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https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/3abd054bf2e80fbcfd85163fc4768a92.pdf
a5c75172c5947c870e1bc69f1bc3a388
PDF Text
Text
Interview with Frank E.
Koehl
Dr. Browning
Charlie Widner
3/14/2011
�Charlie: Alright can you please state your name?
Frank: My name is Frank E. Koehl, K.O.E.H.L. I was born in 1934.
Charlie: Alright. .. what branch of the service did you join?
Frank: I joined the United States Navy in 1951 .
Charlie: ...were you involved in any wars?
Frank: No.
Charlie: ... did you enlist or were you drafted?
Frank: I enlisted.
Charlie: Okay ...
Frank: My father signed for me and I was only 17 at the time.
Charlie: Where were you living at the time?
Frank: Takoma Park, Maryland.
Charlie: ... why did you join the navy?
Frank: Because my whole family was in the navy and I felt I should join too.
Charlie: ...
Frank: My great-grandfather, my father, and my son. So I joined for that reason.
Charlie: And that's why you picked the navy instead of any other branch ... Well, tell me
a little bit about your ... training experience of boot camp. If you can remember
anything ...
Frank: Well, boot camp was pretty hard because they wanted you not to ask why they
tell you to jump, you just jump. I went through boot camp and then they found out I was
a good swimmer so they put me into teaching swimming. And I never got on a ship.
Charlie: Alright. .. do you , do you remember any of your instructors; boot. .. your boot
camp instructors or any ... ?
Frank: I can't remember any names, no.
�Charlie: ... was it; was it hard to stay in touch with your family while you were in the
navy?
Frank: They, they stayed in touch with me, yea.
Charlie: What were some was that people entertained themselves?
Frank: In the navy?
Charlie: Yea.
Frank: We'd go downtown, to the bars. Have a few drinks, watch the girlies, and then go
back to base.
Charlie: ... did ... can you remember any particular funny or unusual event while you
were in the navy. Or while ... you went to downtown?
Frank: The Korean War started while I was in the Navy. Well, they call it a conflict now.
But I didn't get involved in it at all.
Charlie: Well, where were ... where were you stationed?
Frank: Great Lakes Naval Training Station, Chicago.
Charlie: What was your. .. rank?
Frank: I don't know. I guess they had some kind of a teaching ... system and I forgot
what it was.
Charlie: Oh that's fine ... let's see. So you didn't.. .you didn't see any combat or anything
like that?
Frank: No, thank God for that.
Charlie: Yea ... well. .. how did you get along with your fellow soldiers?
Frank: Oh, I got along good with them, especially the recruits
Charlie: Yea ...
Frank: ... that I was teaching.
Charlie: Yea ...
Frank: I went in when I was seventeen and by the time I was eighteen, I was teaching. I
was a teacher already.
�Charlie: Yea ... do you ...do .. . did you make close friendships with anybody while you
were in the Navy?
Frank: Oh lots of them but I couldn't tell you the name of them now.
Charlie: So ...
Frank: Some of them have passed away.
Charlie: So ...
Frank: I'm 77 so you can see that was a long time ago.
Charlie: Right. .. so ... you, you were not able to continue the relationships because you
lost touch with them right?
Frank: Yea. When I graduated.
Charlie: Well do you remember the day that you ... your service ended?
Frank: Yea, September of '54 I believe.
Charlie: What did you do the days and weeks afterward like how did cope with not being
in the navy?
Frank: I just became a regular citizen again.
Charlie: Did you .. .
Frank: I went home for a while and got a job at a gas station, and bought an old car and
just became a normal teenager.
Charlie: Yea ... so that was your. .. so you just got a job right after is how you coped?
Frank: Yea.
Charlie: Well how did being in the navy affect your life?
Frank: It taught me how to be aware of what's, what's going on.
Charlie: Right. .. so your life would be different if you hadn't had joined the navy.
Frank: Oh yea, I would have been lazy.
Charlie: So it made you .. .
�Frank: When they said , "jump," I jumped.
Charlie: So now you're more motivated to do things for yourself.
Frank: I was, yea.
Charlie: Oh well, yea. Well ... did you travel anywhere while you were in the service?
Frank: No I never left the base when I was in the service ...
Charlie: Okay .. .
Frank: ... except to go downtown Chicago.
Charlie: Because you were, you were teaching right?
Frank: Yea, I could have went home for a week or two.
Charlie: Is there ... is there anything else you'd like to cover, any stories or anything like
that, that you can remember about the navy?
Frank: The only thing is that I was good at swimming under water. And they put me in
the UDT, Underwater Delimination (Demolition) Team and we'd swim under water and
put bombs on ships. Of course I didn't have to do that but we'd teach them how.
Charlie: Do you remember any of your fellow soldiers having to go to the Korean War?
Frank: All of them did when they graduated. Most of them anyway.
Charlie: Well how did that make you feel?
Frank: Good , because I didn't have to go.
Charlie: Yea .. .did any of your close friends have to go?
Frank: Oh yes. I was in special training so I didn't. .. I mean people would go through
boot camp were training and when they got there boot camp training done they shipped
them overseas, but I didn't have to go.
Charlie: Well that's good .. .well, if there's any ... nothing else that you'd like to share, I
guess we're good to go.
Frank: I hope it'll do you some good.
Charlie: Alright. .. well, thank you for taking the time to interview with me.
�Frank: You're welcome.
�
https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/files/original/e50b9a12d215815558d7f4d5322a04da.mp3
05dc2ea461e49ac7c043c61a861b0f56
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.
Koehl, Frank E.
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview.
Widner, Charlie
Interview Date
3/14/11
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
0:08:37
File name
2013_063_Koehl_Frank_interview
2013_063_Koehl_FrankE_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 Frank E. Koehl, 14 March 2011
Creator
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Widner, Charlie
Koehl, Frank E.
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
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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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6 pages
Language
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English
English
Type
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Sound
Subject
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Veterans
Koehl, Frank E.
United States
Interviews
Description
An account of the resource
Frank E. Koehl served in the US Navy during the Korean War, but never had to leave the Naval Training Station in Chicago. He was a teacher there and served on the Underwater Demolition Team.
Chicago
Frank E. Koehl
Korean War
Naval Training Station
Underwater Demolition Team
US Navy