Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

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Tom Dill

WWII | USS LST-1050

It was a brand new LST that Tom Dill was on for his second trip from California to the South Pacific. Ships and men were assembling at Guam, waiting for the word to proceed with the invasion of Japan. He was elated when the atomic bomb made that unnecessary. Many men were sent home but he had a little business to attend to in China. (3:18)
His last task in the Pacific was training Nationalist Chinese personnel to receive and operate the ships that the US was turning over to them. Then, Tom Dill was allowed to return to North Carolina where he returned to law school. (2:55)
Tom Goodman

WWII | Army Air Corps, 313th Troop Carrier Group, 47th Troop Carrier Squadron

Tom shares a quick story of loss during the invasion of Sicily. (:31)
Tom Grissom

WWII | 368th Infantry Regiment, 92nd Infantry Division

Coming out of ROTC at Texas A&M, Tom Grissom became a reserve Army officer and was sent to an infantry regiment. He drew an assignment to the Philippines to train their troops and arrived in Pearl Harbor in November, 1941. He departed for the Philippines on December 1. In another week, there would be war. (4:32)
It was still peacetime when Tom Grissom left Hawaii in a convoy bound for the Philippines. He never got there. Diverted to Australia after the Pearl Harbor attack, he was unsure what his part in the war would be. Then, all the unassigned officers from the ship departed on another ship for the Philippines. They were stopped short at Darwin. (5:20)
Tom Grissom was in Australia en route to the Philippines when the word came down. General MacArthur is evacuating from there and coming to establish his headquarters in Australia. He became part of that effort, including processing refugees. When someone with finance knowledge was needed, his college degree made him the choice. (7:44)
Tom Grissom was an accidental finance officer. Assigned to that function in Australia, he returned to the States after the war and continued in that capacity, rising to the highest levels of the Finance Corps. (5:47)
It was over a hundred degrees and there was a garbage strike when Tom Grissom arrived in Saigon. After he got used to the aroma, he had to get used to a new kind of war, a war in which there were no battle lines and anyone could be an enemy. He had a desk job, but even in the compound where high ranking officers lived, there were booby traps. (4:32)
Tom Hanlon

WWII | 2nd Battalion, 350th Infantry Regiment, 88th Infantry Division

He felt guilty because others his age were fighting, so, in 1943, Tom Hanlon left college and notified his draft board that they could have him. After basic training, he sailed in a convoy for Italy. (This interview made possible with the support of MS. KETURAH THUNDER-HAAB.) (4:53)
At the Royal Palace in Caserta, GI Tom Hanlon was busy being an electrician, making the huge building into a place the US Army could use. It was good duty, so, naturally, he was sent away as a replacement on the front. (This interview made possible with the support of MS. KETURAH THUNDER-HAAB.) (5:10)