Interview with Genarino Del Mauro, a WW II Veteran. CCSU VHP

once wrapped III ok technical sergeant test3 okay and where did you serve I serve the southwest Pacific and the Far East Far East being being head to Japan occupation of Japan ah thank you alright so now starting it off were you drafted or did you enlist now and listen the ROTC program at UConn which was engineering and infantry engineering and infantry yeah ok good thing they had to engineering right after the other - yeah yeah I've been in the infantry okay and did you so when you dropped did you know that you wanted to be an engineer yes of purposing what to want to be a civil engineer okay alright that's good to hear and you can't it have a good program in engineering mechanical electrical and civil I think and then where are you living when you when you enlisted and that stores that do kind of freshman year oh so so your freshman year was September 42 and then I enlisted in December 42 okay I just had a feeling that I didn't want to be a draftee because of choice yeah I can I can sympathize with that now why did you join because I wanted to if there were a war I would like to pick the service the armed services that that would be to my liking so you can't had the engineering and infantry I didn't like the infantry to operate it did have the engineering for it so I enjoyed your OTC right December 11th 42 now why did you go army why didn't you didn't want to maybe or no because of the program that you got at not specifically army have okay do you recall your first days in service and wanted to feel like it was in March of 43 and it was sort of exciting to see what was going to to happen and and I really enjoyed the fact that I was going to participate in this program okay now about boot camp can you tell me about your own camp or your training or pretty proud of my basics because it was given at Jefferson Barracks Missouri the oldest camp Western Mississippi and we had the ire of praying for President Roosevelt and I marched within 25 feet of his limousine nice it was nice to see President Roosevelt okay do you remember your instructors you can't even test it out yes very interesting story his name was corporal stone and we ran into him in the middle of Mindanao where he was a Army private working with the engineers muddy corduroy roads hmm and did we give him a lesson I said you know the original jungles would take two seconds to eliminate all that hardness that you gave us different basic but he was so nice as a non instructor and basic basic but what a coincidence to run into your instructor three three years two years later doing a medial job for the engineers venez venez something now how did you cope with basic training how did you you know cope with the shock of going from I was very alert I was I had a bad year right but I was very skeptical of the medical field because they didn't treat the enlisted man would take care they need it for instance we were called to have a teeth exam and then while I was in line I noticed a lot of the enlistment coming out complaining that they had two teeth pull and I said gee this doesn't look right so I stepped out a line and didn't go in for a dental review and found out from hearsay that they interviewed the enlisted man to make sure that they didn't have any cavities or going overseas so they pulled all their teeth out so the soldier go overseas with no teeth problem so I skipped that I went AWOL down a little face and I was never called out for it so I watched myself very carefully and because we almost had a gap of time to think of what we're going to do so like when we went for pray for Roosevelt well we owe nothing and we had the gas masks no and you had to go in and go into this Hut that they expose you to the gasoline is not and I did a couple times but I could go back again I just skipped out of line so there were little things that I saw deviated from and never got caught or it never became a major problem for the army but it was condolences for from myself hmm okay no again which war did you serve in World War two okay and where exactly did you go well we started from Australia went to new New Guinea went to advocate L Islands halmahera grew three islands in the Philippines first was Mindoro second wasn't in the now the third was lose on the war ended then we became occupation troops in Japan from the date of my birthday September 15 of 45 to December of 45 okay we couldn't fight nice with the Jack Japanese when you win you're in Japan occupation and for months I was there there was only one death of a Japanese person which was unbelievable for conquering army to go in and annex and be to be accepted and also to show respect to the enemy now what death the only death occurred in a barroom brawl that of Jeff was killed but four months we even fat nice with them and we had no conflict hmm which is unusual in warfare yes certainly now for the various places that that you did arrive at do you remember you know your first impressions of arriving there and what was it like when you were there well first of all my first impression was that when we left San Francisco setting on the Golden Gate Bridge we were on the cliff Fontaine Swedish ship was about 7,000 troops and we spent 28 days without seeing land first land was Australia Townsend Bell Mooka that was my biggest impression and another part of it when crossed international dateline all the officers were were subjected to the code of crossing the International deal and I was amazed anybody dumped in the idea oh we had laughs galore and they all had the officers had it all they could not resist because the master size would make sure that Oh lieutenant Singh and captain's were subjected to whatever ridiculed at it and will see it ducking into a a big pool well you know it's important to have tradition oh what the other thing on the ship going over for some reason or other I got a good sunburn and we had a crew about 50 Indonesians that kept the ship clear up clean do you mean like janitor yeah they're just watch the deck and they come back say washi decking and then they have for their lunch they were getting circles and give their lamb or what without their eating well all of a sudden I noticed like about two weeks into it then when they came by me they kept staring at me and then within two weeks they would bow to me so when I got a lot of ridicule on that one way unless this one of their men came to me what a big bundle wrapped in newspaper and of course I got wasn't really cure I said they were saying here is your friend they presented me this this package and everybody want to know what it was so I went down the gangplank and I thanked him and I bought back them and everything you know we got in the company area and we opened it up and guess what it was loaded with they sacrificed their food all their pieces of lamb bones and whatnot because food on the ship was very scarce as well as drinking water you'd only have one camped in a day and no fresh water so they realized that we were subjected well my best man and I at night we were sitting on the side of starboard side and we heard a clanking of pans so he looked over to the side and what the kitchen it was down below us they would put all the discarded food into these cans away good night Nord the Dalton in the ocean said wimpy picked up by Japs and we looked down I said Wally I said I see some Tomatoes I see some good food so we secretly would go down and go through the garbage and get some food and either done the deck that's how bad the food was but anyway getting back to what they gave me well the older that came from that that captain came by assess what's going on here so we're telling about it but get it up throwing the Jones I had to throw it all away but I was so impressed that they showed me that kind they probably thought was one of them so they gave me that extra courtesy hmm but I got the wrong house out of that but I should I was very proud that they did all right so if the food was really that bad what you know what sort of rations that you have on the ships it was mostly we go down to the kitchen and it would be bread maybe an egg a potato I don't remember me at all no fresh we wanted to take a bath and we had one canteen Oh at two o'clock every afternoon every soldier got a bottle of coke okay so guess what we did with the empty bottle two o'clock every afternoon over the side there was a trail of coke bottle war in San Francisco the Thompson build or straight about 28 days without seeing land but the weather was good that's good once we got out of Frisco boys with a big storm because she's sick for three days after that I got my sea legs and I enjoyed that trip because we would have lectures of what a Japanese would look like what a Filipino would look like we have all kind of lectures we had exercises so it wasn't that bad or deal just that we didn't have the food that we would probably would like I was never a big anyway so it didn't affect me all right and I would like a hundred fifteen or twenty bucks so I felt sorry for those who really needed food you didn't get it hmm and then when we went on land it was no better really yeah food was ever worth well let me tell you what story in Mindanao I got separated from my alpha with two other guys and in the middle of Mindanao we had to abandon our equipment for our outfit and we had a walk hoping we could get a ride on this dirt road or like Captain Corporal stone was out so we came across a