Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

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Donald Singleton

Vietnam | 82nd Airborne Division

His MOS had changed to cook at the end of his Vietnam tour. After that, Donald Singleton went to the 82nd Airborne and continued as a cook. Cooks had it made, there. He fondly remembers certain C-rations, though, which were his favorites. Know where he can get any? (2:50)
Within a month of getting out of the Army, Donald Singleton went to work on the railroad. He became a locomotive engineer, but he had to deal with the usual racism of the time. (4:51)
It was The Temptations and Otis Redding playing on the reel to reel tape players back in Vietnam. That's what Donald Singleton remembers and he wants the younger generation to remember something, too. He wants them to remember and care for all veterans. They aren't getting any younger. (5:19)
Donald Whipple

WWII | 28th Combat Team, Headquarters and Service Battalion, 13th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division

Young Donald Whipple had just read a book named They Were Expendable about PT Boat crews in the retreat from the Philippines. He was inspired to see if he could measure up to the heroics he read about, so he joined the Marines. As he got off the train, he heard from Marines at the station a refrain he would hear many times in the next few weeks, "You'll be sorry!" (Provided by LifeCairn, Inc.) (5:18)
The 5th Division was an entirely new Marine division and Donald Whipple felt lucky to be one of the first soldiers assigned to it. Just before shipping out to the Pacific, he had an emotional meeting with his father, which gave him encouragement and inspiration in the fight to come. (Provided by LifeCairn, Inc.) (2:22)
The method was primitive but effective, says Donald Whipple as he describes the targeting procedures of the artillery Forward Observer. It usually only took three shots to zero in a target. (Provided by LifeCairn, Inc.) (3:32)
New Marine Donald Whipple had practiced amphibious landings over and over in California. That was good because it helped him remain calm as he waited to go ashore at Iwo Jima, watching in amazement the unrelenting Naval bombardment of the island. (Provided by LifeCairn, Inc.) (3:36)
Donald Whipple relates in vivid detail what it was like waiting off the shore of Iwo Jima in a troop ship, having a full holiday dinner for breakfast, climbing down the rope net to the landing craft and making the run to the beach. (Provided by LifeCairn, Inc.) (6:22)
He came off the landing craft on the Iwo Jima beach and hit the deck, wishing he had a hole to jump in. But when his Captain said, "Let's go," Donald Whipple got up and took off. His job was to bring in a machine gun cart and he struggled to pull it through the loose volcanic soil. Then, just as he reached the top of the beach terrace, a mortar shell hit right next to him. (Provided by LifeCairn, Inc.) (3:41)
The wounded from the Iwo Jima beach were placed in a landing craft to be moved to a ship but the ships were already packed with wounded. When they were denied at the fourth ship, the pilot of the craft refused to budge until the casualties were taken aboard. Donald Whipple recalls that ordeal and also the lonely feeling of observing a burial at sea. (Provided by LifeCairn, Inc.) (5:11)