In 1986, I interviewed my grandfather, James Vernon Cravens (Jack Cravens), regarding his Army service during World War II from 1941 - 1944. "Papaw" served in the Aleutian Islands (Alaska). I recorded our interview on audio, and transcribed this interview years later, then researched the places and people he talked about, adding lots of historical notes and maps into the transcription, to further explain the things he talked about.

The resulting 32-page document is, if I do say so myself, a fascinating, very personal account of a small-town Kentucky boy serving in a horrific location in WWII. The account is not sugar-coated -- my grandfather talks about people and actions, including his own, in ways that I sometimes found very uncomfortable. His account strips away much of the romance that has been added to the stories of those who served during WWII, the so-called "Greatest Generation" -- not everything they did was heroic, nor something to be proud of, during World War II. He also throws in an urban legend that I didn't have the heart, nor the guts, to tell him wasn't true (I was 20 at the time of this interview).

My Papaw first went to Fort Thomas in Ohio and then went to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri for basic training. At Fort Leonard Wood, he was part of Company D 1st Platoon, 28th Engineers Training Battalion. He also received a certificate of graduation from the Quarter Master Corps School for Bakers and Cooks, A.P.O. #980. He then went to Fort Ord, California and then to Seattle, Washington. He went to Dutch Harbor, Alaska just after it had been bombed by the Japanese. He then went to Umnak in the Aleutian chain. He was there for 17 months. He was then moved to Adak, and in 1944, he saw Franklin D. Roosevelt during his visit to the troops - it was the first time he knew that he was disabled. Jack Cravens eventually reached the rank of Staff Sergeant.  

Among the many things mentioned in this transcript:

• Wolf Hills Coal Company (Kentucky)
• Fort Leonard Wood
• Company D 1st Platoon, 28th Engineers Training Battalion
• Fort Ord
• Annette Island
• Ketchikan
• Dutch Harbor
• Umnak
• Amchitka
• Adak
• Kiska
• Attu
• Paramushiro
• Aleutian Native People
• Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR)
• Ernie Pyle
• Tokyo Rose
• Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr.

Among the stories told by my grandfather in this interview:

• seeing President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1944 and finding out only then that FDR could not walk (he never knew that FDR needed a wheel chair until that moment)

• the craftsmanship and service of a German-American soldier in his outfit, and how the soldier was later taken away because of his German ancestry

• the morale of the soldiers (awful)

• the soldiers view of the Aleutian native people (not pretty)

• actions taken by his platoon

My document includes online and print resources that proved most helpful in putting together the historical and cultural side notes of my document.

Only after his death did I view the pictures he took at the time, and discovered that his platoon was integrated (at least 1/3 of the other soldiers in the group pictures are black). He never mentioned this in the interview. I wish he had, because I certainly would have asked him about this -- how he felt about it, how others felt about it, if it changed his views about race, etc.

Those who served with Jack Cravens, my grandfather, include:

• Wesley R. Neufeld, of Yankton, South Dakota
• Howard Joyce

Special thanks to Grant Ichikawa and other members of the Japanese American Veterans Association (JAVA) of Washington, D.C., for their help with this document. I wrote JAVA to try to find out the name of a Japanese American "captain" that my grandfather said went on reconnaissance missions for the US Army in the Aleutian islands. My grandfather said: "He was a 30 year old, 'bout 30, 'tween 25 and 30 year old, full fledged Japanese colonel. And he saved us a lot of problems... he was educated in California... he saved thousands of lives. And helped us take them islands." Mr. Ichikawa pointed out that the highest rank a Japanese American could reach in the US Army at that time was 2nd Lieutenant, and another member, Harry Akune, provided a list of men who were stationed in the Aleutians during WWII. I've included all of this information in my document; however, as my grandfather died in 1991, it is impossible for me to check with him to see if any of the names provided by Mr. Ichikawa were who he was talking about.

I have this transcription, completed in 2002, in PDF format, and am willing to consider sending it to anyone who provides me with the following info:

• your full name
• the city and state you are writing from
• details on why you want to read this document
• how you intend to use this document
• a promise that you will not distribute this document to others without my written permission

contact me for more information.

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The personal opinions expressed on this page are solely those of Ms. Cravens, unless otherwise noted.