Honor Flight Oral Stories: Personal Experiences

I was not able to actually interview anybody for this project. My grandmother lived through WW2 but she was not old enough to remember any stories, details, or feelings. So, I decided to use Honor Flight Oral Stories website, and I was able to watch five videos. The videos I watched were of Karl and Helen Norton, Clarence “Bud” Schick, Edward Davis, Charlie Smith, and James Gau. I found the stories that these people told very interesting. Karl and Helen Norton met during the war and eventually, after the war had ended, got married. Karl Norton joined the Marine Corps before the war had begun. He was just out of high school and he was a lively young man. He said that when the war began, he never even took into consideration the thought of being, shot, wounded, or killed in battle. He was a young man and he was ready to go and “fight this war.” Not a long time after the war had begun, his fighting career was ended. A Japanese shell exploded over his head and the shrapnel went into him. He was very badly wounded. He was put into a full body cast and sent to the hospital. This is where Helen came into the picture. Helen was a Christian nurse at the hospital that Karl was sent to. After a while in the hospital, Karl was just about ready to get back
He was sent to boot camp and training and then entered the service as a radio operator. Bud was at home when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He remembered this very clearly. Bud was asked if he supported Roosevelt’s decision to declare war on Japan and responded with a definite, “YES!” And Bud also whole heartedly supported the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. He said that it saved many American lives. His biggest memory of the whole war was when it ended. He had just graduated radio school and he was at Pearl Harbor when the news was announced. His advice to the younger generation was to embrace that you will be a part of history, no matter