riverbed and there was an infantry group maybe about 14 15 guys was mostly that the baking and the kitchen or the the food the food men they had their folding tables and they were feeding some of their soldiers so we said well let's get in line it was actually hardly anybody around there so three of us got in line and the cook says who are you guys they went over 936 and we got separated we're trying to get back to our outfit and we haven't had food two or three days so he said uh-uh so I can't give you any food because I need it for my own men so one of the guys was a sergeant major said I want your name in your alpha so cook ignored him folded the table and went off into the jungle I said well I don't know what the but they didn't feed us so finally a truck came along we it's alright alright after Del Monte airfield where McArthur escaped from when he left the Philippines by air and we made it back from Napa but we were turned down I couldn't believe it the immature turned us down could even give us a piece of bread let's see it did something that I didn't care because I just never had a food for a lot of food right if I had my water or something from my rations would be good enough but some of the other guys was big a big problem my best man was six foot three water Cornell from Washington DC we should take pictures with him I have pic he lost so much weight to all his bones like Jesus you can you could Connor so we all took pictures with him saying that we rescued a good laugh right okay 20 fights mmm well there's always I'm actually we're going to address that at a later time alright we are back um alright so the next question is uh what was what was your job what did you do I was a topographic draftsman working out plans for airfields okay I think I did survey before prior to the building of the airfields okay up in MacArthur right now what did you ever see combat I told you should he know why need a race but no no physical combat huh though it did have detail in know what do you mean by that that the first initial American soldier a foreign land at d-day landings so this was at this Indiana no more time and we had the whole scenario approaching the island at daybreak the LST was ready we had our gear the the front apron went down and instead of being landed on the beach they didn't figure out a little time so he got stuck on the coral reef and we had a walk like a hundred yards well they're walking on top of coral reef at times would be underwater units had to be above but we did reach the beach and the first thing we did is to dig our foxholes and we're very fortunate because the F retreat we had home the whole scenario as they break came we had the air raid we had the Navy bombarding the coastline all the preparation all the preparation just like a strawberry that stuff back a storybook-reading that you would do right the steps that led to d-day landing and we were fortunate that the infantry a lot success in moving the Japs out of our area so we secured probably maybe an acre and we send them out for that first night and then from there we march to a permanent land site that would be adjacent to a coral an old coral plateau to build our airfield like okay now so so then were you you were like one of the first waves or something like that we were no the infantry was the first way right then the engineers came we were the engineers that came came in okay but Dave you're right before the invasion of Japan are often heaven h1 h2 and h3 one hour two hours bitter and I was in the third mmm and that was bad yeah the invasion never came off so we were lucky but in this more time was very important because that was one of the first islands and MacArthur had so the air air strips played a big part for the Central Pacific as well as for the Philippines now a Morotai is where island in the helmet eric rule okay that's halfway between New Guinea and the Philippines okay yeah well here we are back home okay alright so if you didn't see combat you did see errors though were there any capture this room are no casualties from our area we're very fortunate mm-hmm do you know what the jet what we had what death naka was a human error in transferring our heavy equipment in Alania the sergeant that was in charge of the heavy equipment had assigned a driver for all the heavy equipment which was reading it shouldn't have done and what he did after he lined up the bulldozers and all the other kind of grub he went to the lead truck that had a carrier of an eight ton dozer he told the driver he told a person who was sitting in the driver's seat to step down that he would take take that ride and send him and totally the felon was supposed to ride the bulldozer on this trip to the coast to go with the drivers of the truck now from Holland the airfield to the coastline was about maybe five miles but in that transition she had to go through a mountain Gorge and at the bottom of the gorge crustmas river would have wooden bridge well as the convoy went down he was a lead lead truck when we hit the bridge there was a repercussion from the bridge he didn't shackle the that bulldozer down to the flat bank good enough and loosened while we're getting to the bridge so flip the boat bulldoze into year upside down and into the river and the sides of died hmm so that was the only you know we had to have the burial and all that right and when we did that more time stuff Alania so that was the only death we had a lot of soldiers get sick and transferred to Hawaii but I don't remember any other death that that sergeant gets okay now I'm what are all the soldiers come down sick with was a visual tropical diseases yeah well we had surprisingly what I couldn't remember a - that was psychologically upset the others were were injuries in building the campsite even though lieutenant come back to the states of your broken shoulder well that's about it okay no you must marriages earlier yeah we were given the commendation for 85 consecutive air raids war time but they were ineffective the it ended when the we finally had the p39 could not get the jet plane at midnight so the Australian send up two fighters from Africa and within two days they shot down two or three jabs and we had no more errands oh so or they just bed check Charlie's not going by yeah yeah yeah okay you heard that term right very good yes all right um all right so can you tell me a few of your more memorable experiences I would say the boat ride of 28 days ago senior land the friendliness of their working crew and the ship the flight from Finch Avenue abruptly Islands watching the artillery do their thing then the mutiny at Finch Alvin and then the successful landing of Qalandia with the airfield that was interesting except for the death of the sergeant then more time was a good experience because went through all the steps for an initial d-day landing on an island and that was a good experience but then it settled down where the infantry kept kept us within a seven square mile a lock piece of land so we could build our airfield so the interesting thing was that we had a couple of men that were assigned to our outfit to give us entertainment which Hardy did but once in a while we have a pause point so there's your film from the states well we were very friend with the infantry and within two or three weeks we got reports that there were Japanese they got through the periphery of the infantry and sat with us to watch the movie because every kept their diary and then the diary they would they would write the name of the movie and there would be at the edge of our group as we sat on the ground and never realized that at the privilege there would be Japanese watching the movies with us so I said to my frontier quickly thanks for the security today yeah that was hilarious in the way yeah well you know I'm sure that they're rather bored in the dome like whatever all right now how close was your outfit usually to the infantry you know look only on a special case like more time very very close we were always like ten or two weeks behind any kind of infantry any of any results yet and actually Mike when we got to Japan we were actually twelve days that from the signing of the surrender so we're just always that two weeks behind which was a great safety factor hmm we're very very very very fortunate okay and seeing being a head court and service alpha was a big difference dawn yes so that that gave us a little prestige and therefore we were always given an elite positioning in our advancement but Mikasa jumped around so much that we get the Jepsen whenever they're awful after a month of landing whatnot in New Guinea I think about 50,000 Japs pushed back into the mountains and and we never encountered them coming back toward a coastline because there were so many troops and they they never ventured back into our occupied a coastline all right okay and one interesting thing was when we're at the Hallandale we had some Valentine two of my friends said to me excuse me do you think it would be cool all right hopefully continues to work ji oh yes but the being turned down by the infantry for food yes that occurred and also the mutiny are often beauty well tell us about the but being turned down the infantry and then about mutant okay I'm in that Mindanao we had to cross a huge river to playing a river and the coast guard and had a ship so they took our outfit piecemeal across the river however one piece of equipment was he tame equals 1/9 wall so we were told to stay