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Veteran Interview: Daniel P. Elliott
Interviewer: My name is Brendan Elliott from Dr. Browning's Fall 2012 American Military History class. And
today I'm here interviewing my grandfather, Dan Elliott. So, let's start out with our first question: During the
conflict that you were involved in, where were you living [pause] at the time?
Interviewee: Well I […um...] was one of the young, younger people in, in the, at that time and about I turned
eighteen…in 1943, in August, and so consequently I signed up for the Draft, had to sign up for the Draft at
that point, and then living in Shreveport with my parents. I had just dropped out of college because I found
it to be kind of disturbing situation to try and study and have all the people going, coming and going; that
sort of thing.
Interviewer: Um, and so were you drafted or did you enlist? And how old were you?
Interviewee: Well as I said I was eighteen years old, and I had tried to enlist in the Navy, but I had the
problem of [...] near sightedness and color blindness..and uh the, the recruiter said that he would promise
me that I could stay in a, in a recruiting station in Kansas, just to make sure the, that the Navy was safe with
me and my eyes, and so consequently I, I decide not to get in the Navy and waited for the Draft to take
place, which happened in [stutters while collecting thought] the middle of October, late of October of
[nineteen] fourty three.
Interviewer: And why did you want to join…the military?
Interviewee: I, I didn't really want to join, but by the same token, uh, I, when I was drafted I was drafted
[pause] and we all knew that the threat of what [stutters while collecting thought] the Nazis were such that
the [again stutters while collecting thought] it took an effort from everybody to try to get, uh, do something
to stop this, what they were doing because they were relatively inhuman and they were doing things that
you wouldn't believe could be don…people would do to each other, and so, logical on that basis if you
thought about it, you needed to do something to stop the Nazis and really what reason joined [interviewer:
mhm]
Interviewer: Um, and why did you pick the service branch you joined? You said originally you wanted to join
the Navy, then, you were drafted into the Army. Why did you want to go to the Navy in the first place?
Interviewee: I, having been a sailor all my life to that point, I just, I, I had a love of the sea, and so
consequently I, that was my reason for trying but uh, when that happened, didn't happen, well the Army
was my next choice because I couldn't fly, because of my eyes and I didn't really want to be a m…You'd say a
ground man for the Air Force, so I took the Army.
Interviewer: Um, can you describe any of your training or boot camp experiences?
Interviewee: Well, you know [clears throat] was, we were [pause] in the um […] the boot camp
experiences…One of the, one of the first things they did was they took you on a, on a [stutters while
collecting thought] a real long hike [chuckles] at night and so that you, you really got very, very um [stutters
while collecting thought] matter of fact [pauses] probably twenty percent of them dropped out. I didn't
drop out, I, I got a little sick, but I [interviewer: mhm] stayed with it. And, and seemed to make out alright
with that, but then most of the training was drilling and, and learning what the Army was about and
�learning, learning the other, uh shooting, and learning how to handle the gun, just […] take them apart, that
sort of thing. And it, it was a [pause] probably a six…three to six months period. The one, the one
experience I had, of course having gotten in the Army in October, late October we ended up getting up in
Oregon and uh [pauses while collecting thought] Christmas came. And um, I, I had the privilege of kitchen
duty [translation from context] on Christmas day. And I got to wash dishes, for EVER [chuckles]. [Stutters]
And I always remember the mess, mess sergeant, he was a pretty nice guy and he came over and helped me
wash. And the reason I had to do that […] because of the guy who was supposed to be on KP went AWOL to
go home to see, wherever he lived was relatively local so […] and he came back, but he had been home for
Christmas [interviewer: mhm] but I was in Oregon and not Louisiana [chuckles] for Christmas.
Interviewer: And which wars did you serve in?
Interviewee: Well, I, I only, the service I did was World War Two.
Interviewer: And where exactly did you go?
Interviewee: Well, [clears throat] let me just tell you, a little bit we did before we went overseas. Because
actually, [clears throat] as we um [pauses] got through with the training at Camp White we went to Camp
Housen, Texas; which was just above, above Dallas and […] while there, they sent us, they sent a group of us
out to do machine gun [...] aircraft [pauses to collect thought] shooting, trying to shoot down aircraft from a
truck, uh fifty [.50] caliber machine gun, and so [stutters to collect thought] that was out of El Paso, Texas
and we found out what a dust storms were. Because [stutters while collecting thought] sand would start
blowing around there and you had to clean the gun before you could even shoot [interviewer: mhm]. Then
from there we went to West Virginia; up and around the Elkins, West Virginia there's a great big National
Forest there and they were using it for training areas and in there I had the opportunity to become a
mountain climber trainee and we went up and trained for about a week or ten days being instructed on how
to climb mountains in case we went to Italy where mountains were; [Interviewer: mhm] we didn't do that.
