Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

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Edwina Morrison

Vietnam | 30th Engineer Battalion

After basic training, Edwina Morrison was assigned to the 30th Engineer Battalion at Fort Belvoir. The finance and accounting specialist may not have put boots on the ground in Vietnam, but she got the soldiers paid. She remembers the funny looks she got when she showed up and they expected a man. (5:53)
Edwina Morrison describes the tough time faced by women soldiers during the early days of men and women serving together. The treatment ranged from degrading to dismissive, but she persevered and did her job. (5:03)
After her enlistment was over, Edwina Morrison returned to college, where she really wanted to be the whole time. After collecting two degrees, she became a clinical social worker and eventually founded her own firm where she was able to help people; her real purpose in life. (5:48)
Elbert Dobbs

WWII | 3rd Platoon, Company E, 22nd. Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division

Elbert Dobbs got a six month reprieve from the draft because his wife was expecting. Then it was infantry basic and right into a convoy to Le Havre, France and on into Germany. It was 1945 but the war wasn't over, yet. (3:07)
The worst thing to Elbert Dobbs was the German 88's. "You learned to hide under a helmet." He saw what happens when you are ordered to advance and you do not and then he learned the proper way to celebrate taking a town. (5:57)
As his unit advanced toward Munich and Dachau, Elbert Dobbs had to jump from a moving truck under machine gun fire. His friend, Kenneth Blanton was between him and the enemy and took the fatal bullets. Sent with an advance party into Munich, he was glad he did not see the horror of Dachau. (4:31)
Most of the German civilians were very good to Elbert Dobbs as his unit rolled through town after town. Many times they came out to greet the Americans with food and drink. There was one particular burgermeister, though, who was not so friendly. (5:15)
For Elbert Dobbs, the war's end meant a victory feast in Salzburg, Austria. It was so good, he never drank again. Somehow he had made sergeant without knowing why and then, after a stormy crossing, he had another feast. (5:15)
Eli Silverman

WWII | USS Knox

Eli Silverman, a Navy corpsman in the 8th Beach Battalion, comes across a wounded Marine on Saipan yelling for help. He quickly realizes that the wounds are worse than he originally thought, and has never been able to forget the man's face. (0:45)
Eli Silverman, a Navy corpsman in the 8th Beach Battalion, witnesses an explosion on a ship carrying Marines during the landing at enemy-held Saipan. The gruesome sites of this event are still with him to this day. (2:11)