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Military Oral History Interview Transcript
Ben Marsh
Unknown location
16 October 2011
AM: Andrew Marsh
BM: Ben Marsh
AM: This is Andrew Marsh and I am interviewing my grandfather Wilson Benson “Ben”
Marsh about his service during the Second World War. The date is October 16th at his house.
BM: Okay Andrew, when I was in high school I was rather much attracted to getting
specialized training and the Army. There was a program called “ASTRP,” which was Army
Specialized Training Reserve Program.
AM: Somewhat similar to the Reserve Officer or ROTC programs we have in schools today?
BM: Yes, yes it's a very basic form of that. We were qualified to enter the program and they
determined I was qualified to enter the program there. And so when I was in high school and
joined up, I was a part of the Army Reserve at that time. They assigned me my serial number
when I was there, which was a special serial number for a volunteer, which is entirely
different from a draft...serial numbers. So I joined the army reserve when I was in high
school so that in high school we got a good deal of courses such as first aid, which they wanted
the populous of the country.
If we got into war...they wanted the populous to have a certain amount of first aid training
and so forth to care of the wounded and what have you. So that as soon as I got out of high
school they told me to report to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and went into
the science part of the beginning of the specialized training that they wanted to train us in
that location of some the things that may come up in engineering, problems, and things like
that…just get us prepared in science there.
AM: And this was in 19...?
BM: This was in 1944,when I graduated from high school. It was an interesting experience
even to travel at that time on a train because the... travelling to Nashville, Tennessee...to say
it was crowded was an understatement because...and a goodly portion of the trip there
wasn't enough room for me to enter either one of the...passenger cars on the train. I had to
spend most of my time...between the cars on the platform with about five other fellows
there. The “clinkers” from the steam engine was a problem in my long hair (as an aside my
grandfather has worn his hair in a flat-top crew cut for my entire life) I was able to wash it out.
AM: What all did you study at Vanderbilt?
BM: At Vanderbilt we studied more advanced algebra than I had at high school.
I studied the physics, which was a real good course at Vanderbilt, and chemistry, and some of
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�the history on it. They had a very structured program there. You had a certain time to go to
the library and study. We stayed in one ancient dormitory there, which was a very fine
dormitory in its day... that was a good course there. As soon as I became of age to become in
active duty they called me up to active duty, and told me, it was between semesters, and
they told me to report to Fort Bragg for induction into the Army.
AM: And when was this?
BM: This was in 1945.
AM: 1945.
BM: 1945 yes. And eventually got out in 1947,I don’t remember the exact date...that was
after the war ended. There they give you the serial numbers and most of the shots that you
need for protection of wherever you might travel in the world and they had to have hard
evidence in their records of health evidence and shots and so forth, they had to have them
in front of them the whole time.
AM: Now was this basic training or was that…
BM: This was in the beginning of the process to go to basic training. In other words a lot of
this was done before we went in to training. Down there in transferred to Camp Gordon,
Georgia, which is now Fort Gordon, Georgia, for the basic training in infantry warfare. It was
a thorough course, the least of which was getting you in shape to do hard physical effort, be
it marching, carrying things physically, physical exertion, the accuracy of the weapons that
you would use, which was mainly machine guns and most especially rifles.
They also would train you in protecting yourself and your own health, because they expected
you to be responsible for your own health. The picture was not...pretty if you got
sunburned, or frostbitten feet or anything like that, you were responsible for your own
physical condition and in situations where you had control of it they expected it. They made
no bones about it. You are government property, and you going to do what you are told to
do, and you are trained to follow orders as they were.
It and its positives...because you knew you were going to wind up in combat so... they gave
you training as to handle yourself in hand to hand combat even. They gave you experiences in
the field of being actually having weapons fired over your head, even artillery. The artillery
that stuck in my mind was a 108-millimeter cannon that shoots a missile over your head and
it lands about a hundred yards away and explodes. But the rifle fire was the most interesting
because it travels above the speed of sound and it's just a “pop” (snaps fingers), just a sharp
crack as it passes over your head and then a few seconds later you hear the boom of the rifle
that shot it (chuckles).
AM: To you...what was the most difficult part about basic training?
BM: The most difficult part in the beginning is getting in shape. The exercises that they put
you through were continuous sit-ups, pushups, chinning yourself on it, and endurance
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�through that and probably the most challenging part of the strength was-that you and about
six or eight men got on a tremendous log about eight feet in diameter and say about 12 feet
long and you were to life that.
