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https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/e507edc566d464727448747cc078c15a.pdf
da7fe3cec23f43afb7d68503f79e8c03
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Name:
Branch:
Years Served:
Conflicts:
Date of Interview:
Eliot White, E-5, 2nd class Petty Officer
U.S. Navy
2000s
Iraq War
October 14, 2012
Thomas Di Tomasso: It is October 14, 2012. We are in Boone, NC, in our house at
3245, Highway 421 North. I am interviewing Eliot White, currently a sophomore at
Appalachian State University. I am Thomas Di Tomasso a senior at Appalachian
State University majoring in International Criminal Justice.
White: Freshmen.
Di Tomasso: Oh my bad freshmen.
Di Tomasso: And we will begin the oral history interview now.
Di Tomasso: To start off where were you born and raised?
Eliot White: I was born in Sarapul, Russia and I was raised at an orphanage until the
age of nine, adopted at age ten. Then came to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Di Tomasso: All right, when and why did you choose to join the military?
White: I was in a bad spot, where I was living at, at the time and pretty much looked
at it as my way out.
Di Tomasso: What rank did you eventually reach?
White: The highest rank that I reached E-5 Second Class Petty Officer.
Di Tomasso: Do you have any family history of being in the military?
White: Biological family, not that I know of. Adopted family my grandfather, actually
both my grandfather’s, one served in World War 2 the other was in the Korean War.
Di Tomasso: Ok, what experience or schools, or experiences or schools did you
attend in your initial entry phase in the military?
White: Initial entry phase outside of boot camp, ITA School in Pensacola, Florida
and that’s about it.
Di Tomasso: What is ITA school?
White: Information Systems (…) technical school.
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�Di Tomasso: So, where were you assigned after your initial entry phase?
White: After Pensacola I was assigned to Operational Naval Intelligence
Washington, DC.
Di Tomasso: Can you tell me specifically what your job was?
White: In DC my job was to monitor and (…..) pretty much write up, send out,
receive, and correct military messages that went through HBSS Systems (…) I
mean(………) yea at a basic level that’s pretty much what it was, I mean honestly all it
was incoming and outgoing traffic messages.
Di Tomasso: Ok ,how did your family react to you being in the military?
White: My parents thought it was a good idea for me, seeing as I wasn’t really doing
too well on my own. They thought it would help me with my (…) I guess growing in,
growing up experiences and stuff.
Di Tomasso: Were you ever deployed, how many times and where were you
deployed?
White: I was deployed once, [unclear]. Our headquarter deployment was in Bahrain,
which is in the middle east, is a small base in Jafar southwest of Saudi Arabia, we did
all our OPS, things of that habit there.
Di Tomasso: What year was that?
White: That was September 2010.
Di Tomasso: Ok, did you ever experience any combat while you were deployed?
White: I did, twice.
Di Tomasso: Now, can you tell me about any of your combat experiences?
White: I mean the best way for me to put it is a high paced, hectic, a lot of things
going on at one time. Bullets flying past you, things exploding, live ammo being used.
I mean it was no joke, it was, It was pretty much high tension. You make one mistake
somebody could go down.
Di Tomasso: Is there any specific situations that you could tell me about you were
in, certain battles or experiences?
White: (White shakes head)
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�Di Tomasso: All right, so what can you tell me about the culture of the area you
were deployed?
White: Culture was pretty much, I mean essentially it was ninety nine percent
Muslim, and they had, there were a lot of Indian immigrants, a lot of Asian pacific
immigrants, I mean (…) it was very highly concentrated Muslim area basically. This
is kind of hard to describe seeing as it was a big, mainly looked down upon females.
Females were pretty much considered as baby meals, essentially. Best way to put it
other than that.
Di Tomasso: Did you have any females in your squad or unit?
White: (Coughs) No we did not. (Coughs)
Di Tomasso: Did you see how any American females; did you see them interact with
any of them?
