Mark Donald Tompkins transcript

Collection — Container: Single Folder Collections - 2009 Box 2 (09.0048-09.0084), Folder: 09.0062 - Folder

Identifier: 09.0062

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

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.

Dates

Created: 1942-1944
Other: Majority of material found in 1943
Other: Date acquired: 05/14/2009

Creator

Tompkins, Mark Donald (Family)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open to all researchers.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to quote, publish, broadcast or otherwise reproduce from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Associate Dean for Special Collections & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Florida State University Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Biographical or Historical Information

Mark Donald Tompkins served as a Medic in the US Army during the Battle of the Bulge and later became a truck driver. Topics covered in the interview include his family and his training at Camp Blanding, FL and Camp Robinson, AK. He was trained as a medic and was assigned to Camp McCoy, WI, and Camp Shanks. He met Joe Lewis at one point. He discusses his time in England, along with landing in Normandy five days after D-Day, and his service near the front lines during the Battle of the Bulge. He recounts dealing with British, Belgian, French, and Austrian civilians. He expressed regret at not having prevented looting but denied taking part in it. He also talked about coming back to the US on the USS Savannah, a battleship. He shipped out to Gloucester, England in 1942. Tompkins participated in the Battle of Saint Lo and the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes forest then continued on to the Rhineland and Nuremberg. During the occupation, Tompkins was posted in Vienna, Austria.