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Lee Clardy

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Lee Clardy details his responsibilities as a turret officer aboard the USS Arkansas (BB-33), and describes the capabilities of the ship's guns. (2:49)

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As a turret officer aboard the USS Arkansas, Lee Clardy remembers the procedures and emotions leading up to the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. From three miles offshore, his ship provided an artillery barrage in the early morning hours before troops landed on the beach. (6:37)

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On the second day of the invasion of Normandy, June 7th, 1944, from aboard the USS Arkansas, Lee Clardy recalls an "unbelievable observation" as he witnessed a single German soldier on the shore being blown high into the air from an artillery explosion. (1:51)

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Three weeks after D-Day, Lee Clardy recalls his ship being ordered to aid in the assault of Cherbourg, France. The USS Arkansas fired artillery rounds from the sea as troops on the land, many of whom had landed at Normandy, approached German forces from behind. (2:08)

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Beginning in April of 1945, Lee Clardy talks about events he experienced at sea around the island of Okinawa, including kamikaze attacks and taking artillery fire from the shore. As a turret officer, he remembers performing the unusual task of manually aiming a gun turret to fire on a target ashore. (7:55)

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While preparing for the invasion of Japan, Lee Clardy remembers hearing about the dropping of the atomic bombs and describes the reactions of his crew mates. (2:21)

Lee Ellis

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Lee Ellis grew up near Athens, Georgia, and was inspired to be a pilot at a young age after climbing up in an old fighter plane in a veterans park. When the Korean War was going on, he was only 9 years old. He joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps at the University of Georgia the first chance he got and went to flight school in Valdosta. He was commissioned in Southeast Asia and endured survival training before arriving in Vietnam in July of 1967. (4:47)

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Ellis describes what two different types of typical ordnance missions consisted of, as well as the process for carrying all the different kinds of bombs on fighter planes before dropping them on enemy territory. (6:55)

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Ellis talks about carrying rocket pods on his planes, and the fact that accidents did happen while flying like minor engine trouble but he rarely saw any. While over there he did lose some friends he was close with during their pilot training, and he explains a bit of what it's like coping with the grief while still fighting in the war zone. (4:53)

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On some missions, Ellis would have to fly at night. He describes those times as way more quiet since there was a lot more activity during the day. One time there was a shortage of bombs, and several other times the North Vietnamese infiltrated their bases by launching rockets at them. Some of those rockets actually did managed to do a surmountable amount of damage. (6:26)