Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, Cressman enlisted in Los Angeles, California. In the first clip, he describes his choice of service branches, and in the second clip, he reflects on the contributions made by all the branches as well as by civilian workers during World War II.

Recorded at Lakeview Village retirement community, Lenexa, Kansas, April 2001.

A paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division, Russell flew across the English Channel and parachuted into France on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

Recorded in Endicott, New York, March 2001.

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At eighteen, Franzese enlisted in the Marines and served for two years in Vietnam. He describes the frenzy of fire that followed after an American soldier stumbled upon a Viet Cong soldier.

Recorded at the Bloomington Public Library by a student interviewer as part of an oral history class at Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois, April 2001.

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Rasmuson was a member of the first WAC class to graduate from officer training school in Fort Des Moines, Iowa, in 1942. During World War II, she was the school's director, and later in her twenty-year career she became director of the entire Women's Army Corps. In a sequence of clips, she describes the newfound self-esteem that resulted from women's participation in military service; her annoyance at people who focused more on what women soldiers wore than on their accomplishments; and her close encounter with a bomb while accompanying a class of WACs to their assignments in England.

Recorded at her home in Fairbanks, Alaska, May 2001.

A lieutenant on the battleship USS Alabama, Haynes describes the destruction caused by a typhoon off the Pacific island of Okinawa and his efforts to warn the fleet admiral of the storm's approach.

Recorded at Lakeview Village retirement community, Lenexa, Kansas, in April 2001.

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Miller, who served as a combat security policeman in Vietnam and Thailand, discusses heroism.

Recorded by a student interviewer as part of an oral history class at Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois, May 2001.

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As a chaplain, Dussair did not have to go to war, but after seeing so many friends enlist, he wanted to provide spiritual guidance and comfort to the troops. The first clip describes his responsibility for writing letters to the parents of soldiers who died, and the second explains his reasons for enlisting.

Recorded at Lakeview Village retirement community, Lenexa, Kansas, in April 2001.

Upon graduating from high school, Thomas became a welder and helped to build B-25 bombers at plants in Kansas City and Missouri.

Recorded at Lakeview Village retirement community, Lenexa, Kansas, in April 2001.

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As a corporal in a tank battalion, Peterson witnessed the atrocities of the German concentration camps (clip 1) and aided in the Liberation of Paris, August 25, 1944 (clip 2). He also shares with us his hope that his interview and his presentations to school students will teach younger generations about the contributions that veterans have made to our country (clip 3).

Recorded at Lakeview Village retirement community, Lenexa, Kansas, in April 2001.

In addition to battling enemy fire, servicemen like Sgt. Kozicki also had to contend with severe weather conditions in Korea, resulting for him in a trip to a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) unit.

Recorded at the Johnson-Phelps VFW Post 5220 by a student interviewer as part of an oral history class at Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois, in April 2001.

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