbs' career in service includes his service with the 79th Infantry in Europe during World War II and later in the Air Force working reconnaissance in Europe during the Cold War. Texas A&M class of 1947. He's a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge who recalls the unbearable cold of that winter of 1945. He was a member of a traveling variety show postwar the show was called "You've Had It Joe".

44. Durwood Lewis: Interview (28:24)

Date:
2007-01-24
Main contributors:
Lewis, Durwood
Summary:
Durwood Lewis, U.S. Air Force, Vietnam (A&M Class of ‘60) (Interviewed Jan. 24, 2007) Maj. Durwood Lewis was a F-4 back-seater who saw a great deal in his 12-month assignment in Vietnam. It was one year out of more than 20 years of service in the U.S. Air Force.

45. Ed & Yolanda Kozlowski: Interview (27:59)

Date:
2005-10-12
Main contributors:
Kozlowski, Ed
Summary:
Edward and Yolanda Kozlowski, U.S. Air Force/Army, WW II (Interviewed together Oct. 12, 2005) By the end of World War II Capt. Edward Kozlowski had flown 88 missions over the combat territory of the European Theater. His life's path took him from his boyhood farm in Wisconsin, through his military service as a pathfinder navigator, to Houston and NASA. That's where he designed and installed the heat shields used on the Apollo missions. But perhaps his most rewarding mission was that to win the heart of Yolanda Frisch, an Army nurse in World War II. That too was no easy challenge. Yolanda Frisch of the 100th Evacuation Hospital, always set up near the front lines; following Patton's Army through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. She was a triage and a surgical nurse. Both former Texas A&M employees both have passed away now but their story is indeed a testament to the bravery and determination of all those men and women who served for freedom.

46. Ed Eyre: Interview (28:12)

Date:
2005-11-09
Main contributors:
Eyre, Ed
Summary:
Ed Eyre, U.S. Marines, WW II (Interviewed Nov. 9, 2005) December 19, 1941 and Ed Eyre was among the first to volunteer for service following the attack on Pearl Harbor. It took a while and a little maneuvering to get where he wanted to be -- as a Marine. He wanted to fight for his country in the Pacific and eventually he found himself in the middle of it as a member of the 5th Marine Division, 28th Regimental Weapons Company. Charging the sands on D-Day at Iwo Jima, February 19, 1945. He saw that US flag flying atop Mount Suribachi -- The flag etched in American pride by the famous photograph of the Marines who mounted it there. He fought day and night and he would fight for 10 days, until shrapnel from a mortar round eventually ended his combat service. Ed Eyre was a winner of the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart -- live out his life in rural Brazos county.

47. Ed Higgins: Interview (28:23)

Date:
2008-02-14
Main contributors:
Higgins, Ed
Summary:
Ed Higgins, U.S. Air Force, WW II (Interviewed Feb. 14, 2008) Meet Ed Higgins of College Station. As a World War II forward navigator on six B-17 missions over Europe, he experienced his share of uncertain moments -- like his very first mission to Brandenburg (the gateway to Berlin) a navigator of the number two plane in a 1000 plane group. There were 3 missions where the beaches at Royan, France was the target, then over Dresden and finally Ingolstadt. After his tour of Europe he be became a pilot and as a captain was the ranking student officer in-flight training at Bryan Air Force Base.

48. Eddie Thompson: Interview (27:46)

Date:
2005-04-06
Main contributors:
Thompson, Eddie
Summary:
Eddie Thompson, US Navy, World War II (Interviewed April 6, 2005) At age 97, Eddie Thompson was the oldest veteran interviewed on KAMU's Veteran's of the Valley. His life spanned both World War I and World War II. He joined the Navy in 1942 at age 35. He served in the Pacific on the deck of the USS Birmingham. He was on the Birmingham at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He was also on board May 4, 1945, when a Japanese suicide plane hit next to Eddie Thompson's cabin. Eddie Thompson was the uncle of KAMU host, Sharon Colson.

49. Frank Buell: Interview (29:43)

Date:
2009-02-05
Main contributors:
Buell, Frank
Summary:
Frank Buell, U.S. Navy, WW II (Interviewed Feb. 5, 2009) World War II, of course, was fought primarily in Europe and the Pacific, but there was never any guarantee that the enemy from either side would not find its way to United States shores. Frank Buell got permission from his mother to enter the U.S. Navy at the age of 17. That was 14 June 1944, just 14 months before Japan surrendered. While waiting for an opening to go to flight school, we was assigned as a bombardier, flying B-24s and later PB4Y2s. Out of 24 crews, his was one of four assigned to stay stateside and train, while at the same time guarding the east coast from deployments mainly in Florida.

50. Frank Litterst - part 1: Interview (00:59)

Date:
2007-10-11
Main contributors:
Litterst, Frank
Summary:
Frank Litterst entered Texas A&M in the fall of 1939, a proud member of the Class of '43 (the Class that won the War.). He was a Ross Volunteer and the Commander of Battery “A” Coast Artillery. During World War II, Frank's class left A&M en masse prior to graduation, and Frank was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He served in New Guinea as an artillery officer from 1943 to 1945.

51. Frank Litterst - part 2: Interview (28:26)

Date:
2007-10-11
Main contributors:
Litterst, Frank
Summary:
Frank Litterst entered Texas A&M in the fall of 1939, a proud member of the Class of '43 (the Class that won the War.). He was a Ross Volunteer and the Commander of Battery “A” Coast Artillery. During World War II, Frank's class left A&M en masse prior to graduation, and Frank was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He served in New Guinea as an artillery officer from 1943 to 1945.