But then, from there we went over to um […flips through notes] Camp Picket in Virginia and learned about
build…bridge building and which was part of our combat engineering training and [pauses to collect
thought] it was on the Susquehanna River I believe is what the name of the river did all that. At that place
we knew we were getting close because they gave us a [order] to go home and tell everybody goodbye. And
from there we went to New York […] to Fort Slocum which was just off of New Rochelle and […] we did get
to go into town to visit New York City a little bit, but I didn't get to go see my brother who was in Staten
Island at that point. He was working for a ship yard. And actually, we left New York on the twenty-second
of October, on this converted Italian luxury liner, the Saturnia and we were in a convoy that took eleven
days to go across the Atlantic, and we ended up in South Hampton [United Kingdom] then we went to
Delamere Park which was near North Hampton and where we were stationed for the time being but we had
been moving around over England to open several replacement camps and old camps so that replacement
troops could be taken care of when they came in for the second invasion of England with these replacement
troops. […] We left England, Christmas week, 1944, and we [clears throat] didn't, didn't know whether we
were gonna go to the, to the remaining of The Bulge [Battle of the Bulge] which was up around Bastogne or
where we were going, but we finally when we got into Le Havre, they sent us out to a plowed field where we
spent about two or three days waiting for the trucks to take us up. And we went to the Maginot Lines
[clears throat] and we stayed there two or three days and then we went on up to Bouzonville, France which
was near Saarbrücken [Germany] where we spent time trying to reinforce […] the area, because there was a
rumor that the Germans might, when stopped at The Bulge, they might come around […] that area, so we,
we put out […] demolition for, for bridges and trees and such in case they came we could blow up things and
stop them from moving very much. And while we were there, I was transferred […] I was in the 187th
�Engineers at that point, and while I was there they, I was transferred to the 44th combat engineering
battalion, which had been decimated by the Germans during The Bulge. And so, at that point, I moved over
to Bastogne which was where they, they were stationed out of […] The Bulge had been stopped
[Interviewer: mhm] and were moving things, started moving up. [Takes pause to catch breath and collect
thoughts] There was a great push from Bastogne to um, by the Americans to recoup, Americans and the
British and the others recoup, the ground, so we did everything we could to keep supplies moving, on the
front, maintaining roads and bringing up time, every time we moved up, up with the troops and we moved
North through Aachen [Germany] and into Cologne [Germany] then to Koblenz [Germany]. When we got to
Koblenz that was where the Moselle River came in and met the Rhine River. It was across river, we, we were
able to, at point, we had, having all the trucks and vehicles we had, we went down and confiscated a few
cases of wine so that we could have a taste of the good German wine that they, we had heard about
[Interviewer: mhm] in the old days. Then uh, [skimming through notes] from there we, we traveled over
several […] towns, Frankfurt [Germany], and Kassel [Germany], and then finally at the end…the war ended,
we were in Plowen [Germany], which was right at the edge of Czechoslovakia, which is East Germany so to
speak [Interviewer: mhm]. And that's kinda where we, where we stopped, and we stayed there for uh, until
the Russians came, […] the Russians came over to take over that area [Interviewer: mhm] which was, that
was part of the agreement put in […] at the end of the war; they were going to get East Germany so to
speak.
Interviewer: Um, and so you've mentioned a little bit about combat engineering, but um, so next question
would be what is your job or your assignment […] as a combat engineer?