White: It (...) The way it was best put to them, and to us, as far as them going into
town and what not, was keep interaction between female parties and the locals was
to a minimum, absolute minimum. Their dress had to be absolutely monitored, as in
collared shirt, long sleeves, long pants. They weren’t allowed to wear you know
short skirts, things like that nature. A lot of times that wouldn’t be allowed off base,
unless a male individual was with them, for security and safety reasons, but other
than that.
Di Tomasso: How did you progress throughout your military career?
White: Just like any other individual, I worked hard, with being in the Navy, or the
Navy progression system basically from E1, E3 its like wait your time, nine months
in-between. From E3 to E4 its a six month wait, you take a navy wide exam, you had
to score a certain score on the exam and what not to be considered for
advancement. From E4 to E5 its one year, once again you take an exam, and (...) I did
what I had to.
Di Tomasso: So you made your way from E1 to E5?
White: E1 to E5 in exactly three years.
Di Tomasso: Is that considered a short period of time?
White: That’s extremely short. (Chuckles) Most individuals won’t, it takes on
average about five to six years to go from E1 to E5.
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�Di Tomasso: So why do you think that you were able to do this in that short amount
of time?
White: I mean allot of it had to do with experience. (…) A lot of Navy is based on
ships, and short commands, being with my situation being, you know seeing combat
and being out there first hand actually witnessing the things that they were being
taught. Just a lot easier for me to grasp information, and just go back and regurgitate
it on the test.
Di Tomasso: What can you say about your leadership, officers specifically that you
interacted with, I mean how do you feel?
White: Some of the greatest people I’ve ever met. I mean those guys would do
anything for all of us. I mean it was pretty much, honestly it was like a little
brotherhood, I mean every single one of us would take a bullet for the other, for the
next person next to them, because we knew that if they messed up that could be my
life on the line, if I messed up it could be there life on the line.
Di Tomasso: So you had respect, I mean the officers were competent in their jobs?
White: The officer’s knew exactly what they were doing; if there was any question
that it shouldn’t have been done they wouldn’t do it. I mean it would stop right
there immediately. If orders were given out, and they weren’t sure about the order’s
they would clarify immediately. They wouldn’t wait and see it through before
finding out there was a mistake. But other than that it was a great group of people.
Di Tomasso: What problems did you see in your time in the military, with the way
the structure and organization, and how everything was run?
White: The biggest, my biggest issue was (….) personal lack of motivation, because a
lot of individuals are younger, you know under twenty-three. It’s hard to control
them, seeing as they just, they see what’s right but they don’t always see what’s
good. It’s actually, what I’m saying is they knew what they believed is right to them,
but they don’t follow order’s the way they sup post to. And plus it being very high
technology based society now a days, a lot of them just want to go by what every
body else says. You know, what they see on the Internet, or they see on the news,
they don’t actually want to sit down and research the information.
Di Tomasso: How did you get through difficult times while you were in the
military?
White: it’s going to be slightly weird but the best way to put it is music. I mean,
whenever, you know something absolutely off the wall, tragic happened, let’s say
lost we a teammate or you know, we saw a bombing run of a civilian village. I just
put my headphones in, zone everything out, and just get, get through it, easiest way
to put it.
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�Di Tomasso: What did you see of the other branches of the military Army, Marine
Corps, maybe Coast Guard, and how did you interact with them?
White: I saw a lot of Marine’s, a lot of Air force, some Army, and a few Coast Guard.
A lot of the Marine’s, they were pretty much a security detail, I mean Master at
Arms, K9 Units. We didn’t really interact very much with them. It was more of, off
the work schedule, you know barracks parties, or you see them out in town
sometimes, play basketball at the gym, see them at the library. But other than that
we never really, I mean there was no true interaction within the branches.
Di Tomasso: So when and why did you decided to get out?
White: It was my, my four year contract was, (…) pretty much out. April of 2012 I
got out decide to call the G. I. Bill, and go to school.
Di Tomasso: So how do you feel with the political environment that we’re in right
now, how do you feel, do you feel politicians care about the military, and how do you
feel they affected you as far as when you were deployed, and stuff like that?