behind with the equipment and at the next day the Coast Guard would take us across well we've gotta cross I often wasn't there they were gone and we had this big piece of equipment and we wondered what it was and whole thing was a portable officers kitchen okay we don't know what was in it so we had to wait for a Jeep or something to hook up to take it to Del Monte airfield on Norton in a minute well no one ever came for us so we we did get an infantry Jeep to hook up but what happened the heavy piece of equipment blocked the road so another infantry group came through and says what are you guys doing it was on it was only three of us he said well we have to take this piece of equipment up the island say he said wouldn't what is that actually I think it's an officer's kitchen he says well listen it's nightfall and we got to get through so push that thing over to the side so push the equipment to the side and then the lieutenant says to us and lay back captain says you three guys let your heavy equipment yeah he says become Windows on yeah I said well you three you guys get in that thing and you protect us for security on that part of the road and my group will protect us from the other side until tomorrow so we had it we had a sleep beside this I steel iron thing and next morning we got up and the officer says well what's your luck but we can't help you moving that piece of equipment we gotta get going and we were left again and so what we did we decided to heck with it so we found out that inside the when we had to get in there thank God it open we're big five-gallon cans of apricots and peaches and so we broke one open got some apricots okay there salad this is no good so we left the kitchen we started walking and that's when we came into the infantry that was feeding feeding their group and they turned us down so what do you mean by that that they wouldn't feed us because they cook said they had enough food only for this infantrymen so if they packed up their gear left and we were left standing in the scrape went without any food so we kept walking and ran into a lagging truck that would give us a ride and that's what we ran into cat corporal stone who was a former group leader and basic training he gave us a hard time yes and then we gave them a hard time but we gotta cross this truck gotta cross a corner and Road corduroy road is when you come to a muddy part they put locks down so that the truck can get over what corporal stone was part of the engineering crew building the road they had to put down all their equipment they were stripped to the waist because of the heat and so here we are fully lower than the ammunition we looked at each other said you know how bad do we feel about this guy and one guy said that's true Mel but what was still recognizes and he said I'll remember you were just embarrassed but you haven't had to do it right said yeah yeah yeah we're just easy whoo goodbye so we left him and we went on to Del Monte airfield and what we got then that money airfield was very interesting because the airmen that were there showed us the canyons to either side mr. del Monte was a pineapple plantation very flat lava flow and the airfield was down there but it has steep canyons on either side and the airmen took us to one of the canyons and he showed us where they they actually got rid of the old b-17s and took parts of the b-17 to make an airplane for Mikasa to flight to like people don't notice that's how my father got on the Philippines from the Del Monte airstrip to Australia and these Airmen were left behind and they had to join the guerrillas because there was no needs for them to escape right and so some of them were still dead to Felix their ordeal for four years with the Filipinos who treated the Americans very very very well so I did get to see some of the airplanes that were abandoned in order to have one good aircraft for MacArthur and his crew to leave the Philippines that was interesting okay no please tell us about the mutiny no but you know why why was Herman you knew what had we had a monster no sooner we can at the camp set up that was a good question a where where with a pitch off okay okay the bossman came now we already had a big Hospital group we already had a bigger and we're about a mile further up in a cooker quo that's where lieutenant got hurt a broken shoulder who were setting up the camp but somebody the monsoon came in and so it was so bad the monsoon was so so bad that we had difficult moving from tent to tent or even go to the latrine or even go for food was so muddy no equipment could work well something we got orders to go to the Admiralty Island so we I was part of an advanced echelon to leave the camp with dire conditions everybody was complaining and meanwhile the officers in their tent were having parties with the nurses from from the hospital group so the morality of our group was very low but we left when we went to the Amity Islands for about four or five weeks when we got back we learned about the mutiny and how the colonel came from Australia to listen to the gripes and then unknown lean to the grabbers he had all their names on a piece of paper he transferred him before midnight into the infantry with no rank the date him flew back to Australia the Inspector General was supposed to come within the dam - but our colonel assigned the remaining staff to move up to Hollandia so the Inspector General never had a chance to interview other complaints of our soldiers so that mute me just went unnoticed well worth complaints food always terribly yeah no way of getting around the camp because at the thickness of mutton because we're in a coconut plantation constant rain couldn't use on the train those showers the basic food and to listening to the officers having their nightly sessions with the nurses it was just completely unfair more health unfair and demoralizing I understood that the monsoon more I investigated comes in life for about seven days it comes it goes like a squall buts continuous rain it's unbelievable the water be running between the tents through the tents we lived on cots so we're always above the ground but I was so happy to leave that area to go to an island that's with sunshine where tropical waters now full of it can you tell us about when you occupy Japan or when you were part of the occupation horse that was very quiet in October we could not find nice so we did occasionally were given a pass to go into the town and what we did we visited some stores and there were always Japanese that could speak English so there's one incident one of my friends was going to get married we might know so he went to a jewelry store and he bought himself a couple of nice diamond rings or on any price because the Japanese were so happy to talk to us because but I think we broke the rule by going into her that fine I swear I was they that wasn't better I remember going into a department store very elaborate and was shocking in the department store of course all the girls were you know laughing at us and whatnot they had an escalator okay and I thought when that was in New Haven to have an escalator in the store was was really advanced well going to find out that Japan was just was old it was like well hydro plants because they're mountainous terrain and every farmer had electricity and they had a store that was that well-lit it was clean they also had for the elite people to live the edge of town they had the honey dippers they had watered canals going down through all the streets and they had these people call honey dippers that every morning they would come by and take the sludge out of the feces of each home but what was shocking that these guys in these boats then would go into the edge of town and use the feces for fertilizer for their yeah and that was it and I remember taking rides through the farmland and we almost got decapitated because of the electrical wiring from one place where were maybe about 10 feet or so and if you're standing in back with truck I lost my hat I wonder one of the but it could just picture if it was lower could decapitate it because you're going in the truck right yeah like these traps across so we never went back to the country after after that we learned a hard lesson there but the people were very quiet made no attempt to fatten eyes and so we we had a female bear cutter we had good food we did our exercises every day and we just lounge around and we went over oh we went over all the post-war things that wouldn't have happened if the Olympic operation I know many people heard of this the Olympic operation was supposed to occur October 1st and you know what towba first has recorded we had one of the biggest Pacific typhoons now ara Hamada would have been ready to make Japan would have been similar to the Spanish Armada called England you talk about repetition in history or the actual the kamikazes and and I study we're going on the island of kyushu south of Otsu and I was a topographic draftsman and aerial of photo man and I studied the beach areas and now that I can retroactively little bit I remember saying to my father and said gee these beaches look so beautiful I don't see any any break of accumulation of warfare or anything I'm gonna find out after g2 told us what would it be we were our 400 men we've been in three units one two and three by hours I was in the third one and there were all pillboxes all in the ground h1 what that would been the probably those affiliated with the infantry