Interviewee: Well I, I was actually enlisted as a, to start with as an electrician […] then uh finally I got to be, I
mean I got transferred [...] the captain picked me out, saw that I was a…He was a construction […] man and
he had some kind of building business back in the States. And he saw that as an engineer he thought may I,
we would be compatible so consequently we, we got together and I ended up being his driver…but they had
me listed as a clerk typist [chuckles] and just so that because of the way, the way the rules were…I guess
[Interviewer: mhm]. So anyway, they, they […] we never did really do anything that except build odds and
ends of things and we…mostly just taking care of roads, troops, and trying to make sure everybody was safe
where they were as combat engineers. […] While we were going across uh, Germany, there, we hit one spot
which was close to where the Remagen Bridge was still standing. The Germans had actually demolished all
the crossing spots for, over the Rhine river, except somehow or another they had missed this one and we,
we anticipated…the Army anticipated that, that sooner or later, they were going to try and blow it up
somehow or another, which with the cannon shots or what have you. But, so what we, what we as
engineers had to do was to go up the river about fifteen miles and build a pontoon bridge across the Rhine
River. It took about three […] battalions of pontoon companies, or three companies that brought pontoons
to get the, enough pontoons to go across and we had the grading that sat on top of the um […] pontoons
and that […] it took about a day and a half to build all this, and our two couple of days, and it was kind of
under fire [Interviewer: mhm] and there was, there was always a smoke screen being generated so people
couldn't see, so people couldn't see what was going on and if you sat there in a truck, or so along the this
track, these tanks would come along and they couldn't see where they were going [chuckles] and we
couldn't see where they were going either, so you always were nervous about where, if you were safe to be
around there because of the traffic that was going on. [Interviewer: mhm] And it was, that was, I guess that
was the biggest that thing we did in the whole, in our, our, my part of the war because it, that, that uh,
whole number of troops and vehicles go across the Rhine [River] safely where they, on this bridge
[Interviewer: mhm].
�Interviewer: So you said you were kind of under fire, did, did you, during the building of this bridge. Did you
see any combat at, during this time or at any other point during your service?
Interviewee: Well [clears throat] um […] I, I really never did have anybody just, I was never was in a fox hole
or never was in, in that, that kind of situation where it was man to man or what have you [Interviewer:
mhm] but most days it was cannon fire or one time we had machine guns somewhere, somebody was
running a machine gun at, at the road we were going across and we had to do something about that…but
generally speaking we, we never did have direct fire on our operations. [Interviewer: okay] But sometimes
we were in front of the troops, sometimes we were in the back of the troops and sometimes […] it was
just…there was a […] at that point, there was a great deal of disorder in the Germans so that you, they didn't
know exactly what they were supposed to do or how they were supposed to do it so consequently we, we
could be in a place which was front of the troops, but, they, they, there won't be many troops, many
German troops around, to um […] to harass us or to fight with us I guess.
Interviewer: Um, were you awarded any medals, citations or anything similar during your service?
Interviewee: [Reviewing notes] They uh, the medals that I, that I received, were the European [the uh]
Medal, the Good Conduct Medal and the World War Two Victory Medal; nothing specific. Thank goodness I
didn't ever have to have a Purple Heart [Interviewer: mhm]…It just didn't happen […] in our […] place.
Interviewer: Um, during the time of service when you were overseas, how did, did you stay in touch with
your family? Uh, and how did you do that?
Interviewee: Well […] directly everything was by correspondence and [Interviewer: mhm] […] we had…I'll
say, semi-reasonable […] mail service. Sometimes, matter of fact, we had better mail service than we had
water service…go a month without a shower [chuckles; Interviewer: mhm] a lot of the time, but, but they
mail service…somehow or another, they, they managed to get the mail, […] to us at some point. We didn't, I
guess you didn't really think about it all that much except […] we knew they were alright so, [Interviewer:
yeah] so that was not our, our concern, would have been our concern…but they were fine. [Interviewer:
Alright].
Interviewer: Um, during the, the more difficult or stressful days that you had during your service, was there
anything special you did for good luck or to, uh, motivate yourself?
Interviewee: Well, [Reviewing notes] What they […] all of us kind of […] passively, got in touch with God
occasionally because we just, we […] somebody's gotta be looking out for you [Interviewer: mhm] and I
think, and you don't think about it very much as you do it because we didn't see very many um, didn't see
very many […] services […] church services by any means […] there were a few and so, you were very
pleased to be a part, part of it if you were there somewhere. […] I guess really […] in my case, the, the stress
was not really that much that you really got hung up on it [Interviewer: mhm] you got…on occasion you got
frightened but by the same token it would pass very quickly in, in our case.
Interviewer: Um […] what did you think of your fellow officers and…your officers, and fellow soldiers in
your…element?