AM: Like a telephone pole?
BM: Yes, sure, and not a small telephone.
AM: Wow.
BM: One of the most trying in patience is doing a march with a full field pack...but they
knew how to keep your stamina up in it. They would give you a break five minutes out of
every hour.
AM: Pretty reasonable.
BM: It's reasonable, and if they gave you a ten- m i n u t e break you could get a short nap in that.
If you were tired (chuckles). But they let you have a break each hour because you can keep
your stamina up in that way. And it's remarkable how quick you can do that.
AM: So how long was basic training?
BM: Basic training was about three months.
AM: Three months.
BM: It takes you over half of that for you to get into really good physical shape, and the
physical shape you cannot let the exercise go down, in it, because you lose part of the
physical shape in a week if you aren't active in the exercise that means something. They
taught you health issues, that you were to take care of your skin, not get it sunburned, take
care of your feet. You were to change your shoes and your socks on a regular basis every day
in n hot weather.
How to use the close combat in which your ammunition is not effective or its too dangerous
to your own side to use live ammunition when you had to use bayonets the butt of the rifle
or whatever in hand-to-hand combat. It was even to the point to where veterans to train us
that had been in combat and some of the things they could tell you about was to give you
examples of some of the things that you needed to be aware of.
For instance, they would sit down in a place, on the ground, and say that I want you to come
up behind me just to where I can't see you, I'm going to keep my vision straight ahead and I
can see 90 degrees each side. I want you to come up on me and touch me before I can point to
you. That's a good challenge, in dry sand that's not too bad, but you get in grass, that’s a
different issue. How to use a weapon is interesting, how do you shoot it for accuracy, and
above all you are to take care of that and you don't find any rust in that rifle or on it
anywhere, you keep the bore cleaned out and oiled, so that there’s no powder residue in it.
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�We went on maneuvers where we would do exercises on that. We would dig foxholes, we'd
have to camouflage things, and the main issue there is to break the outline. As long as you got
on dull clothing and so forth you could break the outline, you're virtually invisible, as long
as you don’t move too fast. They expose you to the experience that they had had in training
that the government on a long-term basis would determine what was necessary to help you
survive and accomplish.
None the least of which they went in to the ethics of battle. That sounds crazy, but there are
certain things in the Geneva Convention to have some civilization in warfare as possible. for
instance, your job was to disable, the enemy, not necessarily to kill him, but just to disable
him. They surprisingly respected that, now the Japanese they were a separate case. I won't go
into that. At least in the European Theater both sides respected the Geneva Convention very
nicely, from some of the propaganda you wouldn’t think that, but the Germans did fairly
decent job of operating within it.
For instance, the main thing was that they said in no uncertain terms, you do not alter the
ammunition that we hand you to use period, and we're serious on that. Because, most of you
guys that come from the country down here know that when you go on out squirrel hunting
you would rather have a hollowed out bullet to put in that rifle. Because a squirrel, you can
shoot him full of holes and he'll keep going but, you take a hollow-point bullet and that
bullet explodes inside the squirrel once i t goes inside the skin, and it's obvious you're out to
kill someone when you do that. And both sides we have complete agreement that if you
discover that ammunition on any soldier and he's still living, you're welcome to execute him
right there.
AM: Wow.
BM: In other words, neither one if same time, you capture him you're going to treat him right;
you’re going to give him medical care and medical help, if the situation allows it. Your job is to
disable as many of them as you can.
AM: So what was the next step, after basic training?
BM: Next, out of basic training they determined...where are the chances are that we are
going to need these people from this particular company. In my case, the war was winding
down. By that time I finished basic training the Germans had already given up, and while they
gave us a break between the next training session. They sent you home for a couple weeks,
have a furlough until they took you to the next training step.
The next step for us was that we were going to invade mainland Japan; we were going to be
the first wave of replacements. They expected a lot of losses to such an extent where the
experts told President Truman you’re going to give the order on this, but here on the
consequences of the two. If we go in there and invade the mainland of Japan, it is probably
going to take a quarter of a million men dying, to take that homeland. Now the reason they
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�sent us there to that type of warfare was that we were going to have to go house-to-house
and cleaning out Japan. We realized that that was the case from them fighting on the various
islands there. It'd take house by house to clean it out because they did not give up. Now that’s
the majority of them, course there were exceptions. We were to go there and to be trained in
that plus additional jungle warfare. Jungle warfare is entirely different from straight out
cross-countryside...house-to-house combat is a different issue also.