White: Honestly (…) it (…) I mean (…) that’s a tough question, because I was always
you know taught and trained from the get go in the military to follow orders
regardless. I mean unless the orders were absolutely wrong or completely illegal,
just follow them. So I never really, quite paid attention to the political side of the
whole thing, not until I was about E4, E5 you know reached the higher ranks that’s
when you sit down you really, you know you have people who your in charge of, and
people reporting to you on a daily basis, that’s when the political side of it really hits
you. The way I perceived the whole, you know the U.S. government dealing with the
troops overseas and bringing them home and this and that, it was interesting,
because a lot of times It didn’t really matter who left or who stayed it was just more
about numbers, it was about how many people had gone, or how many people gone
home. It was, no prejudice to whether, you know people had families, or people had
been there for a certain period of time, and you had people who had just got there,
to come home or not. So I mean it was really chaotic, but at the same time, I mean it
was pretty much, it was an organized madness essentially.
Di Tomasso: So, you and I have talked about this before, military life being very
high paced. How did you transition, to the civilian world after getting out of the
Navy?
White: Honestly, I mean I’m still trying to kind of, get used to the whole civilian
sector of it, because it is very (….) slow per say, I mean nothing really goes on. I
mean I don’t see loud noises going off here and there, and every once in awhile I’ll
get flashbacks, I’ll just kind of like sit there and just zone out (…) but other than that
I mean the transitions pretty much on going. It’s probably going take at least some
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�time you know in the future, to at least fully grasp the idea that, hey I’m not in the
military completely, I don’t got to do the same stuff as I used to.
Di Tomasso: Is there anything specifically you would say you took away from your
military experience?
White: By far the best trait is discipline. I mean before I went in the military and
what not, I was always one of those high going you know or fast paced individuals. I
just wanted to do something, I just wanted to go out there you know whether it’s
play sports, or just hang out with friends, and party or whatever I just wanted to do
something. Getting out in the military it’s more of, you know I got this to do, I got to
do this, I got to do that, let me take care of that first, and then whatever time I have
left you know enjoy. But yea I mean the biggest is probably discipline.
Di Tomasso: Is there anything else you’d like to add to your military experience or
anything else you would like to talk about that we may have not covered?
White: That’s pretty much it.
Di Tomasso: I appreciate your time, and that concludes the interview.
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https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/57144363667db6896433c4bc8c491657.mp3
12bb42e12e787cdfd4b840131475219b
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.
File size
82.5 KB
16.9 MB
Format, digital
MP3
Military Branch
military branch (U.S. Army, etc)
U.S. Navy
Officer Rank
Officer rank (major, private, etc)
E-5, 2nd Class Petty Officer
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Di Tomasso; Thomas
White; Eliot
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Di Tomasso, Thomas
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed.
White, Eliot
Interview Date
10/14/2012
Number of pages
6
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
0:14:50
Date digitized
2/10/2015
Checksum
alphanumeric code
fb967bbc7927ba251ba97f7047d00a4e
12bb42e12e787cdfd4b840131475219b
Scanned by
Leah McManus
Equipment
Adobe Acrobat XI Pro
Resolution
300
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
UA.5018. American Military History Course Records
Recording rate
A/V rate (48,000kzh x 16 bit)
48000kzh x 16 bit
Format, original
Electronic File
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/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
5018_White_Eliot_20121014_transcript_M
5018_White_Eliot_20121014_audio_A
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Eliot White [October 14, 2012]
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Oral History
Language
A language of the resource
English
English
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Di Tomasso, Thomas
White, Eliot
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>
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Description
An account of the resource
Eliot White, born in Russia but adopted by American parents, entered the US Navy before starting college. After basic training he went to ITA School and participated in Operation Naval Intelligence working in Washington DC. He was eventually deployed to Bahrain and saw combat a couple of times. He describes his combat experience as "very hectic" and music was the only thing that could calm him after his difficult experiences.
Subject
The topic of the resource
White, Eliot
Veterans
Iraq War, 2003-2011
Personal narratives, American
United States
Interviews
Bahrain
E5
Eliot White
Iraq War
ITA School
Operation Naval Intelligence
Russia
US Navy
Washington DC