Camp Blanding (Fla.)

Scope and Contents

This collection contains a manuscript memoir of Anthony Catalino's WWII service in the U.S. Army Field Artillery and staff work at Army hospitals and supply depots in North Africa and Italy.

Content Description This collection relates to Staff Sergeant Philip Lester Brinson who served with the U.S. Army Air Corps in the tail gunner position on B-26B aircraft number 41-18058 Martin Marauder with the 450th Bomb Squadron, 322nd Bombardment Group (Medium) during World War II. On September 9. 1943, this aircraft was hit by flak on a mission to Boulogne, France. The aircraft subsequently flipped over and crashed into the English Channel which killed the entire crew. Brinson was awarded the Purple Heart medal and Air Medal with 1 oak leaf cluster. This collection includes photographs, documents, Brinson's engraved Purple Heart Medal, and his wallet that was returned to the family after his...

Scope and Contents This collection pertains to Thomas A. Butler, who served as a First Lieutenant in the 468th Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA) Battalion during World War II. Butler served in France and Germany from 1944-1945, receiving five battle stars and a bronze star medal. In the immediate months following the war, he was stationed at the Berchtesgaden Hof Hotel, which was adjacent to Hitler’s retreat at Obersalzberg, where he operated the Hotel as a retreat for Army officers. Butler maintained a detailed Service Record Book that includes his personal information, transfers, the locations he was deployed, the people he met, and military letters he received during and after the war. In aggregate,...

Scope and Contents This collection pertains to Herman C. Giles (Combat Infantry Rifleman with the 103rd Infantry Division), who served in the European Theater. He served as a corpsman with a medical detachment to the 66th Infantry Division according to his typed "Background" statement. His discharge papers note that he was a rifleman in Company G, 411th Infantry Regiment, 103rd Infantry Division, serving in the European Theater, 1943-1945. Giles was stationed at Camp Blanding in 1943, Columbus, GA, for Air Corps training in 1943, and then Texas for infantry training. This collection contains a number of letters on Camp Blanding stationery. He describes Camp Blanding as "a mile and a half in the middle of...

Content Description

This collection relates to Harold and Lee Hart who served in the Pacific Theater of Operations and European Theater of Operations respectively. This collection contains two manuscripts, "Bataan ... My Story", by Harold Hart, and "Never to Forget", by Les Hart, and an accompanying current newspaper photograph of Lester hart. Harold's manuscript recounts events from June 1941 - June 1946, and covers his training, station in Manila, capture, experiences as a Prisoner of War, liberation, and return home. Les' manuscript recounts his experiences in World War II from 1944 to 1945 with the 10th Mountain Infantry Division, 220th anti-tank Unit.

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This collection relates to James W. George who served as a Chief Master Sergeant in the 9th U.S Army Air Force. Wilmot R. George was James George's brother and also served in the European Theater. He served as a Tech Sergeant and received a Silver Star. This collection contains a one-page handwritten summary of James George's military service and ten-page memoir of his brother Wilmont's service during the Second World War.

Scope and Contents The Paul Curtis Koerner Collection was donated by his daughter Judy Davis. The collection contains a variety of items, papers, and correspondence from Koerner's career as an Army Engineer in WWII. The collection contains his copy of the New Testament that he recieved while training at Camp Blanding, to his death certificate. Overall, the documents and letters provide a rough outline of the experience of army service, during and after the war.  This collection also contains a group photo, stop watch, and medals including Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Armed Forces Service and United Nations Medal, Korean Service Meadal, National Defense Medal, a screw driver, slide ruller, and German back...

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of an oral history interview transcript of Leroy Reece who served as a Private First Class in the United States Army during World War II in the all-black unit, Company B, 317th Engineer Battalion which served in the European Theater.

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This collection relates to Private First Class William Alfred Mansuy who served with Company F, 126th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division in World War II and was killed in action on April 22, 1945, in Luzon, Philippine Islands. The collection includes documents, letters, greeting cards, photographs, and a dress uniform jacket.

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This collection contains the oral history interview transcript of Mark Donald Tompkins. Tompkins served in the U.S. Army during World War II as a medic assigned to the 471st Quartermaster Trucking Regiment under General Omar Bradley.

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The collection of Philip Stockton May contains a nine-page memoir. His memoir is about his experience from when he volunteered for the service in 1943 from Jacksonville, Florida to 1965 when he married a U.S. Navy widow.

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The Sergeant Robert L. Wilson transcript describes his experiences as a truck driver in the 63rd Infantry Division in France and Germany during World War II. Wilson describes his basic training, the poor leadership among his officers, the backgrounds of his comrades, German civilians, traveling from city to city, losing supplies, the Allied victory, seeing Dachau, the Nuremberg Trials, coming home, and resuming his education at Duke University.

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This collection contains letters written by Sidney Rochelson to his parents while he was attending medical school in the 1930s, while he was attending Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, during World War II, and the remainder of his life. Also incuded are letters to and from his wife Martha while he served as a surgeon with the 624th Medical Clearance Company in the European Theater of Operations during World War II.

Scope and Contents

This collection relates to Staff Sergeant Bascom Walden Sparkman who served with Service Company, 753rd Tank Battalion, in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Southern France, and Germany during World War II. The 753rd served as a detached unit assigned as armored support for both the 36th and 45th Infantry Divisions.  The collection includes letters sent from Sparkman to his wife Eleanor and his family.  Letters from his family to Sparkman are also included.  Furthermore, the collection includes documents, unit newspapers, diaries, postcards, personal items carried by Sparkman, and artifacts.

Scope and Contents Helen E. Walsh served in the Women's Army Corps from September 1942 to October 1945. She served as an artificer in Oran, Algeria, North Africa; Caserta, Italy; and Dijon, France. She earned three major battle stars for her service close to the front lines in three major battle areas of the European Theater, including Rome-Arno, North Apennines, and Rhineland. She was a Sergeant Major when she received an honorable medical discharge. Walsh remained active in the National Association of Women's Veterans, and kept extensive scrapbooks about her own service in the WAC, and of World War II in general. The collection contains 1 box of documents and clippings about Walsh during and...

Scope and Contents The Werner Wisian manuscript includes detailed descriptions of Private Wisian's time as a member of the 5th Army, Company G, 2nd Battalion, 141st Infantry. He served in the Mediterranean Theater in Italy, and spent over a year as a prisoner of war in various prisoner of war camps such as Stalag IIIB. His 24 page manuscript includes correspondence with a Russian prisoner of war and information on the Texas National Guard. His 1995 manuscript covers topics such as life during basic training, specific actions in combat, life as a prisoner of war, and personal reflections on the war. Also included are facts taken from the Official 36th Infantry...