and the engineers to establish an area they would have been allowed on the beach to and through and not annihilated they were watan right out so two-thirds are often would have been dead on that invasion that's not calm a little piece of the beach imagine all the other outfit so even though we had air power over Japan and we were bombing rice paddies to drain the war on they were fully ready for us and that would have been I you know to get was to what 50 60 thousand Japs within her August 6th and 9th with the chemo and Nagasaki bombing those 56 it couldn't compare until hundreds of thousand Americans would have been lost in that invasion it was called the Olympic operation I don't think historians got the message across to the American people after World War two what would have happened and now he read all up in the newspaper to feel sorry for the 5060 well what about the of the Americas that what haven't have died I wouldn't be here if we had the invasion well he came he was with the European contingent when the war ended in Europe they had all these infantry personnel bringing new uniforms will not come in to support us but the war ended so he went to Hokkaido he went to the island north of hatsune and stay different about probably a year but they were great to reinforces for the invasion of Japan but you know thank God our officers were crying I was in the Manila when the war ended and preparing for it and we're in a beautiful building of dude Boulevard in Manila and we'll just go every morning to second floor do our work and when they heard the war was over it would throw down their pens and because they put so much time into planning but then the second thought they finally settle down realized that so many people would have died of death as a good think of mother nature was against us you can't interfere Joe just would be a listener until he shuts us all right I'm sorry but I think there was a lot of history that that wasn't continual like Vietnam they they didn't really tell the world what would what it would have been like if there was an invasion of Japan so many lives of Americans were safe including my own okay now now the airfields that you helped construct were they mostly weren't really mostly for fighting for the mostly for bombers welter both there were twin 10,000 foot runways with 500 foot extensions and they had oh I got tears what sir I couldn't forget this at more time we fixed our airfield which was in a know I I studied it was in an alluvium coral area between two mountain ranges that coincide to Dewey's and open to the west of for the South China Sea so we were five miles inland and we built a twin I did a construction Tower and everything if we had b-17 in it and it was if the weather was dry so what was great well one morning and we had a camp on the side of the hill so we were able to look down on the airfield well there was a group of 24 b-17 ready to go into Central Pacific for an invasion for bombing run so I was having breakfast on the side of the hill watching the I loved airplanes I was watching the planes take another take it off and I was concerned too cuz we constructed the airfield and we're wondering how the planes were reacting to it and they were taking off for here oh nice funny the last airplane not these be Seventeen's had a toll then I okay so I'm having breakfast and looking and I hear a squeak and I look up and here's this b-17 midway down the runway suddenly Bob maybe could have been of to Thursday a pink cake on the runway this integrate with the four of props going to the heart standings where they were parked airplanes and they everybody had run out and moved the aircraft because of the fire but there was nothing left to that airplane that exploded and the first thing our officer said come on we have to get we need volunteers to go down and up safely the survivors I wasn't what I I didn't volunteer because I knew there wasn't what I could see there was a human being that can be discernible in that bomb now meanwhile the the 23 airplanes they saw what happened to the last one so they circled back and he did a dive over for respect for the plane that the comrades were lost and then they went off to the search Pacific meanwhile some are guys that went down they came back sick he said did we we had to pick up rings we had to pick up fingernails we had to pick up hair pieces we had to pick up wallets we got to pick up scrap shoes he says it was unbelievable but that's not the end of it the monsoon comes in for about three days the coral that could that they they build the airfield on became moist so dear planes were Bobby now so they had to put steel mesh down your honor clanking clanking at all and then that was a usable feel well since MacArthur was growing so so rapid they decided to use that other airfield because was almost like a waste the other airfield we had was more susceptible for but the one I worked on was discouraging because they had to put the steel mat down and then when the planes were not that the coral would ooze up through the opening so they have to stable plenty but anyway the fighters could use that's when this captain all remember his last name did those barrel rolls where all the victorious combat he had seven barrel rolls his wingman had four they had actually shot down 11 Japs in 11 minutes and they came back to the base to show their victorious world which was a wonderful thing say oh what a thing it was a week before when I was on the beach on April 12 1945 I'll never forget that because my pregnant daughter was was born on April 12th of all things that was that the day that Roosevelt died and there was sadness well a week before that when I was sitting on the edge of my foxhole five miles inland a comic-con's we had an air-raid so we had to go to Fox well it was at sunset so like I said we had east-west of view so we're looking into the Sun while all of a sudden we had this tremendous fireball in the sky okay we do something was happening a kamikaze hit an ammunition ship and the concussion took about maybe a minute now I'm sitting on an assignment foxhole the concussion comes through I got knocked into the into the foxhole because of the concussion the guys that were at the beach said it was like a title wave and washed the water all up against so that was a quiet experience to see that now how many men on a navy ship maybe 100 doing it nothing remained yeah ammunition doors no just a steel just fell back red hot white hot right back into the ocean there wasn't anything left to that ship how many people here what that was that you can't hey wait so that that was quite an experience to to see that the death of so many neighbor better to try and do their thing and one of the kind of cosmic I I think I saw that cosmic cosmic too because they were in and out there were a fast airplane so it was hard to even see him one of the rates they use Daisy cutters and we went the sergeant took us through the motor pool and showed us that the steel of the daisy cutter' and if you ever seen these ten ton trucks and equipment and they have maybe half inch holes completely through the engine block and what in treatment what it is what made it so awesome was that when I looked at the tire rim of one of these big trucks a piece of steel went well deflection went right through the you know how how how strong the rim of a truck is and that shrapnel right through that steel without even an aviation what do you mean when you say a daisy cutter' a daisy cutter' is it's something that's like maybe 18 inches or two inches in diameter and has a prong on the bottom that's the detonator so that what it's dropped the detonator goes off and the the bomb is this goes off either six inches or twelve inches above the ground and all the shrapnel takes everything out and that would be soldiers and if you weren't in your foxhole you you'll be dead so long Junior foxhole below the ground level the shrapnel coming from a daisy cutter' we had no deaths outdoors it's unbelievable every soldier did there when it was an air raid they got into the foxhole and we knew about Daisy cutters and this was broad daylight and we're here to go off boom boom known that but the Japs came in and they never did multiple raids it almost made one way strike so they haven't never had a follow-up so that was a lucky thing from us because we came by our foxholes then we saw that the devastation that these daisy cutters did the campaign area okay now Gary okay you briefly described the process in building an airfield yes first thing we have to survey yeah they got to you yeah we go out surveying I was a madman and lay out the whole thing and then the the equipment we have all kind of earthmovers bulldozers and they would just skim and of course our engineers make sure that everything was as horizontal as possible but this one field I've worked out but many hours had a slight hump in the middle and that's what caused that one airplane alright the planetoid was airborne so you put up his wheels and he wasn't so weight of the airplane fell down there and gromit dissipated but after oh you'll also had a plot heart standees which were little extensions to either side the runway where they can park the airplane probably two or three I have pictures of my I'll show you right after now when that airplane did explode the airmen had to get out moved the airplanes away so they wouldn't get damaged but once the I didn't take long to scrape scrape because your work day and