United Service Organizations (U.S.)

Scope and Contents

1st Lieutenant Irvin Baker's unpublished manuscript describes his experiences as a platoon leader with the 4th Marine Division and 10th Amtrac Battalion of the United States Marine Corps. He led his platoon through the Battle of Iwo Jima.

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The Edward L. Herp papers document Captain Edward Herp's time spent as a radio operator for the 321st Fighter Control Squadron of the 9th Air Force for the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. The collection contains an oral history, various photographs, the bulk of them taken at the Buchenwald concentration camp, a letter discussing the photographs, personal documents, postcards, and other items that illustrate his service in Great Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, and Czechoslovakia. Also in the oral history, Herp discusses his time spent working at Florida State University for WFSU-TV and as a professor of television production.

Scope and Contents This collection contains the World War II 7th Infantry Division personal letters of U.S. Army Chaplain Assistant and Mess Sergeant Job C. Martin to his family in Pennsylvania. The collection also contains photographs and documents. Beginning with letters written while at the St. Fidelis Seminary in 1940 through his discharge in 1946, Martin discusses induction, basic training, anti-air training, reclassification, Pacific theater training in Ft. Ord, California, service in Oahu, the Philippines, Okinawa, and Seoul, Korea. His letters numbering, on average, several per week, provide a unique insight into the daily life of a G.I. Though he does not discuss combat due to...

Abstract

The Joseph K. Pettengill Collection was donated to Florida State University by Robert Sherman Pettengill in 2005, having discovered his father’s letters after retiring in 1999.  The centerpiece of the Pettengill Collection is a series of letters from Joseph Pettengill, an army clerk with the G-3 Section of the 6th Army Group, Hq Special Troops in the ETO, to his mother and wife throughout his time serving in the United States Army in World War II.

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This collection relates to actress and singer Frances Langford who served with the United Service Organization (USO) during World War II with Bob Hope. The collection contains an oral history interview transcript, four photographs, one from her USO days and three from 1998 when the interview was conducted, as well as audio taped interviews of Langford.

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The collection of Wayne Mixson contains an oral history transcript of an interview provided by the Reichelt Program for Oral History. Mixson, who would later serve as the 39th Governor of Florida, served in the United States Navy from 1942-1946 and participated in the Lighter-Than-Air Project; he worked with a crew in EP Squadron 14, a blimp squadron.

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This collection relates to Diana Naylor Morgan who served as a junior USO hostess in New Jersey during World War II. The collection includes an oral interview with Morgan, news articles, photographs, and letters sent to her from American and British soldiers deployed overseas during World War II.

In the letters, servicemen describe their day to day activities while deployed overseas, their locations, views on the Japanese, and opinions about the Atomic Bomb. A letter dated June 2, 1944, written by an American sailor Ernest Feasy was not censored; Feasy describes how he is waiting for D-Day to arrive.

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The Paul K. Dougherty Collection includes photographs, documents, and various artifacts Dougherty obtained while in Germany. His collection contains rare original German propaganda publications such as Deutschland Erwach and Adolf Hitler. Also included in the collection is a personal photograph album that belonged to Nazi official and founder of the anti-Semitic newspaper Der Stürmer, Julius Streicher. Other items included are Nazi Party flags/fabrics, Paul K. Dougherty’s camera, and camera accessories.

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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 of photographs and ship log documents relates to a U.S. Navy sailor who served in the Pacific Campaign on the U.S.S. Alchiba (AKA-6). The photographs depict Torpedo Squadron 3, Cavite Navy Yard, Philippines before, during, and after the December 10th, 1941 Japanese attack on Cavite Navy Yard. Included are images depicting the change of command ceremony for Admiral Francis W. Rockwell at Cavite Navy Yard on November 5, 1941. One image captures PT-31 and the other PT. The ship's log and photographs of the Alchiba reflect the activities of the Alchiba during the Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands landing on August 7, 1942, November 1942, and December 1942. Photographs also...

Scope and Contents This collection contains personal papers including letters, notes, sketches, newspaper articles, and a radio interview of Mildred Shearer about her work with the United Service Organization (USO) sketching servicemen. Almost 600 photostatic copies and a few original portraits are included as well. The letters are mainly thank you notes in which servicemen and family members of servicemen commend her for her sketches. However, there are a few personal letters from friends and in one case, an entire collection of correspondence with one man in the Marines named Lieutenant Ralph Hunter Bennett. Her letters from Bennett are romantic in nature, unfortunately, they are abruptly cut...

Scope and Contents The Theodore Harrington Collection contains items gathered by Theodore Harrington's mother and pertain to his time as an airman on the home front during World War II. The majority of the collection centers around his years of service in the Army Air Corps, from 1944-1945. Contained in the collection are folders with material created by Harrington or those around him, including letters, journal and memoir entries, and photographs. The letters are primarily from Harrington to either friends or his parents. The photographs feature servicemen posing with women or are of Harrington's family. The remainder of the collection includes newspaper clippings, church bulletins, postcards,...

Scope and Contents The Sonia Visser collection contains one folder with a 24-page typed transcript of an oral history interview and another six page document with questions and answers from Sonia Visser. Sonia Visser served in the Women's Army Corps from 1943 to 1945. She experienced public discrimination as a WAC in rural American towns. She served overseas in the Pacific in base port command at Hollandia, New Guinea. While in New Guinea, she experienced attempted sexual assault on two occasions and witnessed the prevalent threat of sexual assault against other women soldiers. She went home and discharged in October 1945, and later married a soldier who had proposed to her on the ship going to...