52. Frank Dickey: Interview (27:43)

Date:
2006-06-28
Main contributors:
Dickey, Frank
Summary:
Frank Dickey, U.S. Army, Vietnam (Interviewed June 28, 2006) Frank Dickey refuses to call himself a hero but most might disagree. He says that in Vietnam he fought alongside heroes but he, like many who went, who fought, who came home, prefers to reserve the label hero for those who did not come home. He was not an officer, nor a company commander nor a Phantom pilot. Frank Dickey’s role in Vietnam was as the guy who laid his rifle on the line with every patrol -- just infantry army soldier, search and destroy, chopping away at the jungle in search of the enemy. Yet by many standards a hero and it's our honor to have spoken with him on Veterans of the Valley.

53. Frank Kocman: Interview (27:49)

Date:
2005-03-25
Main contributors:
Kocman, Frank
Summary:
Frank Kocman, U.S. Army, WW II (March 25, 2005) It was December 1944 and America's involvement in World War II was in its fourth winter. Rewind seven months and teenager Frank Kocman Jr. had just graduated from Stephen F Austin High School and Uncle Sam was already calling. In fact Frank needed a student deferment just to finish high school. By July, 18-year-old Frank Kocman was drafted and was on his way to Fort Sam Houston and on to what he thought training to fight the Japanese in the South Pacific but that changed.. It was a fast track from high school to the front lines of the war.

54. Fred Holland: Interview (30:53)

Date:
2007-08-02
Main contributors:
Holland, Fred
Summary:
Fred Holland, U.S. Navy, WW II (Interviewed Aug.2, 2007) “You call, we haul” was the motto of boat pool 15, a Navy unit during World War II where Fred Holland of Bryan was first a Coxswain and then a motor mechanic. His job in the Pacific was to transport Marines onto the beaches on LCMs. LCM were best known as the landing craft that delivered troops to the beaches of France on D-Day, but they were also critical in the Pacific Campaign.

55. Freddie Wolters: Interview (27:08)

Date:
2008-04-10
Main contributors:
Wolters, Freddie
Summary:
Freddie Wolters, U.S. Army, World War II (A&M Class of 1944) (Interviewed April 10, 2008) Freddie Wolters served in the Pacific Theater during World War II. The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima before his unit would have been deployed for a bloody ground fight, but still he has stories to tell, many of how he didn't always do things by the book. He was a freshman member of Homer Norton's 1940 A&M football team.

56. Garland Bayliss: Interview (31:00)

Date:
2010-06-17
Main contributors:
Bayliss, Garland
Summary:
Garland Bayliss, U.S. Navy, WW II (Interviewed June 17, 2010) Join the Navy and see the World! And indeed Lt. Commander Garland Bayliss of College Station saw most of it in his two-year service aboard Auxiliary Personnel 149, a Troop Transport Ship during World War II. It was a vessel built only as a transport and ferried up to 3,000 from one town or island to another. It took some back home from war and some from home into war. He was on the water both in the Pacific and Atlantic for two years and traveled some 125,000 Nautical Miles. In all Garland Bayliss spent 30 years in the Navy and the reserves and then later spent 34 years as professor of history at Texas A&M.

57. Gary Banta: Interview (28:47)

Date:
2010-02-11
Main contributors:
Banta, Gary
Summary:
Gary Banta, U.S. Army, Vietnam (Interviewed Feb. 11, 2010) Gary Banta joined the Army in 1967, well into the Vietnam War. he both drove and rode shotgun on truck convoys, delivering supplies to the hotspots where choppers and aircraft could not land. It was a year tour that certainly had it’s danger. Later he was assigned to Ft. Knox where he did indeed see the gold! And he was a chaplain’s assistant in Germany.

58. Gene Barber: Interview (27:35)

Date:
2007-05-09
Main contributors:
Barber, Gene
Summary:
Gene Barber, U.S. Navy, WW II (Interviewed May 9, 2007) Gene Barber served the people of Williamson County as its sheriff for seven years, sold cars and lumber and delivered the mail in the years before that. But that all came after his 33 year months at sea, serving aboard the carrier USS Corregidor during four major battles of World War II’s Pacific Campaign. Plus, you will not find a bigger Bob Wills fan. They were both born in Kosse, Texas.

59. George Cox: Interview (27:49)

Date:
2005-05-04
Main contributors:
Cox, George
Summary:
George Cox, U.S. Army, WW II (Interviewed May 4, 2005) 23-year-old tank commander George Cox of rural Brazos County, was a member of the 746th Battalion when he starred the horror of the war straight in the face. June of 1944 was when George Cox was one of those who lived to tell the story of D-Day and the stand made at beaches called Juno, Gold, Sword, Omaha and Utah. He recounts the final months of the war, when he earned his Purple Heart and Silver Star as a player in five major battles.

60. Gerald McCaskill: Interview (27:35)

Date:
2008-09-18
Main contributors:
McCaskill, Gerald
Summary:
Gerald McCaskill, U.S. Navy, WW II (Interviewed September 18, 2008) When Gerald McCaskill boarded the Battleship USS Tennessee in June of 1944, it was the first ship he had ever seen. He would see plenty of it over the next 15 months, including combat action throughout World War II’s Pacific theater. The Tennessee had already seen plenty of warfare, including on 7 December 1941, docked at Pearl Harbor alongside the ill-fated West Virginia and Arizona on that day that will live in infamy. Over HIS time on the Tennessee, it’s travels took it to Saipan, Guam, Tinian, Guadalcanal, Palau, the Philippines, back to Pearl Harbor and Saipan and within a mile of the beaches of Iwo Jima for that Marine invasion to Mt. Suribachi.. on to Okinawa, and eventually to Japan. The Tennessee was badly damaged at least twice after the attack on Pearl Harbor, an attack at Tinian and later a suicide attack to the quarterdeck.