night to scrape the twin that's what was always twin the runway so when you had fighters they had you had the Bombers yeah all kind of aircraft transports like to see the cc6 Explorer so I would say maybe it took about three three weeks for maybe less less than that depending by working conditions on board I'd talk about one and Dora the one immortai was perfect the call was at the right state and when the twits tips were made the no problem but in Mindoro the world there was a problem now of the heavy equipment or one how much roughly how much have equipment did you have and - how much lift did you need to move it around but logistically speaking well they had I could think of at least a half a dozen trailers that were used with that we had good dozen trucks we had alright a coordinate service we had always surplus that's why the Alford split it was I think October 30th of nineteen forty or forty-five I think it was so we had multi bulldozers there seventy seven or eight ton weight bulldozers and land scrapers land graders all kind of jeeps and weapons carriers which were a little bigger than the Jeep so they can move things around the engineers were always well supplied with excessive parts and that's why they were able to come out of an air raid and get their equipment back to working working area okay and again how much lift did what was needed to move that stuff around you know moving in between islands moving in on island how much ever one there's a lot of effort because you had you had no country roads long had to be done by truck convoy over difficult conditions of roads and then can't go to a beach area so you didn't have to have the LSTs or LSMs up on the beach and once that was there then it wasn't too bad to drive the trucks and drive all the equipment on an LST because the LST and that open central part with the living quarters and the either side in the backend and an LST fully loaded would only draft seven feet of water which was we remarkable but we got caught more time right we were stranded out of coral reef and somebody had a wait all the way luckily the infantry had the beach clear Coast they would pick this off like Normandy but I did experience that feeling getting wet up to my neck in then walked my waist into my neck until I got to the beach but see most of my problem was we only had a knapsack with basic and most of our personal stuff was left on the LST which dead waited the high tide that come to the beach in there we had put it off but meanwhile we dig our foxholes and whatnot it was hard to dig a fox on on a coral beach because the honey any soil so we had to use we had a cut-down of coconut trees and use them as barriers then we have about six inches into it plus twelve or eighteen inches and by the way coconut locks were the best things because of the organic interweaving of this destructive a coconut tree makes it in impenetrable by bullets and etc and so it's the best thing you could have on a foxhole what's coconut trees okay alright now moving on moving on to the second just general life how did you stay in touch with your family we were permitted to uh it was gave us an APO number and mail would go out and depending upon the conditions men would go out maybe of every week or every two weeks and made it work man we had mail call probably once a week or once every two weeks and one of those mail calls that fetch album was a disaster because my mother said the Tanner food to the Pacific well when we were dispersing the mail to deform the guys the captain says what is that stink what's that package so it's a dump our own Gary up with over what's what's in there distinct so terrible was lasagna was Bologna's was all kind of meatballs it that he said dumb are you settler gunning do you tell your mother no more food we got foodie take that stuff and throw it so i had taken go into the jungles and throw it throw it out that was a funny experience as i wrote home said no more so we got very very little mail we did have which was interesting we we didn't have during a mail call we were able to we did get some goodies okay so we had from the states an issue of cigarettes so then during that also tracks yeah i think was like to say so i took my cigarettes and I would use my cigarettes and I got a beautiful pair of Australian boots from the Australians that came through I bothered cigarettes and they gave me a beautiful alligator shoes and so we had so I used my cigarettes as a bargaining tool Coulter maybe a candy bar or something like that but we did get not very much so I can't remember too many calls in which will give him something from there that I hated a Red Cross because we're kid and anything when we left the states they had a Red Cross woman this big warehouse standing in the middle of the warehouse giving out toothbrushes to soldiers going overseas that nice yeah and what was a toothpaste what was what we never got anything from the Red Cross through my whole experience overseas maybe well then maybe they got food to the kitchen or something but I never saw anything from them from the Red Cross okay disappointing thing no do you have media why your mail was so wretched you mean for that one time or as it took so long to come from the states through tropical temperatures man and I like I said I'm a mail call maybe once every two weeks oh yeah woman why it was you know what was it always I mean was it infrequent and was it free but yeah the variant free and hardly caught up with us yes and I remember because were McCarthy was moving so fast that the vehicle was the last thing they have to be concerned with of course they did concern that with the morality on the soldiers that was those they would make sure you had APO number but I had two sisters so I wrote to my sisters but that was never never concerned with milk the mail call after that when it said I have so many things to do and you know we had beautiful firing pieces we would always clean them and fire him and and we're trying to be soldiers you know it so we try to stress the importance of doing things right and trying to stay ahead of things and we were because we were ahead of g2 inspecting in general but always sent his men out after the invasion to see what the enemy left behind well we got to what the enemy left behind before just to clear it and then come I had a machine gun and my head my tech I hit and I have that one piece like dissemble but I couldn't take it with me we just throw it outside Oh would you see anything no no no you weren't in that game of that no no no all right we are back and this is sort of taped - so what was what was the food light tell us about the food Oh food was a highly ration and if I could I wasn't too much on food but every recall there would be crackers they'd be dry eggs which was practically morning and so kind of biscuit hardly any iam eat probably any any meat mostly egg oriented type the food and if we got away from the kitchen then you would have to eat rations which were in crackerjack size boxes identified that speed DNS and they would have they would have cans in there that were unique they have a camera in a can so that you would see one each space of a can all around and that was that if you were caught without food you pumped your the outside and that would and you wouldn't have poor water in your later and that would activate a chemical of heat and that would heat the food that was in the inside so we had I think that was mostly in the supper then you have like a Fig Newton you have crackers and you had some kind of like a candy bar so K rush nothing yeah that that's what K rations came in the BD and that's okay so that you we were we would exchange things that we like that's when those infantrymen were throwing out excessive stuff but the the food I never got really involved with I never got discouraged with with the food oh and another thing in the Philippines but we went to the mess table in the mornings to get our eggs and biscuits we were bombarded with a Philippine of children coming into the men into the best wine so what the G I would do would share some of their meals with the children but that was then dismissed it was discouraged because what it was doing it was taken away from the nutrition of the soldier was supposed to be a fighter no matter how much not to see your head for the children you know you're just weakened and see it a little bit the thing I saw that in I think was Mindanao when we're moving we had across tributaries every tributary had a little short bridge but maintained by Philippine guerrillas and I remember going across a couple of those and the Filipinos we weren't going fast would point down and we looked down and they would have a Japanese on cross actually fix a fixed own now when we stopped that one night the Filipino guerrillas came in and he had like a half a dozen Japanese in some light condition on the cross and they stayed was that night because they needed food because America would take care of the guerrilla girls were very helpful and and he gave they gave these Japs nothing nothing and there were subconscious could even talk to Japanese were half half dead coming through but I find out for my neighbor who brought over one of his uncle's who was a guerrilla vanilla and see this see the Japanese when they have to find vanilla they consider themselves pristine so they would only take the jobs that were meaningful they didn't want to be concerned with the trash that that the civilians would have or