Interviewee: As I, as I went in as a trainee, was to start with, we had a, a quadruple…people who had been in
Alaska for two years […] and came back and there they, they were the cadre who formed the 187th
[Engineers] and they, they were, they were princes…they had, they had been through it all, they had, they
knew what to do…and they, […] they didn't make it easy, but they, they knew how to handle…the things
�because of the, what the discipline they had had and when I transferred into the other outfit, well they, they
[…] they were at peace; we were all in it together, and most of us weren't, weren't uh, profession soldiers.
There were a few scattered among, but uh, […] we were all just there to try to do what we had to do and,
and survive really. And I don’t know, I don't ever remember there being any real antagonism between any
of the people, one way or the other. And the officers, were…they were, I'll say, very, relatively decent
people to, to have to deal with us [Interviewer: mhm] and, we didn't have any real complaints.
Interviewer: Okay. Um, and what was one of the more interesting or memorable experiences you had
during your service?
Interviewee: Well, that's, as I told you before […] the building that Remagen Bridge, replacement
[Interviewer: mhm] the pontoon bridge, that was, that was a […] that to me was the outstanding thing. A
matter of fact, it's kind of interesting with that […] back here in the states in this day in time…a friend of
mine, […] that was ill and we were sitting there talking and he sai…I told him about…he was over in Europe
too and he was with a photography group that took pictures of things happening for the record…and I told
him about building this pontoon bridge, he said "I've got a picture of the pontoon bridge" [chuckles]. And
so he dug it out and uh, sure enough it was, it was, it looked like the one we had [Interviewer: mhm]
couldn't be positive, but it was a pontoon bridge. And […] so it happened that uh, […] we talked about it
[stutters while collecting thought] and he actually…his pilot, that he, he worked as a mechanic on the plane
[Interviewer: mhm] that took pictures. And the pilot, came down to visit him in Brevard, where we are. And
so they, he said, "would like you to meet the pilot…" [chuckles] "…who took the pictures." And uh, so I got
him to autograph the picture that I [chuckles]. Which was kind of an interesting thing to have happen to,
something […] which was [Interviewer: small world] a long time ago. [Chuckles] [Interviewer: yeah].
Interviewer: Um, do you recall the day when your service ended? Um, where were you? And do you know
how long, you, were overseas for?
Interviewee: They uh […] January the 26th, 1946 was when I was discharged. And I was at Camp Shelby,
Mississippi near Hattiesburg [Mississippi]. And I had been in it for two years and three months. And
um…they […] I had been back in the States for about three or four months before I was discharged; I came
back in the fall of that year and just […] by circumstance. [Interviewer: mhm] And the thing that happened,
with me, the 44th Engineer, Combat Engineer went, came…when the war was over, in Germany, they sent
us down to Marseille…and they, they dis, disbanded the group […] and I was on the, in the […] ordinance
group that was scheduled to go to Japan [Interviewer: mhm]. [Clears throat] And uh, we were up in this
holding area waiting for the ships to come in that were going to take us to Japan to land aboard there; from
what we know…and what happened was that President Truman ordered the Atomic Bombs to be dropped
on Japan, and uh, first thing you know, the war was over with [Interviewer: mhm]. And the, after the second
bomb, the, the Emperor declared […] surrender…[Interviewer: mhm] total surrender. And so consequently
we, we were sitting up there and just happened that four days before…four days later we were supposed to
get on the ship. So consequently, instead of trying to disperse us, redisperse us into Europe, they, they just
went ahead and sent us home [Interviewer: okay]. And so I got home a lot sooner [chuckles] than a lot of
my friends who were over, still over in Europe. And, but we got home in the fall of [19]46. Spent the time
there and, and then I had to go, I had to stay in the Service because I didn't have, didn't have enough points
to get out yet [Interviewer: okay] and so consequently, that's why I ended up in Camp Shelby, Mississippi for
about two, three, or four months. [Interview: okay]
Interviewer: Um, did you make any close friends while you were in the Service?
�Interviewee: At this point [chuckles] uh, um, what…how long ago…it's been so long ago that, [Interviewer:
mhm] yes, we had, we had, we had a lot, very…you know you'd have your two or three guys that you really
liked being with or work with what have you…and uh, stayed in touch after the war for…I'd say several years
and then you saw that you'd, you're not gonna ever get together again [Interviewer: mhm] so,
something…so consequently, they, you kind of dropped, dropped the friends over the time […] of course,
you're creating new friends so [Interviewer: yeah], in your businesses and what have you that you've done.
