Grable 1 Savannah Grable Period 2 U.S. History Mr.

Buescher March 11, 2013 My Interview with my Great Uncle, Wesley Crone, a WWII Veteran 1. When the war started, Where did you live? I lived in San Francisco with my parents. I was 16. Wartime Occupations? I was in the army, and for a while I was in training for the Military Police. I remember I didnt like it; the training was very hard, and I got moved around to two or three different bases. I trained for a while at Camp Roberts. I remember one day they issued us all clothes for the South Pacific because our squadron was going to fight the Japanese. They gave us light clothing because the weather was going to be warm. But all of the sudden, they changed all of the clothes, and gave us parkas and heavy socks, and I was sent to Adak in the Aleutian Islands. Its an island that goes off of Alaska thats aimed towards Russia. The Japanese had started to come into those islands to try to attack the U.S. We were sent to keep the Japanese away. What is one thing you remember distinctly about the service? Well, I didnt like it! But I was very lucky that God took care of me and I didnt have to kill anybody. I didnt want to do that. I wouldve done it for my country, but I didnt want to. (-I then proceeded to tell him he was pretty amazing, and he humbly replied; I was just an ordinary GI.)

Where were you on December 7th, 1941?

Grable 2 I was in San Francisco and it was on a Sunday. My brother Johnny, who was in the service, had come to visit us and he told us what had happened. Do you remember where you were on VE-Day? I was in Adak. We found out from the radio that Japan had surrendered and it wasnt too long after that that I was in line to be discharged. August 6th, 1946, I was discharged from the Army. What do you remember about what happened right after the war? Well I got out in 46, and then the next year I met my wife. We both knew the same friends and so I kind of got to know her through them. Five weeks after we started going out we were engaged, and got married two weeks later. What were the meals like? When I was stationed in Adak, we got to have turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It wasnt too bad. We were going to have turkeys one Christmas, but our cook got drunk and there was no one to cook the meals! So I got the KPs together and got the turkeys going, and I cooked turkeys for 150 men in our squadron! Our company commander had learned about what I had done and sent me to cooking school, and then I came back to the Aleutian Islands and went from corporal to staff sergeant and got my own kitchen to cook in. Do you remember anything about the movies back when you were in the service? We would get movies once in a while in a tiny little theatre on the island. A lot of them were war movies. We were in a war, and they sent us movies about it. That was kinda funny. I remember one movie, it was a love story called Enchanted Cottage. I thought it was real sweet. My Uncle Wesley is a truly amazing person. I never knew all of the stories he had to tell! This was a really cool experience for me, because I got to know more about what WWII was like, and I got to know more about my family. It was very inspirational to hear how humble and yet how fantastic of a person he was and is. He is quite accomplished, yet he never acknowledged the fact that he is truly an honorable citizen of this country. He deserves the utmost respect.