food that the civilians would would eat so they would hire natives to take care of the many of those jobs or bullets find out those people who taken the trash or who were sweeping the streets were guerrillas and then we took the information to America because the guerrillas for four years had American soldiers living with them all through the island so the information getting back to sex Pacifica and McCarthy was excellent and this guy came right into my house he was that what was the same age of mine and told me stories because I was in Manila the end of the war though and he and I may have crossed paths hmm then I saw terrible thing going through Manila to go to Batangas for a permanent camp and the truck in front of us ran over a Filipino on a bike and we saw him get hit you know I was standing up right behind the cab on the truck and so after the truck pass pass by to see a torn bike and Filipino boy 5-footers was like ten feet long all of his major parts was just scattered well when i lieutenant did immediately investigated the incident who we were finding out later and got back to the family of that bicycles and gave me you know some kind of consolation and money or food and worked for the loss of that Filipino to have less of us that was us say how they got that no did your unit every use native labor when conducting air fields Oh native Labor's nine never saw a neighbor Labor's but when we occupy a like an inn up in the Japan we did have native men for for cleaning you know and maintaining the base we had a female barber but on honey islands I don't remember any native natives helping out moving the dirt or anything that that was dumped by the engineers okay and did you know if if there was a reason why they didn't use native flavor or whether were there not really natives around where you got word that the thing yeah they were doing done neighbors I can't recall talking because I almost looked like a Filipino anyway so I don't remember it some incidents I had some Filipinos came from up teeth I was an American you know for peanut worth of American army but I don't remember I think were concerned with freedom of their own way of life they were so more concerned about themselves rather than helping me the Americans doing labor but they were there at at the demand I think the follow-up groups the the rear echelons used it more okay dr. caps are always temporary right so come with come and go just strip down and go like oh I remember one what is it I think it was on on Mort I wear a native some some native woman and guys came to do our laundry and when he did the laundry they took our clothes tied them on a rope and thrown in the ocean and the wave action with clean then they'd fall nice nice and we'd have clean clothes that's the only laundry otherwise our uniforms walked with us during the war okay no did you did you guys have good supplies throughout the war yeah I say excellent supplies for warfare I would say poor the food right okay and did you ever feel you know pressure or stress or anything like that I would say I felt only one time was disappointed and I felt no stress no depression just a little anger when the infantry turned us down for food that's about the only thing I could think up okay and somewhere uh you know so you said that you never depressed were you ever you know scared or frightened I remember toes the difference between scary moments again what was it air raid what scared what said it was interfere were frightened we had to get to the foxhole but was never scared right okay now was there anything that special that she did for good luck had had a lot of conversations with full of soldiers us talking about their own home home life and her background we did a lot a lot of that and then Helene dia we went a little off took off a little trips I don't know if you're tweeting this one story but we're hanging out and we had a river it came through our camp so it's a free time and one of the guys said she'd look at that waterfall on the mouth I said yeah and that's up he said I bet there's a pool we should go swimming it know it's 10,000 never thought it I thought of that said let's let's sneak out and go up and and and swim like a bunch of dummies but we had a rifles we went up but we had to go from Boulder to Boulder because all the volcanic rock and we went way up I sure enough there was a pool of water so it took off for that blends down everything and went swimming under but on the way up we saw Japanese clothing treaties that were drying hmm and we never never gave it a second thought that there were Japs in the mountainous area he showed me we did what he had to do but we shot our way up and coming back what are we running to a guy hollering Lollapalooza we have because the chaps can say the elves it was another group of soldiers coming up to go to that waterfall and so we told them you know you got Japs in here be careful as there's no way we got enough ammunition we can find a way up and we got in and we got back to camp we said what a foolish thing we did we took about five four or five hours to do that venture so we in venture too far from camp after that we didn't realize the seriousness that the war was on even though they weren't Japs right with our infantry next to us they were there and we just were ignorant to that part see that's actually the advantage of having youth for a fighter they don't think of these more serious things and it just comes across their mind to go and do it mmm so okay and well you've mentioned many times that you're Catholic how know how able were you to practice your religion but we did have a chaplain and ice well maybe over the fish out joint time I saw him and he would hold a session I mean who didn't go anymore because he would you know pray or something I think he may have had a host which is important to the Catholics I don't remember taking a horse of anything but I remember in one session then when we got to Manila the captain asked me to drive her Jeep for him on a Sunday to go to a church north of Manila so that's what the only contact I had with Catholicism I said my prayers right but the army didn't really see to your religion see it's not mine it was a wit there was none at least of our guys they never complained about religion being or of being scared you know just admit that you had to have a religion to survive no we didn't have that hmm okay may I pray but I never said to Jesus but he was there but I just never directly pray pray to a god no God was on my shoulder but I don't know all right now aside from the trip up to the pool to do some swimming how did you guys entertain yourself we play cards we clean our rifle where we go up shooting a lot for lots of ammunition Oh God so we do a lot of firing a lot of cleaning exercise before you know what that they was over and we do I do course we had for you don't do our job or get our job done quickly and then we just said to tanto sausage what all right I were there were there any entertainers yes we had we had a guy got a couple pictures we had two men I think his name when I forgot they had Banco it's well about Mike Reitan West or the Japs were watching the same movie as we were on more time because when they were captured the dictionary showed that they were watching the same film that we were hmm then when possible for camp was like maybe a four or five month camp this entertainer guy with simple platform and show movie so we watched a movie but that was rare that entertainment was was rare what's the musical group all right um well friend then did you get any leave and what did you do on leave what in Japan we got leave we walk into town and and just casually look at some of the stores and then come that's the only time we were affiliated with civilians was in Japan otherwise was just jungle in and in the Philippines - it was just the Philippines yeah the Philippines were Mindanao was horrible all jungle and flooded rivers bodies and debris all over the place Mindoro was that's a half way between lose I didn't know was very susceptible because it was absolutely I don't option laity so we had a lot air raids Mindoro more type we had a lot to and entertainment we just did our job and talked about wall more what we're gonna do or how things are going and how the food over to keep ourselves clean I didn't shave so I didn't have to worry about shaving but we've washed out of our elements and we we even have trouble getting picking water because of chum and jumbo couldn't finish I took Adam with three other friends in a day and when I got back to the states I actually had a yellow hue to my skin hmm now I was at UConn they say you shoot that sick wonderful said to me I was signing over class and now there were your skin is and I said well I just got back from from the tropics and take an average and whatnot but I do literally took my my lesson every day a lot of the guys that know the medicine was philately right and malaria okay that was a top thing I think I can get dysentery or anything I just cooked kind of food age you know I did create at that kinda kill yes baby even when you're frightened so by what are you Frank that's all right okay now I'm about those stories you know I'm gonna do this when I get home do you remember any any of your comrades having a particularly interesting when I get home story no they were all most of them because of the high intelligence of our guys they were always complaining I'm not getting the right rank they to talk