AM: Now, did the war end before you went to do this?
BM: They were transferring us to Fort Rucker, Alabama.
AM: Okay.
BM: But now while I was on furlough home, they dropped the two atomic bombs on Japan
and Japan gave up, so. When we got to Fort Rucker the instructions were put them on a troop
train send them to the west coast, we're going to start relieving everybody that's been in
combat over there in stages. Four years, three years, one year, and we'll let you know when
you going to send the one year home. Now when we got to Fort Ord, California, now that was
the main debarkation-staging zone, they would go to San Francisco and debark on troop ship
to the Pacific.
When we go down there to Fort Ord, California, the powers that be in t he headquarters
company, about 1200 people they got to looking at the orders and said hey, three quarters if
not 90 percent of the people we got in headquarters down here been in there at least two
years, we’re going to disappear “poof” like that! What in the world are we going to process the
other half a million that's going to be pouring through here to do that? So they went down
the line...hey what’s this guy's taken in school? They ran across my service record and said
"Hey, he's got two years of typing in high school, hey come here!" [Laughs]
AM: So you got put in headquarters company?
BM: Yes.
AM: And this was in San Francisco?
BM: No, this was in Fort Ord, California.
AM: Fort Ord okay.
BM: We staged them, got all their records together, make sure their shots were ready, and
they had the training and so forth, and training was not much of an issue at that time. You
were just a body that was in the army to go over there, and they trained them when they got
over there if they had to. They would rather them have training here, but if they had to they
would train them over there. The rest of the time that I spent in the Fort Ord was doing
clerical work, and helping with the physical and paper work to help the men get collated into
numbers and groups of companies of people to put on the train in Monterey and Pacific
Groves there to go to the pier side in San Francisco to get on the troop ship there. It was
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�cushion job,
But I enjoyed every minute of it because it's a fantastic place to go out on your leave time to
see what was going on in the countryside. One of the more interesting things was the in your
time off go to the little USO there in Carmel California (chuckles) and you'd go in there and
some of the local people in there would say "Hey you want to go somewhere? Yeah! I want to
go up 17-mile drive, you going up Delmar as far? He says yeah sure!" That's one of the scenic
areas there...the local people, you'd never s e e more than 10 people in the USO over there
because it's small. Not many people knew about it, we in headquarters, some of us knew about
it and they would put on a show almost any time for the troops there. One of the more
interesting things there was going to Santa Cruz up there.
This was mainly run by the Navy and the Marines, they had a tremendous hospital in which
the badly wounded were brought in there to recoup, put on prostheses, things like that for
them...nurse them back to where they could be medically discharged. They had a big pavilion
there down on the waterfront there that the USO and local people would put on shows for
them. None the least of which were the hospital people that were in the hospital they had some
people that would put on shows themselves. They had lost a leg or an arm or something like
that, and they would get out there and put on shows.
This was mainly aimed at the new people, wondering what am I going to do with the rest of
my life, one of the most interesting things that I saw there, and this was all psychology, they
prepped you psychologically for about anything, they'd get the big bands to come locally,
ship them overseas and they'd go to combat zones. And this was part of the morale that was
built up in the troops. You see remnants of it now with Bob Hope and the others, but they
would send Arty Shaw and Glenn Miller and all of the comedy shows.
The comedy shows were the greatest. One of the funniest ones was the “hell's-a-poppin'
show.” They would pull al kinds of jokes. In the Santa Cruz, the local thing was to make a
statement was "kids you’re not too bad off". One of the guys that didn't have his prosthesis
on yet, he'd come in on crutches and they'd start a boogie-woogie tune and he would dance
to that, and the jitterbug he had a 13 year old girl that he'd have come out, and trusted him
enough to where he could sling her all around, and he only had one leg! (Chuckles)
AM: Wow, that's impressive!
BM: So, you get an idea of how the morale was kept up in it so that even overseas they had
always had movies at night, even if you’re in the boondocks in the middle of the jungle. And
in fact, they show some of the Japanese were more human than most of them were, at night
sometimes in some of these locations, they would start the movie in there after dark, and in
same of these fringes Japanese would show up just to see the movie. Neither one of them, the
Japanese or Americans were interested in fighting so they just let them be there.
