Collections

This collection includes letters written to Arnold Busch, a basketball coach for Calvary Methodist Church in Lakewood, Ohio, by the students he previously coached. Whether drafted or enlisted, many of the men kept up a correspondence with Busch throughout the war years. This collection also includes Calvary Church newsletters and pamphlets, pamphlets regarding persons registered for service, ration books and other rationing documents, and letters returned to Busch because their recipients were MIA, deceased, or relocated. Also included are photographs of Calvary Church activities on the Homefront, the basketball team, and the Calvary Church's V-J Day service as well as a copy of an article in which the photograph was featured.

This collection contains a transcript provided by the Reichelt Program for Oral History. Benjamin Epstein was a Jewish American serviceman who served in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1942-1946, and he trained at Fort Logan, Colorado. He was transported on the U.S.S. Dorchester, which was torpedoed by a German U-Boat in February 1943. He described escaping from the sinking ship and swimming to one of two lifeboats. He was picked up by the U.S.S. Escambia and taken to Greenland. He remained in Greenland until January 1945 where he was transferred to Fort Totten, New York and remained there until discharged in 1946.

This collection relates to Lieutenant Clarence H. Ratliff who served in the United States Navy during World War II and his wife Elizabeth P. Ratliff who served in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps for almost 7 years. This collection contains military documents, photograph negatives, and miscellaneous documents related to their service.

Elmer Hubbard served as Radioman Second Class in the US Navy's 1st Naval Beach Battalion in the Mediterranean and European Theaters, as well as the Pacific Theater aboard the U.S.S. Buckingham attack ship during World War II. Hubbard participated in the amphibious landings at Anzio, Salerno, and Southern France. The collection consists of original wartime transcribed, typed, and mimeographed letters from original handwritten letters Hubbard wrote to his parents.

This collection pertains to Evelyn King who served as a U.S.O. hostess during World War II. The collection contains letters, postcards, V-mail, and greeting cards. The collection also contains newspaper and magazine clippings, various booklets and pamphlets, numerous lifestyle magazines, Navy and Army uniform buttons, and prints.

This collection contains two oral histories; one with Dr. Philip Gilman, Jr. and one with James Izumizaki. It also includes the reprint of a letter by Pvt. Lavern Borg, Jr. written on April 2, 1945. The letter tells about his experiences with the 5th Marine Division of the U.S. Marine Corp in the battle of Iwo Jima. The next document includes a service record and medallist dated June 1967, January 1969, and August 1973. A pamphlet collected by the Pajaro Valley Arts Council, California entitled Nihen Bunka Japanese Culture: One hundred years in Pajaro Valley is also in the collection.

The collection of Janet Wells contains an oral history transcript of an interview provided by the Reichelt Program for Oral History, photographs and documents pertaining to her experience serving with the WAVES during World War II. Included are photographs of WAVES recreational activities, military portraits, and personal photographs of family and friends. Collection documents include letters regarding qualifications and service, receipts, certificates of satisfactory service, graduation, certificates, WAVES anniversary celebration programs, identification cards, tourist memorabilia, photographs, invitations, a booklet on transitioning back to civilian life, and uniform tickets. Publications included are a WAVES newspaper (1944), a personal letter (1944), WAVES handbooks and pamphlets, WAVES magazines (The Havelock, 1944-45), and a copy of Sounding Off (18 Jan. 1944), and Up Came a Ripple which was a book of WAVES cartoons by Dorothy J. Byerly in 1945.

This collection consists of an oral history interview transcript of Joseph Jennings, who was enlisted in the U.S. Navy and worked as an aircraft radio operator during World War II and served in the South Atlantic guarding the Brazilian coastline near Rio do Janeiro. The interview covers his duties and anecdotes, like his training in Norfolk, VA, his emergency appendectomy, and his time in Dutch Guyana. The interview also describes his early years during the Great Depression in Oklahoma.