too much about what they're gonna do when they one day left the army so we talk about home which is I'm glad to be home with our loved ones that's it okay um right now would you guys pull any pranks on each other yes when we took pictures of certain guys who were were actually at the board of foods are so their their bite parts will were more bones than then that says no intention there they're both stood out so we would take pictures with them saying that we rescued them as prisoners of war that was hilarious I can't think of any any mother very much I'm joking I remember chasing a particular soldier out of my foxhole one time because he wouldn't do his foxhole jump into someone else's but I can't think of any serious jokes no okay I was all down oh yes in one more time no I'm sorry wasn't Mindoro I was able to to trade with a native and I've gotten miniature of monkey of a live monkey like monkey okay never grew more than about 10 inches so I had that I I carry it in my pocket I have pictures of it I carry him in my pocket well what time word in the can him in my tent and a larger monkey because when we cleared the campsite in this one area all the jungle trees every morning we loaded with monkeys they would be disturbed because we were in there in their area so it was easy to grab the monkey well a larger monkey came into my tent and kidnapped it so I screamed and I said hey we gotta get my money back so two or three of us chased the bigger bucket to another 10 and finally retrieved the monkeys a little more careful even though we had boars running through we make sure there weren't any more monkeys went to a camp so I had that monkey and in the typhoon throwing from that was going from this was going from we I kept the monkey all the way to Mindanao and going to I'm sorry going from look at the United States yeah going from Mindanao back to Luzon and I kept it then when we left Luzon to go to Japan we hit a typhoon so the monkey became see second and it was a funniest thing than the sea it would hold onto the pump around you know but that thing I got all the way to the god of Japan but we were told we couldn't bring any food plants or handles back to the States so what's hilarious that we had like celery we had Dane of hell Japanese Self and and one orderly that made our beds and just was nice in the kitchen was quite friendly so I gave the monkey to him because we call the Japs monkey at that time so guy said well you've given your monkey to a monkey I thought I'd give it to this guy you know because I like that I wish that came home and if I got a whole bunch of pictures of of the monkey did he do any tricks no he just saved my pocket and in state no he would if I was doing something he would stay on my arm and take the salt need the salt for my mind my body it was a nice moment he got adopted it was a female account adapted think was a but it could be morning eight inches in length real miniature and the native told me there would never grow and so that's why I took it mm-hmm what did you think of of your officers or if your fellow soldiers photo soldiers very friend a lot of lot of the officers not so there was a barrier all right and why I know they they just stayed in their realm and didn't fraternize with a list of men like I said member and fit job and they had those parties with the nurses oh yeah even those the lieutenant we had in our directed engineering section he wasn't to to tonight and careful too much me had a captain was was pretty good he was a little snotty when the war ended in Japan so I'll give you a increase in rank if you real list I found that better we listen sorry state of T 3 the other guys faked think they're real listen and they got they got the rape race I could have been a master sergeant if I think wall you know but I was ready to go home how could you figure in listened I know I I don't know how they did it wait wait as n't they actually dream listed or yeah and they did get they get their promises of it increase as that was offered the master so I said no way okay so so they said oh yeah I'll realist they got bumped and then they're like caf-co okay yeah those guys made it by I just walked away from conditional offer okay did you keep a personal diary that's a guest gets the Army Regulations yes but I lost it okay it's somewhere in the house I can't fight it because you know why that invasion two more time where we at a coral reef right I had to diary in my pocket right you can see the war life ah my notes I'm fine don't know where the heck it is somewhere in the house because that's why I kept a diary but no one knew I kept it hmm so that that sums it gets army regulations right so I wish I could find because I had over that's the never thing run discours II we had a best kit aluminum front so every place that I went I took my boys can not knife and I X the name of where we were when we got to Fort Devens I went to my mess kit and they wouldn't give it to me of all things and I had all these places visited so I was very discouraged that I couldn't keep my basket because of all the places they went i put the names of the areas so was the look this is five there a little bit okay no not moving on to questions about after your service do you recall the day that your service ended oh absolutely January 14 46 omj that was out to Fort Devens we came out of Fort Lewis we we missed coming home for Christmas 4:45 the rep at that camp we had to wait for food tray so I think get back to Fort Devens about the 12th of January then was discharged on the 14th they give us a chance they gave us money to get home by training ok very discouraging like a hotel really why I kept tequila we have the second floor you can't when I got to the second floor with a note on the door we're not home if you're home we're visiting relatives on a certain Street come on over there when you when you're ready there's no one home to greet me how'd it go into a house full of people saying well welcome home that's that one of those soldiers here soldiers there people here people that and just disseminate that was it and two weeks later I was back at UConn to go back to school so there was no glory going home he didn't get it you didn't get a hero's welcome really no way no because everyone you encounter with had comparable experiences and in my family might run laws were all officers and my one brother law it was in the Air Force shot down over the Alps and became a prisoner of war for 14 months he just deceased it's just died he was in Stalag 114 months but the interesting thing over the Alps when they got shut down was that there are 25,000 here they're going to pull st as a decoy and his group got all shot down he was a navigator about Madeira out front he couldn't get out the front he had to go back down to the bomb bay doors then when he did the person opened a Luftwaffe spotted him now the young roof offers what would take a propulsive kill this guy this Luftwaffe and we figured out later was a senior pilot circled my brother law all the way down until he got to the ground I've been waved them goodbye make sure he lands safely mom where do you think that that brings boost pit bulls man when you think of identity but see the Germans would do anything for him if you were a cop above air force if you were infantry or anything else they treat you like scum but you kill you but if you were there force you had a meeting with the German army hmm and that I don't think it's in the history books that is a gospel truth because they respected the air man more than the infantry or engineer or anything else it's not something hmm and there's an example of the more yep yogurt Germans to commit like that they would just decimate them the pilots I mean the versions but the older guys that deep respect for that's funny in the Army Union you do have that that a spirited core between capable fighters you know they should respect and the Air Force had it with the Germans hmm actually and on that did you ever encounter a new Japanese POWs yeah there was a Ronda no not filled up those are what they were captured by the Filipinos right across yeah when a new result but POWs no okay no I don't know what they do with it oh they turn me over to the girls Wow in the Philippines I was never had a had a contingent I never saw a contingent of POWs the Japanese never know okay the guerrillas by the way in the Philippines were Islamic mostly and and control northern luzon from Baguio north and the land of the tailless monkeys Zamboanga that was in Mindanao Peninsula oh yeah reassigned to colleges all right well on that so you know we did you work or did you go back to school when he got out immediately went back to school okay and we had summers off the jail with the 52:20 Club you heard that back to school going back to school yeah we did two weeks back to see you okay then the suburbs were fifty to twenty Club oh sorry that was a government gave you $20 for 52 weeks every weekly at $20 why oh okay all right and then I had the you accumulate so many points for GI Bill of Rights I had that that got me all the way through only through my master's program I had to go to the University of Bridgeport to get my sixth year to teach public education I used my GI Bill rights they're too nice I had enough 68 points of 70s I'm like that okay no did you make any close friendships when you were in the service yeah why yeah buddy became my best best man you know my wedding in 1954 okay Wally Cornell from Washington