Neither one of them carried their weapons in there and knew the Japanese didn't carry, they
weren't interested in starting anything and neither were we. They were the exception, when
they got into a fight...they would conquer or die. It was rough, but there was always human
side, now it is the nastiest business you have ever seen in your life. There is no mercy in some
cases, unless you are disabled to where you can't continue. Bath sides tended to have mercy an
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�you, as much as the situation permitted and yes unfortunately the situation in which you can't
do that to accomplish the job and protect your own self, you have to do what's necessary. In
other words fight. Now I have been rambling on.
AM: It's all right!
BM: After Fort Ord, California, they transferred me to Fort Worden, Washington, which is
in the edge of Seattle.
AM: How long were you in Fort Ord?
BM: At Fort Ord, I was in there for about six months and I was in about three to four
months up in Seattle, Fort Worden. I never did get used to waking up at three o'clock in the
morning and the sun was already up (laughs). It was good duty both places, in the outfit I
was in. we had good supervision, encouraging supervision. One of the most interesting
things I ever ran into up there was privy to know information that wasn't publicized in any
way, because at that time the press still in this country was recognizant of you keep the
morale up of everyone in the country.
One time we were up on a long weekend pass up there in Vancouver and we came chugging
back in Monday night, in through the main gate, and the guard was surprised to see any
soldiers coming in and they said "Where in the world have you guys been? Well, we’ve been
up in Vancouver what’s wrong?" Well, he said, they called it a riot between races downtown.
You can imagine what they called it. But he said everybody’s either in jail downtown or in
the brig here that we could get their hands on. In other words everybody’s on lockdown, they
said "well oh okay come on in then" (laughs).
The interesting thing in there was one time we been in almost a year in headquarters we
didn't have to march, carry a weapon or anything else for about a year. And [chuckle]
headquarters was told by the commanding general "You are going to put a full company of
men down there, in a parade downtown. They said what?? They said Admiral Bull
Halsey is coming in here and were going to show him how the Army does It!” And he was
in the Navy!
AM: And this was in Seattle, near Seattle?
BM: Near Seattle Washington, yes. Well we said okay, all right. But we got down there in
that parade and we were in the middle, halfway between a Caucasian race band in front of
us, and an African American band equal distance behind us. And the cadence that the guys
could hear in the front was entirely different from the cadence that the AfricanAmericans were setting back there. And so up there in the front they were doing this
( taps out a slow steady rhythm with his hands) and the one in, the back sped up this
motion up a lot.
AM: (Laughing) So the column was running into itself?
BM: And the rest of us in the middle were wondering what do we do? Go back to the
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�plowboys cadence or what? (Laughing) the remarkable thing about it, we got along between all
the races in the armies and services too. The morale was such that everybody in the whole
country says we got a job to do and let's get on it. The other sections, the other things that I'd
really like to talk with you about it is how the civilians did, had to do, and how they were
organized but that’s another issue.
There's a difference between the benefits that we had coming out of that forced entry as
opposed to the pay for being a soldier now. Now both of them had the benefits, but there was
not anything that replaced the benefit level that they gave us coming out of the army after
the Second World War.
AM: Meaning the GI Bill?
BM: GI Bill. Yes. So that...part of the duty was tough, but basically I enjoyed the thing. The
interesting people, yes it was tough at times with the training, but it was survival. The
morale issue was never let down...they encouraged the morale all the way through it, and
you were prepared for...you were convinced that you could take care of yourself in certain
circumstances as long as you helped them around often.
And that's one reason...you were given the understanding that you had to take care of
yourself until the medics get there if you get hurt. In some cases that's no little issue at times.
But training was good, it was thorough. Now, one thing I'd like to say warfare at that time
has no bearing on the warfare is now. The psychology is entirely different, and the soldiers
are different, because they choose now, we didn't have a choice then. Now the population
and the condition of the country was controlled entirely so that both could work together.
AM: So, the program that you were in high school...did you sign up for the program and
then enlisted in the Army or were you drafted?
BM: I expressed an interest in joining the Army. My parents did not want me to sign up for
anything other than the Army. They knew more about the services than I did at that time. I
expressed an interest in joining the ASTRP program, they said come up here to the name of
the airport here in town, it was named for the first guy that had died in the Second World
War, that was local, I'll think of it in a minute...they said report to the army doctors at I get
the name of the airport in a bit
AM: And this was in Marshville? (his hometown)
BM: This was in Marshville, they told me to come to Charlotte, get on the bus and go out to
the airport out there and there were doctors out there that would go over you and see if you
were physically qualified to enter the services. They gave me...those test, called me and told
me to come back in two days and they said..."how many cokes did you drink the day before
you came up here?" I said "About six or seven" and they said, you don't drink any coke and
you come back in two days. Well, I had too much sugar in my blood you see?