Interviewer: Alright, Um, and when you got back, did you go to work, or did you go back to school?
Interviewee: When I first got back, I, I really kind of did a little bit […] retraining about things but, […] I ended
up working as a rodman for a surveyor…a one person surveyor. And I worked in that for about six months
and then, he worked me hard enough that I decided that I really needed to go back to school [Interviewer:
mhm] and so that's why that, that fall, I went, started back to college from where I had been before. And
then […] the next three years I guess, was taken up with college and I graduated from there in June of [19]49
with a mechanical engineering degree. [Interviewer: okay]
Interviewer: Um, and, the next question would be: what did you go on to do as a career after the war?
Interviewee: Well, I went up to become a sale, manufacture's rep with my brother, but there was a problem
with my doing that in Baltimore [Maryland] and so consequently I ended up getting a job with the Baltimore
Gas Electric Company for about a year and a half. While I was doing that, I met some people that worked for
W.R. Grace Chemicals and this was chemicals, phosphate chemicals, chemical fertilizer company and also
silicone gel. And, and they asked me to come work for them as a project engineer. And I stayed there for
about ten years, but then I finally ended up in Florida with them; working in the phosphate mines. Then I
decided […] One of the people I met, suggested maybe I would enjoy being with a consultant engineering
group, in Atlanta [Georgia]. And so I applied and uh, went to [pause] H.A. Simons, Simons Eastern Company
[Interviewer: mhm] in Atlanta, Georgia and stayed there thirty-four years. I enjoyed being project engineer,
project manager, […] and chief estimator for the company. [Interviewer: mhm]
Interviewer: Um, did your military influe[nce]…experience influence your thinking about war as a whole, or
the military in general?
Interviewee: Well, my personal opinion: war is not good, but there are people not satisfied with their own
lot in life and they want to take away our freedom because of their lack of ability [Interviewer: mhm] in their
country. And someone has to repel these crack pots, as I'll call them, and our armed forces are working hard
to let us maintain our existence. And they should be given great credit and support. And the politics of
maintaining a world order is very, a very complex situation between the haves and have nots.
Unfortunately, the situation we have with, between the UN and the rest of the world…all the things we try
to do […] make it difficult to live […] make it difficult for us to live In peace [Interviewer: mhm]…which we
haven't had for a long time at this point. [Interviewer: yeah]
Interviewer: Um, well I don't have any other questions. Is there anything you would like to add about,
before your experience, military service, during or after?
Interviewee: Well, I think, one of the things…with having graduating high school at the age of sixteen and
then going into the Service at eighteen, gave me an opportunity to grow up and understand things a little bit
better. And I found out that having a degree and having an education does make a difference in the way
�that you live, and think and consequently, I that's why I went back to college…was to do that. And I'm
pleased that I got, had enough brains to take advantage of it.
Interviewer: Alright, well thank you…for answering these questions and doing this interview with me.
Interviewee: It's my pleasure. Say thank you for letting me, asking me to give you my experiences because it
gave me a chance to relive it a little bit and refresh my memory. And it […] I had to look up a couple of
things on my atlas [chuckles] some names that I had pointed, had thought about and hadn't done anything
with in a long time. Thank you very much.
Interviewer: You're welcome.
�
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/00b8a1910d2811951a9bd940d663e9ba.mp3
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Dublin Core
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Title
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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.
Elliott, Daniel P.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Elliott, Brendan
Interview Date
10/15/12
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
0:33:51
File name
2013_063_Elliott_Daniel_interview
2013_063_Elliott_DanielP_transcript
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
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Interview with Daniel P. Elliott, undated
Creator
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Elliott, Brendan
Elliott, Daniel P.
Source
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<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>
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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.
Extent
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7 pages
Language
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English
English
Type
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Sound
Subject
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Elliott, Daniel P.
World War, 1939-1945
Veterans
Personal narratives, American
United States
Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
Daniel Elliott is a WWII veteran who served for almost 3 years as a combat engineer. He says his biggest accomplishment was helping to build a pontoon bridge over the Rhine River so that American troops and vehicles could pass safely. He was released from duty a bit earlier after the Japanese were bombed and the war ended. He went on to study mechanical engineering and worked as a surveyor.
army
Battle of the Bulge
Camp Shelby
combat engineer
Daniel Elliott
Nazi
Rhine River pontoon bridge
WWII