DC his brother was with us in the same outfit okay both draftsmen there were the Sullivan brothers all died on that ship that sucked in the Central Pacific nurse and Eden came out that know off with could have twins or triples or anything two minutes so sibling so what they did talk to Wally Cornell his brother they took his brother permit motor pool ah so they and then he save it so they were separate because we would move as advances around the motor pool will be the rear so we're always separated so that's how you get around that do not disturb in the outfit and any other any other fringy actions I ran into when I was a geologist and working for our Co in Montana I ran into one of my buddies that was an engineer for a company in Montana we met at a at a breakfast nook of all things hmm and we you know compared this was like maybe eight years after we got it got out but I said yeah I regret it was that oh yes another one one one soldier was from Connecticut that I know Bob Jepsen from Bridgeport he started out as a fireman in Bridgeport he was the lead Axman this guy was crazy and he said he loved his job he's actually to get back he said he said I would go into those houses and the face was a fire I had to leave Axman I just tear that off and get in there see what have fires he was that kind of a guy right he got malaria a little bit so you had to go back Accio to get rehabilitated they came back to the outfit and then after the war he could get married in Bridgeport my uncle gave me a right to the wedding this way and that's about the only contact I think my my best man and the guy in the Montana in Bob Jepsen weekend which was I think too bad because I was I was so concentrating on my own career objectives that I didn't look left and right enough I thought I I really messed up that part because I and the only again you would have more feeling for each other and we could have compared stories and family and I goofed in that area so I started late and I got three letters back from Wyoming of guys are doing in New York company but wish I had many more contact with the guys that knew in the army hmm so we just went our separate ways that was that which was set yeah well did you ever join the veterans organization no I tell you why I didn't want to join the only big one was a it was what the what's the American Legion yeah I didn't want to join an American Legion because I went to one meeting and it was controlled by World War two guys I mean well one guys okay I said know where I'm going to go in and enjoy the American Legion so I didn't join anything by where about 40 years later fifty years later I decided to and I do now very heavily with the DAV the simple American vets because I feel there's not enough done and after seeing that much Strasse their water if ik soldiers returning from the war I have more feeling for they the injured soldier now which I didn't before so I'm now an advocate of the DAV and Veterans of Foreign Wars I do that and but I will not join any army organization that meets monthly or something like that I just do it to avail right okay what did you do as a career after the war I became a petroleum I had that one sheep for you I'm gonna give you anyway petroleum love I was an exploration geology and geologist and petroleum I worked in the field for locating oil fields okay and did your military experience influence your thinking about war or about the military in general no no I just can't became concerned about the poor guys I Vietnam hmm the Korean War I did have a couple people in my neighborhood died the Korean War but I never feel ease for the Korean War at all cuz you Kathy was turned down and all that jazz it was going to Truman fired him and whatnot it was a all message so I didn't pay attention to Korean War but I did for the Vietnam War because he had what five hundred six hundred thousand men stuck on a little piece of a land and not through anything it's almost like gonna write you all these guys they're not doing anything there's different kind of warfare down yeah it can't go back to good old-fashioned you lined up the our lineup there will fight for us yeah yeah for back good life itself and I guess then then the inverse of the question did your how did your military experience carry over to your civilian life and you know any outlooks that you gained in the military yeah great appreciation for America freedom especially in the decade of the 50s and the fourth that's my primary more people I talked to says that's the decade of the 50 is the last decade that reflects what a record was before World War two okay after that went on and also the computer ruined everything hmm what technology has to go ahead yeah right how did your service and experiences affect your life well it made me a better feel man field man as an exploration of geology okay because I could I spent many a night sleeping on the side of a mountain and feel how the door they served my experiences in outdoors experiences in the war catered me to go into a career that had up door like part of it so that's why I went into it and that I wanted to really be a civil engineer work on the highways and whatnot but I failed out of that so I went into geology okay and that gave me I would then when I got to jail today I found out that was a cyclic organization five years good five just no good and so I got caught in the doldrum not quit went into education and I was shocked when I went into education 1959 in Casper Wyoming I think I had Dick Cheney as one of my students people he graduated in 1959 and I when I went into the task WA highschool sort of principle and said you know I got laid off in geology but I like think about teaching he says who are you I said I'm Jean Delmar Oh originally from Connecticut check down this cherry so now from New Jersey my name is mr. Frese and he says gene you come in here and you could teach every I have something for you every day at this high school so for months I thought I'd catch bicycle alte brucke mostly and I'm sure kini horse would father he graduated 1959 so Cheney was in that one class and I went from geology to teaching just like oh like that and no desire to teach no not over but Duda Joe just white told me go try it and then since I I didn't like the oil industry anymore because it was erratic I said okay so I called Hartley and thanks to your your culture this Irishwoman in Hartford hmm said gene I appreciate this call I'll do everything in the world why we need people like you says you come back and aha everything set up for you for the University of Bridgewater I called her I wrote I wrote things down on a piece of paper not even the size I fell on the floor my hope to have one piece of paper she sent me up to a dr. Phillips at did you know I I go to University of Bridgeport and do this kind lady will remember her name from Bridgeport sent it from Hartford education I went in to the to this professors office dr. Phillips third floor some building take out a sheet of paper said gene you all set you follow this and you'll have your sixth year in three years I stepped on a piece of paper and I I got my sixth year and three three years hmm and I went to public education all right well the last question is there anything that you would like to add that we haven't covered in this interview something will come up I'll catch you the next time no I would say that right found interesting was a mobility and the experience I just found that the exciting most at a time and I thought there was an obligation you know you had a task to do I felt comfortable with the task I never had dreams when I got home about it or anything it was just an experience which I found to be like a store it was like and I'm writing a writing it like like like a story I found that oh boy you know what you're gonna have to help me get up here just to get my legs oh yeah let me know so actually well you'll see when you when you take take take this you may would get a better idea of my background what and we're back um the the the the to really last questions that I have the first is the did you ever work with any Australians only one had bothered uh yes we had some more students come to nobody kept it was those boobs around yeah they're very very nicely we had the two Airmen that took out the jet plane and more time yeah we they were very very friendly okay and then the the other question was digit if you're you did you get it work around the clock or did they work in shifts with me in the army yes we worked piecemeal okay yeah when we were needed and we had time off preparations the wheels we were not we were told to do things and but we never felt pressurized we just did it okay what was the fastest airfield you guys ever constructed I would say that would be in Mindoro okay the one that didn't didn't succeed too well because of the software all right yeah all right well and again no again anything else that you want to add you can think of I think I think you did a pretty good job I think we covered quite a few eleven months on the sea helping the Navy volunteering yeah I think that's alright that covers it pretty Brittany pretty much all right well thank you very much you today

Channel: ccsuvhp

Views: 786

Rating: 4.6666665 out of 5

Keywords: Del Mauro, Genarino, Interview (TV Genre), World War II (Military Conflict), Veteran (Profession), War (Quotation Subject)

Id: Yypx2j42DxU

Length: 99min 8sec (5948 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 19 2012