AM: I see.
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�BM: and they said all right, welcome to the ASTRP!
AM: So you were never drafted?
BM: No, I was not drafted. I signed up myself. As it turned out, it was a good thing because
if you had a serial number starting with a one, the first thing they did always, and
everybody in the Army that was in a position of authority...they looked at your serial
number to begin with, so many of them were long term army people that they treated you
different. And it showed up in a lot of places, believe me. Now it is different now because
they hire you to be a soldier. Now don't get me wrong, there are a lot of reasons to go
ahead and join the army because you get benefits that you can't get any other way quicker.
So I don't quarrel with that... Just a matter of fact they had to have millions of people out of
this country to go to war (long pause) I don't know if I answered the question?
AM: You did. I feel like you did...when did you leave the service?
BM: I left the service in.... I believe it was in August and the reason I remember was the first
session at North Carolina State had already started, and I wanted to go into North Carolina
State as quick as I could. And I got home too late to enter the first session of the year.
AM: And this wan in 1947?
BM: Yes, 1947 I believe. I'd have to back-check it. I went in to the January start of that, and
went in to engineering yes. To answer your question what did I study in high school it was
a general thing, from history to civics to science, which included chemistry along with the
science issues (sigh) something on nutrition was in it, I don't remember what the name
was, English, and typing.
AM: And then mixed in with that was the program.
BM: Now I didn't start the program until they told me to report to
Vanderbilt University.
AM: Oh okay, so the program that you were in was after high school at
Vanderbilt, okay.
BM: They waited on the next session to begin before they told me to report there, report
about a week ahead of the beginning of the first session. And after one session I aged up to
report for active duty. Another reason that they grabbed me so quick was that the battle of
the bulge in Europe had gotten out of hand to our side. And it scared the living daylights out
of the whole country really.
We thought we were winning it, but the Germans broke through. And ... they sent
everybody into the services at that time whether they were physically qualified or not, it
scared them that much. It's an interesting time to be in, we were actually scared, the whole
country was. Did I answer the question?
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�AM: Yes, absolutely. So, just to sum up your service you went to Basic training in
Georgia, and the war ended right after you got out of basic...
BM: The war ended in Europe before I finished basic, Franklin D. Roosevelt died, and
Truman became president when I was still in basic training.
AM: And then the Japanese surrendered.
BM: The Japanese surrendered soon after that after Truman had said okay what are the
consequences of us using the atomic bomb, they had been working on the atomic bomb, we
don't know how long because some of the things that were happening here in the country...
they were having to put so much effort and copper tubing copper wasn't available in this
country for a long time because they were building the facilities over at Oak Ridge there.
None of us knew why but that was the case and once they tested the atomic bomb over there
in the west they came up to Truman and say all right, we're going to have to invade the
mainland of Japan. He says all right, what are the consequences. He says use it, after he heard
course the rest is history. It's a nasty way to end the war, but it saved a lot of lives believe
me. They lost a lot there, but not nearly as many as it would take us to take the country. That's
basically it, come on with more questions that'd be fine.
AM: Something I've been wondering, at the time were you relieved that you weren't going
to see front line combat?
BM: Well, oddly enough not really, I never even thought about it. I know that's crazy to
sound, but they steeled your nerves really well. They know your chances, you know your
chances and your family knows your chances. And the only way that you have...they have
taught me to take care of myself in about all situations. And that’s all you had to go on
really. So It depends on the circumstances you were in whether you had a chance to live or
not... in the pacific it was worse than it was in Germany and Europe.
AM: If you could pick two or three things that stand out the most to you...I guess the best
memories of your service, what would they be?
BM: The characters that I met in it either in the services or in the periphery areas, such as the
shows that they put on for morale. It would be hard to pick, I think the thing that I loved in
Fort Ord was the capability to see what was going on in the west coast. The top duty of
anybody would choose in California and especially in Monterey Bay there would be to be on
the two P.T. boats that were stationed there to rescue people out there in the ocean! (Both
laugh) They'd sit back cooling their heels and enjoy Monterey, Pacific Grove...
