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Thomas Claw [2004]

Veterans History Project Service Summary:

  • War or Conflict: World War, 1939-1945
  • Branch of Service: Marine Corps
  • Service Unit/Ship: 1st Marine Division
  • Location of Service: New Caledonia; Australia; New Guinea; Palau; Solomon Islands
  • Highest Rank: Private First Class
  • Collection Number: AFC/2001/001/52553

View full service history

"We never thought about talking about it. It's just one of those things. The thing had to be done, we did it, that's it - forget about it." (Video interview, 1:09:00)

Thomas Claw was born in 1922 near Many Farms, Arizona, and attended boarding school in Fort Defiance through the 8th grade, then Fort Wingate High School. Claw was assigned to the 11th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, where he worked in the regimental headquarters' operations center. During the Battle of Cape Gloucester, Claw remembers how his fellow Marines' sense of humor got them through nightly Japanese bombings. In June 1945, he was wounded by a Japanese grenade on Okinawa, earning him the Purple Heart. After the war, Thomas Claw eventually moved to Parker, Arizona and took up farming, and also worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a water master for the Colorado River Indian Irrigation Project - in this role he was responsible for the irrigation of 80,000 acres of farmland.

Interview / Recording

Transcript

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About this Item

Title

  • Thomas Claw Collection

Names

  • Chalmers Ford, Don
  • Fleming, Carol Ellison
  • Claw, Thomas
  • Navajo Code Talker's Project
  • Salomon, Warren C.

State of Residence at Time of Collection Donation

  • Arizona

Headings

  • -  Claw, Thomas
  • -  World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal Narratives
  • -  United States. Marine Corps.

Form

  • DVD

Extent

  • 1 item

Repository

  • Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Gender

  • Male

Race

  • American Indian and Alaskan Native

Status

  • veteran

Service History

  • World War, 1939-1945

    • Branch of Service: Marine Corps
    • Service Unit/Ship: 1st Marine Division
    • Location of Service: New Caledonia; Australia; New Guinea; Palau; Solomon Islands
    • Highest Rank: Private First Class
    • Dates of Service: 1943-1945
    • Entrance into Service: Enlisted
    • Military Status: veteran
    • Service History Note: The veteran served as a Navajo Code Talker.

Materials

  • Video: DVD [1 item] -- Oral history interview (collected 2004-07-22; 2004-08-24)

Collection Number

  • AFC/2001/001/52553

Online Format

  • image
  • online text
  • video

Additional Metadata Formats

Wars & Conflicts

Service Branch

Location of Service

Service Unit/Ship

Highest Rank

Service Entrance

Discharge Status

Gender

Race

State of Residence at Time of Collection Donation

Interviewee

Interviewer

Organization/Affiliation

Rights & Access

Using VHP Material in Publication or Exhibition

The Veterans History Project (VHP) at the Library of Congress collects, preserves and makes accessible the firsthand recollections of U.S. military veterans who served from World War I through more recent conflicts and peacekeeping missions, so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand what they saw, did and felt during their service. The Veterans History Project Collection includes oral histories along with documentary materials such as original letters, diaries, photographs, and memoirs.

Veterans and interviewers contribute these materials to the Library for scholarly and educational purposes, retaining any copyright they may hold. Therefore, permission must be obtained before using the interview or other materials in exhibition or publication. Researchers or others who would like to make further use of these materials should contact the Veterans History Project for assistance.

As a publicly supported institution, the Library generally does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot give or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute material in its collections. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item from the Library’s collections and for securing any necessary permissions rests with persons desiring to use the item.

Please contact us with questions.

Obtaining Copies of VHP Materials

In order for VHP materials to be duplicated, we must receive written permission from the interviewee for you to obtain a copy of the recording unless the proposed use is limited to personal use, research, or other uses permissible by copyright law. If the interviewee is deceased, their next-of-kin may grant written permission.

Please contact VHP for assistance if you need to contact a veteran for permission to use their materials in exhibition or publication, or if you have received permission from the veteran and need access to high-resolution copies of VHP collection materials.

Citing VHP Materials

Please use the following formats when citing Veterans History Project materials (substituting the appropriate name and collection ID number).

Materials as a whole:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Manuscript material:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Memoirs (MS02), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Transcript (MS04), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Correspondence (MS01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Recording:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Audio recording (SR01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Video recording (MV01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Photograph:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Photographs (PH01), photographer unknown, Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Photographs (PH03-PH14), Ralph Williams photographer, Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Computer file:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Computer file (CF01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Artifact:

  • John P. Snodgrass (AFC 2001/001/[VHP collection]), Artifact (AR01), Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Chalmers Ford, Don, Carol Ellison Fleming, Thomas Claw, Navajo Code Talker'S Project, and Warren C Salomon. Thomas Claw Collection. 1943. Personal Narrative. https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.52553/.

APA citation style:

Chalmers Ford, D., Fleming, C. E., Claw, T., Navajo Code Talker'S Project & Salomon, W. C. (1943) Thomas Claw Collection. [Personal Narrative] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.52553/.

MLA citation style:

Chalmers Ford, Don, et al. Thomas Claw Collection. 1943. Personal Narrative. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.52553/>.