AM: Getting a suntan?
BM: The bottom line was, I don’t have any bad memories about serving. Now I was lucky
don’t get me wrong. I was young enough to where I never faced combat, and I saw some of
the ones that came back they were severely distorted from being in it. I roomed with a
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�fellow at North Carolina State that had been in combat four years in the European Theater.
Due to a technical problem part 1 ended here, I tried to pick up where we left off in part two
AM: Before the recording stopped, you were talking about a roommate of yours an North
Carolina State that had served for four years in active combat in Europe, do you want to
continue with that?
BM: Sure, I'd love to. He was by that time...considerably older than I was, he was from
eastern North Carolina out there, from the area of Chocowinity and Greenville and so
forth. He had been in combat so long out there...but he was one of the five percent that
wasn’t hurt in the war. He was put up in hospital there in London, England, and I don't
remember what he was in there for, but one of the incidents and this was when the abuzz
bombs" were still raining down in London, before the V-2's.
The buzz bombs, you could hear them coming, and some cases see them passing over and
certainly if they were heading towards you they can see it. Surprisingly they weren't
very fast at all but they were highly effective. They had no idea where they were going
to hit, they just knew just about the range it would be to fall on London or in the area.
Anyway he was telling about an incident there in which one of the guys he knew was up
there...in the bed.
One of his buddies had come around there to visit him there and the guy that was in the
bed...Avery was his name. That his friend was standing there and looking out the
window, and the guy in the bunk said the last thing he said he heard the buzz bomb was
coming...and it's coming in this window. He started running for the door and the thing
hit, the concussion blew him through the door, took the door off its hinges, it didn't
kill him but it blew him through the door there.
He was about two stories away from the blast zone there. After that incident I suppose
the...the noise or the shaking of the dormitory, the dormitory actually shook when a train
passed by on the train tracks out there. And in the middle of the night if he was asleep he'd
have a nightmare, when that train came by. Otherwise he didn't seem to have any
postt ra um at i c stress syndrome, I mean after a while I guess you get used to it. He was still a
real nice guy, you know wasn't mean and would treat you with respect...that issue aside
morale was a tremendous thing that was kept out of contingency.
The movies that were put out were propaganda or morale issues, one of the things is that if
you want to downgrade someone you have to start poking fun at them. One of the most
popular movies was the great dictator, and of all the scrapes he could get in to he got into a
German anti-aircraft gun...he started cranking the thing trying to get it into position trying
to shoot some aircraft down, it wound up with him upside down fell out on the ground
(chuckles).
AM: Now the great dictator was that with Charlie Chaplin?
BM: No, that was...I don’t know who the main character was...you might be able to look it up
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�online. That was a great thing, of course the entertainment that we sent. Course they always
had dancing girls, and singing girls and Bob Hope and comedians and big bands, they were
given transportation and donated their time to it. They had their shows in the training camps
here, and even the “ hell's a poppin' show” from Broadway was a comedy scene too.
They had off- color humor, they never swore but they came close to it...also Spike Jones, he
was a comedian. His orchestra had fantastic musicians, but they can tear it up so bad. Morale
was great, the news report always were controlled so tightly and the things so secretive in
some places, to find out. For instance...even the interpersonal actions of the commanders of
the European Theater of the time there was one period in which they tried to get control of
General Patton, they tried to cut off his supplies.
His theory was when you get a man out of a foxhole you don't give him a chance to dig
another one, as long as the gasoline holds out go after him. Everybody said await a minute
we've got to give the English general a chance to get a little pat on the back out of this deal"
but George Patton was running so far ahead of everybody that sometimes in order for allied
supreme headquarters to figure out where Patton was they'd have to listen to the Germans
and radio traffic to determine where Patton was.
He was a leader, but not a leader. He would say to his men, and they respected him, they’d die
for him and they knew he'd die for them too. But anyway, he was a type of leader, in quotation
marks, he’d say this is the job to be done, go out there and do it. The average commander
thought that to cross this river out here it would take us about three or four days to plan the job
and about three or four more days to cross it. Patton went there and said, "Hey guys we going to
go out there and cross that river up there and get it done."
In a couple days they'd have it done, start moving his tanks and troops across it in two days
time. He didn't play politics, not at all. He's an interesting character, he had a severe learning
disability, and he memorized everything. The reputation he had was that he studied maps of the
terrain and he studied military history where he knew what ever battles that had been fought in
this territory before him, he knew what the successes were and what the failures were. That's in
that different books there, it took a lot of effort. If you want to go in to what it took for this
country to actually do that here on this ground I'll be glad to, but it’ll take even more time
to do it.
AM: I think we'll talk about that....
BM: Don't get me wrong...if you get everybody in the country behind something at that point
in time we could out-produce anyone in the world, and we could do it quicker than anyone
else in the world.
AM: We can talk about that more some other time.
BM: Okay, that would be fine. I’ve enjoyed it. I didn't get overseas at that time.
AM: I've got a few more questions if that's all
right.
12
�BM: Sure, that'd be fine.
AM: Did you serve with anyone that was from your hometown?
BM: No, I didn't because I started out in the Army in which it was just a group of guys and they'd
say hey, I believe we'd want them at the technical end of what we need out here, and I went to
Vanderbilt at that time and they almost exclusively at that time they trained science end of the
training, and they were training doctors at the speed of which you wouldn’t believe. Get guys just
out of high school and he's made top grades all the way. Okay you're going to be a doctor, come
on to Vanderbilt, and put you through. And when they finished when them, they went to combat
zone. Did I answer the question?
AM: Yes. Have you kept up with any of the people you served with?
BM: No, I have not, regrettably. I didn't have any means to do it, and at that time I wasn't much
interested in doing it. I knew of the reputation of some of them...some of them were undoubtedly
quite successful.
Part 2 ends here, Part three concludes the interview.
AM: Well, I think about wraps it up, I really appreciate that you came and sat down and took
some time to sit down with me and talk about your experiences.
BM: I welcome the opportunity because I haven't thought about some of these things in quite
some time. I was privileged to be present in a time in which this country went through great
changes and so forth, and to see what a country can accomplish if you get everyone behind it.
Now yes, there were dissidents, but there were nice things for them to help with the effort.
For instance if you were a conscientious objector they were allowed to go into firefighting
school and gave parachute training and you'll fight forest fires. And what the Japanese were
doing to the west coast is another issue, and they needed the firefighters b i g time to help with
that. You've probably heard in the news reports what's going on at that time. But we were
instructed in no uncertain terms...that if you know of a forest fire out here you don't tell
anybody (laughs).
AM: Wow, that's interesting.
BM: There were certain things you didn't talk about anywhere. The populace, and what the
populous went through that's a different subject, I didn't go into that.
AM: That's fine, and I'd love to talk to you about it, but I'm not sure
if that's...
BM: That is a total study in what people can do, when they have to.
13
�AM: Well, thank you very much; I appreciate it!
BM: You're quite welcome Andrew; it's been a pleasure.
14
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Appalachian State University American Military History Course Veterans Oral History Project
Description
An account of the resource
Each semester, the students of the American Military History Course at Appalachian State University conduct interviews with military veterans and record their military experiences in order to create an archive of oral history interviews that are publicly accessible to researchers. The oral histories are permanently available in the Appalachian State University Special Collections. The project is supervised by Dr. Judkin Browning, Associate Professor of History at Appalachian State University and all interviews are transcribed by the student interviewers.
Copyright Notice:
Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project’s audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. Veterans Oral History Project, University Archives and Records, Special Collections, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC).
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
Marsh, Wilson Benson
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Marsh, Andrew
Interview Date
10/16/11
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
58:28 min
Copyright
Copyright for the Veterans Oral History Project's audio and transcripts is held by Appalachian State University. These materials are available for free personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that proper citation is used.
Tag
Army, Army Reserve, Vanderbilt University, Fort Bragg, Camp Gordon, infantry, Fort Rucker, Fort Ord, Fort Worden, Marshville
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Wilson Benson Marsh, 16 October 2011
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War II, 1939-1945
Benson, Wilson
Veterans
Personal narratives, American
United States
Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
William Benson Marsh joined the Army Reserve in High School, 1944. The interview talks about his service during World War II, the USO shows to entertain the troops, basic training, and the dropping of the atomic bomb.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Marsh, Wilson Benson
Marsh, Andrew
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a title="UA.5018. American Military History Course Records" href="https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/167" target="_blank">UA.5018. American Military History Course Records</a>
Extent
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14 pages
Language
A language of the resource
English
Army Specialized Training Reserve Program
Fort Bragg
Geneva Convention
GI Bill
Vanderbilt